Sam & Cat

Sam & Cat is an American teen sitcom that originally aired from June 8, 2013 to July 17, 2014, on Nickelodeon. It is a spin off of two TV shows iCarly and Victorious which Dan Schneider created. It stars Jennette McCurdy as Sam Puckett from iCarly, and Ariana Grande as Cat Valentine from Victorious. The girls meet by chance during a bizarre adventure and become roommates, then start a babysitting business to earn extra money. The series was picked up for 20 episodes on November 29, 2012. It began filming in January 2013 and premiered on June 8, 2013. The first season was doubled to 40 episodes on July 11, 2013.[1]

Sam & Cat
GenreTeen sitcom
Created byDan Schneider
Starring
Theme music composerMichael Corcoran
Opening theme"Just Fine" by Backhouse Mike
Country of originUnited States
Original language(s)English
No. of seasons1
No. of episodes35 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)Dan Schneider
Warren Bell
Producer(s)Christopher J. Nowak
Bruce Rand Berman
Production location(s)Nickelodeon on Sunset
Hollywood, California
Camera setupVideotape (filmized); Multi-camera
Running time23 minutes
Production company(s)Schneider's Bakery
Nickelodeon Productions
Release
Original networkNickelodeon
Picture format1080i (HDTV)
Audio format5.1 surround sound
Original releaseJune 8, 2013 (2013-06-08) –
July 17, 2014 (2014-07-17)
Chronology
Preceded byiCarly
Victorious
External links
Website

At the Nickelodeon upfront meeting with advertisers on March 13, 2014, Nickelodeon programming president Russell Hicks stated that Sam & Cat had been renewed for a second season,[2] and Adweek reported that an additional 20 episodes were ordered.[3] However, other Nickelodeon sources stated that an official decision was yet to be made on whether the show would be renewed, leading to cancellation rumors after Nickelodeon put the series on a production hiatus on April 3, 2014.[4] After airing 33 episodes, Nickelodeon released a promo stating two episodes remained to air.[5] On July 13, 2014, after a three-month production hiatus, Nickelodeon cancelled the series, having produced only 36 episodes of the 40 episode order.[6][7] Media outlets attributed the cancellation to a salary dispute between McCurdy and Nickelodeon, an alleged feud between McCurdy and Grande, the leak of racy photographs of McCurdy, the rising music career of Grande, and both actresses' desires to move on to other projects.[6][8][9][10] The last episode aired on July 17, 2014, as a lead-in to the first Kids' Choice Sports ceremony.

Plot
See also: List of Sam & Cat episodes

Ever since Carly Shay moved to Italy with her father (in the series finale of iCarly), Sam Puckett has been touring the West Coast on her motorcycle and stops in Venice, Los Angeles. She witnesses Cat Valentine being thrown into the back of a garbage truck and rescues her. They become friends and Cat convinces her to become roommates after Cat's cheerful and supportive grandmother Nona moves to a retirement home called Elderly Acres. To make money rather than getting traditional after-school jobs, Sam and Cat develop an after-school babysitting business called "Sam and Cat's Super Rockin' Funtime Babysitting Service", which leads them into a series of wacky adventures. Besides Nona, other people involved in their lives are Dice, their next door neighbor who is notorious for helping people for money, and Goomer, a dim-witted professional MMA fighter whom Dice manages.[11]

Cast and characters

Main

  • Jennette McCurdy as Sam Puckett, who is aggressive, loves pranks, and hates working. After her best friend Carly Shay moved to Italy to live with her father, Sam tours the West Coast on her motorcycle until she saves Cat from a garbage truck. She becomes friends with Cat and joins her in the babysitting job they start. She secretly has a heart of gold and a soft spot for Cat, but will threaten violence on anyone who harms her friends. Sam is not afraid of anything and is handy at fighting or bossing her way out of any situation.

