Nickelodeon: How It's Changed

We all know Nickelodeon. We've all watched it at some point in our lives, either when there was nothing else to watch, or before we left to go to kindergarten. Now, having been born in 1994, I know I wasn't around to witness the birth of the channel, but irregardless, I can easily tell that Nickelodeon has changed.

Nickelodeon was launched on April 1st, 1979 nationally. The channel played many shows, although it was mostly famous for You Can't Do That On Television. Then, on April 1st, 1981, the channel was relaunched as Nickelodeon, the first channel just for kids. It hadn't exactly done too good either; by 1984 the channel had lost almost $40 million and it was coming in dead last in the ratings department. To help this sinking ship of a network, they turned to Fred Seibert and Alan Goodman, who had created MTV's iconic IDs earlier that year. Those two men had possibly done the most historical thing to Nickelodeon, they created the now-famous orange splat logo. To keep up with the re-branding, the two men also hired new animators, writers, and producers to come up with new ideas for the network. This was an instant success, as Nickelodeon, with it's new orange splat logo, new shows, and new station IDs, instantly shot up the ratings charts to become the number one cable network.

So, after that brief history lesson on Nick, lets get to the subject.

First off, and possibly the largest change, has been the Nicktoons. We all remember them and we all remember watching them when we were young and naive. Shows like The Rugrats, CatDog, Hey Arnold!, and Rocket Power all spark up images of the 90s/early 2000s. The very first Nicktoon aired was Doug, a show about the life of Doug Funney. Then, in 1999, the juggernaut of all children's TV shows was brought to the world, and that show was Spongebob Squarepants, a show about a talking sea sponge who "lives in a pineapple under the sea." It seems as though our good friend Spongebob has been the only one to hold off cancellation, as almost every other Nicktoon, even some of the new ones, have been stomped out by the network. The only other show that has withstood it's run is the Fairly Oddparents.

Currently, the only Nicktoons that are still in production for new episodes are Back At The Barnyard, The Mighty B!, and The Penguins Of Madagascar, all of which are shows that I refuse to watch. Why? Because, (in my opinion, no need to get mad) they suck and are completely void of anything interesting or funny. I will give them one thing though, at least their cartoons! It does seem a little funny that a network that prided itself on cartoons are now showing shows such as iCarly and True Jackson, VP, both of which are live-action shows involving either pre-teens or teens. Now, if Nick had kept their TeenNick Segment, I would see where they could throw the live-action shows in there. But, seeing as though TeenNick kicked the bucket, Nickelodeon decided to do the next logical thing and air them either throughout the day or in the 8 o'clock hour. I'm sorry to say Nickelodeon, but the only live-action shows that you produced that I will watch are All That and The Amanda Show.

To finish off examples of changes, Nick Jr. was the morning portion of Nickelodeon, which aired preschool shows. It's probably best remembered for it's mascot, Face. Face was, well, a face that appeared on a colored screen to either sign Nick Jr. on/off, or to introduce a show. Nick Jr. used to play shows such as Gullah Gullah Island, Little Bear, Franklin, Allegra's Window, Blue's Clues, and Maisy. Given, it hasn't been as drastic as the Nicktoon changes, as most of these shows can still be seen on Noggin or PBS Kids Sprout!, but in order to get these channels, you have to have some of digital box, such as DirectTV (which doesn't air PBS Sprout), or Comcast On Demand.

In following with the Nicktoon juggernaut Spongebob, Nick Jr. decided to introduce a new show, by the name of Dora The Explorer. Now, I've always hated this show and found it's theme song to make me want to put my head in a paper shredder, so what does Nick Jr. do? Create a spin-off of the wonderful Dora show called Go Diego Go!, in which Dora's cousin Diego does exactly the same crap as his cousin Dora. So, after no new foreign-speaking shows came on for a while, I though they were done with it. But no, Nick Jr. wanted to expand it's horizons more, with which Ni Hao, Kai-Lan was born, a show which follows Kai-Lan and her cute animal friends as they go on adventures and deal with problems. I got bored just typing the plot of the show.

Oh, and just because this show scares me/confuses the crap out of me, whoever came up with the idea for Yo Gabba Gabba! should be shot at point-blank with paint ball guns. I'm sorry Nick Jr., but unless you bring Face back, I will never watch you again.

Just to do a quick go-through of Nick's daily programming, here's what's on the channel on it's Saturday 6 AM-10 PM rotation:

All Grown Up, Naked Brothers Band, Jimmy Neutron, Jimmy Neutron, Fairly Oddparents, Fairly Oddparents, Spongebob, Spongebob, Penguins of Madagascar, Back At The Barnyard, Mighty B, Spongebob, Spongebob, Spongebob, iCarly, iCarly, Spongebob (from 2 PM-5:30PM), Penguins Of Madagascar, Penguins of Madagascar, Drake & Josh, iCarly, iCarly.

Now, I don't know how you guys feel, but how about instead of 4 or 5 hours of Spongebob, they air, oh I don't know, Doug, Rugrats, As Told By Ginger, something! In my opinion, stop re-airing the same 2 shows over and over and throw on some 90s nostalgia cartoons for us who remember when Nickelodeon was good.