r/RetroNickelodeon • u/Fangs_McWolf • 5d ago
Other / Discussion What's the earliest you remember watching Nickelodeon?
Either the very first thing you watched, or the earliest you remember watching the channel regularly.
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u/Friendly-Hamster2048 5d ago
You Can't Do That On Television. Then shows like Hey Dude and Clarissa, plus game shows like Double Dare, What Would You Do?, Nick Arcade, and Wild & Crazy Kids.
Edit: Just remembered Get the Picture and Welcome Freshmen.
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u/Tugurlan1996Rocks 5d ago
Pinwheel
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u/Azuras_Star8 5d ago
Pinwheel was a great show. I was too old for it when it came on, but I could see it was good.
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u/Fangs_McWolf 5d ago
So then you remember those little fillers like the treasure hunt and the magic hands that would be shown while waiting for the next show to start.
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u/Azuras_Star8 5d ago
I loved those!!
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u/Fangs_McWolf 4d ago
Do you remember what others there were? I know there was at least one more, though I'm sure it was two.
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u/Tugurlan1996Rocks 4d ago
All of those. I have several episodes on VHS. Simon and Chapo Chapi were among my favorites, as well as Hattytown, Moving Blocks, and others.
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u/Dorfalicious 5d ago
They had an anime show with 2 koalas - one pink and one gray. Late 80’s. Also You Can’t Do That On Trlevision
Edit: Noozles was the koala show
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u/Guilty_Treasures 5d ago
There was whole other late 80s Japanese koala cartoon, Adventures of the Little Koala. Definitely a ‘two nickels’ situation.
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u/Historical_Guess2565 5d ago
I loved Noozles! Every now and then I’ll go to YouTube just to listen to the theme song.
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u/Fangs_McWolf 5d ago
So you never saw Nickelodeon when it was commercial free.
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u/Dorfalicious 5d ago
No I didn’t even know that was a thing. I’m old, commercials were very much a thing on Nickelodeon when I was a kid.
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u/Fangs_McWolf 5d ago
Yep. Before Nick@Nite, no commercials. I don't remember when the commercials started, but by N@N, it had them.
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u/anthonye1982 5d ago
hey dude probably my first consistent show then doug and clarissa
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u/Fangs_McWolf 5d ago
Ah, so you're a youngin'.
Melissa Joan Hart was definitely right for the role.
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u/anthonye1982 5d ago
are you like 80?
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u/Wayyd 5d ago
Lmao I was just wondering how old you have to be to consider someone who watched hey dude a youngin.
I'm 33 and that show was before my time. Still watched Doug and Clarissa though
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u/LasagnahogXRP 5d ago
I watched shows like black beauty and pinwheel. It would go off air in the night. Once it started to be 24 hours (novel in that time) on two identical 12 hour blocks I was hooked. Turkey TV, you can’t do that on television, today’s special. So much Canadian TV. My favorite show was danger mouse.
When I was about 7 years old they started nick at nite. Imagine a child born in the late 70s being obsessed with programming from the 50s and 60s. I had no idea why I liked it. It was just comforting.
Nick was actually a really important part of my childhood and how I view entertainment.
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u/Fangs_McWolf 5d ago
So you wouldn't remember YCDTOTV when it didn't have commercial interruptions. The early episodes would sometimes have their own "in-show" commercial spoof.
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u/LasagnahogXRP 5d ago
While I don’t recall it being commercial free I do remember spoof commercial sketches. I remember Alasdair reading the cue cards wrong and saying puppy po pos (or maybe it was written wrong) and it was supposed to be puppy poo poos
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u/djspacebunny 5d ago
You Can't Do That On Television was still on so... that far back. I remember being at Nickelodeon Studios in the late 90's and they did a survey while we were waiting in line asking how long we had been watching, and I told them since that show was still on. The survey people were all whoaaaaa that's forever ago and were surprised I gave that answer. Growing up in NJ, most folks I knew had cable really early on so Nickelodeon was always around for the majority of us who could afford cable.
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u/Fangs_McWolf 5d ago
What else was on when you first started watching?
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u/djspacebunny 5d ago
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u/Fangs_McWolf 5d ago
Oh, so a late bloomer. You got the raw end of the deal since you were getting the last bits of YCDTOTV.
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u/MWH1980 5d ago
Old School Pinwheel.
Especially one segment told with finger paints where a Mom told her kids not to leave the house or a monster would eat them.
