Nick at Nite
Encyclopedia
Nick at Nite is the nighttime Cable network
that broadcasts over the channel space of Nickelodeon
on Sundays from 8.p.m.-7.am., Monday through Fridays from 9 p.m.-7 a.m. and Saturdays from 10 p.m.-6 a.m. (Eastern
and Pacific Time
). Though it shares channel space with Nickelodeon, A.C. Nielsen Co. rates Nick at Nite as a separate channel from Nickelodeon for ratings purposes. Since Nick at Nite and Nickelodeon are commonly considered as two individual channels that share the same channel space, the two services are sometimes referred to under the collective name "Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite".
Nickelodeon is known for its children's programs during the day, while Nick at Nite appeals to adult and/or adolescent audiences with a lineup of mainly live-action sitcom reruns. However because Nick at Nite shares channel space with Nickelodeon (paralleling Cartoon Network
and Adult Swim
), some of Nick at Nite's viewer base is younger than 18 years of age, and unlike Adult Swim, the content on Nick at Nite (though looser in regards to profanity and suggestive dialogue compared to Nickelodeon) is not as raunchy and less violent, encouraging a crossover audience between it and Nickelodeon.
on July 1, 1985 as a block on Nickelodeon
. MTV Networks
President Bob Pittman
had asked Nickelodeon general manager Gerry Laybourne
to develop programming to fill the time vacated by A&E
(which occupied the former Alpha Repertory Television Service
time slot) after it ceased to carry its programming over Nickelodeon's channel space to become its own 24-hour cable channel, to take better advantage of precious satellite time. After futile attempts at original program development, she asked programming and branding consultants Alan Goodman
and Fred Seibert
of Fred/Alan Inc. (successful as the original MTV
branders, and Nickelodeon's explosive rebranding) to come up with programming.
After being presented with over 200 episodes of The Donna Reed Show
(which Laybourne despised), Goodman and Seibert conceived the idea of the "first oldies TV network." They modeled the new evening and overnight programming block on the successful oldies
radio format, "The Greatest Hits of All Time," and branded the block with their next evolution of MTV- and Nickelodeon-style imagery and bumpers. Head programmer Debby Beece led the team to the name "Nick at Nite," and Fred/Alan developed the original logo with Tom Corey and Scott Nash of Corey McPherson Nash
, Boston, creators of the well-recognized Nickelodeon
orange logo.
Its initial programming (running from 8 p.m.-6 a.m., seven days a week) was a block of classic sitcoms such as The Donna Reed Show
and Dennis the Menace, and the classic drama Route 66
. The initial lineup also included the "Nick at Nite Movie," which aired nightly and included such classic films as The Red House with Edward G. Robinson
and A Star is Born
with Janet Gaynor
and Frederic March. As Nick at Nite grew, it would add to its library of shows branching out to rerun sketch comedy, such as original Saturday Night Live
episodes as well as the Canadian series SCTV
. It also briefly reran the 1970s mock local talk show Fernwood 2Night. As the years went by, the channel's sitcom library swelled to over a hundred shows. For the station's 20th birthday celebration in June 2005, TV Land
aired an episode from almost every series that had appeared on Nick at Nite.
In 1995, Nick at Nite celebrated its 10th Anniversary with a week long event. Throughout the week, the channel aired "hand picked episodes" of almost every series aired on the network. Each episode was introduced with its history, episode number, and how long it ran on Nick at Nite. The 10th Anniversary on-screen bug was shown at the bottom left corner of the screen for 10 seconds once per half hour show, it was used for the entire year of 1995 as was the 20th Anniversary logo in 2005; nothing was done for the 25th Anniversary in 2010 however, as Nick at Nite did not make any acknowledgment of the 25th anniversary of its debut at all.
Nick at Nite has also spun off a niche network, TV Land
, which features a variety of rerun programming. The networks were operated together until December 17, 2006, when Nickelodeon began overseeing Nick at Nite, and "Nick at Nite's TV Land" became "TV Land". On February 13, 2006, the Latin American version of Nickelodeon
started broadcasting Nick at Nite for the first time. Since January 2007, the network has aired shows like ALF
, Mork & Mindy, The Addams Family
, The Munsters
, Bewitched
, I Dream of Jeannie
, Growing Pains
, The Facts of Life
, Diff'rent Strokes
, Get Smart
, Perfect Strangers
, and more, which have been broadcast in Latin American local networks and other cable channels. Although the Latin American Nickelodeon was born in the mid-1990s, it had never carried the Nick at Nite block before.
In March 2004, Nick at Nite and Nickelodeon were split up in the Nielsen primetime and total day ratings, due to the different programming, advertisers and target audiences between the two services; this caused controversy by executives of some cable channels believing this manipulated the ratings, given that Nick at Nite's broadcast day takes up only a fraction of Nickelodeon's programming schedule. Nickelodeon's and Nick at Nite's respective ratings periods encompasses only the hours they each operate under the total day rankings, though Nick at Nite is rated only for the primetime ratings; this is due to a ruling by Nielsen in July 2004, that networks have to program for 51% or more of a daypart to qualify for ratings for a particular daypart.
In 2007, the Nick at Nite logo changed the color from blue to orange thus creating a match with Nickelodeon's colors. On September 1, 2007, a new logo similar to the former Nickelodeon logo but with the Nick "splat" in the shape of a crescent moon, was introduced. This marked the first time that the Nickelodeon branding was used on Nick at Nite, as the logos used from its launch used variants of the Futura Condensed font (the former Nickelodeon logo used a Balloon
font) with various shape backgrounds and a small circle with the word "at" (a circle background and the @ sign after 2002) lodged between the "I"'s in the logos staggering them. The first program ever aired on the relaunched Nick at Nite was America's Funniest Home Videos
.
On July 5, 2009, Nick at Nite extended its programming hours to end at 7 a.m. seven days a week (the weekend lineup ended one hour earlier from April to June 2010 and from January to May 2011) and to begin at 8 p.m. ET on Sunday through Thursday nights and 9 p.m. ET on Friday nights (the Saturday lineup continues to have a 10 p.m. ET start time due to the presence of the long-running Saturday primetime comedy lineup on Nickelodeon). Nick at Nite's times of operation have changed several times over the years, to at one point beginning as late as 9 p.m. ET on Sunday-Thursdays and ending as early as 5:30 a.m. ET.
The logo changed again on September 28, 2009 upon the launch of Nickelodeon's universal rebranding effort, with Nick at Nite stylized as "nick@nite" rendered as one word in lower case letters within the new network logo. The @ sign
had been used in the Nick at Nite logo from 2002 to 2007 for visual symmetry, owing to the character's building ubiquity from the Internet
and eventually into general pop culture.The logo was changed when nick at nite had technical difficulties. Nick at Nite also stopped using the show's production credits for most shows (except those that have tag scenes during the end credits) instead employing generic closing credits, bringing it in line with Nickelodeon which has been using generic credits since at least 2000; though it (and Nickelodeon) often omits some shows' end tag scenes or blooper reels using this format.
, added in 2007; also having since joined the schedule are Everybody Hates Chris
in 2009, and My Wife and Kids
in 2010. The channel still airs older sitcoms, mostly from the 1990s, including Family Matters, That '70s Show
, Married with Children, and Friends
, which joined the line-up on September 5, 2011.
Nick at Nite airs virtually all of its programming in hour-long (and sometimes two-hour) blocks, known from 2002 to 2007 as "Double Takes"; typically series that air back-to-back air in two blocks, one in primetime and one in late night. Typically, older series on the Nick at Nite schedule are often are moved exclusively to the overnight hours after some time in order to make room for newly-acquired series (though in the past, this was not always the case as entire broadcast runs of a few series such as Perfect Strangers
and Charles in Charge
have aired in an overnight graveyard slot
for a short period of time). For about a year-and-a-half prior to the September 28, 2009 rebrand, Nick at Nite aired marathons of programming from midnight to 5 a.m. ET.
Nick at Nite is one of the few basic cable channels in the United States that continues to sign off for scheduled satellite maintenance, occurring on a Wednesday morning from 5:30-6 a.m. ET on a bi-monthly basis, displaying the SMPTE color bars
during the sign-off period (Viacom-owned sister channels Nick Jr.
, Nicktoons, MTV
and its spinoff channels, VH1
, and VH1 Classic
also sign off for a half-hour on a bi-monthly basis at the same time as Nick at Nite for the same reason); it is also one of only a handful of cable channels to have discontinued airing infomercials, Nick at Nite ran infomercials in some overnight timeslots from 1987 to 1998 (it is only one of two Viacom-owned networks to have removed paid programming from its schedule, sister channel BET
had discontinued infomercials in 1997, replacing them with religious programming in overnight/early morning timeslots).
On May 16, 2011, Nick at Nite began broadcasting its 11 p.m.-6 a.m. programming in an "off-the-clock" format, previously used by sister network TV Land beginning in 2010 and since adopted by Spike around the same time as Nick at Nite, in which commercial breaks are extended, allowing the programs to be broadcast in a longer timeslot each half-hour until 6 a.m. ET. when start times return to a half-hourly format; the tradeoff that results from the format is one full half-hour of programming is lost, thus one of the series on the schedule is reduced to a single episode.
-produced Good Burger
and Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging
, Drumline
and Uncle Buck
.
