Nickcoms (2011-present)
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Nickcoms are Nickelodeon's situational comedy shows, also known as sitcoms. The name was given by combining "Nickelodeon" and "Sitcoms". While most of the classic Nickcoms (1989-2010) were well received, the same can't be said for most of the modern ones (2011-present), starting with Bucket & Skinner's Epic Adventures.
Why Most Of Them Are Not Our Nick Anymore
- Similar to most of Disney Channel's sitcoms from late 2009-2012, most of the time, the laugh track is extremely overused, making it unfunny. Henry Danger, Side Hustle, and The Thundermans are perhaps the worst offenders, because, in those shows, it's used after almost every line.
- Terrible writing that consists of the following:
- Poorly executed parodies
- Unfunny puns and/or jokes that drag on far too long
- Gross-out humor
- Obnoxiously annoying humor
- Insulting the intelligence of their audience and treating them like a bunch of idiots
- Pure filler padded in whenever needed
- Mean-spirited moments
- Childish/nonsensical plots
- Overused humor that consists of characters taking someone else's stuff, denying it, and not answering someone's question
- Pointless pop culture references related to 2020s and 2010s media that only exist just for pandering to younger audiences.
- Numerous adult references and sexual innuendos that were only added to sexually abuse the actors (only applies to the Dan Schneider-developed Nickcoms though).
- Bad and laughable acting.
- Danger Force and Sam & Cat are good examples of unnecessary spin-offs.
- Though Danger Force did improve between seasons 2 and 3.
- Most of these shows, such as The first three seasons of Henry Danger, Side Hustle, Sam & Cat, and The Thundermans teach a ton of bad morals such as cheating, lying, bullying, etc.
- The characters in these sitcoms are either unlikable, one-dimensional, obnoxious, annoying, stereotypical, or cliched.
- The protagonist is the character who has a best friend (or pair of best friends), multiple girls/boyfriends, and always likes to bully other people.
- The dumbass character is self-explanatory and is well-known for the Nickcom stereotypes.
- The smartass character is also self-explanatory and is the opposite of the dumbass.
- The badass character is only female and is only used to promote girl power.
- The forgotten character is the character that’ll appear for only a few episodes and then disappear after that, and the other characters will not even mention him or her. Gooch from Henry Danger is the biggest offender.
- The grumpy character is just there to hate the main characters.
- In Cousins For Life, there is a stereotypical overprotective father called Lewis.
- In Young Dylan, all of Dylan's family are cliched and stereotypical because it's that show that needs these cliches to happen.
- In The Thundermans, there is a stereotypical and mean-spirited Asian woman in a kids' show.
- Fred: The Show is the absolute worst offender, as it has Fred Figglehorn, who is the most unlikable protagonist ever known to exist in a sitcom, due to his extreme immaturity and excruciatingly annoying and non-stop high-pitched screaming.
- The characters usually don't learn from their mistakes. As a result of this, they are considered to be bad role models for children to emulate.
- Most concepts are sometimes based on older reality content but with insignificant changes, making these shows often feel like rip-offs to others or they are proven to be unbelievably predictable.
- Shows like Fred: The Show, Sam & Cat, Game Shakers, I Am Frankie, and 100 Things to Do Before High School (despite the latter two being good) either have gotten bad finales or have ended on cliffhangers, which are not good ways to end a show.
- These sitcoms constantly try too hard to be hip, modern, cool, and edgy with children, which is pretty much going to do the exact opposite.
- Putting celebrities in cameo roles just to pander to kids and fans, which doesn't help considering they're added in to have their talents wasted (like in Game Shakers and Cousins For Life).
- Adding in dead trends and memes like dabbing and flossing that are often just there so they just can get a cheap laugh out of their audience (like in The Thundermans and Danger Force).
- Shoving in the horrible amount of social media references becomes a big mistake over time because the results are what make the show end up looking very dated or bland, cringy, or they are just added there for cheap laughs.
