Why was Nick Jr the most popular of the three edutainment kids lineups for 90s and 2000s kids? While PBS Kids had some hits like Sesame Street, Mister Rogers (though I don't think 90s kids cared for it nearly as much as 70s and 80s kids), Barney and Friends, Arthur and Teletubbies, most of them were shows kids only watched if they didn't have cable. Otherwise, nobody cared about shows like Dragon Tales and Clifford the Big Red Dog, which were only popular with the kids who didn't have cable. Playhouse Disney did have some hits like Bear in the Big Blue House, Rolie Polie Olie, The Wiggles, Little Einsteins, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and Handy Manny, but Nick Jr no matter what decade seemed to have most of the edutainment shows everybody remembers. Blue's Clues, Little Bear, Little Bill, Gullah Gullah Island, Franklin, Dora the Explorer, Bob the Builder (it eventually aired on PBS, but Nick Jr had it first), Backyardigans, LazyTown and Max and Ruby are all classics for the preschoolers who grew up with them.
>>154269317like I feel like even stuff that isn't as remembered like Maggie and the Ferocious Beast was more popular with preschoolers than stuff like Caillou. It feels like only those without cable cared about that show.
>>154269317Nick had more shows that wasn't as preachy and sometimes didn't feel like an education show and in a much broader range of animation using various forms of media. When I was a kid I didn't want to see some old man in a sweater, some inner city muppets, and guys in fur costumes. I wanted CARTOONS not live action shit and at one point it felt like that was all the market was, just shitty live action shit. Stuff like Blue's Clues would get a pass for me because it was still mostly animation.
>>154269317Because despite being aimed at babies, Nick Jr had sleeping bangers like Papa Beaver's Story Time, Littl' Bits, Babar, Richard Scarry, Muppet Babies, and The Little Koala. All of these shows were allowed to do whatever and they made it semi-educational about life lessons and such without forcing shit down your throat. It helps that a majority of these were early anime. Not like the shonen slop the fake mangatard posts here to bait and sound intellectual. But real OG stuff.
>>154269566You weren't around for Sharon, Lois, and Bram and whatever other live-action imports Nick Jr. could get in the earliest days of the block.
>>154269317>Handy MannyNever heard of this one though I am aware of all of the others.As a person with cable (well satellite dish) growing up I still look at PBS sometimes. Reading Rainbow mostly but I believe they even aired Digimon for a small bit. Honestly don't remember most of what I watched growing up as a small kid, I know I seen Blue Clues, Dragon Tales and a lot of Barney though. Recall watching Nick Jr. over Doug because I hated Doug that freaking much at the time.
For me I had all 3. and ALOT of friends I had growing up watched all 3 networks.I loved:Little BearFranklinMaggie the BeastThomas and FriendsBear and the Big Blue HouseNew Adventures of PoohOutta the BoxTheodore Tug BoatTots TV.ArthurZoomteletubesMr Roger'sThe Great Book of EverythingOswaldBlues Clues.little billSagwa the Chinese catClifford
>>154269687>Sagwa the Chinese catThat was an extremely good one. If I ever actually need to remember the Chinese zodiac order for whatever reason the episode they had on it likely would be my best bet.
>>154269780Sagwa had that Powerpuff Girls thing going where the main characters are cute and every NPC looks ugly as hell like someone else drew them>>154269602Ahhh I loved those three. Prolly the reason I adore Jews to this day. Just three sweet old people singin songs about elephants. Then that damn Eric Nagler would show up, and the mood would be killed. I related to that.
>>154269317Nick jr had regular cartoons that were made for younger kids. Everyone else had cartoons that were overly morality tales or educational stuff where they sang about numbers and colors. And they were usually pretty annoying about the teaching part, even for preschool kids.
>>154269317Nick Jr was part of the most popular kids network. That undoubtedly helped it a lot.
>>154269317Sounds like most of the people you know grew up with cable
>>154269317I wonder how Barney and Teletubbies were so popular, despite the fact that parents hated both shows. Like I never got why they were two of the biggest shows ever on PBS with how much parents disliked them.
>>154269317I don't think people understand just how popular and successful Dora the Explorer was. That shit ran for 20 years with numerous spinoffs, video games, a plethora of merchandise, and even a live-action movie. There was almost nothing from Disney Channel or PBS at the time that could even come close.
>>154269915pretty sure you have that back-a-wards. moms love it, kids hated it. moms ran everything back then
>>154269915I think teletubbies was invented so that 4 year olds could know what it's like to watch something and think "I'm too old for this"
>>154269926I know there were a lot of vocal parents who hated Barney back then. I also know now they were the minority.
>>154269933I don't wanna get all tinfoil hat butit cannot be coincidence that, at the time when society was pushing us to stop 'judging' people for not speaking english properly, calling every mistaken version of it a 'real dialect', etc, that kids' shows stopped teaching good diction and started deliberately speaking gibberish.and not like Maisy or Noot Noot or that tradition of the characters being incoherent while the narrator isn't.. like extended sequences of us apparently meant to follow along with the nonsense dialogue
I think it was the degree to which Dora the Explorer and Blues Clues leaned into being "interactive", stopping the segments long enough to give younger viewers a chance to observe and "respond" to what was happening. Dora the Explorer in particular went so far with this concept that it was literally the shown, but unspoken plot of the series that Dora the Explorer was actually a video game character.Remove that 4-5 second pause that the host took every time they asked a question, and these shows would have plummeted in popularity.
I need pictures. Thatlist is too huge to google it all.
>>154269317That there's a lotta shows you just listed.
>>154269317At one point they were crossposting Nick shows on CBS, so already-subscribed Big 3 cable viewers were not only seeing promos for Nick Jr. shows, but scheduled blocks of the actual content to entice parents into Nick’s channel.
I’ll be honest PBS probably had the best actual lineup of all these “preschool blocks”. Arthur alone is better than almost everything on Playhouse Disney.I’d wager that Blue’s Clues and Dora were the biggest reasons for Nick Jr’s success. Blue’s Clues was like cocaine for me as a 4 year old because it was like a game. Even as a kid I was aware that I wasn’t really talking to Steve, but just the fact that the show allowed you to “play along” was fun because I always tried to guess the answer before all 3 clues were found. Plus, it was just a calming show overall with a good formula. My favorite character was the kitten.Dora I have less experience with but it felt like Nick took what worked with Blue and upped the “kids like really annoying loud songs” aspect which made it am arguably bigger hit.
>>154269317Wasn't LazyTown something that had a cult following online when it was still fairly new? You Are a Pirate and Cooking By the Book were memes even in 2006.
>>154269317Nostalgia talking.
