Do You Remember When It Was Noggin?

The network that is now known as Teen Nick has gone through a good many changes over the past decade. It seems to be pretty much forgotten, but I'm dying to know, does anyone else remember this channel when it was the original Noggin?

It started out as Noggin, which was aimed at, I guess 8 to 12 year-olds with some shows for preschoolers. It was... a quirky little channel. It showed things like Ghostwriters and the Fred on Your Head show, and for younger viewers, older Nick Jr. shows like Allegra's Window and Gullah Gullah Island. Then, at night it would switch over to teen-oriented shows, the most popular being Degrassi, and some older Nick shows, like Clarissa Explains it All. This was how it was until 2002, when the network was renamed "The-N," and it switched to being for preschoolers half the day and teens the other half of the day. Then it became predominately teen-oriented, showing reruns of Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Saved By the Bell, Moesha, Degrassi, and a few other original shows, with the preschooler shows shown only in the morning. Eventually the preschooler block split off to become its own channel called Noggin, which is now the Nick Jr. network, and The-N was renamed Teen Nick.

This network has changed so much, and it's a shame that it doesn't get as much attention as the changes in its sister network, Nickelodeon. Since I was in the target age for the original Noggin, I enjoyed it and could also enjoy the older Nick shows since I'd watched them when I was younger. IMO, it wasn't really a channel you'd watch all the time, but it was nice to have more options as a kid in addition to Nick and Cartoon Network.

Then, as The-N it was good, because it showed those 90s sitcoms like the Fresh Prince and others, and it even showed some old 90s Nick sitcoms for a while, like All That and Kenan and Kel. But ever since it's become Teen Nick, it has pretty much become a haven for newer teen-oriented Nick shows like iCarly, Victorious, and others, plus... stuff like this. IMO, pretty much the only thing it's got going for it now is The90s Are All That.

If you remember it, what did you think of the original Noggin, and of all the various forms this channel has taken over the years?

edited 20th Aug '12 11:21:31 PM by TrueRuby

So, you mean like a year or two ago? Yeah, I kinda remember that. Didn't watch it since I don't tend to watch shows targeted that young.

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No, about 10 years ago. It hasn't been Noggin since 2002. (Not talking about the current preschooler's channel.) That's when it became The-N.

But it was still half Noggin', so I'm still counting that as it being Noggin'.

And my cable channels didn't go that high in 2002.

edited 21st Aug '12 12:16:53 AM by 0dd1

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I remember noggin. I used to watch reruns of Kenan and Kel and The Adventures of Pete and Pete when it was on. I'd watch The 90's Are All That more often if it weren't the same four shows over and over. I was never that fond of Doug, Rugrats or Hey Arnold. They refuse to show any other Nicktoon. Plus I wouldn't mind watching Clarissa or Are You Afraid of the Dark again.

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That's The-N/TeenNick.

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Yeah, the whole PBS back catalog, including Square One TV! Noggin cut it all to pieces, but I still watched it, because it was SQUARE ONE TELEVISION! And then other things from when I still watched PBS, before it seemed to get taken over by a lot of cartoons that didn't teach you much of anything. They even tried to promote some shows to adults with "retro" episodes of Sesame Street and The Electric Company (Hey you guys! Spider-Man!).

One show that was new to me that they showed all the time was Cro. It was a cartoon about Ice Age creatures inventing simple machines and things. Does anyone remember that?

Right, the Nickelodeon back catalog made up the other half of their programming, and that's how I saw a good portion of the original version of Doug, after having watched the Disney-produced one on ABC for a while. It still held up for me!

One fact I recall is that like the Disney Channel, Noggin didn't have commercials for anything but itself, but its commercial breaks were full of reports on unusual student projects from around the world, including a bunch of short films they'd show—I think Discovery Kids had some short films like that too? Does anyone remember better what those were all about?

I started watching Noggin for the Ghostwriter reruns, and kept watching it cause damn if it wasn't one of the best stations to keep on and watch casually. Lots of the shows on that channel were just so silly but also so entertaining.

"The difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense." - Tom Clancy, paraphrasing Mark Twain.

Actually, Noggin did show Pete and Pete and Clarissa Explains it All reruns in its day. Teen Nick/The-N started showing Kenan and Kel and All That later.

Ohh, ok, so it was PBS stuff. I didn't know where the non-Nick shows came from, but I just looked up Square One Television and Children's Television Workshop, and yup, that along with the Nick stuff was pretty much Noggin in a nutshell! They had a good mix of educational programs and just entertaining ones.

I used to watch Noggin sometimes when i was a kid. Not a lot, though.