Do the NickToons Have a Golden Age? 

It's a shame of how Nick focused more on live action during the late 2000s to early 2010s, specifically considering it was a bit of the opposite eariler in the 2000s. I felt that the sliver age in my opinion ended in 2008 with The Mighty Bee as I feel like it blends well with both the eariler stuff from the 2000s with the kid protagonist and the later stuff of the 2010s with its gross out humor.

Nickelodeon's best era was absolutely in the 90's and early 00's when I was a kid.

I always felt like the golden age of nicktoons was in (1991 to 2005) because in that age we had (mostly) Good shows

If I'm gonna be honest here, I think Nickelodeon's downfall began when the network officially rebranded in late 2009.

I think the point at which Nickelodeon declined in quality was after 2008.

I'd say about 1991-2005. The mid to late 2000s is when they started gearing away from animation.

Breaking down the production cycles for us really provides a fresh perspective on old intuitions

1991-1999: golden age 2000-2006: silver age There was no bronze age AFAIC. Almost everything just sucked after 2006. Cartoon Network however did have a bronze age, from 2010-2016. Nick never recovered since the mid 2000s! Sure, they had better shows like most of their incarnations of TMNT and the first few seasons of The Loud House, but it has never been as good as it was between 1991-1999 or 2000-2006. Nick just doesn't understand kids from the 2010s and 2020s, like they did with those who grew up in the 90s and 2000s. I'm glad I grew up in the 90s and 2000s when Nick was still good.

I love how panicked Otis looks when he's in the bronze rank

To be honest, the early 90’s of Nickelodeon was at their peak as the golden era while 1999-2005 still continues to showcase as the silver era. Even though Cartoon Network was having more competition to Nick than Disney channel since the early 2000’s, CN and Disney had demolished Nickelodeon from 2004-2014 due to Cyma Zarghami giving more live action appeal for nicks channel.

I personally think the Silver Age began around the time Fairly OddParents premiered. Not only was it the first show that was a direct result of the Oh Yeah! Cartoons experiment (and thus unleashed a new batch of creatives on the network), but it also simply felt different from what was on the network at the time. SpongeBob and CatDog at the very least had some overlapping staff with and a somewhat similar feel to the shows that came before them, but Fairly OddParents seemed like something different entirely.

Nickelodeon’s biggest downfall was right after 2006 due to putting new shows in their sister’s network and cancellations of shows on both networks especially not giving them a chance to match SpongeBob’s ratings like Harvey beaks, Making fiends, The X’s, mysticons, el Tigre, welcome to the Wayne and Sanjay and Craig. Especially removing shows by putting them on hiatus on another network such as glitch techs.

I watched Nick alot in the 2010's so I have thoughts on the "modern era" I mostly agree with the eras in this video but I feel like 2009's (technically 2010 by premieres since it would start with TUFF Puppy & Korra) era would end in 2016 with the end of Breadwinners and the start of the loud house. Notably from 2009-2016, while Nicktoons weren't lasting as long as past eras, Nick was still making a large amount of them with many airing at a time. However currently and since 2016. Most of the air time is JUST SpongeBob & The Loud House (moreso the loud house) and alot of nicktoons either only lasted one season or got pushed to streaming only like Pinky Malinky and Glitch Techs. Even then, we may even be in A NEW 2020's era from the 2016 one. Since Nick has focused alot more on co-productions and licensed shows like Big Nate, Monster High, and Transformers, or Zokie of Planet Ruby (an original idea from nelvana, only on Amazon Prime Video with no marketing). Along with SpongeBob Spinoffs and constant revivals (Avatar Studio, TMNT Again, Danny Phantom is back in graphic novel form after the Zim comics ended). I'd place this at either the logo change or the launch of Paramount+ Though this video mainly seems to use the template of Comic Eras, I feel like we could atleast be in a post-modern nicktoons era (if that even makes any sense). The separation of 2009-2016 & 2016-2021 is a bit iffy but it feels right as someone who was in the middle of it

