They
have performed many skits together in All That from
Good Burger to their duo performances as the old, grumpy man Mavis
and Clavis. At the time, many people regarded them as the next
“Abbott and Costello”. On July 14, 1996, Kenan &
Kel, the first spin off of All
That, debuted on TV.
The
show was about Kenan and Kel playing two teenagers named Kenan
Rockmore and Kel Kimble who always think of outrageous plans to make
themselves rich or famous. However, due to many circumstances, they
always mess things up and end up getting caught. The episodes always
started and ended on stage as Kenan and Kel would talk to an audience
and explain what the episode would be about. Kenan would always come
up with some crazy idea that involved with gathering a few objects
and asking Kel to meet him somewhere. Kel tries to call Kenan back
and would always leave the stage saying his infamous catchphrase
“Aww, here it goes!” Kenan works as a cashier in a grocery store
called Rigby's under a supervisor named Chris Potter (played by Dan
Friechman). Kel always enters into Rigby's and snags a bottle of
orange soda. Kel loves orange soda more than anything in the world.
Whenever he sees a bottle of orange soda, he would say the following
catchphrase: “Who loves orange soda? Kel loves orange soda. Is it
true? Mmm-hmm. I do, I do, I do, I do, I do-ooooh.”
We
were also introduced to Kenan's family: Sheryl (played by Teal
Marchande) is a kind, sweet, and patience mother. Roger (played by
Ken Foree) is a tense, impatient, father. He's the only one in the
family who hates Kel due to his sarcastic humor and making fun of his
bald head. He gets angry whenever Kenan and Kel gets into their crazy
scenarios. You might recognize Ken Foree in the 1978 zombie horror
classic George Romero's Dawn of the Dead. Kyra
(played by Vanessa Baden) is Kenan's younger sister who always had a
huge crush on Kel. You might recognize Vanessa in the Nick. Jr kid's
show Gullah Gullah Island.
The
show was created by Kim Bass, who was also the co-creator of Sister
Sister. She had the idea of
creating a show similar to The Honeymooners in
which Ralph Kramden would try to reach for the moon and try to be
rich while partnering with his dimwitted best friend Ed Norton. An
interesting thing to note about Kenan & Kel was
that it was the first teen series in which it launched well-known
actors among the network. All the previous shows that Nickelodeon
aired had a different premise with actors and actresses we've never
seen before. But with Kenan & Kel, we
were already well established with Kenan and Kel from All
That and Vanessa with Gullah
Gullah Island. Also it was the
first teen series since My Brother and Me that
starred a mostly black cast.
''One
of the breakthrough elements is the uniqueness of making a show that
is based on the talent rather than the other way around. This idea
came out of the fact that these two had such great chemistry
together”, said Cyma Zargahami, general manager/senior vice
president of programming at Nickelodeon in a 1996 article from
Orlando Sentinel.
They
truly thought that Kenan and Kel were going to be the next Abbott and
Costello. So much so that the intro to the show sung by Coolio
compared them to other famous duos like Abbott and Costello, Penn and
Teller, Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Siegfried and Roy.
At the time, they were. Kenan was the straight man of the duo similar
to Hardy, Abbott, and Kramden while Kel was the funny, goofy
character of the duo similar to Laurel, Costello, and Norton. They
knew that they could play on each other in a way that made them in
sync.''When
we get together, it's chaos, it's hilarious,'' said Kel Mitchell in
the interview with Orlando Sentinel.
The
show was hugely popular among many Nickelodeon fans calling it the
best teen sitcom of all time. It had huge ratings praising them for
their sense of humor, their ability to act in funny situations, and
their timing of expression. Whenever a plan wouldn't work and Kenan
would yell “Whyyyy?” or when Kel was expressing how much he loved
orange soda, it always cracked a smile on people's faces. The episode
that most people remember is when Kenan was eating a tuna fish
sandwich and he chokes on a screw. He plans on suing the tuna fish
packaging company for almost dying from eating their tuna. The
company begs them not to sue them, even bribing them with a million
dollars, but Kenan says no. On the day of the trial, Kenan asks Kel
to the stand to explain what happened on that day. When Kel finally
confesses that it was him who dropped the screw in the tuna, he
reacts in such a hilarious way that still gets me laughing to this
day.
When Kenan and Kel starred in Good
Burger (which
I'll interview next week), Kenan and Kel fever was spreading among
fans everywhere. They couldn't get enough of them. You couldn't talk
about one character without the other. The first two seasons was
filmed in Nickelodeon Studios in Orlando, FL in front of a live
studio audience while the remaining two seasons was filmed in Los
Angeles to get more celebrity guest stars.
The
show ended on July 15, 2000, four years exact on the same day it
aired. Some of the actors went on to do different things while some
faded into obscurity.
Ken
Foree has been in other movies such as the remake of Dawn
of the Dead, The Devil's Rejects, Rob
Zombie's Halloween,
Zone of the Dead, Water for Elephants, and
The Lords of
Salem.
Teal
Merchande quit acting after Kenan
& Kel ended.
Vanessa
Baden went to Florida State University in 2004 and graduated with a
degree in Sociology in 2007. She's returning to acting in an upcoming
movie The Magic City.
Dan
Frischman has appeared in other movies such as Masked
and Anonymous, Lessons for an Assassin, Hard Four, and
Tramps and Ramblers.
As
for Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell, they went their separate ways
after the series finale TV movie Two
Heads are Better than None. The
duo that people had people had regarded as the next Abbott and
Costello were no longer together. Kenan had been in other movie and
TV shows such as Sabrina,
The Teenage Witch, hosting
Oh Yeah! Cartoons, The
Parkers, The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, The Master of
Disguise, Love Don't Cost a Thing, Fat Albert, Snakes on a Plane,
Psych, The Magic of Belle Isle, and
currently hosting The
90's Are All That. He's
currently married to a woman named Christina Evangeline.
Kel
had been in other movies, TV shows, and voice acted in shows like The
Parkers, Sabrina, The Teenage Witch, Mystery Men, Clifford the Big
Red Dog, City Guys, The Proud Family, Half & Half, One and One,
Honeydripper, Dance Fu, Battle of Los Angeles, Motorcity, and
Wild Grinders.
He's
currently married to a woman named Asia Lee and has two children from
a previous marriage.
In
2003, both Kenan and Kel auditioned to be in the new season of
Saturday Night Live. Only
Kenan was accepted in the bunch as being the first cast member to be
younger than the show itself at 29. Who would have thought that out
of the infamous duo Kenan would be the superior one. I always thought
that Kel should have been the top dog. He was the funny guy who came
up with the jokes, catchphrases, and slapstick humor. Overall, does
this modern take of 50's classic duo sitcoms still work? Well, yes it
does. Watching Kenan &
Kel is always a blast!
Seeing these two comedic actors work well with each other is so fun.
Sure, the show can be a little redundant and monotonous with the same
plot of trying to make it big ending up getting in trouble. Not to
mention the same catchphrases and the same fourth wall jokes. Also,
the acting can get a little hokey and over-the-top, some of the
characters are not memorable and pointless, and the sets can look a
little cheap. Besides these minor gripes and nitpicks, this show is
an undeniable Nickelodeon classic that you should really check out if
you've never seen it. I highly recommend it.
That's
all for now. Hope to see you around Old School Lane soon. Thanks for
reading.
-Patricia
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