Some movies and special presentations that Nick at Nite has aired very recently have occasionally aired over what is normally Nickelodeon's broadcast time (e.g., the February 21, 2010 original telecast of the special School Gyrls
aired at 7 p.m. ET, though Nickelodeon typically does not turn over its channel space to Nick at Nite until 8 p.m. ET on Sunday nights), which is unusual as some of these special presentations are aimed at Nickelodeon's preteen target audience; however until May 2010, promos for these films did not acknowledge they were to be broadcast on Nick at Nite (making it unclear whether the film is airing on Nickelodeon or Nick at Nite as promos for scheduled primetime films were cross-promoted with Nickelodeon), making the only reference they were being aired on Nick at Nite was when the channel's logo bug is shown during the film; since May 2010, promos for films airing on the channel now are advertised as airing on Nick at Nite. Some movies include the Back to the Future Trilogy
, Baby's Day Out
, Pretty in Pink
, Ghostbusters
, Ghostbusters II
and The Nutty Professor
.
. The series never emerged, but the special, later renamed Christmas in Tattertown
, was aired every Christmas on Nick at Nite for several years. In 1990, the channel briefly aired a show called On the Television
, a mock TV critic show hosted by Siskel and Ebert-type characters and featured bizarre, sometimes disturbing clips from parodied TV shows supposedly beginning that week.
In the early 1990s, a special made up of old TV commercials was aired only once, but the idea of showing old commercials would be rehashed by the network on several other shows and eventually become a staple of offshoot channel, TV Land. There was one special that was promoted as a TV dad quiz. The host walked through a "typical TV Home", and quizzed the viewers at home with trivia about classic TV dad clichés. At one point, the host told the viewers to connect pictures of TV dads with their appropriate TV moms displayed on the screen with a magic marker. At the end of this segment he mentions that he forgot to tell the viewers to place a piece of plastic over their screen while doing this and made jokes about the viewers futilely trying to clean the magic marker off their screens for the rest of the show.
In 1991, Nick at Nite created its own sitcom based around the rerun genre it had pioneered. The sitcom, named Hi Honey, I'm Home!
after the cliché phrase used by TV dads addressing their TV wives when returning home in the evenings from work, was about a 1950s sitcom family, the Nielsens. The family's show has been removed from syndication
and they are forced to leave TV Land and move into a real 1990s suburban neighborhood. Once there, the family is repeatedly confronted with culture shock. The show aired on ABC
on Fridays during the network's TGIF
lineup, and then would "rerun" on Nick at Nite the following Sunday nights.
In 2008, the channel announced that it was making a remake of the 1990s game show Nickelodeon GUTS
called My Family's Got GUTS for families, as well as hosting a dog competition show: http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117985126.html?categoryid=14&cs=1. My Family's Got GUTS eventually premiered on Nickelodeon
in September 2008. In 2009, Nick at Nite released a new stop-motion "Claymation" series called Glenn Martin DDS. The show premiered on August 17, 2009 at 8:00 P.M. eastern time.
were an innovation that began with Nick at Nite in 1985. Working together in college radio at WKCR-FM
(Columbia University
, New York
) Fred/Alan's Alan Goodman
& Fred Seibert
saw the ratings success of radio marathons featuring Ludwig van Beethoven
, John Coltrane
, and Charles Mingus
. As the Nick at Nite "oldies" format was adapted from radio, they suggested the multi-hour (sometimes multi-day) marathon might also work with television programming. The marathon format proved successful and marathons became a ratings boosting staple of cable television networks for over two decades.
During the week of Halloween
1990, the network held a special contest, hosted by game show host Wink Martindale
, in which a marathon of the show Alfred Hitchcock Presents
was shown. The at home viewers were supposed to keep a running total of the total number of deaths on the show. At the end of the marathon the persons who had gotten the total number right were entered into a drawing to win a prize. As Martindale said "It's kind of like guessing the number of jelly bean
s in a jelly bean jar, but instead of jelly beans, you're using cadaver
s!"
When new shows are added to the line-up, they are usually accompanied by some kind of marathon complete with logo and sometimes hosted by a star from the show. For instance, when Newhart
was added, the channel also acquired Bob Newhart
's short-lived third sitcom Bob
, and showed a programming block entitled "Bob's Bob, Bob Newhart, Newhart Marathon" and showed the two shows and The Bob Newhart Show
which it already had the rights to, in a programming block hosted by Bob Newhart. Nick at Nite's debut of The Mary Tyler Moore Show
was called the "Marython." When I Love Lucy
joined Nick at Nite in 1994, "Nick at Nite Loves Lucy" marathon aired all week which showed every Lucille Ball
series (I Love Lucy
, The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour
, The Lucy Show
, Here's Lucy
, and Life With Lucy
). When some older shows were retired they would also frequently have a marathon send-off. For instance, when a long rerunning show on the channel Mister Ed
(from 1986 to 1993) was finally retired, there was an all-weekend marathon of the show called "Au Revoir Mister Ed!" as well as a similar send-off for The Donna Reed Show
, which ran on the channel even longer (1985–1994). My Three Sons
was sent off the night Daylight Savings Time ended in 1991, permitting two extra episodes in the marathon, called "Nite of the Setting Sons."
During the summer months of the late 1990s the station for a while created a programming block called "Vertivision" (later, "Block Party Summer") during which a different series was shown in a three-hour block each night of the week. In the first year, commercials referred to the nights as "Mary Mondays, Lucy Tuesdays, Bewitched Be-Wednesdays, Jeannie Thursdays, and Sgt. Joe Fridays" (for The Mary Tyler Moore Show
, I Love Lucy
, Bewitched
, I Dream of Jeannie
, and Dragnet, respectively). With the passing years, the summer blocks shifted to include series newly in the Nick at Nite repertoire.
Other seasonal scheduling blocks were also not uncommon such as Christmas
-themed blocks during late December, Thanksgiving
-themed blocks in November, and Valentine's
themed episodes in February. From 1989 until 1998 on New Year's Eve
, the channel would host "Nick at Nite's (year) Rerun/Classic TV/TV Hits Countdown" hosted by longtime countdown radio DJ, Casey Kasem
. Kasem would spend noon until 12:30 a.m. on New Year's Eve Day counting down the 25 "most classic" episodes of the TV shows currently airing on Nick at Nite determined by viewers at home, revealing the #1 episode at midnight.
Another famous scheduling block was the "Lucy: Queen of Comedy" block which ran on Saturday nights from June 4, 1994 to May 3, 1996. The line-up consisted of I Love Lucy
, The Lucy Show
, and The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour
, which were all airing on the network at that time (a similar block called "A Whole Lotta Lucy" aired on Saturday nights from 1996 to 2001, featuring only I Love Lucy and The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour). In the mid-1990s, another programming block entitled "Very, Very Nick at Nite" aired which centered around a theme each Saturday night, such as "Very Very Mary" with four classic Mary Tyler Moore Show episodes. In summer of 2008, Nick at Nite aired a marathon called Battle of the Sexes, which featured episodes of their regular programs that involved conflict between man and woman.
Nick at Nite generally broadcasts a marathon of their programming on holidays, i.e. the "Luck of the Lopez" George Lopez marathon that aired on Saint Patrick's Day
one year. For two years in a row, in 2007 and 2008, Nick at Nite broadcast the Shocktober marathon around Halloween
, featuring Halloween-themed episodes of the regularly scheduled program; however, the second year running in 2008, it was titled Shocktober 2. Other holidays that have been featured as marathons include Mother's Day
, Father's Day
and Christmas. In November 2006, Nick at Nite was proud to continue Nickelodeon's "Best Day Ever" marathon, 24 hours of SpongeBob SquarePants
which, at the end of the marathon, led to a new episode with the same name.
In 1986, the channel began running a few different animated 10 second channel identifications with a similar premise that all had vastly different endings, produced by Eli Noyes
& Kit Laybourne
, and the Fred/Alan agency. One of them was of a couple who would bring objects for a living room onto the screen, including a couch
and a television
, then sit down in front of the TV. The male would click the remote and something bizarre would happen, such as a gorilla appearing. Before the commercial was over, the Nick at Nite logo would appear, somehow tied to the premise of the commercial. Others were either a woman setting up her backyard behind a "city", which was made of cardboard, or a man setting up his bedroom, and then the unusual happening. These idents were used in many different variations until 1991 when they were discarded, and replaced with updated and newer idents.
Throughout most of the 1990s (beginning particularly in 1991), Nick at Nite started running a wide variety of idents. These were made with almost every imaginable technique from limited animation, to claymation
and stop motion
, to original live action and stock footage
. Almost every commercial had a different jingle professing Nick at Nite as being "A TV Viewer's Dream" for "the TV generation" and as coming from a place called TV Land ("Hello Out there, from TV Land!"), and promoting "Better Living Through Television" and proclaimed itself curator of "Our Television Heritage", although these claims were always somewhat tongue in cheek. They would also create sarcastic commercials for shows on their network: an announcer's voice would discuss the series, accompanied by clips and music, sometimes the show's theme song. The commercials would use an actor's line or expression and take it out of context to create a new subversive meaning. The channel still uses this technique today, although often in a more hybrid way. A popular take-off of the Michelob Light commercial; "The Nite belongs to Nick" ran for a short period of time before being taken off because of copyright woes. One series of promos had Dick Van Dyke
(whose own '60s sitcom
was a mainstay of the channel in the '90s) depicted as "Chairman of Nick at Nite" (ironically, this idea was later reused as one of Nick at Nite's sister networks, TeenNick
, would use actor and television personality Nick Cannon
depicted as the "Chairman of TeenNick" in a series of promos that began airing in 2009).
The early '90s also saw the addition of Nick at Nite's mascot, Dixie the TV Land Pixie. For a time, the network would also play a short bumper
called "Milkman", about a milkman who would distribute wholesome advice to customers on his milk delivery route. In 1995, on the occasion of the network's 10th anniversary, a tribute to the commercials throughout the network's existence was aired and hosted by former network President Rich Cronin.