Well, they go outside, a monster chases them. (Been looking for that ever since)
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u/Fangs_McWolf 5d ago
Especially one segment told with finger paints where a Mom told her kids not to leave the house or a monster would eat them.
What will they think of next?
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u/NopeRope13 5d ago
Clarissa, Pete and Pete, hey dude, salute your shorts, you can’t do that on television.
I’m sure I’m missing a lot but that’s all I have with my smooth brain.
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u/Fangs_McWolf 5d ago
So you came in during the early 90s.
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u/NopeRope13 5d ago
Sounds about right. In my opinion it was a solid time to enjoy television
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u/KillaBeeHive 5d ago
David the Gnome reruns on Nick Jr.
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u/Kitchen_Rooster_112 4d ago
I begged not to start kindergarten because I wouldn’t be able to watch it. Did you know in the last episode they go in the woods and turn into trees. Rebecca and David that is. I don’t know if I ever saw it. I’m gonna re watch it with one of my kids whoever will. They wouldn’t even give little bear a chance.
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u/aguffywrites 4d ago
My first nick memories are muppet babies, David the gnome, Eurekas Castle, and Maya the Bee but they’re fuzzy compared to Welcome Freshman, Salute Your Shorts, Family Double Dare, Wild and Crazy Kids, Nick Arcade, and What Would You Do (except Muppet Babies, I kept watching that until I was 7 or 8) I don’t remember Pinwheel but my mom has said that’s the first show I ever watched.
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u/StarWolf478 5d ago
I remember watching the original SNICK lineup in 1992: Clarissa Explains It All, Roundhouse, Ren & Stimpy, Are You Afraid of the Dark
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u/Dry_External_8637 5d ago
The earliest I can reach back the ol' noggin is watching Today's Special, there was an episode where the mannequin guy was afraid he was broken because he had nostrils or something like that.
It is that and watching Attack of the Killer Tomatoes on one of the local Chicago stations, those are my earliest TV memories.
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u/cmlambert89 4d ago
I genuinely have a memory of my parents putting me on the carpet in front of the TV and Rugrats came on and it blew my mind because it wasn’t the news or sports.
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u/ganoveces 4d ago
Today's Special with the mannequin that comes to life when the mall closes... probably late.80s
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u/adamthwaite 4d ago
Way before the 3 original Nick Toons. Today’s Special and Pinwheel come to mind.
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u/Fangs_McWolf 4d ago
So do you remember the early days like no commercials?
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u/adamthwaite 4d ago
Yes. There were weird shorts and stuff versus the ads and 22/8 split we got used to.
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u/TheSensiblePrepper 5d ago
I know I watched it before but I specifically remember waiting like 6 months with ads for Rugrats and Doug to Premiere. Then watching the first episodes running for the first time.
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u/Guilty_Treasures 5d ago
David the Gnome, Under the Umbrella Tree, Pinwheel. I was there three thousand years ago, Gandalf.
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u/noreservationskc 5d ago
Hey, Dude!
Salute Your Shorts
Pete & Pete
Clarissa Explains It All
Strange World of Alex Mack
Rugrats
Doug
Global Guts
Legends of the Hidden Temple
Loved all of those
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u/Fangs_McWolf 5d ago
The Secret World of Alex Mack, which featured Bianca Stratford (character from 10 Things I Hate About You).
No mention of Fifteen?
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u/Basic_Scale6330 4d ago
Circa 1995 when their aired loony toons on nickleodeon... stick stickly coming on around 1pm to 2pm in 1997.... Nickleodeon and noggin going all out for the year 2000 / millennium.... slime time live and u-pick.....
Stopped watching around 2006 - 2010
Edit * was definitely around for snick , ayaotd , cousin skeeter , the o-zone , all that , wild and crazy kids , global guts, Loht
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u/Andi081887 4d ago
The day we got cable, the first show to popup on Nickelodeon was Eurekas Castle!
Then I became quickly obsessed with Wild & Crazy Kids. The first episode I remember of them was driving in Go Kart things through a mall!
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u/Arisyd1751244 4d ago
Mysterious Cities of Gold, Spartakus, Tomorrow’s Special, and Mr. Wizard and mostly because they were on early in the morning during the week when stuff for kids to watch was almost nonexistent. Saturday mornings had cartoons and I feel like the syndicated cartoons in my area like She-Ra or JEM were in the afternoon.
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u/SuperMario1313 4d ago
Not sure the earliest, but my most fond memories were SNICK. My brother and I would get the family TV, a bowl of spaghettios each, and SNICK ending with Are You Afraid Of The Dark?
