Episode 19: Nickelodeon

animation investigation on Nerdiced, Mr Hector Navarro. Thank you guys so much for having any to be back. And I feel like there should be a round of applause, but there can we like, we can we can add that in. That's okay. That em CU chat was fun. Yeah, it was two hours. It was I got messages. People were like, man, when you were talking about Captain America, Man, I was crying. Awesome, great and we did our job. Yeah, I mean it

was so I think I tweeted this. But you're someone that has this encyclopedic knowledge of comic books and yet you don't gate keep at all. You just want everyone to enjoy the fandom, whereas like other people, especially men that have the level of history and knowledge of comic books and and nerd lore, I guess that you do, they often try to gate keep it from people and like, oh, you didn't know this, and you don't do that at all.

You just want everyone to enjoy it and whatever you know, capacity that they do, whether they enjoyed as much as you do or they're just casual fans, that doesn't bother you at all. Have you guys seen Ready Player one? No? Not? Did you guys? Do you guys read the book now Future?

You're not missing a whole heck of a lot. I love me some Stevie Spielberg, But like that movie deals with how in the future, and it's probably true today that like geeky knowledge is power, geeky knowledge is like currency, and sort of the more you have, the higher your status is. And I feel like it's fun to do

that stuff in certain regard, in certain circles. If you're with your buddies, if you know that your friend knows the thing, and then here she messes up and you call them on a you know what I mean, in a fun way to just like rag on them or whatever, like that's fine. I get the appeal of of feeling like you are um deserved of a fandom or deserved to like have a place at the table because you've invested time and you love a thing. That's how I feel about cartoons and comic books. And for me, I

channel that by doing research. I channel that as somebody who when I get into a thing, like I brought my Nicktoons book because of what we're talking about today, and you and I got it when it came out. I got it before I started doing the Nickelodeon Animation podcast a couple of years ago, and and hosting this new show for notice, and I went to school for animation. But if I get into a thing, if I like a thing, I will do the research and and get into it on my own. I just watched a new

mission of Possible movie. I started watching the original nineteen six mission Impossible TV show on my own. It does not hold up, but I'm having a good time, and it's like and I take that challenge, and I love that feeling of like, Okay, if I love a thing, I want to learn as much as possible about the thing so that I can, you know, know every know it from every sort of angle and understand it. And if it's something that is easily critiqued, if something that

needs improvement, and most fandoms do. Most things that people love are problematic in some way, some more than others. That's okay because if you know what's wrong with them, even from those other angles, and you can still sort of talk about them and talk about what you love about them, it makes them stronger, do you know what I mean? Like, if people are like, like, let's talk about superheroes. I think Batman is better than Superman, I'm like,

let's have this conversation, like I want to. I want to talk about Superman. I want to talk about Spiderman. I want to talk about what is good and bad about these things. So I would say to people listening that it is absolutely bad to gate keep, but it is not bad to just research and love a thing and learn all about the thing and become an expert in that thing if you want, and then if you have that, share that expertise and then curate things for people.

Like I just said the Mission Impossible TV show, you guys aren't missing much if you don't watch that, you guys, aren't missing much if you don't watch Ready Player one, but I will tell you to watch you know, this movie, this movie, this movie, or this cartoon show. As we're talking about the history of Nickelodeon, I'll be sure to be like this cartoon show in particular, Special Cat Cat Dog. You can probably skip it. It's okay, it's how dare you?

But you know, if you're not, if you haven't seen Avatar the Last Airbender, if you haven't seen Hey Arnold, like you're you're missing out on some real special stuff. So yeah, I mean, and it's it is funny because I feel like Nickelodeon is one of those brands, one of those companies that really not only screams nineties, but also it's kind of lived on beyond it. Like it's funny.

I think about this a lot. I feel like online you're seeing a lot of SpongeBob memes as of late, and a lot of these new SoundCloud rappers they're they're referencing SpongeBob, Like one song I was listening to referenced doodle Bob. And it's funny because to think at their age, because a lot of these guys are, you know, twenty one and younger, and that was the cartoon when they were growing up, Like that was the one I remember when they premiered the pilot of SpongeBob after the Kid's

Choice Awards. I remember seeing the first episode. So to know the longevity of shows like SpongeBob and to see how it has such an effect that it is like the cartoon of the younger generation that they can make so many references to. That's what I love about a lot of this stuff, tun especially SpongeBob. SpongeBob is really

unique in that, Like I'll give you an example. There's a show that's on uh that's a fairly recent show called The Loudhouse where originally the creator's idea was to make a show about a boy bunny and his like ten sister bunnies that were all family of bunnies. And when he was developing the show, one of the executives

at Nickelodeon was like, consider making them human. And that was the best advice that this person got, because as soon as they turned it into a show about an actual human family, they were able to connect to it more. They're able to do this and this and this, and that's great, but there's also something to a character like SpongeBob SquarePants who harkens back to a character like Bugs Bunny or Donald Duck or Mickey Mouse or all these

classic characters that technically don't have any ethnicity. Technically, kids of many, many, many different backgrounds can like attach themselves too. And I've seen this and we talked about this with

Goofy and a Goofy movie. How a Goofy movie from is like the blackest Disney movie that Disney ever made and there's no humans in it it, yet it still has these things that are like that speak to what it is like to be a young Black American probably And I'm a I'm a young Mexican American, so I'm I'm kind of you know, I'm I'm talking about this from the outside perspective, but I know that like SpongeBob up, especially in SpongeBob memes, and people have talked about this, like,

how is it that that, uh, like black youth has latched onto what SpongeBob is. And there's been articles where people have talked about this and they've asked young people and they're like, well, that's because SpongeBob is black and you know, they'll see like their background or their ethnicity on these characters that again don't have when and other people will be like, like when I was a kid, I was like, no, Goku's Mexican because I'm watching you

watch watched it though I watched it. I watched it and it was Dragon Ball set that and here was this character that had brown eyes and black hair and messy hair, and I'm like, this is a Mexican. Like, yeah, his wife's name was Cheech. Yeah, it all makes makes sense, you know, and people make that joke. But today, but like there's something to that that. Like, for years, Star Wars did not have a Mexican character unless you counted Chewy Chewbacca, who was this silent, hairy guy that was

good with fixing up a car. Like that's Chewy. Everybody had a cousin Chewy. So so go back to SpongeBob SquarePants, you go back to um, you know, uh, like Ren and Stimpy and and other characters from like other cartoons that we grew up with, especially the Looney Tunes, especially

those classic ones like Tom and Jerry. Like a lot if you go back and watch a lot of those actual shorts and stuff, too, Like they'll be moments where they'll have Tom from Tom and Jerry like play like a bass like a cello, and you're like they're doing jazz music and you're like, whoa is Tom Black. It's like, you know, like as Daffy Duck Black, like this really interesting things that are happening. And all we had was speedy Gonzalez. That's all we had and horrible stereotype, but

not really because he was fast. The stereotype was his cousin, Slowpoke Rodriguez. That was the speedy All Mexicans love speedy. Speedy is great. Bad, but I've diverted the conversation. No, no, it's fine because he said let's go back, and you're right, we should go back. I think we should go back all the way to December one, nine seven, when Nickelodeon launched as pin Wheel, a channel developed by Vivian Corner.

