Nick at Nite

Nick at Nite (stylized as nick@nite) is an American nighttime programming block that broadcasts over the channel space of Nickelodeon. It typically broadcasts Sundays-Fridays from 8:00 p.m. or 9:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. and on Saturdays from 10:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. ET/PT. The block is marketed as a separate network from Nickelodeon for ratings purposes, similar to Adult Swim (which utilizes Cartoon Network's channel space in prime time and late night).[1]

Nick at Nite
LaunchedJuly 1, 1985 (1985-07-01)
NetworkNickelodeon
Owned byViacomCBS Domestic Media Networks
Picture format1080i HDTV
(downscaled to 480i letterbox for SDTVs)
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Broadcast areaNationwide
HeadquartersLos Angeles, California
Sister channel(s)Nickelodeon
Nicktoons
Nick Jr.
TeenNick
NickRewind
NickMusic
TV Land
Websitewww.nickatnite.com
Availability
(nighttime programming block of Nickelodeon)
Satellite
Orby TVChannel 213 (East; HD)
Channel 214 (West; SD only)
Dish NetworkChannel 170 (East; SD/HD)
Channel 171 (West; SD only)
DirecTVChannel 299 (East; SD/HD)
Channel 300 (West; SD only)
C-BandAMC 11 – Channel 64 (4DTV Digital)
AMC 18 – Channel 28 (H2H 4DTV)
Cable
Available on most cable systemsVaries by cable provider
IPTV
Google FiberChannel slots may vary
Verizon FiosChannel 252 (SD)
Channel 752 (HD)
AT&T U-verseChannel 314 (East; SD)
Channel 315 (West; SD)
Channel 1314 (East; HD)
Channel 1315 (West; HD)
Streaming media
FuboTVInternet Protocol television
PhiloInternet Protocol television
YouTube TVInternet Protocol television

Via Nickelodeon, Nick at Nite is available in 92.0 million households in North America as of January 2016.[2]

History

Early years

After the Hearst Corporation and ABC announced in the summer of 1984 that they would spin off A&E (which occupied the timeslot formerly occupied by the Alpha Repertory Television Service prior to its merger with The Entertainment Channel earlier that year) into a separate 24-hour cable channel and cease transmitting its programming over Nickelodeon's channel space to take better advantage of valuable satellite time, MTV Networks President Bob Pittman asked Nickelodeon general manager Geraldine Laybourne to develop programming for the time period (once A&E became a separate channel in January 1985, Nickelodeon ran text promos for their daytime shows during the night and started broadcasting 24 hours a day in June,[3][4] though some cable providers substituted the primetime schedule of a niche-interest network that had no room on a system onto the channel space, with BET being among the most popular choices). Not wanting to attract controversy for programming for school-age children after their bedtimes, and after futile attempts at original program development, Laybourne asked programming and branding consultants Alan Goodman and Fred Seibert of Fred/Alan Inc. (successful as the original branders of MTV, and for Nickelodeon's extensive 1984 rebranding involving a Balloon-fonted flexible logo in a trademark orange color) to come up with programming ideas.

After being presented with over 200 episodes of The Donna Reed Show (a 1950s sitcom which Laybourne despised), Goodman and Seibert conceived the idea of the "first oldies TV network." They modeled the new evening and overnight programming block on the successful oldies radio format, "The Greatest Hits of All Time," and branded the block with their next evolution of MTV- and Nickelodeon-style imagery and bumpers. Head programmer Debby Beece led the team to the name "Nick at Nite" for the new block; a logo originally conceived for the block was based on Nickelodeon's "pinball" logo introduced in 1981, discontinued in 1984. Fred/Alan developed the original logo with Tom Corey and Scott Nash of Boston advertising agency Corey McPherson Nash, creators of the well-recognized Nickelodeon orange splat logo (Nick at Nite's logo design would maintain a separate visual appearance from its parent network).