i think you could make the argument there’s sort of a Pewter age from 2009-2012. yeah the rebrand happened but it wasn’t necessarily the end of the channels old energy. a lot of silver & bronze’s traits were carried over into the channel. spinoffs of Avatar and Jimmy Neutron, a co-productions with Dreamworks, TMNT, a third Hartman show with TUFF, etc. The quality could be argued for a lot of those shows but the effort was still there from creatives. I think 2012-2013 is the real cutoff point because it also marks the end of cable being well, relevant. and those who would be watching would be more like…kids with no internet access. Of the big 3 i think Nick was the most effected by the increasing irrelevance of basic cable. also noting is that 2012 was the last year SB and FOP, the two big hitters of silver and bronze, stopped broadcasting new episodes in 4:3. that i think is a significant change worth mentioning. granted i grew up with this sort of post rebrand era so i could just be blowing smoke, but worth noting.

As a 2000s kid, I can concur that the 90s and 00’s era of Nicktoons were the best.

One thing I personally think Nick did to shoot themselves in the foot was tossing their "underperforming" shows onto their other channel during their silver era. They had some genuinely good shows that didn't get their time to shine. I loved Catscratch, Kappa Mikey, El Tigre, The X's, even Back at the Barnyard was good. btw does anyone remember The Secret Show?

Well done. Although, there are few facts that must be added. Here's what I read and heard of... 1998 - Nick starts broadcasting in Asia (including my home country Philippines). However, in Sept 2009 (coinciding with the release of Nick's minimalist logo) Nick channel pulled off in Japan due to poor sales and viewership due to the popularity of Disney and natively anime (i.e. Pokemon, Sailor Moon, Pretty Cure). 1999 - The three SpongeBob pilots Help Wanted, Reef Blower, & Tree @ the Tree Dome aired on May 1 after KCA 1999. Two months later, July 17, season 1 continued airing. 2008 - Avatar: The Last Air Bender won the KCA 2008, making SpongeBob the only year without a KCA blimp. 2009 - Coinciding with the release of Nick's new splat-less, minimalist logo; Nick channel pulled off in Japan due to poor sales and viewership due to the popularity of Disney and natively anime (i.e. Pokemon, Sailor Moon, Pretty Cure). 2010 - Adventure Time aired for the first time in Cartoon Network after Nick rejected it. Three SB episodes A Pal for Gary, One Coarse Meal, & Yours Mine & Mine aired in SB S7 and Nick never banned them. 2013 - Paw Patrol premiered for the first time in Nick Jr. SB S9a episodes Little Yellow Book & SB You're Fired aired. Nick also never banned them. 2014 - The Loud House, as a short, aired. 2015 - Stephen Hillenberg (1961-2018) returned & the 2nd SB movie Sponge Out of Water released in cinemas. Harvey Beaks premiered but later ended two years later. Its creator C.H. Greenblatt complained about the harsh treatment Nick did via Tumblr, but later deleted it. Mr. Enter explained it also. 2016 - The Loud House premiered as a TV series. 2017 - The Loud House S2 episodes Brawl in the Family & No Such Luck aired and Nick never banned them. 2018 - Stephen HIllenberg passed away on Nov 26, 2018 due to ALS. Just before Nick greenlit spinoffs The Patrick Star Show & Kamp Koral. Some people (including Pall Tibbit in his Tweet) are against it because Stephen is against spinoffs. He told it to TV Business Journal (TBJ) before he passed away. 2022 - After nick returned their channel in Japan in 2018, it failed again, also due poor sales and viewership due to the popularity of Disney and natively anime (i.e. Pokemon, Sailor Moon, Pretty Cure). So they close it down. Nick in American & Japanese streaming apps in Japan also disappeared. As of 2024, I haven't seen any new Nick shows. SB & TLH is doing well, despite fans worrying about when those shows will end, while Paw Patrol in Nick Jr is still running but successful.

