By Caroline Schneider
Editor-in-Chief
Although seniors may be focusing directly on the future, the school year presented more to them than college applications and senioritis. This year also brought a blast from the past to their early years, as Teen Nick started playing ’90s Nickelodeon programs again, beginning over the summer.
The promotion is called “The ’90s are All That,” playing off of the well known and largely admired All That, which features stars such as Kenan Thompson and Amanda Bynes.
Teen Nick made the decision to bring these shows back after noticing interest in them across social networking sites, like Facebook, which has a page called “I Want My ’90s Nickelodeon Back,” that had 1,164,883 likes as of last week.
Over the summer, when the programs first began airing again, they came on in the early hours of the morning. But it seems that popular demand got the best of the network, and now the shows are occasionally aired during the day, even starting at 5 p.m., when most older students are home in front of the television.
“I like watching shows that I used to watch in the old days,” said senior Gino LaManna, who frequently watches the programs from “The ’90s are All That.” “I just remember being a kid and watching them so it brings back old memories.”
Some students like the way the old shows make them feel.
“It’s refreshing; it’s like your childhood is being replayed to you on TV,” said junior Brandon Edwards, who started watching All That over the summer when the network aired it at midnight.
Although seniors may be the earliest ’90s kids at Northwood, everyone remembers their favorite programs. From All That to Rugrats, Northwood’s students can recall the variety of old shows Nickelodeon aired back in the day.
“All That [was my favorite] because it had the mix of everything going on,” Edwards said. “It wasn’t just the same characters, it was different kinds of skits going on; it was just pure comedy.”
“[I liked] Hey Arnold because it took place in New York and I’m from New York,” said LaManna, who left New York while the show was airing.
So why the fascination with these early childhood shows? What makes them better than the ones that are on now, or even better than competing networks such as Disney Channel? Edwards attributes his love of these shows to a lack of talent displayed on other channels when he began his love for television.
“It was either [Nickelodeon] or Disney Channel, and that’s when Disney [was] kind of [lame],” Edwards said. “[And] those were the golden years for Nickelodeon.”
Golden years, as in the shows that the network presents now don’t exactly meet par in the eyes of today’s teenagers.
“I find [the current shows] really annoying,” LaManna said. “It’s basically the same story over and over again.”
So whether it be Hey Arnold or The Amanda Show, Doug or Kenan and Kel, Northwood students in any grade remember the kid with the football head and Amanda Bynes’ Judge Trudy, and sometimes, it’s just nice to take a break from reality and revisit one’s childhood.
“I watch them now because I watched them when I was younger,” Edwards said. “I think it’s just fun to look back at what I watched when I was little.”