Season 1
In this blog, I post my scorecards and report on tv news, usually kids and entertainment.
Thursday, June 29, 2023
Liv & Maddie Scorecard
Season 1
Saturday, June 24, 2023
The Schneider's Bakery Child Stars - Where They Are Now?
Friday, March 31, 2023
Nickelodeon Movies Scorecard
Harriet the Spy: 8/10
Good Burger: 10/10
The Rugrats Movie: 8/10
Snow Day: SKIPPED
Rugrats in Paris: The Movie: 10/10
Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius: 10/10
Clockstoppers: 7/10
Hey Arnold: The Movie: 6/10
The Wild Thornberrys: 7/10
Rugrats go Wild: 5/10
The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie: 9/10
Lemony Snicket's a Series of Unfortunate Events: 4/10
Mad Hot Ballroom: SKIPPED
Yours Mine & Ours: 4/10
Nacho Libre: 8/10
Barnyard: 8/10
Charlotte's Web: 6/10
The Spiderwick Chronicles:
Angus, Thongs Perfect and Snogging:
Hotel for Dogs:
Imagine That:
The Last Airbender: 1/10
Rango: 9/10
The Adventures of Tin Man: 7/10
Fun Size: 6/10
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water: 9/10
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows:
Monster Trucks:
Wonder Park:
Dora and the Lost City of Gold:
Playing with Fire:
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run:7/10
PAW Patrol: The Movie: 7/10
TV Movie
Shredderman Rules:
The Last Day of Summer:
Gym Teacher: The Movie:
Merry Christmas, Drake & Josh: 10/10
Spectacular!:
Fred: The Movie: 1/10
The Boy Who Cried Werewolf: 4/10
Best Player: 8/10
A Fairly Odd Movie: Grow Up, Timmy Turner!: 4/10
Big Time Movie: 9/10
Rags: 9/10
A Fairly Odd Christmas: 3/10
Nicky Deuce: 5/10
Swindle: 7/10
Jinxed: 6/10
Terry the Tomboy: SKIPPED
A Fairly Odd Summer: 2/10
Santa Hunters: 7/10
Splitting Adam: 5/10
One Crazy Cruise: 4/10
Liar, Liar, Vampire: 3/10
Lost in the West (miniseries):
Legends of the Hidden Temple: 9/10
Albert: 8/10
Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library: 6/10
Hey Arnold!: The Jungle Movie: 10/10
Blurt!: 6/10
Bixler High Private Eye: 8/10
Lucky: 7/10
Rocko's Modern Life: Static Cling: 10/10
Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus: 9/10
Wednesday, February 15, 2023
Boy/Girl Meets World Scorecard
Saturday, February 11, 2023
Why Nicktoons Are the Best at Crediting Voice Actors' Roles?
Friday, January 27, 2023
Why Does the Nick Jr Block Needs to Shut Down?