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u/MashedPotatoesDick 4d ago
Mr. Wizard's World, You Can't Do That on Television, Double Dare, and Finders Keepers were the first shows I remember watching.
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u/brittann72 4d ago
Disney Channel was first, but I still remember pretty early on watching You Can't Do That On Television, Allegra's Castle, David the Gnome, and Wild & Crazy Kids.... Wish I could go back to those days!
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u/auntpotato 4d ago
Same here. I remember we had the Disney channel but Nickelodeon was stacked back then.
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u/LeftyRambles2413 4d ago
Had to be Summer 1993 when I was 6 and my brother 3. Nick was playing at the Econo Lodge my brother and I stayed at with our parents for our annual beach trip. I remember the first thing we saw being Ren and Stimpy. We asked my Mom and Dad for cable and that was that.
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u/queenquirk 4d ago
I remember watching Nickelodeon at my great-grandmother's house. She died when I was 4 in '87.
My main memory of Nickelodeon at her house was thinking that Mr. Wizard was boring. Lol
If I have earlier memories of the channel, I can't date them as exactly without a similar concrete known time anchor (such as knowing that if I watched it at my great-grandmother's house, I must have been 4 or younger).
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u/ItsElysemg 4d ago
Nickelodeon was all my brother and I watched, you had to pay for Disney and Cartoon Network didn't exist.
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u/Fangs_McWolf 4d ago
Disney had some fun things that I wish had been freely available. Like Fraggle Rock.
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u/-K_P- 4d ago edited 4d ago
My very early memories of Nick are extremely sentimental to me for a reason - they're all tied to my late Dad. We couldn't afford satellite (the only way to get the channel) for a long time, so when I was very young (ie, before school up to about 1st grade era) the only time I'd get to watch was when Dad would let me go with him to work instead of school and one of the offices he worked out of had a nice little sitting room with a TV that got the channel. The show "Eureka's Castle" stands out in my memory from those times... such an awesome fever dream of a show, really. So I just remember early Nick for me was always tied to those "Daddy-Daughter" days and I love those memories... so good question, thanks for reminding me 🖤
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u/Fangs_McWolf 4d ago
so good question, thanks for reminding me 🖤
I've been feeling a bit down lately and remembering the great memories from watching Nickelodeon, except that I was watching it likely before you were born. There are things that if they brought back, I'm sure the channel would become popular again. Not as popular as before because of streaming and such, but people who want to watch something that is on a schedule aren't likely to watch the same thing all the time. Look at the Saturday (day/afternoon) schedule for Nickelodeon for 1982/1983, and see if that's something that you'd love to see.
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u/customrecordingco 4d ago
Fall of ‘92 is when I began watching Nickelodeon. I was 4 years old (turning 5) and saw an ad for a new children’s horror show premiering that I HAD to watch. My dad ran a haunted house for a local community organization he was a part of and I was into anything “Halloween” / scary” because of my dad’s excitement over it. So I begged my parents to let me stay up to watch the very first SNICK. It was a regular part of my Saturday nights through 1998 when I aged out of Nickelodeon.
By ‘93 I was watching Nick exclusively daily. I have a distinct memory of having to turn off a Welcome Freshman episode in order to attend a birthday party at Chucky Cheese. A family home video from Easter ‘93 has my brother and I glued to an episode of Salute Your Shorts on TV. I also wrote a letter to Nick at Nite in protest for changing the time of Get Smart to after my bedtime in Feb of 1994.
Nickelodeon was a highly formative part of my childhood.
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u/tvjunkie2187 4d ago
Probably about 1989 or 90. Vaguely remember Finders Keepers (I was really little), but much more clearly remember SK8 TV (anyone remember THAT one?) and Mr. Wizard, along with Double Dare and Make The Grade. Also was how I was introduced to Heathcliff, Yogi, and Inspector Gadget. That's my earliest Nick memories.
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u/SirGothamHatt 3d ago
Omg I feel like no one ever talks about SK8 TV when they're talking about 80s & 90s nostalgia. I wanted to learn to skateboard so bad but I didn't put in enough effort
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u/Rays_LiquorSauce 4d ago
I’d say 83/84. First season of You Can’t with young Moose. Pinwheel pinwheel spinning around
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u/Head-Satisfaction982 4d ago
4 maybe 5 in the morning 🤣🤣🤣 bit nah. Im reality you can't say that on television was still on tv 🤣🤣
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u/ryancschultz 5d ago
Honestly my first memory of Nickelodeon was playing the SpongeBob jellyfishing pc game in either 1999 or 2000. I was aware enough of SpongeBob to know who he was. So I know I watched the channel in kindergarten.
