today we are gathered here to discuss the tragic short-lived nickelodeon show making
fiends in what seemed like an incredible success story turned quickly into a sad disappearance
just like that new logo which is now the old logo but we don't mention
that i swear if i see one more comment about it i might just
do nothing i just appreciate you all watching anyway i have spent the past few weeks not only
re-watching the short-lived nickelodeon series of making fiends but finding myself getting lost
in the story behind it all where making fiends came from and the long lasting effect that it
has had on the fan base that holds it in such high regards so let's jump right into it all
this is amy winfrey the creator of making fiends before doing that she worked mostly as an animator
on south park for the first three seasons and the movie bigger longer and uncut as well
starting as a humble web series making fiends would premiere as a full show on nicktoons in
2008 and as opposed to other nicktoons coming from the main nickelodeon channel being sentenced to
their doom on the nicktoons network this was an original for the channel but as we'll soon find
out the fate of that show would end similarly the show follows vendetta a green girl who through the
power of basically baking creates fiends who are used as vessels for her reign on the town
she is voiced by aglai mortiva a character designer for the show there is also charlotte
a blue new girl at school who rather than making fiends like vendetta wants to make a friend she is
voiced by amy winfrey herself and is basically vendetta's greatest challenge yet also thanks
to amy's musical background as a songwriter her works were no stranger to including music in them
with this show being no exception showcasing the multi-talented range of amy and her ideas
she wrote every song featured in the show and recorded the demos of them as well the main
story within the show revolves around charlotte wanting to befriend vendetta but vendetto wanting
to use her fiends to destroy her but thanks to her bubbly joyful nature makes her immune to
the dastardly fiends even turning some fiends into friends clearly vendetta doesn't like that
and throughout charlotte never figures out that vendetta doesn't like her and of course vendetta
was never able to destroy her the world and all the other characters that inhabited are just as
weird and somewhat dark as the relationship of the main characters from the fiends to the teacher to
just the town in general all present this twisted storybook vibe brought to life by the doodles
drawn on your notebooks it was stylistically different from most other cartoons out there
and especially on the network itself and unlike most shows who changed drastically from their
original looks from concept to final product making fiends retain that same dna that made
it special in the first place another episode of making fiends is up next right here on nicktoons
making things up next but our story doesn't start there we must go back to the year 2003
where a 27 year old amy winfrey would create the website makingfiends.com and a month later would
post the first episode of the flash based cartoon series of the same name over the next few years
amy would post consistent episodes of making fiends once every month or every other month
to the site but within the first year producing the web series nickelodeon contacted her in 2004
about turning her web series into an actual show for their network which we would later see happen
in 2008 before then a daughter of an employee at nickelodeon was a fan of the web series showing
the website to their parents so being enthralled nick wanted to license the current series ahead
of time to turbo nick a sight feature used on nick.com that would host clips of nicktoons and
originals like making fiends and allow the user to mash them up to make their own creations when the
show was about to finally come to fruition on tv they emphasized in promos that fans loved the web
series from the turbo nick feature so much that they in fact also wanted it to be a web series
alongside nick's plans to already do so truly an awesome success story bringing your own creation
to life and it becoming recognized by a network to make it go from a web series to a full cartoon
on tv in college amy would sketch these weird and unique creatures while always having a fascination
for animals that are different from ordinary pets like cats and dogs most people would have herself
having animals in her life such as a flounder a parrot and even a salamander while she doesn't
know the real reason why this is the concept of the show that she came up with from her mind these
doodles and her love for more unique animals could be the initial reasons in doing so in 2006 once
the web series had concluded nick began to bring the series to the turbo nick features at the same
time the series was officially green lit for the first season which began production at the start
of 2007. now fast forwarding back to late 2008 when the show would premiere in october of that
year on the nicktoons network it was met with high praises from viewers and critics alike but come
november the show was abruptly cancelled after six episodes 18 segments in total the show was over
literally in less than a full month the show didn't even have a chance to stretch its legs
to get any momentum the reasonings behind this are just left at that it was abruptly pulled
it could be the case of low viewership which is understandable but with the higher ratings that
the show had it would be unlikely that the show wouldn't be given a bit more time to pull in an
audience it could be due to the show's time slots for premiering episodes on saturdays at 11 30am
and 9 30 p.m but even then it still seems like giving this show such a short television life
after all these years prepping for this is a bit strange it was in production as a show for over