One thing you could've brought up in 1997 was Beavers being the first nicktoon to premiere after the kids choice awards

TRy WAtching "A better schedule for Nickelodeon's main block" by Evan Rosman

Going a little off topic here,but i honestly think that even if Nickelodeon had a Resurrection era(And I hope this might be possible some century),I think people would continue to be hard on Nickelodeon after all the damage the channel has had in the last years+decade. And of course I can't judge these people since hoping that the Nickelodeon could be good again after so long really takes away these people hopes of wanting to at least give a little visit to Nickelodeon again.

Also I love that background music at the end, the SpongeBob Movie game puzzle room

I don't really think Avatar is a true silver age show either, despite being successful. Even before it aired, the decision to extend Spongebob past it's first movie was already made even before the fourth season premiered. Plus, most of Herb Scannell's period was defined by oversaturating the Rugrats franchise, which neither Avatar, or the other 2005 shows were really there for (so calling Avatar a true silver age Nicktoon is kinda a stretch since it completely aired at a different period for priorities for the network). Plus, Action League Now is technically an official Nicktoon according to the Nick Animation Studio wiki, so it's not like Catscratch and The X's were really the first Nicktoons to be first season shows (more like they aired at the wrong time if anything, and I don't think the X's was screwed over because of Spongebob, but like for other reasons). Honestly, the only thing the 2005 shows have for being Silver Age Nicktoons is that they premiered before Cyma Zargami became president. But that's literally the only reason why they are silver age shows; 2005 as a whole feels like a transitional period if anything.

😊 Thanks for this amazing history complilation! Its both sweet and a little sad at the end of how Nick had changed. I will say this as an Older Nick-kid from the 80s, Call me Steelie Phil btw, there were some fun shows from that era. Sure we had alotta international toons such as David the Gnome, Danger Mouse and Count Duckula( arguable the very 1st Nicktoon as Nick execs vistied Thames studios and saw a Duckula image posted and screamed " WE WANT THAT AS A SHOW!!!"😂) but also excellent anime as well such as Saban's Grimms Fairtales and Maya the Bee. There were plenty of other shows segented as well as Nick was getting their footing, but when Nicktoons debuted August 11th 1991, it was not only on my 7th birthday, but changed everything as we got some incredible shows from awesome creatives. Hell Nick still would get a few other shows ( both international/ other network broadcasted reruns) sandwiched in its lineup; such as The Adventures of Tintin and Rupert Bear, to Beetlejuice, Tiny Toon Adventures, Pinky and the Brain and the goat himself, The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show!❤

I've actually been going through every Nicktoon by the airdate- and I mean that by I made a whole list of every single episode from every Nicktoon in the airdate order, I've been working on a review series covering it- so I hope to have my own take on these eras too. Right now I've just started 2001, and for the Golden Age I'd have to feel like it ended with the Rugrats Movie, as scheduling by 1999 had so many episodes- probably the most packed year I've experienced- and it had such variety between every show. SpongeBob and Rocket Power adding onto it felt like a new stage in shows becoming a part of the Nicktoons brand, with the Nicktoons brand marketing also being a product of these shows- see Nicktoons Racing being the first official Nicktoons crossover, which is also one of the first examples of Nickelodeon prioritizing SpongeBob within their marketing.

I would call 2010 - 2015 the Dark Age of Nickelodeon, where their average was really low, with them release horrendous shows like Planet Sheen, Sanjay and Craig, and Breadwinners, and their good shows, say for TMNT, were mostly cancelled due to how bad the network treated it. 2016 to 2020 is what I call the Renaisance Period, when The Loud House premiered, and Stephen Hillinburg returned and helped Spongebob get back on its feet, The Fairly Odd Parents was put out of its misery and cancelled, all of their dark age shows were cancelled as well, and best of all, Zarghami finally resigned and was replaced with Brian Robbins, who, though not perfect, does have a better understanding of what Nickelodeon is than his predecessor. That of course ended in 2020 due to the pandemic as well as the rise of streaming, which is why I call this new era "The TV/Streaming Era", where many of their new shows would air on streaming due to it being easier to find success there.