- Most sitcoms that are well-received will most likely get one or two seasons, and take them off with no reruns like they don't even exist most notably:
- 100 Things to Do Before High School
- Make It Pop
- The Other Kingdom
- Ride
- I am Frankie
- The special effects in some shows (The Haunted Hathaways, Henry Danger, Cousins For Life and Knight Squad) looks cheap and lackluster. Some higher-budget live-action sitcoms such as Victorious have better special effects and look very good for the most part.
- The sets can also look very cheap, boring, and pathetic, with Knight Squad and Side Hustle being the worst offenders as they have no imagination to the very eye.
- Some shows have interesting concepts that end up getting poorly executed.
- The advertisements for some of the sitcoms were misleading (like in Cousins For Life) or spoiled the series finale (like in Game Shakers).
- Almost no character development or redemption in some shows, like Henry Danger.
- Sometimes the opposite happens and Flanderization or character derailment (Sam & Cat, I Am Frankie and the last two seasons of Nicky, Ricky, Dicky & Dawn being examples of that trope) happens instead.
- Some of these Nickcoms have aired on Nicktoons, mainly Henry Danger and The Thundermans, which makes no sense, as Nicktoon's purpose is to show only animated content. Luckily, this is slowly dying down.
- Occasionally, Nickelodeon will produce a sitcom that's good or has strong potential, only for them to screw it over and cancel it before the series can reach a mainstream audience. When the series is about to reach its peak or reveals a massive plot twist, Nick will often cash in on their mediocre cash-cow franchises - usually SpongeBob - regardless of whether they outstay their welcome (The Other Kingdom and I Am Frankie are two infamous examples of good sitcoms that were abruptly canceled in favor of another programming).
- These sitcoms have become a notorious example of Executive meddling in the worst way possible since Dan Schneider's creepy behavior had gotten so out of hand that it created a toxic work environment with him and his fellow staff members abusing the child actors and grooming them for their gains, and it caused many of their sitcoms to have disturbing innuendos unsuitable for kids and even have promotional material featuring the kids doing sexual activities which were forced by Dan and his crew just so they can get personal enjoyment out of it for money. Considering that this has been happening for years during his time at Nickelodeon and that nobody was able to stop him from doing these nefarious deeds, it resulted in controversy in later years, and fans of these shows finally realized that Dan Schneider was a horrible pedophile who abused and sexually groomed children by shoving his fetishism onto them and making them uncomfortable in the process. It has caused these shows to age poorly as a result and gave Nickelodeon an extremely bad reputation amongst viewers alike for letting this drama happen in the first place.
- Dan also overused several feet jokes as bait for the child actors to do sexual activities and even off-set do very adult things that they weren't old enough to do, which caused some of these Nickcoms to have strange moments that often become very questionable to the audience and the amount of feet scenes in these shows were quite disturbing, to say the least.
- In fact, many of the actors were so uncomfortable with Dan's creepy mannerisms with them that they quit acting (except for Miranda Cosgrove) and half of them would share their experiences while working with Dan and how toxic it was in general.
- This was the case with Sam & Cat, as many of the actors often had fights and arguments with each other all the time, and Dan often made some questionable writing decisions that harmed the quality of the show overall, and since Ariana Grande was busy with her music career and would later become one of the biggest pop stars of the 2010s, it caused Sam & Cat to suffer from a troubled production and get canceled quickly despite being a ratings success.
- Another case was Alexa Nikolas who openly shared her experience of being bullied on the set of "Zoey 101". She described feeling isolated and targeted by both her co-stars and the show's creator, Dan Schneider. According to Nikolas, she was often subjected to mean-spirited behavior from her peers, which made the environment extremely difficult for her. One of the most disturbing incidents she recalled was when Dan Schneider allegedly yelled at her in front of the entire cast and crew, reducing her to tears. This public confrontation left her feeling humiliated and unsupported, contributing to her deep discomfort on set. The bullying and toxic atmosphere eventually led to her departure from the show, and she has since spoken out about the damaging effects it had on her mental health and well-being.