a year and a half before airing and only six episodes from this exist were there more was
there issues behind the scenes that conflicted the working relationship between amy and her team on
making fiends and the network or did nickelodeon itself just not like the final product maybe
it just didn't fit in their mold of the shows they believed were working regardless of viewer
reception it'll always come down to the numbers of how many people tune in how recognizable the
property can be and how can that convert to other mediums for profits whatever the case may be it's
sad to see any show get the nicktoons curse but this was such a drastic turnaround on making
this show happen but the worst part sadly is what nickelodeon would do next to amy and her creation
making themes we'll be right back vendetta is a little low on fiends only on nicktoons network
don't move making themes is back only on nicktoons network over the years since making fiends ended
we have seen a lot of support for the show not only from fans who enjoyed it still holding
on to the memory of those six episodes in the original series but amy herself always showing
love to her creation maintaining the original website preserving the original web series and
connecting with those supportive fans she even uploaded the entirety of the original web series
to youtube making it possible to be noticed by a larger audience but the main problem is
nickelodeon now owns the rights to making fiends so aside from her having somewhat control of her
original works making anything further with the property wouldn't be allowed regardless of
nickelodeon ever doing anything with the property going forward or not they essentially just hold it
hostage in their vault along with the rest of the cartoons that seemingly disappeared into obscurity
amy was very respectful and professional after this as to not create an uproar and of course to
keep herself safe from ever being sued she would go on to continue doing what she loved and made
more web series like squid and frog eventually she worked as a director on all six seasons of the
critically acclaimed netflix show bojack horseman and beyond that tuka and bertie everything seemed
well as sometimes awful things like this happen in the tv world and more specifically the animation
world but in august of 2020 a tweet from amy would be posted and aimed at nickelodeon dear
nickelodeon remember that time i created a tv show for you and it was fun but then you didn't
air it on your main channel or do any publicity and then years later put a portrait of me on your
creator wall love the painting but i rather you give new shows a chance which gave us a look into
something more interesting behind the scenes yes in fact originally the show was talked about for
the main nickelodeon channel but somewhere between the deal to make the show happen and it officially
airing the show was moved to premiere on the newer nicktoons channel where at the time especially
would have lower viewership as opposed to the main nickelodeon channel as far as promoting the show
sure there wasn't a whole lot on the network they did have chris hardwick from back at the barnyard
at the time introduce what the show was while walking around through the studio's office but
in the way of promoting outside of the channel and website there was no real mention of this
new show coming she went on to say thanks for all the kind words about making fiends i don't regret
my time at nick i felt loved and supported by the studio until they chose not to air it i'm
just sad to see in 2020 they still rely on old shows some by problematic creators instead of
taking risks on new voices an outpour of support from many people online lambasting nickelodeon for
how they treated any new show that comes around unless it's a brand recognizable legacy cartoon
that they will eventually milk more and more it also showcased how many people out there
really enjoy making fiends whether it was the short-lived show or the original web series and
it was incredible to see how much of an impact it actually made in hindsight it is so weird to
see how nick handled this show specifically they liked the web series wanted to bring it to their
platforms on turbo nick and nicktoons gave it plenty of time to be worked on and even after
its six episodes released the season one dvd in 2009 as if there was some chance that more would
come but all of this to only air 6 episodes and then stash it away for good just seems worse than
most other show's slow death fates on nicktoons it did play through re-runs all the way until october
of 2016 on nicktoons itself and then completely vanished after that this show at one point was
the highest rated original program on that network and this is the fate it befell but at the end of
the day it's great to see amy push forward and continue her stride with always showing her love
to the community around making fiends working on other web series and directing stuff like bojack
horseman we talk a lot about and will continue to talk a lot about the faults of nicktoons and the
shows that it claimed the souls of but this one will always feel like that special case
of a mystery as to why it was treated in such a way i love digging into stories like this not only
rediscovering these shows itself but the ones that have so much surrounding it beyond the memories
of the property itself it's not hard to see why people remember this show and for what it means
to them it in itself is unique but also carrying all this extra baggage giving it that longevity
longer than the nickelodeon version of the show do you remember the show or the web series let me
know because i feel a lot of people do hold the memory of this highly beloved yet sadly
short-lived series close to them wow that was fun i appreciate you all rock with me for a bit make
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updates on content live streams and more i'll be back with another video soon but until then later
you