Nick at Nite debuted at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time on July 1, 1985, as a block on Nickelodeon. Its initial programming (running from 8:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m., seven days a week) was a mixture of sitcoms, movies and one drama series, led by Dennis the Menace, and accompanied by The Donna Reed Show, the offbeat comedy Turkey Television (which, like Dennis, also aired on Nickelodeon), and Route 66. A nightly film presentation, branded as the Nick at Nite Movie, aired at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time through the end of the decade, and included such classic films as the 1947 film The Red House and the 1937 film A Star Is Born. The same five-hour block of programs originally repeated from 1:00 a.m. and ran until Nickelodeon began its broadcast day at 6:00 a.m. Eastern Time. As Nick at Nite grew, it would add to its library of shows – expanding out to rerun sketch comedy, such as episodes from the early seasons of Saturday Night Live as well as the Canadian series SCTV. It also briefly reran the 1970s mock local talk show Fernwood 2 Night. As the years went by, the channel's sitcom library expanded to over a hundred shows.

The Nick at Nite 10th Anniversary logo from 1995. The Nick at Nite logo seen in this screenshot, located within the "0" in "10", is a variant of the logo used for the block from 1992 to August 31, 2002, which in turn was modified from the original logo that debuted on July 1, 1985.

By the early 1990s, Nick at Nite began running a full schedule of programming, with overnight hours filled with a mixture of secondary runs of shows airing on its evening schedule and series that were no longer shown on the evening lineup.

10th, 20th and 25th Anniversaries

In 1995, Nick at Nite celebrated its 10th Anniversary with a week-long event, in which the channel aired "hand picked episodes" of almost every series that had aired on Nick at Nite since its July 1985 debut. Each episode was introduced with its milestone history, episode number, and pop culture references to the individual program's original run on Nick at Nite. A special 10th Anniversary on-screen bug was shown at the bottom left corner of the screen for 10 seconds once per half-hour show, and was used for the entire 1995 year.

For the channel's 20th birthday celebration in June 2005, TV Land aired an episode from almost every series that had appeared on Nick at Nite. In much in the same vein as the 10th Anniversary logo in 1995. an on-screen bug was displayed for the celebration. Nick at Nite did not make any acknowledgment of its 25th Anniversary in 2010.

2004-present
Nick at Nite logo used from March 2002 to 2006 (which is an updated version of the 1992 to 2002 logo, with a circle as its only background). An orange variant of this was used from 2006 to September 1, 2007.

In March 2004, Nielsen began splitting up Nick at Nite and Nickelodeon in its primetime and total daytime ratings reports, due to the different programming, advertisers and target audiences between the two services; this caused controversy among executives of some cable channels who believed that this move manipulated the ratings, given that Nick at Nite's broadcast day takes up only a fraction of Nickelodeon's programming schedule.[5] Nickelodeon's and Nick at Nite's respective ratings periods encompass only the hours they each operate under the total day rankings, though Nick at Nite is rated only for the primetime ratings; this is due to a ruling by Nielsen in July 2004 that networks have to program for 51% or more of a particular daypart to qualify for ratings for that daypart.[6]

Nick at Nite logo used from September 1, 2007 to September 28, 2009.

In 2006, the coloring of Nick at Nite's logo was changed from blue to orange, in order to match the coloring of Nickelodeon's logo. On September 1, 2007, the network introduced a new logo based on Nickelodeon's longtime "splat" logo, with the orange "splat" formed in the shape of a wanning gibbous moon – this effectively integrated the Nickelodeon branding onto Nick at Nite for the first time, as the varied logos that were used from its 1985 launch utilized variants of the Futura Condensed font (the 1984 to 2009 Nickelodeon logo designed by Seibert and Goodman used the Balloon typeface) with various shape backgrounds and a small circle with the word "at" (replaced by an "@" symbol overlaid on a circle background in March 2002 for visual symmetry, owing to the character's building ubiquity from the Internet and eventually into general pop culture) lodged between and staggering the "I"'s. The updated logo debuted in promos in March 2002. However, the Up Next bumpers, station idents, and on-screen bug did not begin using the updated logo until September 1, 2002.

