Not to force you into deep existential thought about your own mortality, but iCarly came out a long time ago. Miranda Cosgrove is 27 now. Jennette McCurdy is 28. Doesn’t that blow your mind a little bit? Are you also frantically doing math with your fingers, trying to figure out how 14 years went by that quickly?
Though a lot has changed since then — such as the aforementioned ages of the show’s stars — one thing that hasn’t is that one hip tech company that all the kids love. Apple was a force back in 2007, much as it is now. Its products often influenced the tech used on the show, even though Apple products themselves were never actually seen.
Instead, iCarly relied on “Pear Products.” You may remember Carly using a “PearBook” from time to time, which wasn’t at all out of place for a vlogger. What you may not know is that the Pear Product conspiracy goes far deeper than you realized.
To start, you need to know about producer Dan Schneider (who may not be as nice as he seems, actually). Back in the day, Schneider was involved with hit shows like iCarly, Sam & Cat, Zoey 101, Drake & Josh, and more. If there was a hit teen series on Nickelodeon, Dan Schneider probably had something to do with it.
All of those aforementioned shows took a look at the lives of modern day teens, and even a decade-plus back, teens were glued to their gadgets. Rather than have everyone carry iPhones (and eventually iPads) around, Schneider opted for what was undoubtedly a more legally safe alternative: products made by Pear Company.
I already mentioned the PearBook from iCarly, which was a very visible part of that particular show. What you may not realize, though, is that Pear Products were pretty much everywhere in the Schneiderverse. A lot of his shows used them to varying degrees, and some may have snuck by you without you even realizing it.
Zoey 101, pictured above, also had a PearBook.
Victorious had a giant PearPad.
Sam & Cat had this much smaller, more reasonable looking tablet device, which Schneider — on his website — calls a PearPod.
Swing it back to Victorious, and boom, PearPhone. Do you think anyone jailbroke their PearPhones? Was anyone that much of a rebel in these shows? I’d love to know.
According to Schneider, there were lots of other Pear-flavored Apple knock-offs that appeared in his work, including a “Pear TV,” which — you guessed it — is “a play on Apple TV.” As Schneider puts it, “The wide use of Pear Products really shines on a light on the technology we use from day to day, and pokes fun at the fact that a lot of it is named after fruit!”
Until I started digging myself, I had no idea the Pear stuff appeared so much in these now-classic Nick shows. With that iCarly reboot coming down the pike, it’ll be interesting to see if Pear Company is still as dominant, or if a new gadget maker has usurped the clone throne. Seeing as Dan Schneider won’t have anything to do with the new show … ehh, I’m guessing not.