Tuesday, January 10, 2023
Austin & Ally Scorecard
Tuesday, December 27, 2022
Nick Yearly Recap 1991: The Year Nickelodeon Became Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon Yearly Recap 1991
Fifteen
(SKIPPED AS I COULDN’T FIND ANY FULL EPISODES)
Welcome Freshmen
As you can tell from the title, the show is about a high school, primary focusing on freshmen students (although they would become sophomore in the final season). The first two seasons focused on various situations, akin a sketch show, and often had a theme to it (especially the first season). The final season changed into a sitcom format, akin Saved by the Bell. As it’s one of those shows that is only accessible to old recordings back in the days, I’ll have to rely on Dailymotion to watch this show. What did I think of Welcome Freshmen? I do not liked the show at all. Despite having a good run, I don’t blame its obscure status. It’s such a generic show with a generic school setting. It contained so much many cliches you seen in these type of shows. You have yourself an authority figure who is a freshman hater (and that’s his only punchline), and of course, the jocks. But the weird thing is that the main group of friends are surprisingly rude to each other. Other than the girls (when they’re together), they are constantly at each other’s throats for no real reason. If it wasn’t for that, the show would’ve been a lot more bearable AND memorable. It’s so forgettable that I don’t even remember the characters other than the smart boy. That’s how bad of a show it is when nearly all of the main characters are a bunch of unlikable jerks. This is one of those shows that gets worse every passing season. I didn’t find the first season that bad because all of the episodes followed a theme and every episode ended with the friends discussing what they learned. Admittedly, the sketches were slightly funnier. However, the quality of the sketches and the show itself started to dip by the next season that I have to drop after a few episodes. Every running gag like hating on freshman and picking on the smart boy became extremely stale and annoying fast. I try to stay patient when I watch bad shows, but it was the most I can endure. For the third season, I stopped after 10 episodes. And yes, if you’re wondering, the shift to the sitcom format did not help make the show better. It became even worse. Even with the main cast becoming sophomores, it’s the same old crap, without the sketches. You know, I find it sad that Welcome Freshmen is such a trainwreck because it had a bunch of creative writers who went on to work for various Nickelodeon shows, like Bob Mittenthal, Michael Rubiner, and Tim Hill. It said a lot that I find myself enjoying Hey Dude slightly more, but that’s not saying much. All in all, I don’t recommend this show whatsoever for all the flaws I mentioned. It’s proof that Nick in the 90s wasn’t without its duds.
(3/10)
Get the Picture
The first Nick game show of 1991 is all about images. Before Nick viewers knew him as the GUTS host, Mike O'Malley hosted this game show. It consists of two teams (orange and yellow), who are competing with each other to guess the right hidden pictures on a 16 square video wall. During the first season, kids are required to connect the dots, uncover Power Surges, engage in some physical activities (such as Toss Across, Jigsaw Puzzle) before heading to a bonus round. The second season changed all of its rules drastically. For example, it was now played for points rather than money. As it only aired new episodes throughout 1991, this game show wasn't as memorable as the others. I personally preferred the first season more only because it's more exciting. Mike was a good host, but you can tell he didn't really perfected his role until his next game show.
(7/10)
Clarissa Explains It All *
The show will has its own separate journal due to its importance.
(9/10)
The original Nicktoons *
They will have their own journal because of how impactful they were to the channel.
Salute Your Shorts
Remember when summer camp shows used to be fresh and original and didn't feel exploited? Well, back in the 90s, Nick used to have one of these shows. Salute Your Shorts take place at a fictional summer camp, Camp Anawanna (a play of "I don't want to"). It focuses on teenage campers as they try to get through summer by getting into crazy situations while dealing with their counselor (played by the late Kirk Bailey). The first season was more about the struggle between newcomer Michael Stein and camp bully Robert 'Bobby' Budnick as they try to win over the girls. By the second season, though, Michael was replaced by Ronald "Ronnie' Foster Pinsky, so the character dynamics changed somewhat. You know, after watching modern summer camp shows like Bunk'd and Summer Camp Island, they just feel hackneyed. When I decided to stream this show on Paramount+ last summer (despite missing some episodes), I was a little cautious, but since it's a classic show, I ended up enjoying it more than I expected. The characters had a better chemistry than the ones from Hey Dude and Welcome Freshmen. I mean, they’re still assholes to each other, but it’s not frustrating to watch because they have more friendly moments. And it worked, and it gave the show a good experience, something that the aforementioned shows failed to do. Every character is unique in their own ways instead of being copies of each other. The kids can be a bit of bad influences for the young viewers, but this is fictional. And the counselor do suffer through a lot throughout the show, which may be a tad hard to watch with his actor now decreased. Comedy isn’t the show’s strongest aspect and as I mentioned before, it’s the character interaction that made the show an enjoyable viewing. If you ask me, I liked this show and it’s pretty much Hey Dude and Welcome Freshmen done right. Maybe it’s no wonder 80s and 90s kids have more fond memories with this show, despite its shorter run.
