Cousin Skeeter

This show is perfect for all those 6-12 year olds out there who are too old for Barney/Tellytubbies but too young for Friends or Seinfield. In the funny episodes, Skeeter always manages to get into trouble and his cousin Bobby always gets blamed. Somehow though Skeeter always comes through and saves Bobby's back. The show is funny, creative, and well written for KIDS. Teenagers might find some parts amusing but I would suggest a more grown up show. A Nick classic.

I once liked this show. But one day, I got smart(er). Cousin Skeeter isn't one of Nickelodeon's better sitcoms. It stars Skeeter, a short puppet from Atlanta, who ALWAYS expects to have it HIS way. His cousin is Bobby, a Los Angeles native who strives to do well in whatever he participates in, but has some trouble along the way. Along with Bobby's parents, both moves to the overrated city of New York, where living together proves to be bad chemistry.

In most episodes, Booby strives to succeed in whatever he participates in (as mentioned above). But almost every time, he has Skeeter chained to him, and--uh-oh!--Skeeter wants to do everything HIS way! Skeeter likes to make Bobby look like a total loser at home, but his independent streak usually squanders Bobby's hopes of doing well in something, as well as getting him blamed for much of the havoc Skeeter creates. For the sake of optimism, the two usually works things out by the end. They also know Nina (their apartment neighbor), who's sometimes involved in their mishaps. As if Bobby having a crush on Nina isn't enough (what has now become more than tiring in today's shows), Skeeter and Nina are almost always fighting with each other, which drives Bobby bonkers. The pair-up of Bobby and Skeeter is bad enough, but having Nina tossed in doesn't make much better.

When I started watching Cousin Skeeter when it was first shown in 1998, I originally found much of it funny. But around 2000, I lost interest. The holiday specials are lame and unfunny, and the made-for-TV movie shown in Summer 2000 was totally disastorus. Even for a show as bad as Cousin Skeeter, the movie was awful. I'd rather not explain in detail.

The main thing about the show that bugged me was Skeeter. Up until the made-for-TV movie, Skeeter was the ONLY puppet on this show. Why was this so? And why did nobody on the show see this? Much of what Skeeter displayed usually works in a regular cartoon (depending on whether or not it happens to be funny), but that's the kind of thing that can been quickly forgotten if shown on ABC, CBS, FOX, or NBC. And most of what Skeeter did was terribly unfunny. From the made-for-TV movie forward, Cousin Skeeter got another puppet on the show; Nicole. She's somewhat like Skeeter, but not as annoying. Skeeter has a crush on Nicole, which runs parallel to Bobby having a crush on Nina. This character addition only made the show worse than it already was.

By the time Cousin Skeeter was thankfully yanked off Nick's schedule in 2001, it was being shown on TeeNick; most (the key word is MOST) of the shows there are horrible, and, if anything seldom appeals to the average teen. MTV sounds like a better choice for teen entertainment, that's if they can (literally) cease with the liquid television (which is to say, constant schedule changes). But Cousin Skeeter came back just recently on SNICK. Status: Bad as it was before it was pre-empted.

This review was longer than I intended it to be, but this is how I feel about Cousin Skeeter. It was made by the same people who gave us All That, Kenan & Kel, and the Amanda Show. They're not real geniuses when it comes to making comedy shows (the only one that ran without completely falling apart was Kenan & Kel, that's if you can forget about their own TV movie, and that one crossover with Cousin Skeeter). Cousin Skeeter was one of those shows in general that SHOULDN'T have been made. With the very little live-action Nickelodeon gives us nowadays, they really need to cook up something more appealing than this stuff.

Very original series from the late 90s. I don't think I've ever seen a sitcom like this elsewhere. Skeeter is a puppet, je but is never recognized as such by the other protagonists. The character is hilarious and has a crazy charisma (for a puppet). The series is not content with gags and humor, there are messages behind. It is also a series that makes a lot of references to pop and African American culture. A series that I recommend for everyone, young and old! The best is to watch it as a family ! Maybe a sequel in the future?

I happened to come across the cousin Skeeter series by chance one evening and it was nostalgia that resurfaced. This sitcom is so original, Skeeter is funny and touching with these gags and delusional situations. It is truly the best and most original production of Nickelodeon. If only there could be a sequel!

We have a couple of "kid" fish out of water in this series. Bobby, (Robert Ri'chard) and his family The Walkers, moved to New York City from Los Angeles because Dad, Andre (Rondell Sheridan) was a music producer and needed to be in The City for his clients. His wife Vanessa (Angela Means) was a successful lawyer. Bobby, being an only child and in a new location, felt pretty much alone, but was trying to take everything in stride.

Cousin Skeeter (performed by Muppeteer Drew Massey and voiced by Bill Bellamy) was a puppet boy who originally lived in Georgia, but who moved up north to New York City stay with his cousins, to help tutor Bobby in Algebra, since he was a nerd and a math whiz.

This being a Nickelodeon show, of course the focus was on the two boys, who had the typical scholastic challenges, with schoolwork, bullies and friends, like Nina (Meagan Good), who lives in his high-rise, gets with Bobby and they start a mutual crush thing going on.

One of the unique elements of the program is that even though Cousin Skeeter was a puppet, no one treated or reacted to him any differently than any of the other characters. Eventually another puppet, Nicole (voiced by Tisha Campbell) appeared at school for a few episodes, to give Skeeter someone to play off of as well. That style choice might have helped set the stage for "LazyTown" just a few years later, where a bunch of puppet kids populated that program, and no one ever acknowledged that's who they were, either.

Plots of "Cousin Skeeter" focused on Skeeter's playful, rambunctious but good-natured personality and how that got him and sometimes got Bobby into trouble. Skeeter had a continuing mock feud with the building's doorman Ned (Floyd Levine), and Bobby's parents were counting the days till Bobby and Skeeter go to college so they can have some quiet time on their own. And Skeeter was fine with anyone and everyone, as long as you never commented on his height (or lack thereof).

New York plays a part because Skeeter claimed to be friends with some celebrities, like Shaquille O'Neal, Dennis Rodman and MC Lyte. Plus hanging out in Central Park, attending school, commuting around town, and finding that diner that serves up the best pancakes for breakfast are all key factors.

"Cousin Skeeter" was, for its time, another good example of representation of Black Americans on television, especially for younger kids to see. The show featured all the things you would want in a kids' sitcom, with the elements of fun, reason, intelligence, morality and understanding. And it featured a roster of guest stars, like Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell who turned up at a Dude Ranch that the kids attended, Downtown Julie Brown who played herself, and Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes, who was another student in school.

This show deserved a lot more attention than the standard viewers on Nick gave it. It was popular with the demographic, but it probably would have been a fun watch for the parents and maybe some who weren't parents!