'All That' Revival Coming To Nickelodeon, Executive Produced By Original Star Kenan Thompson
Fresh out the box. Stop. Look and watch. Ready yet? Get set. It's Allllll That!
Any child of the '90s who was fortunate enough to have cable will tell you about their love for the sketch comedy show All That. The show was basically Saturday Night Live for kids, featuring a series of young comedians mostly in their teens (some in their early 20s) putting on a variety of sketches. Now an All That revival is in the works at Nickelodeon, and it's being executive produced by All That veteran and current Saturday Night Live cast member Kenan Thompson.
Variety has news of the All That revival straight from Brian Robbins, president of Nickelodeon. The series will feature a whole new cast of young comedians, but some of the show's original cast members are expected to make cameo appearances on the series, presumably reprising some of their old characters. Robbins said:
"We think there's a great opportunity to find the next pool of stars. We want to bring the show back in a real fun way. This summer, we are going to bring back a lot of the original cast and the cast through the years, and let them introduce the new cast of All That to the world."
As Kenan Thompson will tell you, being on the cast of All That could be a big deal. It launched his career at a young age, sparked his own show with fellow All That co-star Kel Mitchell, and served as a gateway to eventually starring on Saturday Night Live. Amanda Bynes followed in similar footsteps for awhile, turning her Nickelodeon stardom into a film career, as did Nick Cannon and Jamie Lynn Spears, the younger sister of Britney Spears. Stand-up sensation Gabriel Igelsias was even on the show in its later years. So we could be looking at the next generation of comedy stars.
Perhaps the most famous sketch from All That was "Good Burger," which inspired a feature film adaptation by Nickelodeon in 1997. The sketch focused on Kel Mitchell as a dimwitted employee at a fast food joint called Good Burger. He was always getting orders wrong, taking things too literally, and giving everyone headaches. There was even a 20th anniversary Good Burger sketch on The Tonight Show a few years ago. Here's one of the original sketches featuring guest star Tyra Banks:
Other recurring sketches included Kenan Thompson as Pierre Escargot, a character who translated nonsensical French phrases into English from a bathtub; Kel Mitchell as a "superhero" named Repairman, who would drop from the sky whenever something needed to be fixed, but usually made the situation much worse; Lori Beth Denberg giving Vital Information, a series of witticisms and nonsense life advice; Josh Server as Detective Dan, a hopelessly incompetent investigator always ruining crime scenes, Katrina Johnson as the rascally then-relevant political candidate Ross Perot; and Kenan Thompson and Angelique Bates as chocolate-obsessed chefs Randy and Mandy.
The All That revival probably won't be easy for nostalgic children of the '90s to latch onto unless the old cast members are on screen. But the sheer curiosity of seeing some of the old cast members on Nickelodeon again would be enough for them to at least set a DVR recording to check out a sketch here and there.
If this news has you feeling nostalgic for the original All That series, you can buy each season on Amazon Prime for $5.99 each right now. Otherwise, we'll let you know when the All That revival is coming to Nickelodeon.