Nick at Nite logo used from 2009–2012.

On July 5, 2009, Nick at Nite extended its programming hours to end at 7:00 a.m. seven days a week (the weekend lineup ended one hour earlier from April to June 2010 and from January to May 2011) and to begin at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Sunday through Thursday nights and 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Friday nights (the Saturday lineup continues to have a 10:00 p.m. Eastern Time start time due to the presence of the long-running Saturday primetime comedy lineup on Nickelodeon). Nick at Nite's times of operation have changed several times over the years, to at one point (between 1998 and 2000) beginning as late as 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Sunday through Thursdays and ending as early as 5:30 a.m. Eastern Time.

Nick at Nite overhauled its on-air appearance on September 28, 2009, as part of Nickelodeon's rebranding effort – the new logo, also based on Nickelodeon's logo, stylized the network's name as "nick@nite" (rendered as one word in lower case letters within the new network logo).[7] The network also ceased airing the production closing credits for most of its programs (except for those that have tag scenes during the end credits, and originally some series that aired on the network prior to the rebrand that rejoined the network afterward, such as Full House) and began employing network-even closing credits – which Nickelodeon had been utilizing since at least 2000 (both Nick at Nite and Nickelodeon often remove end tag scenes or blooper reels of some shows using this format).

Programming
Main article: List of programs broadcast by Nick at Nite

Nick at Nite's lineup presently includes reruns of syndicated comedy series from the early 1990s to mid-2010s and movie broadcasts. The block previously had its own exclusively-produced original programs (such as See Dad Run and Instant Mom).

Due to its dependence on sitcom reruns whose cable syndication rights are limited to a certain part of the day owing to contracts with studios and/or distributors (for instance, Viacom holds the exclusive cable nighttime rights to run Friends, airing it on both Nick at Nite and the Paramount Network, while TBS holds exclusive cable daytime rights to said series), Nick at Nite has no video on demand service (formerly its past original series were usually combined within Nickelodeon's video-on-demand section), it has no mobile or digital media player apps, and its website features no video content.

Programming history

Nick at Nite was known as the "first classic TV network," having originally aired older classic television programs from the 1950s through the early 1970s throughout its nighttime schedule. The time range of Nick at Nite's programming has shifted over the years, to the point whereby the early 2000s, its classic series consisted primarily of shows from the late 1970s to the late 1990s, and also included series from the early and mid-2000s by the end of that decade and into the early 2010s. The early success with classic television series, as well as the eventual shift away from series made prior to 1985, eventually led to the creation of digital broadcast networks similar to Nick at Nite's original format such as the Retro Television Network, Antenna TV and MeTV (which have featured many shows formerly seen on Nick at Nite).

Nick at Nite airs approximately all of its programming in hour-long (and sometimes two-hour) blocks, which were branded under the "Double Takes" banner from 2002 to 2007; typically series that air back-to-back are scheduled in two blocks, one in primetime and one in late night. Also typically, series that have been airing on Nick at Nite for at least three years are often moved exclusively to the overnight schedule in order to make room for newly acquired series (though in the past, entire broadcast runs of a few series such as Perfect Strangers and Charles in Charge have aired in an overnight graveyard slot for a short period of time following their debut on the network). For about a year-and-a-half prior to the September 28, 2009 rebrand, Nick at Nite aired marathons of programming from midnight to 5:00 a.m. Eastern Time.

Nick at Nite is one of the few basic cable channels in the United States that continues to sign off for scheduled satellite maintenance, occurring on a Wednesday morning from 5:30 to 6:00 a.m. Eastern Time on a bi-monthly basis, with color bars being displayed during the sign-off period (Viacom-owned sister channels Nick Jr., Nicktoons, MTV and its spin-off channels, VH1, and VH1 Classic also sign off for a half-hour on a bi-monthly basis at the same time as Nick at Nite for the same reason); it is also one of only a handful of cable channels to have discontinued airing infomercials. Nick at Nite ran infomercials in some overnight timeslots from 1987 to 1998 (it is only one of two Viacom-owned networks to have removed paid programming from its schedule; sister channel BET had discontinued infomercials in 1997, replacing them with religious programming in overnight/early morning timeslots[8]).

