"Cousin Skeeter" (1998) TV series 1998-2000

Creators:

Phil Beauman
Alonzo Brown

Seasons:

1 | 2 | 3 | unknown

Release Date:

1 September 1998 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Family

Plot Keywords:

Disco | Midget | Chain Letter | Cousin | Carnival

Awards:

8 nominations

Cast

Bill Bellamy	...	Skeeter (4 episodes, 1998-1999)
Robert Ri'chard	...	Bobby (3 episodes, 1998-1999)
Erik Aude	...	Duke (2 episodes, 1998-1999)
Meagan Good	...	Nina (2 episodes, 1999)
Kel Mitchell	...	Kel Kimbell (2 episodes, 1999)
Kenan Thompson	...	Kenan Rockmore (2 episodes, 1999)

Runtime:

30 min | 30 min (60 episodes)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

USA:TV-Y

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Nickelodeon Network

Quotes:

Bobby: I'm telling you, I saw a ghost!
Skeeter: Tell it like it is, Bobby, and in the meantime would somebody mind calling me a taxi?
Andre: And where do you think you're going?
Skeeter: I'll be staying on vacation in Wakiki, Skeeter doesn't stay with dead folks.

Dumber than Advertised

I once liked this show. But one day, I got smart(er). Cousin Skeeter isn't one of Nickelodeon's better sitcoms. It stars Skeeter, a short puppet from Atlanta, who ALWAYS expects to have it HIS way. His cousin is Bobby, a Los Angeles native who strives to do well in whatever he participates in, but has some trouble along the way. Along with Bobby's parents, both moves to the overrated city of New York, where living together proves to be bad chemistry.

In most episodes, Booby strives to succeed in whatever he participates in (as mentioned above). But almost every time, he has Skeeter chained to him, and--uh-oh!--Skeeter wants to do everything HIS way! Skeeter likes to make Bobby look like a total loser at home, but his independent streak usually squanders Bobby's hopes of doing well in something, as well as getting him blamed for much of the havoc Skeeter creates. For the sake of optimism, the two usually works things out by the end. They also know Nina (their apartment neighbor), who's sometimes involved in their mishaps. As if Bobby having a crush on Nina isn't enough (what has now become more than tiring in today's shows), Skeeter and Nina are almost always fighting with each other, which drives Bobby bonkers. The pair-up of Bobby and Skeeter is bad enough, but having Nina tossed in doesn't make much better.

When I started watching Cousin Skeeter when it was first shown in 1998, I originally found much of it funny. But around 2000, I lost interest. The holiday specials are lame and unfunny, and the made-for-TV movie shown in Summer 2000 was totally disastorus. Even for a show as bad as Cousin Skeeter, the movie was awful. I'd rather not explain in detail.

The main thing about the show that bugged me was Skeeter. Up until the made-for-TV movie, Skeeter was the ONLY puppet on this show. Why was this so? And why did nobody on the show see this? Much of what Skeeter displayed usually works in a regular cartoon (depending on whether or not it happens to be funny), but that's the kind of thing that can been quickly forgotten if shown on ABC, CBS, FOX, or NBC. And most of what Skeeter did was terribly unfunny. From the made-for-TV movie forward, Cousin Skeeter got another puppet on the show; Nicole. She's somewhat like Skeeter, but not as annoying. Skeeter has a crush on Nicole, which runs parallel to Bobby having a crush on Nina. This character addition only made the show worse than it already was.

By the time Cousin Skeeter was thankfully yanked off Nick's schedule in 2001, it was being shown on TeeNick; most (the key word is MOST) of the shows there are horrible, and, if anything seldom appeals to the average teen. MTV sounds like a better choice for teen entertainment, that's if they can (literally) cease with the liquid television (which is to say, constant schedule changes). But Cousin Skeeter came back just recently on SNICK. Status: Bad as it was before it was pre-empted.

This review was longer than I intended it to be, but this is how I feel about Cousin Skeeter. It was made by the same people who gave us All That, Kenan & Kel, and the Amanda Show. They're not real geniuses when it comes to making comedy shows (the only one that ran without completely falling apart was Kenan & Kel, that's if you can forget about their own TV movie, and that one crossover with Cousin Skeeter). Cousin Skeeter was one of those shows in general that SHOULDN'T have been made. With the very little live-action Nickelodeon gives us nowadays, they really need to cook up something more appealing than this stuff.