TV I Love: 90s Nick Edition

Before I begin, I just want to say...this is my 100th blog post!

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Which begs the question...what on earth have I been blathering about for 100 posts?! Oh...I know. Stuff like this:

How ill was 90s Nickelodeon, y'all? It was da bomb diggity. Hopefully, with the success of its "The 90s Are All That" block, Nick realizes this.

I watched a lot of Nickelodeon growing up. Doug, Rugrats, Wild & Crazy Kids, Double Dare, Legends of the Hidden Temple...I could go on and on. But I won't. Instead, allow me to wax poetic about two of my favorite all-time shows.

Clarissa Explains It All

 Clarissa was, without a doubt, the coolest. Yes, she was blond and pretty but the show didn't dwell on that at all. Instead it focused on how she was an oddball, an individualist, and the owner of a crocodile named Elvis. Her relationship with her little brother Ferguson was hilarious. Her relationship with best friend Sam was beyond sweet.

One of my favorite episodes was about how Clarissa was totally annoyed with a poetry assignment courtesy of her English teacher, who seemed to like only poems about rainbows and daffodils. Instead of doing it, she came up with a computer program that created random "poems" based on keywords (you can guess what she put in: yup, rainbows and daffodils). Of course, her teacher ended up loving the ensuing poem, leading Clarissa to feelings of guilt...

Sophomore year of film school, I took a Comedy Writing class. My teacher's name was Mollie Fermaglich and we hit it off right from the start. It was at some point in the middle of the semester that I found out: Mollie was on the writing staff of Clarissa!! To say I was starstruck is a bit of an understatement. But I never forgot that feeling, meeting someone who was creatively responsible for one of my favorite childhood pastimes. It would be amazing if I ever found myself on the flip side of that a few years from now.

Salute Your Shorts

I never went to summer camp (and I always wish I had)...but this show was the next best thing. I loved the theme song, the fact that they called their counselor Ug (short for "Ug" Lee, his last name), and I had a major crush on Michael, the blond kid who was only around for the first season. You know who else was awesome? Danny Cooksey, the fabulous actor who played Budnick.

My favorite episode was about how Budnick and Michael--sworn enemies--ended up being stuck  together in the sick ward, thinking they could get into the tonsillitis stash of ice cream. Meanwhile, the stash ends up being locked up and the rest of the kids end up going off on some desirable escapade. By necessity, Danny and Michael bond (excellent character backstory work here). And even put a puzzle together...BACKSIDE UP. (I can't tell you how badly I've always wanted to do this, but the sheer magnitude of the undertaking scares me).

I remember reaching a point where I knew I had seen every single episode of Salute Your Shorts (multiple times) and that there wouldn't be any new ones for me to watch. That was a sad day. In other news, doing research for this blog post has lead me to find out that the actor who played Pinsky (Michael's Season 2 replacement) ended up forming the band Rilo Kiley. Crazy!


Holla at me. Weren't the 90s Nick shows hella cool?