  • Ariana Grande as Cat Valentine, who is sweet, naive, bubbly, and almost always happy. She has a playful mood, often takes things literally, and faints when she is frightened. She has a short attention span and has bright red hair dyed to resemble her favorite snack, a red velvet cupcake. Cat has been living with her grandmother Nona since her parents went away to visit her brother. She can be emotional and never take criticism well. Despite her ditziness, she is actually very smart and empathetic. In the earlier parts of the show, Ariana Grande dyed her hair red when playing Cat Valentine (which she also did when playing the character on Victorious) until it was changed to her wearing a red wig in later episodes.

  • Cameron Ocasio as Dice, is Sam and Cat's neighbor who lives with his mother and his quirky Aunt Ferjeen (who is notorious for having "night gas"). Dice is cool, calm and collected, and he knows all the tenants and gossip. He makes extra money by wheeling and dealing, often selling unusual items such as scissors for cutting hair on celebrities (including some he obtained from Sam), hats with misspelled logos, and weird gadgets. He is a talented pitchman. Dice manages a mixed martial arts fighter named Goomer who is unintelligent.[12]

  • Maree Cheatham as Nona, Cat's cheerful, supportive, and independent grandmother. Fun-loving and young at heart, Nona prefers the company of people her own age. Although she is always around whenever Sam and Cat need her, she has moved out of the apartment she shared with Cat and into Elderly Acres to be nearer to her friends, allowing Sam to move in permanently. She is criticized for not being in touch with the younger generation, and tells stories which fail to interest them.[13]

Recurring
  • Zoran Korach as Goomer, a professional mixed martial artist who trains at Punchy's Gym. He is 27 years old but has the mental ability of someone much younger. He is very dim-witted and easily confused. Despite his childish nature, he is very good at fighting. Dice took over his management after his original manager claimed Goomer was "too stupid to manage".
  • Dan Schneider as the voice of Tandy, a red robot that works at the restaurant "Bots" as a waiter.
  • Lisa Lillien as the voice of Bungle, a blue female robot that works at the restaurant "Bots" as a waitress.
  • Nick Gore as Randy, a kid who appeared numerous times in the show and is constantly introducing himself. Randy was rumored to appear in one episode, but the creator of the show, Dan Schneider, found him funny so he became a recurring character.[14]
  • Ronnie Clark as Herb, a man who appears to be homeless, but he is in fact rich and owns a condo.

Special guest stars
  • Eric Lange as Mr. Sikowitz, Cat's acting teacher at Hollywood Arts, an eccentric aging hippie who doesn't wear shoes for some reason. His teaching methods are often unconventional, such as when he throws a ball at Cat while she is performing, but they are sometimes effective.[15]  He is a recurring character in Victorious and appeared in "#MommaGoomer".
  • Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams as Sylvia Burke and Janice Dobbins, the original creators of the puppet show Salmon Cat, a children's show from the 1970s. Marshall and Williams are famous for playing Laverne DeFazio and Shirley Feeney, respectively, on Laverne & Shirley.[16]
  • Kel Mitchell as Peezy B, a huge rap star who has turned down Cat's music video audition.[17]
  • Abby Wilde as Stacey Dillsen, a college student previously seen in Zoey 101 who is injured during a bicycle incident and loses one of her shoes, which Cat finds, leading her to find the second shoe.
  • Scott Baio as Officer Kelvin, a police officer who arrests Sam and Cat for "stealing money" from an ATM at the Handy Quick when Yokvish catches on to Cat's project.
  • Elizabeth Gillies as Jade West, Cat's friend from Hollywood Arts. She is mean, aggressive, violent, and often offends Cat. She befriends Sam when they discover that they have a lot in common.
  • Nathan Kress as Freddie Benson, Sam's friend from Seattle and ex-boyfriend. He likes technological stuff, and served as technical producer of the web show on iCarly. Cat brings him to her house in order to flirt with him at the time when Sam was hanging out with Jade.
  • Matt Bennett as Robbie Shapiro, Cat's friend and love interest. He is a nerd who carries a puppet named Rex (who he makes speak as a ventriloquist). He kissed Cat in the last few episodes of Victorious. When Cat hits on Freddie out of jealousy of Sam's friendship with Jade, Robbie is brought in by Jade so that Sam can hit on him.
  • Michael Eric Reid as himself, he plays Sinjin Van Cleef in Victorious. Michael appears in "#BlooperEpisode" and tells Zoran Korach that he knows what it's like to be left out for not being a main character.
  • Danielle Morrow as Nora Dershlit, an old enemy of Carly, Sam, and Freddie. In "#SuperPsycho," her pet chicken Maurice helps Nora escape from the prison somewhere near Seattle so that she can exact her revenge.
  • Reed Alexander as Nevel Papperman, an old enemy of Carly, Sam, and Freddie. In "#SuperPsycho," Nevel is seen in a Peter Sinai hospital for the very sick upon contracting Porcupox (a disease which somehow comes from a porcupine). Sam and Cat visit him in order to get advice on how to find Nora Dershlit.
  • Noah Munck as Gibby Gibson, a friend of Carly, Sam, and Freddie. After he is visited by Nora during his date with a girl at a movie theater, Gibby tips off Sam that Nora has escaped from prison.
  • Jessica Chaffin as Coco Wexler, a character from Zoey 101 whom Sam and Cat meet at the airport. Coco was once married to Carl, then they divorced. Coco is devastated when Carl proposes to her mother.
  • Josh Server as Agent Partridge, an airport agent who interrogates Dice and Goomer after they are mistaken for a terrorist plot.

