Looks like my childhood is now dead. Completely dead. You see Nickelodeon began as The Pinwheel Network in 1977, named after its flagship children's show, Pinwheel.
That show, while I was too young to even watch it, being that I was negative three years old, had an addicting theme song I would later find myself humming. So that I say Fuck you! Then after not being an educational programing channel, it went National in 1979 as Nickelodeon, and it feature this logo in a pinball.
Then in 1984, when I was old enough to not piss myself and actually give a shit about it, the logo changed to the now famous orange splat that we've come to know and love.
Now that the network has moved into a tween territory for some time, it's not really a surprise but Nick changed the logo. You see, in June 2009, the year of the network's 30th anniversary, Nickelodeon's DVD packaging and promotional material began featuring this new logo:
They sure did just slightly edit a well known font.
A part of me just died. Yup, my childhood is officially dead. Which is funny since I never understood why it was called Nickelodeon in the first place. I mean, I don't even know what that word meant. Something about me really dislikes re-branding of networks. It always feels like a vain attempt to stay hip and cool. For example, CNN headline news shortened itself to HLN. Why do you really need to shorthand Head Line News? I suppose in this case it's just a matter that there's no more gack.
I respect Coca-Cola for doing the one thing right and sticking with a single, recognizable logo design that has only slightly been refined over the years. It's still the same basic logo because it was so recognizable. Much like the Nickelodeon logo being pretty damn recognizable as well. It was indelibly imprinted in the minds of a lot of people when they were kids. Nostalgia aside, the "orange scribble/splat with the name" is embedded in pop culture pretty well. I can't think of a good reason to change it.
I suppose the times where a changing. Cartoon Network just changed its logo as well. You can just see it as The C.N. I mean, what the fuck does that even mean besides Cartoon Network. I know I haven't watched Nickelodeon in a long time. I suppose I shouldn't care anymore anyway. I don't see a reason why everything needs to be marketed to 12 year-old girls. Even if they have so much money to piss away, I don't see how it could be all that much of a market.
I guess it's a lot better than them shortening it to something crappy like NickReal so they could show crappy reality shows like Cartoon Network started doing. Nor did they go the SciFi method and just put fuckin' Y's in their name and call it NyCKyLyDyyN.
I suppose a network targeted at uneducated and often illiterate people has held on to a mouthful like "Nickelodeon" for this long. I'd have thought for sure it would have been truncated to NK or something stupid like that by now. But again, they must be learning something from Cartoon Network in that changing a great logo isn't beneficial in the slightest.
But then again, I shouldn't say that it killed my childhood. I'm tired of people claiming that something so abstract as a corporation choice "raped their childhood". Your childhood is in the past. You no longer HAVE a childhood to rape if you are not under 12. You just have memories and nostalgia and it is your choice as to whether they get altered. Your childhood does not get worse because the adult you witnesses something so tediously banal happening.
I remember watching Pete and Pete and if I remember enjoying it now I guess that no matter what logo they used, it wouldn't have changed the quality of the show. So I guess I'll just let it go. Let a logo die the death it was suppose to die.
Good bye old Nick Logo. Goodbye you beautiful bastard
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