(8/10)
What Would You Do?
As we all know, Double Dare was a huge success for Nickelodeon. So, it was only a matter of time before they decided to give the show's host (Marc Summers) another game show, called What Would You Do?, which aired from 1991-1993. This time, Summers is joined by Robin Marrella. The format for the show is a bit different this time, focusing on what the audience would do in a situation. After tallying the results, the outplay was shown. Segments included Anything You Can Do, WWYD medley, Wall O'Stuff. Other stuff featured in the show were musical pies, family challenges, pie-athons, and roving cameras. The cream pie was central to the show's premise and was often used as punishment. The show is alright, but it certainly does not beat Double Dare. You can tell it's a lot more comedic, as it involves more weirdness. It's also more interactive than the other game shows Nick has done so far. Not to mention, adults are more involved with this since the other game shows usually just had kids as contestants, so I'll give it some points for being different. Based from the first 9 episodes I saw through Dailymotion (the only way to watch a full episode of the show), the silly situations people have to get into include doing stunts, impersonating Elvis, driving a monster tuck, eating the worst pie, and feeding a tarantula. They were funny to watch, but they were definitely not fitting for game show format. Overall, while still a decent show, it’s not something that I rewatch, but I still appreciate it for trying something different.
(6/10)
Nick News (including new version)
Kids needed to stay alert on what's going on with the world. So Nick decided to produce a monthly news show. The viewers were introduced Nick News on January 1991, and the first episode was about the Middle East. Linda Ellerbee serves as the host of the show. Growing up, I never saw much of it because it always aired during Sunday night (the night before kids head back to school). I don’t recalled seeing commercials for it because it was a monthly show. This won’t be much of a review, but rather what I think about the show itself. It’s a miracle this show managed to last this long. Up until the 2020s, it was the longest running Nickelodeon show until SpongeBob obviously dethroned it (even though Nick News was already revived). The target demographic will find it boring, but let’s be honest. Since 9/11, America has been divided more than ever, and this bleed over to the cable news networks who thrive on biased reports to stay afloat. Yes I am talking about CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News, and other lesser news media like Newsmax and OANN. There’s no point watching them in 2023 nowadays, so younger people, I’d suggest to check out the revival of Nick News if you want a fair and balance report of the current events. Though I wish the current host wasn’t a younger version of Linda since she also has a pixie cut. In shorter words, if there’s nothing to watch on tv and you want to have a less cynical take on the news, I suggest this show instead of 24/7 news.
(6/10)
Are You Afraid of the Dark? *
Separate journal coming October 2024.
(9/10)
Tuesday, December 20, 2022
The Office Scorecard
The Office (American version) Scorecard
Pilot: Good
Health Care: Decent
The Alliance: Okay
Basketball: Okay
Hot Girl: Good
Season 2
The Dundies: Great
Sexual Harassment: Okay
Office Olympics: Good
Fire: Decent
Halloween: Great
The Fight: Good
The Client: Decent
Performance Review: Okay
E-Mail Surveillance: Good
Christmas Party: Great
Booze Cruise: Good
The Injury: Decent
The Secret: Good
The Carpet: Good
Boys and Girls: Great
Valentine's Day: Good
Dwight's Speech: Good
Take Your Daughter to Work Day: Good
Michael's Birthday: Great
Drug Testing: Decent
Conflict Resolution: Good
Casino Night: Great
Season 3
Guy Witch Hunt: Okay
The Convention: Good
The Coup: Decent
Grief Counesling: Good
Imitation: Great
Diwali: Decent
Branch Closing: Good
The Merger: Good
The Convict: Great
A Benihana Christmas (1)(2): Good
Back from Vacation: Good
Traveling Salesmen: Decent
The Return: good
Ben Franklin: Great
Phyllis Wedding: Good
Business School: Good
Cocktails: Okay
The Negotiation: Good
Safety Training: Good
Product Recall: Good
