Bumper: Nickelodeon - What Time Is It?

If you thought that "Wacky Wild Kool-Aid Style" commercial I blogged about was a trip, you ain't seen nothing yet. This Nickelodeon bumper from 1990 is an amalgamation of various animated bumpers (yes, there are actually bumpers WITHIN bumpers in this one) and clips from Nick shows. It's a chaotic mess... and I love it. It definitely embodies the awesomeness that was once Nickelodeon.

A Cappella Nickelodeon Theme Songs

This isn't an actual TV show or commercial, but it was too awesome NOT to post. In this video, the men's glee club at University of Michigan performs a medley of Nickelodeon songs. I wish we would have done something that cool back in my choir days.

Theme songs performed include:

Double Dare
Salute Your Shorts
Doug (and "Killer Tofu"!)
Angry Beavers (which was after my time)
Hey Dude

Today's Special

Until it went off the air, Today's Special was a regular part of my weekday TV viewing schedule. For the first five years of my life, I couldn't enter a Sears, Dillards, Famous Barr (which became Macy's here in the midwest a couple of years ago), or J.C. Penney's without wanting to frolic with the damn mannequins. However, doing so got me chewed out by my mom and pissed off the stores' clerks, so I quickly abandoned that behavior. I think this show also contributed to my brother's crippling fear of mannequins when he was two.

Here's a summary, yanked from imdb: "Each night in a major city, Sam the Security Guard locks the closed department store and joins Jodie in the Children's department as she brings a special mannequin with her even as she prepares to work on a display for the next day. With some magic words, the magic hat it wears brings it to life and becomes Jeff. Together with Muffy the Mouse, this gang learn about various things to teach younger viewer, both by the themselves and with visitors to the store."

Today's Special is yet another Canadian import that aired on Nickelodeon. However, I used to watch it on PBS, between Mr. Roger's Neighborhood and Sesame Street (they reran the show into the early 90s, which is why it was able to traumatize my aforementioned brother, who was born in 1987).

Upon watching the various video clips, I have come to a few conclusions:

• The puppets on this show are FUGLY, especially Sam.
• Muffy is fecking annoying.
• I can't believe that this show didn't scare the crap out of me as a kid, because it sure does now!

And now for just a few of the videos I found:

The theme song:

Jeff comes to life for the first time:



Sam, Muffy, and the computer:



Nifty little HMS Pinafore parody:

Fifteen (A.K.A. Hillside)

Fifteen was a teen drama that aired on Nickelodeon in the early nineties. I have a few vague memories of it, but other than the theme music and some minor details, most are a blur, so I decided to do a little research.

So it turns out that Fifteen is the American title. The show's real name is Hillside and it's Canadian. And... that's about all of the information I managed to find.

Let me tell you, the utter crappiness of this show was definitely lost on me at seven years old. It's hilariously cringeworthy. After watching the actress that plays Courtney, I understand where the creators of South Park get that Canadian flapping head stereotype.

Here's a full episode. I did post an extra clip of the theme song, since it was cut out of the video, but it's been taken down from Youtube. Enjoy!

Oh yeah, the kid in the striped shirt? He eventually grew up to become Van Wilder .