Old School Lane Casual Chats Episode 53: Nickelodeon Holiday Specials

In the last episode of Casual Chats of 2015, (posted a few days late) Patricia and For Entertainment's Sake founders John and Douglass discuss about Nickelodeon Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa specials.

Check out John's links below
https://twitter.com/rugratmusic
http://rugrat7.bandcamp.com/

Check out Douglass' links down below
https://twitter.com/propheticG
http://prophetghostly.bandcamp.com/releases

Old School Lane Casual Chats Episode 40: Avatar: The Last Airbender

Old School Lane Casual Chats has reached 40 episodes and in honor of this momentous event, Patricia and special guests For Entertainment Sake co-founders John "Rugrat" and Douglass "Prophetic G" as well as Manic Expression members Jim Bevan, J.L. "That Longed Haired Creepy Guy", Eli "The Hero of Tomorrow", Mike "TheOtherDude92", Tim "Timdiana", Patrick "PLD_Maleficent", and Comic Book Cast co-host Joel "TheDVDGrouch" discuss about one of the greatest Nicktoons of all time Avatar: The Last Airbender in honor of its 10th anniversary.

Old School Lane Casual Chats Episode 37: All That

In this episode of Casual Chats, Patricia and new guests Manic Expression member Eli "The Hero of Tomorrow" Stone, For Entertainment Sake co-founder John "Rugrat" Matthew, and recurring guest Tristen Chance discuss on the 1994 Nickelodeon sketch comedy show All That in honor of its 20th anniversary discussing about the skits, cast members, the Good Burger movie, and the controversial revival era.

Nickelodeon's Ratings Results In An All Time Low

Around a few weeks ago, Nickelodeon received their results on the newest ratings and unfortunately, it does not look good for this network. The newest live action shows that debuted not too long ago such as Nicky, Ricky, Dicky, and Dawn and Dan Schneider's newest program Henry Danger  started with less than 2 million viewers. Shows that are getting new seasons such as The Haunted Hathaways, Awesomeness TV, and The Thundermans are not doing well either gaining at least 1.5 million viewers. Even worse, TMNT, the only good Nicktoon on the air, received a very pitiful 1.3 million viewers after coming back from its brief hiatus when Nickelodeon was promoting the latest Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie produced by Michael Bay. OVerall, Nickelodeon has gained about 1 million viewers, which cannot compete against The Disney Channel and Adult Swim's ratings of 1.14 million viewers. While Cartoon Network is in third place in ratings with 900,000 views, shows such as Steven Universe and Teen Titans Go!  are the top 10 rated shows with children 2-11. Disney has seven shows at the top 10 run, while Nickelodeon has none. To learn more about this, check out the article right here. 

This isn't the first time that Nickelodeon has dropped in ratings this low. A few years back, Nickelodeon had lost 1/3 of its viewers and had lost its spot as the #1 kid's network after holding that position for over 20 years. Nowadays, the Disney Channel holds this spot as crazy as that may sound. Actually, not really. Disney has been doing very well lately with great shows such as Phineas and Ferb and Gravity Falls. As for Cartoon Network, besides Steven Universe and Teen Titans Go!, they also have the hugely popular Adventure Time, Regular Show, Clarence, The Amazing World of Gumball, and more. Plus, the Hub has My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dan vs., Littlest Pet Shop, and reruns of classic 80's and 90's shows such as Batman: The Animated Series, Animaniacs, Tiny Toon Adventures, and more for nostalgic adults and a new generation of kids who never saw it the first time. From the looks of things, it seems that Nickelodeon has became more irrelevant now that these other channels are sporting these critically acclaimed programs. 

Nickelodeon has had made numerous mistakes over the years, more recently being taking out The Legend of Korra out of their main lineup due to low ratings and put it on their website. Going back to TMNT, they have already featured the most recent episode on their website before they aired it. Hell, the 2nd season finale was already posted on their website just yesterday. And Nickelodeon is wondering on why TMNT is low on ratings. It's because they already saw it on your website, you incompetent idiots. Why would they bother watching it on TV again? Don't be surprised if Nickelodeon decides to feature Season 3 online because ratings isn't what they expected. Nickelodeon has been on their rut for almost a decade and it seems that they're going to continue going down because they haven't learned their lesson. They've debuted shows that no one likes and no one cares about, their lineup of constant comedy with the same concepts have became redundant, they've kept creators of programs that have been around for so long such as Butch Hartman and Dan Schneider that their ideas are tired and stale, they do Internet fads that will later become outdated in a few years, and their main focus has been little kids as oppose to a wider audience like they used to back 30 years ago. When Disney and Cartoon Network were on their slumps a few years back, they at least got out of it by releasing shows that didn't dumb down their audience. 

Nickelodeon hasn't learned that lesson at all and continue to lose more viewers and ratings. If they continue as this rate, Nickelodeon will be no more. As much as I want to see them struggling and eventually crumble and fall due to not listening to the people who have stuck with them since they were children, I have a little bit of hope that Nickelodeon will change. Not much, but a little bit. I know that deep down inside, they will change for the better. Back in the early 80's, Nickelodeon has hugely overshadowed by other networks such as CBS, NBC, and ABC with their acquired programs and has deeply in debt. Then they started again from scratch and became the innovative channel we grew up with in the 80's and 90's. It seems that history is repeating itself again. Let's hope they start again from scratch and rise again, otherwise they'll be a relic in the past. 

