9 Best Shows From Nickelodeon’s SNICK Block, Now 30 Years Old
If you were a kid in the 1990s and it was Saturday night, there was a good chance you were watching SNICK, or Saturday Night Nickelodeon.
Nickelodeon execs launched SNICK in August 1992, in an effort to capture the attention of pre-teens who were otherwise at a loss for weekend-night entertainment. “We saw it both as an opportunity to program a night that was a big thing in kids’ lives and to also steal some ratings,” Herb Scannell, who was then head of programming and development for Nickelodeon, told Vanity Fair in 2017.
SNICK ended in 2004, but the shows that took up those two hours on Saturday night will live on in the memories of millennials everywhere. So come, take a seat on that bright orange sofa that served as the SNICK mascot, and let’s relive the programming block’s glory days.
The Adventures of Pete & Pete
Two red-headed brothers grew up together and took down their nemeses in the fictional town of Wellsville in this comedy, which boasted a laudable cast of guest stars, including J.K. Simmons, LL Cool J, and Steve Buscemi.
All That
A sketch comedy show for the pint-sized set, All That launched the careers of Amanda Bynes, Nick Cannon, and the comedy duo of Kenan Thompson and Kel Mitchell. (More on them later.) And the show’s music bookers had an eye for talent, with TLC, Aaliyah, and Usher all performing in the first season.
Are You Afraid of the Dark?
Speaking of impressive talent, Ryan Gosling, Neve Campbell, and Hayden Christiansen were some of the future stars who got their scare on for this episodic anthology, in which a group of teens called The Midnight Society would take turns narrating a horror story that we audience members would see play out on screen.
Clarissa Explains It All
Never mind breaking the fourth wall — this show obliterated the fourth wall, with Melissa Joan Hart’s character spending much of each episode talking to us audience members as she dealt with typically teen-girl problems.
Kenan & Kel
Long before Thompson was Saturday Night Live’s longest-running cast member, he was hamming it up with co-star Mitchel on this sitcom. Kenan & Kel centered on two Chicago teens and the endless ways they get into mischief, often with Kenan playing the straight man.
The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo
Nickelodeon got into the crime game — in G-rated manner, of course — with this mystery series starring Irene Ng as a teenager who helps solves crimes at the local police department, much to the consternation of the cops and her own grandfather, played by Pat Morita.
The Ren & Stimpy Show
Even with humor that took a sharp turn toward adult sensibilities, Nickelodeon audiences ate up this animated show about a hot-tempered dog and a lovable oaf of a cat. In 1992, The Simpsons creator Matt Groening called The Ren & Stimpy Show the “funniest cartoon on TV.”
Rugrats
The year 1991 saw the launch of a film and TV franchise — and one of Nickelodeon’s longest-running shows — with the premiere of Rugrats, which followed the lives and imaginations of a group of toddlers. A reboot of the series is now streaming on Paramount+.
The Secret World of Alex Mack
Nickelodeon probably blew its CGI budget on this comedy, which starred Larisa Oleynik as a teen who develops unusual and unpredictable superpowers after getting doused with an industrial chemical. Some of the powers proved useful, like turning into liquid; others, like turning yellow when nervous, less so.
Rugrats (1991) where to stream
