Nickelodeon.

[VG_Addict]

What do you think went wrong with Nickelodeon? It was amazing back in the day, and remains a big part of our childhoods.

Now, it's practically the Spongebob Channel, and none of the other shows other than Harvey Beaks are worth watching.

Is it really as simple as, "You grew up"?

 

[Bob_McMillan]

I dunno about Nickelodeon in the States, but over here, its essentially tons of Windows 95-esque animation shorts and a few new shitty acted TV shows (even some horribly dubbed Latino or European witch or werewolf teen drama every few years). Not a lot of actual drawn cartoons anymore, except for Spongebob and reruns of old, much better shows (once in a blue moon).

Actually, its true for literally every kids channel. All the good stuff is being shunted to the "Premium" shows, like Toonami or Disney XD. Super sad to see my little 8 year old sis preferring to watch "Funny Moments - All Da Lolz in Show X Episode Y" on YouTube rather than excitedly waiting for her favorite show's new episode after she gets home from school. I remember getting so pissed when I missed the next episode of Star Wars The Clone Wars, which my sisters actually bothered to watch with me.

And no, I don't think its just "growing up". I do think that a lot of these new shows are objectively bad (a contradiction, I know).

 

[Musou Tensei]

They decided to become more child friendly, back then they had stuff like Rocko, Invader Zim, Ahh Monsters, Ren & Stimpy, and even old school Spongebob were shows adults could enjoy and still do. Of course they also had super child friendly stuff and silly shit, pretty much stuff for every demographic.
Modern Nickelodeon productions though are for children, they play it too safe and lack pretty much everything that made the old shows good, they cut away pretty much everything that could appeal to older people.

 

[CrazyGirl17]

I blame too much emphasis on Spongebob episodes. That, and too many cookie-cutter tween comedies. I hate to seem like one of "those" people who says that "everything was better in my day", but that feels like the truth...

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

As someone who watched Toonami, I can tell you Nickelodeon never got it right or compared in the slightest. Their live action shows were...they were beyond bad. They were unwatchable then, and today reruns should be illegal.
The Animated shows were better, in that for every 5 bad ones there was one stomach-able one.

 

[n0e]

I blame too much emphasis on Spongebob episodes. That, and too many cookie-cutter tween comedies. I hate to seem like one of "those" people who says that "everything was better in my day", but that feels like the truth...

Pretty much this.

It's like they bent to the will of the overprotective parents that won't allow their kids to experience anything outside of their walled garden. Of course, these are the same parents that most likely use the television as a babysitter or nanny and can't be bothered to observe what their child is watching, so they force a network to only show content that no one can be offended by.

 

[Neverhoodian]

Easy, they got rid of the iconic stuttering theme song for their bumpers.

In all seriousness, I stopped watching Nickelodeon a long time ago...like, before Spongebob was even a thing. You see, I didn't have cable TV growing up, but the neighbor kid I was friends with next door did. We drifted apart around middle school, so that was the end of Nickelodeon for me. By the time I became an adult Nickelodeon was already well into its death spiral.

If I had to hazard a guess, it would probably be the change in programming. There seemed to be a gradual shift away from cartoons in favor of live action comedy/variety shows starting in the late 90's. I guess they were cheaper to produce or something. Now I don't know about you guys, but I generally didn't give two shits about the live action stuff as a kid.[footnote]Except the game shows, but they were phased out with the cartoons as well.[/footnote] Most of them were mildly amusing at best, filler to pass the time until the next cartoon came on. The big-wigs decided to switch the focus to the point where the occasional cartoon became filler for the next chunk of live action programming rather than the other way around. Now the only cartoon modern Nick is known for is Spongebob, and the general consensus is that it already jumped the shark years ago.

 

[DudeistBelieve]

What do you expect happened? They are a giant corporation. If they ever produced any art of quality it was purely by accident, I assure you. Same thing always happens, they stop being hungry. They start listening to marketers... Marketers are literally the blood sucking leaches of any artist in a capitalist society.

The moment my Cable got Cartoon Network, I made the jump and never looked back. Not that CN's been perfect either, but they don't make nearly the money Viacom or Disney does, so they're more likely to take some risks and produce some better quality stuff.

 

[Scarim Coral]

RebelTaxi did a video on the top 10 worst decision they have pull in the past-


Maybe someone can pinpoint when they stated to decline?

