emunney wrote:Licensed to Il wrote:I think anyone who is between 45 and 35 years old (and is American) would enjoy the “Nickelodian” doc on hulu. There was some trippy and weird stuff my mind has forgotten about over the last 30 years from a childhood of watching that network. I just had great flashbacks to “Double Dare” and “Hey Dude” and some shows I had almost totally forgotten existed. Was cool to hear how some of all that weirdness came to be.
Do they talk about Today's Special, the most unsettlingly memorable TV show of my childhood (outside the Punky Brewster Halloween special <shivers>).
The show about the mannequin who comes to life, loves to dance, and has frequent existential crises?
I’m only half way through but they haven’t mentioned that freaky show, I think they showed a brief clip. It was interesting to learn that in the early days no decent studios would sell them shows to broadcast, so they had to buy programs from other countries. That explained why so much of the early nick stuff seemed familiar and odd at the same time (it was foreign). “You Can’t do That on Television” was Canadian, “Danger Mouse” was Japanese,” etc. I have vague memories of perceiving that disconnect. The doc shows that the original execs really pat themselves on the back for how well their programming connected with kids. I remember thinking it was weird, but also the only option on tv for kids.
That mannequin was creepy as hell. I also thought the chef on “You Can’t do That on Television” was scary. And there was a Sesame Street ripoff called “Pinwheel” that had creepy puppets.