6:14 Invader zim can he have a extra review for his anniversary?

It's kind of hard for me to track Nickelodeon's downfall, with Cartoon Network it was pretty easy because I could separate that in eras and when they started to fall, but with Nickelodeon i feel you could say alot of different times is when it really fell. For me, think the time Nick started to really fall off is around 06'ish to 07? At that time they stop airing most of the classics and then SpongeBob just took over the channel

The end of the silver age probably started behind the scenes around 2004 or 2005 but became fully visible by 2007. The decline in quality of mainstay shows like Spongebob and FOP as well as new ones and poor marketing being given to new ones. The schedule becoming dominated by a few of the biggest shows. Older shows from the previous period like Jimmy Neutron, Danny Phantom and Teenage Robot being cancelled. More focus on CGI, more focus on teen sitcoms. Shifting from original shows to more filmatic follow-ups to create the next Spongebob level thing.

Yes, they did actually. 1997-2006 Silver Age is 2007-2010 Bronze Age is 2011-2014 Dark Age is 2015-2021 I haven’t watched since 2021 so I wouldn’t know but I assume it’s probably worse now..

I grew up watching Nick and CN cartoons from the 90s and 2000s!

yea the 90s til 05 had some bangers

What I love so much about “Video Killed the Radio Star” is that it’s one of the most iconic 80’s songs ever, but was released in 1979 as the first music video on MTV. I’m not that old, but I love that fact. Long live the Buggles.

10:31. Technically, that could also apply for The X's too since Carlos Ramos worked on a lot of Oh Yeah Cartoon shorts.

2005-2008 Spongebob Movie, Fairly OddParents still good, Danny Phantom, and of course or most importantly Avatar the last Airbender was airing

Coming back to this vid I feel my take only diverges with the ending of the silver era. Having a bronze era be that short seems off to me. Similar to what happened with the oh yeah cartoons clone in 2005, Teenage Robot and Chalkzone had episodes sat on for 3 years until 08' for nicktoons. 2006-2009 was the era of clear changes in priorities for the network which is why symbolically the retirement of the splat seems like a good marking for the end of the silver age. I'd include productions that started in the early to mid 00s simply because the late oughts seem like most limbo for animated productions in-house at Nickelodeon

I love Rocko’s modern life I’m obsessed with that show I have almost every merchandise ever made including the 1997 plush I love everything Rocko’s modern life related as well as SpongeBob

Bring these shows back!!!

1997-2008 (everything from Hey Arnold to Avatar) was the golden age for me. I’m a little biased because that was my childhood. Avatar was the last Nick cartoon that I watched.

Great video! I’ve been a Nickelodeon fan since I was a kid. However I grew out of it since I was in High school because some shows are getting worse. They are gems here and there, but it’s not what they were in their prime.

1990 to 2005 is the golden age of Nickelodeon. 15 years of almost perfection.

Personally I would argue the bronze age ended at Harvey Beaks and Loud House was the start of the modern more reboot/spinoff based Era with shows like Patrick or Rugrats 2021.

Maybe I'm an old fart, but when I think "golden age", I think strictly of the original 3 Nicktoons (and specifically in the case of Rugrats, the original 65-episode run). If anything I'd regard the era of Rocko, Arnold, CatDog, and the continuation of Rugrats as the silver age; and the stretch from the start of SpongeBob to the end of Avatar as the bronze age.

Catscratch is really underrated

With the rebrand on March 4, 2023, let's hope Nickelodeon gets back to doing what it does best.

At least for the NickToons channel it was the late 2000’s to early 2010’s as that’s when we got a lot of original/exclusive content such as NFL Rush Zone, Wolverine and the X-men, Zevo 3 and Dragon Ball Z Kai

It's the Year Transitions on how I find out EAM is a Sonic fan.

