Old Nickelodeon

[Drtooth]

Rocket Power is just a cynical trend cash-in. That and the NFL Rush Zone cartoons. Those are brutally awful, yet so incredibly poorly done and pointless that it manages to turn around and become, dare I say, Dada-esque. But RP is just... painful. The art is beyond ugly, especially the questionable character designs. These kids are supposed to be cool? They look incredibly dorky. I cannot believe this series has fans.

But yeah. The 90's Are All That's main problem is the lack of willingness to rotate shows more frequently, and the fact that it's really a 2 hour block they repeat at the 2 AM slot. They would have a lot more wiggle room for shows if they just extended it to the full 4 hour block. But that's not cost effective. Don't see why Doug, Rocko, and various other shows are highly included in the advertising when they only use a handful of shows. Maybe if they made each day's block different, making each show weekly. Plus...really?!! Later episodes of Rugrats?

 

[minor muppetz]

I see what you mean that "Chuckie Vs. The Potty" could work for "A Baby's Gotta Do" but in my opinion it fits better on "Chuckie the Brave" since those episodes are about Chuckie overcoming his fears. I'm really not sure where "Chuckie's Wonderful Life" fits in there since its not really about Chuckie facing one of his fears. I guess I would have to watch it again one of these days to see the connection.

I know it appeared in Chuckie the Brave but that video came out a year or so after A Baby's Gotta Do What a Baby's Gotta Do. As a matter of fact, I now think it's interesting how Chuckie and Angelica got their own spotlight videos before Tommy did. Phil and Lil Double Trouble pretty much features every Phil and Lil episode, the only Phil and Lil episode I can think of that came later was Clan of the Duck, and that's really a Phil (and Chuckie) episode, with Lil barely in the episode. Seems Phil and Lil had less character-focused episodes than Susie, and just as many as Timmy McNulty. It's a shame there wasn't a Susie video. And it seems like Angelica is the only one to get two spotlight videos (or does Dr. Tommy Pickles count as a spotlight video for Tommy?).

I wonder why the Paramount rereleases had an extra episode, aside from making them better than the Sony releases. Could it be that they wanted to include one more episode per video and decided to have their rereleases be in the same style? In fact later videos had five episodes, and I recently found out that some of the early Paramount releases were reissed with an extra episode as well. And it was mainly the Rugrats videos that were reissued by Paramount... I wonder what Paramount would have done if they reissued the Doug and Ren and Stimpy episodes (did Sony Wonder release any of the Rocko's Modern Life or Aaaahhh Real Monsters videos?).

 

[beatnikchick300]

Rocket Power is just a cynical trend cash-in. That and the NFL Rush Zone cartoons. Those are brutally awful, yet so incredibly poorly done and pointless that it manages to turn around and become, dare I say, Dada-esque. But RP is just... painful. The art is beyond ugly, especially the questionable character designs. These kids are supposed to be cool? They look incredibly dorky. I cannot believe this series has fans.

But yeah. The 90's Are All That's main problem is the lack of willingness to rotate shows more frequently, and the fact that it's really a 2 hour block they repeat at the 2 AM slot. They would have a lot more wiggle room for shows if they just extended it to the full 4 hour block. But that's not cost effective. Don't see why Doug, Rocko, and various other shows are highly included in the advertising when they only use a handful of shows. Maybe if they made each day's block different, making each show weekly. Plus...really?!! Later episodes of Rugrats?

I agree. Rocket Power was a show I watched as a preteen if nothing of interest was on and my friends were busy, but I've always considered it really obnoxious (and the four protagonists reminded me too much of certain kids I went to school with who tried way to hard to be cool). And of course, it is obnoxious how The 90's are All That shows that show and about three other shows in a loop every single week (I never liked Catdog either, and Rugrats and Hey Arnold both suffered seasonal rot, in my opinion (it might be just me, but Hey Arnold became too much like a soap opera with 9-year-olds in the later seasons, and...that's not what I liked about the show)). Also, they seem to show 90's shows that ran through the 2000's. I don't know; I thought the 90's nostalgia factor was what they were going for. Why not show something that has that early to mid 90's flair to it, like Clarissa Explains it All, Pete and Pete, Salute Your Shorts, Rocko, or Are You Afraid of the Dark? They did early on...

 

[Drtooth]

It seems to be the trend for cable networks, especially subnetworks like TeenNick to rerun a small fraction of the same shows rather than to have a greater variety. It's because they know they don't get good enough ratings to bother, and it's just cheaper to keep the same shows on a repetitive loop than introduce more variety. Look at Boomerang. Not to mention, to be even cheaper, it's really a 2 hour block repeated twice. So there's even less room for more episodes.

It really is a shame that they don't rotate the shows on a daily basis. They have a wealth of shows. but it seems they just want to direct everyone to iTunes to buy the episodes. I really don't see the point if they're just gonna pick 5 shows and loop them. I still give them more credit than certain other networks, but if they're going to be cheap about it, then there's no point.

 

[Erine81981]

It seems to be the trend for cable networks, especially subnetworks like TeenNick to rerun a small fraction of the same shows rather than to have a greater variety. It's because they know they don't get good enough ratings to bother, and it's just cheaper to keep the same shows on a repetitive loop than introduce more variety. Look at Boomerang. Not to mention, to be even cheaper, it's really a 2 hour block repeated twice. So there's even less room for more episodes.

It really is a shame that they don't rotate the shows on a daily basis. They have a wealth of shows. but it seems they just want to direct everyone to iTunes to buy the episodes. I really don't see the point if they're just gonna pick 5 shows and loop them. I still give them more credit than certain other networks, but if they're going to be cheap about it, then there's no point.

