‘Cousin Skeeter’ Stirred up Controversy When It Premiered in 1998

Nickelodeon’s sitcom Cousin Skeeter is considered a classic by fans. The show ran for three seasons on the children and family network, airing from 1998-2001. It starred Robert Ri’chard as Bobby – and Meagan Good as Nina – in a coming-of-age situational format. The show was different for featuring a puppet as a main character, Skeeter, who moves in with Bobby’s family and chronicles the ups and downs of growing up. 

Throughout the course of the show, Skeeter is treated like a regular human, with there being no mention of him being a puppet. The suspected purpose of such was to teach viewers to treat people equally and with respect, regardless of their differences.

The show was ranked as a top-rated action series on the network. But a 1998 Variety review that ran in the show’s inception didn’t find Cousin Skeeter favorable, believing the show would send “black culture careening back to the Stone Age.” The reviewer views the show as one that thrives off of stereotypes of the Black community. 

Specifically, the reviewer was no fan of Skeeter, writing: “Skeeter (voiced by Bill Bellamy) is a mean-spirited, piggish, jive-screaming, self-flagellating little runt with bushy eyebrows and a cell-phone clipped to his pants with which to field calls from his inexplicable legion of female suitors.”

It’s been over 20 years since the show’s debut, and writers of today have a vastly different opinion from those in 1998. Rotten Tomatoes lists Cousin Skeeter as one of five shows that positively represented Black life on television and broke barriers. The report highlights an episode titled The Bicycle Thief, where Bobby, Nina, and Skeeter work together to find the person responsible for stealing Nina’s bike. The lesson in the episode praised by the report is the interaction between the characters and police, showing that interactions between police and Black children can be good.