A lot of people blame Cyma Zarghami (Nick president in 2006-2018) for Nickelodeon's decline, but Herb Scannell (1996-2006 president) arguably got the ball rolling
>turning a blind eye to the abuse of young actors by Dan Schneider and Brian Peck
>making Craig Bartlett turn Hey Arnold The Jungle Movie into a TV movie and Arnold Saves the Neighborhood into a theatrical movie; results in the Neighborhood Movie flopping (plot too thin for theatrical), Bartlett leaving Nick, Jungle Movie put in development hell
>cancelling Angry Beavers because they said "shut up" and broke the fourth wall
>cancelling Invader Zim and Constant Payne because "muh too violent"
>reviving Rugrats for soulless Dil/Kimi/All Grown Up episodes without Paul Germain
>closing Nick Studios because he hated Florida
>allowing CN to take Ed, Edd n Eddy because he didn't give Antonucci full creative control
>not letting Hillenburg end SpongeBob after the movie because Herb didn't want to lose their cash cow
>withholding last episodes of shows years after they were produced (As Told by Ginger took 16 years to air all of its last season)
>cancelling shows for not being up to Rugrats/SpongeBob/Dora ratings-wise
Gerry Laybourne (1984-1996 president) built Nick up as indie/experimental in the Rocko/Ren & Stimpy era. Herb started the transition into generic corporate.
You forgot one of his biggest blunders
>being so convinced that CatDog was going to be Nickelodeon's big breakout mega-hit that he ordered millions poured into merchandise and advertising and a 100-episode run, which went unfinished because of poor ratings
Supposedly he thought Catdog would end up more relevant that Spongebob
On the one hand this shit is really funny, but on the other hand I feel bad for Peter Hannan. Must have sucked to come up with a goofy little cartoon with offbeat humor and (very) niche appeal only to get that much responsibility thrust on him. No wonder the poor bastard quit cartoons to go work on kids' books after all was said and done.
Yeah, Catdog is 90s quirky. It isn't amazing, but it isn't terrible at that, but he was totally off on that prediction. I guess the problem is that executives don't know how to look forward because forward is always death for them.
CatDog was intentionally abrasive and pretty mean-spirited for a kids' show (probably more than I. M. Weasel) but it wasn't a BAD show, just a fairly weak one. Its premise was never enough to sustain 100(!!!) episodes, or even the 66 it ended up with. If they had been more sensible and gave it a run of 20 episodes, maybe a second season if they felt enough demand was there, people would be a lot more generous with how they look back on it today: just another 90s oddity.
>millions poured into merchandise and advertising
It's hard to believe but there was a time, about a year or two before Y2K, where you could find CatDog plushies and t-shirts and school supplies filling up bargain bins all over the fricking place. It seemed like it was in every store, but hardly anyone ever bought it. They wasted so much on all that junk- kids didn't care about CatDog! They wanted Pokemon and South Park goodies instead. Then the merch production shifted to SpongeBob and it was off to the races. All the CatDog stuff got hauled off to dumps and third-world charities.
This feels weird, I actually liked CatDog
Didn't buy any merch though
Pokémon was just better
I fricking hated CatDog and wondered why it was always plastered everywhere
I mean, I still liked Nickelodeon during the late-90’s and early-2000’s but it’s clear that all the more corporate and questionable controversies date back to that period so I can’t complain.
I just remember seeing all those damn character designs from CatDog, The Brothers Flub, and Dora and wondering what the frick I’m even looking at? Luckily, stuff like SpongeBob, Angry Beavers, and Jimmy Neutron kept me good company at that time.
Late 90s-early 00s Nick still had good shows, but it did start to fumble the ball a bit and didn't know how to respond to CN's popularity.
Agree. Early nick was something else. Literally something else in it's irreverence and flexibility before it became so polished during what we didn't know were the darkest times behind the camera.
>cancelling Invader Zim and Constant Payne because "muh too violent"
Zim wasn't cancelled for violence, they gave the show a pretty shocking amount of creative freedom. It was cancelled because it was expensive and not pulling the ratings to justify it. It's only bad in hindsight because Zim turned out to be a merchandising goldmine. Though them not being allowed to finish Season 2 was a dick move.
>not letting Hillenburg end SpongeBob after the movie because Herb didn't want to lose their cash cow
While in hindsight we might want this, from a business perspective it's fricking moronic, both with and without hindsight. And people would've fricking hated him for doing this and demand he resign.
>It was cancelled because it was expensive and not pulling the ratings to justify it.
Execs/censors were also concerned the show was a bad look after 9/11 and Columbine. The show was actually renewed for season 2 weeks before 9/11 and then cancelled in January 2002, it's noticeable why.
>It's only bad in hindsight because Zim turned out to be a merchandising goldmine
Even then Nickelodeon was also pretty bad about almost never making merch for their shows. Spongebob was more of a rare event than the standard. I don't think nick holding on to Invader Zim would have ever made this discovery. It only did well as a merch driver years after the fact by Hot Topic really running with it, as a cheap property to play with.
Angry Beavers because they said "shut up" and broke the fourth wall
Wow. Guess he never heard Bugs Bunny say "EHHHH SHADDAP!" before...
Herb tried censoring the "shut" in "shut up" with a bleep but this backfired because parents thought Norb was saying "shit up"
Oh god, what a moron.
>Gerry Laybourne
Not to be that guy but around 1992, he wasn't that great either. 1995 was when the downfall truly started. Scannell just made it worse.
90s Nick will always be the company's golden era.
So 92 Nick wasn't that great but 95 was the downfall? So Nick only had two good years from 93-94?
What kind of moronic question is that? 92 is when Laybourne starting making questionable decisions and kind of enforcing some rather standards at the time. The network as a whole only started to tumble in 95.
Looks like he was in charge during the golden age of the company
>Looks like he was in charge during the golden age of the company
Correct, he was handed a "golden age" built up by men a lot smarter and savvier than he was, and his policies and directives would eventually go on to finish that.
>Nickelodeon's decline
Their decline happened because you turned 11. You know when Nick turned to shit for me? 1993. Because that's when I turned 11. Nick doesn't grow up with you, it changes to meet the tastes of the current generation of young kids.
Yeah but their structure did get more corporate after he took over. Before him they took more risks.
Yeah, it's not so much the tastes of the current generation of young kids as what executives think will sell to young kids. That's why Nick has always had really obvious corporate plant shows like CatDog or Fanboy and ChumChum, but also actually good stuff alongside it.
List all the corporate plant Nicktoons so I can avoid them like the plague.
>turned a blind eye to things that didn't happen
yeah blame him! ruin his life too!!
>Nick
>indie/experimental
Pete and Pete
bum-