All That is a live-action comedy-variety show on Nickelodeon, that features sketches in a manner somewhat reminiscent of Saturday Night Live and an earlier Nick show You Can't Do That on Television. The show has guest actors and musical performances each episode. The theme song for All That is performed by TLC.
The show was first aired on April 16, 1994 featuring young adults, but around the turn of the millennium it made a big switch to feature only tweens, and currently follows this format.
Some of the former cast members got their own spin-offs including Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell (Kenan & Kel), Amanda Bynes (The Amanda Show), Nick Cannon (The Nick Cannon Show), and Jamie Lynn Spears (Zoey 101).
Production process
The show originally taped at Nickelodeon Studios at Universal Studios Florida in Orlando before moving to the Nickelodeon at Sunset studio in Los Angeles.
Typically, the cast will randomly film a bunch of different sketches in a day's work. Eventually, the production staff edits them together into full, individual episodes.
Kevin Kopelow and Dan Schneider ran All That together in the first four seasons. Kopelow then ran the show with the help of Heath Steffet in Seasons 5-6. And Schneider, who briefly left All That to work on The Amanda Show, has produced the show by himself from Season 7 onward. Schneider was supposedly absent from the 100th episode special while and Kopelow was suupposedly absent from the 10th anniversery special.
The Pilot Episode
All That was created by Mike Tollin, Brian Robbins, and Dan Schneider. Robbins and Schneider both starred on ABC's Head of the Class during the 1980s. The pilot episode of All That, which featured musical guest TLC performing the hit song "What About Your Friends", and the first appearances of Baggin' Saggin' Barry, Earboy, Mavis & Clavis, Miss Fingerly among others first aired as a Nickelodeon special (or sneak preview) on April 16, 1994.
It would debut as a weekly series on December 24, 1994. The official series debut featured (besides musical guest Da Brat performing "Fa All Y'all") the first appearances of Randy & Mandy, Vital Information, and Ed from Good Burger. The pilot episode was not reaired on Nickelodeon until the end of the first season and aired as a "lost episode."
Original Cast
Soundtrack
On November 26, 1996, an official soundtrack for All That was released. The soundtrack featured the likes of Aaliyah, Faith Evans, TLC, Soul For Real, Coolio, Immature, Brandy, Naughty By Nature, and Mokenstef.
Some viewers have theorized that in the first five seasons, All That exclusively used urban contemporary music (i.e. hip-hop, rap, and R & B). But since that time, All That has aimed for more mainstream, pop oriented, "flavor of the month" acts (thus, lessening the show's original edge). Perhaps some fans believed that the shifting taste in music coincided with end of the so-called "Golden Age" of All That (after Season 6).
An urban legend has been floating around the late Aaliyah. The story goes that Aaliyah, who tragically died in a plane crash at the age of 22 in August 2001, was scheduled to be a musical guest in the 7th season of All That. This would've made Aaliyah one of only a handful of artists to be a musical guest on both the old and new eras of All That. The urban legend even went as far as to say that just prior to her death, Aaliyah's presumed performance was recorded but ultimately replaced by a different musical guest.[1]
The "100th Episode"
On March 13, 1999, All That celebrated its "100th episode" (even though in reality, it was the 85th episode to be produced) with a live, one hour special. Reportedly, they did it early because it couldn't clash with dates for the ALL THAT MUSIC AND MORE FESTIVAL. The actual 100th episode came in the fifth episode of the 6th season with Hoku as the musical guest.
The special was essentially, a precursor or companion piece to the 10th Anniversary Reunion Special. Besides a slate of brand new sketches (along with a backstage tour), the live special also featured clips from memorable characters like Randy & Mandy, Coach Kreeton, the Loud Librarian, Leroy & Fuzz, Miss Pidlin, Detective Dan, and Superdude.
Special guest stars on the special included Melissa Joan Hart, who had starred on Nick's Clarissa Explains It All, Larisa Oleynik, who starred on Nick's The Secret World of Alex Mack, and musical guests Lauryn Hill, who performed "Doo-Wop (That Thing)" and Busta Rhymes, who performed "Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See" and "Gimme Some Mo'."
Original cast members (all of whom had since left All That) Angelique Bates, Katrina Johnson, Alisa Reyes, and Lori Beth Denberg all appeared. Denberg even reprised her Vital Information role when her successor Danny Tamberelli was unavailable. The running gag of the entire special was Tamberelli's struggle to make it to the special in time.
To date, this was the only time that All That has produced a live episode. Incidentally, Kenan Thompson would eventually become a cast member on Saturday Night Live.
Around the same period that Lori Beth Denberg was leaving All That (much to the chagrin to many fans, who felt that she was the strongest cast member besides Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell) to do The Steve Harvey Show, All That quickly tried to compensate. In 1997, All That recruited Tricia Dixon, Josh LaBove, and Zachary McLemore (who came in the following year). Unfortunately, all three of these cast members had a seriously unremarkable, and very brief run (especially Dixon) and are generally regarded as the most obscure All That regular performers ever.
