You can thank two Conroe guys for new documentary about Nickelodeon
As kids attending Oak Ridge Elementary School in Conroe, Scott Barber and Adam Sweeney bonded over their mutual love for one thing: Nickelodeon. Growing up pre-social media, they used to call each other and talk for hours watching the “anti-Disney” network for children.
Three decades later, they are still friends — “The Adventures of Pete & Pete” is still one of their favorite shows — and now they’ve made their first film as a team documentary and, no surprise, it’s about the first network for children.
“The Orange Years: The Nickelodeon Story,” available on video-on-demand and DVD as well as Blu-ray beginning Nov. 17, focuses on the network’s beginnings in the late ’70s until just before the turn of the century, when Nickelodeon started thriving with toy sales during the era of “SpongeBob SquarePants.”
The movie showcases the ’90s as Nickelodeon’s golden years — or the orange years, to reference the network’s old logo. Barber and Sweeney secured the first round of funding for the documentary by re-creating some of their favorite scenes from the Nickelodeon shows they grew up watching on the crowdfunding site Indiegogo. Their project started turning heads when a preview was screened at New York Comic Con in 2017.
After Adam F. Goldberg, creator of the sitcom “The Goldbergs,” joined as executive producer, they were able to interview every single person on their list. They were even allowed to use “The Goldbergs” stage for interviews. “The Orange Years” includes former members of Nickelodeon’s creative team along with several stars, such as Kenan Thompson, the longtime “Saturday Night Live” cast member from “All That,” his “Kenan & Kel” co-star, Kel Mitchell, “Double Dare” host Marc Summers, “Clarissa Explains It All” star Melissa Joan Hart, “SpongeBob SquarePants” voice actor Tom Kenny and former teen idol Larisa Oleynik.
The nostalgia packs quite a punch for those who grew up with cable in the ’90s, when the network was really hitting its stride with both live-action shows and cartoons. Viewers will go gaga when they see footage of kids getting slimed on “You Can’t Do That on Television,” hear the theme song from “Salute Your Shorts,” or when Hart addresses Clarissa’s love of They Might Be Giants. But as irreverent and entertaining as the film is, it avoids steering too far into nostalgia by sticking to an informative approach.
“Nostalgia might bring eyes to the table,” says Barber, 40, who still lives in Conroe and worked as an actor before developing an interest in filmmaking and editing. “But it couldn’t just be a walk down memory lane. People have deep reactions when you bring these shows up, and we wanted to pull the curtain back and show that it wasn’t an accident.”
“We tried to make sure there were no empty calories in the film,” adds Sweeney, also 40, who now lives in Austin and has a background in screenwriting. “On the surface, Nickelodeon was messy and there was slime. But there was deep and rich storytelling and characters you loved for a reason. They found a way to connect and treat children like adults.”
“The Orange Years” has some surprising revelations. Nickelodeon’s impact on animated series in the early ’90s was massive and very swift. Back in 1991, their cartoons often had unusual storytelling and looked like experimental animated shorts. But “Rugrats,” “Doug” and “The Ren & Stimpy Show” were all developed in just two weeks.
“Creator-driven cartoons like ‘Rick and Morty’ really owe a lot to those shows,” Barber says. “Before that, cartoons for children were mostly on Saturday mornings. They had really flimsy scripts and were just commercials for toys.”
“The Orange Years” also reminds viewers that Hart was considered somewhat of a feminist pioneer when she starred in “Clarissa Explains It All.” “At the time, there was an urban legend within the entertainment community that girls will watch a boys’ show, but boys will not watch a girls’ show,” Barber explains. “‘Clarissa’ destroyed that.”
“I wanted to hang out with her as a friend,” Sweeney says. “She showed that it was OK to be eccentric. She was basically our generation’s Ferris Bueller.”
Marc Summers, who became the face of Nickelodeon, appears several times throughout the documentary and seems as nice as one could hope a childhood hero to be. His decision to leave the network to spend more time with his family near the end of the era is covered in the film and is particularly poignant.
“The way people feel about Mr. Rogers, they feel that same way about him,” Barber says. “He was like a babysitter or parent to a whole generation.”
“All of the people we interviewed were very authentic and selfless,” Sweeney says. “I think that bleeds into all of what Nickelodeon was about. We watched ‘The Mickey Mouse Club,’ too, but it never felt accessible.
“As fun as it is to believe that you could be friends with a young Ryan Gosling or Britney Spears, it was never going to happen,” he continues. “But I felt like I could go to summer camp with the kids from ‘Salute Your Shorts.’ ”