Prior to Nickelodeon's creation, most preschooler programs were very limited because they could only tune into their favorite shows on Saturday mornings. On the other hand, that only had Saturday morning to watch their favorite shows, but weekdays too because they can watch sesame streets for preschoolers and grown ups in Columbus, Ohio, they had a new television system called cube qu b E. Yeah. Did you actually know actor that Nickelodeon started back in I didn't. I knew. I

thought it started in the nineties. Yea, yeah, because because Nickelodeon as we know it today started with Nicktoons, started with you know, the cable channel that aired three cartoons ships. It was the big three, the Big three which were Rent and Stimpy Doug and Rugrass. And in doing my research as a young person in two now, like I did learn like, oh yeah, Nickelodeon was a thing, and

a lot of people remember, but I don't remember. Nickelodeon was a channel called pin Wheel before was Nickelodeon, and Nickelodeon was around since the eighties, and it was kind of like a preschool sort of a kids programming channel and uh but it's nuts. But again, to me, Nickelodeon was always the cartoons, and then they sort of branched off and did other stuff, which we'll talk about later, things like Nick at Night and I'll you know, live action programming and all that stuff. But for me, it

did it did begin with the three original Nicktoons. Well, actually Nick at Night came before those three, so so like if he was saying, they launched pin Wheel and then pin Wheel on April first, nineteen seventy nine, Pinwell relaunched as Nickelodeon. So then in Nickelodeon started showing advertisements. On October eighth, they introduced their famous splat logo, and then on July one, Nick at Night was launched and

Nick became a twenty four hour service, which is true. Yeah, that's actually I remember now, Um, you know, even in the nineties watching the cartoons and then I could stay up and watch Nick at Night, like maybe an episode or something. Do you remember some of the lineup for Nick at Night? I mean by the time I had because here's the thing, I did not have cable when

Nickelodeon first premiered. I was a poor little boy. I was one of these things where I didn't get cable until later, until like the mid to late ninety nineties. So by the time I got Nickelodeon and Nick at Knight, they were already doing stuff. Like maybe maybe I'm thinking it was too early, but I feel like even like Fresh Prince of bel Air was on there at Nick at Knight at one point. But I remember stuff like I Love Lucy was on there. Yes, that was the first.

That's what I remember. I got lucky because my dad was the manager of our apartment complex and for some reason that meant that he got free cable from the company, and so I remember what in and the first thing that will pop on was I Dream of Genie and then I and so sometimes I would like actually watching. That's kind of how I got introduced to those older shows was because I usually checked out as soon as as soon as Nick and Night came on the sort of reruns of live action stuff because I was I

was obsessed with cartoons. That was usually my indicae. It's like, okay, it's time to go to bed. But I do remember later when they would get sitcoms like like Fresh, Prince of bel Air and other like really good sitcoms from House. I believe all that stuff was on Nick and I was like, oh, this is cool. Yeah, yeah, no it was, but it was great because yeah, those are the huge staples.

And I think what's great is out of the three shows that launch, you know, rug Rats, Doug and The Ren and Stempy Show, I feel like the Ren and Stimpy show, well there's nothing like the other two, but also like Doug. I mean, there are some similarities between Doug and Rugrats, but even Doug versus rug Rats, those were super different shows. Also, I feel like those were based off of kind of like their viewership. You have

your very young viewers. So August eleven is when Rugrats, Doug and Ren and Stempy first premiered, so you have by then I was three, I think, so, so you have your three to five year olds, you know, or your elementary school kids. They're going to watch or resonate the most with Rugrats. You have your middle schoolers who even though I watched Doug, but probably middle schoolers, high

schoolers you know, are going to resonate with Doug. And then you have the Rent and Stempy show, which is like your high schoolers you know, and and older are going to resonate with that. So I think they kind of did it smart, very smart. I mean, go I'm going back to the beginning of Nickelodeon, even before the Three Nicktoons premiered, I know that there was a story about how like in the mid to late eighties when they were trying to figure out the branding of the network.

They brought in people from MTV that had recently sort of like solidified, like like I want my MTV like, they designed the logo, like they turned MTV into what it was, and they brought Nickelodeon from the lowest in

the ratings to the top. And one of the things they apparently did is they held focus groups with kids, and a thing that they learned was like, you cannot put on a show the kids think is for babies, and anything that a kid, no matter what age they are, if anything is like if if a if a child one year younger than them watches a thing, that the show is for babies. Do you see what I'm saying?

So like a six year old will be next to a five year old, and if the five year old likes the thing, the six year olds like this shows for babies, I don't want to watch this anymore. So those kinds of thinking, we're going into the choosing and the picking and choosing of like what shows they were going to make it as cartoon shows, And that kind of explains how Rugrats came to be. Because Rugrats I love because it was a show that I would get

sucked into even though it was literally about babies. And as a child, I do remember that there were times where I was like, wait is this for like Todd, like should not be watching this? But it sucked me and because it was like ugly, beautiful and crude. And the humor was the humor doctor doctor lipshits was the was the child psychiatrist that they were always listening to,

had all this innuendo and all these jokes. And Angelica's mom, Angelica's was an alcoholic right then her and then her always yelling at Jonathan, her assistant, and then Angelica herself just being a diva brat, and then um Stu and Lou. They had a lot of like adult humor between them. Um. Yeah. But it's like it's like when you think, why would Because here's the thing I was thinking about this on

the drive over. When you say names of brands, when you say names of like studios or TV channels that you recognize as a kid, When I say things like Disney, Warner Brothers, Looney Tunes, Hannah Barbera, Nintendo, you can kind of visualize what all these things sort of are, you know, Muppets, Jim Henson, Sesame Street, uh, and if I say Nickelodeon,

you kind of know what that is too. Even though from the very beginning to people at Nickelodeon sing we're saying, we have no specific house style, you know, they they sort of approach each one of their shows that they green light is like, we don't know where we're looking for until we see it, kind of They're usually You're usually isn't mandates of like, well, you know, we're looking for an action show, we're looking for a comedy show.

Usually there isn't the very creator driven and eventually the process at Nickelodeon, as far as I know kind of from an outsider looking in, I mean I interned there for a summer and I and I sort of worked there when I was doing the Nickelodeon Animation podcast, is that they would have certain artists and creators working on one show and then they have an opportunity to pitch

stuff later. The creator of SpongeBob SquarePants, Steve Hillenberg, he worked on Rocco's Modern Life, The creator of Avatar, The Last Airbender and then the Legend of Cora. One of the creators Brian Kanitzko, he worked on Invader zim So it's this thing where like these artists are encouraged to like go home and work on stuff, and if they have stuff, to go and pitch it and so so it's like there's no Nickelodeon style, and yet there is.

And those first three cartoons you can look at I think basically every Nicktoon except for a couple here and there, one of them kind of being avatar, and you can point to seeds being planted in either Ren and Stimpy, Doug or rug Rats, you know what I mean. And Rugrats especially is like I mean, Ren, Stimpy is but all of them, especially Doug later influenced Hey Arnold and things like as told by Ginger and all, you know, all those kinds of things. But Rugrats was like that

classkey chupo style. That ugliness, that crudeness like that was so appealing to us as kids, and it was out of Disney beautiful stuff. It goes against with this type of stuff you learned in art school. If you're trying to design appealing characters, they're not appealing yet they are. Well. What's also so interesting is everything about that show was pretty disruptive. If you think of the theme song, where it was like done done, Done done. Doo doom doom

doom doom, Like it's not an actual melody. It's almost if you it's like uncomfortable, but as kids we've grown to love it. And you bring up the music to like Doug kind of similar. It had a very like doe do Do Do Do Do Do Do do dode. It was nice, but it was all mouth sounds, which

was weird and cool than you. And then Brent and Stimpy was like like very disruptive and very loud, loud, and it just set the stage for like these shows had way different styles than the things that you're so funny that you bring up that Doug kind of laid the groundwork for Hey Arnold because Doug, I felt like Doug that whole series is kind of like really smooth, and that's how Hey Arnold is as well, and kind of this like non confrontational character that's really intelligent and shy.

