Nick Jukebox Episode 13: It's All That and a Bag of Chips

Nick Jukebox is back and just in time for the holidays! In this episode, we celebrate All That's 20th anniversary showcasing some of the songs that were featured from all 10 seasons. Expect to hear songs from Zhane, IMx, and LFO.

Old School Lane Casual Chats Episode 37: All That

In this episode of Casual Chats, Patricia and new guests Manic Expression member Eli "The Hero of Tomorrow" Stone, For Entertainment Sake co-founder John "Rugrat" Matthew, and recurring guest Tristen Chance discuss on the 1994 Nickelodeon sketch comedy show All That in honor of its 20th anniversary discussing about the skits, cast members, the Good Burger movie, and the controversial revival era.

Old School Lane's Nickelodeon Tribute: The Nick Cannon Show

The year is 2002. Spiderman, Ice Age, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, and The Pianist were released in theaters. The Osbournes, The Bachelor, American Idol, and Code Name: Kids' Next Door debuted on TV. With the huge success of Kenan & Kel, and The Amanda Show, one of the main cast members of All That, Nick Cannon, decided to have his own TV show after he left the show. Cannon's show was none other than The Nick Cannon Show which debuted on January 19, 2002.

The premise is that Nick Cannon would come across a situation or a setting such as a school, the circus, or the beach, and try to make it "better". He would portray skits, funny jokes, or his characters that he used to play as in All That, and try to include his style in it. Similar to All That, Kenan & Kel, and The Amanda Show, there were former members of All That that would appear as guests such as Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell. Not to mention there were celebrity guests that were popular at the time such as Romeo, Mary J. Blige, Willy Santos, and 3LW. Every episode was pretty much the same: Nick would appear in a place and does various jokes and skits in order for something that he feels that is boring or typical to be "better", have something to make it pop for the younger audience.

As time went on, the majority of the production and film crew left after the first season, the ratings were lower and lower as time went on, and the show was eventually cancelled one year later on February 1, 2003. Overall, the premise is pretty cool and kind of unique, but the execution of it was very mediocre. The main problem is with Nick Cannon himself. He's not a really funny comedian and most of the jokes and skits that he did were a bit flat and awkward. If the jokes and skits were more tightly written and the show starred on one of the more funnier members of All That during that time period such as Gabriel Iglesias, Mark Saul, Danny Tamberelli, or Jack DeSena, maybe it would've done 10 times better. Nick Cannon wasn't really one of the more popular cast members of All That and if he was, it was because he was performing with more better actors such as Kenan Thompson when they did their skit "The Inconvenience Store" .

As of now when it comes to TV shows or series involving with taking something and making it better, it hasn't been done right or the way it could have been presented. Take Demo Reel for example. It sounds like a fantastic idea on paper, but hasn't been executed the way it should have been. 

With The Nick Cannon Show, I felt the same way. Now to his credit, Nick Cannon looks like he's trying and I give him an "A" for effort on that. When it comes to interacting with people, he's very natural and very energetic. I feel that being a radio personality and one of the hosts of America's Got Talent brought that out more and he feels more in his natural habitat. 

But as an All That spinoff, this is one of the weaker ones. I wouldn't recommend checking it out.

That's all for now. Hope to see you around Old School Lane soon. Thanks for reading.

-Patricia

Old School Lane's Nickelodeon Tribute: The Amanda Show

To conclude 1999, Nickelodeon had released a second spin-off of All That. Due to the popularity of Amanda Bynes during Seasons 3-6 on All That. Dan Schneider, the producer of the show, left All That and created his first show for Nickelodeon. That show starred Amanda Bynes in a sketch comedy/variety show called The Amanda Show which debuted on October 16, 1999.

The show started with a young obsessed girl named Penelope Taint (played by Amanda Bynes) trying to get a chance to meet with Amanda because she's her #1 fan. She does anything in her power to try to get into the studio to see Amanda's show so that she can meet her. But it always doesn't turn out to be well for Penelope as she's always missing her chance to meet Amanda. However, she doesn't give up!



