Top 10 Classic Nickelodeon Show Openings
So you’ve heard the news that Nickelodeon in all their wisdom and glory are creating a new TV channel dedicated to their older programming! Just when it looked like 2015 was going to be the year best known for a whole pile of crap, it drops this news on our lap!
The announcement of ‘The Splat’ has had me in a tizzy ever since and to take back some control on my life I’ve started listing my favourite shows and in this case opening credits/theme tunes. If anyone from the channel is watching this all these shows (with the exception of the very first one) should all be running around the clock, all week long!
Okay enough of the ranting and on with the list…
Doug
I hate Doug! I hate Skeeter! I hate Roger and his purple cat Stinky! I hate Patty Mayonnaise and that stupid painting she did of her grandmother that totally looked a mountain in that one episode! I hate Quailman! As a kid I had no time for Doug and his stupid friends! As an adult, the theme song is deeply ingrained (alongside my hatred for him) into my subconscious and occassionally it will bubble to the surface and stay stuck in my head for weeks!
Doug, I hate you so much!
Angry Beavers
For the record I hate Dag and Norb too just not as much as Doug Funny!
Invader Zim
If you take anything away from the opening and theme tune for Invader Zim, it should be the awesomeness of Zim’s assistant and constant source of chaos, Gir!
Rocko’s Modern Life
I completely forgot that Rocko’s dog was called Spunky! I mean I thought it was hilarious the Heffer was adopted by a family of wolves but god almighty this show was not fit for children. Praise be to the writers and production team for sneaking these jokes by the censors, I don’t think we’d ever see anything like Rocko and his mates on a kids channel today!
Kablam!
This intro and theme song was just as random as the show itself! Amazing and weird but mostly amazing!
Aaahh!!! Real Monsters
Before we had Monsters Inc. we had Aaahh!!! Real Monsters but while Disney tried to show the softer side to monsters, Nickelodeon showed both! The bumbling monsters, Ickis Oblina and Krumm, were struggling to find their fearsome places in the world of terrorising children, making mistakes, having fun but ultimately traumatising children each episode! I did wish my headmaster/teacher was more like the Gromble and those heels!
Are You Afraid of the Dark?
What the hell?! Who at Nickelodeon thought this was appropriate for children?! I’ve just watched this again for the first time in long time and I had actual chills! How was I not traumatised by this opening and theme tune as a child! It’s dark, creepy and not at all what you’d expect for a kid’s TV show! God damn it! This is good!
Hey Arnold!
Before we had Adventure Time, Gravity Falls and Steven Universe to kick us in the feelings we had Hey Arnold!. It’s not the most memorable cartoon of my childhood, I can piece episodes together and Arnolds grandparents were two of the most loveable lunatics on TV at the time but the theme song was different and catchy.
Sabrina, the Teenage Witch
So close to the top spot and the majority of us probably watched Sabrina on Nickelodeon and then switched over to Network 2 so we could watch an older or repeat episode. Melissa Joan Hart was the girl we all wanted to be or the girl we all wanted to call our friend/soulmate/personal witch. The opening changed across the shows history but season one still holds a special place in my heart. I’m still eagerly awaiting the news that the big wigs at Nickelodeon have decided to give Salem the Cat, his own spin-off series.
Rugrats
I hate most of those ‘If you had X/watched X/played X then you had an awesome childhood’ memes but if you didn’t grow up watching Rugrats then I do truly feel sorry for you! The adventures of Tommy, Phil, Lil, Chuckie, Susie and Angelica were the stuff Saturday mornings and mid week repeats were made of!
You wanted to eat Reptar bars until you were full, feel the freedom of a nappy and wish your parents were as chilled as the Pickles household! To date my favourite episode is the one where the babies imagine themselves having super powers and Lil as ‘Dotted Line Girl’!
Honourable mentions go to Ren and Stimpy, As Told by Ginger, Clarissa Explains It All and The Wild Thornberrys. All very awesome shows but just missing that little something from their opening credits and theme tune.
What do you think? Agree with the list or did I go completely off the mark? Let us know you’re favourite Nick theme tune in the comments below!
Editor-in-Chief, part-time super villain and hoarder of cats. If you can’t find me writing, I’m probably in the kitchen!
