''Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide'' (sometimes shortened to ''Ned's Declassified'') is an American

live action Live action is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live action with animation to create a live-action animated feature film. Live action is used to define film, video games o ...

sitcom A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of character (arts), characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent settin ...

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (nicknamed Nick) is an American pay television channel and the flagship property of the Nickelodeon Group, a sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first ca ...

that debuted on the Nickelodeon Sunday night TEENick scheduling block on September 12, 2004. The series' original

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aired on September 7, 2003, and it was ordered to series by Nickelodeon in early 2004. The one-hour special movie

series finale A series finale is the final installment of an episodic entertainment series, most often a television series. It may also refer to a final theatrical sequel, the last part of a television miniseries, the last installment of a literary series, ...

aired on June 8, 2007. The show was produced by Apollo ProScreen GmbH & Co. Filmproduktion KG in association with Jack Mackie Pictures. Its main

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and creator is Scott Fellows, the head writer for '' The Fairly OddParents'' and creator of ''

Johnny Test ''Johnny Test'' is an animated television series created by Scott Fellows, originally produced in the United States by Warner Bros. Animation and later produced in Canada by Cookie Jar Group, Cookie Jar Entertainment. It premiered on Kids' WB ...

''.

Premise

''Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide'' follows the lives of the titular character Ned Bigby, and his two best friends Jennifer "Moze" Mosely, and Simon "Cookie" Nelson-Cook, as they navigate their middle school years. The first season takes place during the first semester of seventh grade, the second season covers the second semester of seventh grade, and the third season takes place during eighth grade. Throughout the series, Ned builds up a number of 'tips' for his "survival guide", and uses the tips to help himself and his classmates cope with the standard struggles of middle school. Each individual episode relates to a topic in the guide, such as popularity, grades, or sports, as well as developing other plots (such as Ned's love life) throughout.

Episodes

Cast

* Devon Werkheiser as Ned Bigby * Lindsey Shaw as Jennifer "Moze" Mosely * Daniel Curtis Lee as Simon "Cookie" Nelson-Cook * Jim J. Bullock as Mr. Monroe (main role, season 1; recurring role, seasons 2–3) * Daran Norris as Gordy (recurring role, season 1; main role, seasons 2–3)

Locations

The show takes place at the fictional James K. Polk Middle School, named after the 11th President of the United States, James K. Polk. The school's colors are gold and green and its

mascot A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, sports team, university society, society, military unit, or brand, brand name. Mascots are als ...

is the

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, which is a common theme throughout the school's interior. During the first season, all of the show's action took place within the school or its grounds, and with the exception of one or two notable occasions, everything happened indoors. However, during season 2, more outdoor shots were used, and on certain occasions, the show took place off school property. The show's finale, for example, took place almost entirely off the school grounds.

DVD releases

In the US there have been four DVD releases made for the series. * TEENick Picks, Volume 1 released on April 18, 2006 – features "Guide to: Computer Labs and Backpacks" (Season 1, Episode 9) * Special Field Trip Edition released on August 28, 2007 – features "Field Trips, Permission Slips, Signs, and Weasels" and "Guide to: Dismissal and The School Play." * The Best of Season 1 and The Best of Season 2 both released on September 23, 2008 exclusive to

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. The first season of ''Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide'' was released on DVD in the Netherlands, Australia, and Belgium on April 9, 2009. The Netherlands also released the second season, although both seasons were only released with Dutch dubbing. It's unknown if there will follow more places in Europe, or someplace else. Alliance Home Entertainment has released the first two seasons on DVD in Canada only. The third and final season was supposed to be released on February 7, 2012 in Canada only, but again the production was delayed.

Reception

Ratings

The debut of ''Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide'' on September 12, 2004, received a 4.5 rating, with 914,000 tween viewers, which was described as "healthy, but not as stellar" ratings by '' Variety''s Denise Martin.

Critical

Robert Lloyd of ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' upon reviewing the series finale of ''Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide'' remarked that it was "one of the best series on television — a show that took genre conventions and ran them through unpredictable changes".

Proposed spin-off

In June 2008, Werkheiser signed a development contract with Nickelodeon for a spin-off that would deal with his character's adventures in high school. The show was never greenlit to production, due to the other major actors from the original series being busy with their own projects – creator and executive producer Scott Fellows was working on another Nickelodeon show, '' Big Time Rush''; Daniel Curtis Lee was committed to

Disney XD Disney XD is an American pay television television channel, channel owned by the Disney Branded Television and Disney Entertainment units of The Walt Disney Company. The channel is aimed primarily at older children ages six to eleven years old ...

's '' Zeke and Luther''; and Lindsey Shaw was working as the lead on ABC Family's '' 10 Things I Hate About You''.

Podcast

In February 2023, Devon Werkheiser started a podcast called ''Ned's Declassified Podcast Survival Guide'' with Lindsey Shaw and Daniel Curtis Lee under the network PodCo.

References

External links

* (Archived) * {{Former Nickelodeon original series 2000s American teen sitcoms 2000s Nickelodeon original programming 2004 American television series debuts 2007 American television series endings American English-language television shows Middle school television series Nickelodeon sitcoms 2000s American single-camera sitcoms Television series created by Scott Fellows