Guest stars
  • River Alexander as Dilben, a rude, annoying and obnoxious boy who claims his father is landlord of the apartment building, and threatens to kick the girls out of their apartment unless they get rid of a goat they are looking after. He only appears in the episode "#NewGoat". He has an obsession for wearing capes, and each one of his appearances in the episode usually end with Sam pulling his trousers around his head, putting his shirt around his legs, and stealing his cape. At the end of the episode, it turns out Dilben's father isn't landlord of the apartment building, but instead sells "wide shoes to wide-footed women", which Dilben finds embarrassing.
  • Griffin Kane and Emily Skinner[18] as Max and Chloe, a brother and sister who, alongside their baby brother Darby, were among the less rambunctious kids babysit on Nona; Sam and Cat babysit them now. They appear in episodes "#Pilot","#NewGoat", and "#PeezyB".
  • Sophia Grace Brownlee & Rosie McClelland as Gwen and Ruby, British cousins whom Sam and Cat babysit in the episode "#TheBritBrats". At first they seem polite, but later they behave quite rudely. They are experienced con artists who cheat Dice out of $500 and Cat out of her bicycle. In a loose parody of The Sting, Sam concocts a rigged bingo game to trick the British brats into surrendering Dice's money and Cat's bike.[19][20] They also were in "#RevengeOfTheBritBrats" where they return and drive a wedge between Sam and Cat. This plan failed when Sam and Cat caught onto their plans.[21]
  • Cyrus Arnold as BJ Malloy, a boy who loves to eat eggs and call Dice "Diceberg", because it rhymes with "iceberg" and this attitude stresses Dice. He considers Dice as his friend.
  • Steve Lewis as Brody, a spear fisherman that always boasts his job and is often seen with a speargun in his hand.
  • Ryan P. Shrime as Yokvish, a clerk at the Handy Quick who enjoys taking selfies and grooming himself. He appeared in "#MagicATM" and "#BlueDogSoda"

Production

Development

In August 2012, Nickelodeon announced that Dan Schneider, the creator of iCarly and Victorious, would be making a spin-off of both shows called Sam & Cat, and ordered the pilot episode.[11] The series was then picked up for 20 episodes in November, with the premiere planned for 2013. Production began in January 2013,[22] and on June 8, 2013, Sam & Cat premiered in the United States. Several weeks later, on July 11, Nickelodeon doubled the season one order of 20 episodes, to 40.[1] Filming was scheduled to resume in early September 2013 to finish the second half of the first season.[1]

