Blocks and Specials

Apart from individual series, there are many ways to present the Nicktoons. Here are some examples:

Nick on CBS Started 9/14/2002 on CBS, 2 hours of Nicktoons is carried every Saturday morning as part of the new Nick on CBS block. For details on this block, click here.

(Left: Logo for the 1997 edition of the Nonstop Nicktoon Weekend, from Nick.com; ©1997 Viacom.)
(Right: The All That cast hosts the 2002 edition of the Nonstop Nicktoon Weekend, from Nick.com; ©2002 Viacom.)

Nonstop Nicktoon Weekend

This big marathon of Nicktoons has been presented every US Thanksgiving weekend on Nick since 1993. That first year, the marathon ran Friday to Sunday from Noon ET to 8PM ET, and, apparently, featured the first 4 Nicktoons in rotation -- Doug, Rugrats, Ren & Stimpy and Rocko. Every year, as more and more Nicktoons are added, the marathon gets larger, to a point where some Nicktoons aren't featured at all. The 2000 edition ran from Thursday to Sunday, 6AM ET to anywhere from 8:30PM ET to Midnight ET. Some years had hosts, such as Kenan & Kel in 1996 and the Nicktoon characters themselves in 1997. Some years also had special features -- in 1997, viewers sent their pictures of their favorite Nicktoons, described on air by Angelica; in 1998, special facts about the Nicktoons were presented during the breaks; and in 2000, shorter animated shorts were seen at the breaks.

The 2002 edition will be hosted by the All That cast, who will also be answering various questions about the Nicktoons, submitted by viewers online at Nick.Com. However, about half of the Nicktoons line -- including Thornberrys and Zim, are missing, and, for some reason, Jimmy Neutron deserved 3 marathons and ChalkZone gets two, even though both series have barely enough episodes available for one marathon.

In recent years, however, what was a big event has turned into a tedious one, due to boneheaded scheduling decisions by the programmers at Nick. In my opinion, the 2001 edition not only was dullsville and lacked special features, but they've also overlooked an important landmark -- Nicktoons' 10th anniversary. For more, see my commentary page.

March Toon Mania

Every year in March, Nick presents special marathons of various Nicktoons, as well as expanded coverage of Nicktoon programming during the day. One by-product of March Toon Mania is Nick's weekend schedule, which consisted of double episodes of Nicktoons in the mornings, plus all day Nicktoons on Saturday. Nick was so pleased with the ratings (especially with Spongebob beating Pokemon in the ratings), Nick made the weekend schedule permanent, after March 2000.

Nicktoons TV -- The Block and The Filler (Left: Nicktoons TV block logo, from a promo for the block in the US. From the Nickdisk forum; © Viacom.)

Nicktoons TV was a weekly, 5-hour mixed bag of various Nicktoons in mixed 15-minute portions, seen Saturday mornings from August 1998 to Spring 1999. It was discontinued in the fall of 1999, in favor of entire, regularly-scheduled Nicktoons. During 2000, it was a half-hour, daily mixed bag of Nicktoons, thought it was mainly a rest home for Nicktoons that no longer have a series on Nick US, such as Ren & Stimpy, Rocko & Real Monsters. In 2001, Nick started using the Nicktoons TV name for "To Be Announced" Nicktoons and other programming (whether animated or not), mainly those seen only 15 minutes at a time. It is also used in the scheduling of weekly Saturday afternoon marathons of Nicktoons, though the Nicktoons TV is not necessarily used in the marathon name. Most recently, U-Pick Live and Sunday Movie Toons are often listed under the Nicktoons TV name.

Nicktoons TV -- The Channel On 5/1/2002, the Nicktoons finally got a channel all to themselves when the new 24-hour Nicktoons TV channel went on the air. On some cable systems, it replaceed Nick Too, which is basically the Nick feed for the opposite coast. On 7/22/2002, the British version of Nicktoons TV signed on. For details on the Nicktoons TV channel in the US & Britain, click here. (Left: US Nicktoons TV channel logo, from Nick.Com. Right: UK Nicktoons TV channel logo, from Nick.Co.UK. Both ©2002 Viacom.)

U-Picks (and equivalents)

U-Pick may sound like a state lottery game, but it's actually Nicktoon marathons where the viewer chooses what Nicktoon they want to see. Viewers can phone a special phone number to vote, or go to Nick's website; then, they choose which Nicktoon they want to see, out of 3 given choices. The Nicktoon with the most votes is the one seen on Nick. U-Pick began in 1999 as a series of special marathons, mainly on school holidays. Later that year, it became a regular series, with a half-hour weekday version and a weekly 2-hour edition on Friday nights. The weekly edition was first hosted by Kablam!'s Henry & June, but were replaced in the fall 2000 by live-action hosts, Dave Aizer and Vivianne Collins of Nick GAS. The weekly edition was dropped at the end of 2000; the original weekday version continued until September 2002. In the summer of 2002, an hour-long marathon of U-Picks was presented at 12 Noon ET, as "Pick-Nick Summer".

