Salute Your Shorts is an American television sitcom created by Steve Slavkin and produced by Propaganda Films, which aired on Nickelodeon from July 4, 1991, to September 12, 1992.

The first season focused on the power struggle between upstanding newcomer Michael Stein (Erik MacArthur) and camp bully Bobby Budnick (Danny Cooksey).

Other campers included Budnick's accomplice Eddie "Donkey Lips" Gelfand (Michael Bower), nerdy Sponge Harris (Tim Eyster), stuck-up rich girl Dina Alexander (Heidi Lucas), tomboy Telly Radford (Venus DeMilo Thomas), and nature-loving Z.Z.

The title of the show comes from a common prank campers play on each other: a group of children steal a boy's boxer shorts and raise them up a flagpole.

It was a single-camera show that was shot on video and put through the film-look process to give kids mini-movies about summer camp that were scored from beginning to end.

[1] Steve Slavkin was commissioned by Nickelodeon to write a television pilot based on his 1986 book Salute Your Shorts: Life at Summer Camp that he co-wrote with Thomas Hill.

[citation needed] Nickelodeon was under pressure in 1990 to create original programming that could compete with The Disney Afternoon, while also shedding its image as "the game show network".

[3][4] Miller had previously directed Bower, Johnston and Parker in his short-film Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing and Charm School.

The first season premiered with a special primetime broadcast on Thursday, July 4, 1991 (Independence Day), with new episodes airing Saturdays at 5:30pm EST thereafter.

[16] Erik MacArthur left the show just before second season filming began in April 1992, so his character of Michael was written out and replaced with Blake Soper as Pinsky.

Soper was scheduled to play Scotty Rex in the episode "Telly and the Tennis Match" before producers asked him to join the series full-time.

[18] Nickelodeon was infamous for underpaying its child actors, with Ryan Reynolds admitting the network only paid him $150 per episode while starring in Fifteen.

[20] The series was not renewed for a third season after the network wanted production moved to Nickelodeon Studios, but most of the cast was unwilling to relocate from Los Angeles to Orlando.

[21] Nickelodeon was under pressure by parent company Viacom to reduce its budget so that MTV could fund production of Beavis and Butt-Head.

[28] At the 14th Youth in Film Awards on January 16, 1993, seveal cast members were honoured: Heidi Lucas won Best Young Actress Co-Starring in a Cable Series, beating fellow cast members Megan Berwick and Venus DeMilo, who were also nominated; Michael Bower won Best Young Actor Co-Starring in a Cable Series, beating castmate Trevor Eyster, who was also nominated; and Danny Cooksey was nominated for Best Young Actor Starring in a Cable Series.

The song "Devil in the Angel" was written by Cooksey and Steve Vai for the two-part episode "Budnick and Dina in Love", but was left out of the show due to time constraints.

Following the show's cancellation, NBC offered Steve Slavkin the opportunity to write and produce Running the Halls, which aired as part of their Saturday Morning TNBC block in 1993.

[35] Ed Alton composed the show's music, Randall Miller served as director, and Michael Bower guest starred in "The Big Kiss".

[41] Cooksey, Bower, Slavkin and Venus DeMilo were featured in the 2018 documentary The Orange Years, sharing their experiences on the show and exploring its place in Nickelodeon history.

[44] In attendance were Andrea Sherman (script supervisor), Danny Cooksey, Ed Alton (composer), Erik MacArthur, Kirk Baily, Larry Shapiro (associate producer), Michael Bower, Steve Slavkin, Tim Eyster and Venus DeMilo.

[46] Members of the cast reunited on August 20, 2019, for a Salute Your Shorts trivia night at Nickelodeon's Good Burger pop-up restaurant in Los Angeles.