I was always mad at Doug when I was a kid because I was like he never does homework. I was like, I'm in middle school and I get homework. I have to go home and work on this crap and I can't go and just like hang out and go to concerts, and Doug like, this show is unrealistic because he never had home. Yeah, the what was the name of his band, the beat Beat beat Sets was the name of like the famous band. Yeah, and I forget, what does more allowance you? Like, I can do this.

I was mad at Dug for a completely different reason because I was like, why hasn't he just like clocked Roger clocks? Like, I was like, I was team body that dude very early on, Like Skeeter was never any backup, you know, he was just there. Um. And that was like the first kind of rendition of like race without race, because yeah, the characters on Doug didn't really they were

just different colors. But everyone's like Skeeter's black, and Skeeter's dad was so like just the coding in the design of Skeeter's dad, I was like, oh no, this is straight up a black dad. I'm looking at a bunch of different characters right now from the from the show and like Patty Mane like, yeah, they weren't supposed to have skin tones, but Doug Funny just happens to be light Peach and his parents how to be sort of tanned.

And then you have characters like Skeeter who were like blue but everybody, like you said, if he like every everyone was like like Skeeter's black. Roger was like a rich white kid. Eventually he became rich. It was like a poor like bully kid. He was like a white kid. He reminds me of Sid from Toy Story. Patty Maynaise was like like a tanned skin, you know, maybe like probably she was probably white because you had a very

like kind of a Southern accent. I don't know if I don't remember if she was a new kid or whatever. But but this show was the sweetest show and as a kids, it was sometimes difficult for me to connect to it. But I did love the show because it did actually teach me lessons and years later when I actually got to meet the creator, Jim Jenkins, he's one of the nicest human beings I've ever met in my life.

He has just like Mr Rogers quality to him. He's just like a nice guy that I'm like, oh, of course, Doug was the way that it was like, it's such a nice show because Jim is nice like, and that's what it was about. And it was great, and I think the beautiful thing about all this is like we just kind of like picked and choose what we thought

everyone was. And there's probably someone listening who's losing their mind because it's like, no, I Doug was like, you know, Indian American, and Roger was Latino, and of course it was of course they were whatever you want, but like, yeah, you're right. I really related to Doug because I was a kid who doodled a lot and I wanted to make comics. So he had Quailman, and I was like that was always very cool to me. Uh, and I really resonate we've we've sat in this because we're in

our nostalgia corner because this is like our show. But let's talk about Snick. So almost a year later, Nick went ahead and launched a prime time block called Snick, which was Saturday Night ni Alodi in, which would go on to be just housing so much it had eventually

are You Afraid of the Dark? We had all that you had Nick News, which I thought, you know, that show was really ahead of its time when I think back on it, and it blows my mind that something like that isn't around now because it was a show that you know, it would talk about It wasn't like

slanted anyway. It talked more about world issues, but like it kept kids grounded because you're talking about what's going on in the rest of the world, other problems, and like I remember, I forget her name, but there was Yes, she was such a neutral, calm voice that it just kind of pulled you in. And just remembering that and just seeing the impact of like just a Saturday wrap up of world news to go like, hey, you're watching

all this stuff, you're probably having fun. Why don't you take a peek home what's going on all around the world. I would love it if they brought that back. Yeah, for sure. Also, I was going to say, because you brought up all that, and a lot of people talk about growing up with sketch comedy as far as SNL, but dude, the kids on all that killed when you think back to them being like thirteen years old and

doing sketch comedy in front of a live audience. They were so talented, so talented, and Amanda Binds as much as people you know, give her crap now, she was amazed and then she went on to have her own show. But she was so young and so good and obviously that's spent off into Keenan and Kell, which gave us a good burger, And we are going to get into all of that right after the break and we are

back joined here with Hector Navarro. Yeah, I was gonna say, if you had some things that you wanted to say about all that, Well, it's so funny because you know, you do go back and you're kind of like, this is a very kid centric sketch show. But some of the writers on the show turned out to be some big names in the past. So you had Amy Berg, who I think is one of the most outspoken, outspoken

television writers on Twitter right now. She did a dope guide for People's First Writing And Neil Brennan, who went on to create The Chapel Show, wrote for All That he went from all that to creating The Chappelle Show. It's and it's so wild to see just the jump from these writers and and how like, when you think about it, can you if you were watch both all that in Chappelle Show and be like the same dude,

you would probably lose your mind. And then I feel like the breakout star or ended up being the sort of breakout success in the long run, not in the short run and the long run was Keenan Thompson. Keenan who in a lot of ways graduated to Saturday Night Live.

And I remember when he got on SNL, I was like, holy crap, that's keen In from all That, from Good Burger, from Nickelodeon, like, and he maybe made it like he's gonna do comedy for the rest of his life because a lot of the actors on that show, a lot of the kid actors, like, they either didn't pursue it for the rest of their career, or they did and didn't find as much success or retired or for various reasons, like you know when you're a kid actor, like are

you going to go to college and do something else? Or do you want to keep acting or whatever. And it was awesome to see Keenan actually make it. I remember there was an episode of SNL where Shila Buff hosted Yeah, and he stood up next to Keenan and during the monologue and he was like, made it, man, we made it Disney, Nickelodeon, Disney, and Keenan was like not having it as part of the bed He's like yeah, man, okay, yeah, great, but um, like Keenan, Like, I love Keenan. He's real

hit and miss with me. Sometimes sometimes his skits are hysterical and I love them, and other times I'm like, this isn't working for me. It's like a little too silly. And sometimes still watching Kenan to this day, I can still see a little bit of Keenan and kel all that of his sort of like delivery and his like especially when he has that like smile on his face where he knows he's he's being funny and he's like,

you know, trying to be funny. Like when I was a kid, I was real there's real snobby about all that. I didn't like the show, and I didn't understand why. And I never rooted against anybody in the show. I know that, you know. When I was a kid, I was absolutely jealous of those like other thirteen year olds that got can you imagine, like, you know, where do they shoot it with it? Was it in Hollywood or

was it in Florida? In Florida in front of a studio audience used to say it after all of their shows Universal Studios or Nickelodeon Studios, whatever it was called. And I was super jealous, and I would love that job. But I remember sometimes some sketches worked for me, some didn't. Sometimes it was crossover. Keenan Thompson as a kid, did

a sketch with Chris Farley. Chris Farley showed up and they both played the crazy Chefs, where where Keenan loved chocolate on everything and Farley wanted want a catch up on everything. And as a kid, since I knew who Chris Farley was, my mind was blown. I'm like, this guy gets to do a sketch with Chris Farley and and I think Farley he may have passed away, like not a year later, do you know what I mean?

Like it was this crazy thing. But but when I was a kid, all that sometimes it was tough for me. And then years later I tried to I think I learned.

I'm like, I think it's because in classic Saturday Night Live sketches, which at the time is sort of what I thought all comedy was, or any good sketch today, there's always there's always kind of one element that's out of the ordinary, one crazy character or one crazy idea or theme or whatever, and everybody else is kind of playing a grounded reality, like there's you know, and they're like a voice of reason or like a straight man.

