Old School Lane's Nickelodeon Tribute: iCarly

Dan Schneider. I have a love/hate relationship with this man, especially the latter. He was a pivotal role on why All That and Kenan & Kel became the most successful Nickelodeon live action shows in the 90's that is still fondly remembered to this day. After that, his career for Nickelodeon ended up being hit and misses when he started creating his own shows. The Amanda Show, being the last show to debut in the 90's, had varied skits that had both good and bad skits that was done well due to the talents of Amanda Bynes, Drake Bell, Josh Peck, and the rest of the cast members. Drake & Josh, being my favorite show that Schneider ever created, has a lot of major problems with the characters acting stupid, mean spirited, and annoying. However, it's still a great show due to the clever writing, witty and sarcastic jokes, and memorable characters. But then, he took a huge step backward with Zoey 101 with stupid, shallow, and annoying characters that were horribly miscast, the jokes falling flat on its face, and each episode being forgettable or atrocious. However, Zoey 101 would not only be the most expensive Nickelodeon show at the time, but it became the most successful live action show for the next 5 years.

Nickelodeon then allowed Schneider be the head man behind more live action series with people who had previously created programs for the network such as Thomas W. Lynch and Will McRobb and Chris Viscardi make shows for another channel called The N with most of them being forgotten by viewers. With that said, Schneider created another live action show that was a unofficial spinoff from Drake & Josh in the form of iCarly that debuted on September 8, 2007.



Before I get to the review, I need to discuss about the core of the concept that the show is about: the Internet. A year prior to the show's release, James Rolfe created an online series of videos called the Angry Video Game Nerd where he would review bad video games from his childhood. A simple idea that he did as a joke turned into one of the biggest phenomenons in history. At that point, everyone copied the idea of reviewing bad video games. Some were good such as Jontron and PeanutButterGamer. Others were horrible such as Irate Gamer. Then, the simple idea became a lot more complex with using the Internet to become famous such as movie reviews like The Nostalgia Critic, podcasts such as The Nerdist, animating cartoons such as Kirbopher and Egoraptor, Let's Play channels such as Game Grumps and Two Best Friends Play, writing and singing their own songs on YouTube such as Brentalfloss and Epic Rap Battles of History, and doing skits such as Man Boobs Comedy. If people wanted to jump start a career in writing, animation, acting, or singing, it was no longer required to move to Hollywood and hope for the best, nowadays it's all about going online and getting your name out there.



iCarly is about a young teenage girl named Carly Shay (played by Miranda Kosgrove) and her best friend Sam Puckett (played by Jennette McCurdy) who acted in a talent show at their school. Carly's friend and neighbor Freddie Benson (played by Nathan Kress) filmed their performance at the talent show and posted it online without their consent. All of a sudden, over 70,000 people saw and loved their chemistry together and it became a viral hit. With that, Carly, Sam, and Freddie create the website iCarly with Carly and Sam hosting the show and doing various skits and Freddie filming and producing them. Carly lives a somewhat normal life with her older brother Spencer after their dad was stationed in a submarine by the Air Force. She goes to school, deals with issues at school and life, and hangs out with her friends.



Originally, the show was called Starstruck with the plot involving a teenage girl getting her own TV show. But then, his friend Steve Molaro who is a writer and executive producer of The Big Bang Theory, gave them the idea of having the show online instead so that they can be more freer to do whatever skits they want. According to a fan Q&A on Dan Schneider's Blogger site back in 2012, the idea of iCarly went through many changes after it became the final product that we know today.

"I came up with the name iCarly while filming on the set of Zoey 101.  My friend Steve Molaro (now executive producer of The Big Bang Theory) was working with me, and we were trying to think of a good title for my new series about kids who start their own web show. At that point, in my pilot script, the lead girl's name was "Sam" and we tried to get the URL iSam, but it was taken.  So, I tried a bunch of other girls' names.  I actually bought iJosie (dot com), thinking I might name the lead character Josie, but then I decided I didn't like it.

Then I tried iCarly, and I got it.  I loved that name for the lead character, so I changed the names of the two lead girls from Sam and Kira to Carly and Sam.  (I still have my original script where it's Sam, Kira, and Freddie.) So, back in 2007, if someone hadn't already owned the URL iSam.com, then iCarly would likely have been called iSam."

