There was one late night where I fell into a YouTube rabbit hole and found a video compilation of your favorite childhood theme songs and guess what theme song made me cry? Yes, the “Cousin Skeeter” theme, which is a remix of one of my favorite songs “Steelo” made me tear up. Why? Because “Cousin Skeeter” was, by far, one of my favorite Nickelodeon shows. I remember that “Taina”, “Cousin Skeeter”, “Kenan and Kel” and “All That” lineup. Fun fact: the downstairs TV (yes, that was its designation) in our apartment was trash. We had had it for years and it got to the point where the TV would have to “warm up” before I could watch “Snick.”I literally had to come downstairs at like 6:30/7:00 to turn the TV on so it would be ready by 8 pm. Real ghetto. A friend of my mom’s boyfriend at the time took the TV once we moved to our new house.
“Cousin Skeeter” introduced and reintroduced us to key figures in, mainly, black entertainment. Robert Ri’chard played Bobby Walker who later went on to be a main character in “One on One” and a the lead in “Chocolate City.” Meagan Good, my forever fave, played Nina Jones who I’m sure EVERY BOY had a crush on and those same men grew up to still love her. On top of that, she had braces! How you make having braces attractive? No one can do that but Meagan Good as Nina did. Side note: Is it me or did we all want Meagan and Robert to date in real life? Just me? Ok. Moving on. Rondell Sheridan who played Bobby’s dad and Skeeter’s uncle would later go on to play Raven’s dad in “That’s So Raven” (I’m still waiting for his appearance in “Raven’s Home”). I didn’t pay attention to this until now but Angela Means who played Bobby’s mom and Skeeter’s aunt was Felicia in Friday. The originator of the popularization of the term “Booty Call”, Bill Bellamy, was Skeeter himself and Tisha Campbell voiced Nicole, who was Nina’s friend towards the end of the show.
The premise of the show is that Skeeter comes to live with his cousin’s family and gets his cousin Bobby in all types of trouble and for no reason. The only episode I distinctly remember is when Bobby went to do his driving test. Skeeter did something to the engine of the car which I remember caused it to start smoking. At the end of the episode, I remember Skeeter dancing on top of the car as Bobby spoke about some life lesson he learned by getting himself out of his cousin’s mess.
I never realized as a kid just how many episodes were in one season of a show. There were only three seasons of “Cousin Skeeter” but season one and two had over 20 episodes while season three only had nine.
Much like Taina, which I will have in this series soon, this was one of the first times I saw a beautiful black family, a beautiful black girl and a handsome black boy on one show. I saw myself in this family. We all have a cousin Skeeter who we like to get in trouble with, this is not the case with Bobby, but still, we all know someone like Skeeter. For some people in my life, I am Skeeter. Loud, annoying and always doing too much but they love us. Bobby’s mom was a lawyer. His dad is a record producer. Nina was beautiful, smart and a fast talker. Oh, how I related to talking. I apologize to all the people who know me. I remember her talking and I get it now. I am sorry. LOL
Check out the theme song below because it is one of the most iconic theme songs of my childhood.
Now check out the lovely Meagan Good reunite with Skeeter, the puppet really, on NickRewind.
Although I can’t find “Cousin Skeeter” on any streaming platforms, I will live with the fond memories I have of this iconic (yes, iconic) Nickelodeon show. I will also be writing someone a letter about getting this on Nick like “Hey Arnold”, “Rugrats”, “Doug” and “Ren & Stimpy.” Someone has it somewhere and I want it for myself and y’all.
BLACK WATCH 