The Bullight 5.12.07: Nickelodeon

Posted by Scotty Flamingo on 05.12.2007

Nick nick nick nick nick nick nick nick…Nickelodeon

Do you have a certain movie, show, or celebrity that you love, but you don't see much praise about?

OR, do you have a certain movie, show or celebrity that you despise, but you feel like you are the only one because of mountains of undeserved praise?

This column is about those things that seem to be unfairly criticized or forgotten completely, OR it is those things that are overrated and overvalued. This is The…Um…Bullight.

It is time for another column from 411's favorite son, Scotty Flamingo. Right now, I'm in a period of flux. The column is evolving, much like Brundlefly. Hopefully it won't have to be put down with a shotgun.

So I saw Spider-Man 3 on last week and I think it fits perfect with the new style of the column as I feel there are really cool things about it, but also really bad things. Overall, I will say that it is a fun popcorn movie and as good a way as any to spend two and a half hours. It was better than I feared it would be with all of the elements crammed in. You had Sandman, Venom, Black Suit Spidey, Gwen Stacey, a proposal to Mary Jane, and Harry Osborn's new persona all crammed into one movie. Still, I'll say Raimi did a better job of juggling a lot of characters than Joel Schumacher did with his Batman movies.

There are several scenes that brought a smile to my cynical face. I loved Sandman's "baby steps". Dark Peter Parker was also a silly but fun segment of the movie. And there were a lot of little details that I liked. An example is Spidey swooping in for his press conference with Gwen Stacey and leaping all around the stage.

Bottom line, go see it. What else is out right now? Disturbia??



Here's some feedback from the Get A Life column. Joe writes:


Man, I used to LOVE Get a Life. My wife and I would park out butts in front of the TV and watch this show like it was the last one on Earth. I was pretty bummed when it was cancelled, but I'm not too surprised about it. It was similar to Arrested Development, either you got it, or you didn't.

A quick note about Dad: Chris Elliot said he wanted his Dad to be comfortable while shooting the show, so that's why his dad was always in a robe. In fact, he never appeared on the series in anything else but a robe.

Great stuff man,
Joe


Yeah, the running gag was that Chris's parents were always in their bathrobes. It started because he usually talked to them each morning during breakfast, but later they would venture out of the house in their robes. I could've sworn that Papa Peterson wasn't wearing the robe when he took Chris and Larry camping though.

Speaking of Mr. Elliott, here's a little more Chris Elliott goodness that I found while gathering Get A Life clips. It has nothing to do with anything, but I thought it was funny.

Nickelodeon

So over on the 411 Forums there was a discussion about oldschool Nickelodeon. At first, I was inspired to write a Bullseye about the failings over the network, but then, I decided it would be more interesting to examine the good and the bad, the past and the present of Nick, and see what we find.

First, a history lesson. Nickelodeon began in 1979 as a network called Pinwheel. A few years later the network went national and was renamed Nickelodeon. There are two main era's of Nickelodeon. I'll refer to them as Oldschool Nick and Current Nick.

Here are some station ID's from the Oldschool Era (I'm such a Youtube whore):



In the 80's, if you were in high school or junior high, you watched MTV, and if you were in elementary school, Nickelodeon was your channel of choice. There weren't 600 channels to choose from. The idea of a "Cartoon Network" was insane, so for kids, you only had one channel completely devoted to kids programming. Nickelodeon was truly, as their slogan said, the only network for you. And what a great place it was too. What the network offered was an oddball collection of shows from around the world.

You had cartoon imports from around the world like Belle and Sebastian (yes, the band is named after it), The Mysterious Cities of Gold, The Adventures of the Little Koala, David The Gnome, and British imports, Dangermouse and Bananaman:





And of course, You Can't Do That On Television, the lynchpin of the whole network. YCDTOT was basically a Canadian SNL for kids. It is probably best known for its green slime and early appearances by an unknown Alanis Morissette. In fact, here's a clip!



I think the major changing point of Nickelodeon was the beginning of Nickelodeon studios in 1990 and the addition of Nicktoons which began Nick's in-house production of their programming. While I think there were plenty of quality shows in the Current era of Nick, I think there is a certain magic that is missing. There was a certain random chaotic quality to Oldschool Nick that I don't think has been tapped into since. The early years of the Current Era saw a lot of generic live action shows devoted to teens that were all basically Saved By The Bell ripoffs. Shows like Welcome Freshmen, Fifteen, and Hey Dude basically copied the Peter Engel formula, but didn't offer anything unique. However, Nick did manage to tap the formula for kid's comedy programming with All That and Keenan and Kel.

Nick has faired much better with their animated projects. Spongebob is still a juggernaut for the network. However, some of the magic still seems to be missing. While I enjoy a lot of the Nicktoons like Fairly Odd Parents or Invader Zim, those shows really don't feel any different than what airs on Cartoon Network. Fairly Odd Parents could easily air alongside Dexter's Laboratory or vise versa. You get no more bizarre British or Spanish imports, no more episodic anime.

In the end, while Nickelodeon is still going strong almost 30 years later, it has become just another channel on the dial instead of The Only Network For