The Orange Years: The Nickelodeon Story

I grew up watching Nick and this took me right back to those good ol' after school days. Such great nostalgia! I loved it. It's a must see..

It was nice seeing some of the old shows I used to watch and how they started, but after watching this documentary about nickelodeon it's easy to see where they lost sight of what they started out as, way before sponge bob and Dora as stated in the show. When your breakout show is about kids being kids and just having fun and making fun of everything (You can't do that on television) in fact most of what the kids did in that show would not be allowed now, which is why they will never release the series. They also a few great shows after that. But once you start to guide kids thinking you will lose them. I think it started with nick news, they kind of mention it in the show that they had this huge audience now what do we do with them? Once you start manipulating kids into seeing what YOU want them to see and care about and inject political correctness into their shows, you start to lose some of them and before they knew it they were just another corporation that lost touch with its customers. Don't get me wrong they had some good shows in the later years, Josh & Drake, I-Carly and a few others but even those were best in the early episodes because they were much rawer and a little less P.C. but I suppose that happens to every show.

I came of age in the late '80s and early '90s, and in retrospect, I'm not sure there was a single more powerful influence on those formative years than Nickelodeon. Pinwheel and Danger Mouse colored my earliest memories, Double Dare and Mr. Wizard arrived a bit later, Salute Your Shorts and Ren & Stimpy spoke to me as a pre-teen... it seemed that as I grew and matured, so did the network, catering its programming to meet what I wanted or needed at that specific point in my life.

Looking back at it here, through a wide-angled lens, I was startled by how much of this material has lingered in my long-term memory banks and still, subtly, feeds my personality today. That's where The Orange Years makes its hay: coasting through a laundry list of beloved short-run TV shows and catchy pre-commercial bumpers, refreshing fond recollections in its audience while serving a dash of backstage skinny to better humanize the men and women behind this little network that could. And that's really what it was, at least in the early days: a boutique cable channel, catering to a very specific market, in an era before that was a proven formula.

The peeks behind the curtain are wonderful and inspiring - happy conversations with stars, creators and executives who are still jazzed about the product, twenty years after moving on - but the greater urge to service nearly every original property with some degree of inspection grows tiresome after nearly two hours. Should've been twenty minutes shorter.

This was a documentary that Jaime and I watched together. We started it on a Friday night, I had to leave to catch a movie at the theater so we finished this the next day. We were intrigued to see this since to different degrees, we grew up with the shows that were on the channel, Nickelodeon.

We learn here about the history of this channel. From its humble beginnings in Columbus, Ohio to Geraldine Laybourne taking over and how her approach helped it grow. This also helps to explain why it did so well and the trend that it started with being the first channel dedicated to children. Looking back on it, it makes a lot of sense. During that time, not so much. There were children and teens along with adults who hadn't made it, taking on different shows with producers who were learning on the fly. If that doesn't sound like growing up, I'm not sure what else would.

This was fun to see the likes of Danny Cooksey, Lori Beth Denberg, Melissa Joan Hart, Kel Mitchell, Kenan Thompson and Marc Summers get interviewed. I remembered these people from my childhood years. What I didn't know was that Christine Taylor, Larisa Oleynik and others also got their start on Nickelodeon. Coupling with them are people behind the scenes and hearing their perspective adds another layer as well.

What I'll say is that this is a well-made documentary. I like that it hooked me. It then gives the history and going through the different years/era. It was informative. They edit scenes and clips that helped to showcase what they're conveying. There is a bit about each of the different shows and what their contribution was to the growth. The ending was sad, since my daughter won't know the world before this channel or how it changed what she will watch in her formative years. I enjoyed this quite a bit. I'd recommend it to people my age or those interested in how Nickelodeon changed children's television.

My Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

With key characters like Melissa Joan Hart, Keenan and Kel this film is a total blast from the past and in a league of its own. I caught myself saying "I used to love that show" so much. It also takes you back to the very very beginning of Nickelodeon and gives you a fun little history lesson. I would recommend this to everyone who is a fan of the children's network. 10 out of 10 for sure!!!