Fresh out the box: what went wrong with the all that revival?
Obviously, tv reboots & revivals are commonplace nowadays but as a 90’s kid, there was one that, when first announced, definitely made my ears perk up. Kicking off in 1994, all that went on to be a huge success, essentially touting itself as the pint-sized version of snl. So when they finally went off the air in 2004, we thought that was the last we’d seen of our favorite young sketch actors but of course they just couldn’t leave it well enough alone.
Nearly 15 years later, nick announced they were bringing it back with an entirely new cast (albeit with some of the original cast reprising their iconic roles from the original). Two years afterwards, the series was unceremoniously cancelled, leaving us fans to wonder where it all went wrong. Here’s the truth of it.
Despite being a huge fan of the original, I was more than willing to admit if the series turned out to be subpar but that simply wasn’t the case (at least not entirely). I mean there were definitely some skits that proved to be written by monkeys & had abysmal jokes (if you can even refer to them as such) but there were also some sketches that were genuinely funny & well-written (mostly the ones featuring original cast members but some with just the newbies). Then there were some that were just plain dumb & a complete waste of our times but that’s a story for another day.
They brought back a lot of the more iconic sketches which I thought was a great move. From vital information to detective dan & from coach kreeton to good burger, this was more than just an attempt to capitalize on our nostalgia; it was an (arguably successful) attempt to enhance it but it simply wasn’t enough to sustain the show as a whole. I think that’s where the problem lies. They relied so much on the original cast that they just half-assed it when it came to trying to write new original sketches that captured the same hilarity & memorability as the ones in the original series. That’s why the series fell flat on its face.
So why was the series ultimately canceled? Well, the truth is we really don’t know for sure & we may never know the whole truth. They never actually did make an official announcement about it so, for all we know, they could try to make a comeback sometime in the future. But at least for now, it seems very much dead in the water & we do have a good theory as to why. You see, the series was co-created by Brian Robbins who got promoted to the role of president of Nick back in 2018. So when he took the reins, he naturally expressed a huge interest in bring back the series (which he felt never should have even been cancelled in the first place) & spearheaded the revival. But a few years later in 2021, he was tapped to replace Jim Gianopulos as the head of paramount pictures.
So while he is still running nick as well, it’s entirely possible he simply doesn’t have as much time to devote to the network which ultimately led to the all that revival being swept into the dustbin of history. But in any case, we’ll always have fond memories of the original so at least we can take solace in knowing we had childhood which was all that & more.