Dan Schneider (born January 14, 1966) is probably best known to adults as Dennis Blunden on the old ABC sitcom Head of the Class. But to millions of children (and kids-at-heart), he is the creator, writer and producer of several of the most well-known and loved Kid Coms. Originally from Memphis, Tennessee, his work portfolio almost entirely is composed of Nickelodeon's premier shows (and vice-versa: his shows make up a very large chunk of Nickelodeon's live-action programming).
His production company is Schneider's Bakery and he loves to put various Easter Eggs among his various shows, such as a Schneider's Bakery can be seen in the stock location footage of the movie theatre in Drake & Josh. His shows tend to use a similar way of talking, a variation on Buffy Speak by finding obscure, unusual or sometimes made-up words to use.
He can be considered to be Nick's sitcom equivalent to comic playwright Neil Simon of The Odd Couple (which Schneider's show Drake & Josh bears similarities to) fame.
After 24 years with the network, Schneider parted ways
with Nickelodeon on amicable terms on March 26, 2018, also ending the production of his currently-airing Game Shakers.
Shows created and/or produced
- Guys Like Us
- All That
- The Amanda Show: He also had a minor role as a frequent prank phone call victim of Amanda Bynes.
- Kenan & Kel
- What I Like About You
- Drake & Josh
- Zoey 101
- iCarly
- Victorious
- The Sam & Cat crossover Spin-Off from the above two (a rare Short Runner for Schneider, though mostly due to Troubled Production rather than any lack of success.)
- Henry Danger
- Game Shakers
Note: A pilot for a Gibby Spin-Off from iCarly was filmed, but not picked up.
Movies produced and written:
- Good Burger
- Big Fat Liar
- The Drake & Josh movies
He has a blog, which is here.
See also the Nick Verse, a Shared Universe between various Nickelodeon live-action KidCom series - it's also known as the "Schneider Verse" as so far all of the shows in it are his (though that could change in the future).
Not to be confused with the film critic and poet of the same name, whose website Cosmoetica is also subtitled the "Schneiderverse of Schneider Verse."
Dan Schneider and his works contain examples of:
- Adults Are Useless: Adults in his shows are typically incredibly naive, pushovers, overly underhanded, or just utter morons.
- Author Appeal: Like Quentin Tarantino, he seems to have a thing for feet. Victoria Justice was barefoot constantly in his shows for example.
- Butt-Monkey: Quite a few appear in his works (even including in the main cast).
- Cold Opening: On almost every show he produces (Zoey 101 and Kenan & Kel are the exceptions)
- Comedic Sociopathy: By and towards his main characters. The main offenders are Megan from Drake & Josh and Sam Puckett from iCarly. Said recipients are Drake & Josh and Freddie Benson respectively.
- Cosmic Plaything: Coupled with the above, in every show he's directed. If you're not some sort of hardcore badass who can fight back, chances are the entire universe and its people will try to ruin you in amazing ways despite all the hard work you've done. If you're a Butt-Monkey, you will come close to perishing.
- Crapsaccharine World: Very common in the Schneider-verse world, especially in his sitcoms. Guest characters who interact with the main protagonists have high chances of being full of
Unfortunate Implications. - Crazy Homeless People: Most frequently mentioned and seen in the early seasons of iCarly.
- However after Moral Guardians complained, Nick told him he's not allowed to make fun of hobos anymore, but that doesn't stop him from making hobo jokes by Getting Crap Past the Radar in Sam & Cat.
- He actually has an explanation for this here (read question #18).
- He actually has an explanation for this here
- However after Moral Guardians complained, Nick told him he's not allowed to make fun of hobos anymore, but that doesn't stop him from making hobo jokes by Getting Crap Past the Radar in Sam & Cat.
- Disproportionate Retribution: One of the chief sources of humor in several of his shows.
- Getting Crap Past the Radar: The reason why so many adults watch his shows. (Well, one reason.)
- He was given a great deal of creative freedom due to the popularity of his works, considering his earlier shows didn't try to sneak nearly as much stuff past the radar.
- The blatantly obvious foot fetish stuff has never been reined in.
- There's a lot of Defying the Censors too: As an example, the Victorious episode "Sleepover at Sikowitz's" featured the main cast spending the night at their teacher's house. You can almost picture him sitting at his computer, writing the script and daring the censors to cry foul on it.
- Gosh Dang It to Heck!: There's a lot of strange euphemisms for swears in his works, the most used ones are "skunkbag," "chiz," "jank," and "suckish."
- Happy Ending: He averts this in most episodes of his shows, to add to the comedic effect. Sometimes results in No Ending.
- History Repeats: "iParty with Victorious", the Victorious episode starring Jennette, and Sam and Cat all aired on the second Saturday of the month of June.
- Jerk Ass: Wouldn't be a Dan Schneider show without a couple.
- Karma Houdini: There usually are a few jerkass characters in his works that receive absolutely no sort of comeuppance or consequences for their behaviors and actions; the most egregious example is Megan, the villain of Drake & Josh who was a borderline sociopath not to mention very well liked by the writers and despised by the fanbase.
- Laugh Track: Averted Trope for Zoey101, due to it being a single camera work shot on location. Played very straight with every other show he's made.