The show then cuts to the intro and Amanda Bynes stepping out on stage greeting the studio audience. Then it cuts to a funny gag with Amanda doing something with her cast members or the audience and then the skits begin. The skits that The Amanda Show was known for were some of the following:

The first skit always starts with a commercial for a weird product. The kids would be bored and then all of a sudden, their problems would be solved with this product. The products were a cereal called Meatloaf Crunch, vegetables that are made of sugar called Sugar Veggies, a e-Bay like website where you sell your gross lunches online for cash called LunchBay.com, a machine that doubles your allowance money, and a popsicle that can make you sick called Sick Popples.


Judge Trudy was a spoof of Judge Judy, It involved a kid who would sue an adult about a simple problem like not doing math homework or cleaning their room to a huge problem like putting glue on their teacher and sticking objects to them to stealing their parents' car and crashing it. Judge Trudy would always side with the kid and give the adults cruel and unusual punishments. She would then end the case and brings out dancing lobsters.

Blockblister was about a family of foreigners who own a video store that contains really bad homemade videos of the owners acting in movies that were popular at the time. The customers would come back and complain about the movie. The owners say that the movie was better and would dance with eggs on hand.

The Girls' Room was about 4 girls who do their talk show in the girls' bathroom. The 4 girls were Amber, who was popular, Sheila, who was tough, Tammy, who's in an exchange student from Tennessee, and Debbie, who was a really dumb girl who likes eggs. While hosting the show, they would cover a topic of what was going on in the school. Then someone would come in and pester them and Sheila would give them swirlies.

Crazy Courtney was about a nerdy girl named Courtney who had large teeth, glasses, a hat, and spoke in incomplete sentences. She would do things that would pester the people around her and she would comeback with the line "Mah-Ha".

Moody's Point was an occuring 15 minute skit that was spoofing on popular teen shows at the time like Dawson's Creek. It involved with a girl named Moody (played by Amanda Bynes) as a exagerrated teen girl who went to high school with her friends. Her father was a clueless man and her mother is lost somewhere on a hot air balloon. Her friends were Brie (played by Lauren Petty), a popular blonde hair girl and Moody's best friend, Misty (played by Molly Orr), an over-the-top emotional girl who's feelings were hurt easily, Spalding (played by Taram Killiam), a boy who has a huge crush on Moody, and Sternum (played by Matthew Botchuis) who was a "bad boy" who says the opposite question whenever someone asks him a question. The final skit ended in a cliffhanger due to the show being cancelled.


Dan Schneider wanted to make a TV series of Moody's Point, but it was never green-lit. Dan Schneider wanted to make a spinoff show based off a spinoff show based off a spinoff show? No way! Don't worry, he'll have many more opportunities to create those kind of shows. Believe me!





There were other cast members of The Amanda Show who would act in the skits alongside Amanda such as John Kassir, Raquel Lee, and Nancy Sullivan. But it wasn't until Season 2 when The Amanda Show gained a huge amount of popularity when two more cast members were included: Drake Bell and Josh Peck.



They would be in skits just as Tony Pajamas, Hillbilly Moment, and Totally Kyle. They became so popular that they would eventually get their own TV series called Drake and Josh, which was the basically the 2000's version of Kenan & Kel. But we'll talk about that another time.



The show lasted for 3 seasons until it was cancelled on September 21, 2002. While we'll cover about Dan Schneider, Nancy Sullivan, Drake Bell, and Josh Peck in another review, some of the other cast members of The Amanda Show went on to do other projects while some faded into obscurity.

Raquel Lee was in other movies and TV shows such as The Poof Point, The Proud Family, The Hugleys, The Bernie Mac Show, Commander in Chief, and A Numbers Game.



John Kassir has done a lot of voice work being in shows such as Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, Time Squad, Rocket Power, My Life as a Teenage Robot, Johnny Bravo, Danger Rangers, As Told By Ginger, The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, and The Looney Tunes Show.



