Hey Dude returns to remind you that the ’90s weren’t always all that
Every trip down Memory Lane is bound to reach “This Isn’t Good As I Remember It” Boulevard. TeenNick’s “The ’90s Are All That” programming bloc is set to arrive at that dispiriting intersection this Friday, Oct. 7, when it moves to primetime and introduces the not particularly wild, barely passing for strange dude-ranch comedy Hey Dude to its lineup. Soon enough, TeenNick subscribers will comedically tumble into the same water trough of cold reality The A.V. Club found itself in during a recent return trip to Bar None, a television landscape lacking likeable characters, memorable plotlines, or anything else that makes for compelling viewing. But hey, sometimes a catchy theme song and a unique premise is enough to carry a pop-culture property across the decades—especially if that property aired on a seemingly endless loop on Nickelodeon in the early 1990s. Meanwhile, the puppets of Nick’s bizarre sketch-comedy/puppet-show hybrid Weinerville sit sad and headless to the side, waiting for their big moment in the nostalgic spotlight.