Author Topic: Cartoon Network vs Nickelodeon vs Disney Channel Childhood FaceOff!!  (Read 6573 times)

Let's all take a time machine back to days before we were adults in a world filled of responsability and freedom and all that comes with being older.  Before the bills and wowes :).   Back when we were a bunch of cereal eating rug rats (pun intended) :)  With nothing more on our minds than what video game we loved and also what cartoon we wanted to watch after school.   



Although some users may be before the era of the huge faceoff between CN and Nickelodeon.  All the 80s and 90s kids can attest to how much of full blown urban warfare it was. A lot of it translated over into video games as well.  Both had such amazing cartoons and I remember having to switch between channels at certain hours because both were just so fun that I couldn't just stick to one side. :D.


No matter the age or generation I'm sure we all had our favorite cartoons as kids. :).   Which were some of your faves and If you had to pick between these 3 juggernauts which would you choose?   

For disney i'm also meaning  Toon Disney and the other disney cartoins from back in the day.   For Nick I'm also meaning Nick at night for you edgey kids that stood up late to watch it lol.   Also Nick Jr for the Dora the explorer stuff and other Nickelodeon affiliates.  Same with Cartoon network.




This for me is slightly harder than picking between family members lol.   ;D     On Nickelodeon side you have cult classics like Spongebob, Jimmy Nuetron, Cat Dog, Ren and Stimpy, Fairly odd Parents, Dora, Rug Rats, Danny Phantom ect...   and On CN side you have Scooby Doo, Courage the Cowardly dog,  ed, edd, and eddy and the likes of grim adventures of billy and mandy and powerpuff girls. 


Than at night we have goodies like the King of the Hill show. The pokemon cartoons, Dragon Ball Z,  Rick and Morty ect...   And Nick gave us Drake and Josh,  ICarly.   Disney Channel gave us Wizards of Wavery Place and Hannah Montana lol.   It's such a huge cluster of nostalgia crystals for all of us to indulge in.  :)


The back and fourth seems so even to me.   But if I had to pick i'd choose nickelodeon because of Spongebob. Spongebob alone still makes me laugh till this day.  It's almost the perfect cartoon imo.   It shares the deep insight of the lower middle class squid as it deals with the tribulations of living next to an obnoxious sea sponge and his slightly slow pink starfish companion.  I love almost every episode :).


Which childhood network won your vote? 












« Last Edit: March 16, 2018, 08:03:14 pm by marvelvscapcom2 »



Both were a big thing for me, though I feel like Cartoon Network had way more impact overall with so many good cartoons.  SWAT Cats, Kids Next Door, Dexters Lab, Courage the Cowardly Dog, Samurai Jack, Powerpuff Girls, Bill and Mandy, Megas XLR, lots of stuff from Adult Swim, Toonami, and plenty of other shows and I also watched a lot of classic cartoons on there.

hexen

CN Vs. Nick Vs. Disney, eh?

CN > Nick > Disney. This is assuming total lifetime, and not just a certain period.

CN Wins because of the greater variety, with an unfair advantage in Adult Swim. It's had a slew of great originals that still hold up incredibly well like Power Puff Girls, Dexter's Lab, Courage the Cowardly Dog and Ed, Edd& Eddy. Other era shows like Cow & Chicken, Johnny Bravo, and Billy & Mandy where great two, but a tier below those for me. Modern CN had a lot of good shows, but to me they started to wear out over time... Adventure Time's first couple seasons where great, but then it went too weird for my taste forsaking the simple comedy. Regular Show I also got tired of after awhile. There was that period of many years where they sucked a lot, with Flapjack being the only standout of the time. Adult Swim is really what pushes them over, not just with all the great programming from other networks, but originals like Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Robot Chicken, Venture Bros, Rocky & Morty.

Nick is second, but it has the most stand out show overall. Spongebob Squarepants, the first 3 seasons, are quite possibly the best seasons of any cartoon ever. It had the scientific perfect mix of humor, intelligence, sneaky adult references and heart. There is perhaps no cartoon I can go back to and still laugh at as much. The later seasons got a lot less clever and funny, but there are still some standout moments. Another show that was grade A for it's first few seasons was Fairly Odd Parents. It crashed hard with THREE Poochies in the later seasons, but those first few where pure gold. Other than that you had other classic Nicktoons like Rocko's Modern Life, Hey Arnold!, Rugrats, Invader Zim and Jimmy Neutron. I'll even admit to chuckling at Drake & Josh a few times despite finding most live action stuff (even the classics) not great. Overall, less variety in classics than CN, but close because of the Godlike Spongebob.

