Melissa Joan Hart
radar: sketch comedy show. TLC—who wrote the theme song— performed in two of the first three episodes. The pilot aired nearly seven months before their breakout album, CrazySexyCool, was released, giving 12-year-old viewers a chance to hear a new band before they made it big. The first season of the show also featured live performances by fresh faces, including Brandy, Aaliyah, and Usher, who at the point was still going by his full name, Usher Raymond. “If you look at the 10 years [that All That was on air], it’s a who’s who of music,” says Dan Schneider, the show’s creator. Pete & Pete also made a habit of featuring musicians whom you wouldn’t expect to see on any TV show, let alone one marketed to grade schoolers. David Johansen played a police officer; Debbie Harry, a neighbor; Juliana Hatfield, a lunch lady; Kate Pierson (of the B-52s), a blind millionaire; PRIME TIME and Michael Stipe, an ice cream man. Iggy Pop was a series regular, playing the overprotective father of Nona, Michelle Trachtenberg’s character. In the same episode that featured Luscious Jackson, he took to the stage and sang to his melissa daughter, begging her to dance with him. It was a far cry from joan “I Wanna Be Your Dog,” but I’m convinced that moment was influential enough for me to spend the better part of my hart late teens fanatically collecting his albums. The series’ soundtrack was equally important, with Apples in Stereo and Stephin Merritt of the Magnetic Fields, among others, contributing music to the show.
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