Schneider originally aimed for a March 23, 2013, premiere of Sam & Cat, following the Kids' Choice Awards;[23] however, Nickelodeon intended for the show to make its debut in the fall.[24] On April 18, 2013, the show's two stars Jennette McCurdy and Ariana Grande, via Twitter, announced its premiere was set for June.[25]

Cancellation

On April 2, 2014, Nickelodeon announced the series would be on hiatus.[26] Although they insisted the series was not cancelled, many speculated that it was. This was due to a rumored dispute between McCurdy and the network, Grande's rising music career, and both actresses' desires to move on to other projects. On July 13, 2014, it was announced that the last episode would be "#GettinWiggy," which aired four days later.[6]

Controversy

In March 2014, Jennette McCurdy became the subject of scandal after the leak of photographs revealing McCurdy in various states of undress. Her absence was noted at the 2014 Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards, where Sam & Cat won "Favorite Show" and Ariana Grande won "Favorite Actress." McCurdy claimed that Nickelodeon was treating her unfairly and that was the sole purpose for her failure to attend the awards.[27] On April 2, 2014, despite reports of a second season and with four episodes yet to be produced, Nickelodeon abruptly put the series on hiatus. Rumors were that McCurdy and Grande were having issues with the network over their salaries, with McCurdy accusing Nickelodeon of paying Grande more money. Grande later took to social media to deny the allegations.[28] The network explained that the hiatus was planned and said the series was not cancelled.[29] However, three months later on July 13, 2014, Nickelodeon announced that the series had been cancelled.[6]

For months in between, rumors of a feud between Grande and McCurdy ran high, and continued to after the series' cancellation.[30] However, McCurdy stated in a 2015 interview with E! Online:

I just feel that Ariana and I were and are extremely close and extremely like-minded in a lot of different ways, and then sort of as the show dissolved everybody wanted to find some sort of hidden meaning in our relationship and some like drama, and I think we butted heads at times but in a very sisterly way. Like she knows me so well and I know her so well that I think it was unfortunate that things got misconstrued.[31]

Broadcast

The series airs on Nickelodeon worldwide. It premiered in Canada on August 12, 2013, on YTV and on September 7, 2013, on the original channel.[32] The show previewed on September 1, 2013, and premiered on October 14, 2013, in the United Kingdom and Ireland.[33] It previewed on September 30, 2013, and premiered on October 7, 2013, and October 11, 2013, in New Zealand[34][35] and Australia,[36][37] respectively. In Southeast Asia it started airing on October 19, 2013.[38]

Streaming

As of August 2020, the series is available to stream on CBS All Access[39], Netflix[40], and NickHits (via Prime Video, Apple TV Channels, and The Roku Channel).

Home media release

Sam & Cat: The Complete Series, containing all 35 episodes, was released on DVD exclusive to Amazon in region 1 on October 8, 2015.[41]

Reception

Ratings

The pilot episode debuted on Nickelodeon June 8, 2013, to an audience of 4.2 million viewers.[42] The second episode, one week later, drew 2.6 million viewers.[43] The most watched episode is "#TheKillerTunaJump: #Freddie #Jade #Robbie," which aired January 18, 2014, to 4.8 million viewers;[44] the second most watched episode is the pilot (4.2 million), while the least watched is "#SecretSafe" (2.0 million, on October 5, 2013).[45] In the United Kingdom the series premiere delivered 340,000 viewers, the most for that week. The Halloween episode premiere on October 26, 2013, brought 210,000 viewers staying in the same place.[46]

Awards and nominations
Year Association Category Nominee Result Ref.
2014 Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards Favorite TV Show Sam & Cat Won [47]
Teen Choice Awards Choice Comedy TV Show Sam & Cat Nominated
Kids' Choice Awards Colombia International Program Favorite Sam & Cat Nominated
Kids' Choice Awards Mexico International Program Favorite Sam & Cat Won [48]
Kids' Choice Awards Argentina International Program Favorite Sam & Cat Nominated [49]
Meus Prêmios Nick Favorite TV Series Sam & Cat Won [50]
gollark: Argon is a noble gas, octachoron.
gollark: This is why, at GTech™, instead of using C, we just generate new programming languages for every task.
gollark: It is done.
gollark: Except for those capable of escaping, who can.
gollark: Muahahahaha. None can escape the reduction of 3D RGB-space into 2D.