On May 16, 2011, Nick at Nite began scheduling programs airing from 11:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. Eastern Time in an "off-the-clock" format, in which the network runs extended commercial breaks of as much as seven minutes in length to allow additional advertising spots (a method that has tense viewer criticism due to the length between the start of each commercial break and the start of the next segment of a program[9]), allowing the programs to be broadcast in a longer timeslot each half-hour until 6:00 a.m. Eastern Time, when start times return to a half-hourly format. This format was originated by sister network TV Land beginning in 2010, and has since been taken by other Viacom networks including MTV, BET and Spike around the same time as Nick at Nite. The side effect that results from this scheduling and expanded advertising is that one full half-hour of programming is lost, therefore the overnight schedule features only a single episode of one series whereas most other Nick at Nite programs air in double episode blocks.[10]

On June 25, 2012, Nick at Nite began airing Nickelodeon programs for the first time, airing reruns of All That and Kenan & Kel from 8:00 to 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time weeknights. Two weeks later, the two series were replaced with reruns of Victorious, before being replaced by the teen drama/telenovela series Hollywood Heights, which would move to TeenNick halfway through its first (and only) season due to low ratings. Nickelodeon and Nick at Nite currently share the 8:00 to 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time timeslot on weeknights. On July 16, 2018, Nick at Nite carrying reruns of SpongeBob SquarePants, complementing its airing as a part of the regular Nickelodeon schedule.

Movies

In addition to running sitcom reruns, Nick at Nite has also broadcast movies in early primetime; after the 1985 to 1989 run of the Nick at Nite Movie showcase, the channel did not air movies on its schedule again until the summer of 2007, when it aired films each week on Tuesday nights. The channel has aired films occasionally since then, and have begun to air them periodically since February 2010 on Sunday nights, beginning that month with telecasts of the Nickelodeon Movies-produced Good Burger, Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging, The Rugrats Movie, and The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie. Additionally, many family-oriented films from other distributors air on the block.

Some movies and special presentations that Nick at Nite aired during 2010 and 2011 had occasionally aired over what is normally Nickelodeon's broadcast time (for example, the February 21, 2010 premiere broadcast of the special School Gyrls aired at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time, though Nickelodeon typically does not turn over its channel space to Nick at Nite until 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Sunday nights), which is unusual as some of these special presentations are aimed at Nickelodeon's preteen target audience; however until May 2010, when the network began promoting its film broadcasts as airing on Nick at Nite, promos for these films did not acknowledge whether they were to be broadcast on Nick at Nite or Nickelodeon (an issue as promos for scheduled primetime films were cross-promoted with Nickelodeon), with the only reference as to the film's airing on Nick at Nite coming from the screen bug that is shown during the film.

Some of the movies Nick at Nite has broadcast in recent years have included the Back to the Future trilogy, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Baby's Day Out, Pretty in Pink, National Lampoon's Vacation, Ghostbusters (and its sequel Ghostbusters II), Jurassic Park, The Nutty Professor, Legally Blonde, The Princess Diaries and The Parent Trap. Film broadcasts have become more common on Nick at Nite since the fall 2012, often airing on a near-weekly basis, typically on Sunday evenings. As of 2013, many films broadcast on the channel Thursday nights at 8:00 pm, and Friday nights at 8:00 pm as of 2017.

