Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American basic cable and satellite television network that is part of the Nickelodeon Group, a unit of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Skydance Corporation, which focuses on programs for children, families and teenagers ages 2 to 15 years old.
1977–1979: C-3 Nickelodeon's concept was created by Dr. Vivian Horner, an educator and the director of research on the PBS series The Electric Company. She created the first Nickelodeon series, Pinwheel. Pinwheel premiered on December 1, 1977, as part of QUBE, an early local cable television system that was launched in Columbus, Ohio by Warner Cable Corp. One of the ten "community" channels that were offered to QUBE subscribers was C-2, which exclusively broadcast Pinwheel each day from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time. The channel was later moved to C-3 and the hours were extended to 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time. It was originally a preschool channel until 1979. Pinwheel became successful enough for Horner to expand her idea into a full channel on national television over a year later.
Nickelodeon was originally seen as a loss leader for then-parent company Warner Cable. As the company saw it, having a commercial-free children's channel would prove useful in franchising its cable systems across the country, with that advantage putting them over rival companies such as Time Inc.'s HBO.
1979–1984: The start of Nickelodeon
Initially scheduled for a February 1979 launch, Nickelodeon was officially launched on April 1, 1979 (as the first-ever children's network) on Warner Cable franchises across the country. (The launch date, coincidentally, was Vivian Horner's birthday.) Initial programming on Nickelodeon included Pinwheel, Video Comic Book, America Goes Bananaz, Nickel Flicks, and By the Way, all of which originated at the QUBE studios in Columbus. For its first few years, Pinwheel was the network's flagship series, and it was played for three to five hours a day in a block format.
Vivian Horner asked her co-workers to help come up with a list of possible names for the network. Sandy Kavanaugh (the producer of Pinwheel) proposed "Nickelodeon", even though she was not fully satisfied with it. In 2013, she recalled, "I was not thrilled with 'Nickelodeon.' It was whimsical sounding, though. It had a fun lilt.".
The channel's pre-launch logo and advertising campaign name were created by New York-based creative director/designer Joseph Iozzi. The logo incorporated a man looking into a nickelodeon machine that was placed in the "N" in the wordmark. The first model ever used in a Nickelodeon advertisement was the designer's son, Joseph Iozzi II, while the logo's font was designed by Lubalin, Smith, Carnase, Inc. The intent of Iozzi was to replace the graphic of the line illustration of the man peering into the Nickelodeon with a period illustration of a boy in knickers, British flat cap, big suspenders, tip toed on a stylish iron train step looking into the Nickelodeon font. Available time and new management never permitted the planned re-design.
Nickelodeon quickly expanded its audience reach, first to other Warner Cable systems across the country, and eventually to other cable providers. By late 1979, Nickelodeon experienced rapid early growth following its national expansion. According to TVC Programming, the network surpassed one million subscribers two months ahead of internal projections, with Warner Cable reporting strong early adoption across multiple markets. At the time, Nickelodeon was overseen by general manager Nyhl Henson, who credited the channel’s fast growth to its distinctive children’s programming strategy and strong viewer engagement. It was distributed via satellite on RCA Satcom-1, which went into orbit one week earlier on March 26 – originally transmitted on transponder space purchased from televangelists Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker. The channel was originally uplinked, along with sibling network Star Channel, from a facility located at Buffalo, NY television station WIVB-TV; by December 1980, it was announced that uplink of both channels would move into a new facility in Hauppauge, NY along with new sibling channel MTV (after a planned expansion to the Buffalo facility was scrapped when Warner-Amex was unable to come to a deal with Channel 4's ownership over a long-term lease). Despite its prior history as a part of the QUBE system, Nickelodeon designates 1979 as the year of the channel's official launch.
As Nickelodeon originally operated as a commercial-free service, the network ran interstitials between programs, consisting of a male mime portrayed by character actor/mime Jonathan Schwartz doing tricks in front of a black background. At the time of its launch, Nickelodeon's programming ran on weekdays from 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. and on weekends from 8:00 a.m. to midnight Eastern and Pacific Time. Sibling network Star Channel (later known as The Movie Channel) would take over the channel space after Nickelodeon's broadcast day ended.
On September 14, 1979, American Express reached an agreement with Warner Communications to buy 50% of Warner Cable Corporation for $175 million in cash and short-term notes. Through the formation of the joint venture, which was incorporated in December of that year, both Star Channel and Nickelodeon were folded into Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment (later Warner-Amex Cable Communications), a company which handled the operations of the group's cable channels (Warner Cable was folded into a separate jointly owned unit, the Warner Cable Corporation).
New shows were added to the Nickelodeon lineup in 1980, including Dusty's Treehouse, First Row Features, Special Delivery, What Will They Think Of Next? and Livewire. Cy Schneider became Nickelodeon's president that same year; the channel's early years were referred to years later as the "green vegetable era", as it focused mainly on programs that parents thought were good and appropriate for children, but not necessarily what the children themselves wanted to see.