The channel also had a unique way of telling viewers what shows were about to play next. Beginning as only an announcer reading off that evening's block of shows and the times they would be on while the list was displayed and music was played, this simple concept would be revised and re-revised many times over. At one point a television with objects and people from the show scrolling by (for instance, for Get Smart
a shoe phone, gun, and Max and 99) would appear on the screen while the announcer read off the show and time. The time that the show was on would be displayed in another box. This continues to be changed and updated.
The station also had a wide variety of "bugs
" or logos displayed in the corner of the screen during logos would be on the lower left side of the TV screen, and from 1998 on, it would be on the lower right side of the TV screen. The network had a variety of bumpers. From 1992 to 1998, the bumpers had a yellow diamond Nick at Nite logo with [tonite] next to it. At the end of them, the announcer said "Nick at Nite: Classic TV with a capital C", or "Nick at Nite: Open all nite" (which had an animated background of a diner
with the words "Nick at Nite" on top). The announcer from 1992 to 2007, Bill St. James, has also been heard on the premium channels Showtime, The Movie Channel
, and HBO. From 1997 to 2002, the bumpers had either a cartoon drawing of a girl watching TV, two tikis with a tucan and a TV or a drawing of three guys in a taxi above the moons and stars. At the end the announcer would say "On the place for TV Hits", then there would be a woman's voice that would say "Nick at Nite". Although introduced in 1997, it was used intact with the 1992 Nick at Nite "Classic TV" schedule bumper until 1998. In fact, one bumper had the "TV Hits" background schemes (a city with the Nick at Nite logo on a billboard), and the announcer announced "It's Classic TV", and the woman singing "Nick at Nite". Another bumper from 1992 had the yellow Nick at Nite logo against colorful squares and the announced "Right here on", and the woman singing "Nick at Nite".
According to Market Watch, Nick at Nite is the top cable network with Adults 18-49. In total day, average ratings are about 1.5 million viewers. It's also the number one cable network with women (18-49) averaging a 0.7/415,000.
.
The channel airs a nightly programming block aimed at 40- to 55-year-olds called "TV Land PRIME" from 9 p.m.-12 a.m. ET/PT (though curiously, shows airing within the block that are aired in other timeslots display the block's logo bug). In 2006, TV Land stopped operating under the control of Nick at Nite though it is still operated as part of Viacom's MTV Networks division. Many series that have been aired by Nick at Nite, such as Three's Company
, The Cosby Show
and Home Improvement have either been shared between Nick at Nite and TV Land, or moved to TV Land entirely. As of January 2010, TV Land is one of only three Viacom-owned channels to air infomercials (the only others being CMT
and Spike).
Cable network
A cable channel is a television channel available via cable television. Such channels are usually also available via satellite television, including direct broadcast satellite providers such as DirecTV, Dish Network and BSkyB...
that broadcasts over the channel space of Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon (TV channel)
Nickelodeon, often simply called Nick and originally named Pinwheel, is an American children's channel owned by MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom International. The channel is primarily aimed at children ages 7–17, with the exception of their weekday morning program block aimed at preschoolers...
on Sundays from 8.p.m.-7.am., Monday through Fridays from 9 p.m.-7 a.m. and Saturdays from 10 p.m.-6 a.m. (Eastern
Eastern Time Zone
The Eastern Time Zone of the United States and Canada is a time zone that falls mostly along the east coast of North America. Its UTC time offset is −5 hrs during standard time and −4 hrs during daylight saving time...
and Pacific Time
Pacific Time Zone
The Pacific Time Zone observes standard time by subtracting eight hours from Coordinated Universal Time . The clock time in this zone is based on the mean solar time of the 120th meridian west of the Greenwich Observatory. During daylight saving time, its time offset is UTC-7.In the United States...
). Though it shares channel space with Nickelodeon, A.C. Nielsen Co. rates Nick at Nite as a separate channel from Nickelodeon for ratings purposes. Since Nick at Nite and Nickelodeon are commonly considered as two individual channels that share the same channel space, the two services are sometimes referred to under the collective name "Nickelodeon/Nick at Nite".
Nickelodeon is known for its children's programs during the day, while Nick at Nite appeals to adult and/or adolescent audiences with a lineup of mainly live-action sitcom reruns. However because Nick at Nite shares channel space with Nickelodeon (paralleling Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network is a name of television channels worldwide created by Turner Broadcasting which used to primarily show animated programming. The channel began broadcasting on October 1, 1992 in the United States....
and Adult Swim
Adult Swim
Adult Swim is an adult-oriented Cable network that shares channel space with Cartoon Network from 9:00 pm until 6:00 am ET/PT in the United States, and broadcasts in countries such as Australia and New Zealand...
), some of Nick at Nite's viewer base is younger than 18 years of age, and unlike Adult Swim, the content on Nick at Nite (though looser in regards to profanity and suggestive dialogue compared to Nickelodeon) is not as raunchy and less violent, encouraging a crossover audience between it and Nickelodeon.
History
Nick at Nite debuted at 8 p.m. ETEastern Time Zone
The Eastern Time Zone of the United States and Canada is a time zone that falls mostly along the east coast of North America. Its UTC time offset is −5 hrs during standard time and −4 hrs during daylight saving time...
on July 1, 1985 as a block on Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon (TV channel)
Nickelodeon, often simply called Nick and originally named Pinwheel, is an American children's channel owned by MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom International. The channel is primarily aimed at children ages 7–17, with the exception of their weekday morning program block aimed at preschoolers...
. MTV Networks
MTV Networks
MTV Networks is a division of media conglomerate Viacom that oversees the operations of many television channels and Internet brands, including the original MTV channel in the United States...
President Bob Pittman
Robert W. Pittman
Robert Warren "Bob" Pittman , is an American businessman and the founder of MTV. On October 2, 2011, Pittman was named CEO of Clear Channel Media Holdings, Inc.. Pittman has also been the CEO of MTV Networks, AOL, Six Flags Theme Parks, Quantum Media, Century 21 Real Estate and Time Warner...
had asked Nickelodeon general manager Gerry Laybourne
Geraldine Laybourne
Geraldine Laybourne founded Oxygen Media and served as its chairman and chief executive officer until it was sold in 2007 to NBC Universal. Oxygen was launched in 2000 to fill a void in the television landscape—creating a television network targeted to younger women...
to develop programming to fill the time vacated by A&E
A&E Network
The A&E Network is a United States-based cable and satellite television network with headquarters in New York City and offices in Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, London, Los Angeles and Stamford. A&E also airs in Canada and Latin America. Initially named the Arts & Entertainment Network, A&E launched...
(which occupied the former Alpha Repertory Television Service
Alpha Repertory Television Service
Alpha Repertory Television Service was a cable television channel in the United States. The channel was co-owned by the Hearst Corporation and the American Broadcasting Company through their Hearst/ABC Video Services joint venture.-History:...
time slot) after it ceased to carry its programming over Nickelodeon's channel space to become its own 24-hour cable channel, to take better advantage of precious satellite time. After futile attempts at original program development, she asked programming and branding consultants Alan Goodman
Alan Goodman
Alan Goodman has played a key role in creating and launching many media brands since 1981, first in cable television and now for the internet and other platforms....
and Fred Seibert
Fred Seibert
Frederick "Fred" Seibert is a television and film producer and entertainment entrepreneur who owns Frederator Studios, and who has held leading positions with MTV Networks, Hanna-Barbera, and Next New Networks; he owns Frederator Studios...
of Fred/Alan Inc. (successful as the original MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
branders, and Nickelodeon's explosive rebranding) to come up with programming.
After being presented with over 200 episodes of The Donna Reed Show
The Donna Reed Show
The Donna Reed Show is an American sitcom starring Donna Reed as the upper middle class housewife Donna Stone. Carl Betz appears as her pediatrician husband Alex, and Shelley Fabares and Paul Petersen as their teenage children Mary and Jeff. The show originally aired on ABC at 10 pm from September...
(which Laybourne despised), Goodman and Seibert conceived the idea of the "first oldies TV network." They modeled the new evening and overnight programming block on the successful oldies
Oldies
Oldies is a term commonly used to describe a radio format that concentrates on music from a period of about 15 to 55 years before the present day....
radio format, "The Greatest Hits of All Time," and branded the block with their next evolution of MTV- and Nickelodeon-style imagery and bumpers. Head programmer Debby Beece led the team to the name "Nick at Nite," and Fred/Alan developed the original logo with Tom Corey and Scott Nash of Corey McPherson Nash
Corey McPherson Nash
Corey McPherson Nash is a branding and design firm based in Watertown, Massachusetts.-Overview:Corey McPherson Nash , a national branding and design firm, sells its services across a wide variety of print, interactive communications and social media outlets...
, Boston, creators of the well-recognized Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon (TV channel)
Nickelodeon, often simply called Nick and originally named Pinwheel, is an American children's channel owned by MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom International. The channel is primarily aimed at children ages 7–17, with the exception of their weekday morning program block aimed at preschoolers...
orange logo.
Its initial programming (running from 8 p.m.-6 a.m., seven days a week) was a block of classic sitcoms such as The Donna Reed Show
The Donna Reed Show
The Donna Reed Show is an American sitcom starring Donna Reed as the upper middle class housewife Donna Stone. Carl Betz appears as her pediatrician husband Alex, and Shelley Fabares and Paul Petersen as their teenage children Mary and Jeff. The show originally aired on ABC at 10 pm from September...
and Dennis the Menace, and the classic drama Route 66
Route 66 (TV series)
Route 66 is an American TV series in which two young men traveled across America. The show ran weekly on CBS from 1960 to 1964. It starred Martin Milner as Tod Stiles and, for two and a half seasons, George Maharis as Buz Murdock. Maharis was ill for much of the third season, during which time Tod...
