Nod To Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon was available on cable in 1979. I remember watching the network in the early 80s when we first got cable. Back then we only had maybe 35 channels. Nickelodeon was like channel 25. I watched their flag shows You Can’t Do That On Television (1981-1990), Mr. Wizard’s World (1983-2000) and Double Dare (1986-1993) in the early days. There was also Turkey Television (1985-1988) and Today’s Special (1982-1991). Not to mention Saturday afternoon movies. There was a British series that had to do with a kid having supernatural abilities. I think it was called The Tomorrow People.
Nickelodeon got most of their television from other countries at first. That included my favorite cartoon The Mysterious Cities of Gold (1986-1990), which was French Produced and Japanese Animated. Then it was dubbed over in English. Other favorites from that era included: Spartkus and The Sun Beneath the Sea (1986-1991) as well as Belle and Sebastian (1984-1989).I also watched The Magical World of David The Gnome (1988-1995), Inspector Gadget (1987-1992), Heathcliff (1988-1993), Count Duckula (1988-1993), Danger Mouse (1984-1994) and the short skits of Bananaman. I enjoyed Star Trek The Animated (1985-1990) series as well. Later there were live actions shows like Hey Dude (1989-1991) and Clarissa Explains It All (1991-1994).
My friend Elizabeth loved The Muppet Babies (1992-1999) Loony Toons (1988-1999) and Tiny Toon Adventures (1995-1999). She also watched Double Dare religiously for years. We often watched different shows, but we both loved Nickelodeon in general. It was a part of our friendship growing up.
Who could forget Nick At Nite? I watched Lassie, The Donna Reed Show, Dennis The Menace, The Patty Duke Show, Mr. Ed, The Monkees, Flipper and The Brady Bunch with my Mom.
Then I became a Mom in 2003. I would get videos of Max and Ruby (2003-2019), Blues Clues (1996-2006) and The Rugrats (1991-2004) for my kids from the library. My daughter liked Dora The Explorer (2000-2019) and my son enjoyed Go, Diego, Go (2005-2011). Then they began to watch Sponge Bob Squarepants (1999-2021) and The Fairly Odd Parents (2001-2017). Anastasia loved The Winx Club (2011-2016) as well. We watched Avatar The Last Airbender (2005-2008) and The Legend of Korra (2012-2014) together, but we watched it on DVD and later on Netflix.
