nickelodeon-related stories
Posted Oct 23rd 2009 4:30PM by John Scott Lewinski
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Animation, Reality-Free
The popularity of
SpongeBob SquarePants amongst kids (and many adults) is almost beyond explanation.
Don't get me wrong. It's a fun show that skillfully blends little kid appeal with occasional bursts of adult-worthy humor. It also boasts an impressive voice cast, including Tom Kenny and Clancy Brown. But there are kids who can't live without this little tie-clad yellow blob.
To celebrate the little champ's tenth birthday, Nickelodeon has announced
SpongeBob's 10th Anniversary Celebration (Nov. 6 at 8 p.m.) with a list of A-list celebrities, including Rosario Dawson, Craig Ferguson, Will Ferrell, Tina Fey, Ricky Gervais, LeBron James, Pink, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog and Robin Williams.
That impressive collection will appear in an hour-long special featuring
SpongeBob flashbacks.
The special is hosted by Patchy the Pirate, "President of the SpongeBob Fan Club (Encino Chapter)." He sets off for Burbank -- home of Nickelodeon. (It's on Olive, near Victory -- in case you were wondering.)
Posted Oct 21st 2009 4:06PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Industry, Animation, Children, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
Nickelodeon is hoping to win back some of those younger eyeballs by buying up one of the most beloved children's franchises of all time.
The "first kids' network" bought the global rights to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with plans to turn the property into a CGI TV series and feature film by 2012.
The network has high hopes for the cartoon series. They have invested a lot of time and money into winning over young teens and this could be just the thing to win back their old core audience: young kids and heavy stoners.
Posted Oct 15th 2009 11:01AM by John Scott Lewinski
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Other Sci-Fi/Supernatural Shows, Daytime, Animation, Children, Reality-Free
Disclaimer: Children should not take Acid. In fact, no one should sample LSD, but children should really stay away.
That said, speaking theoretically, if kids did drop a soaked sugar cube or six, they would see visions potentially less bizarre than what they take in during an episode of
Yo Gabba Gabba(!). The Nick, Jr. and Noggin show is back this week with new episodes for fascinated children and really high adults.
A lot of kids love it. It's colorful, kinetic, and everybody involved keeps a smile on their face -- even the bizarre anthropomorphized, toys-turned-life size characters -- Muno (red cyclops), Foofa (pinkish bow thing), Brobee (the green monster with no elbows) ), Toodee (the blue cat) and Plex (the yellow, 50s-ish robot).
Continue reading Yo Gabba Gabba! returns to amuse, confuse, terrify kids
Posted Oct 13th 2009 4:26PM by Bob Sassone
Filed under: Animation, Reality-Free
I'm not sure how this is going to change the show (though a show with freaky sponge/squirrel mutant children might be interesting), but SpongeBob SquarePants is getting married! Yes, the yellow square will finally tie the knot with the lady squirrel in the bowl, Sandy.
Entertainment Weekly has an exclusive sneak peek of the SpongeBob wedding. Guests will include Tina Fey, Ricky Gervais, LeBron James, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, Will Ferrell, Craig Ferguson, and Rosario Dawson!
Posted Sep 13th 2009 12:02PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Children, Game Show, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
The first network for kids has had some cult classics on their hands. Recently, however, they really haven't released anything remotely memorable, even in the minds of our easily amused, sugared-up youngins.
That's because they have really strayed from the genre that made them so great: game shows. Strayed really isn't a strong enough word. Replace strayed with "shunned with the fervor of an Amish elder who spots a member of his ordnung waiting in line for the new Palm Pre."
Thankfully, the network has learned from their mistakes and re-animated the ghosts of their most classic game shows
with Brainsurge.Continue reading Nickelodeon returning to its game show greatness with Brainsurge
Posted Aug 5th 2009 10:02AM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Industry, OpEd, Children, Reality-Free
Are you weeping, children of the late-80s and early-90s? As you may have heard,
Nickelodeon is getting a new logo. Understandably, they're going for something that can be incorporated into their infinite number of other properties, but the removal of that classic splatter is certainly the end of an era. Take a look at some of the new ways they'll be
using the updated logo.
