6teen
| ♥ | This article is dedicated to the singer of the 6teen theme song, Phil Naro (March 13, 1958 - May 3, 2021). He will always make the good times last. |
| 6teen | ||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 "I'm 6teen, 6teen, gotta make the good times last!"
| ||||||||||||||||||
|
6teen is a Canadian animated comedy television series originally produced by Nelvana, with the final season produced by Fresh TV. It began airing on November 7, 2004, on Teletoon. In the United States, the series first aired on Nickelodeon on December 18, 2005, and was removed from the schedule on May 13, 2006. The show was later broadcast on Cartoon Network on October 23, 2008, until June 21, 2010.
Plot
6teen is an animated comedy for older children, preteens, and teenagers. The plots take place almost entirely in a megaplex shopping mall known as the Galleria Mall. The Galleria Mall is a cross between the Toronto Eaton Centre and the West Edmonton Mall. The series follows the cast of six 16-year-old friends in their everyday lives, including their first part-time jobs. The show is rated TV-PG.
6teen is focused on the common issues related to teenagers. The main characters are Jude, Jen, Nikki, Jonesy, Caitlin, and Wyatt. They deal with first infatuations, first jobs, first bank accounts, and a sweet taste of freedom. Nikki finds herself stuck working at The Khaki Barn, a store where she would not shop herself, while Jen has found her dream job at a sporting goods store but makes some mistakes. As a running gag, Jonesy manages to get fired from a new store in almost every episode with a few exceptions. Wyatt falls hopelessly in love with his older co-worker. Jude works at the food on a stick. Caitlin endures the daily humiliation of working at the lowest store in the mall's hierarchy of cool – The Big Squeeze, a lemonade stand shaped like a giant lemon, where she's required to wear a hat shaped like a lemon as a part of her uniform.
Why It Makes the Good Times Last
- It has an amazing plot, which follows the lives of 6 teens working in their respective part-time jobs.
- A diverse cast of memorable characters, such as the easygoing Jude, the peppy Caitlin, the flirtatious Jonesy, the rebellious Nikki, the tomboyish Jen, and the music-loving Wyatt.
- Likable side characters like Wayne, Ron the Rent-a-Cop, and Coach Halder.
- The flash animation is very fabulous and smooth, which is awesome for early 2000s standards.
- Very talented voice acting, especially from Christian Potenza, Terry McGurrin, and Stacey DePass.
- Gorgeous art style that helped to inspire shows with similar art styles, including Grossology and Willa's Wild Life.
- Each episode has unique stories about each character.
- Cool character designs, and they are appealing and fitting for teenage shows.
- Its theme song is nothing short of awesome and catchy.
- Its moments and character relationships are heartwarming.
- Its writing is ahead of its time.
- Decent jokes here and there.
- The pun in the show's title is clever; there are 6 teenagers, and they are aged sixteen.
- It was one of Cartoon Network's best shows during the infamous CN Real era, along with Ben 10: Alien Force, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, The Secret Saturdays, Transformers Animated, Total Drama, The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack, and Chowder.
- The two-part series finale, "Bye-Bye Nikki?", was a nice way to end the show.
- The minisode "Vote, Dude!" was also pretty decent.
Bad Qualities
- While the series didn't fully decline in quality, it still went downhill and lost ratings during the late 3rd to 4th season and ended up being canceled because the finale's viewership fell below that of the previous episodes.
- When brought over to the US, it suffered severe censorship due to its references to mature innuendos which resulted in 24 episodes unaired in said country.
- Jen is unlikable in some episodes due to her bossiness.
- Caitlin can also be unlikable at times due to how shallow she can be.
- Some gross moments, like in the first episode where it involved scenes with saliva, such as in the beginning, the boys spitting on the floor from above the balcony and when Julie spits in the tacos.
- Some bad or mediocre episodes like "Over-Exposed", "The Wedding Destroyers", "Labour Day", "Fashion Victim", "Spring Fling", and "Whoa, Baby!".
Reception
The show received generally positive reviews, with Alex Kucharski from The Toronto Star describing it as a "funny, exciting new teen comedy-drama", despite his criticism towards some elements being "unrealistic".
In 2009, 6teen won the Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Original Song for its theme song performed by the late Phil Naro.
It has a score of 7.5/10 on IMDb.
Trivia
- The creators, Tom McGilis and Jennifer Pertsch would later work on Total Drama.
- Christian Potenza, the voice of Jude Lizowski, later voiced Chris McLean from Total Drama.
- Ronnita the Rent-a-Cop was a reference to Ron from the Total Drama Action episode, "The Sand Witch Project".
- A parody of the show's intro was featured in another Total Drama Action episode, "Dial M for Merger".
- The Khaki Barn from the show was mentioned by Lindsay in the Total Drama World Tour episode, "Slap Slap Revolution".
- Jen Masterson was mentioned by MacArthur in the The Ridonculous Race episode, "Dude Buggies".