(2 of 2)
This hip, TV-savvy attitude is also a major feature of Nick at Nite, the three-year-old companion service aimed primarily at adults, which takes over in the evenings when Nickelodeon signs off. The channel offers mostly old reruns, from The Donna Reed Show to Saturday Night Live, but the retreads are given a self-parodying spin with tongue-in-cheek promos (a "How to Be Donna Reed" home-study course) and special events like a "Do-It-Yourself Sitcom" contest. In that one, viewers were asked why their life ought to be a comedy series. Three families were then chosen to act out their own mini-sitcoms, with the help of guest stars like Eve Plumb of The Brady Bunch.
More original programming is on the way. This week Nick at Nite offers Tattertown, a cartoon pilot from raffish animator Ralph Bakshi (Fritz the Cat) about a world where discarded objects come to life. Nickelodeon, meanwhile, is developing a sitcom about kids at a dude ranch, as well as a new show for preschoolers, Eureka's Castle, that will use animation, puppets and live action to explore problems like being afraid of the dark.
Not all adults are enthralled by Nickelodeon. Double Dare and another game show called Finders Keepers (now off the air) have been denounced for encouraging exhibitionism and greed -- the sort of schoolmarmish complaint that deserves a dousing with green slime. Peggy Charren, president of Action for Children's Television, praises the channel as a healthy alternative to network fare but is worried that some of its newer shows "may have gone a little overboard taking a Mad magazine approach."
Charren is also concerned about the channel's expanding commercial ventures. Nickelodeon did not even run commercials before 1984; now it has entered the syndication market and is licensing its name for products ranging from shampoo to sneakers. "We are a channel for kids and an advocate for kids first," says Laybourne. "The licensing is only an afterthought." Such ventures, moreover, enable the channel to prosper and expand its programming -- a fact of TV life that Nickelodeon's savvy young viewers would certainly understand. Call it: Why You Can Do That on Television.