Original programming

Nick at Nite has also occasionally broadcast its own programs, sometimes with bizarre and surrealistic results. On December 5, 1987, the channel ran a contest called the Do It Yourself Sitcom Special, which was billed as the first time that real people ever had their own television shows. Viewers submitted their own sitcom ideas and the winner would supposedly get their own show. In 1988, the channel aired a half-hour animated Christmas special from Ralph Bakshi, which served as the pilot for a proposed animated series titled Tattertown. The program was never picked up to series, but the special, later renamed Christmas in Tattertown, aired on Nick at Nite every Christmas for several years. In 1990, the channel briefly aired a satirical comedy series called On the Television,[11] a mock critic show hosted by Siskel and Ebert-type characters that featured bizarre, sometimes disturbing clips from spoofed television shows supposedly beginning that week.

In the early 1990s, the channel ran a one-time special featuring old television commercials; this idea would be rehashed by the network on several other shows and eventually become a project of a spin-off channel, TV Land, as part of the "Retromercials" segment that aired during commercial breaks until the mid-2000s. Another special aired by Nick at Nite was promoted as a TV dad quiz, in which the host walked through a "typical TV Home," and quizzed viewers at home with trivia about classic TV dad clichés. At one point, the host told viewers to connect pictures of TV dads with their appropriate TV wives displayed on the screen with a magic marker. At the end of this segment, he mentions that he forgot to tell the viewers to place a piece of plastic over their screen while doing this and made jokes about the viewers uselessly trying to clean the magic marker off their screens for the rest of the show.

In 1991, Nick at Nite debuted its own sitcom based around the rerun genre it had developed. The short-lived Hi Honey, I'm Home! (titled after the catchphrase that male lead characters in some classic sitcoms said to their wives when returning home from work) focused on a 1950s sitcom family called the Nielsens, whose show has been removed from syndication, forcing the family to leave TV Land and move into a real 1990s suburban neighborhood, repeatedly confronting the family with a culture shock. The series aired on Fridays as part of ABC's TGIF lineup, with the episode being "rerun" on Nick at Nite in primetime on the following Sunday.

In 2008, the channel announced that it was developing a family-oriented revival of the 1990s game show GUTS titled My Family's Got GUTS, as well as a dog competition show.[12] My Family's Got GUTS eventually premiered on Nickelodeon in September 2008. On August 17, 2009, Nick at Nite debuted a new animated stop-motion series called Glenn Martin DDS, which ran for two seasons. Scripted programming returned to Nick at Nite in 2012, with the June 11 debut of the telenovela-based teen drama Hollywood Heights, followed on October 6 with the premiere of See Dad Run, though the former relocated to TeenNick midway through its run due to low ratings and branding confusion.

In 2017, the network also began to carry episodes of Nashville on an hour delay from CMT on nights when new episodes aired in order to further augment that series' ratings.

Marathons and events

Programming marathons were an innovation that began with Nick at Nite in 1985, eventually leading to the phenomenon of "binge-watching". Working together at college radio station WKCR-FM while attending New York City's prestigious Columbia University, Fred/Alan, Inc. founders Alan Goodman and Fred Seibert saw the ratings success of radio marathons featuring music from Ludwig van Beethoven, John Coltrane and Charles Mingus. As the Nick at Nite "oldies" format was adapted from radio, they suggested the multi-hour (sometimes multi-day) marathon might also work with television programming. The marathon format proved successful and became a ratings boosting in demand with cable television networks for over two decades.

During the week of Halloween in late October 1990, the network held a special contest, hosted by game show host Wink Martindale, during a marathon of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Viewers at home were supposed to keep a running total of total number of deaths on the show. At the end of the marathon, the persons who had gotten the correct total were entered into a drawing to win a prize. As Martindale said, "it's kind of like guessing the number of jelly beans in a jelly bean jar, but instead of jelly beans, you're using cadavers!"

