Nick Jr.
Last week, something very big happened in the world of children’s entertainment, a major change that somehow occurred quietly and with absolutely no surrounding hubbub. Noggin—that 24-hour, commercial-free mainstay of preschool television—is no more.
Last Saturday, my kids wanted to watch some cartoons, so I immediately clicked over to Noggin to see if one of their favorite shows was on. Only it wasn’t Noggin. It looked the same—earnest-yet-misshapen mascots Moose and Zee were introducing The Wonder Pets—but down in the corner, where we used to see that familiar half-a-smiling-head logo used to be, there was nothing but the words, “Nick Jr.”
Yes, the “new” Nick Jr. channel is pretty much identical to Noggin—same shows, same mascots, same mission. But the change bothers me nonetheless. It’s not like it was any big secret that Noggin was owned by Nickelodeon. The fact that these were sister networks was blatantly obvious to anyone with basic cable. But I liked Noggin having its own separate identity.
Maybe it’s because I’m a sucker for packaging. In the same way that I’m more likely to buy a package of cookies that comes in a brown paper bag than one that’s packaged in logo-riddled crinkly plastic, I was happier sitting my kids in front of a program on a channel that was, as its slogan told me, “like preschool on TV,” than one that shares space with SpongeBob SquarePants.
The network’s old name implied brainy television, while the new one just makes it clear that this is part of the mega-media Nickelodeon machine.
So I ask, why did you do it, Nick? You had us naïve parents in the palms of your hands. But now you’ve thrown back the curtain and reminded us that Max & Ruby is no healthier for our children on one network than another. Oh, we’ll still watch. But we won’t feel as good about it.
