Welcome Freshmen is a television show that ran on Nickelodeon

Nickelodeon (TV channel)

Nickelodeon, often simply called Nick and originally named Pinwheel, is an American children's channel owned by MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom International. The channel is primarily aimed at children ages 7–17, with the exception of their weekday morning program block aimed at preschoolers...

 from 1991 to 1996. The show took place at Hawthorne High School with a group of high school students and a bumbling vice principal. Game shows like Get the Picture and Nick Arcade had celebrity episodes starring some of the cast of Welcome Freshmen and Clarissa Explains It All

Clarissa Explains It All

Clarissa Explains It All is an American teen sitcom that aired on Nickelodeon. Created by Mitchell Kriegman, it aired for five seasons for a total of 65 episodes from March 23, 1991, to December 3, 1994, and then went into reruns....

.

Welcome Freshmen was filmed at Nickelodeon Studios

Nickelodeon Studios

Nickelodeon Studios was a television taping studio as well as an original attraction at Universal Studios Florida.-History:...

 in Orlando, Florida

Orlando, Florida

Orlando is a city in the central region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat of Orange County, and the center of the Greater Orlando metropolitan area. According to the 2010 US Census, the city had a population of 238,300, making Orlando the 79th largest city in the United States...

.

Seasons 1 and 2

The earlier episodes of the series consisted of comedy sketches that loosely followed a theme. Some of the comedy routines involved a tortoise named Mortis teaching children about safety, a documentarian named Mr. History who talks about past generations of freshmen, the vice principal Mr. Lippman imagining himself as a stand-up comedian, and a student named Billy Cushman who, though his appearance was occasional, provided not only a good example of how not to behave, but also a good example of flatulence

Flatulence

Flatulence is the expulsion through the rectum of a mixture of gases that are byproducts of the digestion process of mammals and other animals. The medical term for the mixture of gases is flatus, informally known as a fart, or simply gas...

.

Each episode had two or three short skits about the gang's misadventures in high school.

Other recurring skits

• Mr. Lippman, the Vice Principal doing the morning announcements (at the same time, imagining how he'd really like to say them).
• The Merv-u-mentary, Merv's amateurish attempt at uncovering news and scandals at the high school.
• Mr. History, featuring the gang as high school students of a past time period.
• Mike Who, featuring close-ups of a sidelined high school basketball player who driving the crowd wild with a single wave. Eventually cut after Vice Principal "Pervert" Lippman said it was too distracting, resulting in a tense showdown between Lippman and Who.

Season 3

In the later episodes, the sketch comedy format was abandoned and Welcome Freshmen became a standard situation comedy.

In the third season, the gang became sophomores, except Walter who flunked and was held behind. Merv and Tara left, and new characters came in: Manny and Erin (incoming freshmen) and Grant, a junior who was Erin's brother and soon became Alex's boyfriend.

Cast

• Jocelyn Steiner as Alex Moore
• Rick Galloway as Walter Patterson
• Chris Lobban as Kevin St. James
• Veronica Alicino as Miss Topaz
• Arian Waring Ash as Erin Kelly (1992–1993)
• Janis Benson as Miss Petruka
• Brock Bradley as Grant Kelly (1992–1993)
• Nicholas Caruso as Manny Barrington (1992–1993)
• David Rhoden as Merv (1991–1992)
• Jill Setter as Tara (1991–1992)
• Mike Speller as Mr. Elliott Lippman
• Nick Barnes as Billy Cushman

External links

• Jump The Shark - Welcome Freshmen