. The initial lineup also included the "Nick at Nite Movie," which aired nightly and included such classic films as The Red House with Edward G. Robinson
Edward G. Robinson
Edward G. Robinson was a Romanian-born American actor. A popular star during Hollywood's Golden Age, he is best remembered for his roles as gangsters, such as Rico in his star-making film Little Caesar and as Rocco in Key Largo...
and A Star is Born
A Star Is Born (1937 film)
A Star Is Born is a 1937 Technicolor romantic drama film produced by David O. Selznick and directed by William A. Wellman, with a script by Wellman, Robert Carson, Dorothy Parker and Alan Campbell. It stars Janet Gaynor as an aspiring Hollywood actress, and Fredric March as an aging movie star who...
with Janet Gaynor
Janet Gaynor
Janet Gaynor was an American actress and painter.One of the most popular actresses of the silent film era, in 1928 Gaynor became the first winner of the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performances in three films: Seventh Heaven , Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans and Street Angel...
and Frederic March. As Nick at Nite grew, it would add to its library of shows branching out to rerun sketch comedy, such as original Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
episodes as well as the Canadian series SCTV
Second City Television
Second City Television is a Canadian television sketch comedy show offshoot from Toronto's The Second City troupe that ran between 1976 and 1984.- Premise :...
. It also briefly reran the 1970s mock local talk show Fernwood 2Night. As the years went by, the channel's sitcom library swelled to over a hundred shows. For the station's 20th birthday celebration in June 2005, TV Land
TV Land
TV Land is an American cable television network launched on April 29, 1996. It is owned by MTV Networks, a division of Viacom, which also owns Paramount Pictures, and networks such as MTV and Nickelodeon...
aired an episode from almost every series that had appeared on Nick at Nite.
Nick at Nite has also spun off a niche network, TV Land
TV Land
TV Land is an American cable television network launched on April 29, 1996. It is owned by MTV Networks, a division of Viacom, which also owns Paramount Pictures, and networks such as MTV and Nickelodeon...
, which features a variety of rerun programming. The networks were operated together until December 17, 2006, when Nickelodeon began overseeing Nick at Nite, and "Nick at Nite's TV Land" became "TV Land". On February 13, 2006, the Latin American version of Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon (Latin America)
Nickelodeon Latin America is a cable and satellite television channel, counterpart of the American network Nickelodeon. It is oriented to Latin American region and the caribbean; mainly for children and teens. It is owned by MTV Networks Latin America. The channel was launched on December 20, 1996...
started broadcasting Nick at Nite for the first time. Since January 2007, the network has aired shows like ALF
ALF (TV series)
ALF is an American science fiction sitcom that originally aired on NBC from 1986 to 1990, created by Paul Fusco. The title character was Gordon Shumway, a friendly extraterrestrial nicknamed ALF , who crash lands in the garage of the suburban middle-class Tanner family.The series starred Max...
, Mork & Mindy, The Addams Family
The Addams Family (TV series)
The Addams Family is an American television series based on the characters in Charles Addams' New Yorker cartoons. The 30-minute series was shot in black-and-white and aired for two seasons in 64 installments on ABC from September 18, 1964, to April 8, 1966...
, The Munsters
The Munsters
The Munsters is a 1960s American family television sitcom depicting the home life of a family of monsters. It starred Fred Gwynne as Herman Munster and Yvonne De Carlo as his wife, Lily Munster. The series was a satire of both traditional monster movies and popular family entertainment of the era,...
, Bewitched
Bewitched
Bewitched is an American situation comedy originally broadcast for eight seasons on ABC from 1964 to 1972, starring Elizabeth Montgomery, Dick York and Dick Sargent , Agnes Moorehead, and David White. The show is about a witch who marries a mortal and tries to lead the life of a typical suburban...
, I Dream of Jeannie
I Dream of Jeannie
I Dream of Jeannie is a 1960s American sitcom with a fantasy premise. The show starred Barbara Eden as a 2,000-year-old genie, and Larry Hagman as an astronaut who becomes her master, with whom she falls in love and eventually marries...
, Growing Pains
Growing Pains
Growing Pains is an American television sitcom about an affluent family, residing in Huntington, New York, with a working mother and a stay-at-home psychiatrist father raising three children together, which aired on ABC from September 24, 1985 to April 25, 1992.-Synopsis:The show's premise is based...
, The Facts of Life
The Facts of Life (TV series)
The Facts of Life is an American sitcom that originally ran on the NBC television network from August 24, 1979 to May 7, 1988. A spin-off of the sitcom Diff'rent Strokes, the series' premise focused on Edna Garrett as she becomes a housemother at the fictional Eastland School, a prestigious...
, Diff'rent Strokes
Diff'rent Strokes
Diff'rent Strokes is an American television sitcom that aired on NBC from November 3, 1978 to May 4, 1985, and on ABC from September 27, 1985 to March 7, 1986...
, Get Smart
Get Smart
Get Smart is an American comedy television series that satirizes the secret agent genre. Created by Mel Brooks with Buck Henry, the show starred Don Adams , Barbara Feldon , and Edward Platt...
, Perfect Strangers
Perfect Strangers (TV series)
Perfect Strangers is an American sitcom that ran for eight seasons from March 25, 1986, to August 6, 1993, on the ABC television network. Created by Dale McRaven, the series chronicles the rocky coexistence of midwestern American Larry Appleton and his distant cousin from eastern Mediterranean...
, and more, which have been broadcast in Latin American local networks and other cable channels. Although the Latin American Nickelodeon was born in the mid-1990s, it had never carried the Nick at Nite block before.
In March 2004, Nick at Nite and Nickelodeon were split up in the Nielsen primetime and total day ratings, due to the different programming, advertisers and target audiences between the two services; this caused controversy by executives of some cable channels believing this manipulated the ratings, given that Nick at Nite's broadcast day takes up only a fraction of Nickelodeon's programming schedule. Nickelodeon's and Nick at Nite's respective ratings periods encompasses only the hours they each operate under the total day rankings, though Nick at Nite is rated only for the primetime ratings; this is due to a ruling by Nielsen in July 2004, that networks have to program for 51% or more of a daypart to qualify for ratings for a particular daypart.
Balloon (typeface)
Balloon is a brush script commonly used for signage or display purposes. It was designed in 1939 by Max R. Kaufmann, for American Type Founders, in response to Howard Allen Trafton's Cartoon, cut for Bauer Type Foundry in 1936. It had no lowercase letters and was cast in Light, Bold, and Extra Bold...
font) with various shape backgrounds and a small circle with the word "at" (a circle background and the @ sign after 2002) lodged between the "I"'s in the logos staggering them. The first program ever aired on the relaunched Nick at Nite was America's Funniest Home Videos
America's Funniest Home Videos
America's Funniest Home Videos is an American reality television program on ABC in which viewers are able to send in humorous homemade videotapes. The most common videos usually feature slapstick physical comedy arising from incidents, accidents and mishaps...
.
On July 5, 2009, Nick at Nite extended its programming hours to end at 7 a.m. seven days a week (the weekend lineup ended one hour earlier from April to June 2010 and from January to May 2011) and to begin at 8 p.m. ET on Sunday through Thursday nights and 9 p.m. ET on Friday nights (the Saturday lineup continues to have a 10 p.m. ET start time due to the presence of the long-running Saturday primetime comedy lineup on Nickelodeon). Nick at Nite's times of operation have changed several times over the years, to at one point beginning as late as 9 p.m. ET on Sunday-Thursdays and ending as early as 5:30 a.m. ET.
The logo changed again on September 28, 2009 upon the launch of Nickelodeon's universal rebranding effort, with Nick at Nite stylized as "nick@nite" rendered as one word in lower case letters within the new network logo. The @ sign
At sign
The at sign , also called the ampersat, apetail, arroba, atmark, at symbol, commercial at or monkey tail, is formally an abbreviation of the accounting and commercial invoice term "at the rate of"...
had been used in the Nick at Nite logo from 2002 to 2007 for visual symmetry, owing to the character's building ubiquity from the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
and eventually into general pop culture.The logo was changed when nick at nite had technical difficulties. Nick at Nite also stopped using the show's production credits for most shows (except those that have tag scenes during the end credits) instead employing generic closing credits, bringing it in line with Nickelodeon which has been using generic credits since at least 2000; though it (and Nickelodeon) often omits some shows' end tag scenes or blooper reels using this format.
Programming
Though Nick at Nite has been known for years as being a "classic TV" network, in recent years programming on Nick at Nite has begun to feature more recent sitcoms, including series that debuted in the 2000s. The first such show on the lineup was George LopezGeorge Lopez (TV series)
"The George Lopez Show" redirects here. For the late-night program hosted by the same comedian, see Lopez Tonight.George Lopez is an American sitcom starring comedian George Lopez...
, added in 2007; also having since joined the schedule are Everybody Hates Chris
Everybody Hates Chris
Everybody Hates Chris is an African American television period sitcom inspired by the teenage experiences of comedian Chris Rock , while growing up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York . The show is set from 1982 to 1987; however, Rock himself was a teenager during years...
in 2009, and My Wife and Kids
My Wife and Kids
My Wife and Kids is an American television family sitcom that ran on ABC from March 28, 2001 until May 17, 2005. Produced by Touchstone Television , it starred Damon Wayans and Tisha Campbell-Martin, and centers on the character of Michael Kyle, a loving husband and modern-day patriarch who rules...
in 2010. The channel still airs older sitcoms, mostly from the 1990s, including Family Matters, That '70s Show
That '70s Show
That '70s Show is an American television period sitcom that centers on the lives of a group of teenage friends living in the fictional suburban town of Point Place, Wisconsin, from May 17, 1976, to December 31, 1979...
