The Amanda Show



The Amanda Show was an All That Spin-Off starring Amanda Bynes that ran from 1999 to 2002. It was a sketch comedy directed by Dan Schneider, starring Amanda and helped to build the careers of Drake Bell and Josh Peck. It also had a tie-in Web site.

Tropes used by The Amanda Show:
"(to Amber): Gosh, you're purtier than my sister!"
 * Adults Are Useless: It's a kids' show.
 * Alpha Bitch: Amber of The Girls Room is this, as when she found out that she didn't win prom queen, she had the girl who did win get a swirly.
 * Animated Credits Opening: Each episode of the first season began with a cartoon in which Amanda grows dissatisfied with current TV programming, so she goes to Nickelodeon Studios to start her own show.
 * Annoying Younger Sibling: Penelope is sometimes joined by her younger brother, Preston, who usually bugs her to make him a sandwich.
 * Missed Him by That Much: When Penelope finally relents and go to make him a sandwich, Amanda walks by where she was standing.
 * Art Shift: A bizarre recurring claymation sketch.
 * Bad Bad Acting: All of the Blockblister movies.
 * Bland-Name Product: Lampshaded.
 * Brainless Beauty / Cloudcuckoolander: Debbie of The Girl's Room.
 * Brother-Sister Incest: Implied several times, but here takes the cake in "Stranded" where Eenis is a contestant:

"Debbie: I like eggs!"
 * Also funny when you realize Amanda played both characters.
 * Cargo Envy: "I could have been a wall to be leaned upon by Amanda, BUT NO! I HAD TO BE PENELOPE!"
 * Casting Gag: As an Actor Allusion. The actor who plays the "little crazy hat man", who lives in a hat designed to distract from big hairy moles on people's faces, also plays Lewbert.
 * Catch Phrase:

"Papa: This movie better! Blockblister Kids: Much better!"

"Mr. Oldman: You have the wrong number!!!"

"Trudy: I'm thinkin' Vegas? Bailiff: Hit it, Judge!"
 * The Chew Toy: A whole family of them, the Lucklesses.
 * Chez Restaurant: Chez Klutz.
 * Comically Small Bribe: The security guard won't let a person in for a sack of diamonds, but he will for a slice of pizza.
 * Cool and Unusual Punishment: This occurred at the end of every "Judge Trudy" skit, when Trudy would rule in favor of the child plaintiff and sentence the hapless adult defendant to something odd, which the bailiff would immediately carry out.
 * Couch Gag: The clips that appeared on Amanda's television during the first season's intro varied per episode.
 * Creator Cameo: Dan Schneider plays in a recurring skit as Mr. Oldman, a grumpy elderly who is constantly prank-called.
 * Creepy Doll: Rock-A-Bye Ralph, a scary doll who laughs in a creepy high-pitched voice. The little girl is so scared of it she feeds it to her dog, his voice continues giggling inside the dog's stomach.
 * Dead Line News: The segment called When ______s Attack (sometimes hula girls, The Brady Bunch, etc) They would watch the clips of people being attacked and then at the end the subject would attack the newscaster.
 * Deep South: Eenis and Lulu Mae of Hillbilly Moment. And Tammy, the 'foreign' exchange student from Tennessee.
 * Deranged Animation: The aforemention claymation skits during Season 1.
 * The Ditz: Also Debbie, but the substitute teacher Mr. Gullible.
 * Dope Slap: Several episodes feature skits involving pseudo-mobster Tony Pajamas (Drake Bell) and his lacky, Paulie (Josh Peck), would frequently say or do something stupid, get hit and ask, "What was that for?!" To which Tony would reply, "For bein' an idiot!" which Paulie would accept with an "Okay."
 * Extraverted Nerd: Penelope Taynt in The Amanda Show, please. Also a stalker, who may or may not have been a Stalker with a Crush.
 * Failed Attempt At Drama: Purposely done in Moody's Point.
 * Favoritism Flip Flop: Parodied on "Moody's Point".
 * Firemen Are Hot: As Amber remarks in "The Girl's Room".
 * Foot Focus:
 * When Penelope and her boyfriend had a picnic on the set of The Amanda Show, dessert consisted of gelatin shaped like Amanda's left foot.
 * One commercial promoted the kit "My Beautiful Big Toe," consisting of miniature costumes that girls (and boys) could decorate their toes with.
 * One Penelope Taynt sketch (which was also a Cold Open, IIRC) began with Drake Bell and Josh Peck sniffing Drake's feet.
 * Funny Foreigner: Gnocchi, Blini, and Biscotti of the Blockblister sketches.
 * Getting Crap Past the Radar:
 * A funny bit where Barney the security guard flips open the centerfold in a magazine and says suggestively, "Look at THOSE babies!" The camera reveals that it actually is just a cute picture of two little babies wearing security guard uniforms. (Although when you think about that....)
 * "I feel like a noodle-boobed freak!"
 * "You're prettier than my sister", said by a hillbilly-type character... Get it?
 * Hello, Penelope Taynt?!
 * What does Tammy get Amber for her birthday? A stripper.
 * One episode has Penelope stealing the A on the Amanda sign on stage. What does she say before running off? "I better get my A out of here...please!"
 * "When you've got a beef, don't put it in your own hands, put your beef in the hands of Judge Trudy!"
 * Played straight, then averted. One episode features a sketch called "The Dare Show," where Amanda and Drake play siblings who do increasingly stupid stunts. After completing a sketch where they tar and feather themselves, Drake exclaims, "We look like big fuckin' idiots!" The episode later cut his exclamation entirely, cutting to their mother coming in and busting them for doing the show. Again. The censors were clearly asleep at the wheel the first time around.
 * Girl Posse: The hosts of "The Girls' Room:" Amber, Tammy, Sheila, and Debbie.
 * Hanging Judge: Judge Trudy.
 * Hey, It's That Guy!: Proctor played her and Drake's father in a skit for the Grown-Up Remote.
 * Insistent Terminology: Tony Pajamas Pa-JAH-mus.
 * I See London: In the opening Amanda greets the actors she is hiring by ripping their clothes off and forcing their costumes on them.
 * It Tastes Like Feet: All of the disgusting foods at the Dooper restaurants.
 * Made From Real Girl Scouts: Weenie Dooper has two instances: a footlong hot dog (made with meat from an actual human foot) and a veggie dog (made with real veggies... and real dog).
 * Literal Minded: The family of The Literals sketch.
 * Loony Fan: Penelope Taynt, Amanda's number one fan, please.
 * The Mockbuster: All of Blockblister's videos.
 * Once an Episode: After the intro, Amanda would greet her audience by exclaiming, "My name's Amanda," then sharing a random, usually made-up fact about herself. Amanda also closed each episode by saying, "Okay, that's our show!" and informing the viewers she "gotta go" do something random and ridiculous.
 * Parental Bonus: The father and son in the "Wrestleburgs" sketch were modeled after wrestlers Goldust and The Blue Blazer, respectively.
 * Parody: Many of the sketches, such as Judge Trudy, So You Want To Win Five Dollars, etc. There's one Survivor parody called Stranded, which is a good example. The last one to leave the set location (a bathtub in North Dakota, a parking lot in Oklahoma, etc.) wins the prize.
 * Subverted in one sketch of that, where Judge Trudy and the Bailiff are the last two people in the car they're stranded in. Then the Bailiff notices that the keys are in the ignition and they've got a million dollars in the trunk.