Sometimes in all that sketches there would be like two or three or four crazy, you know characters, and there was it was tough to like to like bring it back down. It was repair man man man man, you know, like Perrs Cargo, Keenan's Pierres Cargo, just like him trying to do French accents in a bathtub. Yeah. No, but the alumni was pretty good. I mean there's some like deep cut alumni that I didn't know, Like it's season six. Gabriel and Glaciers was part of the cast, remember that.

And you know, Cannon was one of the biggest ones who came out of it. Keenan Thompson, we just talked about him. Laurie Beth Dinburgh went on to the Steve Harvey Show and then she did a few work after that. I actually was in the big Freedom music video with her. And then you had like Amanda Binds, even though you know she kind of fell off a bit, but like she was like, who's my neighbor, shout out to Josh.

So it was like this was also like brewing talent, and you're right as someone who like all his life wanted to act. This was the main source of my sevening jealousy of like how do I do this? And you have this Nigerian father who has one doesn't want me to act to doesn't know how. And you know my mom she's from the South, you know she she also doesn't have any clue to where to send me. But that's all I wanted to. I would watch these kids and I was like, if I just had one shot,

it's inspiring. Yeah, it was inspiring, you know, like and and I love so many of those classic sketches and and uh yeah, Amanda Bindes was my favorite when I was a kid, so that when she got her own show and then later was showing up in movies, I was like, yeah, that makes sense. Like she was like

the best on the show, Like she was fantastic. So you know, it's so weird listening to y'all talk about this is that you both saw them and like I want to be them, And it's so weird because I feel like growing up, for me it was a little bit different. I didn't really see Latina's on screen at all at all at all, And for me it was more like, oh, I want to date them or I

want to marry them. You know that's funny, but that's like how we're raised, like you need to find a good husband, you need a husband, And so I grew up wanting to marry these guys and then realizing when I was in college ish like, oh no, I'm my own thing. Like you didn't want to marry like members of in Sync or bactually, but you wanted to marry You wanted to marry the cast members. I wanted to marry Brian from Backstreet Boys. I also had a crush on Max Goof, as you do, because he was a

smooth teenager. I was very sexually confused by that, having a crush on a dog. One of my ex girlfriends told me that she had a crush on SpongeBob SquarePants when she was much and told like classmates like, oh, he's my boyfriend, Like SpongeBob is my boyfriend, and I

think that's what I call him, Bob. Yeah. I thought it was like real cute and real funny that, like, because because she went on to do comedy and stuff like that, and I think it's real funny that, um, you had a thing for Max Goof that she had a thing for SpongeBob, like there's something about It's because SpongeBob was like good and very funny. Yeah, I don't know,

that's I think that's really interesting. I know it is funny, how like Yeah, for you to fall for like someone like Max or SpongeBob, it has to be their good personality features, where someone like Lola Bunny it's like, oh no, she was drawn as a sex and that's why we're like, yeah, that's my girl, like Jessica Rabbit, like right, right right. It's just you know once again that you know all the little ways that the patriarchy isn't work. I did

want to say before we fully move on. I just had two points I needed to make in the um, like we were saying, Nickelodeon studios opened at Universal Studios, that's where they filmed a lot of their live stuff. And then also in magazine, don't you remember those commercials? Good Lord, like just begging. I'm sure that everybody of parents existed everywhere to Jake Magazine, you're their kids, just like god, Momzin, did either of you get them? No? No, I did, oh my gosh, because you know when they

get it now. And I still fall for these traps every time when it's like sign up, we're giving you a free magazine. And so my dad was like he got it, and he was like, okay, pick the magazine and right there was Nick mag for free, and I got to get it, and I that was the one I would wait every month for it. It like drove my childhood because it's a magazine. Yeah, it was like good magazine had like little tongue to it. Also gave you like the celeb updates for all the stars on

Oh my Gosh. When Yeah, when I was a kid, my mom and dad would frequently get me Disney Adventures were like little magazine, just highlights. And I really I didn't want Nick Magazine as much as I think Zoo Books. That was the other commercial as a kid where it was like, oh my god, there's the like and it was like I never got it. That was I got close to Zoo Books. I got my dad to fill out the form during a book fair and then at the last second he was like, no, yeah, just go

to the library. Yeah, but yeah, I don't want to skip over Good Burger because you mentioned it. And that was a moment in history because we went from not only because I liked the parallels between all that and SNL. And this was one of the biggest steps that happened in SNL was where a sketch is so popular it turns into Brothers cone Heads. And then in the nineties it was Wayne's World, That's what it was all about. Man. Yeah,

and even stuff like now at the Roxbury Yeah, the Ladies. Man, it's Pat Stewart saves his family and my maybe my personal favorite MC gruber, but I love the Yeah, I

love that when good Burger made that leap. And again it just speaks to like Nickelodeon when they were sort of on top of everything, they were branching out there trying to do live action sketch shows, They're trying to do news programs, they're doing Nick at Night programming, they're doing a magazine, they're doing at Studio in in in Universal down in Florida. They're doing a movie. And eventually that led to, you know, there were other Nickelodeon movies

based on their cartoon properties. Um, you know, I think Nick Nick games is a thing is another branch of of Nickelodeon as a whole, like you know, like interactive video games, eventually became a thing. The magazine we talked about, uh nick dot com was a big website when we were kids. Like it's cool that they were branching out to just do other stuff that they weren't just like content with, like no, we just have original cartoons and wear a cable channel and that's it. Like they're trying

to do other stuff. And I think that it helped cement them as being parts of our childhood and also just being like a relevant and important brand to this day. So yeah, so Good Burger came out and is still one of my favorite films from my childhood. I always if you follow me on Twitter, I'm always pitching a Good Burger two. I think we just need Keenan to

come back, like I'm sure Kel is down. And also I just want to say I've read interviews with Kel, who also auditioned for SNL, but Um said that he had a weird audition, that he took a risk and it didn't it didn't really pay off. But he is the nicest man. I have friends that that have performed on shows with him. He still does stand up and he said in this interview about how people like waiters whenever they see him when he's ordering, they're like, oh,

do you want orange soda? You know, like they'll say that and he'll be like yeah, sure, like and because he doesn't want to ruin because that was such an important part of their childhood that he when he goes to restaurants, he's not like no, like just you know, give me my beer or whatever. He is like yeah, and he's like, they'll bring me orange soda, and I like also order some an els, but like he doesn't turn it down because he just like seeing how excited

people are that they still remember his character. And I loved him in Mystery Man. He was so funny. Oh my god. Yes, Mystery Man heavily slept on ahead of its time. Yeah, also ahead of it. So yeah, what's what's your pitch for Good Burger too, Danny? Can you share it now? Um, we don't have time. No, we

don't have time. I would have to do like a whole thing on on all that, which is another thing I wanted to say, Like we didn't even really have we might do a full episode on something like rennin Stip. You don't actually get to talk about, yeah, the way that we did with like teenage mutants and things that

like it. It had a comic like my dad used to buy me the rennin Stippy comics, which you know, and it's so like grotesque and I probably shouldn't have had it when I was seven, but that reboot that was yeah, yeah, yeah, that was weird. And then their creator got outed as being a very very bad person. Yeah, who had a sixteen year old girlfriend at a time

really oh yes, text her. He actually his lawyer like came out with a statement saying, yes, there was a period of time when he, as an adult man, had a sixteen year old girlfriend when he was working at the studio. And it's a lot um So maybe we'll skip it or not. I mean, you know, we can't.