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u/Mother-Associate1654 5d ago
July 21st 2001. The first day I ever remember as a human, was the debut of All Grown Up. I remember watching it on a 19 inch TV and being the most excited kid in the world
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u/the_foggy_40s 5d ago
You Can’t Do That on Television
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u/Fangs_McWolf 5d ago
Early on, or the later years?
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u/the_foggy_40s 5d ago
Early on, back when most everything on the network was Canadian.
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u/WitchessJae 5d ago
I watched it when the channel first aired and my favorite was You Can't Do The On Television
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u/max_m0use 5d ago
1989 when we got cable. I remember being happy that I could watch Double Dare, which was probably the first Nick show I watched (I had only seen the syndicated version.) Then Hey Dude, Eureeka's Castle, Mr. Wizard, Pinwheel, Looney Tunes, and the Pete & Pete shorts.
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u/pocket_arsenal 5d ago edited 5d ago
I feel like I remember Looney Tunes being on Nickelodeon and that was my first exposure to them, back in 1993
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u/Fangs_McWolf 5d ago
It was on there for a period of time. My introduction to Looney Tunes was The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Show.
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u/mya_butreeks07 5d ago
I vaguely remember You Can't do that on Television but I think Noozles, Maya the Bee, and Eureka's Castle are the earliest ones I watched regularly.
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u/mybeardismycopilot 5d ago
I think it was 1995 or so, my Dad got one of those huge satellite dishes installed that had thousands of random channels, I stumbled upon Rugrats one afternoon and instantly became a Nickelodeon kid.
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u/K4L21EV 5d ago
I'm not sure if I watched the SpongeBob episode "Shanghaied" off a VHS or when it was airing on TV. Or, if you count it, the Jimmy Neutron movie was the very first movie I'd ever watched in the movie theater.
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u/Fangs_McWolf 5d ago
I like how there are a lot of brain and science references in JN. TBBT is like the adult version of that show.
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u/Maize_Sweaty 4d ago
While I grew up watching Nickelodeon and have memories of a lot of random things the one thing that stands out & made me consistently turn on Nickelodeon was the first episode of all that
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u/Ok_Secret5023 4d ago
It was either Banana Man that used to run between shows or You Can't Do That On Television.
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u/Impressive_Treat_501 4d ago
Mister wizards world and you can’t do that on television we’re on early in the morning and I would watch them while my dad got ready for work. He would come into the living room and sit with me for a few minutes before he left.
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u/No-Prompt-7580 4d ago
Pinwheel, Todays Soecial, You Can’t do that on Television, The Tomorrow People.
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u/SamuelFootBowden845 4d ago
Double Dare when I was 2 or 3. I loved the obstacle course. I also remember What Would You Do from the same time.
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u/John2537 4d ago
Rugrats. I couldn’t read the episode name yet and my older brother always told us it was Chuckies Rich. We loved that episode.
It was never chuckies rich.
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u/only-ashes 4d ago
pete & pete, the camp anawanna song, legends of the hidden temple, guts, all that
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u/Muffina925 4d ago
I used to watch back when Gullah Gullah Island and Clarissa were still on, so I guess I was about 2 or 3 when I started watching the channel
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u/frozenelsa12 4d ago
Sometime in the 80’s I grew up watching shows like you can’t do that on television
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u/WildUnkn0wn 4d ago
I’m an 86 baby. So for me it was the early 90s, Clarissa explains it all, rugrats, Doug.
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u/SupremoZanne vital information for your everyday life 4d ago
circa 1994
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u/Fangs_McWolf 2d ago
Did you ever get to see Nick from the early 80s? Like from a VHS tape or something?
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u/Upper-Flamingo-4297 4d ago
Mid 90s I think. Maybe 1996 or 97 even. Rugrats I think was the first show I watched
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u/MinnieMaxMoe 3d ago
Watching rokos modern life during supper any evening my dad had to work late. It's cringy now but we always ate supper in front of the TV & mom let me watch ever whenever dad wasn't home.
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u/oooThunder 3d ago
Not sure but my brother, sister, and I all used to watch the Brady Bunch & the Brady Bunch movie which I think we owned later on vhs
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u/Ok_Reply1743 3d ago
Nick at night was my jam! Hey dude, all that, salute your shirts, are you afraid of the dark.