Throughout the series, iCarly has had numerous celebrity guests on board including Internet celebrity Fred Figglehorn, the cast of Victorious, and even First Lady Michelle Obama. iCarly became a huge success for Nickelodeon generating millions of views and becoming the #1 live action show for a number of years. iCarly would even feature in marathons alongside with SpongeBob SquarePants. Despite this, the show had generate mixed reviews from critics and viewers. The show lasted for 7 seasons ending its run on November 23, 2012. The last episode "iGoodbye" had generated over 6 million viewers having Carly heading to Italy see her father to invite him to the Father-Daughter Air Force Dance. It ends with Carly moving with her father to spend more time with him and announcing that iCarly will be going on a hiatus until she returns home. 



Overall, I love the concept of this show. It was appropriate at the time and is still relevant to this day with the Internet becoming more viewed than television. However, that doesn't mean I love the show. In fact, I absolutely hate it! It has the same flaws as Zoey 101 and every single Dan Schneider program. First, the characters are really annoying and unlikable. They are very shallow minded, stupid, and very ignorant towards people that are not as popular or as cool as them. Although it's not as bad as the characters from Zoey 101, it's still pretty unrealistic for kids and teens to relate to. Also, the episodes are at times forgettable and frustrating. Most of the plots from the episodes are copied and rehashed, most of the problems end positively too quickly and too convenient like a sitcom from the 80's and 90's, and the acting is all over the place. The actors and actress are a step up from Zoey 101, however it's weighed down crucially by awful writing and terrible directing.

This is a show that I really want to see remade, but done right. It should have involved with Carly wanting to be an Internet celebrity, but showing the struggles of being one. In the first episode, Carly and Sam are already famous literally overnight and that's NOT how it works. It takes hard work, dedication, passion, and perseverance to become well known online. In iCarly, they're famous without even trying, which is very irritating for someone who puts in a lot of work such as a video review, blog, or podcast, and having little to no recognition. Old School Lane has been around for over 2 years and we are not even close to being famous or popular. iCarly would have been better if it would have been like Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide in which they would give tips and tricks on how to be famous online and how to deal with competition with other websites. Or maybe it would have been more original with its concept. Instead, it feels like a Dan Schneider show. At this point, if your name is not Schneider, then live action Nickelodeon shows pretty much don't go anywhere. They're very mediocre, bland, horrible, and are short lived. Later on in the tribute, we'll be tackling other live action shows done by other people and they'll progressively get worse and worse.

iCarly is a show that has a great concept that was ahead of its time, but its execution was very poor. I really don't recommend checking it out.

That's all for now. Tune in next time as we conclude 2007 with Back at the Barnyard.



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

-Patricia

Old School Lane's Nickelodeon Tribute: Zoey 101

The year is 2005. Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, and Batman Begins debuted in theaters. Robot Chicken, The Office, and How I Met Your Mother debuted on TV. The popularity of Klasky Csupo has waned and became worn out and Dan Schneider's popularity skyrocketed with Drake & Josh. So with All That losing ratings, he decided to make another spinoff show from All That with a former cast member. The person he chose was Jamie Lynn Spears, who at the time was mostly known as Britney Spears' younger sister. The show was none other than Zoey 101 which debuted on January 9, 2005.



The show is about a young teenage girl named Zoey Brooks (played by Jamie Lynn Spears) and her younger brother Dustin Brooks (played by Paul Butcher) attending a boarding school named Pacific Coast Academy or PCA for short. There was a time when PCA was an all boys' boarding school and they recently lifted that rule so that girls could attend it. Along the way, Zoey meets with various students such as her roommates Nicole Bristow, (played by Alexa Nikolas) a girl who is obsessed with boys, Dana Cruz (played by Kristen Herrera), a tomboy who acted less like a girl compared to Zoey and Nicole, and other friends such as Quinn Pensky (played by Erin Sanders), the science nerd, Michael Barret (played by Christopher Massey), the goofy kid who loves to play jokes, the rich snotty boy Logan Reese (played by Matthew Underwood) and Chase Matthews (played by Sean Flynn). It mostly focuses on their everyday school life and the crazy scenarios they would go through.



