4 Classic Nickelodeon Shows You Can Watch Completely Free

May 16, 2026, 11:00am

For a lot of folks, Nickelodeon was a major art of their childhood. The network was the home of a ton of great programming, both animated and live action, much of which has become classics. This is especially true for millennials, who were at just the right age to take in some of the best shows Nickelodeon had to offer. And while we can’t stop time and had to grow up, those shows are still beloved more than 20 years later—which makes streaming them both an exercise in nostalgia and also just an opportunity to watch some great television made even better when you can stream them for free.

Videos by ComicBook.com

Here are four classic Nickelodeon shows that are available to stream right now for free. All four are from what many consider to be Nickelodeon’s golden age and, perhaps even better, they’re all available to watch on the same platform. You can currently find each of these shows streaming completely for free on Pluto TV. Did your favorite make the list? Read on and find out!

4) Kenan & Kel

Originally airing from August 17, 1996 to January 14, 2001, Kenan & Kel centered around two friends, Kenan Rockmore (Kenan Thompson) and Kel Kimble (Kel Mitchell) who, as you might expect for end up having various misadventures, most of them a result of Kenan trying to avoid getting into trouble or devising get rich quick schemes and Kel somehow messing up those schemes through clumsiness and his general happy-go-lucky nature. The show utilized a number of running gags and Kel’s catchphrase “Aww, here it goes!” The series was one of three total spinoffs from the network’s All That, which had also starred Thompson and Mitchell. It’s a fun, classic show—and as for Thompson, he would go on to be a longtime member of the cast of Saturday Night Live.

3) Clarissa Explains It All

Before she was Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Melissa Joan Hart was Clarissa Darling in the teen sitcom Clarissa Explains It All. The series aired from March 23, 1991, to October 1, 1994, and was so popular it continued airing as repeats until August 19, 2001. The series followed Clarissa, a teen dealing with the normal things that you’d expect a teenager to deal with —school, boys, acne, a younger brother, etc.— but was unique in that part of the show’s structure was that Clarissa would directly address the audience and explain what was going on in her life (hence the “explains it all” of the title.) While the series ended in 1994, series creator Mitchell Kriegman published a novel in 2015 titled Things I Can’t Explain that functioned as a sequel to the series and dealt with Clarissa’s life as an adult and in 2018, it was reported that a proper sequel series was in development, though by 2022 the Nickelodeon had opted not to move forward with the project.

2) Zoey 101

One of the “newer” shows on the list, Zoey 101 aired from January 9, 2005, to May 2, 2008. The series starred Jamie Lynn Spears (yes, Britney Spears’ little sister) as Zoey Brooks and follows the lives of Zoey and her brother Dustin as well as her friends as they attend the fictional Southern California boarding school Pacific Coast Academy. The series also notably starred Victoria Justice and future Academy Award nominee Austin Butler. While the series remains beloved by many, it’s almost as well-known for its controversies as it is the show itself. In 2005, there were reports that Britney Spears had confronted one of the show’s stars, Alexa Nikolas, and screamed at her over bullying allegations and then, in 2007, Jamie Lynn Spears—who was 16 at the time—revealed that she was pregnant. In 2023, the series got a sequel movie, Zoey 102, on Paramount+.

1) Drake & Josh

Everyone loves a buddy sitcom and as far as the teen version of the genre goes, Drake & Josh might just be one of the most iconic and most beloved. The series centered around teen stepbrothers Drake Parker (Drake Bell) and Josh Nichols (Josh Peck) as they navigate life and living together despite having very opposite personalities, usually to hilarious effect. The series was a spinoff of another very popular Nickelodeon series, variety series The Amanda Show. The series also spawned a television film, Drake & Josh Go Hollywood, in 2006 and a special titled “Really Big Shrimp” that functioned as the series finale. A holiday special, Merry Christmas, Drake & Josh, aired in 2008. While nothing has manifested yet, there have been various conversations over the years of some sort of revival.

What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!