Taram Killiam has been in other movies and TV shows such as Stuck in the Suburbs, Big Fat Liar, Boston Public, Do Over, Roswell, Drake and Josh, Just Married, Scrubs, How I Met Your Mother, and My Best Friend's Girl. He's currently a cast member of Saturday Night Live. He's currently married with actress and former model Cobie Smulders and has one daughter.




Amanda Bynes has been in other movies and TV shows such as MadTV, What I Like About You, Big Fat Liar, What a Girl Wants, Love Wrecked, She's the Man, Hairspray, and Easy A. On September 2012, she had announced that she has quit acting and is working on a fashion career. However, as of now, it has come to a halt ever since she was arrested for a hidden run while she was under the influence of alcohol. Her next court case on October 19th.



Overall, while the show wasn't as memorable as All That and more than half of the skits were hit and miss, The Amanda Show was still pretty funny, nonetheless. While All That was described as Saturday Night Live for kids and Kenan & Kel was a modern take on 50's sitcoms, The Amanda Show was sort of like The Carol Burnett Show for kids with a woman host who had many cast members and can star in a million roles and alter-egos. The Amanda Show was certainly filled with a lot of creativitiy and funny skits that are still in my mind years later. It's a shame that The Amanda Show was the last sketch comedy show to air on Nickelodeon. However, it did end quite well with the exception of the cliffhanger to Moody's Point. If you were a fan of shows like All That and Kenan & Kel, check it out sometime.



That concludes all the classic shows on Nickelodeon from the 70's, 80's, and 90's. Now that it's October, I'm going back to another tribute that I started back in July, but never got around to finish. That's right, starting next Monday, I'm continuing the Tim Burton tribute. Expect a few surprises on that including a special guest appearance on a new podcast from someone Kevin and I interviewed a few months back and even a very special project that I collaborated with Timdiana!



However, there's one more thing I want to post to conclude the 90's Nickelodeon shows. Something that made me think over the last 6 months when working on this Nickelodeon tribute. Tune in next time as I ask the burning question: Were the 90's Nickelodeon shows as good as many people say it is or are they too brainwashed with nostalgia not seen that most of the shows aren't as good as they once were?

Hope to see you around Old School Lane. Thanks for reading.

-Patricia

Movie Review: Good Burger

Hey everyone, welcome to another movie review courtesy of Old School Lane. With the financial success of Harriet the Spy, Nickelodeon Movies decided to work on their second feature film. With the huge success of All That and Kenan & Kel, Mike Tomlin and Brian Robbins had decided to release a feature film based on a sketch of All That and have it star Kenan and Kel. That movie was called Good Burger and it was released on July 25, 1997.



Based on the sketch from All That, Good Burger was about a cashier named Ed who worked at a fast food joint called Good Burger. He was very dimwitted and would get many customers' orders wrong and cause a lot of mayhem. Since Saturday Night Live had hits with their movies based on skits like The Blues Brothers, Wayne's World, and Coneheads, Tomlin and Robbins decided to try as well with this movie. So after over 15 years later, does this movie still have its sizzle or it's not well done enough to be served to audiences everywhere? This is Good Burger.



We start off with Ed (played by Kel Mitchell) at the cashier placing orders wrong like he usually does. Then all of a sudden, the burgers that had been prepared for the customers come to life talking to him.



Ed finally wakes up realizing it's a dream and finds out that he's going to be late for work. He grabs his rollerblades and skates his way to Good Burger. The customers wait angrily to order, but the other employees can't take them since they're waiting for Ed. Ed gets into mayhem while skating for Good Burger; he crashes into things, he interrupts a girl skipping rope, and more. When he finally makes it to Good Burger, the customer asks for his order, but Ed stupidly confuses the sentence completely. He gets fed up and lets them know how his excitement about the new fast food restaurant Mondo Burger opening up.

