Goodbye Noggin

[gaastra]

Goodbye noggin. Remember them showing classic sesame street and electric company episodes in prime time.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/compani ... 326f&ei=16

[Randall]

Hm. Never heard of Noggin.

[Ben]

Ah, yeah…you know Noggin. T'was the first iteration of Nickelodeon, waaaay back in the day. We never had it in the UK, I donut think, but I’m sure we used to post Noggin stories on AV a long time ago. The name always stuck in my head (or noggin, to use it in another sense!) as it struck me as an odd choice for an American kids channel when, in a branding sense, I only really knew the word from the very old Brit kids character Noggin the Nog.

[James]

The Noggin television channel started up right around the time my first child was born. It was a staple in our house for years. It transitioned to an online only service a few years ago. Sad to hear it's going away completely.

[Randall]

Reading its Wiki entry, I see it launched in Feb 1999, the same month I left the US, after living there since 1993. So, I just missed it! It was initially mainly aimed at preteens and teens, but had preschool shows in the morning. In 2002, the preschool and preteen/teen blocks were each 12 hours long.

Noggin remained a cable channel until 2009.

The UK had Noggin from 2006 to 2010. It was never in Canada.

(BTW, Nickelodeon launched nationwide in 1979.)

[droosan]

(BTW, Nickelodeon launched nationwide in 1979.)

.. with mostly Canadian & UK content! I saw many many 1960s & 70s british 'Children's Film Foundation' films, in its first couple years. The 1970s sci-fi kids show The Tomorrow People was another favorite of mine.

Nickelodeon also (where I lived in 1979-80, at least) was only on-air in the daytime; at 8:00 PM, Nickelodeon would 'sign-off' and "The Arts & Entertainment Network" (later shortened to "A&E") would take over, for the rest of the evening .. primarily airing ballet, opera, classical music concerts and the like..

Both channels were also completely 'commercial-free', in those early years. The initial promise of cable (or at least one of its selling points over 'free' antenna TV) was that -- because subscribers were paying for it -- there would be no ads! If only ..

When A&E finally split-off to become its own channel, Nickelodeon would continue to sign-off at 8PM. Soon after, they began to use the 8PM - midnight block to air re-runs of black & white TV shows like Lassie and My Three Sons, which was initially called "Camp Nickelodeon" (they would then sign-off until 6AM, when Pinwheel would start the Nickelodeon broadcast day).

Over time, this evening program morphed into becoming an all-night rotation of b&w TV sitcoms .. which became known as "Nick at Nite".

[Randall]

Nice history lesson!

I loved The Tomorrow People! it was shown after school on CBC in the late 70s. I now have the complete series on DVD (from the UK), though I'm afraid to watch it, knowing it can't live up to my preteen memories.

I recall Nick at Night fondly, though I can't say I watched it much. Lots of classics got shown.

[droosan]

I was basically Tobey McGuire's character in Pleasantville, throughout the 1980s .. I watched 'Nick at Nite' like it was my job. Sometimes all nite!!

[Ben]

And then color came…!

[gaastra]

Here you go.









Yes, the flash Gordon serial aired on nick!

That just the first four videos. They did tons more videos and history for almost all classic shows aired on nick shows from danger mouse to bananaman to looney tunes on nickelodeon!

[Ben]

Funny…we're starting Flash next week as our next movie night serial!