Above: The original cast of U-Pick Live, with Brent & Candace in the center To the left of Candace is Cow and Pick Boy. To the right of Brent is Antonio and Garbagio. Not pictured: Cow's sidekick, Panda. From Nick.Com; © 2003 Viacom.

On 10/14/2002, a reformulated version, "U-Pick Live", made its debut; it will be seen weekdays from 5PM ET to 7PM ET, and will originate from Nick's headquarters in New York City. Its debut, however, had a disasterous start involving Hey Arnold; for details, click here.

Above: The UK cast of U-Pick Live, with Pick Boy, Pick Girl and U-Pick Ewe. From Nick UK; © 2003 Viacom.

On 5/26/2003, a British version of U-Pick Live started on Nick UK, featuring their own Pick Boy (who looks completely different than his American counterpart), who has his own sidekicks, Pick Girl and a puppet sheep, U-Pick Ewe. U-Pick Live, which has 2 editions each weekday during Britain's school holidays (there is no regular, year-round edition, like the US has) replaced the long-running "Watch Your Own Wednesday [Weekend / Week]" -- it's been said that Nick UK was actually the first among all versions of Nick to have started the U-Pick concept.

The Latin American version has a similar block, "Click Nick".

"Nick In The Afternoon", and other summertime Nick specials (Left: Picture of Stick Stickley, ©1996 Viacom.)

Every summer since 1996, Nick presented special Nicktoon marathons and special events. The first of these, Nick In The Afternoon, began in 1996 and lasted for 3 summers. Hosted by Stick Stickley, a popsicle stick, this features various animated and live-action programming, with the Nicktoons often seen in 15-minute versions only.

Summer of 1999 came Nickelodeon Summer Toons, which were daily 3-hour marathons of 5 Nicktoon series, hosted by Henry & June of Kablam!. Each Nicktoon is featured on its own day -- Rugrats on Mondays, Arnold Tuesdays, Thornberrys Wednesdays, Beavers Thursdays & Doug Fridays. Summer Toons has shown Nicktoons in their original 30-minute form.

And in the Summer of 2000, there was Nicktoon Summer Splash. Hosted by SpongeBob SquarePants and his sidekick, Patrick Starfish, each Nicktoon is featured on its own 3-hour marathon -- Rugrats on Mondays, Rocket Power Tuesdays, Thornberrys Wednesdays, Arnold Thursdays & Rocko (later CatDog) Fridays. Britain and Australia has shown Nicktoon Summer Splash with a similar schedule. The 2001 edition featured the same host and the same series on the same days as the previous year. Nick Australia presented Nicktoon Summer Splash for the third year in a row, 12/23/2002 to 1/24/2003, which falls during their Summer; that edition also carried the same schedule as the previous 2 years. (Left: Nicktoons Summer Splash logo from Nick.Com; ©2000 Viacom.)

During the Spring 2003 holidays (starting 4/14/2003), Nick UK has recycled the marathons and shorts, renaming it as "SpongeBob TV", with the same show schedule as all the Summer Splashes. (Left: From Nick UK; ©2003 Viacom.)

Of course, the recycling continues -- in Summer of 2003, NTTV US presented an extra-large version of Nicktoon Summer Splash, which ran everyday from 8AM ET to 8PM ET, Saturdays to 11PM. As usual, only the same series featured in past years (including Rocko, which was on only for one week in 2000) are included in the NTTV version.

(All times ET.)

The 2002 edition, which was renamed Nicktoons Summer Beach House, featured SpongeBob Mondays, Rugrats Tuesdays, Rocket Power Wednesdays, Arnold Thursdays and Thornberrys Fridays. It ran from 5/27/2002 to 8/30/2002. In Britain, a similar, 2-hour daily block, ran from 7/29 to 8/23, with the same Nicktoons on the same days. This block was not seen in Australia during their summer 2002-03 -- they opted to show Nicktoon Summer Splash once again, instead. This version had no regular host; during the breaks, the Nicktoons can be seen doing summer beach activities, such as surfing, sandcastle building, and cooking barbecue. All the action took place in a "live-action" setting. The 2003 version, slated to start in the US on 5/26/2003, is scheduled to feature SpongeBob Mondays, OddParents Tuesdays, Rugrats Wednesdays, Arnold Thursdays and Rocket Power Fridays. As usual, it's expected to run through Labor Day weekend. (Left & Below: 2002-2003 Nicktoons Summer Beach House graphics from Nick.Com; ©2002-2003 Viacom.)

2002:

2003:

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