Warners once owned Nickelodeon

[speedy fast]

I have read that Warner bros. (and American Express) originally owned Nickelodeon. WB owned the channel until 1985. Ironically, Nickelodeon didn't start showing Looney Tunes until a few years later. I wonder why Looney Tunes didn't air on this channel when WB owned the station. It would have been a wise choice, as I've read that during Nickelodeons early years most kids weren't interested in the channel.

[Ray Pointer]

To my knowledge from having worked there, Nickelodeon, which was part of M-TV Networks, was a Viacom property from the beginnning. Warners was in a joint venture with Nickelodeon, but the did not own the majority of the share.
When Nickelodeon began, it had a slate of cartoons during daytime slots, and reruns of older network programs from afternoon to evenings.

[JERRY BECK]

I wonder why Looney Tunes didn't air on this channel when WB owned the station.

And I still wonder why the Terrytoons don't air on this Viacom channel.

[Studio Toledo]

And I still wonder why the Terrytoons don't air on this Viacom channel.
Hahahahahaha!

So many possibilities that never happened!

But yeah, I assume Wikipedia has the infomation regarding it anyway, but both Nick and MTV were once owned by a cooperation between Warner Communications and American Express called "Warner Amex Satellite Entertainment" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warner-Amex_Satellite_Entertainment) or "WASEC".

[speedy fast]

I recently read Wikipedia's page for Nickelodeon, and that page didn't mention anything about Warners owning the station originally. It also didn't mention anything about how the chanel was originally called Pinwheel. Strange.

[Studio Toledo]

I recently read Wikipedia's page for Nickelodeon, and that page didn't mention anything about Warners owning the station originally. It also didn't mention anything about how the chanel was originally called Pinwheel. Strange.
Oh well, Wikipedia doesn't always tend to have the right infomation all the time (being user-controlled and oriented, that would be the case). This is why I'll never become one of those users anyway since I know my info will always be contradicted by soemone else. People who do entries for academy publications should never use Wikipedia either I'm told. But yes, Nick was owned by Warner-Amex from it's inception on the Columbus-based QUBE system as "Pinwheel" up to around 1985 when both Nick and MTV were sold to Viacom and rebranded as "MTV Networks".

[J Lee]

I had Warner-Amex Cable (now Time-Warner Cable) back in the early 1980s, so it was one of the first to add both Nick and MTV to the programming lineup.

Warner-Amex company originally started Nickelodeon as a non-commercial channel aimed at children that ran from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. At the same time, it also attempted the first interactive cable TV service, called Qube, in Columbus, Ohio, started up MTV and created a competing movie channel to HBO (then only owned by Time, Inc.), originally named Stars and then renamed The Movie Channel. Both MTV and The Movie Channel were simlucast in stereo (a new innovation in 1981) by use of a cable line attachment to your FM stereo tuner.

All of that was done in an attempt to broaden the cable company's original programming lineup, and, in the case of Nick, score points with cities that granted cable compaies franchise rights. Since the shows were supposed to be educational in some way, Warner-Amex never made an attempt to air any of the WB cartoons on Nick, though all of the late 70s/early 80s WB compolation movies did debut on The Movie Channel and only showed up on HBO later.

[Studio Toledo]

I had Warner-Amex Cable (now Time-Warner Cable) back in the early 1980s, so it was one of the first to add both Nick and MTV to the programming lineup.
For me, because Warner-Amex was never able to break into the Northwest Ohio area at all (especially Toledo which is dominated by the local newspaper-owned & operated Buckeye Cablevision (http://www.buckeyecablesystem.com/index.html) since the 60's), but my cable company got Nickelodeon probably around '81 and MTV a couple years later (both occupied channel 5 on both A and B side, as we had a dual-line service then), but I had them early enough to know how they used to be.

http://www.x-entertainment.com/updates/pics/oldnicklogo.jpg

Warner-Amex company originally started Nickelodeon as a non-commercial channel aimed at children that ran from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily.
I remember that! Back then when they had the 'metallic pinball' (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjbSgrmYI-c) logo I still can never get out of my mind, I remember their sign-off sequence fondly, and how my cable company would then takeover from 8PM onward to show off a lot of lame B&W movies and whatever else on their "Cable Five" channel, a later incarnation they have of it is our current CW affiliate (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WT05).

At the same time, it also attempted the first interactive cable TV service, called Qube, in Columbus, Ohio, started up MTV and created a competing movie channel to HBO (then only owned by Time, Inc.), originally named Stars and then renamed The Movie Channel.
Heh, both Showtime and Movie Channel were offered by my cable company, we never had HBO until around the early 90's (Cinemax came much, much later).