Throughout the series, Chase develops a crush on Zoey and tries his best to tell her his feelings. But his awkwardness and shyness towards her prevents him from telling her. Also, many changes and other characters have left and had been replaced by new people. In season 2, Dana left to go to a boarding school in Paris and was replaced by a new girl named Lola Martinez (played by Victoria Justice). In season 3, Nicole left due to having Obsessive Male Gender Disorder with her love of boys and was transferred to an all girls' school and was replaced by Quinn as Zoey and Lola's new roommate and Zoey was transferred into a boarding school in England named Covington. Chase was discouraged and disappointed that he never got a chance to tell Zoey that he loved her. However, he never told his friends his feelings. In fact, he denied that he missed and liked her. But around season 4, he transferred to Covington so that he can be closer to her. But Zoey left Covington to move back to PCA when she found out that Chase loved her. But now Chase is stuck in Covington for a semester and decide to work the relationship out when Chase gets back. But a new boy named James Garrett (played by Austin Butler) becomes Logan and Michael's new roommate and Zoey falls in love with him and they start dating. In the series finale, Chase makes it back to PCA, Zoey dumps James, and Chase and Zoey get together.




The show lasted for 4 seasons ending its run on May 2, 2008. Despite the closure in the series finale of Zoey and Chase getting together, the show ended mostly due to the fact that Jamie Lynn Spears had gotten pregnant during the show's run. The other actors went on to do other projects afterwards.

Jamie Lynn Spears gave birth to a baby girl named Maddie Aldridge in 2008, shortly after Zoey 101 ended its run. For years, she kept a low profile while raising her daughter alone after the relationship to her then boyfriend Casey Aldridge left in March 2009. Nowadays, she's starting a career in country music and is engaged to her new boyfriend Jamie Watson.



Paul Butcher has been in other TV shows such as Bones, King of Queens, Without a Trace, and Criminal Minds. 

 

Sean Flynn has been in a few TV movies such as Bad Blood: The Hatfields and McCoys and The Return of the Killer Shrews. 

 

Kristin Herrera has been in a few movies and TV shows such as General Hospital, Freedom Riders, and Resurrection Mary. She quit acting in 2008.

  

Erin Sanders has been in movies and TV shows such as Big Time Rush, Ugly Betty, The Young and the Restless, Castle, Mad Men, Weeds, CSI: Miami, and Pair of Kings. 

 

Alexa Nikolas has been in movies and TV shows such as ER, Walking Amy, Children of the Corn, Red State, Cold Case, The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, CSI: Miami, Criminal Minds, The Walking Dead, and Mad Men. She married Canadian electronic musician Michael Milosh on February 22, 2012.




Christopher Massey has been in TV shows such as Everyone Hates Chris, The Electric Company, and Switched at Birth.



Matthew Underwood has been in a few small movie roles before he quit acting in 2010. Around 2012, he was arrested for possessing cannibais, paraphernalia, and marijuana.



Austin Butler has been in movies and TV shows such as Aliens in the Attic, Sharpay's Fabulous Adventure, Hannah Montana, Zeke & Luther, CSI: Miami, CSI: NY, The Bling Ring, Switched at Birth, and The Carrie Diaries. 

 

To this day, Zoey 101 is the most expensive show to be produced and the most watched Nickelodeon show for the next 5 years. The show was shot at Malibu, California in the first 2 seasons and on Valencia, California in season 3. It was hugely popular at the time with the girls watching it on TeenNick. Dan Schneider at that point was the most popular sitcom creator in Nickelodeon history creating two critically acclaimed programs at the time with Drake & Josh and Zoey 101. This is where his reputation soared and where Nickelodeon decided to keep him around to do other shows later on.

In my opinion, out of all the shows made by Dan Schneider, this is his absolute worst. Why? Where do I begin? First off, Jamie Lynn Spears' performance as Zoey was okay. When Jamie Lynn was on All That, she was just a side cast member being hugely overshadowed by Lisa Foiles and Chelsea Brummett. She was only there because she was Britney Spears' younger sister. But when she becomes the main character of a show, her performance doesn't stand out and should've stayed as a supporting character. The character of Zoey herself is way too unrealistic and perfect to be relatable to teenage girls. She's bland, has no realistic teenage problems, is way too pretty, and has serious relationship issues around the 4th season when she promised Chase to wait for him to come back to PCA to start a relationship only to start a new one with James. What a lying bitch! The other characters and decisions that they do really frustrate me! Zoey and Nicole, while being friends with Dana in season 1, were glad when she left in season 2 just because she was a tomboy and didn't like to dress up in skirts and wear makeup. When Lola came to the show, she was portrayed as a goth chick and they wanted to get rid of her because she was too weird. It turned out to be a big lie and turned out to be a girl loving boys and fashion like them and everything's forgiven. Then in Season 3, Nicole left the show and Quinn became their new roommate. Zoey and Lola were disappointed in it because she's a science nerd. Wow, just wow. What this show is trying to say is is that girls don't become friends with other people unless you're just like them. Great message to teach girls, Schneider.