, Married with Children, and Friends
Friends
Friends is an American sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994 to May 6, 2004. The series revolves around a group of friends in Manhattan. The series was produced by Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions, in association with Warner Bros. Television...
, which joined the line-up on September 5, 2011.
Nick at Nite airs virtually all of its programming in hour-long (and sometimes two-hour) blocks, known from 2002 to 2007 as "Double Takes"; typically series that air back-to-back air in two blocks, one in primetime and one in late night. Typically, older series on the Nick at Nite schedule are often are moved exclusively to the overnight hours after some time in order to make room for newly-acquired series (though in the past, this was not always the case as entire broadcast runs of a few series such as Perfect Strangers
Perfect Strangers (TV series)
Perfect Strangers is an American sitcom that ran for eight seasons from March 25, 1986, to August 6, 1993, on the ABC television network. Created by Dale McRaven, the series chronicles the rocky coexistence of midwestern American Larry Appleton and his distant cousin from eastern Mediterranean...
and Charles in Charge
Charles in Charge
Charles in Charge is an American sitcom series which starred Scott Baio as Charles, a 19-year-old student at the fictional Copeland College in New Jersey, who worked as a live-in babysitter in exchange for room and board...
have aired in an overnight graveyard slot
Graveyard slot
A graveyard slot is a time period in which a television audience is very small compared to other times of the day, and therefore broadcast programming is considered far less important. Graveyard slots are usually in the early morning hours of each day, when most people are asleep...
for a short period of time). For about a year-and-a-half prior to the September 28, 2009 rebrand, Nick at Nite aired marathons of programming from midnight to 5 a.m. ET.
Nick at Nite is one of the few basic cable channels in the United States that continues to sign off for scheduled satellite maintenance, occurring on a Wednesday morning from 5:30-6 a.m. ET on a bi-monthly basis, displaying the SMPTE color bars
SMPTE color bars
The SMPTE color bars are a type of television test pattern, and is most commonly used in countries where the NTSC video standard is dominant, such as those in North America. The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers refers to this test pattern as Engineering Guideline EG 1-1990...
during the sign-off period (Viacom-owned sister channels Nick Jr.
Nick Jr.
Nick Jr. was a programming block on the Nickelodeon television channel, seen on Nickelodeon weekday mornings. It was aimed at a preschool-age audience ages 6 and under. On September 28, 2009, Nick Jr. became its own official channel, replacing Noggin...
, Nicktoons, MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
and its spinoff channels, VH1
VH1
VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly...
, and VH1 Classic
VH1 Classic
VH1 Classic is a television network, launched on May 8, 2000. It is operated as part of MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom and primarily features music videos and concert footage from the 1970s through the mid-1990s, though it formerly included a wider range of genres and time periods...
also sign off for a half-hour on a bi-monthly basis at the same time as Nick at Nite for the same reason); it is also one of only a handful of cable channels to have discontinued airing infomercials, Nick at Nite ran infomercials in some overnight timeslots from 1987 to 1998 (it is only one of two Viacom-owned networks to have removed paid programming from its schedule, sister channel BET
Black Entertainment Television
Black Entertainment Television is an American, Viacom-owned cable network based in Washington, D.C.. Currently viewed in more than 90 million homes worldwide, it is the most prominent television network targeting young Black-American audiences. The network was launched on January 25, 1980, by its...
had discontinued infomercials in 1997, replacing them with religious programming in overnight/early morning timeslots).
On May 16, 2011, Nick at Nite began broadcasting its 11 p.m.-6 a.m. programming in an "off-the-clock" format, previously used by sister network TV Land beginning in 2010 and since adopted by Spike around the same time as Nick at Nite, in which commercial breaks are extended, allowing the programs to be broadcast in a longer timeslot each half-hour until 6 a.m. ET. when start times return to a half-hourly format; the tradeoff that results from the format is one full half-hour of programming is lost, thus one of the series on the schedule is reduced to a single episode.
Movies
In addition to running sitcom reruns, Nick at Nite has also experimented with airing movies in early primetime; the first time this occurred was from 1985 to 1989, the channel did not air movies on its schedule again until the summer of 2007 when films aired weekly on Tuesday nights. The channel has aired films occasionally since then, and have begun to air them periodically since February 2010 on Sunday nights, beginning that month with telecasts of the Nickelodeon MoviesNickelodeon Movies
Nickelodeon Movies is the motion picture production arm of children's cable channel Nickelodeon, originally launched in 1995. Its first film was Harriet the Spy. It has produced films based on Nickelodeon programs, as well as other adaptations and original projects...
-produced Good Burger
Good Burger
Good Burger is a 1997 American comedy film by Tollin/Robbins Productions and Nickelodeon Movies, released by Paramount Pictures, directed by Brian Robbins, and starring Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell...
and Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging
Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging
Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging is a 2008 British coming of age film film co-written and directed by Gurinder Chadha starring Georgia Groome. It is based on two teenage novels by Louise Rennison: Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging and It's OK, I'm Wearing Really Big Knickers...
, Drumline
Drumline (film)
Drumline is a 2002 American film directed by Charles Stone III. The screenplay, which was inspired by The Southwest Dekalb High School Drumline , was written by Tina Gordon Chism and Shawn Schepps...
and Uncle Buck
Uncle Buck
Uncle Buck is a 1989 John Hughes comedy film starring John Candy, Amy Madigan, Jean Louisa Kelly, Gaby Hoffman, and Macaulay Culkin, and co-stars Jay Underwood and Laurie Metcalf.-Plot:Bob Russell Uncle Buck is a 1989 John Hughes comedy film starring John Candy, Amy Madigan, Jean Louisa Kelly, Gaby...
.
Some movies and special presentations that Nick at Nite has aired very recently have occasionally aired over what is normally Nickelodeon's broadcast time (e.g., the February 21, 2010 original telecast of the special School Gyrls
School Gyrls
School Gyrls is an American girl group. Signed to Nick Cannon's NCredible Entertainment, the group starred in an eponymous movie that premiered on Nickelodeon on February 21, 2010...
aired at 7 p.m. ET, though Nickelodeon typically does not turn over its channel space to Nick at Nite until 8 p.m. ET on Sunday nights), which is unusual as some of these special presentations are aimed at Nickelodeon's preteen target audience; however until May 2010, promos for these films did not acknowledge they were to be broadcast on Nick at Nite (making it unclear whether the film is airing on Nickelodeon or Nick at Nite as promos for scheduled primetime films were cross-promoted with Nickelodeon), making the only reference they were being aired on Nick at Nite was when the channel's logo bug is shown during the film; since May 2010, promos for films airing on the channel now are advertised as airing on Nick at Nite. Some movies include the Back to the Future Trilogy
Back to the Future
Back to the Future is a 1985 American science-fiction adventure film. It was directed by Robert Zemeckis, written by Zemeckis and Bob Gale, produced by Steven Spielberg, and starred Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover and Thomas F. Wilson. The film tells the story of...
, Baby's Day Out
Baby's Day Out
Baby's Day Out is a 1994 comedy film, written by John Hughes and produced by Richard Vane and John Hughes, and directed by Patrick Read Johnson. The film stars Joe Mantegna, Joe Pantoliano and Brian Haley, as well as twins Adam and Jacob Worton as Baby Bink...
, Pretty in Pink
Pretty in Pink
Pretty in Pink is a 1986 American teen romantic comedy-drama film about teenage love and social cliques in 1980s American high schools. It is one of a group of John Hughes films starring Molly Ringwald, and is commonly identified as a "Brat Pack" film...
, Ghostbusters
Ghostbusters
Ghostbusters is a 1984 American science fiction comedy film directed by Ivan Reitman and written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. The film stars Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Sigourney Weaver, Harold Ramis, and Rick Moranis and follows three eccentric parapsychologists in New York City, who start a...
, Ghostbusters II
Ghostbusters II
Ghostbusters II is a 1989 science fiction comedy film produced and directed by Ivan Reitman. It is the sequel to the 1984 film Ghostbusters and follows the further adventures of a group of parapsychologists and their organization which combats paranormal activities...
and The Nutty Professor
The Nutty Professor (1996 film)
The Nutty Professor is a 1996 science fiction-romantic comedy film starring Eddie Murphy. It is a remake of the 1963 film of the same name, starring Jerry Lewis. The original music score was composed by David Newman. The film won an Academy Award for Makeup.Murphy plays benevolent university...
.
Original programming
Nick at Nite has also occasionally experimented with creating its own shows, sometimes with bizarre and surrealistic results. In 1988, the channel had a contest called the Do It Yourself Sitcom Special, where viewers could create their own sitcoms and send them in and the winner would supposedly get their own show. In 1988, the channel aired a 30-minute animated Christmas special, the pilot for what was to be an animated series entitled Tattertown, created by Ralph BakshiRalph Bakshi
Ralph Bakshi is an Israeli-American director of animated and live-action films. In the 1970s, he established an alternative to mainstream animation through independent and adult-oriented productions. Between 1972 and 1992, he directed nine theatrically released feature films, five of which he wrote...
. The series never emerged, but the special, later renamed Christmas in Tattertown
Christmas in Tattertown
Christmas in Tattertown is a 1988 television special created and directed by Ralph Bakshi about a place where everything discarded in the world came alive. It aired on the cable television network Nickelodeon.- History :...