 

[BreadGod]

I loved Spongebob back when I was a kid. I never cared about the live action stuff, nor did I care about Nick-at-Nite. I just wanted cartoons. Watching Nickelodeon today just depresses me.

 

[Saelune]

No cartoons. Even NickTOONS has live action crap. Live action aimed at kids almost always sucks. Cartoon Network figured it out. They had a live action phase, but now its all cartoons that appeal to many ages.

Its also why Disney Channel stuff sucks. The cartoons are good, particularly the Marvel ones. Gamer's Guide to Everything? Offensive garbage.

Edit: As someone who finds myself often disagreeing with lots of people, its nice that we're all on the same page here.

 

[Elvis Starburst]

I think the decline in most kids channels like Family Channel, Nickelodeon, etc, was when they started making a bigger push for live acted "comedy sitcoms" and shit like that. There were some more ones that were alright like iCarly (And some on Family I can't be arsed to look up. I just remember liking Zoey 101 and The Suite Life of Zack and Cody personally), but once we started getting a bunch of other ones... New ones. Not very interesting or fun ones... Oh dear.

I take one look at the name "Dog with a Blog" and just want to shoot these channels themselves in the face for being as stupid as that

 

[Sniper Team 4]

There aren't any cartoons left on the channel. That would be my guess. Okay, so there are, but they're not good.

I remember growing up watching Hey Arnold, Doug, and Rugrats, just to name a few. And I think, what made those shows great and what made them stick with so many kids, and what we didn't even realize back then while we watched them, was that those cartoons reflected real life for us. We could relate to Doug kind of being picked on by Roger--but Doug didn't solve the problem by beating him or making his life miserable. There were several episodes where the two we even friends, and the series finale has Doug comforting him.
We understood Arnold when he had that crush on Lila, but Lila didn't like him back. He stilled tried, he was still nice to her, and he didn't let it consume his whole life. He also didn't turn into a crazy stalker and send her threatening messages if she continued to refuse him.
Rugrats was all about using your imagination to go on adventures, and as annoying as Angelica was, the babies learned to deal with her and even got along with her.

Cartoons back in the day, while entertaining for kids, I think also taught kids about life by showing real-life situations. Things kids could relate to and teaching them how to deal with stuff without being preachy about it. Cartoons nowadays, from Nick to CN to so many others, seem to lack that. There are exceptions, certainly, but for every Steven Universe or MLP, we get tons of Gumball, Teen Titans Go, and Uncle Grandpa.

 

[Something Amyss]

Avatar and TMNT are better than the entire run of the 90s animation. Sorry, I don't understand the question.

 

[Saltyk]

Honestly, I think the only cartoon Nick ever had that I cared about was Avatar. Nothing else was really anything I cared about. Even as a kid, they only had like one or two shows I cared for. And even then, I preferred Cartoon Network. Cartoon Network had great shows like Samurai Jack, Dexter's Lab, and even Powerpuff Girls. Nick never had anything I cared about in comparison.

 

[FalloutJack]

In most cases, it's not simply that we grew up. Channels with cartoons on them grew DOWN.

 

[Politrukk]

What do you think went wrong with Nickelodeon? It was amazing back in the day, and remains a big part of our childhoods.

Now, it's practically the Spongebob Channel, and none of the other shows other than Harvey Beaks are worth watching.

Is it really as simple as, "You grew up"?

it tried to become the disney channel instead of setting new standards for animation.

And it lost all the potential for the new animated revolution by rejecting shows like Adventure Time etc.

 

[Politrukk]

Avatar and TMNT are better than the entire run of the 90s animation. Sorry, I don't understand the question.

Avatar is already more than 10 years old.

 

[Something Amyss]

Avatar is already more than 10 years old.

Yes, if you ignore that Avatar refers to more than one show.

Which I didn't.

 

[Politrukk]

Avatar is already more than 10 years old.

Yes, if you ignore that Avatar refers to more than one show.

Which I didn't.

Avatar Legend of Korra is what All Grown up was to Rugrats, it was a new take that whilst still pretty up there in quality didn't have the same effect.

Although Korra was a more recent release I don't think you can call it a product of the recent era in the sense that it is a continuation of what legend of Aang was.