Cold Open
Fans try to get into the audience for Amanda’s first episode, while Amanda herself is running late. Johnny Kassir tries to open up the show in her stead, and the audience beats him up. Meanwhile, Amanda’s #1 fan, Penelope Taynt, tries to sneak in.
• A nice way for the show to begin. It gives you a sense of how highly-anticipated the show was when it first aired.
• First appearance of “The Swiss Guy”, a black guy dressed like a stereotypical Swiss man. I don’t know what made the writers come up with him, but he’s hilarious.
• We also get the first appearance of Penelope Taynt, Amanda’s #1 fan, please. She’s pretty much already fully formed in this appearance, though the tattoo of Amanda on her abdomen is never seen or brought up again.
• Amanda’s helicopter scene is a pretty funny way to introduce her.
• The pilot in this scene (played by the late Henry Gibson) asks if she is one of the Rugrats. Ironically, she later did join the cast of Rugrats in that show’s dying years.
• Johnny Kassir’s introduction, where he gets beat up by the audience, is a real blast.
Opening sequence
The first season’s intro is an animated sequence where Amanda, bored by what’s on TV (the program she’s watching is different in each episode), turns it off and jumps inside, where she sets up her own show. This was apparently animated in-house by Nickelodeon Animation Studios, and it’s a great way to start the show. The animated Amanda also appears in scene transitions throughout the first season and the first few episodes of season 2. It’s also worth noting that the theme was composed by the legendary Stewart Copeland, drummer of The Police. The theme is based on a composition he did for the first Spyro the Dragon game a year earlier.
TV Clips: Two rabbits, and a man saying the word “Fork” in a foreign language
Intro
Amanda gets pizza and flowers delivered to her by Josh Server and Kenan Thompson, who congratulate her on the start of her new show.
• A really charming appearance from Server and Thompson from All That, which Amanda was also on at the time. They’re even kind enough to give the Swiss Guy a muffin.
Fake Commercial: Pedestrian Airbag
A new airbag that gets you out of sticky situations, like bullies or unattractive boys.
• The first of many fake ads on the show, and it happens to be one of my favorites as well.
• Unlike a lot of the products shown in SNL’s fake ads, the ones on this show feel like they could exist in real life. I know I’ve definitely been in need of something like this in my life before.
Sketch: Judge Trudy
Judge Trudy (Amanda) presides over two cases involving a boy (Drake Bell) who pushed his principal’s (Johnny Kassir) car into the school pool, and a girl (Raquel Lee) who got punished for playing baseball indoors.
• The first appearance of perhaps the show’s most famous recurring sketch. And there’s certainly a lot different about it in this first installment. For one thing, the bailiff is a different, skinnier actor, and he doesn’t have his usual over the top personality.
• The other big difference is when the “Dancing Lobsters” do their usual dance at the end. The generic music that normally plays is instead “Gonna Make You Sweat” by C+C Music Factory. This may be a reason why this episode is not available on DVD, although it still airs on TV.
• Other than those differences, all the usual Judge Trudy routines are in place. Although I must say that I found this one kind of empty.
Stop-Motion Amanda
Amanda battles her mean teacher in a fantasy sequence.
• A hallmark of Season 1 are these bizarre, stop-motion sketches (animated by Tom Megalis, who has also done work for KaBlam!) where Amanda gets into crazy situations. Some people find them creepy, but I find them hilarious.
• This one is a little different from the rest in that it has live-action bookends to establish that this is just a fantasy Amanda is having in class.
• Nancy Sullivan plays her first of many teacher roles. This is also the first appearance of the classroom set that will appear in numerous sketches (most notably the Mr. Gullible sketches).
Sketch: The Klutzes
A crazy family that is extremely clumsy tries to have a nice night at home.
• Another recurring sketch debut. I’ve never been a big fan of these characters, mostly because their catchphrase (“Not a problem!”) gets old extremely fast. It also might be because most of the humor revolves around pratfalls, in my opinion, one of the lamest joke premises ever.
Sketch: Cynthia Worthington
An attractive young lady (Amanda) has some disgusting habits, much to the disgust of her date (Drake).
• Speaking of characters I’ve never been a fan of...
• I LOATHE this character. I feel like she is just an excuse for Dan Schneider to insert his fetishes. Don’t believe me? Two of the things she does in this sketch are shave her armpits (ew) and sand a callous off of her foot (gross!). In fact, I think I’m going to keep a count of all the foot jokes in this show, because there’s a bunch. So that’s Foot Joke #1, out of God knows how much more.