When new shows are added to the lineup, they are usually accompanied by some kind of marathon that is sometimes hosted by a star from the show. For instance, when Newhart joined Nick at Nite in the early 1990s, the channel also acquired Bob Newhart's short-lived third sitcom Bob, and ran a block branded "Bob's Bob, Bob Newhart, Newhart Marathon", featuring the two shows along with The Bob Newhart Show (which it already had the rights to broadcast), in an event hosted by Bob Newhart. Nick at Nite's debut of The Mary Tyler Moore Show was called the "Marython". When I Love Lucy joined Nick at Nite in 1994, a week-long marathon called "Nick at Nite Loves Lucy" aired, showcasing every one of Lucille Ball's sitcoms that aired between 1951 and 1986 (I Love Lucy, The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy, and Life With Lucy). When some older shows were retired, Nick at Nite would also frequently have a marathon send-off. For instance, when Mister Ed was finally retired from the network in January 1993 after a seven-year run, Nick at Nite ran a weekend-long marathon of the show called "Au Revoir Mister Ed!"; a similar send-off for The Donna Reed Show, which ran on the channel for nine years beginning with Nick at Nite's July 1985 debut, also ran that year. My Three Sons was sent off the night Daylight Saving Time ended in October 1991 with a marathon called "Nite of the Setting Sons," permitting two extra episodes in the marathon due to the one-hour time shift.

During the summer months from the mid-to-late 1990s, the channel for a while ran a program block called "Vertivision" (later known as "Block Party Summer"), during which a different series was shown in a three-hour block each night of the week. In its first year, network promos referred to the nights featured in the special lineup as "Mary Mondays" (for The Mary Tyler Moore Show), "Lucy Tuesdays" (for I Love Lucy), "Bewitched Be-Wednesdays" (for Bewitched), "Jeannie Thursdays" (for I Dream of Jeannie), and "Sgt. Joe Fridays" (for Dragnet). With the passing years, the summer blocks shifted to include series recently added to Nick at Nite's program library.

Other seasonal scheduling blocks were also not uncommon such as Christmas-themed blocks during late December, Thanksgiving-themed blocks in November, and Valentine's Day-themed episodes in February. Each New Year's Eve from 1989 to 1998, the channel would host "Nick at Nite's (year) Rerun/Classic TV/TV Hits Countdown" hosted by longtime countdown radio DJ, Casey Kasem. Kasem would spend the period from noon (11:30 a.m. in 1990) until New Year's Day at 12:30 a.m. Eastern Time counting down the 25 "most classic" episodes of the series airing on Nick at Nite at that time as determined by viewers at home, with the #1 episode being aired at midnight.

Another well-known lineup was "A Whole Lotta Lucy" block which ran on Saturday nights from June 4, 1994 to May 3, 1996, which consisted of I Love Lucy, The Lucy Show and The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour, which were all airing on the network at that time (a similar block aired on Saturday nights from 1996 to 2001, featuring only I Love Lucy and The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour). In the mid-1990s, another Saturday night programming block titled "Very, Very Nick at Nite" centered around a different theme each week, such as "Very Very Mary" with four classic Mary Tyler Moore Show episodes. In summer of 2008, Nick at Nite aired a marathon called Battle of the Sexes, which featured episodes of their regular programs that engaged conflict between men and women.

Nick at Nite generally broadcasts a marathon of their programming on holidays (such as the "Luck of the Lopez" marathon of George Lopez that aired on Saint Patrick's Day in March 2008). For two years in a row, in October 2007 and 2008, Nick at Nite broadcast the Shocktober marathon (branded as Shocktober 2 for the 2008 event), featuring Halloween-themed episodes of the regularly scheduled program. Other holidays that the network often features themed marathons include Mother's Day, Father's Day, and Christmas. In November 2006, regular Nick at Nite programming was preempted for Nickelodeon's "Best Day Ever", a 24-hour marathon of SpongeBob SquarePants episodes which, at the end of the event, led to the premiere of a new episode of the same name. Nick at Nite programming was again preempted to continue Nickelodeon's 48-hour "SpongeBob SpongeBash" marathon in July 2009.

