The Orange Years and Nick at Nite

I recently stumbled across a documentary on HULU called The Orange Years about the rise and early years of Nickelodeon.  The documentary starts at the beginning with QUBE which was an early type of cable television that originated in 1977 in Columbus, Ohio.  One of QUBE's shows was Pinwheel which was hugely popular.  In 1979 Nickelodeon was launched and the first show that aired was Pinwheel.  What I didn't know what that until 1984 the network aired commercial free.

The documentary introduces us to Geraldine Laybourne, who became the program manager of Nickelodeon in 1980 and over the next 15 years she and her team built the channel to what it would become.  

I first saw Nickelodeon as a kid at my step-grandmothers house as she had satellite dish.  I fondly remember the old silver ball and multicolored logo.

I loved learning about my favorite shows and the interviews with some of the cast members seeing what they look like today.  My first favorite show on Nick was You Can't Do That On Television.  I loved the skits, Opposites, Firing Squad, the Locker bits, of course watching people getting slimed.  Watching this documentary made me want to dig into more about this show and I discovered a documentary came out in 2004 called You Can't Do That On Film, I'll be looking for that.

Other shows they talked about that I remember fondly include, Hey Dude, Double Dare, Nick Arcade, Salute Your Shorts, Legends of the Hidden Temple and more.  It was really fascinating learning about the back stories of the creations of these shows.

They also talked about Nick Toons with Doug, Ren & Stimpy, and Rugrats.  Then about SNICK: Saturday Night Nickelodeon, which launch in 1992 when I was 13 and that first line up of Clarissa Explains It All, Roundhouse, and Are You Afraid of the Dark? really his home with me at that time.  I also loved the additions of The Adventures of Pete & Pete and All That. 

After that, though, I was getting too old for Nickelodeon and this is when parts of the documentary, although interesting, didn't give me the same feeling the early parts of it did. 

There was a couple shows that they didn't mention at all that really surprised me.  The first being Wild and Crazy Kids.  It was on from 1990 - 1992 with 75 episodes and I loved this show.  They aired reruns of it all the time during this initial run and after.  Kids divided in teams playing stunt games against each other.  It was great!

Fifteen was a teen drama that came out in 1991 and ran for four seasons totaling 65 episodes.  I remember watching and thinking it was a more serious take on Saved By The Bell.  I wasn't aware of Degrassi until much later in life.

Another was What Would You Do? hosted by Marc Summers it was an audience participation show getting them to do various stunts or competitions with each other.  They also threw a lot of pies in people's faces and had contraptions Pie Pod, Pie Slide, Pie Roulette, and more to assist in guests getting pied.

They didn't touch on Nick at Nite at all.  When Nick launched in 1979 it was not a 24 hour network for kids.  As a matter of fact it had programming on from 8am to 11pm on Weekdays and 8am to midnight on weekends. The other hours on the day featured from Star Channel which later became The Movie Channel.

In 1981 it changed to 13 hours of daily kids programming from 8am to 9pm seven days a week with the Alpha Repertory Television Service (ARTS) airing programming on the other 11 hours.  ARTS later merged with The Entertainment Channel becoming what we now know today as A&E.  In January 1985 A&E ended it's partnership with Nick and launched it's own 24 hour cable channel. 

From January until July 1, 1985 Nick aired text commercials advertising their daytime line up.  I really can't believe this valuable airtime essentially went unused for six months.  Some cable markets did fill this block of time with channels that they didn't space on their system to have a full channel of.

Nickelodeon turned to Laybourne to help make Nick it's own 24 hour channel and with the help of others they launched Nick at Nite on July 1, 1985 which aired from 8pm to 6am.  The original line up featured Dennis The Menace, The Donna Reed Show, Lassie, National Geographic Explorer, My Three Sons, Route 66, Turkey Television,  and the Nick At Nite Movie airing at 9pm nightly.

Some of my favorite shows that I remember watching on Nick At Nite include, Adventures of Superman, Patty Duke, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Adventures of Dobie Gillis, and Mr. Ed.

What's hilarious to me is that Nickelodeon has been on for so long that some of their own original programming in recent years have aired on the Nick at Nite rotation like Are You Afraid of the Dark?.

I haven't had cable since 20102 and I haven't watched Nickelodeon or Nick at Nite with any regularity since then.  However this documentary and writing about Nick at Nite really makes me want to go back and watch some of this programming.

Until Next Time!

EVIL DEAD: The Most Terrifying Film You Will Ever Experience

I originally posted this on another blog and I am re-posting it here on this day as this movie was first released on April 5, 2013

I ended up going to the movies today to see the new Evil Dead remake.  It's a movie I've been wanting to see since I heard about the remake and saw the first trailer.  That's right, for those of you that know me I actually watched the entire trailer.  