Sketch: Mother Caboose
An extremely old lady (Amanda) reads a story about Katie Beth Sue, before she falls out of her chair.
• This sketch seems like it was set up to become recurring, but it never does. Good thing, too, because it was kind of bland.
Penelope Taynt
Penelope steals part of Amanda’s room, and shows Drake and Raquel her website.
• The first appearance of AmandaPlease.com, which was indeed a real website. In fact, it outlasted the show itself for a long time, until it was shut down in 2012.
Closing
Amanda names all 50 states backwards while punching an astronaut.
• This was amusing enough. And you’ve gotta love Penelope running across the stage at the end, as soon as Amanda leaves, mind you.
Final thoughts: A mixed episode. You can tell they were still experimenting with some things.
Intro
Amanda gets pizza and flowers delivered to her by Josh Server and Kenan Thompson, who congratulate her on the start of her new show.
• A really charming appearance from Server and Thompson from All That, which Amanda was also on at the time. They’re even kind enough to give the Swiss Guy a muffin.
Fake Commercial: Pedestrian Airbag
A new airbag that gets you out of sticky situations, like bullies or unattractive boys.
• The first of many fake ads on the show, and it happens to be one of my favorites as well.
• Unlike a lot of the products shown in SNL’s fake ads, the ones on this show feel like they could exist in real life. I know I’ve definitely been in need of something like this in my life before.
• An oddity with this fake ad is that it was shot on film. Most of the show’s commercials were shot in videotape like the rest of the sketches, but processed with FilmLook.
• How in the world did they get away with “The Inflatable Friend”?
Sketch: Judge Trudy
Judge Trudy (Amanda) presides over two cases involving a boy (Drake Bell) who pushed his principal’s (Johnny Kassir) car into the school pool, and a girl (Raquel Lee) who got punished for playing baseball indoors.
• The first appearance of perhaps the show’s most famous recurring sketch. And there’s certainly a lot different about it in this first installment. For one thing, the bailiff is a different, skinnier actor, and he doesn’t have his usual over the top personality.
• The other big difference is when the “Dancing Lobsters” do their usual dance at the end. The generic music that normally plays is instead “Gonna Make You Sweat” by C+C Music Factory. This may be a reason why this episode is not available on DVD, although it still airs on TV.
• Other than those differences, all the usual Judge Trudy routines are in place. Although I must say that I found this one kind of empty.
Stop-Motion Amanda
Amanda battles her mean teacher in a fantasy sequence.
• A hallmark of Season 1 are these bizarre, stop-motion sketches (animated by Tom Megalis, who has also done work for KaBlam!) where Amanda gets into crazy situations. Some people find them creepy, but I find them hilarious.
• This one is a little different from the rest in that it has live-action bookends to establish that this is just a fantasy Amanda is having in class.
• Nancy Sullivan plays her first of many teacher roles. This is also the first appearance of the classroom set that will appear in numerous sketches (most notably the Mr. Gullible sketches).
Sketch: The Klutzes
A crazy family that is extremely clumsy tries to have a nice night at home.
• Another recurring sketch debut. I’ve never been a big fan of these characters, mostly because their catchphrase (“Not a problem!”) gets old extremely fast. It also might be because most of the humor revolves around pratfalls, in my opinion, one of the lamest joke premises ever.
Sketch: Cynthia Worthington
An attractive young lady (Amanda) has some disgusting habits, much to the disgust of her date (Drake).
• Speaking of characters I’ve never been a fan of...
• I LOATHE this character. I feel like she is just an excuse for Dan Schneider to insert his fetishes. Don’t believe me? Two of the things she does in this sketch are shave her armpits (ew) and sand a callous off of her foot (gross!). In fact, I think I’m going to keep a count of all the foot jokes in this show, because there’s a bunch. So that’s Foot Joke #1, out of God knows how much more.
Sketch: Mother Caboose
An extremely old lady (Amanda) reads a story about Katie Beth Sue, before she falls out of her chair.
• This sketch seems like it was set up to become recurring, but it never does. Good thing, too, because it was kind of bland.
Penelope Taynt
Penelope steals part of Amanda’s room, and shows Drake and Raquel her website.
• The first appearance of AmandaPlease.com, which was indeed a real website. In fact, it outlasted the show itself for a long time, until it was shut down in 2012.
Closing
Amanda names all 50 states backwards while punching an astronaut.
• This was amusing enough. And you’ve gotta love Penelope running across the stage at the end, as soon as Amanda leaves, mind you.
Final thoughts: A mixed episode. You can tell they were still experimenting with some things.
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