"The Amanda Show got canceled. It was one of the stranger moments in my career as a writer/producer. At the time, The Amanda Show was the most popular show on Nickelodeon. Yet after only 41 episodes, the network pulled the plug. It was a surprising move. I've never learned exactly why The Amanda Show was canceled. I think it had to do with certain people wanting to take Amanda away from Nickelodeon to the WB so she could star in What I Like About You (another TV show I created). But I didn't want The Amanda Show to end. I felt we should have done at least 20 more episodes."
 * Parody Commercial: The Amanda Show loves this trope. Popper Pants, The Boost... cereal with baby animals in every box...
 * Poorly-Disguised Pilot: One episode consisted entirely of Moody's Point sketches, apparently to set up a spin-off starring Moody.
 * Real Song Theme Tune: The theme is simply the Wizard Peak theme from Spyro the Dragon, but With Lyrics.
 * Ridiculously Long Phone Number: In the When _______s Attack segment.
 * Running Gag: Many, but the dancing lobsters is one and for some reason jokes about eggs.
 * Satiating Sandwich: Preston sure thinks so.
 * Screwed by the Network: For whatever reason, the show got canceled even though it was popular. In Dan Schneider's own words:

"Teacher: All right, get out of class! Student: Oh no, my dad's gonna kick my--
 * Shout-Out: Crazy Courtney was watching an episode of Sniz & Fondue, a sketch on another Nick sketch comedy.
 * Sit Comic: Amanda Bynes.
 * Soap Within a Show: "Moody's Point", the hilarious over-the-top teen soap opera parody.
 * Strange Girl: Also Nerd, Courtney the crazy girl annoys everyone with her bizarre antics.
 * Subverted Rhyme Every Occasion: An example of this, when a boy in a classroom full of superpowered kids had the power of super rhyming.

Teacher: Be quiet!"

"Email #1: "WHY DO YOU ALWAYS SAY PLEASE??????????" Penelope: I am asked this question a lot, please. My parents taught me to say please when you want something, and what I want is to meet Amanda, please. Why do YOU use so many question marks, please???????"
 * Surfer Dude: Kyle of Totally Kyle.
 * Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: Not so much any main characters, but in the song Melody and Thad sing offensively to the new bride and groom...
 * Ted Baxter: The "Blockblister" people, who insist that their Stylistic Suck "movies" are better! Much better!
 * The Un-Reveal: We never found out who the real Moody was... because the show got Screwed by the Network, and Schneider never got a chance to think about who it would be.
 * Verbal Tic: Penelope Taynt says hers the most, but some other characters have one.


 * There's a real reason for this, actually.
 * Wondrous Ladies' Room: Inverted on The Amanda Show: When the girls in the "The Girls' Room" sketch have to broadcast from the boys' room, their Cloudcuckoolander is intrigued by the "waterfall machines".
 * Wrestling Family: The Wrestleburgs.
 * Yank the Dog's Chain: Penelope, whenever she would get close to meeting Amanda.
 * You Can Say That Again: A Running Gag with The Literals.