Kenan & Kel

***Kenan & Kel*** is an American teen sitcom created by Kim Bass for Nickelodeon. It starred *All That* cast members Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell. 62 episodes and a made-for-TV movie were produced over four seasons from 1996 to 2000. The first two seasons were filmed at Nickelodeon Studios in Orlando, Florida, and the remaining two were filmed at the Nick on Sunset theater in Hollywood.

*Kenan & Kel* received critical acclaim, with praise of the performance of the title characters. It won the "Favorite TV Show" award at the 1998 Kids Choice Awards, and Thompson and Mitchell were ranked No. 40 and No. 39, respectively, on VH1's 100 Greatest Kid Stars. Reruns of the show are currently shown on TeenNick, as part of their programming block *NickSplat,* as well as MTV2, a sister channel of TeenNick under Viacom.

## Characters

### Kenan Rockmore (Kenan Thompson)

Kenan is the oldest child of Roger Rockmore and Sheryl Rockmore. He is Kyra's older brother and Kel's best friend. Kenan is relatively intelligent, but he hardly does any schoolwork. Instead, he spends his time getting in trouble and plotting schemes (such as transforming the grocery store at which he works into a nightclub, trying to get a car, or telling everybody that Kel has extra-sensory perception). Despite being good-natured, he frequently annoys his parents and boss. A trait that Kenan shares with Kel is that when someone uttered a nonsense word, the duo would repeat the word confusingly. In one episode, Kenan said the word huckleberry. This prompted Kenan's boss Chris and Kel to repeat the word confusingly. Kel also taught their adopted chimpanzee from the local zoo to do the same thing. His catchphrase is **"WHYYYYYY?!"** and he usually yells it when Kel does something wrong or he will angrily say, "Kel!". He also passes out when something good or bad happens to him due to being overwhelmed. He is shown to be very physically strong, being able to break an iron handcuff, destroy a block of cement punching it, and even removing a steel bars of a concrete wall with his will. Kenan also has a habit of yelling from across the room.

Age: 15-16 (Season 1), 16-17 (Season 2), 17-18 (Season 3) and 18-19 (Season 4)

### Kel Kimble (Kel Mitchell)

Kel is the slightly dim-witted and clumsy best friend of Kenan Rockmore. In fact, his impulsive, usually lack of attention, naïvety and awkward behavior, make Kel to be accident-prone, might being able to create the biggest disaster with the most ordinary things and actions. But despite this, Kel is actually quite intelligent as witnessed by his IQ test score, but this does not show in his everyday life. He loves orange soda (which he professes by talking in the third person: **"Who loves orange soda? Kelllll loves orange soda. Is it true? Mm-hmm! I do, I do, I do-ooooh!"**) and never pays for the soda he drinks at Kenan's place of business, Rigby's. In the episode "Who Loves Orange Soda", it is revealed that his steady diet for orange soda have caused his insides to be "Bright Orange". Since Kel's parents (who have never appeared on the show, though mentioned several times) are rich, busy scientists, he often visits and stays in Kenan's home to keep him company. Kel also tries to avoid Kenan's little sister, Kyra, who has a crush on him, but later on in the series, Kel feels more comfortable around Kyra. Kel also manages to get on Kenan's dad's bad side with his clumsy behavior and is always forced to go home. He might resist following Kenan's schemes at first, but ultimately he is included anyway and Kel somehow usually ruins them, although there are a few episodes that end on a high note. Despite being clumsy, Kel is also an incredible painter, an excellent violinist, and a rapper and does very well in school (unlike Kenan). He is always wearing a hat during the course of the series. He is scared of pancakes, butterflies, brassieres, flying, Berlin and monkeys. His catchphrase is **"AWWWW, HERE IT GOES!"** which he says right before the start of the show, and right at the end of the show. At the end of the first part of a 2-part episode, Kel would say, "AWWW, TO BE CONTINUED...", as the words, "TO BE CONTINUED...", would appear on the screen.