On June 17, 2019, Nick at Nite aired a simulcast of the 2019 MTV Movie & TV Awards for the first time, along with many of its sister networks. On August 26, it also aired a simulcast of the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards for the first time. In December 2019, Nick at Nite began airing a marathon of Friends to celebrate the show's 25 year anniversary since its finale throughout half of Nick at Nite's regular programming time

Branding and commercials

Nick at Nite has used a myriad of unusual and offbeat commercials, logos and promotions. Alan Goodman and Fred Seibert assembled a team of highly imaginative writers/producers, modeled on their original 1981 creative team that had launched sister channel MTV. The group – which included Scott Webb, Jim Levi, Dave Potorti, Jay Newell, Will McRobb, and Tom Hill – was guided towards creating a series of internal campaigns to emphasize the seeming paradox of a contemporary network setting that programmed reruns from the 1960s and earlier. A series of five "promises" were organized into four 30-second spots each hour, each emphasizing an attribute of the innovative programming format.

In 1986, the channel began running a few different animated 10-second channel identifications (produced by Noyes and Laybourne and the Fred/Alan agency) that were repetitive in creation, but all had vastly different endings (similar to the "watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat" gag from The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show). In one such ID, the first chord of The Beatles' "A Hard Day's Night" would be heard strummed, as a man began to hang up a Nick at Nite logo and common living room objects such as a chair and a television set. Once the man sat down in front of the TV set and clicked the remote control, a bizarre incident would happen, such as a gorilla coming out of the set. Later IDs started with either a woman setting up her backyard behind a "city" background, which was made of cardboard, or a couple setting up their living room. In May 1991, Nick at Nite started running a wide variety of IDs created in association with Pomposello Productions. These were made with almost every imaginable technique from cel animation to stop motion, to original live-action and stock footage. Almost every commercial had a different jingle professing Nick at Nite as being "A TV Viewer's Dream" for "the TV generation" and as coming from a place called "TV Land" ("Hello out there, from TV Land!") and promoting "Better Living Through Television", although these claims were always somewhat tongue in cheek.

There were also sarcastic promotions created for shows airing on the network: an announcer's voiceover would discuss the series, accompanied by clips and music, and sometimes the show's theme song. The commercials would use an actor's line or expression and take it out of context to create a new subversive meaning. The channel still uses this technique today, although often in a more partial way. A popular take-off of the Michelob Light commercial, "The Nite Belongs to Nick" ran for a short period of time before being discontinued due to copyright issues. One series of promos had Dick Van Dyke (whose eponymous 1960s sitcom was a mainstay of the channel in the 1990s) depicted as "Chairman of Nick at Nite" (this idea was later recycled by one of Nick at Nite's sister networks, TeenNick, which depicted actor and television personality Nick Cannon as the "Chairman of TeenNick" in a series of promos that began airing in September 28, 2009). In 1995, in honor of the network's 10th anniversary, Nick at Nite aired a tribute to the commercials throughout the network's existence and hosted by former network president Rich Cronin.

The channel also had a unique way of informing viewers about the show that was about to air next. Beginning as only some of the night's shows and their airtimes being listed as music played over an on-screen graphic, this simple concept would be revised and re-revised many times over. At one point, a television with objects and people from the show scrolling by (for instance, for Get Smart a shoe phone, gun, and Max and 99) would appear on the screen while the announcer describes the program title and time; the time that the show was scheduled to air would be popped up in another box. Some shows were preceded by a bumper showing the following episode's number and title. Nick at Nite's original continuity announcer was Nickelodeon announcer Wendell Craig; Bill St. James alternated with Wendell before replacing him as the channel's primary continuity announcer in 1992 and serving in that capacity until 2007 (except for a short period from March 2001 until September 2002, in which he was replaced with a different Soul Train-esque announcer). Bill has also served as an announcer for the premium channels Showtime, The Movie Channel (both former Viacom sister channels to Nick at Nite), and HBO, among other television clients, as well as serving as the host of the radio shows Flashback and Time Warp (which focus on classic rock and oldies music).