I agree with everything you are saying. When Boomerang changed to the new look I was a little ok with it but after a while it just doesn't look good and same with the way they show the same things over and over and over again. That's something that always happens to TV Channels. They always seem to change what made them a great channel to then new advertisements and repetitive shows. Nick, Nick @ Nite, TV Land, MTV, Cartoon Network and Disney. Now I understand that things always change but why not keep what made the channel great.

 

[Drtooth]

The problem is risk vs reward, and when they finally make the risk and get rewarded for it, they tend to be a crapload less risky. That's why CN's pretty much all day reruns of TTG. It's their highest rated series, so they run with it.

This is a long and winding discussion, but it always results out of three major things.

1. No one watches TV anymore and television has been taking a backseat to the internet hard. Yet streaming (for all the backdoor deals) seems to be some weird Catch 22. They can't stream new episodes for fear it will hurt the show's ratings, but ratings don't matter as much as streaming views.
   
2. With ratings down, ad revenue is down, and as a result, less shows are being run and bought, and this means more reruns and less variety.
3. Kid's TV is pretty much just running on merchandising fumes because Apps. And you'll notice, a lot of these shows aren't getting merchandising because no one's seeking them out because they're not popular enough to get merchandise because they don't run the show enough to warrant merchandise.

Overall, it's just...a very frustrating and obnoxious climate. The biggest hit shows are on cable and or Netflix or something, yet there's such a painful discrepancy that it would take forever to really explain it all. Movie channels want original programming for the prestige and viewership, while all original programming channels want to run movies because it's cheaper than running shows for some reason. Maddening is the fact that cable is the only place outside of PBS where you can find kid's programming (even then the term is loose and arbitrary), yet there's a lack of variety leading networks to show hours long marathons of the same shows. Worse still (it's a bottomless pit, really) they only show the same episodes over and over and over. Not only do they endlessly rerun a show, they refuse to show the whole series out of cheapness. Specialty channels like Nicktoons and Boomerang, doubly so.

I really wish these networks and the internet could go hand in hand and have special self streaming episodes of other shows they won't fit into the schedule. But it seems that they don't know what to do with either. No episodes online, no episodes on TV...and Glob forbid anyone puts their old, cruddy VHS recordings of said shows online. And do NOT get me started on Nicktoons now airing Nicks' crappy live action abortions regularly when we freaking have Teen Nick to dump those on. Or their 8 episodes in rotation of Fairly Oddparents.

 

[mr3urious]

If only those two networks could produce more web-exclusive series, like CN with Mighty Magiswords. That way, they can have their cake and eat it, too.

 

[Drtooth]

Okay...weird news. Apparently Nick wants to revive some classic series

Okay. Don't revive old shows until you play with the cartoons you already have! I wanna see more Harvey Beaks and Sanjay and Craig, dagnabbit.

But other than that, I like the idea that they aren't necessarily going to be recurring TV shows. I think that we've had quite enough Rugrats, thank you. But if it means we'll actually get that Hey Arnold Jungle Parents movie, I'm all for it. Doug seems like it deserves another film (his first movie shouldn't be his only movie). The live action shows I'm really not sure of. Cartoons are one thing, but a live action series will inevitably be a reunion, a recast, or a next generation. You can replace voice actors and they're still the same characters. Doing that with live action actors? Lots of trying to suspend disbelief.

 

[Erine81981]

Okay...weird news. Apparently Nick wants to revive some classic series

Okay. Don't revive old shows until you play with the cartoons you already have! I wanna see more Harvey Beaks and Sanjay and Craig, dagnabbit.

But other than that, I like the idea that they aren't necessarily going to be recurring TV shows. I think that we've had quite enough Rugrats, thank you. But if it means we'll actually get that Hey Arnold Jungle Parents movie, I'm all for it. Doug seems like it deserves another film (his first movie shouldn't be his only movie). The live action shows I'm really not sure of. Cartoons are one thing, but a live action series will inevitably be a reunion, a recast, or a next generation. You can replace voice actors and they're still the same characters. Doing that with live action actors? Lots of trying to suspend disbelief.

Ok I guess. I mean if they do either movies or TV specials they keep them the way they were back in the day. If it's a animated show. Keep it animated or if it's a live action sitcom or Variety show keep it like that. No animated Clarissa or Salute your Shorts or even Are You Afraid of The Dark.

But that would be cool to see either reunion shows or a TV Special or TV Movie or even a Theater Movie. I really do hope they go with Theatrical movies. That would be cool. I think.

 

[D'Snowth]

Oh, and I HATE how Rocket Power has become a regular on The 90's are all that! That's cheating. The show came out so close to the end of the 90's that they might as well add Spongebob to that line up. It sucks that beloved shows like Rocko, Ren and Stimpy, and Doug take a backseat to a show that wasn't exactly universally beloved by Nicktoons fans.

Uh, hate to dis-ajoint you, Drtooth, but speaking from someone who grew up as part of that generation, I can tell you that, yeah, ROCKET POWER was popular when it was on. I mean, this was the late 90s/early 2000s, everything was "extreme" then: mountain biking, skateboarding, roller blading, surfing, scootering, what have you. ROCKET POWER was very much a product of its time, and since that what the mindset of the youth was at that time, yeah, RP was smash when it was out. It wasn't really my thing to be honest with you, but definitely a lot of the kids I went to school with were really into it - even the "indoor kids" dug it.