ICarly

iCarly is an American teen sitcom created by Dan Schneider, which originally aired on Nickelodeon from September 8, 2007, to November 23, 2012. The series tells the story of Carly Shay (Miranda Cosgrove), a teenager who creates and hosts her own web show called iCarly with her best friends, Sam and Freddie (Jennette McCurdy and Nathan Kress) in the apartment loft that she and her older brother, Spencer (Jerry Trainor) live in. As the web show quickly becomes an internet phenomenon, the characters are tasked with balancing their normal teenage lives with the wacky situations their newfound fame lands them in. By the fourth season, their school friend, Gibby (Noah Munck) also works with them on the web show.

Schneider was both the showrunner and executive producer, under his Schneider's Bakery label. During the first five seasons, the show was taped at Nickelodeon on Sunset before relocating to KTLA Studios in Hollywood for the sixth and final season. It was nominated for an Emmy award for Outstanding Children's Program five times. Although the show received mixed reviews from critics, it became popular with audiences. The January 2010 episode "iSaved Your Life" reached 11.2 million viewers, the second most viewed telecast in Nickelodeon history.

In December 2020, a revival of the series was ordered by Paramount+ with Cosgrove, Kress and Trainor returning. The revival series premiered on June 17, 2021.

When Carly Shay and her best friend Sam Puckett improvise comedy at a school talent show audition, tech-savvy Freddie Benson records it and posts it online without informing them. After seeing the girls' strong chemistry and banter, the online audience clamors for more, and thus they decide to create iCarly. The trio find their normal adolescent lives thrown for a loop when they discover that they have become online sensations as their show – which features talent contests, recipes, problem-solving, and random dancing – garners international accolades.

Carly lives in Seattle with her adult brother and guardian Spencer and produces the show in a makeshift third-floor studio loft in their apartment. Their father, Steven Shay, is a United States Air Force officer stationed on a submarine, and is often mentioned, but only seen during the series' finale episode, "iGoodbye".

iCarly is the fourth series created by Dan Schneider for Nickelodeon. After working with her on Drake & Josh, Schneider began pitching a new TV series starring Miranda Cosgrove; the original idea of the show was that she plays a normal girl who, in a twist of fate, gets cast to star in her favorite TV show, Starstruck. However, during a casual meeting in his den with his wife and his friend Steve, Schneider decided that it would be much better if Carly had her own show – a web show she could run herself and do whatever she wanted to do. In November 2006, Schneider then scrapped his Starstruck script and began developing a new pilot called iCarly during December. The pilot was filmed in January 2007. The series was filmed at the Nickelodeon on Sunset (now Earl Carroll Theatre). The exterior shots of the Shays' apartment building, Bushwell Plaza, are digitally altered images of the Eastern Columbia Building in Los Angeles.

During production of Zoey 101, Schneider came up with the idea of the show and its name with his friend and producer of The Big Bang Theory, Steven Molaro. He was trying to think of a good title for the new series about kids who start their own web show. The pilot script followed a lead girl named "Sam" but the URL for iSam was already taken. Schneider tried other girls' names and bought the URL for iJosie, but eventually changed it to iCarly and enjoyed the name for the lead character. The names of the lead girls were then changed from Sam and Kira to Carly and Sam.

In late January 2011, while doing press for her North American Dancing Crazy concert tour, Miranda Cosgrove began telling news sources that she was looking forward to returning to Hollywood to begin filming a fifth season of iCarly. On January 27, 2011, Cosgrove told Cleveland Live News "We're getting ready to start the next season, right after the tour. I would be willing to do the show as long as people like it and as long as it works." On January 28, 2011, Reuters news agency also reported that Cosgrove was preparing to begin filming a fifth season of iCarly, and on February 3, 2011, Cosgrove told The Middletown Press, when speaking of the show and her co-stars Jennette McCurdy and Nathan Kress, "I've known them since I was little. I can't wait to get back. I'm really comfortable doing iCarly. It's like my home away from home." Cosgrove concluded her Dancing Crazy concert tour on February 24, 2011, and Jennette McCurdy finished her Generation Love mall tour on April 14, 2011. The entire cast did not even get together until the 2011 Kids' Choice Awards. Cosgrove confirmed that filming would resume shortly. At the 2011 Kids' Choice Awards, Jerry Trainor stated that filming would resume in May.