For over 40 years, Nickelodeon has been a leader in kids' TV. The network is responsible for launching the careers of some seriously impressive stars, including Ariana Grande, Emma Roberts, and Jessica Alba, and kids who grew up in the '90s and '00s have fond memories of shows like "Clarissa Explains It All," "Are You Afraid of the Dark," and "Victorious." For a lot of kids, the idea of getting onto a Nickelodeon show was a dream, and for a special few, that dream became a reality. But not everyone who made it into one of Nickelodeon's series has such fond memories of their time there. These are the child actors that put Nickelodeon on blast.
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00:00Nickelodeon can be a child actor's dream gig, but which former stars have taken shots at
00:05the network?
00:06We're about to find out.
00:07You may have forgotten pop princess Ariana Grande originally rose to fame as Cat Valentine,
00:12a sweet but ditzy high school student who had eye-catching red hair, on the Nickelodeon
00:16series Victorious and Sam & Cat.
00:19Bye!
00:20Oh!
00:21Oh, dang it!
00:22My gum fell out of my mouth!
00:25The comedies brought the jokes, but it sounds like there weren't always laughs behind the
00:29For starters, Grande told People magazine in 2014 that while her Nickelodeon stint had
00:34been, quote, a childhood dream come true, it was also difficult because she had to keep
00:38inhabiting a character that didn't feel like herself.
00:41Her red hair for the character was also a challenge.
00:44In a 2014 Facebook post, Grande wrote that she was forced to bleach and dye her locks
00:48every other week, for four years running.
00:50The process damaged her hair so much that, after those four years, she started wearing
00:55a wig instead.
00:56There have also been a lot of rumors over the years about supposed feuds between Grande
01:00and her Victorious co-star, Victoria Justice, as well as rumblings of behind-the-scenes
01:04tension on Sam & Cat.
01:06In June 2014, just months before Sam & Cat was canceled, Grande's colleague Jeanette
01:10McCurdy shared an essay on Twitter about a, quote, trouble friend.
01:14She didn't name names, but fans suspected she was talking about Grande.
01:17After the TV series was officially canceled, Grande posted a long, heartfelt note on Facebook
01:22about it.
01:23A Hollywood reporter noted,
01:24"[She thanked everyone involved, except McCurdy.]
01:27Evidently, this Nickelodeon show didn't end on a high note."
01:30Then there's Grande's former Sam & Cat co-star, Jeanette McCurdy.
01:33In 2007, McCurdy became the envy of many a wannabe child actor when she landed a starring
01:38role on the series iCarly.
01:39For five years, she played Sam Puckett, a loud, brash, and occasionally annoying teenager
01:44who ran a web show with her two best friends.
01:46Following the success of that series, McCurdy carried on playing the character on Sam & Cat.
01:51Things started to fall apart in 2014, however, when McCurdy missed the Nickelodeon Kids'
01:55Choice Awards, and therefore her commitment to appearing on behalf of the network.
01:58She addressed her absence in a now-deleted tweet, blaming a, quote, unfair situation
02:03for keeping her away.
02:04While she never fully explained what that situation was, sources told TMZ that the star
02:08was feuding with the network over money, as her co-star Ariana Grande was supposedly making
02:13significantly more.
02:14Grande later denied those reports.
02:16Years later, on her podcast, Empty Inside, McCurdy addressed her Nickelodeon experience
02:20once again.
02:21As she said at the time,
02:22"[I was deeply unhappy, and I actually really resented my life because I didn't like the
02:26projects I was a part of."
02:27But it's not just recent Nickelodeon stars who have issues.
02:30Two years after Nickelodeon's official launch, the network began airing a series that would
02:34become the blueprint for all of the kid-friendly comedies that would dominate its programming
02:38for years to come.
02:39The show, called You Can't Do That on Television, was essentially a sketch comedy program starring
02:43regular kids who attended regular school and had no professional training.
02:47Among these non-actors was Alistair Gillis.
02:50Gillis spent five years on the show, between 1982 and 1987, and You Can't Do That on Television
02:55ended up being his final acting credit, and he doesn't necessarily look back on the whole
02:59show fondly.
03:00In Slimed!
03:01An Oral History of Nickelodeon's Golden Age, Gillis called out the show a number of times.
03:05In one particular section, the former child star got into some of the jokes on the series
03:09that didn't sit right with him.
03:10As he put it,
03:11"...there are some things I might question in retrospect.
03:14Fat jokes about Lisa and a certain amount that was probably over my head at the time
03:17in terms of what was tactful or funny.
03:19It's really not always the healthiest thing for kids."
03:22And finally, there's Nat Wolff, an actor and musician best known for his roles in the John
03:26Green films The Fault in Our Stars and Paper Towns, who landed his first major role, alongside
03:30his brother Alex, on the Nickelodeon series The Naked Brothers Band.
03:33In the mockumentary comedy, which was based loosely on Nat and Alex Wolff's real life,
03:37Nat played an over-the-top version of himself, a goofy, charming, music-obsessed grade-schooler.
03:42In a 2014 interview with Vanity Fair, Wolff opened up about being on the Kids Network.
03:46He told the interviewer that while he enjoyed his time on the show because it allowed him
03:50to work with all his real-life best friends, he didn't necessarily think that most of the
03:54shows on Nickelodeon were very high quality.
03:56In 2009, The Naked Brothers Band ended after Nickelodeon and the Wolff family couldn't
04:00come to an agreement about the future of the series.
04:03Nat later told The Hollywood Reporter that the situation was, quote, "...confusing because
04:07The Naked Brothers Band was never actually canceled.
04:09It just sort of stopped happening."
04:11In the end, however, it seems his experience wasn't all bad.
04:14During their show's Zoom reunion in 2020, Nat told StyleCaster that he and Alex were
04:18not opposed to the idea of a Naked Brothers Band Netflix special, but only if it was perfect.