, was aired every Christmas on Nick at Nite for several years. In 1990, the channel briefly aired a show called On the Television
On the Television
On the Television was the cable network Nick at Nite’s first attempt at original late-night programming. The sketch comedy show, can be described as a satirical television critic show in the style of Siskel and Ebert. The one line pitch was "a fake Siskel and Ebert reviewing fake TV shows." It...
, a mock TV critic show hosted by Siskel and Ebert-type characters and featured bizarre, sometimes disturbing clips from parodied TV shows supposedly beginning that week.
In the early 1990s, a special made up of old TV commercials was aired only once, but the idea of showing old commercials would be rehashed by the network on several other shows and eventually become a staple of offshoot channel, TV Land. There was one special that was promoted as a TV dad quiz. The host walked through a "typical TV Home", and quizzed the viewers at home with trivia about classic TV dad clichés. At one point, the host told the viewers to connect pictures of TV dads with their appropriate TV moms displayed on the screen with a magic marker. At the end of this segment he mentions that he forgot to tell the viewers to place a piece of plastic over their screen while doing this and made jokes about the viewers futilely trying to clean the magic marker off their screens for the rest of the show.
In 1991, Nick at Nite created its own sitcom based around the rerun genre it had pioneered. The sitcom, named Hi Honey, I'm Home!
Hi Honey, I'm Home!
Hi Honey, I'm Home! is an American television sitcom that ran from July 19, 1991, to July 12, 1992 for thirteen episodes. The series was television's first "instant" rerun. Each week, a new episode of the series aired on ABC as part of their Friday night TGIF lineup. The same episode would re-air...
after the cliché phrase used by TV dads addressing their TV wives when returning home in the evenings from work, was about a 1950s sitcom family, the Nielsens. The family's show has been removed from syndication
Television syndication
In broadcasting, syndication is the sale of the right to broadcast radio shows and television shows by multiple radio stations and television stations, without going through a broadcast network, though the process of syndication may conjure up structures like those of a network itself, by its very...
and they are forced to leave TV Land and move into a real 1990s suburban neighborhood. Once there, the family is repeatedly confronted with culture shock. The show aired on ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
on Fridays during the network's TGIF
TGIF (ABC)
TGIF was the name of an American family-friendly prime time television programming block on the ABC network. The name comes from the initials of the popular phrase "Thank God It's Friday"...
lineup, and then would "rerun" on Nick at Nite the following Sunday nights.
In 2008, the channel announced that it was making a remake of the 1990s game show Nickelodeon GUTS
Nickelodeon GUTS
Nickelodeon GUTS is an American television reality "action sports" competition series hosted by actor/comedian Mike O'Malley and officiated by British actress Moira "Mo" Quirk. The series was broadcast by the cable television network Nickelodeon from 1992 to 1995...
called My Family's Got GUTS for families, as well as hosting a dog competition show: http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117985126.html?categoryid=14&cs=1. My Family's Got GUTS eventually premiered on Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon (TV channel)
Nickelodeon, often simply called Nick and originally named Pinwheel, is an American children's channel owned by MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom International. The channel is primarily aimed at children ages 7–17, with the exception of their weekday morning program block aimed at preschoolers...
in September 2008. In 2009, Nick at Nite released a new stop-motion "Claymation" series called Glenn Martin DDS. The show premiered on August 17, 2009 at 8:00 P.M. eastern time.
Marathons
Programming marathonsMarathon (television)
In television, a marathon is typically the sequential broadcast of a single or a number of related television programs, most notably reflecting a theme....
were an innovation that began with Nick at Nite in 1985. Working together in college radio at WKCR-FM
WKCR
WKCR-FM is a radio station. Licensed to New York, New York, USA, it serves the New York area. The station is currently owned by Trustees of Columbia University in New York.-History:...
(Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
) Fred/Alan's Alan Goodman
Alan Goodman
Alan Goodman has played a key role in creating and launching many media brands since 1981, first in cable television and now for the internet and other platforms....
& Fred Seibert
Fred Seibert
Frederick "Fred" Seibert is a television and film producer and entertainment entrepreneur who owns Frederator Studios, and who has held leading positions with MTV Networks, Hanna-Barbera, and Next New Networks; he owns Frederator Studios...
saw the ratings success of radio marathons featuring Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
, John Coltrane
John Coltrane
John William Coltrane was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes in jazz and later was at the forefront of free jazz...
, and Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus Jr. was an American jazz musician, composer, bandleader, and civil rights activist.Mingus's compositions retained the hot and soulful feel of hard bop and drew heavily from black gospel music while sometimes drawing on elements of Third stream, free jazz, and classical music...
. As the Nick at Nite "oldies" format was adapted from radio, they suggested the multi-hour (sometimes multi-day) marathon might also work with television programming. The marathon format proved successful and marathons became a ratings boosting staple of cable television networks for over two decades.
During the week of Halloween
Halloween
Hallowe'en , also known as Halloween or All Hallows' Eve, is a yearly holiday observed around the world on October 31, the night before All Saints' Day...
1990, the network held a special contest, hosted by game show host Wink Martindale
Wink Martindale
Winston Conrad Martindale , known professionally as Wink Martindale, is an American disc jockey and television game show host.-Radio:...
, in which a marathon of the show Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
Alfred Hitchcock Presents is an American television anthology series hosted by Alfred Hitchcock. The series featured dramas, thrillers, and mysteries. By the premiere of the show on October 2, 1955, Hitchcock had been directing films for over three decades...
was shown. The at home viewers were supposed to keep a running total of the total number of deaths on the show. At the end of the marathon the persons who had gotten the total number right were entered into a drawing to win a prize. As Martindale said "It's kind of like guessing the number of jelly bean
Jelly bean
Jelly beans are a small bean-shaped type of confectionery with a hard candy shell and a gummy interior which come in a wide variety of flavors. The confection is primarily made of sugar.-History:...
s in a jelly bean jar, but instead of jelly beans, you're using cadaver
Cadaver
A cadaver is a dead human body.Cadaver may also refer to:* Cadaver tomb, tomb featuring an effigy in the form of a decomposing body* Cadaver , a video game* cadaver A command-line WebDAV client for Unix....
s!"
When new shows are added to the line-up, they are usually accompanied by some kind of marathon complete with logo and sometimes hosted by a star from the show. For instance, when Newhart
Newhart
Newhart is a television situation comedy starring comedian Bob Newhart and actress Mary Frann as an author and wife who owned and operated an inn located in a small, rural Vermont town that was home to many eccentric characters. The show aired on the CBS network from October 25, 1982 to May 21, 1990...
was added, the channel also acquired Bob Newhart
Bob Newhart
George Robert Newhart , known professionally as Bob Newhart, is an American stand-up comedian and actor. Noted for his deadpan and slightly stammering delivery, Newhart came to prominence in the 1960s when his album of comedic monologues The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart was a worldwide...
's short-lived third sitcom Bob
Bob (TV series)
Bob is an American television situation comedy starring Bob Newhart. It was the actor's third series for CBS and proved to be far less successful than The Bob Newhart Show and Newhart, his previous outings with the network. It lasted a season and a half, running from September 18, 1992 until...
, and showed a programming block entitled "Bob's Bob, Bob Newhart, Newhart Marathon" and showed the two shows and The Bob Newhart Show
The Bob Newhart Show
The Bob Newhart Show is an American situation comedy produced by MTM Enterprises, which aired 142 original episodes on CBS from September 16, , to April 1, . Comedian Bob Newhart portrayed a psychologist having to deal with his patients and fellow office workers...
which it already had the rights to, in a programming block hosted by Bob Newhart. Nick at Nite's debut of The Mary Tyler Moore Show
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
The Mary Tyler Moore Show is an American television sitcom created by James L. Brooks and Allan Burns that aired on CBS from 1970 to 1977...
was called the "Marython." When I Love Lucy
I Love Lucy
I Love Lucy is an American television sitcom starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, and William Frawley. The black-and-white series originally ran from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, on the Columbia Broadcasting System...
joined Nick at Nite in 1994, "Nick at Nite Loves Lucy" marathon aired all week which showed every Lucille Ball
Lucille Ball
Lucille Désirée Ball was an American comedian, film, television, stage and radio actress, model, film and television executive, and star of the sitcoms I Love Lucy, The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy and Life With Lucy...
series (I Love Lucy
I Love Lucy
I Love Lucy is an American television sitcom starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, and William Frawley. The black-and-white series originally ran from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, on the Columbia Broadcasting System...
, The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour
The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour
The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour is a CBS television situation comedy. The show is a collection of occasional specials rather than a regular series and originally served as part of Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse...
, The Lucy Show
The Lucy Show
The Lucy Show is an American situation comedy that aired on CBS from 1962 until 1968. It was Lucille Ball's follow-up to I Love Lucy. A significant change in cast and premise for the 1965-66 season divides the program into two distinct eras; aside from Ball, only Gale Gordon, who joined the program...
, Here's Lucy
Here's Lucy
Here's Lucy is Lucille Ball's third network television sitcom. It ran on CBS from 1968 to 1974.-Background:Though The Lucy Show was still hugely popular during the previous season, finishing in the top five of the Nielsen Ratings , Ball opted to end that series at the end of that season and create...
, and Life With Lucy
Life With Lucy
Life with Lucy is an American sitcom starring Lucille Ball. The show ran on the ABC network in 1986, and unlike Ball's previous hits on television, it was a critical and ratings flop.- Premise :...
). When some older shows were retired they would also frequently have a marathon send-off. For instance, when a long rerunning show on the channel Mister Ed
Mister Ed
Originally produced in late 1960, Mister Ed is an American television situation comedy produced by Filmways that first aired in syndication from January 5 to July 2, 1961, and then on CBS from October 1, 1961, to February 6, 1966....