Meanwhile, a high school student named Dexter (played by Kenan Thompson) is waiting for his class session taught by Mr. Wheat (played by Sinbad) to end. With that ending, he can finally start his summer vacation. After class ends, Dexter and his friend drive on his mother's car discussing about how they're going to spend their vacation. All of a sudden, Ed appears out of nowhere and causes Dexter to accidentally crash into Mr. Wheat's car. With Dexter not having a license, not telling his mother about crashing her car, and having to find a way to get $2,500 to pay for her and Mr. Wheat's car, Dexter has no choice but to get a summer job.



Dexter finds a position working on the new Mondo Burger. But having difficulty assembling the burgers, he gets fired from the owner and C.E.O, Kirt (played by Jan Schweiterman)



With Dexter fired, he goes to Good Burger for lunch thinking about what to do next. All of a sudden, Ed walks up to Dexter bringing him a milkshake. He sits down and tries to find out about Dexter's problem. Dexter, not knowing that Ed was the main cause of Dexter's crash, explains about coming up with money to pay for a huge bill and getting fired from his job. Ed convinces Mr. Bailey (played by Dan Schneider) the owner of Good Burger of giving Dexter a job as a deliverer.



The night of the grand opening of Mondo Burger causes a huge crowd to gather around it. With Kirt and his crew coming into Good Burger saying that now that they're opening, Good Burger will now be out of business. For the next two days, Good Burger goes through a slow route with no customers approaching. With Good Burger in danger of shutting down, Mr. Bailey decides to buy a Mondo Burger to see what the competition is. It turns out that their burgers are twice the size of a Good Burger. They have no idea how it got that big, but they need to think of something to get customers again.



When the shift is down for the night, Ed runs into one of the co-workers Otis (played by Abe Vigota) and Dexter flashbacks to the day of the accident realizing that it was Ed who caused it. The next day during their lunch break, Ed and Dexter sit together despite Dexter not wanting to. Then the scene in which Ed puts two grapes on his nose and sings "boopity, boopity, boopity" commences.



Then afterwards, Ed takes out his secret sauce to have with his lunch. After accidentally spilling some on Dexter, Dexter tastes it, finds it good, and starts developing an idea. If they could add Ed's sauce to all the Good Burgers, then the customers will start coming back. The sauce becomes a bit hit and Good Burger starts getting all their customers back.



Even Shaquille O'Neal makes a cameo appearance eating a Good Burger saying that it's good. Oh Shaq, you poor marketing athlete, you. You'll be in anything, won't you. Don't worry, it'll be over soon with Steel.



With Good Burger a hit again, Kirt decides to find out what's in the secret sauce, start using it on their burgers, and put Good Burger out of business once and for all. First, he goes over and tries to convince Ed to work on Mondo Burger. But he refuses. Then the next step is hire a beautiful woman named Roxanne (played by Carmen Electra) to charm him enough to tell her the secret sauce recipe.



Ed decides to have a double date with Roxanne, Dexter, and another co-worker named Monique (played by Shar Jackson) at the golf course. Things don't go well for Roxanne as she continues to get injured by Ed. With no luck getting the recipe, Kirt decides to take it to extreme measures. The next night, Kirt and his crew sneak into Good Burger and add shark poisoning to the secret sauce. When they get caught by Otis, they tell him their plan of adding the shark poisoning so that the customers will get sick from eating it. Then they'll never want to eat at Good Burger again and it will eventually shut down. While Otis threatens to call the police, Kirt and his crew capture him and send him away to an asylum.

Meanwhile, Dexter talks to Monique about the possibility of another date, but she says no. When asking why, she pulls up a piece of paper which happens to be a contract saying that for the amount of money that Ed makes for his sauce, Dexter takes 80% of it. Monique tells Dexter that he's using Ed to make extra money.