This post is brought to you by the website For Entertainment's Sake. I became one of their main bloggers for the site posting mostly Nickelodeon stuff. They also have a great new podcast called Who Loves Orange Podcasts? Please check out their stuff right here.

-Patricia

Marc Summers Pleads Nickelodeon For Him to Host a Reboot of Double Dare and Nickelodeon's Response

On October 6, 1986 (that's roughly 5 months after I was born), the groundbreaking and influential kids' game show simply known as Double Dare debuted on TV hosted by the one and only Marc Summers. For those too young to remember, the game show was about two teams consisting of two kids competing against one another answering questions to get the highest score to go into the Obstacle Course where they would try to win numerous prizes. Marc Summers would then ask a question to one of the teams and if they didn't know the answer, they could dare the other team for double the money. If none of them knew the answer, they would take The Physical Challenge. The Physical Challenge and Obstacle Course were some of the main highlights of the show since it consisted of the craziest, slimest, and messiest games ever! Every kid I knew growing up wanted to be in Double Dare and still do after almost 30 years later. 

But the main highlight that people still remember fondly to this day is Marc Summers. Marc Summers, alongside assistant Robin Marella and announcer John Harvey, had amazing chemistry, hilarious antics, a charming personality, and a serious, yet playful demeanor that shined whenever he interacted with the contestants, live studio audience, and the viewers who saw it on TV. Even still to this day, no other game show host from Nickelodeon could match Marc's charisma or charm and people still regard him as the best game show host Nickelodeon has ever had. 

Now that we gotten our brief history of Double Dare out of the way, now time for news. Recently, on The Huffington Post, Marc Summers is interested in rebooting Double Dare for a new generation at Nickelodeon.

"Here's the deal. I would love to do some form or fashion of it. Let's just say that right now ... the people who run the Nickelodeon network and I don't necessarily see eye to eye," Summers told host Josh Zepps. "I've been trying to make nice to those people, but they refuse to talk to me."I think they think I'm way too old to do it. I still have the energy and I think I could, So I'm putting a call out to the folks at Nick: return the phone calls, have a discussion."

To learn more about it, click on the link here. I'm very mixed about this possibility of a supposed reboot to Double Dare. On the one hand, I agree that the only person who I can see host Double Dare is Marc Summers. I don't agree with Nickelodeon saying that he's too old to host the show. Some of the most iconic actors and actresses have kept their roles at their senior years. Fred Rogers from Mister Roger's Neighborhood was 72 years old when he retired from the show. Bob Keeshan was 57 years old when he retired as Captain Kangaroo. So the whole speculation that Marc Summers is too old to host Double Dare is ridiculous. He's been a great host and executive producer at the Food Network shows Unwrapped, Dinner Impossible, Restaurant Impossible, and Rewrapped.  On his spare time, he does Double Dare games for college students and even drunk versions of the game called Dunkle Dare, sometimes alongside Robin and/or Harvey. He may be older, but he hasn't lost his touch.

With that said, this isn't the first time that Double Dare has been revived for a new generation. Almost 15 years ago, Double Dare 2000 debuted to gravitate towards the kids who never saw Double Dare the first time. However, it was critically panned by many viewers with it not being as good as the original. Eventually the show was cancelled after a few months due to poor ratings. While Jason Harris was a decent host, he was no Marc Summers. Plus, they added in a new segment called "The Triple Dare Challenge" which makes the Physical Challenge more difficult, yet if it succeeds, the team would get triple the points. This was one of the worst things they added into Double Dare 2000 that was not needed. Other than that, this revival played it way too safe being exactly the same as the original. With that, Double Dare 2000 has pretty much faded into obscurity with the original Double Dare still remembered in fondness. 

That got me thinking. If Marc Summers plans on rebooting Double Dare, what new things will he add to make the new generation intrigued? My main problem with Double Dare 2000 was that it was the same as the original. I don't think doing the same thing with having Marc Summers back is the answer. Ok, yes, it's what everyone wanted in the first place, but there has to be some new ideas implemented into this reboot to attract the people who didn't grow up with Double Dare. Maybe some new challenges, new questions, new prizes, maybe a celebrity guest here and there, and bringing back Robin and Harvey for a couple of episodes. Knowing Marc, I know he can make it work.

Here's the sad and ironic part, a few days after Marc Summers made his plea to no avail, Nickelodeon is planning with the Brooklyn Cyclones baseball team to do a "90's Are All That" tribute at the stadium by having Kel Mitchell do the first pitch and have random spectators compete in a Double Dare game. To know more about this, click on the article here. 

Nickelodeon hasn't acknowledge Double Dare in a very long time, not even when it celebrated its 25th anniversary a few years ago. It's such a shame. Besides You Can't Do That on Television, Double Dare was the show that put Nickelodeon on the map. It was the very reason why kids tuned into Nickelodeon other than any other channel. It would be nice if the network would acknowledge it as oppose to ignore it and bring it back in some way, shape, or form when they feel like it. Knowing Nickelodeon, they will miss on another good opportunity to bring viewers again and they'll continue to stay in their rut. Marc Summers deserves better than this and I'm glad he has moved on.

This post is brought to you by the website For Entertainment's Sake. I became one of their main bloggers for the site posting mostly Nickelodeon stuff. They also have a great new podcast called Who Loves Orange Podcasts? Please check out their stuff right here. 

-Patricia