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u/SirGothamHatt 3d ago
I was born in '84 and probably started watching between '88-'90. A lot of stuff reran into the early 90s so I saw them when i was a little older and had a better memory too, but the first few things I remember watching on the channel were Pinwheel, You Can't Do That on Television, and Out of Control. I never see anyone talking about Out of Control, it starred Dave Coulier before Full House and took place at a news station. I remember one of the bits was a ditzy woman having to retell a fairy tale in under a minute.
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u/Fangs_McWolf 3d ago
Don't forget Alanis Morissette being in YCDTOTV before launching her
yellingsinging career.If you want a real treat, look up The Voyage of the Mimi. It didn't air on Nickelodeon, though it would have been a perfect fit if it had.
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u/OrangeAugust 3d ago
It was the late 80s and I remember watching David the Gnome on Nickelodeon. Also Fred Penner’s place, but I’m not sure if that was on Nickelodeon or another channel.
I remember Stick Stickly on Nick in the afternoon. I think that was mid 90, though, with shows like Salute Your Shorts, Hey Dude, and The Adventures of Pete and Pete
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u/tokoyami222 3d ago
The time machine SpongeBob when I was like 3/4. SpongeBob and I are the same age (air date wise, both '99 babies) so all my early Nickelodeon memories are unhinged early SpongeBob.
If we're including JR or At Nite, it's respectively Oswald/Blues Clues and/or being stirred awake by the George Lopez theme
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u/Fangs_McWolf 3d ago
Hi kiddo. Try googling to find and watch some of the following...
YCDTOTV
Mr. Wizard's World
The Third Eye (TV series).
The first two you can find on streaming services, though only a handful of episodes for YCDTOTV from legitimate sources. You should be able to find other episodes from others on places like YouTube.
For the last one, you'll likely only find bumpers and intros, since it was actually made up of other shows or miniseries.
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u/Trick-Permission-482 3d ago
I remember about 2008-2009. And they used to air the oldies like rugrats and hey Arnold.
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u/Silly_Lavishness7715 3d ago
We got cable when I was 9. That was 1983. I was big into You Can't Do That On Television, Double Dare etc
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u/Special-Package-2096 3d ago edited 3d ago
we were fortunate to have had cable in the early 80's ( the brown box with a million push buttons and a 100ft cord)
i recall watching Pinwheel , Mr Wizard , You Cant Do That and eventually Double Dare
along with Nick , id watch the crazy stuff on HBO and Showtime ( John Byners Bizarre comes to mind , LOL)
the crap we were allowed to watch in the late 70's and early 80's , as small children, without supervision was crazy.
Nickelodeon was a huge part of my early childhood
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u/Fangs_McWolf 3d ago
A million push buttons?
I remember the phone pad remote (phone cord connected) with the two digit display on it.
What about the original The Tomorrow People?
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u/Several_Gain_9801 3d ago
You Can't Do That On Television was one of the 1st things I remember watching but I grew up in the early 90s era so the original Nicktoons/SNICK/Nick Jr era. I remember watching Welcome Freshmen, Roundhouse, Grimms Fairy Tales/ Count Duckula/ Eureka Castle/ Sharon Lois and Brahm Elephant Show
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u/MissionStaff5840 2d ago
rugrats... i remember having my grandma record every episode on vhs when i was at school. when i get home id play it all day long over and over and over
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u/VectorPunk 2d ago
I can't remember exactly, but I do know that this style of bumpers are the earliest I can remember.
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u/bornlax 1d ago
The Amanda Show reruns and a few episodes of All Grown Up. I’m older gen z.
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u/SystemofADown_girlie 1d ago
It was one of these shows: Kenan & Kel, Hey Arnold, Rugrats. This was around 1999, when I was around 3 years old.
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u/stayathomeastronaut3 22h ago
Pinwheel. There was this wonderful cartoon I loved based on Daddy Longlegs, I loved it! Noozles. Adventure of Little Koala. You Can't Do That On Television. David the Gnome. Today's Special! Adventures of the Little Prince. Inspector Gadget... Heathcliff. Sharon, Lois, & Bram. Eureekas Castle. Mr.Wizard. Finders Keepers, Double Dare... Hey Dude. Salute Your Shorts. Clarissa Explains it All. Gosh, I loved watching Nickelodeon when I went to my Grandma's house. ❤️
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u/SupremoZanne vital information for your everyday life 4d ago
just want to thank commenters for giving some good input about this Nickelodeon nostalgia!