Dexter tries to tell Ed about the contract when a dog appears wanting food. Ed gives the dog his Mondo Burger, but doesn't eat it. When he gave him the Good Burger, he eats it. Dexter finds it interesting that the dog didn't want to eat the bigger hamburger patty from Mondo Burger, despite being twice the size of a Good Burger. They realize that they must be adding something to the burger, so they decide to sneak into Mondo Burger to investigate disguising themselves as women.



When they get access to the kitchen, they see the cooks adding an illegal liquid called Triampothal to the Mondo Burgers. That's the cause of their huge sizes. After getting caught by Kirt, he ships them to the asylum alongside Otis. Otis tells them about Kirt adding shark poisoning to the secret sauce at the chance of causing many people sick. They know to escape the asylum before Good Burger opens.



Ed comes up with an idea to escape the asylum. Changing the radio to the song "Knee Deep" by George Clinton, Ed and the patients dance to it.



Eventually, Dexter knocks the guards unconsious, grabs the keys, and head upstairs to one of the rooms. When hearing the alarm go off, one of the patients helps by throwing Dexter out the window and landing outside the asylum. Otis and Ed jump out, steal an ice cream truck, and have a big chase scene with the doctors. They were able to lose them throwing ice cream at their viewing windows and crash into Mr. Wheat's mailbox.

With Dexter, Ed, and Otis making it to Good Burger on time before anyone ate the sauce, they decide to sneak into Mondo Burger again, steal a can of Triampolthal, and call the police. Dexter stalls Kirt and his crew while Ed would steal the can and run to the police station.



Ed accidentally spills a whole bottle of Triampolthal to a batch of ground beef. Ed then comes up with an idea and pours more of the Triampolthal on the beef. With that happening, the burgers grow in size and begin exploding. Then the place stars to shake and all the customers run out of Mondo Burger. The building eventually gets destroyed and the police arrive to arrest Kirt. Dexter couldn't believe that Ed had pulled it off. But Ed explained that it was easy. If Ed would have taken the can, he would have most likely been caught. If he didn't get caught, then Kirt would have hired his lawyers and it would have been a huge case going with Kirt ending up winning it. He thought of pouring it so that Kirt would have all the blame since it was caused in his own restaurant.



With Mondo Burger shut down, Good Burger saved, and Ed being the hero, Ed ends the movie with his infamous catchphrase, "Welcome to Good Burger, home of the Good Burger. Can I take your order?"



Overall, despite the huge amount of popularity from All That and Kenan & Kel, the ratings for Good Burger were negative. Lisa Alspector from Chicago Reader said "The received notion that kids want their movies fast and furious is barely in evidence in this 1997 comedy, a laboriously slow suburban adventure in which a teenager's summer of leisure slips through his fingers when he has to get a job—an experience that proves almost life threatening because of the cutthroat competition between two burger joints". The same could be said by the people who were fans. They did not like the movie at all. I don't either. It's stupid, it's corny, and it's not funny for anyone who sees it. The soundtrack, while popular at the time ranked No. 101 on the Billboard 200 and No. 65 on the Top R&B/Hip Hop Albums, is pretty much forgettable with the exception of "We're All Dudes" by Kel Mitchell and Less than Jake and "Knee Deep" by George Clinton. However, the movie did well financially making $23 million dollars.

I do not recommend watching this movie at all, even if you are an All That fan or a Kenan & Kel fan. If you can stay away from it, then do so.



That's all for now. Tune in next time as we jump into 1998 with CatDog.



Hope to see you around Old School Lane soon.

-Patricia

Old School Lane's Nickelodeon Tribute: Kenan & Kel

Laurel and Hardy. Statler and Waldorf. Martin and Lewis. Abbott and Costello. Penn and Teller. Siegfried and Roy. Batman and Robin. The infamous duo that you simply can't think of one without the other. Whenever you see one of them alone, it doesn't look or feel the same. In some way, they seem to coincide and work with each other beautifully with their different strengths. In the 90's, two members from All That were forming to be the next dynamic duo: they were Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell.

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