7. Invader Zim 6. As Told by Ginger 5. Rocko's Modern Life 4. Doug 3. Hey Arnold 2. Spongebob Squarepants 1. Rugrats
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Nickelodeon is, er was, the #1 network for kids. But over the past decade, they have made some dreadful decisions that I personally do not agree with. I will count down the top 10 absolute worst decisions that Nickelodeon has made. 10. Lack of Nick Dvds Years ago, this would have easily been number one. However in recent years, Shout Factory has been been granted the distribution rights to some of the great Nick shows of the 90's. However my complaint is that Nick waited too long to release them. They should have done this well over a decade ago, when the demand for them was very high. Now the demand for them seems to have fizzled. My other complaint is that there are still a bunch of Nickelodeon shows that have yet to be released. Shows like All That, Kenan and Kel, As Told By Ginger, and every Nick game show to name a few. As well as incomplete releases like Clarissa Explains It All, and Pete and Pete. 9. Moving Slime Time Live.Slime Time Live (STL) was an after school programing block that aired live weekday afternoons in between shows on Nickelodeon. It was quite an amazing show, as it had all the elements that Nickelodeon is famous for: slime, pies, gak, goop, and a great live audience. All while being filmed at Nickelodeon Studios in Universal Studios Florida. Slime Time Live was a mix of Double Dare, and What Would You Do. It was part game show, part variety show, and part talk show, but 100% fun. The show was lively, fast paced, and best of all, very, very messy. Slime Time Live truly showcased everything that made Nick great. But this all changed when Nick decided to pre-tape the show days in advance, and move STL to weekday mornings. Needless to say, ratings sank like a lead balloon, because kids had to get ready for school in the morning, and weren't able to watch STL. I was one of those kids. Nick has never been able to match the success of Slime Time Live. 8. Ending Nickelodeon Magazine.There was nothing quite like being a kid, and getting a new issue of Nickelodeon Magazine delivered to your house. Heck yes, I had the subscription. I needed to make sure that I never missed an issue. That's how important this magazine was to me. Nick Magazine really instilled my love for Nickelodeon in a way that Cartoon Network and Disney Channel couldn't. Years before iPads, I was able to take that magazine places where I couldn't watch Nick. Like the car, waiting rooms, and even to school. What made Nick magazine great was it's dedicated staff, that really loved making the magazine. You could tell how much effort and love went into every issue. It was jammed packed with interesting articles, jokes, fun facts, games, comics, posters, and lots of full color pictures on every page. But most importantly, Nick Magazine sparked my love for reading. "This issue, the 159th of NICKELODEON MAGAZINE, will be our final one. Yes, we know- it's sad news. For the last 16 years, it has been our pleasure and privilege to entertain and educate you. And we hope that our many, many loyal readers have enjoyed every issue of what we think was a fantastic kids' magazine. It's one of our greatest joys to meet people who grew up with Nick Mag. One thing we're really proud of is that we've helped to instill in them a lifelong love of reading. Often, when we tell people that we work at Nick Mag, their first response is, 'Wow! That must be so much fun!' Yes, it was." 7. Cancelling the Hey Arnold Jungle Movie.Edit: Nickelodeon has made the Jungle Movie as of 2017. This was originally written in 2014. Hey Arnold was a big hit show for Nickelodeon in the 90's. So much so, that Nick greenlit a Hey Arnold movie. It came out in 2002, and was aptly named Hey Arnold: The Movie. Well the movie ended up underperforming, compared to Nick previous release The Rugrats Movie in 1998. However it did well enough that Nick decided to go forward with the sequel anyway. They even created a one-hour special called The Journal, that was meant to be a prelude to the sequel. But after a refusal from Craig Bartlett to work exclusively for Nickelodeon, the movie was promptly cancelled. The sequel (aka The Jungle Movie) was going to be about Arnold going to the jungles of San Lorenzo in Central America, and discovering what happened to his parents. That would have answered the biggest question about the series for the fans. As it was never quite explained fully. The Journal left the series on a cliffhanger. The biggest failure that Nickelodeon made, was that The Jungle Movie was actually suppose to be Hey Arnold: The Movie. But Nick decided to make the made-for-TV movie, Arnold Saves the Neighborhood, the first theatrical release instead. However so much time has passed now, that the main voice cast are all adults, and if they were to recast the voice roles, the character's voices would sound "off." And with all this anticipation, it would be near-impossible for The Jungle Movie to possibly live up to all the hype. I think that it would probably work best a graphic novel at this point. 