Just I would just like to say too that if there's people listening to this right now and they're like they're kind of going back and remembering certain stuff that they grew up on, or they haven't had a chance to check out Nickelodeon like currently, or you know, because everybody talks about the nineties being the Golden Age, and

I think there's there's two reasons why that happens. Number One, I think people our age just kind of did stop watching cartoons at a certain so they did sort of miss on a bunch of cartoons kind of around after Invader Zim and Beyond and then maybe Avatar the Less and Brander broke through and they check that out as

a cartoon watcher. But I think number two is I think that there is some truth to Nickelodeon being in its golden age in the nineties because they were so all about taking risks, at least as far as their cartoons were concerned, that it's kind of weird to make your whole business model around taking a risk, because if they would do that later and it didn't pay out, then people are like, well, that's not like Nickelodeon enough.

And it's like, well, they're trying to take a risk, and sometimes if they played it safe, because they're a huge business, then it wouldn't be Nickelodeon enough. So I'll just say to people listening to this right now again, I encourage you too. If you feel like watching some of these shows again, go back and watch them, go and do the research. Go go get booked, or you know, just look online and then do this kind of Nickelodeon research about the history of the company. Because it is

fascinating and really cool. Dude. I bought a season of All Real Monsters. That was my favorite Nickelodeon show. Got canceled way too early. It only has four seasons. Good concept and low key kind of was like, I mean, it was very monsters inky. It's so good and funny and I love it. And yeah, that premiere to Modern Life was Rocker's Modern Life, of course, which we didn't

when we found out that he's a sex worker. Like those are things when you go back and watching as an adult, you're like, oh crap, they were sliding things

in here. Yeah, because I think it was the fun thing of like trying to especially when which shows like rent and stimpy, And I think that's why the reboot was not as great as the original, was the constraint of trying to see what you can get away with while still making its acceptable for children out going full on crass and disgusting, because if you do that then

it's not as funny. Yeah, it's not as funny. But you were saying, how you know people look at the nineties of the Golden Age because you know all the animation, And I do think you have a point, because we when we get to the late nineties and the early odds, we start having the live action shows, your Ned's Declassified school Books, You're Different stuff, And also they launched Noggin, which was a big point because de Grassi was there. We can jump in all of that fun stuff right

after these messages and we're back. So I don't want to move on without talking about some more of the really iconic live action slash light competition shows that we had, which was Legends of the Hidden Temple. That was something that I did want to compete and I always was wondering, like, am I going to see someone from my school on this? For some reason? I know, because maybe because they were

actors Global Guts Guts. So Legends of the Hidden Temple of first episode aired on September eleven, and uh, you also have Guts, which aired September nine, So a year after Guts, they did Legend of the Hidden Tiple. Fun fact, Michael Malley, who was a presenter, he's still out here. He actually is the creator of the show Survivor's Remorse

on I think formerly Survivor's Remorse. I don't think it's on the air right now, but that's the show that he made with Lebron that was kind of like based off of Lebron's life and yeah, so he's like still out here making some dope moves and it's funny to see how like that's funny with like the Neil Brennan thing and now you have like he went the stuff he works on is is so crazy when you think that, you know, he went from guts to you know, working

with Lebron James. Those game shows were awesome. Yeah, And I don't know if you all know, but Double Dare, which was with Mark Summers, actually first aired in six Yeah, I didn't know that. That's crazy. Yeah, that's what that means. Yeah.

And also back of course, the iconic green slime, the slime covered in it actually first came out during a skit that they did back in nineteen seventy nine where a kids chained up for detention in a dungeon and he's told not to pull on his shackles and when he does, a toilet flushes and the signature green slime comes down. And then that was a great gag that they then later used throughout Nickelodeon, but also at their Kids Choice Awards and getting slimed was an honor. I

love the Kid's Choice Awards. When I was a kid, it was like the Oscars but for kids, and you know, and and and like you said, if they would air cool stuff right after, like the pilot episode of SpongeBob and and I had a chance to go to a taping of the Kid's Choice Awards, and it is insane. I went as well. So this year, Ishmael Sahid of White Women is on a Nickelodeon show called Cousins for Life, and so I get a text room and goes. For those who don't know, Ishmael is a very quiet dude

and he's very like Moby all the time. And he was like, hey, if you want to come to the Kid's Choice Awards, And I was like a hundred percent a million times yes. And not only was I the kids store, I was the v I P. And I had the nosebleeds, so I was the v I P in the back with all their snacks. And it was wild because you'd see all these kids who I felt bad because I didn't recognize any of them because they're like current Nickelodeon stars. And then you had Kevin Bacon

and so so yeah, our buddy Ben Schwartz. He now, I'll tell you my whole experience. I walked there, I get my badge, and they remembered me because I just got done doing my Blues Clues audition. I was like, oh, please don't remember that because it went whack. It was not like basically they I guess I had the voice actor for Blue in there while I'm doing it. I didn't know. I'm doing my lines. She does the Blue songs. I physically jump back and they're like, okay, let's move

on to the next scene. I was like, wait, we don't want to take that back. I literally got shocked by what you're supposed to be my co star. So anyway, he did not get that, but they're like, oh, yeah, if you just came in for that, yes, that is the exact sound she made. And I was like, because you know, I'm thinking, you know, they're just gonna be like, all right, you're just reacting to your imagination in retrospect.

That's a good thing to actually have something to react to. Anyway, So we get there and Ishmael has to walk the orange carpet with his fake family and I was like, yo, we gotta do it together, and he was like, no, it's like this my moment. And I was like, all right, I understand. I really wanted to walk the orange carpet. Though I will remember this for the rest of myne never I will not be on a Nick show probably

you know who know who knows we'll see. So then they were hanging out in the backstage and I'm looking around and I see all these kids. Also I dressed down, okay because I was thinking, well, yeah, because I was like, I might get slimed, so let me dress down. These kids are fresh to death looking fresher than me. So now mad, I was like, I knew I should have worn up good gear. But I'm like, I was like these I'm talking about these kids are wearing off white.

These kids are wearing like yeazys, they're bape And I was like, I got all this. I would have been impressing these kids. But now I'm like a like a herb standing over here in my light dressed down. I was so salty. Uh So then I'm sitting no, of course not why would exactly. I was looking at this also like they slimed. There's all these kids who would literally look weird if there was like all these kids in big old If. He's like, yeah, we're slimed anyway,

I'm looking around. I was like, I don't know anyone. And then I see Ben and I was like hey, buddy, and I was like, wait, what are you doing here? Because it was before they like officially announced it. I mean they announced it, but like only if you're paying attention. And he was like, oh, I'm a ninja turtle. And then Omar Gooding was there as well, and I was like this is tight because one you're a ninja turtle to Omar Goodness that guy. I used to watch him

all the time. And and then long story slow, I didn't get slimed, but the you know, it was fun. I wish I got slimed. Yeah. Yeah, we still gotta get slimed, y'all. What we we're going to do it? I bet all of us will well. I technically have been slimed, not offacially slimed. I did a it was this like Turf Company. They did this Facebook live kind of event where we did like a double Dare type event and we actually had the who's the host of

Double Dare again? Marks? Yeah, Mark Summers actually came out and like did it and they end so like they did the one event where there's the balloon filled with slime and you have to pop the most balloons. When I say I wrecked that, When I say that, all that energy I had as a kid, when I was like I need to be out there. I had something to prove. And me and the twenty people who were watching that Turf Companies Facebook live video knows that I

the real cheat. I didn't get to walk the orange carpet, but no, I'm going to get good for you if yeah, you know, so I got slimed up. It's it's nice, but yeah, no is so then uh yeah, so we have July of Yes, this is the big one that is when SpongeBob square Pants officially premiered. So for all of us, like older people, I mean, SpongeBob is their moneymaker. SpongeBob I think to this says as of late SpongeBob

has generated thirteen billion in merchandizing revenue for Nickelodeon. It's so funny because, like you were saying, for us, it's like, oh no, it's Rugrats and we grew up with a grand and Steff no SpongeBob. Yeah, SpongeBob needs more credit for everything that it's done. For that and how long it's been because it's still running right actor. I think as of right now it is and if if it's not,

they're at least doing another movie. Was there a time when Tom Kenny, who's voice of the famous voice of SpongeBob, did he drop out or piece out or like I thought he wanted a piece out, but then they were like, well, you can't do this without him. No. I think the thing about Tom that people might not know is I had a chance to talk to him for the Nick podcast and he said that he tried out for SNL and made it in the top three and he was beat out I think by like David and Rob Schneider.

