6. Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide
Series Run: 2004-2007 (55 episodes) A friend once told me that he didn't like Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide. We are no longer friends. I've seen this show more than any other on the list in part because Nickelodeon played it pretty much non-stop but also because it was such a fast-paced and enjoyable watch. Almost every episode featured three or four plots which all came to a head in the final minute, it was a younger and less morose Curb Your Enthusiasm. Another one of Dan Schneider's tasty concoctions, Ned's Declassified focused on Ned, Cookie, and Mosely, three middle school friends finding their way through life's most socially awkward period. The fact that each episode focuses on one common problem middle-schoolers have (like studying and P.E.), the show might have seemed to be formulaic and procedural, but it also had an impressive narrative arc with several stoylines lasting four or five episodes. The show often featured absurd comedy and dealt with the megalomania of being a tween humorously, but it really was a show that made you fall in love with its characters.