Disney is a solid last because of a giant slice of time where nothing interesting really happened. In the late 80's early 90's you had the Disney greats like Ducktales, Goof Troop, etc. but after this period you had more than a decade of largely crappy live action shows. It wasn't until much later you got Phineas & Ferb which I only consider so-so, but gave the network some relevance. It was really Gravity Falls that put them on the map for real, and it lasted a short time... by design in a show of true artistic integrity, but it was still sad to see it go. Other stuff like Wander Over Yander and Star Vs. the Force of Evil seem like they are above average, but never pulled me in enough to check them out extensively. Disney can't compete.
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1992 - 1997: Nickelodeon: I grew up watching the original Nicktoons as well as shows like Nic Arcade, Legends of the Hidden Temple, Solute Your Shorts, What Would You Do, Family Double Dare, and Guts. There were only a few shows during these period of time I didn't enjoy, which meant I would often watch Nickelodeon all day long for hours on end. Another part of the channel I thoroughly enjoyed during this period was Snick. It felt like a more mature version of the regular broadcasting, aimed more towards teens which made it cool to me. I particularly loved watching Are you Afraid of the Dark?, All That, and Ren and Stimpy. I have super find memories of Nickelodeon during this time period.

1997-2002: Cartoon Network: While I still watched Nickelodeon during this period, it took a back seat to Cartoon Network after I had discovered it at the place my dad lived right after my parents divorced. I really liked Dexter's Lab, Space Ghost Coast to Coast, and The Real Adventures of Johnny Quest, but there were a lot of other shows I also really liked. I discovered Toonami during this time, but it wouldn't be until around 1999 that I became hooked on it as it became my daily fix of Anime which was a genre I was feverishly into in the late 90s and early 2000s. Around 2001 and 2002 I started to lose interest in Toonami and Cartoon Network as a whole and still to this day I'm not really sure why.

2002 - 2005: Disney Channel: I'm aware that this was well after the golden days of Disney Afternoon and some of the other beloved Disney Channel shows like Darkwing Duck, Rescue Rangers, and Duck Tales, but oddly enough I really enjoyed watching Disney Channel Original Movies with my siblings and as lame as it sounds even liked watching Kim Possible and Lizzy McGuire with my little sister despite being in high school at the time. My level of enjoyment for Disney Channel programming paled in comparison to how much I was into Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network during their respective periods, but during these three years or so I didn't really watch CN or Nick that much if at all.

azure

CN had Courage the Cowardly Dog, so wins by default for me personally.

CN>Nick>Disney

stealthrush

Early 90s Nick wins first, second Cartoon Network, last Disney.

rayne315

Boomerang!

nothing like sitting down and watching the true cartoons! stuff with gratuitous amounts of violence!
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turf

PRO Supporter

That Disney afternoon was incredible.  Darkwing Duck, Duck Tales, Goof Troop, Gargoyles, Tailspin, and whatever I'm missing were all quality shows!

Cartoon Network gave us the great Johnny Bravo!  It's me.  It's me.  It's Johnny B.  That cartoon rules.  Dexter's Laboratory was really funny.  I dig that one too.  Power Puff Girls was ok for me. I was in high school when all these came out.  I had to watch them when no one else was around. 

Nickelodeon had Doug, Rugrats, and Ren and Stimpy.  They were funny, but in my opinion this was the weakest lineup.

Disney>Cartoon Network>>>>Nickelodeon


Edit:  I just wanted to reiterate rayne's post
Boomerang!

nothing like sitting down and watching the true cartoons! stuff with gratuitous amounts of violence!


kypherion

I'll be in Cartoon Network's corner all day long. Courage the Cowardly dog, Grim adventures of Billy and Mandy, Code name kids next door, Ed, Edd, and Eddy are all favorites of mine. Sorry fairly odd parents, these are where it's at for me.
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wartoy

PRO Supporter

for me it boils down to two shows SpongeBob (Nickelodeon) and Rugrats(Cartoon network)
1.Cartoon network
2.Nickelodeon
3.Disney
« Last Edit: June 26, 2018, 04:41:49 pm by wartoy »

kashell

Cartoon Network > Nick = Disney

tripredacus

USA Network was the king.
Although CBS Saturday Mornings was also quite good.

In my teenage years, my main was Fox, but I could put Cartoon Network in also.

I did not have cable TV when I was growing up, so all of my watching of Cartoon Network and Nick were at other people's houses. I never cared much for Nickelodeon, and only watched Disney (or Disney XD/Jetix) as those networks/segments got the last vestiges of cartoons that once were the mainstay of the big 4.

Well Disney is dog poop so we can discount that.

Nickelodean:







Cartoon Network:












Hmmmmmmmm

Now obviously we're only discussing the 90's to early 2000's as the current offerings of both Nick and CN are dog poop.

I would have to say Cartoon Network was best. They had Samurai Jack and if you count Toonami, they had freakin' Dragon Ball Z as well - these in addition to the roster of classics like Jonny, Ed, Dexter and Cow.

for me it boils down to two shows SpongeBob (Nickelodeon) and Rugrats(Cartoon network)
1.Cartoon network
2.Nickelodeon
3.Disney
Rugrats is a Nick show.