This is back in like the mid to early nineties. And he so he got beaten out by two out of the top three spots, so he couldn't get it because it only had two spots or whatever. And he goes on to talk about how devastated he was by that, because when you're a comedian, when you're stand up comic, that is the end goal. If you don't make that,

what then? Right? And I know, athletes deal with the same thing, where like if they don't win the World Series, if they don't win the World Cup, you know, this kind of like horrifically depressing, um devastating thing happens. But Tom goes on to describe it like if he had gotten SNL, he wouldn't have gotten SpongeBob SquarePants. He wouldn't have been there, he wouldn't have been in the room. And ultimately he always wanted to do a thing like SpongeBob.

SpongeBob and voice acting was his dream job, that was the end goal. And so he has always loved doing the character and being the character. As far as I know, I don't know if there was ever a time where him or anybody else in the cast didn't want to do it. I mean that cast is just insane. You've got Bill FAGERBACKI who does Patrick Starr, who is underrated as a smart, dumb character. It is tough to play a dumb character, and Bill like Patrick is like next level.

Then you've got Clancy Brown, Clancy Brown from The Highlander, from the voice of Lex Luthor from the DC Animated Universe, Like who's got this amazing voice who sounds like this, he's Mr Crabs and he loves doing Mr Crabs because he loves to like surprise kids and people once they learned that he is Mr Crabs. That's like his favorite character that he does. And he's this this he is this incredibly imposing, like very intimidating, super nice but like

intimidating guy. He's got this great presence and he's the voice of Mr Crabs. So it's like, yeah, I mean there was stuff that came before SpongeBob to round out the rest of the nineties. It was Hey Arnold Blam was another show that I loved as a kid, was like a sketch shows well live action was The Kids

Robot Chicken. Before Yes, it was Angry Beavers was also a lot of fun, and Angry Beaver is one of those voice actors went on to voice Invader Zim So again up there kind of you know, reusing their very talented cast. Cat Dog premiered in a year before Tom Kenny was the voice of Dog and Cat Dog there you go. Also, I just want to talk about like Tom Kenney still out there getting like he is most famously known for SpongeBob, but he is also Commissioner Gordon.

He has also done a ton of different voices on Rick and Morty, so you definitely heard him there. All of the top tier voice over talent. You should do yourself a favor if you like any of these characters, find out who does the voice, and then go to their IMDb and your jaw will drop. And how often these people work it is insane. Yeah. Tom Kenny's also Heifer and Rocco's Mardern Life. He plays the Ice King in Adventure Time. He's a narrator and mayor in there

Puff Girls, who I love the mayor Well yeaheah. He's done a ton of stuff. Yeah, it's it's great, and it also lets you know why it's so hard to break into the voice over industry, because really, because they do it all. Yeah, they basically yeah everyone, once you're in the family, you're you're bouncing around. But so yeah, looking at you. Chris Sabbott voices every Dragon ball Z

character ever. Yeah. Another cool thing that I love that Nickelodeon did, and I think Cartoon Network did the same thing around the same time as Oh Yeah Cartoons, which was like they're like pilot, you know, the thing that where they would produce pilot shows where I think, like fairly odd parents came from that chalk zone a bunch of shows, you know, they were like trying things things out,

my life as a teenage robot the Wild. Thornberry's premiered before SpongeBob, and that was the last show before SpongeBob. Thornbury's was a great show. Tim Curry as Nigel Thornberry was fantastic, so much so good so then SpongeBob even though it premier so many people, even Nickelodeon itself, I have a Nickelodeon backpack that didn't bring I should have brought it. That is like nineties Nick and SpongeBob premiering in the nineteen ninety ninety nine means it's a nineties

Nick show, but it's not. Nobody considers it that because it because it took a few seasons to become what it is. It took like three or four seasons for people to catch on and the world to catch on. But he represents that sort of shift of like, Okay, Nickelodeon's back I get not that they were ever gone, but like man, what a what a what a phenomenon? Also, what that means is July sevent of next year, will

mean that it's been on the air twenty years. It has been on the air longer than some people who watch it. Oh he has been born absolutely, I mean multigenerational at this point, which is crazy. You're on a page because he's going through his nio. This was a very formative for me as a California kid. Rocket wanted so bad, I was everything. I would watch that show and then go outside and yeah, remember when Tony Hawk

was on it. Oh that was after after Rocket Power, which again came from like class Key Chupo, as told by Ginger, was a show that I was not the target demographic, but I was like, oh, this is awesome. It's a great, great show. The Fairly Odd Parents was a huge show premiere to two thousand one, huge show and another huge money maker. I feel like if SpongeBob's one, the Fairly Odd Parents has been consistently a solid sort of number two to to the pop culture phenomenon that

is SpongeBob, because it's just it's just so consistent. Fairly Odd Parents was so good and so funny. Two thousand one, Invader Zim was a big deal. This show was canceled early, uh famous famously because the creator could not compromise. And it's so interesting because Joe Nenvasquez is a genius and he had such a vision for what the show was. He was in his early twenties when he got this show,

he was a young man. And famously, the story goes that there was a meeting where there were and this is all here say, I don't know what the actual thing was, and this is all stuff that I did not learn from anybody at Nickelodeon, but rather when I was an at school for animation from two thousand six two thousand nine, I was already hearing the lesson of what happened to Invaders in when it was canceled in

two thousand two. Because it's only gone for a year, that's twenty seven episodes, it's like a season and a half. Because my our teachers were telling me, here's a lesson you need to know if you want to work in this industry, if you want to work in animation, it is a collaborative process. It is not a rock star show. You cannot get away with being a jerk. You cannot get away with not being able to work with other people. Famously, Walt Disney collaborated with Salvador Dolly on a project back

in the day, and then he fired him. Do you know why? Because salvad Or Dolly was an asshole and people are telling Walt, Walt, you can't fire him. He salvad Or Dolly. He's like, I don't care. This guy doesn't know how to work with other people. That that's not what I'm interested in. You know, it doesn't matter who the person is. So love Jon and and and much love to him, and I'm so glad that he's able to come back and do a made for TV

movie that's coming out hopefully soon ish. People don't know when it's coming out yet, but like, but he talks about it. He was a different man then, and the famous lead. The story I heard when I was in college was like the at work came with changes that they wanted to make compromise because he has a very dark humor style. Everybody knows that about Invader Zim and apparently they were relatively minor and he said no way and walked away, and it's like, look, man, there are

other people working on this show. There were the people that like they are required, They need that paycheck to get by, and it's and it was tough, but but it got such a fan base and so much love that like, the reason is he was even able to come back is because so many people, especially of our generation, loved it and kept asking for it to come back.

