Movie Review: Harriet the Spy

As we've been journeying along in the network that gave us many happy memories with their cartoons, live action shows, merchandise, and studio, it's astonishing that the little network that originated from Columbus, Ohio would turn into the huge juggernaut that is Nickelodeon today. How amazing that in 1984, it was almost shut down due to being in millions of dollars in debt and ranked as the worst network on television. Oh, how the times have changed. Around 1995, Nickelodeon decided to open another production company to release the following media: movies. It took a year later for their first feature film to be released to the public. That movie was Harriet the Spy which was released on July 10, 1996.

Based of the 1964 children's novel of the same name written by Louise Fitzhugh, Harriet the Spy told us of the story of a young 11-year-old girl named Harriet Welsch who dreams of becoming a writer. After school, she became a spy and went on an "spy route" to observe her classmates, her friends, and people from the neighborhood and write her thoughts down on a notebook. Her notebook is private to everyone else since it contains her deepest thoughts and secrets about the people around her.



So, does Nickelodeon Movies do justice with this book to movie adaptation or should it be put on file never to be discussed again? This is Harriet the Spy.



The movie starts off with Harriet Welsch (played by Michelle Trachtenberg) spying the local people in an outdoor farmer's market. She describes and writes on her notebook on what she's witnessing. Then she concludes her sentence with the following "I learn everything I can and I write everything I see. Golly says that I want to be a writer, then I better start now. Which is why I am a spy."



Then she makes her way to school where she meets up with her friends Simon "Sport Rocque (played by Gregory Smith) and Janie Gibbs (played by Vanessa Lee Chester). While giving themselves a "secret tattoo", their arch school enemy Marion Hawthorne (played by Charlotte Sullivan) says "good morning" to them in a snobby way. While the bell rings for class, Harriet explains via narration about her classmates and her teacher. The teacher Miss Elson (played by Nancy Beatty) explains about the nomination of the sixth grade class president between Harriet and Marion. Marion wins, which leaves Harriet disappointed since one of the duties of being the president is being an editor of the school newspaper. After class, she goes on her "spy route" to spy on the people from her neighborhood who consists of a man who has many cats in his small apartment to a Chinese family who own the neighborhood supermarket to their middle age delivery boy giving vegetables to an unknown person. Harriet calls him "the veggie thief".

After her "spy route" finishes, Harriet meets up with Sport and Janie in her house where they wait for her. Harriet's nanny Golly (played by Rosie O' Donnell) takes them to her friend Mrs. W's house to explore and play in her yard. The yard is filled with many things to do from blowing bubbles to dressing up in funny clothes.

At night, Harriet's parents are mostly not at home since they attend dinner parties so her and Golly always have fun conversations and discussions. Golly has been the Welsch's nanny ever since Harriet was born, so they have a special connection with one another. In fact, Golly is the only one who knows the full details on Harriet's spy route and encourages her to do it if she feels that writing is her passion.



One night while Harriet and Golly are making dinner, a visitor comes to the house. It turns out to be the middle aged supermarket delivery boy that Harriet was spying on. He happens to be a man named George Waldenstein who's Golly's date. While George explains how he came to be a middle aged delivery boy, Golly accidentally burns the dinner and George declares of taking them out for dinner and a movie. Golly doesn't think it's a good idea, but George and Harriet begged her to do so. She accepts. It doesn't turn out well since the parents get home before they do. They're furious that Golly took Harriet in the middle of the night without their consent. For that reason, she was fired. Afterwards, they changed their minds, but Golly had decided that since Harriet is old enough to no longer need a nanny, it was time for her to go.

Meanwhile, things are very sad for Harriet ever since Golly left. She feels that something is missing with her life and things aren't turning out very well for her. The neighbors she was spying on are going through rough times and there's even a point in which she gets caught. She goes inside a rich woman's house (played by Eartha Kitt) to spy on her. It's actually one of my favorite moments in the movie. Why? Because Eartha Kitt's in it and she's awesome!

