Nickelodeon in General

I miss Jimmy Neutron and The Wild Thornberries.

I've always blamed CN Real for Cartoon Network's downfall, but never saw where Nick started to take a turn. Is it just not being a kid anymore and not finding these kinds of shows relevant? Are we in a Dork Age of animated cartoons? There always seemed to be a wealth of cartoons to enjoy back in the day. I remember Nick having a ton of games and promotions, and that weird slime fetish. Do they even do that anymore?

Then I remember stuff like this. I haven't heard of a Nick crossover in awhile, or any significant Nick-verse games. I doubt any major networks do stuff like this anymore, and when they do it's always cheap-looking games distributed through app services.

edited 30th Mar '18 7:41:40 AM by Soble

I think the dark age is more Nickelodeon airing Sponge Bob to an absurd degree at the expense of other shows (At least until The Loud House premiered) than Nick shows declining in quality.

I noticed that Nick went rogue somewhere between 2006-2008. I do feel nostalgia towards Mr Meaty, Catscratch, etc, but there's no denying that these shows weren't "Nicktoons quality" shows ala early Spongebob and Rugrats. Out of the late 2000s Nicktoons the only ones I like, iirc, are The Mighty B! and Making Fiends ('still bitter over that one though).

Oddly, Nick's Nick Jr material has apparently not gone through a Dork Age. I've never heard parents complain about them and the shows seem consistently fine.

edited 31st Mar '18 8:11:06 AM by Pichu-kun

I think the only Nick Jr. show that is considered bad is Dora the Explorer, and only then, for just people outside the target demographic.

Isn't that because it shuts the kids up for a while?

What? No, people love Dora. Or at least the older seasons. I haven't watched the show much since back when those magical stars (?) were introduced circa 2005-2007, however I've glanced at later episodes and I see no Seasonal Rot.

The Trivia.The Ren And Stimpy Show page might need some cleanup.

The Creator Killer entry is just utterly depressing.

Though he wasn't a pariah in animation; his reputation took an awful hit that he's only recovered from recently but he kept working through the 90s and into the 00s.

edited 1st Apr '18 4:31:22 PM by Aldo930

In (hopefully) happier news:

Nickelodeon Animation Editorial Employees are electing to unionize.

Things have changed since Micah Wright tried it.

Good on them.

I'm guessing this time around they were able to get enough traction in the first place that by the time Viacom found out it was a "you can't fire all of us" type situation.

So, which Nick game shows did you like?

Figure It Out was my all-time favorite, mainly cause of people getting slimed. I liked Double Dare 2000 a lot too.

I enjoyed watching Legends of the Hidden Temple.

That too, plus Nick Arcade!

I watched pretty much every show on Nick GAS. I don't get why kid's game shows stopped being a thing on Nick. They tried a revival but it bombed.

2 of those aren't bad...

I kind of hate how much people love to use Sanjay And Craig as an example of a bad show. I mean if gross out humour, Bob's burgers-styled characters and nonsensical plots(and butt surgery) aren't really your thing, that's great. There's a wide world of other more amazing shows, but I think This show is just what it is: Stupid fun. I think season two is where the writing starts to get better sort of, and it's just fun to space out on this show. But people already made up their mind about it.

Also, since when was Robot And Monster "bad"? It wasn't as exciting or as funny as Rocko's modern life, but it was wholesome for its message and main characters.

TBH, what kind of shows should Nickelodeon produces more of?

I blame all the internet reviewers jumping down onto the infamous "Fart Baby" (which to my knowledge, even Sanjay & Craig fans (including myself) agree was a terrible episode) which left a permanent dent on the series' popularity.

Which is a shame, really, because the show did move beyond that and was a lot better in its later seasons.

edited 17th Apr '18 7:11:51 AM by kablammin45

I think a lot Sanjay and Craig's terribleness is downplayed to make it seem it wasn't that bad.

Or maybe it just isn't that bad and people were hopping on bandwagons?

I do think people play devil advocate too much that they begin to overlook why people hate it. I mean people advocate for Fanboy and Chum Chum saying it wasn't that bad.

There's far more people who actually like Sanjay & Craig versus people who like Fanboy & Chum-Chum. The former at least had some people with talent writing on it and a pretty big following. Again, the hate was mostly bandwagoning on the earlier episodes.

When it comes to its writing, characters and art/animation Sanjay & Craig is one of a couple Nicktoons unfairly criticized due to bandwagoning (the other being Pig Goat Banana Cricket). The show have improved as the series progressed by generating more funnier episodes, making the main characters a lot more tolerable by downplaying their more obnoxious traits and evolving from its intial gross out show routes. There is a reason why to this day I miss this show airing on Nickoledean (as well as Harvey Beaks and the aforementioned Pig Goat Banana Cricket) but don’t give a flying fuck for its buddy show Breadwinners.