So I think also, like you know, Johan uh not only had the show, but also at the time, he was doing comics and he was crushing it there and that kind of helped his ego and being like, Okay, I just won't do this and I'll go back to making you know, the comics, which, if you haven't squee is amazing. I mean, I've remember when I liked it, so I can't I can't attest that it holds up.

You know, what does hold up the Invader Zim comics they've done in the past couple of years that Jonan has has sort of overseen and like a lot of the talent that worked on the show work on it now. They're freaking great. They're really really great comics. After Invader Zim, you had Choc Zone, which is kind of a this is where it starts to get to where people that forget the Nicktoons people choc Zone, but choc Zone was

it hit? It was cool. Two thousand two was Jimmy Neutron boyg was This was a big deal because they got they got a movie first and this was a very came out in two thousand and one, came out

two doesn't one. It's very interesting deal where like they had a show greenlit and part of the reason they got the show was like, oh, but can you guys also do and it was the first like c G show on Nickelodeon, But can you also with all the models that you guys created, everything you created with the budget you have, if we gave you more of a budget, could you also do like a full length feature film to sort of kick it off and then do you

know our series order of however many we need. So that was a big deal and that movie, even though I didn't love it, got nominated for an OSCAR for Best Animated Feature. That just to show like it's it shouldn't it's not all about Disney or now Pixar every year year in and year out witting it. It's like you had Shrek, you had Dreamwork, yet all there's other

animation studios doing stuff. So that was cool that they were able to branch out into movies, and I think even before then rug Rats had a movie, which is a big deal in the late nineties or the two thousands, eventually found out about Chuckie's mom. It was very emotional, very emotional. My Life as a teenage Robot premiered in two thousand three, which had a real cool style Where's Where's mega xlr Oh, I don't know if that's that's

not Nickelodeon, that's Cartoon Network. That I think goes to a test when and I don't think it's necessarily a negative. I feel like it's when you have competition, you borrow from each other, and a lot of times that kind of lens into a little bleeding of the lines. You kind of go like, this could be either a nick or Cartoon adventure time I think was a Nickelodeon short that they passed on and then Cartoon Network picked it up famously, So that was another like, oh, you guys

really missed the ball on this one. Rug Rats All Grown Up premiered in two thousand not the same. I was so geeked. I was like, Yep, this is what I want, an adult version of a kid show. I like Danny Phantom was a big deal. Danny. People loved Danny Phantom premiered in two thousand four. Another Butch Hartman show, which was just recently left Nick. He just it's true, Yeah, he did very recently. I didn't click on the video I followed Butch Hartmann on social I didn't click on

it where he's like, here's why I left Nickelodeon. But he has been so prolific. Uh and um, yeah, you know it's it's gonna be really interesting to see what he does next. Because he clicked on the videos. I was like, I need the draw. But it was he has some drama going on on his Twitter account right now. He's been there the whole He's been there like his

whole career. Twitter. We can then we gotta but yeah, but Butch the only just for anyone who's like, why did he leave, he was like, oh, I've just been there long enough. It wasn't drama. It was click. Butch maybe my favorite nicktoon of all time premieres in two thousand five. So Different Avatar, The Last Amberender. You can,

guys can do a whole episode about that. If you guys have not seen this show, you need to do yourself a favorite and invest and watch those first three seas into that first show, and then go watch the Legend of Court because they're gorgeous. Here's amazing. This was a big moment. The Avadar was a big moment in

the anime community because there was a schism. Yes, there was a huge schism between all the anime elitist because it garnered the argument is this anime and you had people who believed it was people who believed it wasn't, and they shot barbs at each other because of it. Then they coined that weird term American aime. I've never heard. We never heard that, dude. It was like it was

because of Avatar. They started calling like American produced anime, American anime and uh, you know, a long time ago on krillin Super we had Thomas Sean Thomas who was who explained that anime is just Japanese for animation, so there really is no difference to say what is anime. I I'm under the belief that it is colloquial now at this point of a certain art style, which would mean by that banner you would look at Avatar's anime. I remember having that same discussion about Boondocks. A lot

of the style of Boondocks very anime and overseas literally anime. Yeah, Lashawan actually worked on Legend of Cora and Boondogs, and he said, and now he is doing Children of Ether and Cannon Busters and he works over there. And he just was like, nobody has this conversation in Jared and nobody cares. Only you guys care. Oh, that's only a

conversation I hear from Westerners. Literally, nobody says that or cares or is busy or bothered or well, because there is that line in anime fandom where there is a level of fetishization of Japanese culture. And so that's where that is the root of that, that is the route, that's the whole root and why people are like, oh my hero academia, no call it boku, no hero like you know, like that that is where that is sources like, and it is all under the veil of oh, I'm

just trying to respect. It was like, well, the way you respect is just enjoying it. And they don't care what you call it. They don't care if you say hunter hunter or hunter x hunter. If you're watching it and enjoying it their chill. Trust me as someone who has interacted and a lot of these creators some of them are not a lot, but like I don't want to like guests, well, I would say like, yeah, I'm

curlling it. We would have Japanese American creators on our show and it was so funny because they were like, yeah, white people correct me about like how I should be calling it yeah, you know, And it's just so like you said, if he they fetishize this culture that isn't their's and then try to correct people about how what it is and what it's not. I think I I learned a couple of years ago, which is really interesting, is about cultural appropriation. What is it and what isn't

it is. I was talking to a comic book artist, a guy named Philippe A. Smith who actually created co created um the New Latino Ghostwriter. So he's been riding that wave and he's so still he's like friends with the actor and he's like so stoked about the Ghostwriter appearing in like Agents of Shield and so on and so forth. But Philippe A. Smith was born in South America,

raised in the US. I think he's like half black, half white, and he is the first ever Westerner to move to Japan and actually produce comics there at a

Japanese comic book company. So he was producing manga. And this manga was about an American character who um is obsessed with Japan and then he gets a chance to go visit Japan and then like it's kind of different than what he expects, and it's comedic and it's crazy, and it's also about how Japanese people in Japanese culture view American culture and like gangster lifestyle and all this

this really interesting intersection of like cultures. And because he's this guy who's kind of worldly and grew up in different places and moved to Japan and lived there for years and actually does it, there was that argument back then of like, hey, is it manga if um, if you draw it and you do it here in the States, no, it's not. Well is it manga if you produce it in Japan? Yes it is. Well, what if it's done by west Stern, No it's not. Well that's bullshit, because

that's what Philippe I did. And he was kind of, you know, showing us like it doesn't really matter ultimately, but what's interesting is the different combinations of cultures and kind of what you can get. So, yes, Avatar the Last Emberander hugely influenced by Eastern animation and animators themselves, and they would send stuff, you know when you send

it over to the show they eventually had. It wasn't just American produced and United you know producing the United States, but eventually they had animation directors, like a lot of these shows where they're in Korea or they're in Japan, or they're in you know these places where you're in charge of this whole sequence and then they do it, and it's just as much there is as it is the writers who wrote the English words that are gonna be spoken by the American voice actors, you know that

are they're like that're sort of in the final mix of the show. So it's this really beautiful and interesting combination. Um, I think you guys nailed that. It's it's it's the topic of like what is and what isn't is interesting but doesn't matter. And I think as the years go on, that kind of line is going to get blurred because I can watch show that's on Cartoon Network right now, like okay kao Let's Be Heroes clearly has animate influences. It's not a show that is that is animated in

that style per se. It's a little cartoony show. And yet here we are. So yeah. So then two thousand twelve, after the SpongeBob, we went down a nice deep dive of these young dope cartoons. But then the end launched Ona and that was the moment that everything changed for me because that is when we were able to watch Degrassi in the US for too long, and that was actually my first introduction to Aubrey Drake Graham, who eventually went on to become the rapper known as Drake Drizzy

Drizzy Drake. But then from there it turned Nicktoons TV came on when it was a channel just for Nick's animated series which launched in two thousand five. Then you had um, you know, a new logo in two thousand nine. Then Nick Splatt was actually really fascinating that came out in twenty which was like a block for Nick's like golden era, the ones that we were just talking about shows.