Hiatus Period and Relaunch (The End of the Golden Age of All That)
After ten episodes of the 6th season, All That went on a production hiatus (in its place, came a string of "Best of..." compilation episodes for the rest of the season). What happened was that for whatever the reasons, several writers and producers, who apparently had originally desired to end it after Season 6, left the show. In addition, a few of the cast members (namely Amanda Bynes, Josh Server, Danny Tamberelli, and Christy Knowings) had reportedly wanted to leave for some time and move on to new things.
Fans had already seen the writing on the wall after popular cast members like Lori Beth Denberg and subsequently, Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell left. Many consider Kenan and Kel to be the first true break-out stars of All That. They were perhaps also akin to the various classic duos from its grown-up counterpart, Saturday Night Live (namely, Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi, Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo, Mike Myers and Dana Carvey, and Chris Farley and David Spade respectively). One of the most memorable moments in All That history came on the March 31, 1997 episode when Chris Farley, who played "The Chicago Ketchup Chef", participated in "Cooking with Randy" sketch with Kenan Thompson.
It has also been suggested that the vastly maturing young stars' (especially Amanda Bynes) hearts were no longer fully into performing. By the time the 6th season rolled around, Bynes was so busy working on another show for Nick (The Amanda Show), that she only made very sporadic appearances (thus, leaving the load to fellow female cast member Christy Knowings) in the already abbreviated season. Also leaving at the end of Season 6 were writer/producer Kevin Kopelow, who was best known for his on-camera role as Kevin the stage manager, and announcer Soup. Soup was the one who said at the beginning of the opening credits "Fresh out the box! Stop, look, and watch! Ready yet? Get set! It's all that!" At the end of the day, Josh Server, who was the only remaining original cast member in the 6th season, became the longest serving All That cast member (unless you also count Kevin Kopelow).
By the time the 6th season for All That had begun, there were a lot of new Nick shows that were starting (most of them are now defunct) and they wanted to make room for them in the budget. Rumor has it that Nick briefly cancelled All That before having a last minute change of heart.
Nick then paid Dan Schneider (the only original producer who agreed to stay with the show) a lot of money to overhaul and relaunch All That. During this period, a search was made to find a completely new cast in time for the 7th season. Because of this, many fans of All That often consider Seasons 1-6 and Seasons 7 onward to be almost completely separate entities. The first episode of the "new" All That (with special guests Frankie Muniz and Aaron Carter) was the 115th overall airing on January 19, 2002. In this particular episode, Frankie Muniz is seen running around and randomly grabbing random people out of the streets to be the new cast members of All That.
Weekly "Special Guest Stars"
In conjuction with the 7th season, All That brought in weekly special guest stars (perhaps as a way to help take some of the heat and burden off of the new cast) who helped open the show and participated in some of the sketches. Among them were:
- Alexa Vega and Daryl Sabara (Spy Kids)
Also appearing during this period were Kenan Thompson and Amanda Bynes, who were brought in likely to help bridge the gap between the golden age of All That and the on-going relauch.
Some viewers didn't appreciate the intensified emphasis on special guest stars since All That (unlike 90 minute long Saturday Night Live or even the 60 minute long Madtv) was only a 30 minute program (including commercials). Some feared that the guest stars (with the exception of perhaps the likes of Kenan Thompson and Amanda Bynes) were seriously overshadowing the young cast or even hampering the proceedings.
"Old" All That versus "New" All That
Fans often consider the latter episodes (i.e. beginning in Season 7) of All That to be greatly inferior in quality to most of the earlier seasons, with the exception of the reunion special, which is considered as good as the originals by fans.
A theory is that the Golden Age of All That was more risky, edgy, cohesive, inspired, and innovative with its humor. While the latter episodes are often too juvenile, clichéd, crude, boring, dependent on special effects and gross-out comedy for gags, or even derivative of older, better executed All That sketches. Another theory has been fronted that the declining quality of All That was merely due to the long-time audience's maturing comedic tastes.
Perhaps the lowest point of the new All That was when the writers revived the classic "Good Burger" sketch with Ryan Coleman trying to recreate Kel Mitchell's inept, "surfer dude", cash register attendant Ed. The revivial of the popular "Good Burger" sketch (which in fairness, may have been intended on the surface, as a homage) with anybody other than Kel Mitchell playing the role of Ed, in all likelyhood, severely alienated older fans of All That.
Some fans were also uncomfortable with the idea of having Jamie Lynn Spears, who was previously better known for being the younger sister of pop star Britney Spears, become a cast member. Reportedly, Jamie Lynn got the job after publicly stating her desire to be on All That. This gave some people the suspicion that she got the part largely through the benefits of nepotism.
The On Air Dare
One trademark to come from the new cast was the weekly On Air Dare segments. The On Air Dare segments were not a part of the official All That episodes. They instead, served as bumpers during Nickelodeon's SNICK Saturday night block. The premise of the On Air Dare was that three cast members (each placed in a glass cylinder) would be forced to play a game of chance. The loser, whose name would be selected via a specially designed slot machine, would then be forced to perform a disgusting activity (a la Fear Factor).
