Trivia / The Amanda Show

• Acting for Two: Disregarding the obvious cases of actors playing multiple characters on the in-universe sketches, Amanda Bynes played both herself and Penelope. Which is probably why the two never meet.
• Beam Me Up, Scotty!: Penelope didn't say the words "Amanda, please" by themselves that often in the show, unless she was referring to her website. The phrase does appear during the vanity plates, though.
• Corpsing: In one of the "Totally Kyle" skits, in which Kyle (Drake Bell) talks about the time a spider landed on his face, Drake noticeably cracks up when he says, "So I was all, "AHH! SPIDER!", and the spider was all, "AHH! KYLE!"
• Harpo Does Something Funny: Drake Bell and Josh Peck were given only the stage directions "Drake and Josh argue about shrimp", and they improvised a whole routine that proved so funny Dan Schneider realized they should have their own spin-off.
• Hostility on the Set: The 2024 documentary Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV revealed that working on the show was a bad experience for several of the cast and crew members, thanks to Dan Schneider creating a hostile work environment:
  • Raquel Lee revealed that she had a poor experience working on the show, as Schneider had given preferential treatment to Amanda Bynes and Drake Bell while frequently criticizing her on the set.
  • Writers Jenny Kilgen and Christy Stratton also revealed that Schneider frequently mistreated the female staff members, including making uncomfortable sexual and misogynistic jokes and even attempting to skirt around WGA regulations so he could pay them less than the male members. Kilgen went so far as to sue Schneider and Nickelodeon for his treatment, which was eventually settled out of court.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: Episodes 1, 5, 8, and 12 have never been released on any form of home media due to distribution costs of the songs performed in those episodes, but those episodes have been rerun in the past.
• The Other Darrin:
  • Judge Trudy's bailiff went through two actors before settling on Gary Anthony Williams.
  • Mr. Gullible was played by John Kassir in Season 1 and Andrew Hill Newman in Season 2.
• Promoted Fanboy: Drake Bell was a huge fan of Amanda Bynes' prior to the series and was starstruck at the prospect of working with her.
• Real Song Theme Tune:
  • The theme is simply the Wizard Peak theme from Spyro the Dragon (1998) With Lyrics. Both the game and this show were composed by Stewart Copeland of The Police.
  • Moody's Point used a slightly modified "For All I Am" by Lisasmith—Nickelodeon requested a "less aggressive" version.
• Recycled Set: The video rental store Moody visits in one episode is clearly the Blockblister set with little redresses here and there, most notably the omission of the store's logo.
• Romance on the Set: Amanda and Drake dated for real during the show's first two seasons.
• Screwed by the Network: Due to Bynes wanting to go on to do other projects, the show got canceled even though it was popular. In Dan Schneider's own words:
  The Amanda Show got canceled. It was one of the stranger moments in my career as a writer/producer. At the time, The Amanda Show was the most popular show on Nickelodeon. Yet after only 41 episodes, the network pulled the plug. It was a surprising move. I've never learned exactly why The Amanda Show was canceled. I think it had to do with certain people wanting to take Amanda away from Nickelodeon to the WB so she could star in What I Like About You (another TV show I created). But I didn't want The Amanda Show to end. I felt we should have done at least 20 more episodes.
• Shrug of God: Dan Schneider in response to an FAQ on his website admitted that he himself had no idea who the real Moody was in the last Moody's Point sketch (or how that storyline was going to end in general), due to the show getting cancelled before he even had the chance to write it.
• Star-Making Role: Amanda Bynes was put on the map as a child and teen star of the 2000s with this show. It led to Big Fat Liar, What a Girl Wants, She's the Man, Hairspray and of course What I Like About You.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Had Amanda not gone to work on What I Like About You, it's very likely the show would've seen more episodes. Even the creators themselves felt the show ended too soon.
  • Moody's Point was intended to be a back door pilot for a new show but it was scrapped due to Amanda's departure from the show to do What I Like About You although the staff somewhat knew the network wouldn't pick it up for a whole series anyway. Some elements were possibly used in the show Zoey 101.