Things turn for the worse when she decides to go to the park and play tag with her classmates. Harriet misplaces her notebook and Marion finds it on the ground. She gathers up the remaining classmates and they start reading the notebook filled with Harriet's secrets and thoughts about her friends. The notes are not nice ones, they're even to the point of being insulting and mean spirited. When Harriet, Janie, and Sport see that Marion has Harriet's notebook, Marion reads the contents of the notebook containing about Janie and Sport. It talked about how Janie is a total nutcase with her crazy science experiments and how Sport and his father are poor. They feel insulted and no longer become Harriet's friend. They instead sided with Marion and the other classmates who had their feelings hurt by Harriet's notebook. Also, since she concentrates on writing notes than paying attention in school, Harriet's parents decide to confiscate her new notebook and forbids her from writing.

To get revenge on Harriet, they decided to form a new club called "The Spy Catcher's Club" which they do mean things to Harriet to make her miserable. From passing mean notes to following her on her "spy route" to spilling paint on her, Harriet feels the pain that she had caused her friends. 

Instead of Harriet apologizing to her classmates about the notebook, she decides to get revenge on them as well. She targets each classmate at a time and comes up with a special punishment. After completing them, she still feels guilty inside. But everything starts to look up when Golly comes over for a visit. Harriet explains her situation and Golly gives her two bits of advice to solve the problem. "You have to apologize and you have to lie. Sometimes a really small lie can be a really big help."

So Harriet visits Sport and Janie and try to apologize to them, but they don't want her around and they don't even listen to her. Harriet feels that all hope is lost. 

Meanwhile at the Spy Catchers' Club, they become real bored and are sick of taking Marion's orders. Eventually, Sport and Janie quit the club. One by one, most of the kids do the same. The next day in class, Harriet decides that it isn't fair that one person should be the class president since she feels that everyone deserves a chance to try it. Marion objects. Miss Elson tells the students if they want someone else to be president. One of the students, whose known for not talking, stands up and says that Harriet should be the president since she's a good writer and has a different perspective of the world that people should consider reading. The rest of the class agrees and Harriet becomes the new class president. She writes her apologies on the paper and about the people she spies on. Her paper becomes an instant success and her, Sport, and Janie become friends again. 

Overall, while the movie is quite close to the original book, there are some major issues with this movie. First off, the pacing. It's way too slow and some of the characters' inclusions and scenes are pretty unnecessary and pointless. For example, in the original book, we're only giving slight descriptions of the classmates and the people she spies on. In the movie, they put in way too many characters in it and most of them aren't even developed. The addition of the classmates and the people she spies on aren't developed enough, yet they're added in so that it makes the movie longer. So this decision drags the movie at a snail's pace and that's not fun. 

Not to mention that Michelle Trachtenberg looks absolutely nothing like Harriet from the book. Harriet Welsch from the book has short hair, wears hoodies, and glasses. Harriet in the movie does not. That's like if Harry Potter was portrayed as a blond hair, blue-eyed surfer dude in the movies. Well, at least they got her spy belt correctly and yes, she wears hoodies. However, you can't even see it very well due to the big, puffy yellow coat she wears. She doesn't wear that coat in the book. Who does she think she is when wearing that? Dick Tracy? 

This is what Harriet looks like.

Not this.

Also, I have an issue about Golly's advice to lie to her friends in order for her to win them back. Harriet, while claiming that the notes about her classmates were lies, really doesn't deserve them back. She had wrote insulting things about them. They weren't light insults, but real heavy ones. Also instead of apologizing first, she decided to play their game and do mean punishments on them. You do that after the apologizing doesn't work, not before. It just shows you that you're no better than they are. So, instead of being honest and truthful when apologizing to them, you lie about it. What's the point of including this piece of advice? If kids were in Harriet's situation and decide to lie while apologizing, that not only makes you a mean spirited person, but that also makes you a pathological liar. Which means you can't be trusted even if you are saying the truth. I'm sorry, I find this to be a huge flaw that shouldn't be overlooked. 

As for the soundtrack, it tries to go for a jazzy ska-like feel. It's okay, just not memorable. The acting is real nice and the main characters are quite likable. Even the minor ones are really good, especially Eartha Kitt's character. Nonetheless, this movie is something that I would not recommend checking out. 

Before you saw Harriet the Spy when watching it, you got to see a pilot episode for one of Nickelodeon's upcoming cartoons. Tune in next time as we discuss all about it. 

