Nickelodeon live action shows once had a great name to them. They gave us timeless jokes, endearing characters, and loveable friendships that have stuck with audiences of yesterday and hopefully will continue to stick with those of today. But somewhere along the way something went wrong: It seemed like Nickelodeon just stopped caring about creativity and much more about being hip and trendy. And it resulted in painfully unfunny dialogue delivered through horrible performances. It can be argued that these sitcoms are meant to appeal to younger audiences. But target audience should never be an indication of quality. Even if you target your show or movie towards an audience even those not in the demographic can appreciate something about it. This list takes a look at the worst of Nickelodeon sitcoms. A couple of rules for this one: Number one is that all Schneider sitcoms are disqualified. I’ve already gone over all of them and I want to keep this list fresh and new. Number two is that the show has to be really bad. There are many bad Nick sitcoms out there and if I listed all of them we’d be here all day but there are a select few that truly just are downright abysmal. Some that just truly talked down to kids and pushed the envelope of just how bad Nickelodeon could really get.
Dishonorable mention: Big Time Rush
The guy who wrote this also wrote Ned’s Declassified and while it’s nowhere near as good as that show some of the jokes still can get a laugh and there’s some real talent with some of the side characters as well such as Darran Norris and Tara Strong. Not a great show but it’s still watchable.
6. Nicky, Ricky, Dicky, and Dawn
Ignoring the horrible nickname of Dicky, this show is just horribly and awkwardly acted with forced dialogue and emotion. Even when you want to laugh but there’s so much awkwardness in all of it that it just leaves you confused. And when it tries to find comedy in something, it has just such an utter lack of timing and cleverness, or even direction that it just leaves you wondering what you just saw. While the premise isn’t as bad as you can get the acting among the mains is just downright atrocious. The reason why it’s lowest on the list is because the mains were only kids at the time and they had a lot to learn and hopefully in the future they can improve vastly.
5. How to Rock
The writing for this show is pretty much Victorious if you sucked out the clever writing in the characters. There is minimal effort with the story and the premise itself is just so ridiculously shallow. The acting is terrible and it doesn’t help that the characters are nothing more than cardboard cut-outs. There is some singing talent among the cast but it is hardly enough to make up for the bad writing given that the songs are just average. It feels like they wanted to make a decent Nick sitcom but just took all the wrong ingredients.
4. Bella and the Bulldogs
I’m all for girl power in movies and television I really am. But this is just talking down to women constantly hammering the message into the audience’s heads and not treating them with the intelligence to understand subtle messages. The show makes it such a big deal that Bella joins the football team simply on account of being a girl. The acting could be a lot worse and the show is mostly harmless but men and women deserve better role models on Nickelodeon to look up to whether they be animated or live action.
3. Talia in the Kitchen
Some Nickelodeon sitcoms like Haunted Hathaways or the Thundermans can be bland but they at least have some kind of gimmick to them that gives it the potential to be interesting. This is just…nothing. The teen acting is mediocre and the attempt at comedy is just sad. Even the characters in no way resemble any kind of way to how the targeted demographic would act. It just is too upbeat and positive. If there is one slightly good thing about it it’s that there is an utter lack of a laugh track. But on the whole it just doesn’t do anything for anyone and has come and it left the same way it came: doing nothing.
2. Bucket and Skinner’s Epic Adventures
This show was nothing more than two unfunny idiots caught up in unfunny idiotic things and they are downright insufferable. There is neither any depth nor substance to this sitcom or any of its characters. The world does well in reacting to idiot characters. The idiots do not do well in reacting to the world. This show is nothing more than Drake and Josh without any of the cleverness in its story or characters. There is no direction to this show. Just about everything in it is wrong.
1. Fred the Show and Marvin Marvin
Whose idea was it to give Fred not one but TWO shows (and three movies are you kidding me)? These shows have one major thing in common: The main character has no talent is a special kind of annoying and obnoxious in both his actions and his voice. Though both these shows lasted all of one season and are now long gone their infamous legacy just shows the worst of children’s entertainment with no prospect about the future: lowbrow humor, poor acting, and overall just the worst of Nick sitcom tropes. Even though the shows have long ended they have just left a void in Nickelodeon’s entertainment. There’s just an empty hole that these shows left given their pointless existence. Both these shows try so hard to get a laugh and yet it comes down as insufferable. There is nothing smart about these shows and just about every Nick sitcom on or not on this list is far better by comparison.
Are there any other Nick sitcoms you think should be here? Any you agree or disagree with? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!
