Nickelodeon is reportedly considering bringing back shows like 'Rugrats' and 'Doug'
LatestLike most American kids raised in the 1990s, I spent an unfathomable chunk of my childhood watching Nickelodeon. I can still rattle off the channel’s afternoon line-up (“Wild and Crazy Kids,” “Hey Dude,” “Salute Your Shorts”…) and entire seasons of shows like “Doug” are still lodged indelibly in my brain. (Ahhhh-eeee-youuuuu, killer tofuuuu.)
So it’s tremendously exciting (and a tiny bit worrisome) that Nickelodeon is reportedly thinking of digging up some of those long-gone shows and remaking them for a new generation of kids.
“We are looking at our library to bring back ideas, shows that were loved, in a fresh new way,” Russell Hicks, Nickelodeon’s president of content and development at Nickelodeon, told Variety today.
Hicks didn’t specify which shows the network was considering bringing back, but noted that the generation that grew up watching the old Nickelodeon classics were now beginning to have kids of their own, making them perfect targets for sentimental nostalgia-based programming.
“We are getting ready to bring back some of the ones they’ve told us multiple times they want to have brought back,” Hicks said.
The revamped shows, Variety notes, wouldn’t necessarily be full seasons of 30-minute episodes. They could be one-time specials or feature-length movies. Still, it’s enough to make an ex-Nickelodeon addict antsy. Will Rugrats 2.0 measure up to the original? Will Clarissa be able to play Oculus Rift video games as well as she played 8-bit NES titles?
If you’re listening, Nickelodeon programming department, here are the shows you should bring back, ranked in order of importance:
- Doug
- Legends of the Hidden Temple
- Salute Your Shorts
- Global G.U.T.S.
- Hey Dude
- Are You Afraid of the Dark?
- Clarissa Explains It All
- Rugrats
- The Adventures of Pete & Pete
- Wild & Crazy Kids
- The Secret World of Alex Mack
- Rocko’s Modern Life
- Anything except CatDog