Age: 15-16 (Season 1), 16-17 (Season 2), 17-18 (Season 3) and 18-19 (Season 4)

### Roger Rockmore (Ken Foree)

Roger is Kenan and Kyra's father. Roger is a very tall, stern intimidating man with a big bald head, with a deep bass like voice. He works at O'Hare Airport as an air traffic controller, and is the only Rockmore who hates Kel. This is mostly due to the fact that Kel often makes a sarcastic remark about Roger's baldness and short-tempered attitude and tends to injure him and damage the Rockmore house during his visits. He usually tolerates Kel's presence, due to his friendship with Kenan, but he has been prone to get mad with Kel when he goes too far in his stupid actions. In the episode, *Get the Kel Out of Here*, Roger bans Kel for good from his house after Kel almost killed him, refusing to listen or forgive him (In the finale of the same episode, Kenan added that the only reason that Roger allows Kel to come back to his house is because he jumped out of the bedroom window, hit a tree with force, and forgot all that happened). Though he's a caring father, Roger has little to no patience with Kenan's schemes and punished his oldest child multiple times as a result of his troublemaking. In addition, Roger usually ends up having to pay for Kenan and Kel's mishaps, such as fixing the Crams' house or repairing the glass display at the jewelry store. He hates spending money and is also short-tempered, especially with Kenan's schemes and Kel's accidents. He has also been shown to be a sore-loser because he hardly ever wins any games.

### Sheryl Rockmore (Teal Marchande)

Sheryl is Kenan and Kyra's mother. Sheryl is kind and always seems to know what schemes Kenan and Kel are up to. She is also much more patient with Kel than her husband. Sheryl is much more of a listener than a punisher; she'd rather talk out problems with Kenan than punish him, though she has demonstrated her anger in several episodes.

### Kyra Rockmore (Vanessa Baden)

Kyra is Kenan's younger sister. Kyra's biggest mission is telling on her brother Kenan, but she has devoted herself to Kel, having a major crush on him. Kel being aware of Kyra's crush on him, tries to get far away as possible from her. But this helps Kenan, so
Kel convinces her to help them. For most of seasons three and four, Kyra did not appear, even in scenes showing the whole family; she did, however, appear in the series' finale TV movie. She often interrupts Kenan by saying ***"I was talking to Kel!"***.

Age: 9-10 (Season 1), 10 (Season 2), 11-12 (Season 3), and 12-13 (Season 4)

### Christopher "Chris" Potter (Dan Frischman)

Chris is Kenan's boss and the owner of the local grocery store, *Rigby's*. He lives with his unseen mother, (or the other way around) and most of his personal life involves taking care of her as she is an extremely unhealthy woman. Chris is usually Kenan and Kel's mentor and friend on the show, but sometimes he is annoyed by their antics and Kenan's schemes. Chris is dedicated to his store, but becomes annoyed when Kel takes so many things (mostly orange soda) without paying. This once prompted Chris to put a chain lock on the orange soda cooler until Kel began paying for orange soda. But he only did that once and let Kel drink all the orange soda he wants, like he always does. He also has frequent nightmares of being chased by a giant rabbit, as well as an irrational phobia of sandwiches. Chris is sometimes caught in the middle of some of Kenan's schemes and may sometimes get hurt. One of his catchphrases is ***"I have a radio in my car!"*** Chris usually uses nonsense words, and in earlier seasons, had a quirk of adding the "be" sound before certain words in his sentences, such as telling Kel, "You be-bruised my bananas!", usually leaving Kenan and Kel confused but the quirk was phased out as the series progressed. Chris had a mullet in the first few episodes of the series, but kept a much shorter hairstyle for the rest of the series.

## Premise

The show was set in Chicago, Illinois, and centered on the antics of two mischievous teenagers, Kenan Rockmore (Kenan Thompson) and Kel Kimble (Kel Mitchell). Kenan is a high school student with a job at a local grocery store, while Kel is his clumsy, orange soda-loving best friend.

Episodes of the series always opened and closed with Kenan and Kel breaking the fourth wall by interacting with the studio audience, standing in front of a red curtain that is placed in front of the main set while still in character. A frequent running gag of the openings would be Kel never knowing what the night's episode would be about and Kenan refusing to tell him. The closings would frequently feature Kenan coming up with a new scheme, often asking Kel to get various assorted items and meet him somewhere. Frazzled, Kel would exclaim his catchphrase, "Aww, here it goes!"

Another catchphrase commonly heard throughout the series is "WHYYYYYYY!?!?", usually screamed by Kenan after Kel does something stupid.

The theme song, entitled "Aw, Here It Goes", is performed by rapper Coolio. He is featured in the opening credits of the show along with Kenan and Kel. The lyrics describe the show and reference other famous duos such as Siegfried & Roy, Abbott & Costello, Penn & Teller, and former Los Angeles Lakers teammates Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, as well as Nancy Drew and The Hardy Boys.

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