ICarly

iCarly
Genre	Situation comedy
Format	Children's sitcom
Created by	Dan Schneider
Starring	Miranda Cosgrove Jennette McCurdy Nathan Kress Jerry Trainor Noah Munck (season 4-present, regular; seasons 1-3, recurring[1]
Theme music composer	Michael Corcoran
Opening theme	"Leave It All to Me", sung by Miranda Cosgrove and Drake Bell
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of seasons	4
No. of episodes	71 (aired) (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Dan Schneider
Producer(s)	Robin Weiner (supervising producer) Joe Catania Bruce Rand Berman (season 2-present)
Location(s)	Seattle, Washington (setting) Nickelodeon On Sunset, Hollywood, California (taping location)
Camera setup	Videotape (filmized); Multi-camera
Running time	30 min.
Production company(s)	Schneider's Bakery Nickelodeon Productions
Distributor	Nickelodeon
Broadcast
Original channel	Nickelodeon
Picture format	HD: 1080i/720p SD: 480i/576i
Audio format	Stereo
Original run	September 8, 2007 (2007-09-08) – present
Status	Returning series
External links
Official website

iCarly is an American children's television series that focuses on a girl named Carly Shay who creates her own web show called iCarly with her best friends Sam and Freddie. The series stars Miranda Cosgrove as Carly, Jennette McCurdy as Sam, Nathan Kress as Freddie, Jerry Trainor as Spencer and Noah Munck as Gibby and was created by Dan Schneider, who also serves as executive producer. The show is taped at Nickelodeon On Sunset in Hollywood, California.

The show premiered on Nickelodeon on September 8, 2007. It was originally rated TV-Y7, and later, TV-G. Production of Season 4 began in May 2010^[2][3] and this season will have 26 episodes, after Miranda Cosgrove inked a seven-figure deal.^[4] According to an article on TV Guide, she makes $180,000 per episode - one of the highest paid teen stars ever.^[5]

iCarly is shown in a number of other countries including Canada (YTV and Nickelodeon Canada) and the United Kingdom (Nickelodeon UK, Easter 2008).

Plot

When Carly and her sassy best bud Sam act funny at a school talent show audition, tech-savvy Freddie tapes it and posts it online without telling them. Upon seeing the girls' strong chemistry and banter, the online audience clamors for more and the iCarly webcast is born. While grappling with typical issues of adolescence, Carly, Sam, and Freddie find they've also become online celebrities as their show, which features talent contests, recipes, problem-solving, and random dancing, garners international accolades.

Carly lives in Seattle, Washington with her twenty-eight year old brother/guardian Spencer and produces the show in a makeshift third-floor studio loft in his apartment. Although no mention is made about the location of their mother, Carly and Spencer's father is a U.S. Air Force officer ("Col. Steven Shay"), temporarily stationed on a submarine, who is often mentioned but has never actually been seen on the show.

Characters

Main characters

• Carly Shay (Miranda Cosgrove) is the teen star of her own popular web show, iCarly, which she produces with her two best friends, Sam and Freddie.
• Samantha "Sam" Puckett (Jennette McCurdy) is one of Carly's best friends and co-host of iCarly. She is very aggressive and lazy; but at the same time, creative and fun.
• Fredward "Freddie" Benson (Nathan Kress) is Carly's other best friend, and he is the technical producer of iCarly and Carly's neighbor. He has had a crush on Carly ever since they met, and he is characterized as a "cool geek".
• Spencer Shay (Jerry Trainor) is Carly's eccentric and weird 28 year-old brother and legal guardian. He builds crazy sculptures, and usually doesn't act his age.
• Gibby Gibson (Noah Munck) is an odd friend of Carly, Sam and Freddie, who constantly likes to take his shirt off for no reason. (Starring season 4-present, Recurring seasons 1-3)^[1]

Recurring characters

• Marissa Benson (Mary Scheer) is Freddie's overbearing and overprotective mother.
• Nevel Papperman (Reed Alexander) is an 11-year-old critic who runs the nevelocity.com website, a site that reviews other websites. He is Carly's nemesis and has repeatedly tried to sabotage iCarly in exchange for a kiss from Carly.
• Chuck Chambers (Ryan Ochoa) is a child in the Shays' apartment building who frequently torments Spencer.
• T-Bo is the manager at the Groovy Smoothie. He often annoys customers into buying random foods such as bagels.
• Ted Franklin (Tim Russ) is the principal at Ridgeway, the school where Carly, Sam, and Freddie attend. He is very fair and is a big fan of iCarly.
• Francine Briggs (Mindy Sterling) is a very strict English teacher at the junior high school who shows an obvious dislike for children.
• Lewbert (Jeremy Rowley) is the doorman for the building in which Carly, Spencer, and Freddie live, characterised by his spastic behavior and a large wart on his face. He is often being pranked by the kids on iCarly.
• Mr. Howard (David St. James) is a strict and unenthusiastic teacher.
• Jeremy (Nathan Pearson) (nicknamed "Germy") is another classmate of Carly, Sam, and Freddie who is always ill.

Episodes

TV films/specials

iCarly & Victorious crossover special

Dan Schneider, the creator of iCarly and Victorious has confirmed via his Facebook and Twitter that a crossover special between the two shows are now completed, as of August 29th 2010.^[7] Later that night the script was sent out and the following day it went into production.^[8] Production will last about 3 weeks long. The episode will air sometime late 2010 or early 2011. It will be a 3-part episode.

Broadcast history

• Nickelodeon (September 8, 2007–present)
• TeenNick October 18, 2009 – present; airs Sundays only

DVD releases

Other media

Music

Columbia Records and Nickelodeon Records has released a soundtrack for the show entitled iCarly. It includes the theme song and four original songs by Miranda Cosgrove. Several tracks by guest artists and cast dialogue are also included.

Website

In reality, the iCarly.com website contains many promotional videos by the cast (as their respective characters), as well as content created and sent in by viewers. Other features on the site include characters' blogs, pictures from the set, songs, games, and comments from viewers. Many fictional websites from this show redirect to this page. For example, Zaplook, SplashFace, ToonJuice,CraigsMix, Nevelocity, PillowMyHead.com, AggressiveParenting.com, SamPuckett.com, TheValerieShow.com, NeverWatchiCarly.com, iSnarly.com, SprayYourChildren.com, and any other website mentioned on the show redirect to this page.

Video games

An animated PC hidden object game, iCarly: iDream in Toons, was released by Nickelodeon on their Nick Arcade. Jerry Trainor is the only actor from the cast who lends his voice to the game, the rest of the characters' speech being dubbed with typing sounds on a keyboard.

On May 13, 2009, Nickelodeon announced they had reached an agreement with Activision to produce an iCarly video game for the Nintendo DS and Wii. The game was released October 28, 2009. The cast lend their voices in the videogame.

On January 11, 2010, the official iCarly Facebook page announced the release of an application called "Sam's Remote" exclusively for iPhone and iPod Touch. This app consists of Sam's remote, which she uses on live casts of iCarly in the show, where one pushes different buttons and they make silly sound effects. Available through the iTunes App Store for $1.99 download.

Books

iCarly Reader series

iCarly Novel series

Awards and Nominations

The show was well reviewed by critics.

References

External links

• Official website
• Nickelodeon page
• YTV (Canada)
• iCarly at the Internet Movie Database
• iCarly Wiki