Nickelodeon can be a child actor's dream gig, but which former stars have taken shots at
the network? We're about to find out.
You may have forgotten pop princess Ariana Grande originally rose to fame as Cat Valentine,
a sweet but ditzy high school student who had eye-catching red hair, on the Nickelodeon
series "Victorious" and "Sam & Cat."
"Bye! Oh! Oh, dang it, my gum fell out of my mouth!"
The comedies brought the jokes, but it sounds like there weren't always laughs behind the
scenes.
For starters, Grande told People magazine in 2014 that while her Nickelodeon stint had
been, quote, "a childhood dream come true," it was also difficult, because she had to
keep inhabiting a character that didn't feel like herself. Her red hair for the character
was also a challenge. In a 2014 Facebook post, Grande wrote that she was forced to bleach
and dye her locks "every other week," for four years running. The process damaged her
hair so much that, after those four years, she started wearing a wig instead.
There have also been a lot of rumors over the years about supposed feuds between Grande
and her "Victorious" co-star Victoria Justice, as well as rumblings of behind-the-scenes
tension on "Sam & Cat." In June 2014, just months before "Sam & Cat" was cancelled, Grande's
colleague Jennette McCurdy shared an essay on Twitter about a, quote, "trouble friend."
She didn't name names, but fans suspected she was talking about Grande. After the TV
series was officially cancelled, Grande posted a long heartfelt note on Facebook about it,
but as The Hollywood Reporter noted, she thanked everyone involved... except McCurdy. Evidently,
this Nickelodeon show didn't end on a high note.
Then there's Grande's former "Sam & Cat" co-star, Jenette McCurdy. In 2007, McCurdy became the
envy of many a wannabe child actor when she landed a starring role on the series "iCarly."
For five years she played Sam Puckett, a loud, brash, and occasionally annoying teenager
who ran a web show with her two best friends. Following the success of that series, McCurdy
carried on playing the character on "Sam & Cat."
Things started to fall apart in 2014, however, when McCurdy missed the Nickelodeon Kids'
Choice Awards, and therefore her commitment to appearing on behalf of the network. She
addressed her absence in a now-deleted tweet, blaming a, quote, "unfair situation" for keeping
her away. While she never fully explained what that situation was, sources told TMZ
that the star was feuding with the network over money, as her co-star Ariana Grande was
supposedly making significantly more. Grande later denied those reports.
Years later, on her podcast "Empty Inside," McCurdy addressed her Nickelodeon experience
once again. As she said at the time:
"I was deeply unhappy, and I actually really resented my life because I didn't like the
projects I was a part of."
But it's not just recent Nickelodeon stars who have issues. Two years after Nickelodeon's
official launch, the network began airing a series that would become the blueprint for
all of the kid-friendly comedies that would dominate its programming for years to come.
The show, called "You Can't Do That On Television," was essentially a sketch comedy program starring
regular kids who attended regular school and had no professional training. Among these
non-actors was Alasdair Gillis.
Gillis spent five years on the show, between 1982 and 1987, and "You Can't Do That On Television"
ended up being his final acting credit. And he doesn't necessarily look back on the whole
show fondly.
In "Slimed: An Oral History of Nickelodeon's Golden Age," Gillis called out the show a
number of times. In one particular section, the former child star got into some of the
jokes on the series that didn't sit right with him. As he put it:
"There are some things I might question in retrospect — fat jokes about Lisa, and a
certain amount that was probably over my head at the time in terms of what was tactful or
funny. Probably not always the healthiest thing for kids."
And finally, there's Nat Wolff, an actor and musician best known for his roles in the John
Green films "The Fault in Our Stars" and "Paper Towns," who landed his first major role alongside
his brother Alex on the Nickelodeon series "The Naked Brothers Band." In the mockumentary
comedy, which was based loosely on Nat and Alex Wolff's real life, Nat played an over-the-top
version of himself — a goofy, charming, music-obsessed grade-schooler.
In a 2014 interview with Vanity Fair, Wolff opened up about being on the kids network.
He told the interviewer that while he enjoyed his time on the show because it allowed him
to work with all his real-life best friends, he didn't necessarily think that most of the
shows on Nickelodeon were very high quality.
In 2009, "The Naked Brothers Band" ended after Nickelodeon and the Wolff family couldn't
come to an agreement about the future of the series. Nat later told The Hollywood Reporter
that the situation was, quote, "confusing," because "The Naked Brothers Band" was never
actually cancelled. It just sort of stopped happening. In the end, however, it seems his
experience wasn't all bad. Following their show's Zoom reunion in 2020, Nat told StyleCaster
that he and Alex were not opposed to the idea of a "Naked Brothers Band" Netflix special, but only if it was "perfect."
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