iCarly

It seems like with everything Dan Schneider has produced, semi-spin-offs are inevitable. It certainly would seem that way with every kids' show he has produced. Amanda Bynes became such a force on "All That," she got her own variety show, which she was much better than. Former All That & Amanda Show cast-members Drake Bell & Josh Peck got a show of their own, and now Miranda Cosgrove, who played Drake's little sister on that one gets her own show here.

Cosgrove plays as Carly Shay, a teenage girl from Seattle who's the host of her own internet site and show. Her co-host and best friend is Samantha Puckett, a girl played by Jennette McCurdy, and my memories of Miss McCurdy are from an exceptionally heart-breaking episode of "Law & Order; Special Victims Unit." Fortunatley, she gets to co-star in something much less heavy-handed. Not to say that the character she plays on this series is anything like that one guest appearance. She's an allegedly tomboy-ish, obnoxious girl who's hostile to a fault, always gets in trouble at school, and apparently has a drunken, mentally-ill mother who we see as often as Dr. Niles Crane's wife in "Fraiser."

The only boy on her show is their technical producer and cameraman Freddie Benson(Nathan Kress), a boy in Carly's class who lives in an apartment across the hall from her and has an unshakable crush on her. Carly has made it clear that she doesn't feel the same way, something he's painfully aware of. Sam thinks even less of him, since he's a frequent target of her insults. Carly gets to do what she does, because she lives with her brother Spencer, a 20-something avant-garde artist played by Jerry Trainor. Trainor is another veteran of "Schneider's Bakery," being known for his role as Crazy Steve in "Drake & Josh." It helps to try to think of him as a rational version of Kramer from "Seinfeld."

You wouldn't think that a TV show about a webcast would be interesting, but it is. If I tried to make a webshow, it would either bore the crap out of you, or annoy you to no end. In all honesty I'm as bad of a public speaker as President Bush. In any case, this show revolves around the lives of Carly & Sam and how they integrate it with the webshow, and how real life sometimes gets in the way and vice-versa. Speaking of real-life, it actually has real-live kids making their own webcasts for the show, although I'm convinced a lot of the kids are obscure kid actors. Good or bad, these videos tend to end up on the show, as well as Nickeodeon's website. And yes, you have some that are amusing and some that are annoying(your tastes may vary). These completely mental misadventures of Carly, Sam, and Freddie are hardly groundbreaking, but enjoyable nevertheless. If you don't have an aversion to kids' sitcoms, perhaps you should give it a try.

One of the greatest nick sitcoms ever. It's a hilarious show and great for families to watch together. The cast has great chemistry too and I still love this show very much.

I watched ICarly when it was first on, and i was really impressed at the first couple of episodes. It was funny, cute, and good-natured, and i was pretty young then, so i didn't think about it too deeply. This show has survived on Nickelodeon pretty well for about three years, and i have to give it a thumbs-up for being so popular.

First, the good things about the show: It' usually a really good show with some good humor and likable characters, and they usually try to do the right thing. If little kids are watching, they'll get a few life lessons from it. Spencer is my favorite character, next is Gibby. They, in my opinion, are what give the show most of it's fun. Some of the jokes are pretty funny, and they do a good job at keeping you entertained with most episodes. The whole idea of a girl making a web show is pretty unique, and i have to say that there hasn't been a show like this before. For the older people watching, the guys'll want to look at Carly and Sam, and some of the other girls on the show, and it is sometimes good for that. The plots of the episodes are usually pretty funny and creative, and some of them are realistic, while others aren't (but they're all fun.) I like watching this most of the time, which is where the 7 comes from.

There are bad things about this show, too. The one that i think of is that they show it too much. It's probably on Nick about eight times a day, and by then, i'm sick to death of it. Same goes for Dan Schneider's other show, Victorious. Secondly, some of the humor in the show is questionable. Sam is pretty annoying in a lot of episodes, and even Carly can be sometimes. In the episode where she wants to go to the boxing thing, and Spencer tells her no, she acts like a brat, and then when he busts her, she gets mad at him for something he says to the boxing guy. Other episodes like the fencing episode show that Carly bosses Spencer around but she can ignore him if he gets serious. In addition, the characters on this show are obsessed with texting and phones, and that gets really annoying. They've been going everywhere themselves and doing things by themselves like they're adults since the very start, even when they were, like, 13, they use the laugh track too much and they can even get away with hiring a bunch of little kids to make shirts for them! Oh, and everyone, and i mean EVERYONE knows what their show is. How does that really happen?

For the most part, i recommend this, because it's a pretty good show, although you'll probably pick up on the same things i did.

Nick has started re-running this series and it reminded me of how really solid it was from start to finish. It was a combination of three key factors - great series concept (teenage girls running their own daily webcast), fantastic ensemble casting, and really good writing show in and show out. Victorious took awhile to get going, ended up being okay, but nothing Nick in this genre has ever consistently scored like this. Maybe nothing ever scored like this in the teen genre. Miranda provides the core of the show, Freddie is the ultimate good guy without being overdone, while Sam is a unique teen show character for the ages. Like early SpongeBob, this show has amazing viewing range, my 9 year old watches it regularly now (as my 13 year old did in its first run), and I've enjoyed each episode. Unlike SpongeBob, this show ended at exactly the right time. Kudos.

Another hit from Dan Schneider. The show is full of quirky random behavior which I find pretty funny. The acting is okay, but not great. Sam Puckett's lazy and juvenile personality is hilarious and entertaining. Carly Shay is kinda meh, but still pretty like-able. Personally, I think Miranda is a pretty decent actress, but I feel she shines best when playing an "evil" character, like Megan from Drake and Josh. Spencer Shay's falling and fire gags were entertaining at first, but became sort of tired as the show went on. Overall, the show is pretty good. Maybe some touch ups on the acting here and there, but should provide entertainment for the whole family.