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

-Patricia

Old School Lane's Nickelodeon Tribute: The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo

If you were a kid in the 90's, you would probably be a huge fan of the following: gross, disgusting humor from TV shows like Ren and Stimpy and Aaahh!!! Real Monsters. Horror and thrillers from books and shows like Goosebumps and Are You Afraid of the Dark? Shows that discussed science in a fun way like Beakman's World, Bill Nye: The Science Guy, and The Magic School Bus. Funny, laugh out loud adult humor from shows like Rocko's Modern Life and Animaniacs. Re-imagining of classic Disney cartoons like Talespin, Darkwing Duck, Ducktales, and Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers. Watching action packed superhero cartoons like Batman: The Animated Series, X-Men: The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series, and Spiderman. Or seeing shows for teens and adults like Beavis and Butthead and South Park even though you weren't suppose to. Then there's also the mystery craze that started from books like Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, and Encyclopedia Brown. The craze exploded like wildfire due to the 1992 PBS mystery series Ghostwriter. 

The show was about a group of kids who solve crimes and mysteries with the help of a mysterious invisible ghost. The show lasted for 3 years ending its run on February 13, 1995. Around that time, there weren't a lot of mystery shows for kids. The only one that was running at the time for kids were the direct to video mystery series The Adventures of Mary-Kate and Ashley that ran from 1994-1997.

So Alan Goodman, the man who was helped launched MTV by developing the now iconic logo, partially responsible from saving Nickelodeon from bankruptcy back in 1984, co-creator of Nick at Nite, and the co-creator of Nickelodeon show Kids Court, had decided to create a mystery series for Nickelodeon. That show was called The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo which debuted on March 16, 1996.

The show was about an Asian girl named Shelby Woo (played by Irene Ng) who lives in an inn with her grandfather Mike "Grandpa" Woo (played by Pat Morita) at Cocoa Beach, FL. She works as an intern at a police station doing leftover paper work and odd jobs at the office. Whenever a crime or a mystery comes about, Shelby and her friends Noah Allen (played by Adam Busch) and Cindy Ornette (played by Preslaysa Edwards) work together to solve the case. However, the detectives who work at the station don't appreciate her solving the case since she's an untrained teenager and wishes for Shelby and her friends to not get involved. Also Grandpa Woo isn't thrilled in Shelby solving cases since they're not detectives, they're innkeepers. "We are not detectives with warrant badges, we are innkeepers with brooms" was a sentence he would constantly tell Shelby throughout the entire series. Nonetheless, Shelby and her friends are always on the case.



Throughout every episode, there would be a different mystery to solve. The case would be explained by a witness or a suspect, they would travel to the scene of the crime and pick up clues, and would always narrow the suspects down to three people. Throughout the show, it would keep people guessing on who was the suspect. Then at the end, they would find the suspect and explain on the clues that led to that conclusive decision. Some of these cases were quite clever. In one episode, Shelby finds a calendar that only has the months July, August, September, October, and November that belonged to the victim. While putting that and the remaining clues together, she was able to find the culprit. By lining up the first letter of the remaining months of the calendar, it spelled out a name.

July
August
September
October
November

One of the suspects of that case happened to have been a guy named Jason and he was caught for his crimes.



Around Season 4, Shelby and her grandfather moved into Boston, Massachusetts. Shelby worked at a new police station and met some new friends named Vince Rosania (played by Noah Klar) and Angie Burns (played by Eleanor Noble). She continued to solve cases alongside her new friends.

Similar to The Secret World of Alex Mack, there were books that contained original stories from The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo not seen in any episode. However unlike Alex Mack, a few of the books were written by Alan Goodman himself.



A few other writers wrote original stories for the Shelby Woo series, including one of the writers from the show named Suzanne Collins.



Wait, what? Suzanne Collins, the author of The Hunger Games trilogy and The Underland Chronicles was a writer for The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo? Yes, she was. Before becoming the well-known author she is today, she had worked as a writer in other Nickelodeon shows such as Clarissa Explains it All, Little Bear, and Oswald. Interesting fact, indeed.



The show lasted for 4 seasons ending its run on October 25, 1998. Some of the actors went on to do other projects while some faded into obscurity.

Irene Ng has been in other movies and TV shows like Teen Angel, The Sterling Chase, Law and Order, Spirit Warriors, and The Jury II. She's currently married to a man name David Rosa.



Pat Morita has appeared in other TV shows, movies, and voice acted in shows like Spy Hard, Mulan, King Cobra, Inferno, Shadow Fury, The Last Shot, Only the Brave, Spongebob SquarePants, Robot Chicken, 18 Fingers of Death, and Royal Kill. He passed away on November 24, 2005 due to kidney failure. He's survived by his wife Evelyn, his three children from a previous marriage, two grandchildren, and his four siblings.