Both MTV and The Movie Channel were simlucast in stereo (a new innovation in 1981) by use of a cable line attachment to your FM stereo tuner.
Heh, my cable company had that too. My parents never thought much over it, but a couple times we pirated the signal to one of our radios. For best results you'd have to get a 2-head linear stereo VCR with the FM Simulcast option to record the audio in stereo that way!

All of that was done in an attempt to broaden the cable company's original programming lineup, and, in the case of Nick, score points with cities that granted cable compaies franchise rights.
That of which by default wasn't available to my hometown since we had one prior to the cable TV boom.

Since the shows were supposed to be educational in some way, Warner-Amex never made an attempt to air any of the WB cartoons on Nick, though all of the late 70s/early 80s WB compolation movies did debut on The Movie Channel and only showed up on HBO later.
Heh, Nick in those days was desperate to get anything shown. Cable TV wasn't in the ame position it became in the 90's, and the mainstream Hollywood stuff was usually off-limits on the basic cable channels (the premium/pay TV channels were kosher however). Nick had to rely on a lot of imported stuff from outside the US. Pinwheel alone introduced me to a lot of European stuff I can't find anymore, and the internet has been the best way I was able to rediscover the classics I missed. A lot of that stuff wouldn't fly at all on terrestrial television, but cable gave it a nice spot at a time when the demographics wasn't in place and parents weren't around to object to any of it (used to remember seeing some objective/graphic stuff that would be edited these days). I used to love the Eastern European stuff I'm still trying to uncover more of today.

I can just talk about how great Nick was back then, but I think I'm just rambling on without leading to the point otherwise, but YouTube is the best place to start with!

[J Lee]

Heh, Nick in those days was desperate to get anything shown. Cable TV wasn't in the ame position it became in the 90's, and the mainstream Hollywood stuff was usually off-limits on the basic cable channels (the premium/pay TV channels were kosher however). Nick had to rely on a lot of imported stuff from outside the US. Pinwheel alone introduced me to a lot of European stuff I can't find anymore, and the internet has been the best way I was able to rediscover the classics I missed. A lot of that stuff wouldn't fly at all on terrestrial television, but cable gave it a nice spot at a time when the demographics wasn't in place and parents weren't around to object to any of it (used to remember seeing some objective/graphic stuff that would be edited these days). I used to love the Eastern European stuff I'm still trying to uncover more of today.

I can just talk about how great Nick was back then, but I think I'm just rambling on without leading to the point otherwise, but YouTube is the best place to start with!

Nick went from being a wholly eduational channel to one that imported other kids programming from Canada and England by 1982 or so, widening the term "educational" to include dumping green slime on Alannis Morrisette (I mean, really, how far is that removed from a WB cartoon?). When the Warner-Amex partnership soued in the mid-1980s, they sold off their TV network holdings to Viacom, and were actually pulling back from cable operations in general until the merger with Time, which brought in HBO and the lucrative New York City cable TV contract.

In hindsight, the Warner side of the company probably regrets the sale of Nick and MTV to Viacom, since by the mid-1990s with the Turner merger, those channels would have meshed nicely with Ted's own channel start-ups (though how having the same group owning both Nick and CN would have fared is questionable).

[Rusty0918]

Ah, Classic Nick. Those were the days...

Pinwheel was the flagship show of Nickelodeon for quite some time. I was amazed that most of the material they showed was truly internation (UK, Czechoslovakia, France, etc.). Today's Special, old Lassie and Dennis the Menace reruns, they had to really find their voice.

Doug was the only Nicktoon that was really worth watching. I don't know HOW Ren and Stimpy was approved, heck, I'd rather have my kids watch Arnold Schwarzzeneger than Ren and Stimply.

[Studio Toledo]

Ah, Classic Nick. Those were the days...

Pinwheel was the flagship show of Nickelodeon for quite some time. I was amazed that most of the material they showed was truly internation (UK, Czechoslovakia, France, etc.). Today's Special, old Lassie and Dennis the Menace reruns, they had to really find their voice.
Though Today's Special was a Canadian program from TVO, so that wouldn't count amoung the few reruns of older brothers the channel otherwise got.

But yeah, I never realized the stuff I liked as a five year old came from someplace like Hungary. It just never clicked until some years back when I started thinking about the things I missed seeing.

Here's some finds off YouTube to gander your eyes at!