There have been a lot of horror remakes in the last few years, Halloween, Nightmare on Elm St, Friday the 13th, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, just to name a few.  The common theme in all of these remakes is that the characters stay the same.  People judge them harshly because they don't want them messing with their favorite killer, like Rob Zombie did with his version of Halloween 2...really Zombie!! 

When I first heard of the remake of Evil Dead I felt the same, they better not mess up my beloved Ash.  Even with Sam Raimi, Rob Tapert, & Bruce Campbell on board as producers I was hesitant.  Then I read that Ashley J. Williams would not be in the movie, in fact none of the original characters would be.  

 

This excited me because even if the movie was terrible, Ash would not be tarnished.  I'm not going to give anything away, I hate spoilers myself.  To clarify I don't usually watch trailers of movies that I know I want to see because I will remember something in trailer we haven't seen in the flick and it ruins it for me.  If I'm watching a trailer and I decide that I want to see the flick, then I shut the trailer off. 

This movie was anything but terrible!!  It was downright awesome!  Most likely I'm going to go and see it again!  There are a few elements from the original Evil Dead & Evil Dead 2 that are in this,  as you can see from the photo of Jane Levy below.  The biggest common factor being their are 2 males and 3 females for the cast, but that's all I'm going to say. 

Go watch the movie!  Seriously you will not regret it!  It's scary, it's vile, it's awesome!  Make sure you stay for the end of the credits, do not make that mistake and leave before, you will regret it when you hear about it later!

Evil Dead is top notch and the word of a sequel is already being rumored and I look forward to it.  Unless it goes the way of Zombie's Halloween 2...seriously what the hell were you thinking!

Trailers are linked below!

Later

Mike

 Above is the new, below are the trailers for the Original and Evil Dead 2 & Army of Darkness

March Movies

 

Magnum Force - The sequel to Dirty Harry and second film in the five film Dirty Harry series

Coming 2 America - Amazon Prime original.  I loved the 1988 original Coming To America and watched it many many times.  This film was both awesome and terrible at the same time.  One viewing was enough for me. 

UP - The Disney Pixar flick that has the saddest opening of any animated movie I've ever seen.  Wesley wanted a family movie night and my wife had never seen this before.  It's such a good movie. 

48 HRS. - I've been wanting to watch both of these movies for quite a while as it's been a long time since I've seen them.  I remember the gist but not everything.  They haven't been available on any streaming service that I subscribe too, however, after watching Coming 2 America the other day it was on Amazon Prime.  It's not as funny as I recall, it's more serious and action orientated, but I enjoyed it!

Another 48 HRS. - This movie was the one that I remember the most from the series and had all the humor.  

The Muppet Movie - Wesley asked if we could watch a movie and this was his choice.  He chose quite well. 

Dirty O'Neil - This is a flick from the 1974 about a local police officer, Jimmy O'Neil, in a small California towns that is low on crime but apparently high on sex, that is all the girls in town want to have sex Jimmy.

Moxie - Netflix Original Movie about a High School Junior who is tired of the the girls in her school are treated and starts a feminist group and secret zine.  I watched this movie with my almost 12 year old daughter and spent a lot of the time telling her that what the boys are doing is unacceptable and that if anything like that happens to her or someone she knows to tell someone at the school, and if they don't take her seriously, tell me. 

The Block Island Sound - I watched this on Netflix, it's a dark flick with supernatural elements.  It's worth a watch. 

Yes Day - Netflix movie about parents who say agree to say Yes to everything their kids want to do for 24 hours.

Game of Death - The last Bruce Lee flick, I had watched his others last month.  This wasn't streaming on any of my services for free, but my cousin Paul had the Bruce Lee Criterion Collection so I borrowed it from him.  

Iron Fists & Kung Fu Flips - Documentary on Netflix about the evolution of Kung Fu movies featuring Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Jim Kelly, and Others.  Really really good

The Last Blockbuster - An awesome documentary about the Last Blockbuster video store in Bend, Oregon. Growing up we didn't have a Blockbuster in my area, we have Home Vision Video and Sounds Easy Video Store, both which became Movie Gallery, a Hollywood Video and independent stores.  I even worked at a Movie Gallery and got a lot of nostalgic memories watching this film.  

Justice League  - from 2017 a solid flick

Justice League: The Snyder Cut - the Four hour version from original director Zack Snyder.  I wrote a whole blog about it so check it out here.

Promising Young Woman - A vigilante flick about a woman that goes out to bars to find men that take advantage of drunk woman and teach them a lesson.  It doesn't not end in a way that I would have ever predicted.

News of the World - Solid western flick with Tom Hanks in 1870's Texas where he gets tasked with bringing a young girl home to her family after she had been kidnapped and lived with a Native American tribe for several years.

Until Next Time!