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Came across this recently and thought i'd share....it's amazing how much this network has changed over the years, but there was actually a time when cable TV did not air the same shows everyone else airs, and there was a time when they had more variety, not showing 6 episodes in a row of the same show.
Here is the Nick at Nite schedule (timezone listting is for eastern/pacific, so you might need to adjust the difference if you are not in either area)
Monday - Friday
8pm Mr.Ed
8:30 The Patty Duke Show
9pm My 3 Sons
9:30 Donna Reed Show
10pm The Best of Saturday Night Live
10:30 SCTV
11pm Laugh-In
11:30 Car 54
Midnite Make Room For Daddy
12:30 Mr. Ed
1am The Patty Duke Show
1:30 My 3 Sons
2am Donna Reed Show
2:30 The Best of Saturday Night Live
3am SCTV
3:30 Ann Sothern Show/Susie (rotating episode cycles for each show)
4am Nick at Nite Movie
This is a piece of TV history for anyone that remembers, or anyone that wanted to know how Nick at Nite...and cable TV used to be.
Not sure why Nick at Nite dropped their classic TV lineup in the mid 2000s but they were the destination for classic TV at one time.
I think what happened ultimately is that the generation who loved those old TV shows such as Mr. Ed has grown out of the key marketing demographic (the demographic advertisers love), and in order to air certain shows Nick-at-Nite and TV Land must be able to attract advertisers to pay for them.
Now the generation who loved Friends has grown into the key demographic. So Nick-at-Nite airs shows such as Friends to attract the advertisers.
Ill agree about key demographics, but what I don't understand is why do they assume once people get to a certain age they no longer matter? Where do these shows go?
Another interesting thing is Nick at Nite used to air programs that were mainly 20-30 years old. Lot of 50s and early 60s stuff on that list.
Why did they drop the format? If they kept the format we would be seeing stuff from the 80s and early 90s instead of George Lopez, and Friends... that are on many other stations.
There are so many hit shows from the 80s that they skipped right over, and people in their age demographic would like watching.
Another thing is they don't have as many shows...4 episodes in a row of Friends every night???? That cycles through the whole series very quickly.
It seems every station does this eventually. Even Encore originally started out showing lesser known movies from the 60s, 70s, and 80s before it became more of a Starz rerun. MTV stopped playing music videos so they brought along MTV2. That stopped playing music videos as well. Same with VH1. G4 has maybe an hour a day of video game programming. The rest is Cops and Cheaters reruns, maybe occasional Star Trek. The History Channel doesn't show much in the way of history shows anymore. TLC used to be a great channel with education shows and look at it now.
The funny thing is, the old Nick @ Nite schedule is what convinced my parents to get cable back in the late 80s. My dad was like "We could be watching Mr. Ed right now if we had cable!" Now my dad would like nothing more than my mom to let him get rid of cable.
You have to recognize that they have to pay for the rights to every show and even episodes. TV networks have taken a huge hit in this economy so their budget for acquiring the rights to shows has likely been cut drastically. TV shows have even gone as far as to cut coffee and wardrobe budgets for shows.
You have to recognize that they have to pay for the rights to every show and even episodes. TV networks have taken a huge hit in this economy so their budget for acquiring the rights to shows has likely been cut drastically. TV shows have even gone as far as to cut coffee and wardrobe budgets for shows.
You're mixing apples and oranges, and you're a decade and a half too late.
Nobody can cut coffee and wardrobe budgets for The Donna Reed Show or Mr. Ed; that was filmed 50 years ago. And Nick at Nite, TV Land, and other cable channels abandoned their original missions long before the economy tanked. Even long before the economy tanked three or four mini-downturns ago.
I totally agree and this is nothing new for Nick at Nite. Full disclosure: I was born in the late 80s so this lineup doesn't ring a bell for obvious reasons. But, I remember being a kid (around 7, 8 and 9 or so) and watching nick at nite with my cousin when I stayed over at her house. So this was the mid 90s. Even then they had a more varied lineup. i remember watching the Brady Bunch, Mary Tyler Moore, I Love Lucy, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, Dick Van Dyke, and more that I'm probably forgetting. By the time I was in high school (I distinctly remember this when I was heading into freshman or sophomore year, so about 5-7 years later) they only ran a few shows several times: Fresh Prince of Bel Air, the Cosby Show and Roseanne were the ones I remember the most. And I mean they ran them several times every night. It was ridiculous and really turned me off. Now I don't watch it hardly at all except to catch Full House every once in awhile, and My Wife and Kids which I find funny. Such a bummer, it was so great to watch when I was younger. I'm glad to see I'm not alone in disliking the change
It seems every station does this eventually. Even Encore originally started out showing lesser known movies from the 60s, 70s, and 80s before it became more of a Starz rerun. MTV stopped playing music videos so they brought along MTV2. That stopped playing music videos as well. Same with VH1. G4 has maybe an hour a day of video game programming. The rest is Cops and Cheaters reruns, maybe occasional Star Trek. The History Channel doesn't show much in the way of history shows anymore. TLC used to be a great channel with education shows and look at it now.
The funny thing is, the old Nick @ Nite schedule is what convinced my parents to get cable back in the late 80s. My dad was like "We could be watching Mr. Ed right now if we had cable!" Now my dad would like nothing more than my mom to let him get rid of cable.
My BF and i were talking about this not long ago. A lot of channels seem to do it. The History Channel and TLC are definitely two of the biggest culprits. I also find the discovery channel and travel channel tend to have unrelated shows on their networks, but it's not nearly as bad.
I totally agree and this is nothing new for Nick at Nite. Full disclosure: I was born in the late 80s so this lineup doesn't ring a bell for obvious reasons. But, I remember being a kid (around 7, 8 and 9 or so) and watching nick at nite with my cousin when I stayed over at her house. So this was the mid 90s. Even then they had a more varied lineup. i remember watching the Brady Bunch, Mary Tyler Moore, I Love Lucy, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, Dick Van Dyke, and more that I'm probably forgetting. By the time I was in high school (I distinctly remember this when I was heading into freshman or sophomore year, so about 5-7 years later) they only ran a few shows several times: Fresh Prince of Bel Air, the Cosby Show and Roseanne were the ones I remember the most. And I mean they ran them several times every night. It was ridiculous and really turned me off. Now I don't watch it hardly at all except to catch Full House every once in awhile, and My Wife and Kids which I find funny. Such a bummer, it was so great to watch when I was younger. I'm glad to see I'm not alone in disliking the change
Yes you are right but those are not old enough shows and those select shows that were ran several times in one night....but the demographic for classics usually anything 25 -30 years ago....if Nick at Nite kept its original format they would have had more 70s shows in the 2000s and started to focus on the 80s in the 2010s...it seemed they jumped a bunch of years and just started picking select shows and running them into the ground.
Nobody needs George Lopez 4 times a night, or Friends 4 times in a row, and My Wife and Kids is now in the middle of the night so really nobody can watch it. Aside from My Wife and Kids everything they air is on other stations, before Nick at Nite usually only aired stuff other stations did not air.
Stations like TLC (The Learning Channel) show nothing educational at all! They show reality tv shows. Another thing I notice is every cable channel now produces their own tv shows which again is against the original format of the channel.
At this point I would not be suprised if even The Weather Channel stopped showing weather and focusing on reality shows about weather instead of actual weather updates. Even some of the 24 hour news stations are no longer 24 hours, some air Paid Programming late at night and early morning.
Overall there are more channels today, but less variety, more of the sameness in networks, and over airing marathons of the same shows everyday. You can only see the same episode so many times before you get tired of it until many years later.
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