Nickelodeon's proprietary animated offerings, called Nicktoons, date back almost 26 years to August 1991, when Doug, Rugrats and The Ren & Stimpy Show debuted. All iconic in their own right, they were followed shortly thereafter by a litany of now-classic shows, including The Wild Thornberrys, Rocket Power (which was many non-L.A. kids’ first introduction to Venice Beach), The Fairly OddParents, and Invader Zim. These are just some of Nickelodeon's iconic shows from late '90s and early '00s. Now, two decades later, with demand for nostalgic content being at an all-time high, the executives at Nickelodeon know the time is right to bring back some of their classic programs.
“Millennials, when they were kids, they were loving those Nickelodeon shows, and now they’re grown-up adults, but they still love those Nickelodeon shows,” Chris Viscardi, Senior Vice President of Animation Content Development for Nickelodeon, explained to L.A. Weekly. In 2016, Nickelodeon celebrated Nicktoons’ 25th anniversary, and revived some nostalgia shows, including Hey Arnold! and Rocko’s Modern Life, so by the time this year’s Comic-Con rolled around, they had something ready to show audiences.
For their part, the shows' casts and creative teams have enjoyed reuniting. “It’s like it was yesterday,” Anndi McAfee, the voice of Phoebe on Hey Arnold! says of returning to the show. “I was really not expecting how amazing it felt to get back in the groove,” Francesca Marie Smith, who voices Helga, adds. The show’s creator, Craig Bartlett, who’s been pitching this TV movie for 15 years, says, “Its time has come, because the super-motivated social media experts [who grew up watching the show] are out there, working in the business now, and they’re saying, ‘Why don’t we make shows like Hey Arnold! again?’” Smith adds, “For me it’s been really interesting watching things in Hey Arnold! become a part of pop culture. ‘Move it, football head!’ or even, ‘Stoop kid’s afraid to leave his stoop’ — things like that are normal, people say these things in normal conversations now.”
Clancy Brown, Tom Kenny, Mr. Lawrence and Rodger Bumpass from SpongeBob SquarePants. Photo: Katie Buenneke
And then there's SpongeBob SquarePants, which debuted in 1999, and has been airing regularly ever since. “Funny is funny, and the characters are so solid that you want to keep coming back to see what they’re up to,” Mr. Lawrence, who voices Plankton and is the show’s story editor, says. “And it’s not topical at all,” Tom Kenny, the voice of SpongeBob, adds. “SpongeBob doesn’t seem to have a generation gap.” Still, they find it strange how important the show is to the rest of the world. “We became part of pop culture, we are referenced in movies, War of the Worlds, countless comic strips in the newspapers mention us in there. We are iconic in that part of pop culture,” Lawrence says.
“The 90s Nicktoon thing is such a thing now; at this Comic-Con, Hey Arnold! came back, Rocko’s Modern Life did — we started out together. The weird thing is, of those NickToons, SpongeBob hasn’t gone away,” Kenny says. “SpongeBob has been ubiquitous for the whole time, and he’s a 90s Nicktoon, he started in ’99.” Clancy Brown, who voices Mr. Krabs, adds, “You don’t need to reinvent it, you don’t need to update it, it just works.”
The shows might not need updating but Butch Hartman, who created Fairly OddParents and Danny Phantom, takes his other responsibilities seriously. “Being a parent is not an easy job, which is why we try to create cartoons parents know are safe for their kids. They can trust us, because you're really asking people to trust you with their kids, when you’re putting shows on the air,” Hartman says. “Which is why, on Fairly OddParents, we have jokes that kids understand, but then jokes that adults can laugh at as well. I get so many kids coming up to me now, saying, ‘Oh, Mr. Hartman, I love your show, I grew up with it; I understand all the jokes now!’”
That kind of dual-purpose humor was something Nickelodeon encouraged all its early animated shows to use, and its something newer shows try to emulate. “When you can play on those two levels, I think they can be really profound to both [kid and adult audiences],” says Viscardi. “Those shows inspired so many other artists who grew up watching TV as kids, and then they went on and did their own versions of a lot of those early Nick shows." But ask a millennial — there's nothing like the originals.
Watch all your '90s Nickelodeon favorites on NickSplat, your late-night destination for your favorite childhood Nickelodeon cartoons and live-action shows! NickSplat doesn't question football-shaped heads, but embrace them - along with Reptar bars, a Big Ear of Corn, orange soda, and even slime for Pete (and Pete's) sake. Make your slime-covered Nickelodeon childhood dreams come true every night at 10pm ET/PT, only on TeenNick USA! #NickSplat!
More Nick: SDCC 'Rocko’s Modern Life: Static Cling' Sneak Peek | Rocko's Modern Life | Nickelodeon!
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