Amanda Bynes Told ‘All That’ Co-Star Gabriel Iglesias ‘You Don’t Know How to be Funny’
In recent years, we’ve seen the rise of several stars who got their start as child actors on the Disney Channel. From Selena Gomez to Miley Cyrus, we’ve got the kid-friendly network to thank for an influx of celebrities that have gone on to great heights in the entertainment world.
It isn’t just Disney that has helped boost stars into success, though. Plenty of celebrities got their start on competing kid’s network Nickelodeon.
One place where a lot of these child stars cut their teeth was on the show All That, a comedy sketch series with some recurring parts and a revolving cast of young stars looking to breakthrough. Two of those stars were Amanda Bynes and Gabriel Iglesias, and it turns out that things weren’t always friendly between the co-stars.
‘All That’ was a sketch comedy
Nickelodeon’s All That premiered in 1994 and quickly became known as an SNL for kids. Popular musical acts made appearances, and there was a talented cast of child actors who brought comedic sketches to life.
Among those stars were Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell. Thompson would go on to SNL fame, making history as the show’s longest-serving cast member. The original run of All That lasted until 2000, and then the show took a brief hiatus before returning in 2002 with a rebooted flavor.
That rebooted version of All That ran for an additional four seasons, bringing the show as a whole to ten total seasons. Many of the original cast members made appearances for the 10th anniversary special.
When the show was canceled in 2005, it represented the end of an era. However — as we’ve learned from numerous reboots in recent years — there’s no such thing as an end in Hollywood, and the show was once again revived in 2018.
Mitchell and Thomas were back in as executive producers, and the format of sketches and musical guests returned to Nickelodeon for a new generation.
Amanda Bynes was a star of ‘All That’
Amanda Bynes was a regular performer on All That for its original run. Born in 1986, Bynes wasn’t even a teen yet when she started appearing on the show, and her quickly rising star thrust her into the spotlight in a major way.
Her rise to fame on All That was successful enough that she got her own spinoff series called The Amanda Show, and she leveraged that into several film appearances. For a while, it looked as though Bynes was set to make a smooth transition from child star into a mature actor, but trouble struck along the way.
Bynes, like so many stars who got their start as children, struggled with the transition and had a hard time shaking the child-based image fans had of her. Shortly after her decidedly grown-up appearance in Maxim magazine in 2010, Bynes’ started to spiral.
After an arrest for hitting a police car and more legal trouble over marijuana usage in a hotel, Bynes faded from the public eye. In recent years, fans have looked for signs that she’s recovering and maybe even ready for a comeback, but the glimpses they’ve gotten on social media haven’t always been promising.
Co-stars remember Amanda Bynes as “annoying” on ‘All That’ set
Former stars spoke with Complex about their memories of the time on the original set. Angelique Bates remembers that fans initially gave Bynes a hard time because she had replaced Bates.
“I reached out to some of my fans saying, “It is what it is. At least give her a chance.” People were often trying to play the race card, too, because I was the black girl who seemingly got replaced by the white girl,” Bates explained.
Katrina Johnson remembers Bynes as annoying: “I thought Amanda Bynes was really annoying. She was to me what I was to everybody else: the baby, kind of wild and running around.”
Meanwhile, it was Iglesias who had the most pointedly negative memory of working alongside Bynes. He said: “It really was strange being pulled aside by Amanda Bynes and told, ‘You don’t know how to be funny.’ That was hysterical. I was, ‘Okay, I won’t be talking to you anymore.'”
Iglesias went on to explain that Bynes was under a lot of pressure. He added: “She didn’t have enough time to be a regular kid. She was a perfectionist and any suggestions she would make, everybody listened.”
