All That revival: A behind-the-scenes look at the show’s return with cinematographer Michael Franks

Nickelodeon recently revived its beloved sketch comedy, All That. We spoke with cinematographer Michael Franks about what goes on behind-the-scenes!

If you grew up watching Nickelodeon, you’re probably intimately familiar with their Saturday night Teen Nick line-up. At the center of that line-up was their beloved sketch comedy show, All That. The series premiered in 1994 and aired for 10 seasons before being canceled in 2005.

Created by Brian Robbins and Mike Tollins, it came as a surprise to many when the successful comedy was axed. But in the fall of 2018, Brian Robbins was formally announced as the new president of Nickelodeon. Robbins wasted no time in reviving All That for modern-day kids.

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Michael Franks, whose previous work includes Saturday Night Live, That’s So Raven, Hannah Montana, and The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, is the cinematographer on the All That revival. He spoke with us here at Hidden Remote, about his experience working with the cast. What makes now the perfect time for All That to make a comeback?

“Sketch comedy for kids is something no one has done since the original. The revival could have worked at any time, but nowadays, kids are so connected to social media. They’re able to watch and engage with the show on so many different platforms.” He commented.

It’s true. The younger generation is born and bred tech-savvy. All That works well with kids who are accustomed to watching viral videos regularly. The series is more accessible than it used to be when it premiered more than twenty years ago.

Franks continued by expressing his excitement and gratitude about being involved with the project and why he thinks it’s an important show for kids to have. “This generation can see kids their age do comedy. It allows them to see what’s possible. And our cast is very diverse.”

“It’s important for kids to see what this group of kids can do, like Nathan Janak, who does our Ariana Grande impression. In the past, that might not have been accepted. Our society is more open-minded now.” Franks even says he reached out to the producers when he heard a revival was happening because he was so passionate about the idea.

What makes the revival special is that it maintains the integrity of the original series. All That uses the same theme song as the 1994 version, original cast members have returned in cameo appearances or to revive their trademark sketches, some of the old cast even serve as executive producers now, such as Kel Mitchell and Kenan Thompson.

When asked about how important it was for them to respect the old All That, Franks told me it was an ongoing discussion with him, Kel Mitchell, Brian Robbins, and the other producers on the show.

One of the main differences with the new All That is their target audience, as Franks puts it, “we wanted to make more of a family show so adults who remember the first show can watch the current show. Then there’s new stuff for kids. So, people are watching for different reasons. Whereas, I think the original was geared specifically towards teens.”

Despite skewing towards different audiences, you might be surprised by how similar the prep process is for series’ like SNL and All That. “We work on a very tight schedule, and giving it a high-quality look in that contracted time-frame is the challenge. SNL trained me for a lot of that.”

“Lorne Michaels is a great producer, and he has a high standard of what he likes to see. Technically, so much has changed since those days. It makes it easier, in certain ways, to do things, but you don’t have a magic way of making the time stretch.”

“It is a little different. These young adults were very new to the industry. There was a learning curve at first. But now we’re in the eighth week of shooting and its amazing to see how they’ve grown. We have a lot of fun on set. The comedy, it often happens in rehearsal, sometimes at the last moment.”

“Gabrielle Green is one of the actresses on the show she did something in the performance that wasn’t even rehearsed. She just took it to eleven as we were doing a “Coffee, Coffee, Coffee” sketch.”

Franks then went on to explain how the crew deals with some of All That’s unique challenges, such as working with a cast composed of underage actors. “Adult actors can work long hours, whereas underage kids can only, by law, work a certain amount of hours. Going into this, knowing that I was going to be put under time constraints and not have a lot of time to tweak while filming, helped the process go smoother.”

If you thought the cast of SNL was under a time crunch, imagine working with actors who only have a small amount of time each day. “When I did SNL, we did 56 hours in four days if you can imagine, Saturday was a 21-hour day for us. With kids, we only have about 8 or 9 hours a day to work with each of them.”

“The assistant directors work cleverly at scheduling the time. It can affect casting decisions and who does what sketch so we can spread the cast out. It’s a lot of hard work, but it’s one of the most fun projects I’ve gotten to do in a long time.”

All the hard work going on behind-the-scenes has paid off. While watching All That, it’s easy to see the careful attention paid to the camera work, providing the series with a cinematic quality despite it being a live show. Michael Franks deliberately wanted to achieve a cinematic quality for the series so it would look different from your average sitcom.

“I’m glad you noticed. A lot of people don’t see that. The challenge was in bringing an upgraded look to the show. Given that it is live, and we are working in a very short period of time, part of that comes from using cameras that give you a cinematic feel, which has a shallower depth and lighting it in such a way that we create depths.

“We wanted a clean and simplistic look. I mean, simplicity in terms of clarity and the way we light it and, like I said, using specific cameras and lens help that process.

“Even when doing parodies of other films or television shows, great care is taken to mimic the precise mood and ambiance. A great example is when All That did a spoof of A Quiet Place.”

Franks told me it was one of his favorites of the spoofs they’ve done. “Our great director pushed the envelope in terms of allowing us to do a dark, dramatic look for that. I think it helped to support the comedy because you think you’re watching something very serious and then it’s not at all serious.

“I think that’s one thing that’s different now in terms of what we could do back on SNL because the network had specific requirements of how they wanted things to look. But on this show, we’re given a wide range of what we can do as long as it works for the comedy.

“For example, the dramatic nature of A Quiet Place parody versus the other sketches we’ve done that are bright and game show-y looking. It’s great to have the opportunity to create a contrast.”

All That has proven it has the same staying power as NBC’s Saturday Night Live. Its eleventh season has been well-received by audiences and critics. Plus, original cast members like Lori Beth Denberg, Josh Server, and Kevin Kopelow have returned in cameo appearances. They’ve even reprised great sketches like Kenan and Kel’s infamous “Good Burger” sketch (one of Franks favorites from the old All That) and Denberg’s “Loud Librarian”.

It’s not hard to see why Michael Franks is so hopeful of the show’s future. “It’s a great cast. We’ve only scratched the surface of what they’re capable of doing. I think, as it goes with a lot of shows, even with SNL, the writers start to customize the sketches for the talent. The show will explore those talents even more. It will get even better.”

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Thank you so much to Michael Franks for chatting with us! You can watch the 11th season of All That now. The series is on a brief hiatus but will return with new episodes beginning Saturday, July 27 and continuing thereafter.