The Journey of Allen Strange
| The Journey of Allen Strange | |
|---|---|
The cast of The Journey of Allen Strange
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| Created by | Thomas W. Lynch |
| Starring |
Arjay Smith Erin Dean Shane Sweet Jack Tate |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of seasons | 3 |
| No. of episodes | 57 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 22 minutes |
| Release | |
| Original network | Nickelodeon |
| Original release | November 8, 1997 – April 23, 2000 |
The Journey of Allen Strange is an American television series that aired on Nickelodeon's SNICK block of programming for three seasons from 1997 to 2000.
The series follows the story of a young Xelan alien (Arjay Smith) who is stranded on Earth, and meets up with a young girl Robbie Stevenson (Erin J. Dean), her younger brother Josh (Shane Sweet), and their father Ken (Jack Tate). This family eventually adopts him, giving him the name "Allen Strange". He has extraordinary powers, including the ability to turn into his alien form, which allows him to hover. He uses his abilities to bring a mannequin in a sporting goods store to life; this "animated mannequin" poses as his Earth father, Manfred, for events like parent-teacher conferences. He also possesses extremely high intelligence and can read incredibly fast by simply placing his hand on the cover of a book. He has an affinity for canned cheese, and lives in the family's attic in a strange alien cocoon.
Allen states he has "chosen" to be African-American when confronted with the task of blending in with society. His naivety on the subject (bringing in plain black posterboards for his Black History Month presentation) sparked a Black History Month episode, featuring him learning information about slavery and The Civil Rights Movement.
In the weeks leading up to the series' premiere, Nickelodeon ran a series of teaser ads which would at first appear to be promos for other shows, or for Nickelodeon in general, when a blue ooze would fill the screen as an announcer said cryptically, "Something strange is coming to SNICK. November 8." It would then clear out and the interrupted promo would conclude as if nothing had happened.
An eight-book series, based on the episodes, was also printed, written by several authors, including John Vornholt and Mel Odom. A list of these books is available at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database.
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