Continue reading Nickelodeon changes logo, continues to kill my childhood
Posted Jul 24th 2009 8:01PM by Danny Gallagher
Filed under: Obituaries, Children, Reality-Free
Just when it seemed the wrath of the TV celebrity grim reaper finally decided to take his coffee break, the break room runs out of coffee.
Actor and comedian Les Lye
passed away on Tuesday from unidentified causes. He was 84.
Of course, here in the States, we know Les as that old guy who played all of the adults on
You Can't Do That On Television on Nickelodeon. That was just the tip of the poutine for TV's Ross Ewich.
Continue reading Canadian TV legend Les Lye dead at 84
Posted Jun 27th 2009 12:21PM by Annie Wu
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, OpEd, Celebrities, Children, Reality-Free
This installment of
Sketch Comedy Saturday holds a very specific goal. On one hand, it's to serve as a minor aid in the quest to overcome
Saturday Night Live withdrawal. It's also a very effective excuse to feel nostalgic for the 90s. Believe it or not, the 90s were almost 20 years ago. Take a moment and let that sink in to your old, old brain, dinosaur.
This week, we will be touching upon a little show called
All That, which some of you may remember as Nickelodeon's attempt at a kid version of
SNL. Also, the theme song is by TLC, so you know it's 90s-crazy.
Continue reading Sketch Comedy Saturday: All That
Posted Jun 2nd 2009 6:07PM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Other Comedy Shows, Programming, Children, Pickups and Renewals, Reality-Free
Looks like the Disney Channel underestimated the power of Nickelodeon's
iCarly. Their attempts to squash the possible threat to their
Hannah Montana empire were squashed, however, when a special
iCarly smashed the second episode of
JONAS, the new star vehicle for the Jonas Brothers. So to make themselves feel better, and despite what Miley Cyrus may have been saying, the show will go on.
Disney has picked up Hannah Montana for a fourth season, as well as Demi Lovato's
Sonny With a Chance for a second.
As for
JONAS, it's already been yanked from Saturdays where, despite an impressive debut, it got slammed in its second outing by
iCarly. So now, it's joining the Disney Sunday lineup, where it can nestle snugly behind
Hannah Montana and
Sonny With a Chance. This does create a powerhouse Sunday night for the network, while protecting the two newer shows with the power of Miley Cyrus.
Continue reading JONAS in iCarly witness relocation while Hannah and Sonny get renewals
Posted May 15th 2009 8:01AM by Jason Hughes
Filed under: Animation, Children, Reality-Free
There's a long-standing tradition of porting successful animated movies to ongoing television series, with mixed results. DreamWorks recently delivered the manic
Penguins of Madagascar, and now
Nickelodeon is bringing Kung Fu Panda to the screen as a series. Think about this:
Penguins is bringing 13 million viewers a week. Granted, they're 2-11 years old, but it's still a pretty impressive number. I expect
Panda can bring even bigger numbers. Certainly my son will be thrilled. Now he'll have two reasons to watch Nick (he's in love with
iCarly).
He dragged me to the movie, and I was ready to write it off as horrible before it started because I didn't like the title. It was a little too goofy. But the movie was infectious in its joy. The expanded cast of characters leaves to a great deal of potential, and the panda Po himself is so ridiculous as a kung fu master you can't help but enjoy it. And now I can force him to stop watching the horrible
Skunk Fu! to get his anthropomorphic martial arts fix.
Posted Apr 15th 2009 6:07PM by Eliot Glazer
Filed under: OpEd, Video, Music and Variety, Short-Lived Shows, Children, Reality-Free
As a kid, my parents were totally cool with my television viewing habits, as long as it never became excessive or kept my face from being kissed by the light of day every once in a while. Not that they had anything to be worried about, of course, considering that all I was watching was
Nickelodeon.