6. Cancelling Invader Zim.Zim is one of my all-time favorite shows. It's the prefect blend of funny, creepy, silly, and outrageous. I felt like Zim was a show made speficially for kids of my generation. 5. Nickelodeon Allowing Disney to purchase the rights of Doug.Doug is easily one of the greatest shows of all time. Doug Funnie has that Charlie Brown-like everyman quality that makes him so relatable to everybody. And I felt the series on Nickelodeon fine, and have no real problems with it. But something that always confused me was why Disney was able to make their own version of Doug. How was that possible? Doug aired on Nickelodeon, so surely they must own the rights to it. And Nick wouldn't just willingly hand over one of their greatest shows over to a competitor like that. Well after doing some research on it. I found an interview where Doug's creator Jim Jenkin's discussed this with Mathew Klickstein. Long story short; turns out that Jim had it written in his contract that if Nick didn't make 65 episodes of Doug, he would be allowed to take the show elsewhere. Well when Nick only made 52 episodes of Doug, Jenkins decided to sell his company to Disney, and allow them to make 65 episodes of Brand Spankin' New Doug. Now I grew up on Nickelodeon's Doug, and Disney's Doug was an abomination to me. Not only did it lose all the charm of Nick series, they added a Cousin Oliver named Dirtbike. 4. Dan Schneider ShowsOk Nick, we got it. Kids will watch any crap you put in front of them. You have proved your point that you can create successful TV shows with terrible plots, and awful scripts. Now can you please let someone make a show? Dan Schneider has been with Nick since the early 90's and he has been great to the network. He worked on All That, and Kenan and Kel, and even made one of the greatest Nick shows ever, Drake and Josh. But the man is clearly out of ideas. I mean, how many possible pear jokes (parody of Apple) can you make before it becomes old and tired? As much as I semi-enjoyed Victorious, and early iCarly, too much of a good thing, is never a good thing. Because as great as Drake and Josh is, Sam and Cat is downright unwatchable garbage. This show was created to be a vehicle for Ariana Grande. Why else would you take the most boring, one dimensional character from Victorious, and give her, her own show? The reason why live-action 90s Nick shows were so great, were because they weren't all done by the same one person. They were diverse, and used talent from all over the place. That's how you get such unique shows like Clarissa, Pete and Pete, and Salute Your Shorts. So please Nick, release Dan Schneider out to pasture, and bring in some new fresh talent, to liven things up a bit. 3. Ending of Nick GaS & lack of original gameshows. The last seven items on this list were just child's play. This is where I get serious. Shutting down Nick GaS was a horrible decision. For the uninitiated, Nick GaS (Games and Sports) was Nickelodeon's answer to GSN (Game Show Network). On GaS you could see all the great kid's game shows that aired on Nickelodeon in the 80's and 90's. Shows like Double Dare, Nick Arcade, Finders Keepers, Legends of the Hidden Temple, Get the Picture, Figure it Out, GUTS, Wild & Crazy Kids, and my personal favorite What Would You Do? It was a cavalcade of timeless treasures. And having a channel where you could see them all was just pure joy. However the fun ended when Nickelodeon decided to forever shut down Nick GaS, and replace it with The N (later Tennick). Or as I like to call it, the "All Degrassi, all the time network." Since that's all they played 24-hours a day for five years straight. The worst part about this is, since the shutdown of Nick GaS, these shows haven't aired for the better part of a decade. If you're lucky, you might be able to find various episodes of Nick gameshows online somewhere. But other than that, they