Ah, Snick. What great memories I have of Nickelodeon’s 8-10 p.m. programming block every Saturday night.
When we were younger, my two brothers and I would always camp out in the guest room at the far end of my house and watch the full two hours of special TV on Saturdays. They’re both older than me, so they would each sleep on a comfy sofa, while I was relegated to my sleeping bag on the floor (No! Of course I’m not bitter about that!), and we’d fight over who got to hold the remote control, despite the fact that all of us wanted to watch Snick. We loved Snick.
Somewhere along the line, a show called The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo got added to the Snick schedule, and my goodness, we were obsessed. The show followed a young girl named Shelby Woo, who lived with her innkeeper grandfather and moonlighted as a junior detective with the local police — although most adults wished she would just stay out of the way. Shelby would usually track down three very clear suspects, and through a series of clues and reasoning, she would solve the case!
In my family, watching the show was a competitive affair. Remember how I said my brothers and I always fought over remote control? Well, that victory wasn’t worth too much. But solving Shelby Woo’s case before she announced the true culprit — that was an honor. Each episode, my brother and I would make an official prediction about which suspect committed the crime and how we knew they did it. Whoever predicted correctly won bragging rights until next week.
But those episodes were crazy difficult to decipher — way too tough for a little kid — and unfortunately, I never won. At least, I almost never won. There was one episode — something involving an aquarium and a shark — that I, as a dumb little six year-old, was able to figure out before my kin (who were then eight and nine). I still remember that victory to this day, although I’m sure that neither of them do…
Speaking of things that I remember, The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo also taught me that the first letters of July, August, September, October, and November spell out JASON. That’s how Shelby solved the crime one time — she noticed that some victim’s calendar only had those months left. Hopefully, if I’m ever attacked by someone named Jason — or Mamj (March, April, May, June), for that matter– I’ll have the state of mind to rip out the appropriate pages from a nearby calendar so that a young detective can find my attacker and avenge me!
Did any of you watch The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo?
More nostalgia on EW.com:
Bus, do your stuff! A tribute to ‘The Magic School Bus’
‘Tiny Toon Adventures’: Did you secretly like some of the Tiny Toons more than the Looney Tunes?
‘Animaniacs’: The ’90s cartoon for the adult in every child
I LOVED this show. In Canada it use to play every weekday morning at 8 and I HAD to watch it before school. I loved Veronica Mars but I could never take it seriously because I always thought “Shelby Woo did it first”
I remember the epsiode with Rosie O’Donnell where she smothered her victims to death!
*episode
Ah Here’s another one of those Remember Nickelodeon and Disney in the 90′s articles on EW! What’s Next? Figure It Out? Jett Jackson? MMC?
Seriously, this was a great show. I knew someone who was on the show. Great Stuff.
Yeah, nostalgia isn’t what it used to be. Sigh.
That was actually really accidentally witty of you there.
I don’t think it was accidental
They did Figure It Out last week. lol.
Growing up in Canada, we had this show plus The Adventures of Shirley Holmes. Good times. (And you can’t beat the intro for the latter.)
I don’t remember much about Shelby Woo, but I DO remember the JASON thing too! I wish they would air these episodes again.
This article brought me back! I loved this show!
Me, too! I remember visiting Nickelodeon Studios when they were filming and trying to catch a glimpse of Shelby but failing to.
I remember an episode of this show where people got food poisoning from hot dogs (I think it was) at a high school and another one where Shelby hit somebody with a book to knock them out/subdue them until the police came and arrested them. Looking at imdb just now, the hot dog one is called ‘The Hot Dog Mystery’ and the other one is called ‘Mystery in the Wilderness.’ I may not have as many memories about this show as other shows, but I have a few.
The ONE time I guessed the culprit correctly without a random guess was when I noticed that two of the suspects were left-handed while the vandal definitely was using his right hand. I was so proud. I loved this show.
I just remember one where the lady used some kind of soft chocolate to make a duplicate key. This needs to be added to teennick’s late night schedule!
I remember this episode too. Then for months I went around trying to make key imprints in candy bars. My mother was not pleased.
I LOVED THIS SHOW!!! I still bring it up if any of my friends are trying to figure something out. Instead of giving them a way to go Sherlock, I’ll say “way to go shelby woo” although most my friends don’t know what I’m talking about. This show brings back such great memories! I wanna see an episode again now.
LOVED this show. I completely forgot it existed until right now. Thank you.
Loved this show
Shelby Woo was just ok but it pales in comparison to the other Snick shows!
Loved this show, Irene Ng was excellent as Shelby Woo. It always seemed to keep me in suspense until the end – Shelby’s insight was inspirational. Somehow this series is sadly forgotten and I was so pleased to discover this article.
I loved this show! For some reason this is the show all my friends seem to forget exists. I’m glad to know I’m not crazy and this show was real AND awesome!