While my fellow prepubescents were slowly but surely migrating to more grown-up programming on MTV (and Playboy, if you had a cable box), I spent the bulk of my time between 1992 and 1996 fully devoted to
Roundhouse, a 30-minute sketch show sandwiched between the more popular
Clarissa Explains It All and
Are You Afraid Of The Dark? on SNICK, Nickelodeon's Saturday night programming block.
Continue reading Reprise the theme song, roll the credits, and for the love of God, revive Roundhouse! - VIDEO
Posted Feb 25th 2009 11:55AM by Jay Black
Filed under: OpEd, TV 101, Reality-Free
I have a 19 month-old son named Keane Black who has recently graduated from a boob-obsessed pink blob into a happy-go-lucky toddler. (Little does he know that, if he follows his father's path, he's only a few decades away from regressing back into a boob-obsessed pink blob, except this time with back hair).
The transition has been great for me because it means that my son and I are now actually able to do things together: we play ball, we color, and we watch TV.
Babies are greedy in the sense that my son seems to have no interest in watching
PTI (regardless of how many times I explain to him the myriad delights of LeBatard). Thus, when we watch together, we're stuck watching his shows, specifically his all-time favorite,
The Backyardigans.
While I've grown to enjoy the show, it's occurred to me there are several ways that it can be made a more effective educational device..
Continue reading TV 101: How to fix the Backyardigans (OR: Teach your children well...)
Posted Feb 5th 2009 7:01PM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: OpEd, Reality-Free
It looks like Nickelodeon is getting a little further into the games business by releasing both
SpongeBob SquarePants, iCarly and
Dora The Explorer learning games for the iPhone. They will be available later this year.
My question is this: do children of that age really use the iPhone or iPod Touch that much? Most of the people I know who own one or the other are adults or at least teenagers. While I can see some market for
SpongeBob SquarePants (which has some adult crossover appeal), I just don't see the grown-ups buying
iCarly or
Dora.
Continue reading SpongeBob on the iPhone
Posted Jan 19th 2009 9:03AM by Richard Keller
Filed under: Programming, OpEd, Animation, Children, Reality-Free
I didn't realize that the late 90s offered up so many cartoons that are still around today. A week or so ago, I mentioned that The Powerpuff Girls were celebrating a 10th birthday with a Cartoon Network special and complete DVD box set. Now comes news that a certain walking and talking sponge is celebrating a 10-year anniversary, as well.
Nickelodeon's pants-wearing sponge will be celebrating his decade of entertainment in a number of ways. If you go to the new SpongeBob.com you'll have a chance to play SpongeBob games, watch SpongeBob videos, and read the blog of Mr. SquarePants' creators. If you watch any of the networks of the MTV universe (which Nickelodeon is a part of) you'll be able to view a documentary on the character and its popularity. Finally, if you can wait a few months, you will be able to catch some new SpongeBob SquarePants episodes featuring Dennis Quaid (March) and Johnny Depp (April).
Continue reading A happy 10th birthday to Mr. Squarepants
Posted Jan 1st 2009 11:20AM by Brad Trechak
Filed under: Industry, Programming, Reality-Free
After a
much publicized battle, Time Warner Cable and Viacom have
settled their dispute. For the new year, Time Warner Cable subscribers can enjoy such channels as Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, VH1 or (God help them) MTV.
I didn't see this going any other way. If Viacom withheld its (very popular) line-up of channels from TWC, both of them would lose a valuable revenue stream. This is not a good idea in such an economy where people lose their jobs; I've learned that when the income stops coming in for most households, the first thing to go is cable television. This is not the case for me because the first thing to go in my house in such a situation would be the groceries (no way am I giving up Stephen Colbert).
At least subscribers can now enjoy such greats as
Spongebob Squarepants, South Park,
The Daily Show and
The Colbert Report. Sadly it means they'll also have to put up with
The Hills.
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