A few of Nick at Nite's promos in the early 1990s involved Dixie the TV Land Pixie promoting Nick at Nite "Brand Reruns". During this time, the network would also play an interstitial series called "Milkman," about a milkman who would distribute good advice to customers on his milk delivery route. By 1995, Nick at Nite introduced a new mascot named "Phil". Phil was seen doing several stunts, such as dressing up as a crab during Block Party Summer bumpers. In an ID usually seen when Nick at Nite signed on, Phil was seen working as technician to "try to get Nick at Nite up and running." In December 1996, Nick at Nite introduced twelve network IDs directed by Mo Willems which introduced the block's CGI mascot "Logobelly". Logobelly was seen doing various activities and appeared on colorful backgrounds on TV sets interacting with past TV stars watching television sets. Curious Pictures created six more IDs for Nick at Nite featuring "Logobelly" in April 1998 with Toonz and 3D Studio Max software.

Nick at Nite received a rebrand in January 1999 (which was used until March 2001) produced by Scott Stowell and Chip Wass (who previously designed a set of CGI IDs for the network in 1996). The rebrand prominently used the color yellow and shades of blue (which became darker overnight). Nick at Nite's IDs at the time typically featured a moving illustration by Chip Wass and either a female voiceover singing a jingle about the network which ended with "Nick at Nite, the place for TV hits" or narration by Bill St. James for overnight IDs.

In March 2001, in an effort to cash-in on the reality-TV boom, Nick at Nite underwent an extensive rebrand with the new theme of "Unreality", with IDs and bumpers featuring clips from actual events then going to clips from TV shows inspiring the events and then ending with the Nick at Nite logo and slogan "100% Sitcoms, 100% Unreality". One bumper used during this era had the slogan "All Sitcoms, All Night Long".

Spin-offs and International
Main article: TV Land
Main article: Nick at Nite international versions

On April 29, 1996, Viacom spun off a separate network from Nick at Nite, TV Land (originally branded as "Nick at Nite's TV Land" until 1999),[13] which features a variety of rerun programming; the channel is usually carried on the basic tiers of cable, IPTV and satellite providers.

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See also
  • Antenna TV – an American digital broadcast network owned by the Tribune Company, focusing on classic television series and movies from the 1950s to 1990s.
  • Retro Television Network – an American digital broadcast network owned by Luken Communications, focusing on classic television series from the 1950s to 1980s.
  • MeTV – an American digital broadcast network owned by Weigel Broadcasting, focusing on classic television series from the 1950s to 1980s.
  • Cozi TV – an American digital broadcast network owned by NBCUniversal airing classic television programs from the NBCU library, along with programming from forerunner network NBC NonStop.

References
  1. "Nickelodeon Squeezes 2 Ratings Out of 1 Very Diverse Network – Los Angeles Times". Articles.latimes.com. 2004-03-25. Retrieved 2012-10-24.
  2. "Cable Network Coverage Area Household Universe Estimates: January 2016".
  3. Gerry Laybourne: Oral and Video Collection Interview, retrieved 2019-09-15
  4. "Toledo Blade Television Programming Guide". news.google.com. June 28, 1985. Retrieved 2019-03-17.
  5. "Nielsen's 51% Solution Nixes Nicks | Cable Television News | Broadcast Syndication | Programming". Multichannel.com. 2004-07-19. Retrieved 2012-10-24.
  6. "Content | Cable Television News | Broadcast Syndication | Programming". Multichannel.com. Retrieved 2012-10-24.
  7. YouTube
  8. BET Bails On Infomercials, MediaPost', July 1, 2002,
  9. Viacom Loads More Ads on Channels, The Wall Street Journal, August 26, 2012.
  10. Nick at Nite Adding That '70s Show in June 2011, Buffy Finally Scheduled on TeenNick; The Hub Adds Jem, Sitcoms Online, May 23, 2011. Retrieved May 24, 2011.
  11. "On the Television" (1990)
  12. Schneider, Michael (2008-05-05). "Nick at Nite integrating 'Family' TV". Variety. Retrieved 2013-09-30.
  13. Bianculli, David, "Oldies Net Loaded with Goodies"; New York Daily News, March 19, 1996
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