Adam Busch has appeared in other TV shows and indie movies like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Leon, Law and Order, Point Pleasant, The Jury, Sugar and Spice, Back to You, Book of Danny, House, Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, American Dreamz, I'm in the Band, Grey's Anatomy, and Men at Work. He's currently on an online series called MyMusic portraying a character called Indie, who's a modern day hipster and CEO of MyMusic.



The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo was praised for many things when the show first came out. The creativity and originality of the show was something never seen before in Nickelodeon. At the time, it was the only mystery series for kids until The New Ghostwriter Mysteries and Sherlock Holmes of the 22nd Century debuted. Also what was praised were the inclusion of Irene Ng and Pat Morita. As most of you probably know, Pat Morita was Mr. Miyagi from The Karate Kid series and was one of the most well known actors in the 80's. However, in the 90's, he had been in a few bad movies such as Miracle Beach, American Ninja V, and The Next Karate Kid. When he was on The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo, he was introduced to a new audience and had made quite a comeback as his role as a brilliant actor.



As for Irene Ng, who had played a minor role in Heaven and Earth, she was the very first Asian girl to star in a Nickelodeon TV show. Sadly, there would be fewer to no other Asian characters in other Nickelodeon shows afterwards, especially starring roles. Overall, the show was pretty good. While it can get a bit monotonous at times with a new case being in every episode and some of the outcomes are a bit predictable, it was always exciting to put the clues together to find out who the culprit was. The show took a bit of a downfall in the 4th Season when Shelby and her grandfather moved to Boston. The new characters introduced in that season felt more like replacement characters from the previous seasons than well-developed ones.While not one of the best teen shows to ever air on Nickelodeon, it was truly a unique one.If you're a fan of mystery shows, check this show out sometime.

That's all for now. Tune in next time as we review Nickelodeon's very first movie Harriet the Spy.



Wow! We must be going through a mystery theme or something.

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

-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

Old School Lane's Nickelodeon Tribute: Space Cases

It's the year 1996. Mission Impossible, Independence Day, Jerry Maguire, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame was released in theaters. 3rd Rock from the Sun, 7th Heaven, Everybody Loves Raymond, and Moesha debuted on TV. Since 1994, Nickelodeon was the #1 rated network for kids ages 2-16 and would continue holding that rank for many years (more on that later). For '96, it would end up being a huge year for Nickelodeon. They would release shows that would still remain classics to this very day. It ended up being one of the most important years of Nickelodeon's history similar to what 1991 was.

The first show that came out was their first sci-fi series. On March 2, Space Cases debuted on TV.

The show was about 5 teens from different planets who attend a Space Academy in Pluto. The entire class goes on a field trip with the exception of the 5 teens since they caused a lot of trouble. All of a sudden, a mysterious ship appears at the school. One of the teens, Harland Band (played by Walter Emanuel Jones), decides to sneak out of the classroom and explore the ship. The other 4 teens chase after Harland, knowing that they would get into more trouble if their teacher finds out that they left the classroom. Their teacher and Space Academy principal T.J. Davenport (played by Cary Lawrence) and Commander Seth Goddard (played by Paul Boretski) follow the students into the spaceship. Due to a series of unfortunate events caused by Bova (played by Rahi Azizi), one of the 5 teens, the ship takes off and travels into a rift. The way the ship is able to be controlled is that all 5 teens have to form a bond with it.

They finally stop and realize that they're light years away from the Academy and their home. The minimal amount of time it would take to get home is 7 years. So, the whole series is about traveling through space, meeting up with friends and allies in ways to get home. Also, throughout the series, we find out more about the 5 teens, T.J., and Commander Goddard.



Each of the 5 teens come from a different planet and have special, unique abilities. For example, Harlan Band is a human from planet Earth. He's the definitive leader of the 5 teens with a cocky, headstrong personality. He serves as the pilot of the ship and is an advanced martial artist and gymnast able to fight his enemies with no effort.



Bova is from the planet Uranus. He has a small antennae growing on his forehead that can shoot out electricity. He also has a huge appetite with the ability to eat anything and still remain hungry. He's a bit of a pessimist and "the butt of every joke".



