It's a depressing topic, I know, since I loved Nick and CN when I was a kid in the 90's  :\'(, and I loved the Disney-Pixar movies back then as well as early 90's Disney classics. When did things change and become mega-corporate? I know Nick was bought out by Viacom some time in the late 90's, and everything that abomination buys is killed pretty fast (look at MTV, and now look what they're doing to Spike). I really don't know what happened to Cartoon Network, I guess they started targeting the same dumb audience ViaNick was, so of course they had to make dumber and more PC shows (thus getting rid of Johnny Bravo, Looney Tunes, Flintstones, etc.) that aren't even worth mentioning. Disney stopped making great movies on its own (though I still think their Pixar ones are pretty good), but I suppose nothing could really top Alladin or the Lion King, and then their godawful channel started marketing Hillary Duff and the talentless like. So, the question is, when and how did this all occur?

it's funny cause kids today could like the old nickelodeon if the new nickelodoen was more like tuned for them to watch on some shows where old nick and new nick could find a common ground to be some sort of new network for kids and the kids would like it like old nick but if they don't change their schedule or their formula they are facing a declining audience and i hate to see what happens to them in the future if they want like not nick of old times with shows like hey dude and out of control that kids not kids today like kids in the 80's for most of the part can't compete with shows like cribs and all those mtv reality shows like kids on future shows on nick scammed out of all the good shows like shows on nick can't relate to what goes on in today's world because they're so far out time is crazy if future shows can't be like old shows for kids like kids who can't stand or seem to be on tv unless it's violent and crap like that.

kid's shows of today really do suck, especially the cartoons. They are so abstract and odd and sometimes hard for even me to understand/grasp. The cartoons of the 80's and 90's were actually FUN to watch. The kid's shows of the 80's and 90's were fun to watch too. Yes, there are some shows that are out today that remind me of the shows like Hey Dude, Clarissa Explains It All, and Salute Your Shorts (Think...That's So Raven, The Suite Life Of Zack & Cody, etc)...but IMO, none of them could ever compare to how great the shows were that we used to watch back in the day.

Cartoon Network... probably around 2003 when Looney Tunes and other older animation were declining and started to show too much "new" programming. All of the older cartoons got shafted to Boomerang.

Disney Channel... In 2002, they dumped Vault Disney and basically turned into another modern Nickelodeon clone. "The Suite Life" is funny at times, but most of their original programming is unwatchable. Not to mention the spawn of Billy Ray Cyrus.  8-P

Nickelodeon... they used to air older programming (ie "Muppet Show", Looney Tunes) and had more variety besides cartoons & tween sitcoms (ie game shows, "Are You Afraid of the Dark"). Probably around 1999 when they introduced a certain sea sponge, though I was getting too old for their demographic at the time.

Granted that "The Mighty B!" has similar background animation and style (ie ugly close-ups) of "Ren & Stimpy", but isn't as funny/great as the classic '90's Nicktoon. Though a few episodes were actually good and the main character is voiced by Amy Poehler.

Nickelodeon... they used to air older programming (ie "Muppet Show", Looney Tunes) and had more variety besides cartoons & tween sitcoms (ie game shows, "Are You Afraid of the Dark"). Probably around 1999 when they introduced a certain sea sponge, though I was getting too old for their demographic at the time.




To be honest...Spongebob Squarepants is one of the ONLY cartoons that I can stomach even watching anymore. It actually makes me laugh.

Nickelodeon - sometime in the late 90s.  Even before Spongebob, it was beginning a decline, although Spongebob accerlerated it.  Even as a kid, I sensed Nick's declining quality and switched to Cartoon Network.

Disney - No clue.  I didn't watch it as much as Nick or CN.  My heyday of Disney watching was in the mid 90s, but I then switched to Nick and Disney.  I would imagine it declined around the same time as Nick, but I'm really not sure.

Cartoon Network - this one is the most tragic decline for me as it was the last of the "Big Three" to turn to crap, thus sealing the fate of modern cartoons being crappy.  CN declined once they started showing live action, which makes it sometime in the mid 00s.  Adult Swim also started to decline right around that same time.

These days, the only cartoon channels that are still decent are Toon Disney and Nicktoons.  Nicktoons is decent because they air Hey Arnold, Rocko's Modern Life, Ren and Stimpy, and Invader Zim.  Toon Disney is great because it has all sorts of good stuff: Batman The Animated Series, Superman, Pinky and the Brain, Gargoyles, Digimon (one of the last shows of my childhood), and old Disney stuff in the mornings/mid day (Rescue Rangers and stuff like that).  Toon Disney is the best kids network right now, but most people aren't able to watch it, unfortunately.  Boomerang is decent, but they also mix a lot of newer stuff on it too, which contradicts the setup of the network as a classic cartoon channel.

LOL Disney is not declining, it is actually getting more viewers in it. There has been movies like HSM they had gotten it a lot more viewers, and there is a show called Hanna Montana which starts the pop singer Miley Cyrus as the lead character.

