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IDS AND MESSY, green slime.
They go together like apples and oranges, like ice cream and a hot, sunny day or popcorn and the movies.
Executives at Nickelodeon, self-billed as "the only network that puts kids first," figured this out many years ago, and green slime has become their trademark.
In 1982 the network, which celebrated a quarter century on the air yesterday, acquired the rights to a Canadian sketch comedy show called "You Can't Do That On Television."
"It was live action, like a kid's 'Saturday Night Live,'" Dr. Matt McAllister, associate professor of media studies at Virginia Tech said during a telephone interview. "They would dump green slime from the ceiling every time a character said 'I don't know.' That became sort of the signature logo for Nick."
These days, the highest honor a celebrity guest at the Nickleodeon Kid's Choice Awards can receive is to be slimed, and a fountain in front of Nick Studios in Florida spurts green slime all day long.
Nickleodeon, home of "SpongeBob SquarePants," "Rugrats" and "Dora the Explorer," has gone through countless gallons of verdant ooze during its 25 years on air. It's also grown and redefined its image.
It's gone from being a tiny, local programming block to a sprawling cable powerhouse that claims to be the highest-rated basic cable network in the U.S., according to the Web site of parent company Viacom, which also owns MTV, VH-1 and Paramount Pictures.
Nick's programming now includes shows for preschoolers (Nick Jr.), 'tweens and teens (The N) as well as for the elementary-school-aged audience.
It also includes Nick at Nite, which airs classic TV shows such as "The Brady Bunch," "Cheers" and "The Cosby Show," a digital channel called Nick GAS which airs games and sports for kids; and Noggin, an educational channel for preschoolers that's a joint venture with Children's Television Workshop.
The Nick can now be seen in Australia, the United Kingdom, most of Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, the Philippines, India and Japan, according to Viacom's Web site.
It's a huge conglomerate. But when Nick first launched on April 1, 1979, it was available to only 600,000 subscribers in the Columbus, Ohio, area.
"It was part of an experimental interactive network called QUBE," McAllister said. "Then it evolved into a kids' cable channel that went commercial-free in the mid-'80s."
The fledgling station was called "The Pinwheel Network," because the show "Pinwheel" was its only original offering. The show would air in five-hour blocks in the morning.
"Pinwheel" put the network on the map. Before that, television executives called it "the green vegetable network" because of its abysmally low ratings, according to ClassicNick.com.
The show followed the format of "Sesame Street," with a few human hosts interacting with puppets, but it had a singular look and feel. Most of the action took place at the Pinwheel Playhouse, located "on the back roads of your memory in the magical corner of the Imagine Nation," according to ClassicNick.com. Surreal animated shorts from Europe and Canada filled in the block.
Lauren Martella, 21, a student at Mary Washington College, remembers watching "Pinwheel" for half an hour each day before her afternoon kindergarten class.
"It was kind of dark and a little creepy," she remembers. "Maybe that was just the lighting. But it was very fun. It had funky puppets, you know, they weren't the Muppets or anything."
"Pinwheel" was the network's first hit and also its longest-running program, airing until 1989. The network changed its name to Nickelodeon and started to grow. In the early '80s, it aired mostly quirky little cartoons from Japan, France and Great Britain such as "Maya the Bee," "David the Gnome," "The Little Prince" and "Belle and Sebastian," according to ClassicNick.com.
It also showed educational programs like "The Elephant Show," which detailed the adventures of Canadian singers Sharon, Lois and Bram, plus their friend in an elephant costume. The show taught children language skills, physical skills and social attitudes through music. Any kid who grew up in the '80s will remember it for the song "Skinnamarinky Dinky Dink," with which the trio would end all of their concerts.
Nickelodeon's early programming had a whimsical, oddball feel that drew children in.
"I used to watch it in the early '80s and it had this rough charm, which was nice," recalled McAllister.
It was also slightly irreverent and loved a good mess, just like kids. This concept was epitomized by the game show "Double Dare," which debuted in 1986. Hosted by a genial Marc Summers, the show's format involved kids facing off over trivia and trying to beat each other through obstacle courses, most of which involved buckets of eggs and tubs of slime.
The show was such a hit that Nick's ratings quadrupled within four days of its première, according to their Web site.
The late '80s and early '90s saw the network producing more live-action shows of its own, which were developed and filmed in house at Nickelodeon Studios in Orlando, Fla. The live-action shows, like "Clarissa Explains It All," with Melissa Joan Hart, and "The Adventures of Pete and Pete," about two brothers with the same name, were in keeping with the capricious nature of the network.
The programming at this time is known as Classic Nick and is remembered fondly by today's twenty-somethings. There are at least two Web sites devoted to Classic Nick shows, each of which have forums where Nick's first fans love to talk about the shows they watched as children.
There are even petitions to bring back the old shows, which are beloved because they were about realistic kid issues from a kid's imaginative, often bizarre point of view.
"A lot of those shows were fascinating and the images still stick with you," said Sarah Worden, 21, also an MWC student. "Everyone my age still talks about them."
Many of them, like "Pete and Pete," which guest-starred Michael Stipe of R.E.M. as a crotchety ice-cream truck driver and rocker Iggy Pop as the brothers' next-door neighbor, have cult followings.
"It showed a child's type of reality, far-out and really weird," Worden said of the show. "That's kind of how things look to a kid."
"The themes of the stories and the music was really groundbreaking and bizarre," said Michelle Branco, 23, a Classic Nick fan and Fredericksburg resident. "It was one of the most surrealistic shows on TV."
Martella also remembers loving one show about a family of koalas who lived in a tree.
"I remember once they were doing yoga," she said. "The only yoga moves I know are from that show. They always had the most creative shows."
Martella also said she liked the Nick shows because they often had dark undertones and characters didn't always win, reflecting real life.
"When Doug was on Nick he had bittersweet adventures and he never won or completed anything," she said. "But it was always funny."
In 1990, Nickelodeon opened an animation studio and started churning out the Nicktoons, according to Nick.com. The first three were "Doug," "Rugrats" and "The Ren & Stimpy Show." Today, there are 10 original Nicktoons which air on the network, including "SpongeBob SquarePants" and "The Wild Thornberrys."
The Nicktoons were, and still are, wildly popular. They're now the backbone of the network's lineup and have spawned books, toys and feature films. Some feel shows like "SpongeBob" are in keeping with Nick's surreal, groundbreaking former programming, but others feel the network has lost its soul and its edge.
"The Nicktoons were the beginning of the end for the network," Chris Eagan, ClassicNick.com webmaster, wrote in an e-mail. "I feel the shows today are developed with the intent of selling merchandise, more than anything."
Martella said she feels the shows today are about groups of kids who do normal things and succeed at everything, which is unrealistic.
McAllister agreed that the network may have lost its charm.
"It used to be the network of 'Ren & Stimpy,' and early on that fit in with its irreverent nature," he said. "Mostly now it's known for family-oriented, safer stuff. Certainly it's more professional and more corporate."
McAllisters said Nickelodeon's impact on society is that it has shown how cable networks can brand children's programming.
"It's really led the way for the model that the Disney Channel and the Cartoon Network follow," he said. "On the Disney Channel there are no commercials but the whole thing is a giant commercial for Disney. The same can be said about Nickelodeon."
Eighties kids will remember the network for its groundbreaking old shows, which spoke to them about their issues and their world in their own special language.
"The network is hugely successful, but unlike my generation, I don't think kids today will be looking back fondly on what they watched 10 years ago," Eagan said.
To reach ADELE UPHAUS: 374-5419 auphaus@freelancestar.com