Saturday, October 12, 2013

Review: Slimed!: An Oral History of Nickelodeon's Golden Age


Slimed!: An Oral History of Nickelodeon's Golden Age
Slimed!: An Oral History of Nickelodeon's Golden Age by Mathew Klickstein

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



If you're between 23-33 and spent the first 8ish years of your life watching Nickelodeon then go read this book. It was a delightful trip down memory lane. The "golden age" of Nick stops right around the ending of Clarissa Explains it All and started during You Can't Do That On Television. This book was just interview after interview with all the people involved (actors, producers, animators) in You Can't Do That On Television, Welcome Freshman, Out of Control, Nick Arcade, Roundhouse, Double Dare, Wild & Crazy Kids, Clarissa Explains it All, Salute Your Shorts, Hey Dude!, The Adventures of Pete and Pete, Rugrats, Doug and Ren & Stimpy. It was so interesting.

What's amazing is all the child actors seem to be completely normal people now. Most of them went on to college and if any of them stayed in the business it was as Production Assistants and Producers. The people who were really screwed up by Nickelodeon? The adults! OMG it sounds crazy. Backstabbing and bickering and being just downright cruel to one another. You'd never know the animosity that came out of RUGRATS! The backstabbing that happened with Ren & Stimpy.

This books covers everything from what Slime is made of (eww), to diversity on Nick, the music, the costumes- Pete & Pete's costume designed does Mad Men's costumes now. It's so interesting. For the adults at the time they of course seem the least effected, all the actors apparently still get approached on the street by not 30-somethings telling them how big a fan they were of their shows.

This book probably doesn't really deserve 5 stars, but it gets it because I'm a nostalgia sucker. What this book reminded me of- I will forever long for the day when the entire series of Pete & Pete is on DVD (right now only two seasons are grrr), Clarissa had the best fashion sense in the world, and Marc Summers is a bad ass.



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