Old Nick Appreciation Thread

[beaker]

so nick aired a special never before seen episode of Rockos Modern Life sunday. Did anyone see it? I just got the seasons on dvd.

 

[minor muppetz]

Anybody remember a promo that would air constantly in 1996, regarding a girl named Nat or Natalie whose family was moving, and she was upset because her friends weren't moving with her, so she started some kind of website to make friends? I don't remember the full web address (I wonder if it still exists), but it ended with ".nat" (I guess a pun on the similar-sounding "net").

I also wonder what the deal with that promo was. Was she a real person (i.e., in the promo she was being herself, instead of being an actress playing a character)? Was the whole thing staged (and the website being more entertainment)? I'm pretty sure the commercial was only shown on Nick, but why would Nick be involved with a website not connected to any shows or properties (and if she wasn't a character played by an actress, why would Nick do a commercial for one real kid?)? I would think it's staged, as the parents seemed to act like stereotypical embarrassing parents and seemed to be oblivious to her plight (the commercials showing so).

And has anybody ever visited that site? These commercials aired around the time my household got the internet, but I can't remember if I ever visited the site. If I did I think it was only once or twice.

 

[animalrescuer]

I watched a lot of the old Nick shows in the '90s and early 2000s, Ren and Stimpy was always funny, but somewhat disturbing in some parts, Rocko's Modern Life was that way, too, but both are enjoyable. Apparently, according to my parents, I loved the Rugrats, I'll watch it every once in a while now, but lately, I began watching The Angry Beavers on Netflix a lot, it's slowly, but surely becoming my favorite classic Nick show. I don't know what anyone else thinks of the show, but I love it.

I liked the game shows on there a lot, too. Legends of the Hidden Temple, Guts, Figure it Out and Double Dare.
Honestly, in my opinion, I think Nick started to go downhill around 2004-2005 after Spongebob began to dumb down quite a bit.

 

[Drtooth]

Angry Beavers is very underrated in the grand scheme of things. Even CatDog was more popular (even got a reference on Family Guy). There was some AB merchandise (plush toys and gumball machine figures... there are others I don't know about)... but it really didn't get the respect that the other, more popular Nicktoons got.

And the show had some clever humor to it... they referenced the Beatles saying they were Bigger than Jesus (Bigger than sliced bread, more like it)... they even referenced the 1970's DePatie Freling Cat in the Hat cartoon. They underscored a parody of a song from the first Pink Panther movie. Not to mention Luchadore movies. Heck, they even were one of the first American cartoons to reference anime. I'm always looking for shows that have more obscure references to them.

 

[minor muppetz]

I found a great blog about Doug. I think it covers every episode of both the Nickelodeon and Disney versions (but I haven't read every entry yet).

But it does have some mild profanity, though.

http://dougfunniesjournal.blogspot.com/

 

[minor muppetz]

Not sure if anybody was wondering, but I recently asked on the Shout Factory facebook page if the really early Nick shows like Pinwheel are included in the Nickelodeon license, and they're not. I wonder if Nickelodeon owns the rights to those early shows.

 

[mimitchi33]

Even though I was born in the late 90's, I did see some old Nickelodeon shows when they were on their last legs, because my brother watched them, such as Hey Arnold, Rocko's Modern Life, Animaniacs (when they had the rights to the show), CatDog, The Wild Thornberries, and my childhood favorite, Rugrats. I also remember seeing old bumpers in 1999 and 2000, like the one where a little girl has a Nickelodeon bone and throws it to her dog, kids playing with a parachute with the Nickelodeon logo on it while catchy music plays, the animated one with singing skates at a skating rink, and the one where there are singing hands and a marionette with only eyeballs, teeth and a bowtie sing the Nickelodeon theme.

By the way here, am I the only one who hated SpongeBob as a kid? That show was so annoying as a kid, and is still annoying now! Making matters worse is that my dad sometimes accidentally puts on Nick while looking for TVLand (usually because without warning, kid shows play on the network he last watched), and all I see in those episodes are SpongeBob being rude to people! Even thinking about the show gives me a headache!

You're right. I just checked. There's a channel called Sprout. I had thought Nickelodeon owned it. But it turns out PBS owns it. I just looked on the extended list of TV channels & there's a Nick Jr. (Was that what you were talking about when you said "offshoot channel") I don't think they show Dora at 3AM if/when the kidlets have nightmares & an episode would help them fall back to sleep. (Sorry for the run on sentence.) There's a channel called MeTV that shows really old programs. But I'm almost positive Nick has nothing to do with that channel.

Bad news. Nick Jr is no longer 24/7. There's a block running from 10:00PM ET to 2:00PM ET called NickMom that takes over the channel. It has gotten a LOT of complaints, because not everyone has the same timezone, and due to the raunchy programming.

 

[Drtooth]

Bad news. Nick Jr is no longer 24/7. There's a block running from 10:00PM ET to 2:00PM ET called NickMom that takes over the channel. It has gotten a LOT of complaints, because not everyone has the same timezone, and due to the raunchy programming.

Loud, audible UGH! I hate this new "hip" mommy culture. I thought it was bad when they pretended to like Hanna Montana music in a shallow attempt to bond. Now they have to be all judgmental Real Housewife wannabes that harp on the other mothers for not having enough "healthy snacks" for the kids and Skinny Girl vodka for the other mommies. I can only imagine what terrible, low brow programming they have.

By the way here, am I the only one who hated SpongeBob as a kid? That show was so annoying as a kid, and is still annoying now! Making matters worse is that my dad sometimes accidentally puts on Nick while looking for TVLand (usually because without warning, kid shows play on the network he last watched), and all I see in those episodes are SpongeBob being rude to people! Even thinking about the show gives me a headache!

Again... you didn't have to suffer through the Noolzels or Little Bits so you would have to come home just before the Awesomeness of Count Duckula and Danger Mouse started. I hate those crappy preschool animes Nick used to have. They didn't even get the rights to a GOOD preschool anime like Doraemon or Anpanman. Spongebob is an acquired taste and there's no doubt it wore out its welcome years ago... but we can all breath a sigh of relief that Rocket Power no longer exists.

 

[AquaGGR]

so nick aired a special never before seen episode of Rockos Modern Life sunday. Did anyone see it? I just got the seasons on dvd.

I heard somewhere that it was just Wacky Deli or an April Fools joke.

 

[Drtooth]

Yes, ancient Nick had shows like Pinwheel (the channel was actually called "Pinwheel" once), Today's Special and awesome shows later in the day like Mr. Wizard's World, Count Duckula and Danger Mouse. There were some neat interstitials, too. There were ones called "Sports Cartoon" that featured a cat and a hippo, Picture Pages with Bill Cosby, Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings (no not the SNL sketch) and a neat cartoon short called "Bananaman" that came on almost at the end of Nick's day.

I freakin' love Bananaman. Apparently, the creator of the original British comics magazine version of Bananaman wasn't happy about the cartoon for some reason.

But yeah, those British cartoons that Nick used to have... I think Bananaman was the only one I actually saw on Nick vs 20 years later on Youtube... but those things were great, and far superior to some of the kiddy shows Nick had back in the day.

Sigh... I wish someone would license rescue Count Duckula and put it on a DVD set that has the whole series and not just the first season. I missed out on the full series set of Danger Mouse. At one point, it was really cheap too. But you know what happens when DVD's hit really cheap... months later they become out of print rarities.