"Krtek" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mole_%28Zden%C4%9Bk_Miler_character%29) (The Little Mole)
- The Mole and the Automobile pts. 1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xjc2kcA9crs) and 2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dF8GC-HW8x0)
- The Mole and the Rocket (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HAxWnJWcG4)
- The Mole in the Zoo (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlCVQECx1H0)
- The Mole and the Hedgehog (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwDFKtA7xsw)
- The Mole and the Lolipop (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJ_WcS4xOCo)
- The Mole and the Garden (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eU7uNqBeSlc)
- The Mole and the Umbrella (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vm8yQHNcU4s)
- The Mole as a Clockmaker (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7RKfMjaupM)
- The Mole and the Bulldozer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fymbTtqYO4w)
- The Mole and the Music (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPNVWX0rYcI)
- The Mole and the Telephone (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9Qqdq25TWo) (this one in particular was WAY too disturbing for me to see as a young'un)

Ironically, these cartoons were produced at the same studio that supposibly animated Gene Deitch's Tom & Jerry cartoons, the simularities are just so obvious no wonder why I felt I had seen this done someplace once I saw the Deitch T&J's later on.

Liliput-put (http://www.bozzetto.com/shorts/Lilliputput/lilliputput.htm) (this used to show up on both Pinwheel and on the syndicated "Great Space Coaster", never realized this was done by the guy who gave us Allegro non Troppo)
- The Dragonfly (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXrrpcR4lkw)
- The Ant (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bm_UJpi8xpY)
- The Flea (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8t8d0wZ2mfE)
- The Spider (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H25ctrlP0ew)
- The Snail (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H25ctrlP0ew)
- The Worm (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGglZXXMtT4)
- The Caterpillar (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzGvrQxgQQ0)

Bod (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bod_%28TV_series%29) (I can't believe I used to watch this!)
- On The Beach (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_4_2yzylaE)
- Bod's Dream (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJrbUkrB1_U)
- Bod and Breakfast (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8-NaMGMvvg)

Simon in the Land of Chalk Drawings (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_in_the_Land_of_Chalk_Drawings) (unlike it's airing on Captain Kangaroo prior to Pinwheel's airing, this used the original narration)
- Early Morning (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvssomC2zVs)
- Dinosaur (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kV6I3aphTNg)
- Moon Rocket (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvVhLHPTUpY)
- Seaside (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6jEyUNB_hw)

Bagpuss (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70kUVZWokm4) (a tad tedious watching it as an adult)

The Rabbit with the Checkered Ears (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kock%C3%A1sf%C3%BCl%C5%B1_ny%C3%BAl) (a.k.a. "Bunny in a Suitcase)
Here's the opening sequence (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cn754Xz-lQ8) to this Hungarian cartoon. For more fun, here's a blog entry (http://retro-gr.blogspot.com/search/label/Kockasfulu%20nyul) with some episodes via RapidShare to grab!

Charlie's Climbing Tree (I couldn't find any vids of this online, but here's a Norweigian (http://home.online.no/%7Egroennsl/kalleklatre/) page about it to gander at, I have the series on DVD none the less, albeit in Swedish)

Chapi Chapo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapi_Chapo) (another one of those I still get the song in my head over, those two characters also remind me of my twin brother and sister when they were little tykes like me)
- The Tapestry (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvkpNVVJUnA)
- The Cleaning
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7z3x--Z5tBQ)- The Flowers (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJp42Rp3_T4)
- The Silkworm (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93ldSoqMVaE)
- The Rabbit (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyVuwUoJr58)
- The Magic Wand (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8R6EB69M2jA)

Professor Balthazar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professor_Balthazar) (one of the best things Zagreb Film produced, created by Zlatko Grgic) Too bad the only episodes I can fine now on YouTube are in Croatian.
- The Inventor of Shoes (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2pUlQqZ0s8)
- Happiness for Two (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTiGGo6kS6g)

Anyway, that's all there is for today!

Doug was the only Nicktoon that was really worth watching. I don't know HOW Ren and Stimpy was approved, heck, I'd rather have my kids watch Arnold Schwarzzeneger than Ren and Stimply.
Heh, I only saw a tad of Nick in the 90's personally, and of course it's nowhere near as interesting to watch right now.

Of course the you get those serious Ren & Stimpy fans that had been begging for the production needledrop music to finally be released some day, yet a couple of geeks went ahead and offered them as MP3 downloads anyway (and APM ain't needing any royalties for it neither)!

http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger2/7342/2997/400/821985/renstimpycover.jpg (http://secretfunspot.blogspot.com/2006/11/ren-stimpy-production-music.html)

You learn something new everyday! :D