- All of this was referenced in the Quiet on Set documentary on HBO Max, as nearly all of the victims that suffered from his wrath told the true story of how it happened, and that Dan created a toxic work environment at Nickelodeon and said documentary almost destroyed their reputation as a network and company in general. It helped some people realize all the abuse that the child actors suffered from, and the monster Dan Schneider is.
Redeeming Qualities
- These shows do have some good and decent episodes.
- Some of these sitcoms have creative concepts like Bella and the Bulldogs but are poorly executed.
- Some modern ones have a few funny moments and jokes that work.
- There are occasionally some good or decent ones (see Good/Decent Examples) despite most of them don't last that long.
- Some of the Nickcoms do have good acting, but this is the case of the good Nickcoms today.
- Most of the bad Nickcom shows had good endings, like "The Beginning of the End", "Captain Drex", "The Fate of Danger Part 1 and 2", "Haunted Family", "Biggest. Game. Ever.", "I Love Rock and Roll", "Closing Knight", "Should I Stay or Go", "The Thunder Games", "Lasties with Firsties" and "The Battle for Swellview".
- The theme songs are usually catchy.
- Some of the bad Nickcoms did improve over time like Henry Danger, Danger Force and Side Hustle.
- Most of the bad Nickcoms shows have good pilot episodes.
- Thankfully "Schneider Bakery" is no longer making anymore shows after Dan Schneider himself got fired in 2018 causing it to be no longer used since 2023 after Nickelodeon stopped filming "Danger Force".
Bad Examples
- Bucket & Skinner's Epic Adventures (2011-13) (which started the downfall of the Nickcoms)
- Fred: The Show (2012) (most infamous example)
- How to Rock (2012)
- Marvin Marvin (2012-13)
- Awesomeness TV (2013-15)
- Sam & Cat (2013-14)
- The Haunted Hathaways (2013-15)
- The Thundermans (2013-18)
- Every Witch Way (2014-15)
- Henry Danger (Seasons 1-3) (2014-17)
- Max and Shred (2014-16)
- Bella and the Bulldogs (2015-16)
- Talia in The Kitchen (2015)
- WITS Academy (2015)
- Game Shakers (2015-18)
- School of Rock (TV series) (2016-18)
- Nicky, Ricky, Dicky & Dawn (Seasons 3 & 4) (2017-18)
- Knight Squad (2018-19)
- Star Falls (2018)
- Cousins for Life (2019)
- Young Dylan (2020-present)
- Unfiltered (2020-21)
- Danger Force (2020-24) (another infamous example)
- Side Hustle (2020-22)
- That Girl Lay Lay (2021-24)
- The Fairly OddParents: Fairly Odder (2022-23)
- Erin & Aaron (2023)
Good/Decent Examples
- House Of Anubis (2011-13) (which surprisingly started this era on a high note)
- Supah Ninjas (2011-13)
- Life With Boys (2011-13)
- Deadtime Stories (2012-14)
- Instant Mom (2013-15)
- Nicky, Ricky, Dicky & Dawn (seasons 1 & 2) (2014-16)
- 100 Things to Do Before High School (2014-16)
- Make It Pop (2015-16)
- The Other Kingdom (2016)
- Ride (2016)
- Legendary Dudas (2016)
- I Am Frankie (2017-18)
- Hunter Street (2017-21)
- Henry Danger (seasons 4 & 5) (2017-20)
- The Bureau of Magical Things (2018-21)
- All That (2019 Revival) (2019-20)
- Are You Afraid of the Dark (2019 Revival) (2019-22)
- iCarly (2021 revival) (2021-23)
- Drama Club (2021)
- Warped! (2022)
- The Really Loud House (2022-present)
Reception
Most of these modern Nickcoms have been panned by critics, audiences, and fans of Nickelodeon. Because of this, many fans (including modern fans) moved back to the pre-2011 Nickcoms.
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