References
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  2. Thielman, Sam (March 14, 2014). "Nickelodeon's Jim Perry Is Courting More Adult Advertisers". Adweek. Retrieved May 26, 2018. Sam & Cat has been renewed, per programming president Russell Hicks
  3. Thielman, Sam [@samthielman] (March 13, 2014). "@nickstarstv no news on Korra, 20-ep order for a new series from Sam & Cat dude Dan Schneider" (Tweet). Archived from the original on October 2, 2015. Retrieved July 14, 2014 – via Twitter.
  4. Andreeva, Nellie (March 31, 2014). "Future Of Nickelodeon Series 'Sam & Cat' In Limbo Amidst Behind-The-Scenes Drama". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved April 2, 2014.
  5. "Sam & Cat: Next Saturday @ 8pm!". NICK. July 2, 2014. Archived from the original on July 11, 2014. Retrieved July 3, 2014.
  6. Andreeva, Nellie (July 13, 2014). "Nickelodeon's 'Sam & Cat' To End Run After One Season". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved July 13, 2014.
  7. Kaplan, Don (April 1, 2014). "Jennette McCurdy's sexy selfie lands her in hot water with Nickelodeon's hit show 'Sam & Cat'". Daily News. New York. Retrieved November 27, 2014.
  8. "Sam and Cat cancelled, no season two". TV Series Finale. July 12, 2014. Retrieved July 13, 2014.
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  10. Yahr, Emily (July 13, 2013). "'Sam & Cat' canceled after one season: Where did it all go wrong?". The Washington Post. Retrieved July 13, 2014.
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  27. Hasaka, Amanda (March 30, 2014). "Jennette McCurdy Explains Why She Was a No Show at the 2014 Kids' Choice Awards". Teen.com. Archived from the original on April 4, 2014.
  28. Grande, Ariana (April 4, 2014). "I hate addressing rumors..." – via TwitLonger.com.
  29. Bacle, Ariana (April 2, 2014). "Nickelodeon denies 'Sam & Cat' cancellation rumors". Entertainment Weekly.
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  42. Bibel, Sara (June 11, 2013). "Nickelodeon's 'Sam & Cat' Debuts at Number One, Net's Biggest Live-Action Launch in Three Years". TVbytheNumbers. Retrieved June 11, 2013.
  43. "Ratings - Saturday's Cable Ratings: NBC Sports Network Tops Charts with Stanley Cup Finals". TheFutonCritic.com. June 15, 2013. Retrieved June 23, 2013.
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  45. "Ratings - Saturday's Cable Ratings & Broadcast Finals: College Football Snares Top Spots". TheFutonCritic.com. October 5, 2013. Retrieved December 30, 2013.
  46. "Top 10 Programmes". BARB. February 16, 2014. Retrieved March 1, 2014.
  47. "KCA 2014". Nickelodeon. Retrieved March 30, 2014.
  48. Marie Palma F (September 22, 2014). "Lista de ganadores de los Kids Choice Awards México 2014" (in Spanish). starMedia. Retrieved September 25, 2014.
  49. "El Kids Choice Awards Argentina ya tiene sus ganadores" (in Spanish). Los Andes. October 30, 2014. Retrieved March 17, 2018.
  50. Matheus Sousa (November 5, 2014). "Meus Prêmios Nick 2014: confira a lista de vencedores" (in Portuguese). anmtv. Retrieved March 17, 2018.
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