are locked up in a vault somewhere, just deteriorating away. These game shows have just been collecting dust for years over at Nickelodeon. They have no intention of ever airing them. In fact, they probably want to pretend that they never existed in the first place. But if they would just put these shows out on DVD, even as an online a manufactured-on-demand (MOD) DVD series, people would buy them. More importantly, I would buy them. I would buy What Would You Do? in an instant. It was my favorite. The game shows were some best things about 80's and 90's Nick. And the fact that there isn't a single gameshow on Nick right now, is really quite mind boggling. Especially when you consider that Disney Channel, and the Hub Network both have game shows on their networks. Nick had a hit with the reboot Figure it Out, and it was actually good. But it ended up cancelled, because Nickelodeon failed to properly promote it in it's second season. 2. Closing of Nickelodeon Studios.Nickelodeon Studios was the only one of its kind. Nick has always been the pioneer in creativity. Every Nick show was filmed there. From Clarissa, to Double Dare, to GUTS. Former Nick Gerry Laybourne is thanks to that. She is the brilliant mind that made everything that we know and love about Nickelodeon back in the 80's and 90's. But when she left Nick, all of her creativity went right with her. However what stayed was the next President of Nick, scumbag Herb Scannell. Herb hated Florida. He hated going down to Florida, and wanted absolutely nothing to do with the place. So somewhere along the lines, Herb decided to just shut down, and completely close down Nickelodeon Studios forever. Because apparently Herb hates kids, and fun too. And the fact was that kids were having too much fun. So he knew that the only logical thing was to shut it down forever, so kids will never be able to create amazing lifelong memories there ever again. And as far as Nick Studios coming back? "As long as the lady who's in charge on nickelodeon is there, it'll never happen." You think I'm exaggerating? Just ask Marc Summers. This is the reason why so many 90's kids hate Nick now. Disney's Doug and Dan Schneider shows are forgivable. But tearing out the heart and soul of Nickelodeon's identity isn't. Here, why don't I let Phil Moore explain to you, why Nickelodeon Studios was so awesome. "As long as the lady who's in charge on Nickelodeon is there, it'll never happen." 1. Changing the logo.Was there ever any doubt? If you didn't see this coming from a mile away, then you aren't a true 90's Nickelodeon fan. This is by far, the worst thing that Nickelodeon has ever done. The Nickelodeon logo has gone through many changes since it started as Pinwheel. But the difference is that with each logo change, is the logo got better, not worse. In 1985, Nickelodeon changed it's logo to the balloon extra bold logo that I know and love. It was perfect. How can you possibly improve on perfection? Short answer, you can't. Not only did they take away all the fun of the old logo. They replaced it with the ugliest I've ever seen in my entire life. It truly makes me want to vomit just looking at. I don't even know what you call that font. But I hope vomitrocious is available. Honestly I think the new logo is fitting, considering Nickelodeon is not a place that I call home anymore. This new logo represents everything that is wrong with Nickelodeon today. The current programming is awful, so why shouldn't the current logo reflect that? Nothing is coming from a genuine place anymore. The execs have sucked all the fun out Nickelodeon, so why not suck the fun out of the logo too? But regarding the old logo. It was the the most brilliant logo ever made because it could be anything. There was no limitation of what you could do with that logo. And as a kid, I fell in love with it. That logo is my childhood. The new logo is my nightmare. When you wonder why people are so disgusted with this network today. Look no further than the logo. They replaced the most iconic TV logo of the 1990s, and you expected people to just forget about the memories attached to the other one? The iconic one? The one that should be in the Smithsonian. The old logo was designed by Tom Corey & Scott Nash. And they decided to make it orange because they felt orange clashed with everything and it would make it stand out. And the splat was meant to show that you could mold the logo in anything you wanted. Here are just a few of the examples. |
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