OVERVIEW: Nick at Nite 15th Anniversary July 1, 2000

[Pavan]

I thought you guys might like to re-live memories from the 15th Anniversary:

Highlights of NICK AT NITE’S 15 YEAR HISTORY 1985-2000
July 1, 1985 Nick at Nite is born. The network’s original line-up includes: Dennis the Menace,
The Donna Reed Show, Route 66 and National Geographic Explorer.
October 18, 1986 Hairstyles of the Rich and Famous programming stunt.
May 4-8, 1987 How to Be Donna Reed (Hosted by Nan McNightly).
November 1988 The Back of Patty Duke’s Head (programming event focusing on the actress who
played the back of Patty’s head).
December 31, 1989 Nick at Nite’s 1st Top 25 Countdown hosted by Casey Kasem
March 17, 1990 My Sweet Irish Bub (My Three Sons episodes tinted green for St. Patrick’s Day)
October 29 - November 4, 1990 The Dead Giveaway (Alfred Hitchcock marathon in which viewers are asked to guess the number of characters that will expire during the marathon).
1991 Ninety-Nine Agent 99s look-alikes descend upon Time Square to celebrate Get Smart and
Nick at Nite’s debut on New York City cable systems.
July 1991 Just the Fax (Dragnet episodes requested by viewers, via fax, air all month long)
September 20-22, 1991 The Adventures of Superman launches with a weekend-long celebration including: series, cartoon series and uncut Superman and the Molemen movie.
September 30, 1991 The Dick Van Dyke Show premieres with the “Opening Night Marathon.”
June 6, 1992 Hi Honey, I’m Home Marathon – featuring Nick at Nite’s original series, television’s first
“instant rerun” which premieres on ABC before being rerun on Nick at Nite.
September 12-18, 1992 The Mary Tyler Show launches with The Marython in which each night featured the best of one season.
February 28, 1993 Chairman’s Choice – Dick Van Dyke becomes chairman of Nick at Nite and airs his five
favorite episodes from his series.
May, 1993 Very, Very Nick at Nite premieres – a two-hour programming block featuring episodes with
the same theme.
July 4, 1993 Block Party Summer debuts with “Mary Mondays,” “Lucy Tuesdays,” “Bewitched
Bewednesdays,” “Jeannie Thursdays” and “Sgt. Joe Fridays.”
July 12-16, 1993 The Partridge Family: Back on the Bus Tour launch marathon
September 13-20, 1993 The Bob Newhart Show debuts with a week-long marathon, Better Living Through Bob –
hosted by Dr. Will Miller.
February 14-19, 1994 I Love Lucy debuts with Nick at Nite Loves Lucy -- week-long marathon featuring uncut
episodes.
February, 1994? Brady..an American Chronicle -- a clever spoof of PBS’ documentary on The Civil War –
debuts on Nick at Nite.
March 25-29, 1994 The Donna Reed Show becomes the longest-running show on Nick at Nite and leaves the air
with a week-long marathon. President Clinton claims The Donna Reed Show is one of his favorites. The final marathon is packaged with animation of the exterior of The White House with a Clinton-sounding voice talking about watching Donna Reed on Nick at Nite.
May 5, 1994 Nick at Nite’s Cinco de Mayo featuring episodes in Spanish with English subtitles.
June 6-10 1994 Jeannie Vs. Bewitched Marathon. Samantha wins by a nose.
May 29 - June 2, 1995 Welcome Back, Kotter launches with a week-long marathon. Each night is themed by catch phrase.
June 20, 1995 Nick at Nite launches a record line starting with The Donna Reed Dinner Party and The Dick
Van Dyke Dance Party
July 1, 1995 Nick at Nite celebrates its 10th anniversary by airing one episode of every show that ever aired on the network. Also included is Nick at Nite’s originally produced special, Those Nick at Nite
Promos: Better Living through 10 years of promos featuring the network’s best on-air promotional ads.
June 3rd, 5th and 7, 1996 The Odd Couple three-night launch stunt on odd nights.
September 9-13, 1996 Happy Days Top 40 Marathon featuring real-life Cunninghams.
April 29, 1996 Nick at Nite spins off a new network called TV Land.
May 6-10, 1996 The Women of Nick at Nite hosted by Marlo Thomas, Valerie Harper, Barbara Eden, Carol
Burnett, Rose Marie, Betty White and Suzanne Pleshette.
October 28 - November 1, 1996 The Addams Vs The Munsters marathon
March 17-21, 1997 Bob’s Bob Bob Newhart Newhart Marathon
June 2-6, 1997 The Odd Couple on Ice stunt
September 8-12, 1997 Chachi vs. De-Chachinated marathon offer viewers the chance to voice how they like their Happy Days … with or without Chachi.
October 13-17, 1997 The Wonder Years debuts with a week-long marathon in which viewers could see Kevin
Arnold go from a kid to a high school graduate in only five nights.
March 9-13, 1998 Darrin vs. Darrin…a Bewitched Marathon offers the color episodes of Bewitched and
viewers vote for their favorite Darrin. The first Darrin (Dick York) wins.
June 1-5, 1998 The Brady Bunch launches with week-long marathon featuring Phoebe, the lost Brady, who
was conveniently edited out of the show’s syndicated version.
July 6-10, 1998 Laverne & Shirley debuts with week-long marathon hosted by Lenny & Squiggy
November 16-20, 1998 Instant Gratification Week featuring multi-part episodes
January 25-29, 1999 The Jeffersons Movin’ On Up Marathon reunited Sherman Hemsley, Isabel Sanford and
Marla Gibbs on screen as George, Weezy and the wise-cracking Florence.
October, 1999 Marathons to the Millennium counts down the last ten weeks of this century by re-presenting
Nick at Nite’s greatest marathons ever.
January 24-28, 2000 The Beverly Hillbillies load up the truck and move to Nick…Nick at Nite that is.
March 5, 2000 Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire? Featuring Jethro episodes of The Beverly Hillbillies.
July 1, 2000 Nick at Nite’s 15th anniversary.