Imo, the golden age was 1991-1998, the sliver age was 1999-2005, the bronze (sorta dark) age was 2007-2017 and the revival/modern age was 2018-onward. I say the revival age since the network has actually gotten back up again with shows like Rise of the TMNT, It's Pony, Middlemost Post, The Patrick Star Show, Big Nate and Rock, Paper, Scissors. Even if we still have some crappy ones like the Rugrats reboot, The Casagrandes and Kamp Koral.

You should do a video similar to this one but about Cartoon Network!

The golden age of Nick:1991-2005 The bronze age of Nick:2006-2014 The silver age of Nick:2015-2023 The Renaissance age of Nick:2023-present It's kinda bittersweet Nick has changed over the years,but I just wish Nick needs to restart it's cartoon phase all over again and abandon their screwing over cartoons to Nicktoons/Netflix rule after 18 years. Keeping SpongeBob and Loud House alive as goldmines is fine,but Nick needs to make good stuff again after the last good stuff they did was in 2019-2020 with Rocko's Static Cling,Glitch Techs,and Invader Zim:Into The Florpus. Also,they need to stop running movies on their channel and revert Nicktoons back into a channel for both old and new Nicktoon reruns. Brian Robbins needs to know how to run the channel/brand better instead of making incompetent choices. Even CN had the same fate as Nick,but at least the people behind the channel weren't as incompetent as the ones behind Nick and CN is now struggling now with [adult swim] and Checkered Past,but now lost it's 5pm-8pm timeslots to [adult swim],had a few of it's shows purged off Max in 2022 and now available only for purchase(while locked away and preserved from existence by WBD),and it's original CNS headquarters shut down on Augest 2023 because of the Discovery merger. Even if they had Teen Titans Go!,they didn't rely on it much as Nick does to Loud House. CN is still having a few new shows coming out soon like Infinity:Fighter Girl,Marc Brown's Hop,Gumball-Season 7,and the PPG and Foster's reboots.

In my opinion it was 1999-2013 In the 90's most of the shows range from decent to Outright boring (Rugrats, Ren And Stimpy and Hey Arnold and Rocko were the only amazing ones) And i didn't mind Nickelodeon focusing on live action more than cartoons because they were starting with live action than cartoons so it make kinda more sense (especially when at the time SpongeBob SquarePants and FOP were going downhill not saying that SS 4-5. And FOP 6-8 Are bad)

3:52 I Love The Rugrats Movie!

Maybe not being really related to this, but another thing worth noting though would be the use of CGI or flash to make their shows. From the 90s up to 2005, most of the shows were traditionally handmade (with the obvious exception being Jimmy Neutron or Kablam), and then 2007 onwards, a good majority of the shows were made in flash or CGI. They sorta went back to just sticking with making traditional 2D shows during the mid 2010s, but CGI shows started to become more common again around the 2020s. That's something I didn't notice until recently, funny enough.

Haven't watched the video yet. Yes. It was when Tiny Toons was on the air.

For me, it was the 90s to the late 2000s, which was the complete Golden Age of Nicktoons. It's a Shane they continued to focus so much more on live action shows and less on their animated shows thag are NOT SpongeBob.

Personally, I would just go with what shows were airing under who. It's like the only thing Nick has going for when it comes to categorizing shows anyways.

Nah yall have nostalgia for your eras

Making fiends was the last good nicktoon

Well it’s a good exlplaination of. Nicktoons history

When I was a kid 2005 definitely felt like a turning point for Nick. That was when I started to not like the new cartoons as much

The golden age was definitely 1997-2006 in terms of variety of Nocktoons. Before that time there was only 5 of the same Nicktoons that played back to back lmao

Nickelodeon and Nicktoons were in it's golden age when they had Dragon Ball Z Kai

Invader zim review Extra ?

Invader zim anniversary is this march.

What did someone say at 6:58?

My opinion the 1977 to 1988 era was the Orange age/Birthage. The 1989 to 1998 era was the Golden Age. The 1999 to 2005 era was the Silver age. The 2006 to 2010 era was the Bronze age. 2011 to present is the Dark Age.

1997 is arguably nick's best year due to variety!

