Everyone gets their big break somewhere! Amanda Bynes became a household name after her sketch-comedy series, The Amanda Show, premiered via Nickelodeon on October 16, 1999. Also starring Drake Bell and Josh Peck — who went on to become stars of their own — the show lasted for three seasons until it came to an end on September 21, 2002.
Throughout its time on the air, The Amanda Show was responsible for some pretty hilarious jokes and sketches that, let’s face it, so many ’90s kids are still using today — like “bring in the dancing lobsters” from “Judge Trudy.” Of course, that wasn’t the only memorable line. Who can forget Debbie from “The Girls’ Room” telling her friends, “I like eggs?!” Or, Drake’s iconic “Totally Kyle” character.
Before nabbing her own show, Amanda got her start on Nickelodeon’s OG sketch-comedy series All That in 1996. “It was a dream come true,” she told Paper magazine in 2018. “It was unbelievable for me.”
Once the She’s the Man star’s career kicked off, the only natural next step was to get her own TV show, which is where The Amanda Show came in. More than 10 years after the show went off the air, and made room for the Drake and Josh spinoff series, Nickelodeon’s sister network The Splat (which is now known as NickRewind) brought The Amanda Show back on the air in 2016. At the time, Keith Dawkins, then executive vice president of TeenNick and Nicktoons, told Refinery29 explained why it was a no-brainer to feature the hilarious show on the new network.
“I feel like that’s almost a rhetorical question, like you know the answer to that already,” he explained. “Just bringing great humor, great narrative, great storytelling to a generation of kids who wanted that at the time,” he said. “I think that holds up today.”
Keith added, “We’re here to reflect what’s going on in kids’ lives, which allowed us to put young girls front and center in our content. We’re reflecting our audience. It’s less about what’s happening in Hollywood and more about what our audience is asking us to do. I’m hoping that people will lose their minds.”
To celebrate the iconic sketch comedy series, and all the laughs it brought fans over the years, take a major walk down memory lane and relive some of the funniest skits from the late ’90s. Click through the gallery for a breakdown of the funniest The Amanda Show skits that still stand the test of time.
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