[dawsongirl]

Ah, Nick in the good old days. Those early days (1985-1988) are a riot to watch now if you can find them on tape.

[LucyFan]

I like this list a lot but it is missing some information. Some of the information that I realized was missing was "The Lucy Show" 's debut which was in April of 1992, and the debut of "Mork and Mindy" which was in 1991.

[bb]

Before 7/1/85 Nick & the A&E network ( back when they were more like PBS ) shared the same channel on many, if not all cable systems.

I believe it was the same time Nick@Nite was born that A&E went 24 hours as well.

However it was long after 7/1/85 that many cable systems still had Nick and A&E share the same channel. Therefor a lot of people couldnt enjoy the early days of Nick@Nite. Wonder if any cable systems still do this ( I doubt many do ).

Also does remember Nickelodeon BEFORE the creation of Nick@Nite? I remember their teen talk show at night (before they became A&E ) called Livewire and the fact that Nickelodeon was a commerical free channel. When it was decided to add commericals to Nickelodeon many educaters went off , mainly Peggy Charren and her group ACT which stood for Action for Children's Television.

Nickelodeon itself went on the air way back in 1979. Wonder what their programming was prior to January 1983, when we received Nick for the first time at our house alongside USA,CBN,MTV,Cable Health, CNN, CNN Headline News,WTBS, and ESPN and Cinemax?

[joan davis fan]

For the first half of the 80s Nickelodeon was strictly a childrens channel. They aired shows like The Third Eye, Pinwheel ( for pre-schoolers ), You Cant do that on television, and many others. The late Bill Bixby did a show saluting heros on Nickelodeon but I forgot the title of it. To get a feel for the old Nickelodeon check out WAM !! , pretty much same thing. Noggin to a degree is kind of like the pre-Nick at Nite days but Noggin thanks to reruns of Sesame Street and The Electric Company does have a large share of adult viewers, something Nickelodeon did NOT have much off back in their no-commericals days.

Livewive was Nickelodeon's teen talk show. It was the last thing they aired before becoming A&E ( I believe it was that way on all cable systems though some did in fact continue this after both channels went 24 hour). A young Garth Brooks , when he was still working for a plumbing company in Oklahoma I have heard made a guest appearance on Livewire on a show dealing with young people trying to reach their dreams with Garth wanting to be a singer. VH-1 sometimes shows REM doing that show in their first tv appearance. Many kids didnt get their music.

Hard to believe now but when Nickelodeon became a sponsored channel there was a huge cry of protest about it. Not only from ACT but many school systems who were using Nick shows for classroom use stopped doing so one the commericals came to that channel ( interesting -same thing happened with A&E , many..well how do I put this one...high-brow people started to look down at A&E, felt they went low class when they started airing Fugitive reruns. ).

Groups like Action for Childrens Television, like the Colation for Better Television ( Rev. Wildmon?) dont have the impact as they once had. Its better to start your own channel than it is to try to change what we got. Besides with so many channels out there, whats is the purpose anyway?

[jericho]

Anyone remember those old Nick-at-Nite ID's where a very neon-type looking living room would be situated and a guy would do various different things within the room in fast motion in each particular ID? (i.e. rearrange the furniture, carry around a surfboard, open up the window, etc.) And this would all be done over the beggining guitar strum of the Beatles "Hard Days Night"? These played before every show if I remember and they must have lasted for several years during the mid to late 80's. I sure wish I had taped more TV back then. I'd love to see it again.