And then they came out with like a crate essentially of that Nick Box, the Nick Box, and it's just so funny because we're all so like, I see a lot of these companies trying to capitalize on nostalgia, and I feel like that's exactly what that is. It was like, here's here's all your old favorite shows and then here's a box of like you can have Chucky, a doll of Chucky from Regrets, you know, and I'm actually what they had in there was a Cynthia doll from Regrets.

It was awesome. Well Angelica had. What's so wild too, is just how much merchandizing nick did have in its golden age. Like I remember Jack Boy, I wanted gag so bad. All it was was just this kind of like putty, but like because it was the Nickelodeon. Ghack, I lost my mind about Then they had the Slime that you that was basically just putty, Like they all this Nickelodeon branded stuff, and then now it lives on still creating dope cartoons like Ko that's also Cartoon Network.

And sorry, many didn't mean to if anyone knows, I do want to bring up to that. Yes, I'm so sorry. We're not gonna be able to mention all of your shows on Nickelodeon. That would be a whole another hour, but two major contenders. I would say I Carly was a big deal in Victorious because that gave us are On a Grande Victorious and then she went on to have Salmon Kat or whatever, and that was our first I feel like real introduction played someone totally different, didn't.

It's really funny because Victoria Justice was, you know, the quote unquote like star of that show, but everyone kind of like latched onto Ariana Grande who then completely broke out and then end up dating snel cast member. It all comes back together and now they're getting married. And I also want to point out to when Nickelodeon acquired the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a little scary for Turtles fans. It's like, I don't know what are they

gonna do. So far as far as I'm concerned, Kelodeon has been doing them right, and he's had some great shows, great shorts. The movie side, that's a different story, Michael Bay, But the cartoon stuff and the stuff that Nickelodeon has been in charge of, I think that we're doing great, and all the Turtle stuff since then has been awesome. And of course we had Nick Jr. We had Little Bear, We had as if he was saying Blues Clues. We had my girl Dora trying to teach us all to

these kids. It was huge. We didn't even talk about I didn't want to talk about Drake and Josh and just how Drake, Yeah, the other Drake. But yeah, now I feel like we did a pretty good job of capture and everything. Just looking at the lineup, I mean we had Zoe one oh one, you know, and p Secret World of Alex Max Salute your Shorts. Yeah, there's so many. We are going to do a deep dive of some of these. Yeah, I feel like, yeah, especially like some of these that we can really jump into it.

And of course Clarissa explains at all, which was my first huge crush. You know, she was dope as hell. But also now that I'm older, I'm like, my parents, why did they let me watch this boy that had a ladder that would crawl into her bedroom and gave me some ideas inappropriate? Not my fault, Mom and Dad, But yeah, no, it's been super great and it seems like Nick's just keeping that fun train rolling and for you know, little Naomi's gonna be watching nixt soon enough

and she's gonna have her shows. It's it's wild. I think it's fun to see the generational stuff. But for everyone, I think some of these shows to check out. I think if there was one shows out of all the shows we talked about that you can recommend, will go around the table, let someone go back and watch one, only one, I feel like it would it be Especially for kids, I would pick Hey Arnold. I thought Hey Arnold was it because, like Avatar is different. That's cool

when you're an adult, super different, super cool. But Hey Arnold especially was like, here's a group of like inner city kids, a bunch of different backgrounds. You learn things like Harold the bully, he's not just a bully. He's got his own troubles, He's got his own stuff, and taught me lessons and maybe want to live in a city and made city living cool. Whereas before Hay Arnold, I felt like everything was in a suburb, everything was the bit to Beaver. But then you get to hear

On and it's like, look, man, they got there. They got a train in their backyard, just like we do. So I would pick that. What about you? If you? What would be your recommendation. Who if I had to pick my recommendation, I'm sorry, I'm gonna say Invader Zim.

It's a fun watch. It was scary that spooky enough, you know, and to me, I feel like it really shaped the comedy in it was really ahead of its time, just when they were fighting with the planets and it drops on that guy's cup and he's freaking out, like when he really could move, you know, like if he just moved from that cup, he would be fine, but he just was holding onto it and losing his mind. And that made me laugh for so long in my life.

And I went and looked it up. It was. It was very It was very reminiscent to the Austin Powers bit with the car coming and the guy, yeah, move, move out of the way. So yeah, man, this is hard. I guess I have to go for all my little horror babies that love Halloween. A real monsters. Yeah, it's a good one, all real monsters. It's just it's fun. I don't know. I had to like write one day and I just like bought it and put it on

in the background. Um, but I just I loved it so much and I'm a big fan of Halloween, and it's Halloween all the time for them, So yeah, that's great, right, Well, where can people find you, actors? You can find me on the internet at Hector is Funny. Check out new episodes of Animation Investigation that are appearing on YouTube dot com,

slash and Noticed every Thursday morning. And also listen for the newest episode of the Five Greatest Films podcast for me and my roommate and good buddy Keller not Black. Watch a different movie each week with a different guest. And it's going to take us ten years to complete the list of the five greatest Huh. Yeah, that's a lot. Yeah uh. And also you can go back and listen to old episodes of the official Nickelodeon Animation podcast Hector did because he spoke to a lot of creators and

voice actors. If you like this, go take a further deep dive. Go do that, you go even deeper. I appreciate that, Thank you. It would be cool. And you know me. You can catch me here every Tuesday, right where you are and Monday's on Candy Dinner, uh and on Twitch ifties lots of hashtag nerd fam hashtag ify Nation coming in with those Twitch Prime stubs and I can't thank you enough, but I do have to remind you that they do not auto route new and every month your boy has to come through uh and give

me that love. Uh. So just a reminder. It's it's I think it's a new month for some of y'all. Come back if you wait. On Twitter and Instagram, I'm at miss Danny Fernandez on all the socials. Check out our t public site. We have merch and I actually was wearing our Stay Nerdy shirt at the airport and got multiple compliments on it, and I felt weird because I want to be like thanks, it's my podcast, but I didn't. I just said thanks. Oh man, I need to get over and be like thanks, it's my it's

my podcast. Ounity. Um. But it's a dope and really cool shirt. And we have new designs coming up, and I believe eve that we are also going to allow people to submit designs that you will get paid for, so every shirt that's bought you will get a portion of that as well. So I think we need to tweet will tweet out the link to that. Yes, yes, and yeah, by now our new design is up. It's a real cool custom Ner difficent cover where Danny is Batman and I am Robin. I looked like a little

bank robber. I like it, like yeah. Big shouts out to Eve's Jeff Coat Christopher Hasiotis, our researchers who held it down, got all this juicy info for us. Big thanks to Hector for coming in. I think you know super producer Anna, editor Dan Goodman, and you know our man Zach McKeever and the booth holding it down and as always staying hurt.