- Large Ham: You're gonna see a lot of characters like this in his works. Josh, Chase, Michael, Freddie, Robbie, Trina...the list goes on and on.
- No Ending: Schneider likes to use this trope often in his more recent works.
- No Indoor Voice: Schneider loves writing characters with exuberant and your voices. Expect at least two-thirds of all characters on a Dan Schneider-show to frequently shout their dialogue. Also expect a sequence at least once during an episode of any Dan Schneider show where the characters will have an argument - resulting in characters shouting at each other obnoxiously.
- Old Media Playing Catch-Up:
- The send-up of the Filipino Michael Jackson "Thriller" Prison Dance scene in the Victorious special Locked Up, with the original being at least four years old and probably pre-dating iCarly!
- iCarly itself, which came years after people had already been doing webshows and the rise of Youtube.
- Sam & Cat tried to push social media (ie, Twitter) very hard, to the extent of episode titles being #hashtags.
- The send-up of the Filipino Michael Jackson "Thriller" Prison Dance scene
- Recursive Canon: Events in Victorious, iCarly, Zoey101 indicate that Drake & Josh is a fictional TV show in the shared universe of the other 2 shows.
- Or that the Drew and Jerry Show Within a Show from Drake & Josh is a fictional TV show in the shared universe of the other 3 shows.
- Running Gag: Plenty of them. Hobos have been one since the days of All That. One of the more recent ones is someone (usually female) making a chicken for someone else.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: Loves having episodes without endings, or endings where nothing actually matters. Recent example is the iBust A Thief episode of iCarly which had the gang try to get back Sam's stolen laptop. In the end Sam had left it in a pizza box in the fridge and discovers it at the end and doesn't tell anyone.
- The Flour Bomber plot in "Robbie Sells Rex". Complete with Lampshading of how horrible, boring and anti-climatic the plot is.
- Shared Universe: Officially canonized in "iStart a Fan War" of iCarly.
- Ship Tease: And how.
- Most notably in iCarly. Schneider managed to drag along both the Sam/Freddie and Carly/Freddie ships by teasing both, having an episode where Carly and Freddie get together but break up, an episode where Sam and Freddie get together followed by a four part relationship arc which ends with them breaking up, continuing to tease both sides throughout the final season to the point that going into the final episode of the series both sides would be plausible to end the show together, and it would be just as plausible if the show ended with neither being together. iCarly went for 5 years and 107 episodes. It was also a masterclass in creating and stoking the flames of Shipping Wars between the major factions.
- Followed up by doing the same on Victorious, by teasing the Jade/Beck pairing, the Beck/Tori pairing and the Jade/Tori pairing, plus teasing Andre/Jade, Andre/Tori as well as stringing along Cat/Robbie shippers.
- Most notably in iCarly. Schneider managed to drag along both the Sam/Freddie and Carly/Freddie ships by teasing both, having an episode where Carly and Freddie get together but break up, an episode where Sam and Freddie get together followed by a four part relationship arc which ends with them breaking up, continuing to tease both sides throughout the final season to the point that going into the final episode of the series both sides would be plausible to end the show together, and it would be just as plausible if the show ended with neither being together. iCarly went for 5 years and 107 episodes. It was also a masterclass in creating and stoking the flames of
- Shout-Out: Schneider has freely admitted to almost having an outright love of paying homage to the sitcoms he grew up with and loved as a child and teenager, particularly The Mary Tyler Moore Show. The very last whole cast scene from iCarly is in fact such an homage, for example.
- Spin-Off: Despite having shows on the air for nearly 20 years, Sam & Cat and Gibby are Schneider's first true spinoffs. Most everything else is just a Shared Universe.
- Spiritual Successor: Pretty much all of his shows after All That were based off of another:
- All That spawned Kenan & Kel, The Amanda Show and Zoey101. The Amanda Show was treated as an actual show being put on for the audience, much like All That, and both referred to each other.
- The Amanda Show spawned What I Like About You and Drake & Josh
- Drake & Josh spawned iCarly
- Zoey101 spawned Victorious
- Victorious and iCarly spawned Sam & Cat
- Also, the idea of an older sibling taking care of a younger sibling introduced in Guys Like Us inspired the premises of both What I Like About You and iCarly.
- The 'Verse: See the Nick Verse.
- Teasing Creator: After becoming aware of fandom and the almost exclusive Shipping focus when he joined the online community for iCarly, Schneider then turned what was a relatively non-explosive online community into a Sam/Freddie vs Carly/Freddie Ship War that rivalled anything Nickelodeon had ever seen including Kaatang/Zutara. The usual method was inserting lines into his blogs referencing whatever pairing was not the focus of the episode.
- As show for Ship Tease, he managed to tease pairings after the Series Finale of iCarly.
- Has now started teasing the Jade/Tori (Jori) shippers on Victorious.
- Totally Radical: All over the place. Even the Gosh Dang It to Heck! euphemisms have shades of it.
- Whole Plot Reference:
- The Breakfast Club send-up for Victorious.
- The bathtub plot in iToe Fatcakes is inspired from an episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show.
- The Drake & Josh episode 'I Love Sushi' is an homage to the iconic I Love Lucy episode 'Job Switching'.