Another, more memorable trademark of the new All That is the recurring "Know Your Stars" segment. In the segment Brian Peck, who could also be seen on-camera as Pickle Boy, is the unseen voice who tries to annoy and insult a specific cast member (who is always seated) with outrageously untrue facts. On some occasions, the voice will target special guests like Britney Spears or Drake Bell (while playing his "Totally Kyle" character from The Amanda Show).
The 10th Anniversary
In 2005, Nickelodeon celebrated the 10th anniversary of All That debuting by airing "classic episodes" in the week leading up to a "reunion special" hosted by Frankie Muniz on April 23.
Even though popular past cast members like Kel Mitchell, Kenan Thompson, Josh Server, and Danny Tamberelli reprised some of their most memorable characters on the special, many older fans were disappointed that past cast members like Katrina Johnson, Alisa Reyes, Mark Saul, Angelique Bates, and Leon Frierson were in attendance but had no speaking parts. In addition, Nick Cannon, who started off as a stand-up to warm up the audience of All That before becoming a cast member, appeared on the special but only via satellite and promos for the special said that Amanda Bynes was going to be there only to prove to be a no show (Bynes was busy filming a movie at the time); Bynes only appeared via archive footage of her playing her Ask Ashley character.
The reunion special was criticized by some for giving too much airtime to the current (and supposedly vastly inferior) cast. Older viewers were also outraged that a sketch from the new cast (i.e. The Unreal World) was voted the funniest moment in All That history. The Unreal World sketch went up against the likes of Kenan Thompson's Ishboo character and a classic "Good Burger" sketch.
In conjunction to the start of the 10th season, a rumor began floating around that original cast members Lori Beth Denberg and Josh Server would return in the form of writers. This rumor would prove to be false by the time of the 10th season premiere on April 30.
After a three season hiatus, All That decided to bring back the Vital Information segment with BET's Coming to the Stage winner Lil' JJ succeeding Lori Beth Denberg and Danny Tamberelli respectively. Unfortunately, Lil' JJ quickly came under fire by many fans, who feel that his decidingly shrill and confrontational demeanor isn't calm or serious enough for Vital Information (especially in stark contrast to Lori Beth Denberg's deadpan delivery).
In the first few episodes of the 10th season, All That seemingly started to rely more on dark humor as opposed to gross-out comedy (or even the considerably more absurdist, offbeat humor from the golden age episodes). A perfect example is a recurring sketch about the alien restaunteurs, the Zortogs (which has been sighted by many as a rehash of the Coneheads sketch on Saturday Night Live). The viewers are always led to believe that the Zortogs kill their customers and then serve them as entres.
Cancellation?
Although Nickelodeon hasn't confirmed anything as of September 2005, rumors have started floating about the impending cancellation of All That.[2] Nickelodeon has so far only played a handful of episodes from Season 10 dating back to April 2005. The rest of the season has been scheduled to begin airing in October 2005. Although some sources[3] have mentioned that Nickelodeon may not produce any more episodes of All That after 2007.
According to Lisa Foiles on her official Yahoo! fan club[4], the rumors of All That's impending cancellation are in fact, true.
- I know there's been a lot of speculating on the subject of All That
- being cancelled, and I thought I'd be the one to tell you that it's
- true. All That has finally come to an end. I found out a few weeks
- ago, but didn't know if I should tell anyone.
- I guess if ten years is long anough for "Friends", it's long enough
- for us, too! I probably would have moved on anyway, even if it didn't
- get cancelled. I was getting a little too old for the show and I
- believe that it should always have a cast of younger kids, no older
- than 18.
- Where I will go from here, I'm not sure, but I have a few things in
- the works. All I ask is that you guys keep me and the other cast
- members in your prayers, that we can step into bigger and better
- things! :)
- So, I guess that's....All That!!!
- Luv Alwayz~ Lisa
Cast
Former cast members
- Angelique Bates (1995-1996)
- Amanda Bynes (1996-2000)
- Nick Cannon (1998-2000)
- Lori Beth Denberg (1995-1998)
- Leon Frierson (1997-2000)
- Bryan Hearne (2001-2003)
- Gabriel Iglesias (1999-2000)
- Katrina Johnson (1995-1997)
- Christy Knowings (1997-2000)
- Shane Lyons (2001-2004)
- Kel Mitchell (1995-1999)
- Alisa Reyes (1995-1997)
- Giovonnie Samuels (2001-2004)
- Mark Saul (1998-2000)
- Josh Server (1995-2000)
- Jamie Lynn Spears (2002-2004)
- Danny Tamberelli (1997-2000)
- Kenan Thompson (1995-1999)
Current cast members
- Chelsea Brummet (2001-present)
- Ryan Coleman (2004-present)
- Jack DeSena (2001-present)
- Lisa Foiles (2001-present)
- Christina Kirkman (2003-present)
- Kyle Sullivan (2001-present)
- Kianna Underwood (2005-present)
- Denzel Whittaker (2005-present)
- Lil' JJ (2005-present)