Catalina (played by Jewel Staite) is from Titan, one of Saturn's moons. She serves as the ship's engineer and has the ability to release sonic screams, which had been useful when it came to disabling missles and attacking the ship. She claims that her powers are nothing special since her people can use their sonic screams to demolish buildings, but she has been one of the most relied on characters throughout Season 1. She has a friend named Suzee that only she could see. Everyone else on the ship thinks that it's imaginary, so they don't pay any mind to her.



Radu (played by Kristian Ayre) is from Andromeda. He serves as the navigator and has super sensitive hearing and super strength. He has to work together with Harlan since he's the pilot, but they're rivals to one another. But together, they settle each other's differences and try to find an easier, faster way to get home.



Rosie Ianni (played by Paige Christina) is from Mercury. She serves as the doctor/scientist and has an enthusiastic, mothering personality. She has the ability to produce vast amount of heat since Mercury is the closest planet from the Sun.



 THELMA (Techno Human EmuLating MAchine played by Anik Matern) is the only inhabitant on the ship. She's an android with serious malfunctions that was accidentally caused by Harlan when they first entered the ship. She tends to take things literal and gets emotional over the littlest things.



Throughout the show, we also get to know the main characters' backstory. Harlan was going to Space Academy to be a Stardog like his father. His father was killed by an Andromedan during the Andromedan War. For this reason, he's prejudice against Radu since he's an Andromedan. Radu has no family since Andromedans are born from eggs and are left to fend for themselves. He longs for a family and to feel like he's needed. Along the way, the crew meet a girl named Elmira (played by Katie Emme McIninch) who's a alien being called a Spung. Radu doesn't trust Spungs since they enslaved the Andromeda people and caused the Andromeda War. But Elmira explains that she had ran away from home since the Spung don't really care too much for women's ranks into society despite her being an oracle with the ability to predict the future. But they settle their differences and fall in love at the end of Season 1.



A new villain comes into the show in the form of Warlock Shank (played by George Takei), a Spung space pirate and the father of Elmira. He doesn't approve of Elmira falling in love with Radu since he's an Andromedan. He becomes the recurring villain throughout the entire series.



The end of Season 1 ends up with Bova and T.J. finding a sister ship in a debris pile with a few Spung spaceships. They decided to check out the sister ship in order to find the weapons used to destroy the Spung spaceships. However, Warlock Shank appears and the sister ship activates its self destruct sequence put their by the creators of the ship in case the Spungs happened to enter in to steal their weapons. While the ship is about to self destruct, Shank captures Catalina as hostage in exchange on the ship's weapons. Harlan lies to Shank and confuses him about the weapons. While it left them enough time to distract Shank to escape the sister ship, it was too late for Catalina. She stays in the sister ship alongside Shank while it explodes. Saddened that their friend is gone, they throw a funeral in her honor. While giving the eulogy, all of a sudden, a mysterious cloaked figure appears before them. When the crew asks them who this mysterious person is, she laughs saying that she knows who they are, but they don't know who she is. This ends Season 1.

Season 2 begins with the identity of the mysterious person. It turns out to be Suzee (played by Rebecca Herbst), Catalina's friend, the person that no one was able to see. She's an intelligent person and has the ability to read minds and possess people's bodies. She serves as the new engineer to the ship. They find out that Catalina is not dead, but instead transferred into Suzee's dimension where she remains safe.



Throughtout Season 2, they crash into an unknown planet and must learn to adapt to their new environment and repair the ship so they can get home. The Spung eventually find the crew and starts to attack them and their already broken ship. Throughout the series, there were many other characters portrayed by actors such as Mark Hamill, Danny Tamberelli, Robin Leach, Michelle Trachtenberg, and Bill Mumy.



The show was created by Peter David and Bill Mumy. Peter David is a comic book, movie, and TV writer known for writing for the The Incredible Hulk, Young Justice, Aquaman, Super Angel, and Supergirl comics. He also written some Star Trek novels such as Imzadi and The New Frontier series.



Bill Mumy is an actor mostly known for his role as Will Robinson in the 1960's TV series Lost in Space. 



While playing as Lennier from the sci-fi series Babylon 5, he met with Peter David, who was a writer in the show, and came up with an idea for a show that was similar to Babylon 5, Star Trek, and Lost in Space, but for kids. That was how Space Cases was born.



