Interview:
Scott Barber,
Adam Sweeney,
directors,
"The Orange Years:
The Nickelodeon Story"
Is your life’s goal to be slimed? Do you have an Adventures of Pete & Pete Petunia Tattoo on your forearm? Have you spent almost 30 years wondering what actually is an “Awful Waffle”? If so, The Orange Years: The Nickelodeon Story is for you. And your Nickelodeon-lovin’ kids. Directed by life-long friends Scott Barber and Adam Sweeney. The documentary recounts the formative first two decades of Nickelodeon through the recollections of the many of kids cable channel’s most prominent former executives and onscreen talent. The Orange Years traces Nickelodeon’s roots back to the Columbus, Ohio, experimental cable TV system QUBE, which mined the success of its preschool show Pinwheel to launch in 1979 a national cable channel aimed at children of all ages. Barber and Sweeney’s documentary then focuses on the evolution in Nickelodeon’s programming, first with the acquisition of the groundbreaking kids sketch comedy You Can’t Do That On Television and then with the shift to original programming with the game show Double Dare, the teen sitcom Hey Dude, and the animated series Doug, Rugrats, and The Ren & Stimpy Show. The Orange Years also examines the impact of Geraldine Laybourne, who first joined Nickelodeon in 1980 as a program manager before serving as its highly influential president from 1984-1996. Under Laybourne’s programming philosophy, Nickelodeon adopted a policy of not just letting kids be kids onscreen but treating its young audience with respect and dignity. The Orange Years features interviews with Laybourne as well as many of Nickelodeon’s most recognizable performers in the 1980s and 1990s, including Double Dare host Marc Summers, Hey Dude’s Christine Taylor, Clarissa Explains It All’s Melissa Joan Hart, and All Thatand Kenan & Kel’s Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell.The Orange Years is now available on Blu-Ray and DVD and for digital and on-demand viewing. The documentary represents the Houston-based Scott Barber and the Austin-based Adam Sweeney’s directorial debut. Aired: March 25, 2021. Web sites: http://www.theorangeyears.com https://www.facebook.com/theorangeyears/ |
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