Old Nick Appreciation Thread

[Sgt Floyd]

As Told by Ginger was another show I didn't really care for that much. I don't even remember what it was about :/

 

[Mo Frackle]

As Told by Ginger was basically about nothing. It was just a teenage girl going through the usual stereotypical 'drama' seen on every Disney Channel sitcom during the 2000s.

 

[Aaron]

I remember when Nickelodeon showed A LOT of Muppets.

 

[minor muppetz]

I was looking at the iTunes "Nick Rewind" collection. There's at least five volumes. I don't know when Nickelodeon officially considers it's cut-off date to be in regards to the classic era, but it surprises me that Rocket Squad (or was it Rocket Power?) and As Told by Ginger are included in that collection. Okay, so maybe Rocket Squad began at the very end of the classic era (or the very beginning of the post-classic era). To me the "classic era" ended around 1998, though I still watched the channel regularly for a few years. I think I only watched Rocket Squad once, though. I enjoyed Spongebob at first but after a quick while I got bored with it.

I didn't have many of the old Nickelodeon VHS releases (besides many of the Rugrats releases), but it's interesting that the Nickelodeon videos often had bonus material, years before DVD (during the beginning of the DVD era it seems many VHS releases contained a little bonus content as well). Most of this bonus stuff was short material seen during commercial breaks on Nickelodeon. It seems the Ren and Stimpy ones technically didn't have any bonus content (aside from music videos in a few releases) but the videos tended to promote some of the show's shorter content (like "Ask Dr. Stupid") as bonuses. I think the Doug videos had music videos, the Rugrats videos had all kinds of material including episodes of "Inside-Out Boy". Incidently, I know that Angelica the Divine included some "video puzzles". I've never seen that video, so can anybody tell me what the "video puzzles" actually were (I can't even find them on youtube)? There were two video releases of the original SNICK line-up which contained some of the original "Pete & Pete" shorts. The first few Nickelodeon movies had shorts before the movies, and the VHS releases (except for Good Burger) had DIFFERENT bonus content. The original Sony releases of the various Nicktoon holiday episodes for the most part had only the holiday episode (which were always a full half-hour instead of two short episodes) and no other bonuses, but after Paramount took over the video rights they also contained a bonus episode that somehow relates to the holiday (for example, Paramount's releases of the various holiday specials would contain a bonus episode involving snow, a video release of a valentine special would also have a romance-themed episode).

It seems the live-action shows were under-represented on video. I know there were video releases of Clarissa Explains it All, Are You Afraid of the Dark, and Pete and Pete, as well as a Family Double Dare video (I think Guts also got a VHS release, and I've read about a "Worst of You Can't Do That on Television" release). Some video releases contained episodes of multiple shows. Besides the SNICK videos, there was a romance-themed video with episodes of Clarissa and Hey Dude in additon to Rugrats and Doug, and I think there was a halloween compilation (though I can't remember off-hand what was included besides the Rugrats "Reptar bar" episode). There was also the "Nickelodeon Friendship Variety Pack" VHS, which was hosted by Ren and Stimpy (in the style of "Mystery Science Theater 3000" and had shortened versions of episodes of Rugrats, Doug, Ren and Stimpy (two different episodes), Rocko, Clarissa, and Pete and Pete. Of course the live-action shows (which don't have the two-episodes-per-half-hour format) were more heavily edited. The Friendship VHS was also packaged with three blank VHS tapes.

I am surprised that there's no full season sets of Rugrats. That was perhaps Nickelodeon's most-popular and most-marketed show of the late 1990s. In the past year Shout! has been releasing season sets of many other classic Nick shows, but not Rugrats. I don't think Amazon ever had burn-on-demand Rugrats season sets, and iTunes doesn't even have Rugrats season sets (though there are many best-of volumes). I am more shocked by the lack of Rugrats season sets than the lack of season sets for any other Nickelodeon show.

 

[Mo Frackle]

Yeah, that's "Rocket Power" you're thinking of. But I can understand forgetting the title. After all, it was a pretty forgettable show with unlikable characters.

 

[minor muppetz]

I thought I might as well bring up two threads I started this year on similar topics:

First, a Nick at Nite thread I started:
http://www.muppetcentral.com/forum/threads/nick-at-nite-thread.51087/
And a Salute Your Shorts thread:
http://www.muppetcentral.com/forum/threads/salute-your-shorts.51994/

 

[CensoredAlso]

Yeah, that's "Rocket Power" you're thinking of. But I can understand forgetting the title. After all, it was a pretty forgettable show with unlikable characters.

Ugh, hated that show. The whole '90s EXTREME stuff, so annoying, lol.

 

[Mo Frackle]

And I really disliked a lot of the characters. They were basically saying, "Dude, look how awesome we are!".

 

[CensoredAlso]

And I really disliked a lot of the characters. They were basically saying, "Dude, look how awesome we are!".

Exactly I just hate that whole competitive mentality some people have.

 

[minor muppetz]

When I got cable, Mr. Wizard's World was only on at really-early-in-the-morning timeslots (I think 6:30), and it wasn't exaclty advertised. At the time I thought I watched everything on the channel, even shows I may not have cared for, so I was surprised when I saw one particular commercial which mentioned that show. I know I've seen that commercial on youtube. It features an adult who's facing an unseen kid who asks the adult about Nickelodeon shows he might like, but with each show mentioned (Mr. Wizard, Dennis the Menace, Looney Tunes, You Can't Do That on Television) he pantomimes actions that make it clear he doesn't like any of the Nick shows, with the kid voice-over saying that the channel is just for kids.

Did anyone else think it was weird that when Nickelodeon started making movies that the first Nickelodeon movie, Harriet the Spy, had nothing to do (outside of cast and most likely crew members) with any of Nickelodeon's programming? I know that years earlier there were plans for movies based on Doug, Rugrats, and Ren and Stimpy (and we eventually got movies for two out of those three properties). Especially with there being seemingly one Nickelodeon movie a year, it seems odd (I know, the Nickelodeon name was likely a draw to get more people to see the movie). I also thought it was weird that the first MTV movie had nothing to do with any MTV programs, and I didn't even watch MTV (not when it was good, not when it dumped its original purpose, but this thread isn't about MTV).