To be honest...Spongebob Squarepants is one of the ONLY cartoons that I can stomach even watching anymore. It actually makes me laugh.


Yeah I had it on one day, it's actually quite amusing though I don't watch it much.

I was a huge Nickelodeon watcher back in the '90s, I stopped watching it regularly around 99 probably, I was getting older then and it lost it's novelty pretty much. Nick sucks now because it's all this corny Tween kind of crap, I guess some of it is alright for the age it targets but I think the older '90s Nick programming has more lasting appeal and can appeal to all age groups not just pre teens. My niece has it on sometimes and it's shocking how different of a channel it is now compared to when I watched it back in the '90s.

Yeah, cartoons were alot better in the '80s and '90s. Even older people watched them at that time, not just kids. I remember I knew cousins and older kids in the neighborhood that were like 16 or 17 years old and still watched Nickelodeon or Cartoon Network occasionally back in the '90s, but these days you rarely see anybody above the age of 12 still watching them. They just don't have the same comedy that could appeal to both adults and kids anymore.

As far as when they started to decline, I would go with the consensus and say around the turn of the millennium. By 2002, they all sucked. 

according to http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE1DA103CF93BA25756C0A964958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1
the views actually grew from 1.7 million to 6.2 million viewers.

according to http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE1DA103CF93BA25756C0A964958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1
the views actually grew from 1.7 million to 6.2 million viewers.


Look kid, by decline, I don't mean in terms of viewers, I mean in terms of quality (although, that growth takes place from 1984 onward, as for this millennium, I'm sure the number of viewers have actually decreased; and besides, Nick and CN have both had declining viewers since around '06). Viacom is so out of touch with its consumers that I wouldn't be surprised if this trend continued and eventually drove Nick into the ground, as it's already happening with MTV. Disney is also following that awful groundwork by spewing out such atrocities as Miley Cyrus.

Look kid, by decline, I don't mean in terms of viewers, I mean in terms of quality (although, that growth takes place from 1984 onward, as for this millennium, I'm sure the number of viewers have actually decreased; and besides, Nick and CN have both had declining viewers since around '06). Viacom is so out of touch with its consumers that I wouldn't be surprised if this trend continued and eventually drove Nick into the ground, as it's already happening with MTV. Disney is also following that awful groundwork by spewing out such atrocities as Miley Cyrus.



Just out of curiosity...you are always making the statement about how pathetic Miley Cyrus is...but isn't she just today's poster child for Disney? I mean..throughout the decades you had many different "starlets" as the featured star of the network. Disney had Hilary Duff & Raven Symone for awhile...Nick had the likes of Melissa Joan Hart (AKA Clarissa Explains It All), Tia & Tamara, Amanda Bynes, etc.  Miley is just the new version of all of these people...2000's style.  Granted, the people mentioned seemed to be able to hold onto their innocence a bit longer than today's stars...but none the less...they have more in common than not.

Just out of curiosity...you are always making the statement about how pathetic Miley Cyrus is...but isn't she just today's poster child for Disney? I mean..throughout the decades you had many different "starlets" as the featured star of the network. Disney had Hilary Duff & Raven Symone for awhile...Nick had the likes of Melissa Joan Hart (AKA Clarissa Explains It All), Tia & Tamara, Amanda Bynes, etc.  Miley is just the new version of all of these people...2000's style.  Granted, the people mentioned seemed to be able to hold onto their innocence a bit longer than today's stars...but none the less...they have more in common than not.


I'm not saying Miley is any worse than Hillary Duff (in fact, I personally think she's a lot better) but that doesn't mean she's any good. I'm also not saying that this is anything new, but it certainly is stale and driving the more intelligent people away from Disney. And at least Melissa Joan Hart and Amanda Bynes were clever at times and were good role models for girls, hell, I even watched the Amanda Show was funny for a while (I outgrew its humor though). Miley is also the daughter of Billy Ray Cyrus, the biggest joke in country music. I rest my case.

I'm not saying Miley is any worse than Hillary Duff (in fact, I personally think she's a lot better) but that doesn't mean she's any good. I'm also not saying that this is anything new, but it certainly is stale and driving the more intelligent people away from Disney. And at least Melissa Joan Hart and Amanda Bynes were clever at times and were good role models for girls, hell, I even watched the Amanda Show was funny for a while (I outgrew its humor though). Miley is also the daughter of Billy Ray Cyrus, the biggest joke in country music. I rest my case.


joke or not...Miley's making papa popular once again. I just heard that he is going to be hosting, Nashville Star.

To be honest...Spongebob Squarepants is one of the ONLY cartoons that I can stomach even watching anymore. It actually makes me laugh.


same here My brothers and my dad watch it too.  Also I use to love Hey Dude

spongebob was more ingoring with his stupid laugh and his morinic friend patrick