'iCarly' captures tweens as video stars
 Miranda Cosgrove (center), Nathan Cress, and Jeannette McCurdy star in "iCarly," where they create a weekly webcast. |
Ever since the emergence of YouTube, the grown-up networks have done backflips trying to capture the buzz and spirit of Web video. Bravo has aired a weekly digest of fuzzy homegrown footage. CNN solicits user videos, as does VH1's "Acceptable TV." ABC News is currently airing "i-CAUGHT," a newsmagazine about Internet video. It all feels useful but a little desperate, as if TV executives are scrambling for a magic potion that will deliver TV to the future.
The impressive thing about "iCarly," the Nickelodeon tween sitcom that premieres tonight at 8, is how relatively natural it feels. On this show, requests for user video are woven into the plot; it's a sitcom that happens to require a stream of uploads. And it proves that a kids' network might be in the best position to make use of modern technology.
Tonight's pilot lays out the "iCarly" premise, which is probably a common teenage fantasy: Someone takes video of eighth-grade buddies Carly and Sam goofing around, then uploads it by mistake onto a site that sounds a lot like MySpace. Before long, tens of thousands of people have watched, and the girls have become a hit.
This is fortuitous, since Carly has a beef about the lineup of her high school talent show. After giving an earnest speech about how awful it is that adults control entertainment, Carly suggests that she and Sam produce a weekly webcast of their own. Before long, "iCarly" becomes a show within a show, as Carly and Sam joke, jump, shriek, show off their classmates' "freaky talents." Then they turn pointedly to the camera, encouraging viewers to send in clips. The implication: This means you.
The show's website, icarly .com, has details, as well as a list of guidelines (don't wear T-shirts with logos or bad words) and suggestions ("Show us a super-cool dance!"). It also refers quite a bit to release forms, a stark reminder that this is
Make no mistake, kids, your from-the-ground-up efforts are serving the needs of a media giant. On the other hand, entertainment juggernauts usually get that way for a reason. And if "iCarly" succeeds - which would hardly be surprising - it will have a lot to do with its sitcom DNA.
The show follows the formula of most of the successful teenage fare on Nickelodeon and the Disney Channel. (The creator is Dan Schneider, who also created the Nickelodeon hits "Drake & Josh" and "Zoey 101.") The laugh track is relentless, the clothes and home decor ceaselessly adorable. The actors are appealing, even as they overact just so.
Miranda Cosgrove, who plays Carly, has a sunny persona and ambiguous ethnicity. As Sam, Jennette McCurdy has moments of comic bliss. Freddie (Nathan Kress), a manic neighbor with a crush on Carly, is far less intriguing, but he's probably here to stay.
I'm hoping that when real kids start goofing for the camera, they'll also make for pleasant viewing. For "iCarly's" adult producers, the trick will be to choose videos that are earnest and true, and not the precocious work of wannabe auteurs. The actors in the pilot, who perform on Carly's show, do a decent job of channeling the right spirit. Take the guy who can snort milk up his nose and squirt it out of his eyes. Whatever medium he happens to appear in, it's the sort of thing you really have to watch.
Joanna Weiss can be reached at weiss@globe.com. For more on TV, go to viewerdiscretion.net.