Women's Appreciation: Great
Beach Games: Great
The Job (1) (2): Great
Sunday, November 27, 2022
The Weird Current State of Nick's Sitcoms
The Weird Current State of Nick's Sitcoms
It was the year 2012. Nickelodeon has decided to end production on several of their live-action shows. Those shows included iCarly, Victorious, Big Time Rush, Bucket and Skinner, and How to Rock. Out of those 5, only iCarly and BTR received a proper ending. The rest never got to finish their story. And so, the future of Nickcoms was at stake now that their highest rated live-action show was over. How will they keep their live-action department afloat? Unfortunately, the infamous Dan Schneider was still employed with them, so he pitched two ideas, which were basically spinoffs. One of them was about GIBBY, and the other was about Sam and Cat. Only one of them ended up being a series and it was obvious Nick wanted Jennette McCurdy and Ariana Grande as leads (not helping the fact they share the same birthday). At the same time, Nickelodeon has also greenlit Marvin Marvin (another vehicle for Lucas Cruikshank), The Haunted Hathaways, and The Thundermans. All of them were potential replacements for the aforementioned cancelled shows. However, in the end, you'll realize most of them failed and the only successful live-action show to come out of Nick during the year of 2013 was this show:
Simply put, Sam & Cat was a hit as you expect for any show Schneider pumped out, due to the popularity of the titular characters (Jennette and especially Ariana's growing fanbase reflected this). It was the network’s highest rated show at the time. Everything all went smooth sailing, until something bad happened. As we all know with Jennette’s recently released memoir “I’m Glad My Mother Died”, Sam & Cat was hell for her and this is how we got the controversial behind the scenes drama. It happened during Kids Choice Awards week, and the news broke out that after 36 episodes, the show was declared cancelled, much to Jennette’s delight. (And mine as well, because I can’t stand the show either and it’s the worst show Dan had ever came up with). Despite the ridiculously long episode order, this is his only show to get less than three seasons. There was also Wendell & Winnie starring Jerry Trainor who moved on too quickly to another show for Nick after ICarly concluded. It was an one season wonder because it was too adult to air during regular hours and felt more akin to a Nick @ Nite series. Next, we have a supernatural themed sitcom called the Haunted Hathaways where a mom and her kids moved to a mansion and they are greeted with ghosts. I never watched it, but the fact that the ghost family are black feels racially motivated. It did okay for what it’s worth, and only made it to two seasons. Before the year ends, Nick needed a true hit show for the teens to enjoy that doesn’t cause behind the scenes drama in order to have a good run. On October 14, 2013, a little show called The Thundermans came to the airwaves. Why is this show so impactful, you ask? Well, it is the first of Nick’s attempt to do superhero sitcoms, something that they’re still producing to this day. (I know there’s been past super-powered attempts, like Alex Mack, but it felt like more a drama and their animation department had experience with shows like MLAATR, Danny Phantom, El Tigre, etc.) What made this show stands out is that for once, a Nick sitcom not created by Dan Schneider have an impressively long run, at nearly 100 episodes (technically, 102 if we count the specials as two separate episodes). At the time the show finished its run, it was the second longest running Nick sitcom after ICarly. The shocking thing is that the creator is none other than Jed Spargin, the writer for Jimmy Neutron, Back at the Barnyard, and Big Time Rush. I only seen snippets of the show every now and then and while I have very strong opinions on Nick’s 2010s non-animated shows/movies, I felt like I should’ve gotten into the Thundermans while it was airing because it was different from other sitcoms made by Nick. What I’m trying to say is the show deserved it’s popularity and it was nice having other creators in the spotlight for once, right? But as we all know, this achievement wasn’t going to last long as we head to 2014.