The show lasted for 2 seasons until it was cancelled on January 27, 1997. Some of the actors and creators went on to do different things after Space Cases while others faded into obscurity.

Walter Emanuel Jones has done other movie and TV roles such as Sabrina, The Teenage Witch, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Power Rangers Lost Galaxy, Moesha, Spyder Games, American Gun, Love and a Bullet, The Shield, Pair of Kings, The Dogwalker, and Prime Suspect.



Jewel Staite has appeared in other movies and TV shows such as Firefly, Just Deal, Wonderfalls, Carpool, Cheats, Stargate Atlantis, Serenity, and The L.A. Complex.



Kristian Ayre has appeared in other movies and TV shows such as The New Ghostwriter Mysteries, Alien Abduction: Incident at Lake County, Running Home, Nothing Too Good for a Cowboy, Elf, and Of Golf and God. 



Cary Lawrence has appeared in made for TV movies and TV shows such as The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo, The Hunger, Snake Eyes, Stardom, Sacred Ground, Deception, The Favorite Game, Tripping the Rift, and Life Interrupted. 



Rebecca Herbst has appeared in other TV shows such as Sister, Sister, Days of Our Lives, Brotherly Love, General Hospital and its spinoff General Hospital: Nightshift, and Dirty Soap. She's married to former General Hospital co-star Michael Saucedo (who played Juan Santiago) and has three children.



Peter David has written other comic book series, novels for TV shows and movies, and has written episodes for shows such as Young Justice and Ben 10: Alien Force.

Bill Mumy has narrated for 50 episodes of the Biography series as well as hosting and narrating for shows from A.E., Animal Planet, the Sci-Fi Network, and E!. He has voiced for animated shows such as The Ren and Stimpy Show, Animaniacs, Batman: The Animated Series, and Buzz Lightyear: Star in Command. He has released a number of CDs with his band The Be Five, Barnes & Barnes, as well as solo CDs.



Overall, looking back at this show, it was ambitious to release a sci-fi show for kids in a time when other sci-fi shows like Babylon 5, Star Trek: Deep Space 9, and Star Trek: Voyager were airing. There were no other sci-fi series for kids at the time, so seeing that Nickelodeon was doing it, it was proving once again that Nickelodeon was diverse in different genres when it came to their teen series. This was 2 years before Power Rangers in Space debuted. However, the show was not viewed by many kids at the time and still to this day, most of them have never even heard of Space Cases. It had gained a cult following among true Nickelodeon fans who grew up in the 90's. So, should you check this show out? Well, yes and no. Mostly no. I say yes because it had well developed characters that we've grown to know and love, a compilation of classic sci-fi shows such as Star Trek and Lost in Space done for kids, and a continuing premise that makes you wonder if they were ever going to reach home. I also say no because there are some huge major flaws in the show. The story lines are extremely cheesy at times, the acting is wooden and sometimes unwatchable, and the show looked extremely cheap. An interesting fact about Space Cases is that they used most of the props from other Nickelodeon shows such as Are You Afraid of the Dark? Also, the control panels on the walls was only an electronic game called "Lights Out".




I can excuse the show from having a low budget and being cheap looking. As long as they can overcompensate it with a good storyline and memorable characters, then it's excusable. Some of you might recognize Walter Jones from another TV series from the 90's. He was the Black Ranger Zack Taylor from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. He left the show during the middle of Season 2 of Power Rangers due to money disagreements.



He had appeared in a few small roles on a few Disney Channel shows and movies before starring as Harlan in Space Cases. It's an interesting choice of including Jones in Space Cases. It was like trying to lure kids to watch the show saying "Hey, the original Black Ranger from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers is in our show, but he's the leader now. Check it out".



It was a shame that the show was cancelled since it did have a consistent plot of the teens trying to get home. But it ended in a typical episode that had no connection to the story and left a lot of things unanswered. If you're a kid wanting to get into sci-fi shows, then Space Cases might be hard to recommend. The show is poorly aged due to the cheesy storylines, wooden acting, and cheap sets. You're probably better off watching Doctor Who, Star Trek, Babylon 5, Firefly, or Stargate Atlantis. 

That's all for now. Tune in next time as we look at Nickelodeon's attempt to create a duo to be just as well known and iconic like Laurel and Hardy with Dan Schneider's first All That spinoff Kenan and Kel. 



Hope to see you around Old School Lane soon. Take care.

-Patricia