Fred: The Show

Fred: The Show
Three bad movies is probably not a good sign to continue off with an equally bad show.
Genre: "Comedy" Running Time: 11 minutes Country: United States Release Date: January 16 — August 3, 2012 Network(s): Nickelodeon Created by: Lucas Cruikshank Distributed by: Varsity Pictures Starring: Lucas Cruikshank Jake Weary Siobhan Fallon Hogan Daniella Monet Stephanie Courtney Seasons: 1 Episodes: 24

Fred: The Show (stylized as FЯED: THE SHOW) is a short-lived Nickelodeon sitcom based off of the YouTube series of the same name. It aired from January 16 to August 3, 2012.

Plot

Fred Figglehorn is a character that was created (and played) by teenager Lucas Cruikshank, became a viral sensation on the Internet and eventually was the centerpiece of two made-for-TV movies on Nickelodeon. Now, Fred has his own show on Nick, appropriately titled 'Fred: The Show'. Every day is an adventure, both at home and at school, for Fred. As he tries to traverse teenage life, Fred is apt to cause mayhem - it wouldn't be an adventure without mayhem, right? Bertha is Fred's best friend, his trusty sidekick even when it means following him into a bit of a pickle. Not so friendly to Fred is next-door neighbor Kevin, a nemesis who tries to make Fred lose his marbles (which sometimes works). If Fred finds himself in some kind of trouble, chances are it was Kevin who caused it.

Why This Show Makes Kevin Lose His Marbles

1. Similar to The High Fructose Adventures of Annoying Orange, it heavily butchers what made the original YouTuber good. The concept of placing a YouTuber as the star of a television series does not work out in real life when compared to the drawing board.
2. The show doesn't even improve anything from the films at all, and instead makes things even worse from here.
3. The humor in this show isn't funny at all. Instead, the humor in this show is both boring and annoying at the same time.
4. The show only offers one punchline: Fred's screaming. This makes the show both repetitive and excruciatingly grating. Sure, Fred screaming was sometimes annoying on YouTube, but he was never this obnoxious.
5. None of the characters from the movies (with the exception of Kevin and Bertha) make an appearance, including Judy. Bertha on the other hand, hardly appears from this show, appearing only in 5 episodes.
6. The president's day promo is lazy and boring to watch as Fred tries to do the "I pledge allegiance" speech in the most annoying way possible..
7. Fred is still an unlikeable and immature character throughout the whole show, like in the films preceding it.
   • There are some other unlikable characters who are still stereotypical as well:
     • Bertha is still the bland "stereotypical emo girl" she was from the first and third movies.
     • Kevin is still the same bullying delinquent from the first 3 films. His last name is "Dawg", which is a stupid last name, and is a very forced way to sound "kewl".
8. Fred's high-pitched voice is incredibly grating and annoying, not helping the fact that he screams all the time.
9. Terrible and just plain pathetic plots for many of the episodes.
10. Some scenes have Fred suddenly jumping around the screen while he's talking.
11. Holly wasn't a good love interest for Fred as Judy was. She can also be considered a Butt-Monkey, who is a character that gets abused throughout the entire show for no explained reason.
12. The acting is terrible, especially from Lucas Cruikshank as Fred Figglehorn.
13. The camera is utterly horrific and ages poorly in live-action TV standards.
14. It uses a lot of cliche teen stereotypes: goth, nerd (?), and anything you can imagine.
15. Overuse of toilet and gross-out humor.
16. Continuity error: In the episode, "Fred Gets Trapped", Fred finds out from his birth certificate that his actual name is Bagel Fredrick Figglehorn, while according to Fred 2: Night of the Living Fred, his mom said that his full name is Ferdinand Figglehorn.
17. "Freddy and the Figglettes" was a weak way to end the series.

Redeeming Qualities

1. Catchy theme song, despite being very short.
2. The plot of the show sounds good on paper, but it is sadly poorly executed and heavily crippled from the original YouTube channel. Lucas the Spider for Cartoonito has done this concept right since it not only does it stays true to its YouTube channel, but still kept the humor of the videos.
3. There are still some funny moments here and there in the show, such as Fred who was dressed up in a knight costume slaying a dragon, an astronaut and a banana, all portrayed by Kevin in Best Freds Forever.

Reception

Fred: The Show was universally panned by both critics and audiences, and is the lowest rated Nickelodeon show on IMDb, with a rating of 1.6/10. In addition, it is often considered to be one of the worst Nickelodeon shows (if not, the worst show) of all time. PhantomStrider for example considers it to be the absolute worst show from Nickelodeon, and even worse than Breadwinners.

As a result of the extremely negative reception and low ratings, the show was cancelled after only one season. Lucas Cruikshank would end his career with Nick after Marvin Marvin was cancelled in 2013, ending its run with a Big Time Rush crossover.

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