8 /10 1 Votes
4/5 Amazon Genre Children's
Mystery Composer(s) Bill Johnson No. of seasons 4 Network Nickelodeon | 7.6/10 IMDb 8.3/10 TV Created by Alan Goodman Country of origin Canada
United States Final episode date 20 December 1998 Program creator Alan Goodman | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Starring Irene Ng
Pat Morita
Adam Busch
Preslaysa Edwards
Steve Purnick
Ellen David
Eleanor Noble
Noah Klar Cast Irene Ng, Pat Morita, Adam Busch, Eleanor Noble, Ellen David | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo is a Canadian-American children's mystery television series that ran on Nickelodeon between 1996 and 1998. A total of 41 episodes of 30 minutes each were produced. Episodes from the first three seasons were taped at the now defunct Nickelodeon Studios in Orlando, Florida, and was one of the few single-camera productions there, while season 4 episodes were shot in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Contents
History
The series first aired in March 1996 as a six-episode test run, since Nickelodeon usually produced one major new series at a time and they were already producing Space Cases. The success of the test run prompted Nickelodeon to re-introduce the series on SNICK in January 1997, along with seven new episodes. During the show's third season, production stopped after eight of a proposed thirteen episodes were filmed due to a crew strike, as the show's budget did not cover the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees's demands, partly due to the decision to shoot film instead of videotape. Production resumed in Montreal in February 1998, after Cinar agreed to co-produce the series. As a result, the show's setting changed from Cocoa Beach, Florida to Boston, Massachusetts.
Starring Irene Ng as the title character, the series revolves around the adventures of a Chinese American teenage girl who lives with her innkeeper grandfather and works as a non-sworn intern at the local police department where she helps out with odds and ends around the office. Occasionally an intriguing case comes to Shelby's attention, prompting her to apply her unique insight and enlist the help of her friends to solve it. Her supervisors, however, do not appreciate her help, as she is only a teenager. Her grandfather also does not want her getting involved in cases, often reminding her, "We are not detectives with warrant badges, we are innkeepers with brooms." Many of the stories, with three clear suspects, keep the audience guessing until the truth is ultimately explained.
On December 28, 2011, TeenNick aired the episode "The Smoke Screen Case" on the The '90s Are All That block. The series began airing on a more permanent basis in late October 2015 on The '90s Are All That's successor block, The Splat.
Primary characters
Recurring characters
Availability
All 12 episodes from seasons 1 and 2 are available for download on the iTunes Store and Amazon Video.
On November 24, 2014 the full series was released on DVD through Amazon's CreateSpace service