On April 12, 1981, Nickelodeon shifted its daily programming to thirteen hours every day, now airing from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific Time, seven days a week. Nickelodeon also introduced a new logo designed by Lou Dorfsman and Bob Klein, consisting of a silver ball overlaid by multicolored "Nickelodeon" text. By this time, The Movie Channel had become a separate 24-hour channel, and Nickelodeon had begun turning over its channel space during its off-hours to the Alpha Repertory Television Service (ARTS) – a fine arts-focused network owned by the Hearst Corporation and ABC joint venture Hearst/ABC Video Services.
Later in 1981, the Canadian sketch comedy series You Can't Do That on Television made its American debut on Nickelodeon, becoming the channel's first hit series. The green slime originally featured on that program was later adopted by Nickelodeon as a primary feature of many of its shows, including the game show Double Dare, as well as becoming a signature of the network in general. Other shows that were part of Nickelodeon's regular schedule during its early years included The Third Eye, Standby...Lights! Camera! Action! and Mr. Wizard's World.
ARTS became the Arts & Entertainment Network (A&E) in 1984, after ARTS merged with NBC's struggling cable service The Entertainment Channel. Around this time, Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment began divesting its assets and spun off Nickelodeon and music network MTV into the newly formed subsidiary MTV Networks; to increase revenue, Nickelodeon began to accept corporate underwriting (a method common in public television) for its programming.
1984–1991: Establishing the network's identity
Nickelodeon struggled at first, operating at a loss of $10million by 1984. The network had lacked successful programs (shows on the network that failed to gain traction during its first few years included Against the Odds and Going Great), which stagnated viewership, at one point finishing dead last among all U.S. cable channels.
After firing its management staff, MTV Networks president Bob Pittman turned to Fred Seibert and Alan Goodman, who had created MTV's iconic channel IDs a few years earlier, to reinvigorate Nickelodeon, leading to what many believe to be the start of the channel's "Golden Age". Seibert and Goodman's company, Fred/Alan Inc., teamed up with Tom Corey and Scott Nash of the advertising firm Corey McPherson Nash to rebrand the network. The "pinball" logo was replaced with a new one featuring varied orange backgrounds (a "splat" design) with the "Nickelodeon" name overlaid in the Balloon typeface, which would be used in hundreds of different variations for nearly a quarter of a century. Fred/Alan also enlisted the help of animators, writers, producers and doo-wop group The Jive Five (best known for their 1961 hit "My True Story") to create new channel IDs. The rebranding went into use on October 1, 1984, and within six months, Nickelodeon would become the dominant channel in children's programming and remained so for 26 years, even in the midst of increasing competition in more recent years from other kids-oriented cable channels with Disney Channel and Cartoon Network, and broadcast blocks like Fox Kids and Kids' WB. Nickelodeon also began promoting itself as "The First Kids' Network", due to its status as the first American television network aimed at children. Along with the rebrand, Nickelodeon also began accepting traditional advertising.
In the summer of 1984, A&E announced that it would become a separate 24-hour channel as of January 1985. While younger children had enjoyed Nick's earlier years at their preschool age, older children welcomed the network's change, as Nickelodeon had ascended to becoming a major channel on cable TV. After A&E stopped sharing its channel space, Nickelodeon ran text promos for their daytime shows during the night, before officially becoming a 24-hour channel in June, although some cable systems provided programming from a niche cable television service that had no room on system airing on the channel space, with BET being among the most popular choices. Pittman tasked general manager Geraldine Laybourne to develop programming for the late evening and overnight timeslot; to help with ideas, Laybourne enlisted Seibert and Goodman, who conceived the idea of a classic television block modeled after the "Greatest Hits of All Time" oldies radio format after being presented with over 200 episodes of The Donna Reed Show (a series that Laybourne personally hated). On July 1, 1985, Nickelodeon launched their new nighttime block, Nick at Nite, in the 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. Eastern and Pacific time period.
That same year, American Express sold its stake in Warner-Amex to Warner Communications, who in 1986 turned MTV Networks into a private company, and subsequently sold Nickelodeon, MTV, and the newly launched music video network VH1 to Viacom for $685million, ending Warner's venture into children's television networks until they launched the Kids' WB block in 1995, and merged with Turner Broadcasting System in 1996. Following the sale in 1987, Games Productions was formed to run the network, operating under the trade name of Nickelodeon Productions. In 1988, the network aired the inaugural Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards (previously known as The Big Ballot), a telecast in the vein of the People's Choice Awards in which viewers select their favorites in television, movies and sports. It also rebranded its educational program block of Pinwheel reruns and other preschool-targeted shows as Nick Jr. The first show originally created for the brand was Eureeka's Castle which premiered on September 4, 1989.