The comedy in the show sucks as well. While it doesn't have a laugh track like most of Schneider's Nickelodeon sitcoms, the comedy is mostly focused on the guys, particularly Michael. His jokes are so bad and so awkward that I just shook my head in embarrassment watching it. It would later on be typical in Dan Schneider's shows for the guys to give off the bad humor and the girls to be materialistic and feminist. But this presentation of the humor and the feminism is so awful. The girls must be around 14 and yet, they're wearing makeup, having crushes on boys, and wearing miniskirts. They're way too young to be worried about boys and clothes and should be concerned about going to school. It takes place in a boarding school, after all. But the school is never utilized to its full potential unlike Camp Anawanna from Salute Your Shorts. While we do see a teacher or the principal from time to time, the adults are never around, which is also typical for a Dan Schneider program. The adults are either stupid, mean, or non existent, which in Zoey 101's case doesn't make any sense. The episodes are boring, the characters are nothing more than stereotypes and Schneider's character archetypes, the situations are unrealistic and unrelatable, and the show focuses a bit too much on Zoey and none of the other characters. This show is pre-teen junk for the mind and I don't recommend checking it out.

Oh man, I went through a mediocre teen sitcom, a mediocre Nickelodeon movie, and an awful teen sitcom done by Dan Schneider. I need something to numb the pain from this mediocrity. What's the next review?





Tune in next time. Until then, hope to see you around Old School Lane soon. Thanks for reading.

-Patricia
 

Old School Lane's Nickelodeon Tribute: Drake & Josh

The year is 2004. I, Robot, The Passion of the Christ, The Incredibles, and Shrek 2 debuted in theaters. Megas XLR, Stargate Atlantis, Desperate Housewives, and Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends debuted on TV. This was the time in which many 90's kids who grew up with Nickelodeon felt that things weren't the same anymore. While some of their shows that came out when they were younger were still airing, most of them were already gone and were replaced by others. Some people claim that 2004 is one of Nickelodeon's worst years ever, which we'll discuss along the way. Fewer cartoons were being made and more teen sitcoms were created. The first teen sitcom created by Dan Schneider, the producer of All That and Kenan & Kel, was a spinoff of The Amanda Show simply known as Drake & Josh which debuted on January 11, 2004.




The show is about two teenage boys named Drake Parker (played by Drake Bell) and Josh Nichols (played by Josh Peck) who live different lives and have different personalities. Their families consisted of Drake, his mother (played by Nancy Sullivan), and his younger sister Megan (played by Miranda Cosgrove) and Josh and his father (played by Jonathan Goldstein). One day, Drake's mother and Josh's father began dating and eventually got married and had gotten the families together. At first, Drake doesn't like Josh because he's perceived as a geek who loves magic tricks, The Oprah Winfrey Show, does very well in school, and Drake is a cool, laid back, ladies man who plays the guitar, and doesn't do well in school. He even treats Josh very cruelly and doesn't even acknowledge him as a new stepbrother. But as the series progressed, they look past their differences and become friends, even see each other as brothers. Throughout the show, Drake and Josh go through many various situations involving with either getting rich, asking a girl out on a date, winning a football game, or winning a talent show.



The show was created by Dan Schneider. After the surprising cancellation of The Amanda Show, Schneider wanted to make a spinoff of one of the recurring skits from the show called Moody's Point after the final segment had a cliffhanger ending. However, the Nickelodeon executives rejected it. Seeing that Drake and Josh had a great chemistry together on The Amanda Show similar to Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell from All That, they went in that direction and had them star in their own spinoff show. With Kenan & Kel ending its run 4 years prior and the relaunch of All That introducing a new cast and new skits, this was a show that would be the main shift for the All That spinoffs' direction. The show lasted for 4 seasons until it ended its run on September 16, 2007. This was a show that separated the 90's kids from the 00's kids on what was the best Nickelodeon teen sitcom starring a duo who originated from a sketch comedy show since most people have called Drake & Josh the Kenan & Kel of the 2000's. While I can say that there are some truth to that. I mean, after all, Dan Schneider was an executive producer of Kenan & Kel. But there are major differences to the two shows and I'm going to point out what I like and dislike about Drake & Josh.