All these shows were cancelled (with only The Thundermans getting a proper conclusion), but only one show remains. If you guessed Henry Danger, you are correct. However, if you didn’t know until now, March 2018 was when Nick cut ties with Dan Schneider, due to being hard to work with. Rather than cancelling their most popular live-action show, they decided to keep it for an unusually long final season with Christopher J Nowak as his replacement showrunner. ICarly is no longer the longest running Nick sitcom as HD has dethroned it. I want ask the question already, but we still got to recap the live action comedies ordered by Brian Robbins’ team. It was not surprising to see All That back with Robbins himself as president of the network. And frankly, I’m thankful it happened, because just like the past All That eras, it also spanned a few shows featuring its cast members and writers, like Drama Club, That Girl Lay Lay, and Warped! (Sadly, only Lay Lay seems to be getting a longer lifespan due to star power, but Drama Club is understandable as it had a miniseries format) There’s even a show by Tyler Perry called Young Dylan. While I hate how his shows are marketed to have his name slapped in everything, he was only involved with the first season. It’s one of the few modern Nick shows to reach three seasons (arguably thanks to star power and creator, of course). And of course, with Henry Danger ending after nearly 6 years, it was time for them to expand the DangerVerse with Danger Force, with a third season currently in production. For a while, all production of scripted live action shows (this includes unscripted as well) had to be held due to COVID, leaving Nick to only produce quarantine shows (the ones done at home). Side Hustle, which was announced on February 2020, wouldn’t come out until November. The Barbarian and the Troll just came and went as it probably had a miniseries format used as filler on Friday nights (it aired alongside cartoons, but it is still considered a live action show). Some people will say Nickelodeon has become creatively bankrupt due to recycling IPs, and we’re not even safe from this for the sitcoms. In fact, both of them are currently paired up for Thursday nights. Yep, you guessed it, live-action adaptations of The Fairly OddParents (a franchise that refused to die) and The Loud House (even though the original series is still airing). The quality for Fairly Odder speak for itself, but The Really Loud House surely can’t be that bad, even if it’s unoriginal. Time is too early to tell if they’ll get another season, but they are not getting good reviews from cartoon fans, and I don’t blame them. Live-action adaptations of cartoons are getting old at this point.
If you’re wondering why this journal feels like a recap, that’s because it is a recap of what Nickelodeon been doing in the past decade with their sitcoms. They have gotten in this strange position since Victorious ended when they realized they cannot emulate Disney Channel’s success anymore (especially with the musicals and all, even though they still pop up from time to time). And arguably, their standards of making a successful sitcom have gotten worse. As you can tell, only three of their live-action shows in the past 10 years had ever reached four seasons (the two of being superhero shows and the other being a family show). And it makes you wonder, why are they’re so fond of only having hit sitcoms if the main protagonist is a superhero (or later, a young rapper as Young Dylan and That Girl Lay Lay prove it, considering how much Nick is treating them) and so many shows have ended/get cancelled with only one or two seasons? Maybe they finally found their definitive solution to make a successful sitcom (Disney’s usually consist of musical prodigy, and I wanted to say secret identity but some of Nick’s shows have the same format). And it’s still going strong thanks to Henry Danger’s massive popularity and it’s spin-off. However, TeenNick has seen better days since NickRewind died. The signs were already showing last year, but they really have such a strong bias on playing superhero shows (they used to be the Dan Schneider channel, with actual teen shows put to the wayside) that other shows are hardly on the schedule. Their obsessive nature with the genre has taken up to eleven that Henry Danger is literally the only show (not counting America’s Funniest Home Videos) playing on TeenNick weekly. I don’t know about you, but while Nick has gotten out of their musical era a long time ago, they really need to find a way to conclude their superhero era soon. Disney Channel has already started theirs this year and it’s superior because I’m sure those shows won’t be milked to death. All I’m saying is, if Nick wants to find a new successful sitcom, they need to market very well and give it a good run. Otherwise, we’ll be stuck with Henry Danger and Young Dylan ripoffs for years to come and this is no better than most of their failed cartoons being SpongeBob clones with a different setting. There’s more to explore in the Nickelodeon Sitcom Universe than superheroes and young rappers, and I hope they realize that soon.