Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon: where your childhood never dies, but is maybe entered into a spreadsheet somewhere.
Works Cited:
The Orange Years: The Nickelodeon Story, dir. Scott Barber & Adam Sweeney. IMDB.
Consuming Kids: The Commercialization of Childhood, dir. Adriana Barbaro & Jeremy Earp. IMDB.
Slimed! An Oral History of Nickelodeon’s Golden Age, by Matthew Klickstein. Author Website.
Nickelodeon Nation: The History, Politics and Economics of America’s Only TV Channel for Kids, ed. Heather Hendershot. Publisher Website. Special appreciation goes to the following chapters/essays:
“Nickelodeon Grows Up: The Economic Evolution of a Network,” by Norma Pecora; “A Kid’s Gotta Do What a Kid’s Gotta Do: Branding the Nickelodeon Experience,” by Kevin S. Sandler; “TV Satisfaction Guaranteed! Nick at Nite and TV Land’s ‘Adult’ Attractions,” by Susan Murray; “The Early Days of Nicktoons,” by Linda Simensky; “Interview with Geraldine Layborne,” by Henry Jenkins “We Pledge Allegiance to Kids: Nickelodeon and Citizenship,” by Sarah Banet-Weiser; and “Watching Children Watch Television and the Creation of Blue’s Clues,” by Daniel R. Anderson.
“No TV Till You Do Your Responding: Nickelodeon Taps In to Children’s Opinions Via Computer, and Not Everyone Is Happy,” by Bruce Horovitz. Los Angeles Times.
“The Disturbing Secret Behind An Iconic Cartoon: Underage Sexual Abuse,” by Ariane Lange. BuzzFeed News.
Further Reading:
If you want to keep thinking about the relationship between childhood, branding, and corporate power: Kids Rule! Nickelodeon and Consumer Citizenship, by Sarah Banet-Weiser. Publisher Website.
If you want us to leave your childhood alone and need a fun palate cleanser to forget about all this capitalism nonsense: “The Oral History of SpongeBob SquarePants,” by Tom Heintjes. Hogan’s Alley.