Next talk about nicktoons fron 2009 to now

Golden: everything from Rugrats probably up to SpongeBob Silver: Fairly Odd Parents to the end of Danny Phantom There is no Bronze Age. Nick stopped caring after 2009

Nick was only a 7/10 at most. I only watched it as a kid cause my parents liked the shows and I wasn't allowed to change it to Cartoon Network ESPECIALLY when Toonami was on which is why I'm glad I got my own TV a bit later on :^).

Even though Penguins of Madagascar is not an "original" Nicktoon, it's still a Nicktoon anyway.

Nick objectively had a golden age. Back in the day they had variety on the network. They had game shows, they had sitcoms, they had sketch shows, the shows felt different. Now they mostly play Spongebob and they are over-reliant on spin-offs and reboots. ( Spin offs and reboots can be good but originality is the best). They treat their original modern Nicktoons like garbage. They shoved Ruby of Planet Zookie onto Amazon Prime and didn't advertise it. That's good for me because I am a huge Spongebob fan. As a whole the quality of the individual Nicktoons has been good. Middlemost Post was cute and Rock Paper Scissors is pretty funny.

Harvey beaks was the only great 2010s nicktoon during the renaissance era which they canceled 😞

Actually Fairly Oddparents (And Invader Zim and Avatar: The Last Airbender as well, for that matter.) are just as much a part of Nickelodeon’s golden age as shows like Ren And Stimpy, Rocko and Hey Arnold.

Cartoon Network might’ve went from Golden, to bronze, to Silver, or even Golden again. You had the OG cartoons, then the shitty live action period, then the renaissance era.

Yes they did, 1999 to 2001

2:57 Since when does John K not like cartoons?

Here’s my timeline 1990-2005: Golden Age 2006-2009: Silver Age 2009-2023: Bronze Age 2023-present: Renaissance Era

It has ages, but its weird "Golden age 1991 - 2007" Start of the first Nicktoons till that the awful logo change in 2009. The Worst age 2009 - up till about 2021, and now we are in the "recovery age." I don't see the end of the 90s as the end of the golden age because there wans't a decline in quality until the early 2010s.

Fanboy & Chum Chum, CatDog, & Back at the Barnyard are overhated imo.

you forgot the nicktoon making fiends, it was very very mistreated by nick so hard.

When it comes to the Golden Age of anything, (like the Simpsons or Spongebob), it's honestly subjective. *I haven't watched the video yet, but I just wanted to comment that*

NGL that year transition was super annoying.

Nickelodeon was launched in 1977, not 1979.

Here are the eras of Nickelodeon according to most people 1977-1979 the pinwheel era 1979-1984 the early nick era 1985-1990 the orange splat era 1991-1998 the golden age 1998-2005 the silver age 2005-2009 the Bronze Age(which I feel started the decline of Nick) 2009-2015 the dark age 2016-present the still dark age but slight improvement era If you are wondering what I feel like most people say is when Nickelodeon started to suck I’d say it ranges from 1996(the Herb Scannel era) late 1998(the silver age)- mid 2005(the Bronze Age) One thing I also wanted to mention is that for some people the silver age starts with either the wild Thornberry’s, SpongeBob, Rocket Power, As told by Ginger, or The fairly oddparents and invader zim.

In general, the Nicktoons have been good. The only ones I hate are The Patrick Show, Big Nate ( Its a disgrace to the comic strip), and Adventures of Kid Danger. So Nicktoons never had a golden age.

I say that the definition of Bronze Age Nicktoons needs to be longer. Most of the late ‘00s crop of Nicktoons carried over through the new logo, and the next significant batch would have to be the Breadwinners/Sanjay/Korra/Harvey era of the mid ‘10s

For me Nickelodeon for comedy cartoons and drake and josh zoey 101 and the Amanda show Disney channel for movies and live action shows cartoon network for action cartoons samurai Jack teen titans dragon ball batman naruto justice league

1999-2008 was the Golden Age. SpongeBob Fairly OddParents Jimmy Neutron and Avatar.