in the early days of YouTube there was one Creator who would soar to new heights not seen on the
platform yet [Music] Fred a character played by Lucas Cruikshank that would take the YouTube and
online landscape by store in 2009 the Fred YouTube channel would hit 1 million subscribers becoming
the first channel in the platform's history to do so this didn't go without notice specifically
by Nickelodeon right before he had hit that Milestone which led to a couple of things first
in appearance on the most popular Nick show at the time iCarly with the episode I meet Fred focusing
on a fictional version of Lucas behind the scenes of the character but later on in that year a
Fred feature-length movie was in the works by Nickelodeon for TV and Fred the movie was released
in late 2010 but it was just the start as it would later turn out a sequel movie in 2011 and a third
movie making it a Trilogy in 2012. Nickelodeon was betting big on the success of Internet star
power hoping to translate the success Lucas saw with Fred on YouTube to their Network they even
continued the Fred character into his own one season show that ran from January of 2012 to
August of the same year but was it too much Fred too fast was the experience of it all not great
mostly for Lucas himself well with the lackluster response from fans and critics alone the interest
in the character was spreading too thin even for Lucas maybe it was time to step away from the
character of Fred and time for Lucas to shine in the spotlight Nickelodeon went along with another
show idea quickly after where Lucas was cast as the main character of that show something
completely different from Fred allowing him to try something new or so we all thought this new
show would be Marvin Marvin and it would be both a fresh start for Lucas and a last chance taken
by Nickelodeon to try and capture the same success he saw on the internet today let's dig into Marvin
Marvin what it was all about what happened to it and as a result what happened after if you
enjoy the video you better subscribe it's time to hang out with an alien and Marvin
Marvin why do people even watch other people on YouTube it's weird it's creepy don't get it
when it came to Fred it was Lucas's creation but for Marvin Marvin self-admittingly he was not
involved with anything other than being cast as the lead in the show Marvin Marvin would follow an
alien kid who gets sent away from his own Planet which is currently at war with another alien race
to Earth where he has integrated himself into a regular family home with your average Earth family
in Oregon while still having his original alien form he is able to be cloaked as a regular Earth
child who tries to become accustomed to the ways of earthlings but more specifically your typical
teenager he also still does have some of his other worldly Powers such as having a hot finger a cold
finger mucus Cannon and he can talk to animals on top of various other random Powers he has they
are never really the main focus and only come around for a gag every once in a while kiss me
yeah Marvin Marvin the brand new series premieres Saturday November 24th at 8 30.
hello I'm Marvin the human voice the family Marvin is a part of consists of Liz the mother played by
MIM Drew Bob the father played by Pat Finn Terry the daughter played by Victory Van toil Henry the
sun played by Jacob Bertrand yeah that's the hawk from Cobra Kai also chip Chambers from iCarly neat
and then there's pop pop the grandfather played by Casey sander it's your typical household for
a sitcom but it's also different because they now live with an alien that they agreed to watch over
when he landed on Earth the series would follow Marvin's differences from everyone else causing
the majority of the problems for any sort of plots whether it's him wanting to attend school like a
regular teenager would evading special agents looking for an alien actively or just trying to
maintain his own Customs from his home planet it's really just Marvin getting into various situations
and how he gets out of them and of course we'll learn some lessons along the way he deals in
feelings of love getting both confused and excited of understanding the customs of Earth and wanting
to fit in while still unapologetically being himself we also have another recurring character
Terry's best friend Brianna played by Camille sperlin who sometimes just gets Tangled into all
the shenanigans going on and even gets to learn about Marvin's true alien form in the 10th episode
of the show when it became absolutely necessary for her to know the characters on the show all
play within their own molds with the parents being protective but kind of dorky at times Terry deals
with trying to not be embarrassed by him at school but isn't overly snooty about it just
a bit sarcastic in her enjoyment of it all Henry is very much the little brother type being in his
own world with his own stuff to do and is paired a lot with the Grandpa character who is a certainly
a character by the way hey how's that girl the other night watch the double feature if you know
what I mean but what I really do like is that the family operates as a family more times than all
doing their own things or having conflict between the family members themselves that becomes over
dramatic it felt like a nicer breath of fresh air but that ultimately doesn't mean the plot dialogue
and all of that are all too original or great the show is very much akin to the late 70s early 80s
sitcom Mork and Mindy which had a similar premise somewhat but that show is a classic whereas Marvin
Marvin has quickly become a forgotten show in the sea of every other Nickelodeon sitcom at the time
and what's also disappointing is the lack of a theme song it really helps make so many shows
memorable at least at the bare minimum but here it's just an explanation of how Marvin got to
Earth and we only get the title of the show Marvin Marvin when the teacher asks him for his full name
and his new Earth sister is a bit embarrassed he's there and doesn't want him to share her last name
so he says Marvin is also his last boom show title and he even fights one of the reasons why
yeah the evil Bryce Walker that's him there really isn't a lot here for the show itself that stands
out enough to thoroughly discuss now comedy is subjective but to me it really never hit the label
