Before we were watching late night television as teenagers and young adults, we were watching “All That” as children. The highlight of my weekend was my babysitter coming over and watching the sketch comedy show on Nickelodeon with me. “All That” also helped a number of castmates land their own spin off shows, like “The Amanda Show” and “Kenan and Kel”.
“All That” aired the first episode in 1994 while “Kenan and Kel” debuted in 1996 and “The Amanda Show” in 1999. Let’s travel back in time to highlight some of the fan-favorite sketches, characters and moments of “All That” before these castmates got their own series.
1. Everyday French with Pierre Escargot
Before Kenan Thompson teamed up with fellow castmate Kel Mitchell for “Kenan and Kel”, Kenan played the exquisite Pierre Escargot. Pierre Escargot was always sitting in a bathtub with a raincoat and flippers, and would have us rolling on the floor laughing as he gave us a French vocabulary lesson. Of course, all of the words and phrases that he taught us were great for use in everyday life, like “let go of my grandmother’s mustache” and “you remind me of my special underpants.”
2. Repairman
Repairman was a classic featuring Kel Mitchell as the Repair man-man-man-man-man-man who appeared out of nowhere and claimed that he could repair anything. Instead of repairing the problem, such as the sink faucet and purse latch in this episode, he would always make things worse, which made for great comedy.
3. Good Burger
Good Burger was such a funny and fan-favorite comedy sketch, that it got it’s very own movie in 1997! We could always count on hearing and repeating the famous quote, “welcome to Good Burger home of the good burger, can I take your order?” Ed would always manage to make us laugh, especially in this episode when the bathroom was out of order and as a consequence, he scared off customers and messed up orders! We always wanted to go to Good Burger in real life and let’s face it, we still do.
4. The Adventures of Superdude
We grew up watching movies and television shows about superheroes, but our all time favorite was Kenan as Superdude! Superdude was a self-described teenage superhero who had super powers like super strength, flying at the speed of light, swimming mighty oceans, stopping bullets and bending solid steel. Although he did have one weakness that would stop his super powers, which was dairy products, as he was lactose intolerant. Milk Man was his enemy and arch nemesis, and both always had us laughing.
5. Ask Ashley
Ask Ashley was perhaps the most iconic Amanda Bynes skit before “The Amanda Show” aired, and a favorite from “All That.” Amanda played the young Ashley, who would give thoughtful advice to fans who would write to her asking questions. She would start off as sweet as could be, but once she received a rather clueless question like a boy who smells bad and doesn’t know what to do, she would give a very passionate and heated response. It was always fun to watch Ashley go from the adorable “That’s me!” catchphrase to getting mad at her fans, and then reading the next question as if nothing happened.
No matter what your favorite sketch was, we can agree that “All That” was a great television show of the 90’s.