Why Nickelodeon was Better than Disney Channel

Disclaimer: We are only talking about the golden era of shows (2006-2014). New shows on both channels are irrelevant.

Let’s flashback to 2010. It’s Sunday morning, and you’re sitting in front of the t.v. watching your favourite show. Maybe it was iCarly, Victorious, Suite Life of Zack and Cody, Wizards of Waverly Place or even Jessie. When you were a kid, all of these shows were great. They all made you laugh and they very much entertained you. During quarantine, my list of shows to binge became smaller and smaller, where I was left at the point to rely on nostalgia for entertainment. I began watching episodes of iCarly and Victorious. Then I watched episodes of Wizards of Waverly Place, Suite Life of Zack and Cody, and Jessie. Obviously all of these shows are classics, but I realized why iCarly and Victorious still had the ability to make me laugh, while the Disney shows couldn’t anymore.

Schneider’s Niche

The main reason why I still laugh at Nickelodeon shows is because of the audience they are targeted towards. Disney Channel’s shows were all targeted towards kids, explaining why we would think the dialogues in those shows are cringey when we re-watch them. The brains behind all of the classic shows we love, Dan Schneider, had a different audience in mind when he created the ideas for these sitcoms. He didn’t want to make shows for adults, but not for young children either. The median in this situation is teenagers! Schneider knew that there was a lack of entertainment for the age group between 13-18, so he created different universes in order to not only give teenagers the entertainment they wanted for so long, but also create his own niche, raking in millions of dollars from each show.

The Dream Life

One of Schneider’s biggest strengths is his ability to create the most desirable life of a teenager on screen. In almost all of his shows, he creates a universe where the life of the characters is crazy, funny, and spontaneous. In iCarly, Carly lives with her funny and chill brother Spencer. They live in an apartment in Seattle that is decorated with the coolest artwork made by Spencer. They live without their dad, and her friends come over whenever they want. Since she only lives with her brother, who happens to be cool and spontaneous, they are able to go wherever they want, whenever they want, and experience funny and wacky adventures. Let’s not forget how ahead of it’s time iCarly really was. Three friends decide to create their own web show, and eventually become internet famous. While rewatching iCarly, I realized how funny it was that Carly, Sam and Freddie invented being social media influencers. In this day and age, almost everyone wants to become internet famous. Either through Instagram, YouTube or TikTok. In Victorious, Tori Vega lives in a beautiful home beside the Hollywood sign, and goes to a school specifically designed for students with artistic talents. Where the exams are to perform a play or have your own concert at the school. Tori and her friends are constantly performing for their school, and each member of her friend group is artistically talented in some way. Dan’s idea to bring the dream life on screen in such unique and original ways was beyond brilliant. His shows rapidly grew because other teenagers wanted to see the life they wanted. They tuned in each episode to see what song Tori, Cat and Jade were going to perform, or what Carly, Sam and Freddie would do on the next iCarly.

Hilarious Side Characters

“I tHiNk wE cAn aLL” agree that Tori and Carly were not the reasons why we peed ourselves laughing at these shows. It was the side characters. Think about it, the funniest lines in these shows either came from Spencer, Sam, Jade, or Cat. Oh I forgot SinJin too. Unlike Disney shows, Dan Schneider wasn’t afraid to add mature humour to each character. Spencer was a law student who dropped out to become an artist, and pretended to be dead for one episode so his art had more value. Sam is the fried chicken loving tomboy, who actually gets arrested and has an “interesting mom”. Jade is the mean goth girl, who defies all the stereotypes of being “emo” because she is one of the most popular girls at Hollywood Arts. Cat is the “dumb red head” who likes girly things, is insanley talented, and has a disturbing brother. Aside from the funniest characters, Schneider also provided us with some wholesome characters that we know and love. Andre is the friendliest guy at Hollywood Arts. He is the people’s person, and is insanely talented in all areas of art. Beck is the hot, popular guy who is the boyfriend of Jade, and is a talented actor.

The Connected Universe

One thing that you’ll notice in each Nickelodeon show is the references from his other work. In iCarly, you can see the characters wearing shirts that say “Follow Danwarp”. You can also see a sticker of Drake in Sam’s locker. In the April Fool’s episode of Victorious, Drake Bell makes a 2 second cameo. Before Victorious became a show, Tori and Andre were both featured in episodes of iCarly. Tori played Shelby Marx, and Andre played Harper. These little references allowed the audience to feel like they were part of something. They could feel like they were a part of the DanWarp universe, and could recognize all of the easter eggs hidden in the shows.

Yes, I am aware of the love for feet that this man has, but you can’t deny that he created magic on our tvs, that has created a lasting effect of making us laugh.