(from 1986 to 1993) was finally retired, there was an all-weekend marathon of the show called "Au Revoir Mister Ed!" as well as a similar send-off for The Donna Reed Show
The Donna Reed Show
The Donna Reed Show is an American sitcom starring Donna Reed as the upper middle class housewife Donna Stone. Carl Betz appears as her pediatrician husband Alex, and Shelley Fabares and Paul Petersen as their teenage children Mary and Jeff. The show originally aired on ABC at 10 pm from September...
, which ran on the channel even longer (1985–1994). My Three Sons
My Three Sons
My Three Sons is an American situation comedy. The series ran from 1960 to 1965 on ABC, and moved to CBS until its end on August 24, 1972. My Three Sons chronicles the life of a widower and aeronautical engineer named Steven Douglas , raising his three sons.The series was a cornerstone of the CBS...
was sent off the night Daylight Savings Time ended in 1991, permitting two extra episodes in the marathon, called "Nite of the Setting Sons."
During the summer months of the late 1990s the station for a while created a programming block called "Vertivision" (later, "Block Party Summer") during which a different series was shown in a three-hour block each night of the week. In the first year, commercials referred to the nights as "Mary Mondays, Lucy Tuesdays, Bewitched Be-Wednesdays, Jeannie Thursdays, and Sgt. Joe Fridays" (for The Mary Tyler Moore Show
The Mary Tyler Moore Show
The Mary Tyler Moore Show is an American television sitcom created by James L. Brooks and Allan Burns that aired on CBS from 1970 to 1977...
, I Love Lucy
I Love Lucy
I Love Lucy is an American television sitcom starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, and William Frawley. The black-and-white series originally ran from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, on the Columbia Broadcasting System...
, Bewitched
Bewitched
Bewitched is an American situation comedy originally broadcast for eight seasons on ABC from 1964 to 1972, starring Elizabeth Montgomery, Dick York and Dick Sargent , Agnes Moorehead, and David White. The show is about a witch who marries a mortal and tries to lead the life of a typical suburban...
, I Dream of Jeannie
I Dream of Jeannie
I Dream of Jeannie is a 1960s American sitcom with a fantasy premise. The show starred Barbara Eden as a 2,000-year-old genie, and Larry Hagman as an astronaut who becomes her master, with whom she falls in love and eventually marries...
, and Dragnet, respectively). With the passing years, the summer blocks shifted to include series newly in the Nick at Nite repertoire.
Other seasonal scheduling blocks were also not uncommon such as Christmas
Christmas
Christmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
-themed blocks during late December, Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving Day is a holiday celebrated primarily in the United States and Canada. Thanksgiving is celebrated each year on the second Monday of October in Canada and on the fourth Thursday of November in the United States. In Canada, Thanksgiving falls on the same day as Columbus Day in the...
-themed blocks in November, and Valentine's
Valentine's Day
Saint Valentine's Day, commonly shortened to Valentine's Day, is an annual commemoration held on February 14 celebrating love and affection between intimate companions. The day is named after one or more early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine, and was established by Pope Gelasius I in 496...
themed episodes in February. From 1989 until 1998 on New Year's Eve
New Year's Eve
New Year's Eve is observed annually on December 31, the final day of any given year in the Gregorian calendar. In modern societies, New Year's Eve is often celebrated at social gatherings, during which participants dance, eat, consume alcoholic beverages, and watch or light fireworks to mark the...
, the channel would host "Nick at Nite's (year) Rerun/Classic TV/TV Hits Countdown" hosted by longtime countdown radio DJ, Casey Kasem
Casey Kasem
Kemal Amin "Casey" Kasem is an American radio personality and voice actor who is best known for being the host of the nationally syndicated Top 40 countdown show American Top 40, and for voicing Shaggy in the popular Saturday morning cartoon franchise Scooby-Doo.Kasem, along with Don Bustany and...
. Kasem would spend noon until 12:30 a.m. on New Year's Eve Day counting down the 25 "most classic" episodes of the TV shows currently airing on Nick at Nite determined by viewers at home, revealing the #1 episode at midnight.
Another famous scheduling block was the "Lucy: Queen of Comedy" block which ran on Saturday nights from June 4, 1994 to May 3, 1996. The line-up consisted of I Love Lucy
I Love Lucy
I Love Lucy is an American television sitcom starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, and William Frawley. The black-and-white series originally ran from October 15, 1951, to May 6, 1957, on the Columbia Broadcasting System...
, The Lucy Show
The Lucy Show
The Lucy Show is an American situation comedy that aired on CBS from 1962 until 1968. It was Lucille Ball's follow-up to I Love Lucy. A significant change in cast and premise for the 1965-66 season divides the program into two distinct eras; aside from Ball, only Gale Gordon, who joined the program...
, and The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour
The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour
The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour is a CBS television situation comedy. The show is a collection of occasional specials rather than a regular series and originally served as part of Westinghouse Desilu Playhouse...
, which were all airing on the network at that time (a similar block called "A Whole Lotta Lucy" aired on Saturday nights from 1996 to 2001, featuring only I Love Lucy and The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour). In the mid-1990s, another programming block entitled "Very, Very Nick at Nite" aired which centered around a theme each Saturday night, such as "Very Very Mary" with four classic Mary Tyler Moore Show episodes. In summer of 2008, Nick at Nite aired a marathon called Battle of the Sexes, which featured episodes of their regular programs that involved conflict between man and woman.
Nick at Nite generally broadcasts a marathon of their programming on holidays, i.e. the "Luck of the Lopez" George Lopez marathon that aired on Saint Patrick's Day
Saint Patrick's Day
Saint Patrick's Day is a religious holiday celebrated internationally on 17 March. It commemorates Saint Patrick , the most commonly recognised of the patron saints of :Ireland, and the arrival of Christianity in Ireland. It is observed by the Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion , the Eastern...
one year. For two years in a row, in 2007 and 2008, Nick at Nite broadcast the Shocktober marathon around Halloween
Halloween
Hallowe'en , also known as Halloween or All Hallows' Eve, is a yearly holiday observed around the world on October 31, the night before All Saints' Day...
, featuring Halloween-themed episodes of the regularly scheduled program; however, the second year running in 2008, it was titled Shocktober 2. Other holidays that have been featured as marathons include Mother's Day
Mother's Day
Mother's Day is a celebration honoring mothers and celebrating motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society. It is celebrated on various days in many parts of the world, yet most commonly in March, April, or May...
, Father's Day
Father's Day
Father's Day is a celebration honoring fathers and celebrating fatherhood, paternal bonds, and the influence of fathers in society. Many countries celebrate it on the third Sunday of June but it is also celebrated widely on other days...
and Christmas. In November 2006, Nick at Nite was proud to continue Nickelodeon's "Best Day Ever" marathon, 24 hours of SpongeBob SquarePants
SpongeBob SquarePants
SpongeBob SquarePants is an American animated television series, created by marine biologist and animator Stephen Hillenburg. Much of the series centers on the exploits and adventures of the title character and his various friends in the underwater city of "Bikini Bottom"...
which, at the end of the marathon, led to a new episode with the same name.
Branding and commercials
Nick at Nite has used a myriad of unusual and unorthodox commercials, logos and, promotions. Alan Goodman & Fred Seibert assembled a team of highly imaginative writer/producers, modeled on their original 1981 creative team that had launched sister channel MTV: Music Television. Including Scott Webb, Jim Levi, Dave Potorti, Jay Newell, Will McRobb, and Tom Hill, the group was guided towards created a series of internal campaigns to emphasize the seeming paradox of a contemporary network setting that programmed reruns from the 1960s. A series of five "promises" were organized into four 30 second spots each hour, each emphasizing an attribute of the innovative programming format.In 1986, the channel began running a few different animated 10 second channel identifications with a similar premise that all had vastly different endings, produced by Eli Noyes
Eli Noyes
Eli Noyes is an American animator who has created many animation and design for companies around the world.Eli brings a comedic flair to his productions, which include Monitor and Ace Award winning projects for television, award-winning films for children, inventive commercials and title...
& Kit Laybourne
Kit Laybourne
Kit Laybourne is the Chief Creative Officer for The Whistle, a cross platform media company focusing on kids and sports. He was a founder of Oxygen Media where he executive produced animation, documentary and interactive shows. Kit was a Core Faculty Member in the MA program in Media Studies at the...
, and the Fred/Alan agency. One of them was of a couple who would bring objects for a living room onto the screen, including a couch
Couch
A couch, also called a sofa, is an item of furniture designed to seat more than one person, and providing support for the back and arms. Typically, it will have an armrest on either side. In homes couches are normally found in the family room, living room, den or the lounge...
and a television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
, then sit down in front of the TV. The male would click the remote and something bizarre would happen, such as a gorilla appearing. Before the commercial was over, the Nick at Nite logo would appear, somehow tied to the premise of the commercial. Others were either a woman setting up her backyard behind a "city", which was made of cardboard, or a man setting up his bedroom, and then the unusual happening. These idents were used in many different variations until 1991 when they were discarded, and replaced with updated and newer idents.
Throughout most of the 1990s (beginning particularly in 1991), Nick at Nite started running a wide variety of idents. These were made with almost every imaginable technique from limited animation, to claymation
Clay animation
Clay animation or claymation is one of many forms of stop motion animation. Each animated piece, either character or background, is "deformable"—made of a malleable substance, usually Plasticine clay....
and stop motion
Stop motion
Stop motion is an animation technique to make a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own. The object is moved in small increments between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames is played as a continuous sequence...
