Camp Anawana or Bust. (spoilers)

vertigo_14

Salute Your Shorts is one of the last of the great Nickelodean lineups. Shows that were geared toward older, probably early teen audiences like Clarissa Explains It All, Hey Dude, The Adventures of Pete and Pete, The Secret World of Alex Mac (which aired later than the rest of this list), and so forth. They were shows that were simply interesting because unlike network television, they were shows with a premise that were just altogether different, and when they finally went off the air, Nickelodean surely landed in the crapper (must Viacom destroy everything it buys?).

Camp Anawana was a perpetual summer camp, or at least, so long as the show was on, the kids were at summer camp. Looking back, the show was incredibly corny (some episodes are still available on peer-to-peer networks for the desperate searcher) as many of Nickelodean's shows were, but then again, it was for younger audiences. Nonetheless, it was great entertainment. Too bad it was only on for a year, but I guess with a plot like that, you can easily run out of ideas.

The show never really had a main character. It was simply about various adventures and mishaps of some of the kids (Danny Cooksey being the most memorable as misfit mullethead, Bobby Budnick and Rilo Kiley guitarist/vocalist Blake Soper/Sennet as smart ass Ronnie Pinsky who joined the cast in 1992), doofus camp counselor and butt of many jokes U.G. Lee, and the omnipresent but never visible Doctor Kahn who's voice was regularly projected on the P.A. notifying the camp of weird things oddly similar to Bill Murray's P.A. announcements in the first Meatballs movie. I can't remember all the shows, but a few of my favorites were the one where Sponge is being prepped for a radio sweepstakes question, the one where Michael and Budnick are stuck at camp after pretending to be sick, and the one that focused on baseball tryouts or something (I vaguely remember the whole thing).

Dang! Can't people in the television industry see that viewers are craving some original, good shows? They just have to use the early 90s as their models. Especially you Viacom, bain of my television viewing!

score /10

vertigo_14 25 August 2004

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw0290416/