of being called a comedy it's extremely aimed more juvenile than anything usually having moments that
are gross for the sake of being gross like there's this minute-long vomit scene where Marvin just
vomits purple goo onto everyone they talk about butts a lot and that's really the humor in the
show there's always worry of a constant threat of evil aliens who are looking for Marvin and hiding
that really only builds up in the final episode of the series it sadly boiled down to relying on
the star power of Lucas and the online space he comes from over making something because there
was a vision and instead feeling like they were making something for the sake of making something
and I am sure that there were some people who put their passion into working on this saying there
was it would not be fair but the final packaged product didn't come off that way in the grand
scheme of things it felt like it tried to be a marketable package with someone that they were
trying to use as marketable bait the show itself is the run-of-the-mill sitcom for Nickelodeon it
was in this new age Middle Ground area where it wasn't as interesting and well put together like
the shows before it like Drake and Josh iCarly Victorious and many others from the mid-2000s
era and it never found the new age audience for more current live-action shows and sitcoms from
Nickelodeon really being stuck in this middle child zone no fault to Lucas himself but with
the network pushing hard on the Fred franchise having the show and the third movie for Fred come
out in the same year that this show premiered was just too soon to try something new by the time it
premiered the Fred character was too fresh in the viewers Minds for Nick it was hard to shake off
the identity of Lucas being Fred because of how synonymous his face was to the character plus the
personality of Marvin in the show being zany and energetic isn't far off from Fred's personality
you know just minus the high high-pitched voice the reviews for the show weren't great and while
the viewership stayed between 1.7 to 2.9 million views an episode and wasn't able to match that of
the higher viewership of the other shows at the time it couldn't reach those Heights and on April
27 2013 the show came to an end and was ultimately canceled at least the final episode featured a
crossover with Big Time Rush which Nickelodeon also had a show for at the time with the same
name Big Time Rush which was highly successful on the network and an easy way to get people over to
that show before it would come to its own end after four seasons in July of 2013. heck even
Lucas not as Marvin or Fred would make a cameo as himself in an elevator in the Big Time Rush
episode Big Time Cameo and before fully being done with Nickelodeon he would voice a character in an
episode of The Monsters vs Aliens animated series for the network but after all of that in 2013
Lucas would be officially out of the spotlight it's just kind of poetic that in the end of Marvin
Marvin he defeats aliens disguised as big time brush with helium that sounds like Fred's voice
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I remember when Marvin Marvin was coming out I'm always rooting for YouTubers to spread their
wings and enter new avenues so no matter what you thought of Fred on YouTube or when the character
transitioned to TV the achievements that Lucas as a YouTuber was able to accomplish off the back of
something he made is commendable Marvin Marvin in my own opinion was not a great show back then when
it came out I felt that way today I do as well I think the premise is fun for a sitcom style but
it never did anything interesting to stand out from the average family-based sitcom we'd see in
any other similar show across any network adding on to the fact that it was not easy at the time
to separate Fred from Lucas today I didn't have that problem as a viewer but it really felt like
the thing holding this show up from Total collapse was the star power of having this massive internet
personality leading it after the show Lucas would step away from the acting world since then he
has kept up with his own personal YouTube channel simply called Lucas to find his own level of new
success away from the Fred character spending time making videos about whatever interests him and
even sometimes digs into his own past specifically dealing with the Fred franchise on Nickelodeon he
sat down with his brother Jacob on his channel to discuss Marvin Marvin looking back into his time
on the show where it seems there really isn't any hardships between working on that and to where he
is now just being grateful that he still got to make two different TV shows some movies and have
a little bit of fun in Hollywood Hollywood and its critics were not kind to Fred and that building up
of negativity mixed with his own annoyance from playing that character for so long his throat
getting sore from the screaming he constantly had to do and not loving what the character was
becoming under Nickelodeon's leadership led to Lucas having less interest in continuing
it he felt stuck and it led to the Fred character having a definitive stop and immediately jumping
aboard to a new show with Nickelodeon Marvin Marvin would end with a short run of 19 episodes
and a statement from Lucas saying I've been a Nickelodeon boy for years and today it came to
an end so excited for New Beginnings he would officially be done with his time at Nickelodeon
and the mainstream Spotlight the Fred Channel and the character himself would be out of his
hands and repackaged into whatever it is today for Lucas he enjoys his time out of Hollywood and
back where it all started right here on YouTube making content fully that is in his control the
way he wants to make it now having over 3 million subscribers and uploads about two to three times
a month while Lucas's time in Hollywood ended and he hasn't done anything else in that space since
I am happy to see him doing well back on YouTube creating the content that he wants to create and
he seems a lot happier with where he is at that isn't to say one day he won't ever want to do
something Beyond this platform again and if he does I think he's far enough removed from the
character of Fred to not feel as put into a box Here's to You Lucas keep Paving your own path
thanks so much for watching like And subscribe later
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