, to original live action and stock footage
Stock footage
Stock footage, and similarly, archive footage, library pictures and file footage are film or video footage that may or may not be custom shot for use in a specific film or television program. Stock footage is of beneficial use to filmmakers as it is sometimes less expensive than shooting new...
. Almost every commercial had a different jingle professing Nick at Nite as being "A TV Viewer's Dream" for "the TV generation" and as coming from a place called TV Land ("Hello Out there, from TV Land!"), and promoting "Better Living Through Television" and proclaimed itself curator of "Our Television Heritage", although these claims were always somewhat tongue in cheek. They would also create sarcastic commercials for shows on their network: an announcer's voice would discuss the series, accompanied by clips and music, sometimes the show's theme song. The commercials would use an actor's line or expression and take it out of context to create a new subversive meaning. The channel still uses this technique today, although often in a more hybrid way. A popular take-off of the Michelob Light commercial; "The Nite belongs to Nick" ran for a short period of time before being taken off because of copyright woes. One series of promos had Dick Van Dyke
Dick Van Dyke
Richard Wayne "Dick" Van Dyke is an American actor, comedian, writer, and producer with a career spanning six decades. He is the older brother of Jerry Van Dyke, and father of Barry Van Dyke...
(whose own '60s sitcom
The Dick Van Dyke Show
The Dick Van Dyke Show is an American television sitcom that initially aired on the Columbia Broadcasting System from October 3, 1961, until June 1, 1966. The show was created by Carl Reiner and starred Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore. It was produced by Reiner with Bill Persky and Sam Denoff....
was a mainstay of the channel in the '90s) depicted as "Chairman of Nick at Nite" (ironically, this idea was later reused as one of Nick at Nite's sister networks, TeenNick
TeenNick
TeenNick, formerly The N, is an American television network aimed at the teenage market. TeenNick is owned by the MTV Networks subsidiary, Viacom. The channel was originally known as The N from its April 1, 2002 launch until September 28, 2009....
, would use actor and television personality Nick Cannon
Nick Cannon
Nicholas Scott "Nick" Cannon is an American actor, comedian, rapper, entrepreneur, record producer, radio, and television personality. On television, Cannon began as a teenage sketch comedian on All That before going on to host The Nick Cannon Show, Wild 'N Out, and America's Got Talent...
depicted as the "Chairman of TeenNick" in a series of promos that began airing in 2009).
The early '90s also saw the addition of Nick at Nite's mascot, Dixie the TV Land Pixie. For a time, the network would also play a short bumper
Commercial bumper
In broadcasting, a commercial bumper, ident bumper or break-bumper is a brief announcement, usually two to 15 seconds that can contain a voice over, placed between a pause in the program and its commercial break, and vice versa...
called "Milkman", about a milkman who would distribute wholesome advice to customers on his milk delivery route. In 1995, on the occasion of the network's 10th anniversary, a tribute to the commercials throughout the network's existence was aired and hosted by former network President Rich Cronin.
The channel also had a unique way of telling viewers what shows were about to play next. Beginning as only an announcer reading off that evening's block of shows and the times they would be on while the list was displayed and music was played, this simple concept would be revised and re-revised many times over. At one point a television with objects and people from the show scrolling by (for instance, for Get Smart
Get Smart
Get Smart is an American comedy television series that satirizes the secret agent genre. Created by Mel Brooks with Buck Henry, the show starred Don Adams , Barbara Feldon , and Edward Platt...
a shoe phone, gun, and Max and 99) would appear on the screen while the announcer read off the show and time. The time that the show was on would be displayed in another box. This continues to be changed and updated.
The station also had a wide variety of "bugs
Digital on-screen graphic
A digital on-screen graphic is a watermark-like station logo that many television broadcasters overlay over a portion of the screen-area of their programs to identify the channel...
" or logos displayed in the corner of the screen during logos would be on the lower left side of the TV screen, and from 1998 on, it would be on the lower right side of the TV screen. The network had a variety of bumpers. From 1992 to 1998, the bumpers had a yellow diamond Nick at Nite logo with [tonite] next to it. At the end of them, the announcer said "Nick at Nite: Classic TV with a capital C", or "Nick at Nite: Open all nite" (which had an animated background of a diner
Diner
A diner, also spelled dinor in western Pennsylvania is a prefabricated restaurant building characteristic of North America, especially in the Midwest, in New York City, in Pennsylvania and in New Jersey, and in other areas of the Northeastern United States, although examples can be found throughout...
with the words "Nick at Nite" on top). The announcer from 1992 to 2007, Bill St. James, has also been heard on the premium channels Showtime, The Movie Channel
The Movie Channel
The Movie Channel is an American premium channel owned by Showtime Networks, Inc., a subsidiary of CBS Corporation, which shows mostly movies, as well as special behind-the-scenes features, softcore adult erotica and movie trivia....
, and HBO. From 1997 to 2002, the bumpers had either a cartoon drawing of a girl watching TV, two tikis with a tucan and a TV or a drawing of three guys in a taxi above the moons and stars. At the end the announcer would say "On the place for TV Hits", then there would be a woman's voice that would say "Nick at Nite". Although introduced in 1997, it was used intact with the 1992 Nick at Nite "Classic TV" schedule bumper until 1998. In fact, one bumper had the "TV Hits" background schemes (a city with the Nick at Nite logo on a billboard), and the announcer announced "It's Classic TV", and the woman singing "Nick at Nite". Another bumper from 1992 had the yellow Nick at Nite logo against colorful squares and the announced "Right here on", and the woman singing "Nick at Nite".
Network slogans
- Hello, Out There From TV Land (July 1985–September 1997)
- Classic TV (September 1992-September 1997)
- Feel Good TV (1997–July/August 2000; Australia)
- The Place for TV Hits (September 1997–February 2001)
- All Sitcoms, All Night Long (February–October 2001)
- 100% Sitcoms, 100% Unreality (October 2001–February 2002)
- We Play Favorites (2005–2007)
- It's Not Just Nite. It's Nick at Nite. (September 2007–September 2009)
- It's Here All Nite on Nick at Nite (September 2009–present)
Ratings
Nick at Nite is ranked number one with Adults 18-49 for 2009 in total day, according to Nielsen Media Research (12/31/07-12/14/08) -- averaging a .6/655,000 A18-49 (up +20% in rating over last year), and marking its most-watched year in four years with A18-49.According to Market Watch, Nick at Nite is the top cable network with Adults 18-49. In total day, average ratings are about 1.5 million viewers. It's also the number one cable network with women (18-49) averaging a 0.7/415,000.
TV Land
TV Land launched on April 29, 1996, and is a spinoff of Nick at Nite; the channel is usually carried on the basic tiers of cable, IPTV and satellite providers. During its early years, the channel ran classic TV series from the early 1950s to the 1970s. In 2004, TV Land began to include sitcoms from the 1980s and 1990s, and as the decade progressed, reality shows and weekly movie presentations were added; however much of TV Land's programming remains to feature series from the 1960s and 1970s. Like Nick at Nite, TV Land airs a minimal amount of original programming, originally consisting of only original reality series and by 2010, the channel's first original scripted series Hot in ClevelandHot in Cleveland
Hot in Cleveland is an American sitcom on TV Land starring Valerie Bertinelli, Jane Leeves, Wendie Malick and Betty White. The series, which is TV Land's first original scripted series, premiered on June 16, 2010, and was TV Land's highest rated telecast in the cable network's 14-year history. The...
.
The channel airs a nightly programming block aimed at 40- to 55-year-olds called "TV Land PRIME" from 9 p.m.-12 a.m. ET/PT (though curiously, shows airing within the block that are aired in other timeslots display the block's logo bug). In 2006, TV Land stopped operating under the control of Nick at Nite though it is still operated as part of Viacom's MTV Networks division. Many series that have been aired by Nick at Nite, such as Three's Company
Three's Company
Three's Company is an American sitcom that aired from March 15, 1977, to September 18, 1984, on ABC. It is based on the British sitcom, Man About the House....
, The Cosby Show
The Cosby Show
The Cosby Show is an American television situation comedy starring Bill Cosby, which aired for eight seasons on NBC from September 20, 1984 until April 30, 1992...
and Home Improvement have either been shared between Nick at Nite and TV Land, or moved to TV Land entirely. As of January 2010, TV Land is one of only three Viacom-owned channels to air infomercials (the only others being CMT
Country Music Television
Country Music Television, or CMT, is an American country music-oriented cable television network. Programming includes music videos, taped concerts, movies, biographies of country music stars, game shows, and reality programs...
and Spike).
International
Despite the large international presence of Nickelodeon, Nick at Nite does not have as much widespread coverage. International versions of Nick at Nite currently exist in Latin America, Japan, India, and Southeast Asia. A British version of Nick at Nite was planned for launch in the United Kingdom, but plans for this were later scrapped.See also
- Antenna TVAntenna TVAntenna TV is an American digital broadcast television network, primarily featuring classic television series from the 1950s to the 1990s, along with some feature films. It is owned by Tribune Broadcasting, a division of the Chicago-based Tribune Company...
- an American digital broadcast network owned by Tribune Company, focusing on classic TV series and movies from the 1950s to 1990s. - Retro Television NetworkRetro Television NetworkThe Retro Television Network is a system of television stations that airs classic television shows as well as more recently produced programs...
- an American digital broadcast network owned by Luken Communications, focusing on classic TV series from the 1950s to 1980s. - Me-TV - an American digital broadcast network owned by Weigel Broadcasting, focusing on classic TV series from the 1950s to 1980s.