Old Nick Appreciation Thread

[minor muppetz]

I remembered Nickelodeon had this Shopping Spree for Toys R Us. I remembered wanted that so bad as a kid.

I think it was called the Nickelodeon Toy Run. I remember when I saw the commercials for the 1992 contest, I kinda wanted to enter, but one of the prizes was a trip to Hawaii, and for some reason I thought I'd get in trouble with my parentsif I won a trip there (I don't know why I thought this... One of those silly things I thought as a kid). Then I saw footage of the winner and thought, "If I had entered I would have lost anyway, so I should have entered!" (I didn't think about the fact that just because I saw a different winner on TV doesn't mean I wouldn't have won if I did enter).

I watched some toy run footage on YouTube, uploaded by the winner of that year. In the comments section the winner mentioned some cool facts about it, like that he spent five hours exploring Toys R Us in preparation for the contest, that the store managers were willing to lower anything he wanted that he knew he wouldn't be able to reach easily, and that it actually took a few hours to film the race.

 

[minor muppetz]

Anybody remember the "When the School Bus Turns" insertials? They were parodies of soap operas, with unresolved "cliffhangers" (I assume they were intentionally uunresolved, unless I just didn't see the episodes that concluded each one). I never watched any soap operas (excluding the soap opera parody Soap) and had no idea that soap opera episodes always continued into the next one, so I was annoyed to see these endings and not knowing when I could even catch the next "part".

Aside from the annoyance of each episode having cliffhanger endings that didn't actually conclude, I did enjoy this series of shorts. One episode I liked in particular involved two girls talking, one of them lamented the fact that her mom wanted to throw her a birthday party. During the conversation, she would whisper embarrassing things about the situation to her friend, who would then innocently repeat what she said, causing all of the kids on the bus to turn their heads and laugh immaturily. Then the third time she whispers the other is about to repeat what was said but is stopped, and everyone on the bus quickly turns their heads to laugh but then don't because they don't know what was going to be said. That was very funny.

 

[beatnikchick300]

Anybody remember the "When the School Bus Turns" insertials? They were parodies of soap operas, with unresolved "cliffhangers" (I assume they were intentionally uunresolved, unless I just didn't see the episodes that concluded each one). I never watched any soap operas (excluding the soap opera parody Soap) and had no idea that soap opera episodes always continued into the next one, so I was annoyed to see these endings and not knowing when I could even catch the next "part".

Aside from the annoyance of each episode having cliffhanger endings that didn't actually conclude, I did enjoy this series of shorts. One episode I liked in particular involved two girls talking, one of them lamented the fact that her mom wanted to throw her a birthday party. During the conversation, she would whisper embarrassing things about the situation to her friend, who would then innocently repeat what she said, causing all of the kids on the bus to turn their heads and laugh immaturily. Then the third time she whispers the other is about to repeat what was said but is stopped, and everyone on the bus quickly turns their heads to laugh but then don't because they don't know what was going to be said. That was very funny.

I remember those! I wonder if you can find them online...

 

[Mall]

Doug and Rugrats were the staples of Nickelodeon for me. They were the peanut butter and jelly of TV shows. 1A and 1B, and it alternated with me as far as which was which. I became a Doug fan first, started watching Rugrats in 1994 when it was given the 6ET weekday slot leading into the 6:30 Doug airings. Eventually, I grew to favor Rugrats, if only because I'd seen all the Doug episodes about 10 times at that point, and the Rugrats episodes were still new, or at least newer to me. Then the shows were inverted in time slots (Doug 6, Rugrats 6:30), and since my family ate dinner at 6PM, I was only able to see the second segment/story in Doug, and that helped recharge my interest in it.

Think I took a couple month break from Doug altogether at some point, and when I finally came back to it and watched it again, I was blown away by how I could ever have taken such a great show for granted. Eventually, I developed the ability to block out my intricate knowledge of reruns as I watched them (I learned how to live in the moment and pretend the outcome of each story was always in jeopardy), and therefore I was able to enjoy both Rugrats and Doug reruns every time they came on from then on (and Doug was moved to 7PM in either late 94 or early 95 so I could see the entirety of both Rugrats and Doug weekday evenings).

I didn't get Ren & Stimpy when I was a kid, and it just felt too dark for my taste back then. I've gone back and watched some of the John K episodes and found them pretty funny.

Loved Rocko's Modern Life once I really got into it and started appreciating satire. That was when I was 12-15 years old or so.

Liked Ahhh Real Monsters at first, but I remember a kid in a class of mine asking me, rhetorically, "you like that show?" to which I replied, "yeah," but then started to think about it and realized I really wasn't too fond of it anymore. I think I just got sick of the concept. After that, I just stopped watching it.

Hey Arnold was pretty good, but I was never a huge fan of it, for whatever reason.

Back to Rugrats, though. When I say Rugrats, I'm referring to the Classic 65. The Paul Germain episodes. Arlene "c-word" Klasky fired him, and the show went down the toilet. The more I read about that woman, the more I despise her. It's not Dil that was the big problem. It was the writing. It went from a show written on an adult level to being the most juvenile thing on TV. Klasky wanted her baby show about babies, and she got it.

 

[Teheheman]

Man, there should be an old school Nick channel for all the old Nick shows like Salute Your Shorts, You Can't Do That on TV, the old NickToons, Mr. Wizard. etc.

Daniel

 

[Drtooth]

Back to Rugrats, though. When I say Rugrats, I'm referring to the Classic 65. The Paul Germain episodes. Arlene "c-word" Klasky fired him, and the show went down the toilet. The more I read about that woman, the more I despise her. It's not Dil that was the big problem. It was the writing. It went from a show written on an adult level to being the most juvenile thing on TV. Klasky wanted her baby show about babies, and she got it.

Heheh... I'd love to read more about that stuff myself. Any good links?

 

[Mo Frackle]

Yeah, I heard that story somewhere. I seem to recall reading that one of Arlene's big beefs was Germain making Angelica too unlikable.

 

[Drtooth]

There's got to be more stories. I love to hear about production problems in cartoons.

 

[Mo Frackle]

There's got to be more stories. I love to hear about production problems in cartoons.

Enjoy!
http://www.rugratonline.com/rrnews2.htm

 

[minor muppetz]

I really didn't care much for the 'solo Tommy' episodes (mainly the ones where he stays silent for most of the show). I found them to be rather dull, but there's always room for a second opinion. After all, I haven't seen a lot of these episodes in years. I also hated certain early episodes where Tommy would act sort of arrogant towards Chuckie. "Aw, come on Chuckie, don't be a baby". I don't know, I just found that to be an unlikable side of Tommy, but the character was still in development at the time.

I liked the solo Tommy episodes, but did find it weird they did ones where he could barely talk. But how did you feel about the three episodes that didn't have Tommy in them at all ("Cuffed", "Pickles Vs. Pickles" and "The Unfair Pair")? I liked all of those.

And I thought it was usually Phil and Lil who did the "Don't be a baby" line.