Firstly, while Megan is portrayed as a sneaky, conniving, intelligent, and uncaring little sister, she's, well, memorable. Miranda Cosgrove does a really great job acting as this character and is a major standout from Kyra from Kenan & Kel in which she just has a crush on Kel and that's it. Kyra was a boring sibling and brought in nothing to the show. She's sort of like the Ferguson Darling of the 2000's. You hate that character with your every living being, but you sure remember them. In fact, with the exception of Kenan's dad and Chris, Kenan's boss at the convenience store, none of the other characters from Kenan & Kel are memorable. Drake & Josh's other characters are such as Josh's boss from the movie theater Helen, his co-worker Crazy Steve, and his girlfriend Mindy.

Secondly, I like it how Drake and Josh aren't friends in this show, their stepbrothers. This gives a better explanation of why they're together all the time and it gives the show a slightly different tone. Sure, it still has the zany shenanigans and the crazy schemes, but it can also deal with family issues. Some of the moments that happens are portrayed nicely and something you rarely see in Kenan & Kel. Plus, the idea of Kel constantly visiting Kenan's house all the time was a bit irritating at times and makes it look like Family Matters sometimes and Kel was being Steve Irkel and Kenan's dad was acting like Carl Winslow. But it was the 90's. That was one of the most popular family sitcoms at the time, so I'll let it pass. Thirdly, some of the jokes, quotes, and episodes of Drake & Josh are just as humorous as Kenan & Kel's are. I wouldn't say that they're "I DROPPED THE SCREW IN THE TUNA" quotable, but they're quite clever. Note that I said "some". We'll get to that in a minute.



While that sounds like a great follow up to Kenan & Kel and The Amanda Show, the show has some major flaws. I absolutely HATE the character of Drake and Walter, Josh's father. As you recall on my top 10 worst male Nickelodeon role models list, Drake is a terrible character. He's selfish, lazy, doesn't care about doing well in school, and never learns his lesson until the last minute. Yet at the same time, he's suppose to be one of the most popular characters in the show and people are suppose to look up to because he's the "cool" kid who always gets the girl, is in a rock band playing the guitar, and can push Josh around to his desires. So, you're trying to teach kids and teenagers that if you just do bad in school, act like a jerk around your friends and family members who aren't "cool", and go out with every cute girl you meet, you're going to do good in life? That is bullshit, Schneider! Complete utter bullshit! With Josh, he's nice, sweet, considerate, intelligent, and he's nothing more than just a punching bag for Drake's shenanigans. He was treated horribly in the 1st season, while in the 2nd season, he started to tone down his geekiness, get more sarcastic, and lose weight for the show. Where does that get him? A girlfriend. That's right, people. If you want to get a girlfriend, lose a chunk of what made you a standout and lose 40 pounds and girls will be all over you. Good lesson to teach kids, Schneider. Good job. As for Walter, he is by far the worst Nickelodeon TV dad ever! He's a bumbling, moronic, and cowardly idiot who gets pushed around easily and doesn't have a clue on what's going on. He's the Ken Stevenson of the 2000's, but more recurring and stupider. I just HATE him! No wonder there aren't as much parents in today's teen sitcoms. They're too stupid and careless about their kids' actions.

Also, the introduction that occurs in every episode is pointless and awkward. I know that they were going with Kenan & Kel's introduction idea of breaking the 4th wall to their audience before starting every episode. But the thing of it is is that Kenan & Kel were on stage performing in front of a live studio audience so breaking the 4th wall made sense. With Drake & Josh's case, I didn't get it. They were talking to the audience, they would repeat each others' sentences even if they weren't in the same room, and they would vaguely explain what the episode was going to be about. It was a decent idea, but it was poorly executed.

Now we get to the jokes. While I did say a moment ago, some of the jokes and quotes are funny and clever, some are not. The show relies too much on a laugh track to emphasize on how funny the show is, which would later on be a staple for the majority of Schneider's shows. Sure, most sitcoms use the laugh tracks, but in Drake & Josh, it's used a lot. The moments in which a joke that was clearly not funny, but the laugh track appears laughing hysterically is quite awkward and a bit forced a good portion of the time.



Overall, while the show has some serious setbacks from making it one of my all time favorite Nickelodeon sitcoms ever, I have to say that it's still a pretty decent show and one of Dan Schneider's best. Trust me, it goes downhill from here. I'd say check it out sometime. But I would recommend checking out Kenan & Kel a bit more.

That's all for now. Tune in next time as we talk about Butch Hartman's second Nicktoon Danny Phantom. 



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

-Patricia