By The Way - Nick Knacks Episode

[@Samaru163]

It's so interesting seeing how Nickaloedeon started out. Most all of us associated Nick as that channel with amazing cartoons that later turned into sub par sitcoms, but who would've thought they ever started out with creepy advertisement like this? Keep going Greg, this is some fascinating stuff.

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

Samaru onesixthree I don't see it quite as creepy as more of an interesitng approach to suggest a person's suddent curiosity to see what is there inside the machine. Maybe it's a generational thing but don't forget most TV aimed at kids in 1979 was either Saturday Morning or weekday afternoons (also PBS).

[@only257]

Samaru onesixthree 😇📼😎agreed

[@digamejh]

And even before the "amazing cartoons," there were British & Australian cartoon imports in the 80s. This goes back into what might as well be pre-history.

[@iangraham9988]

A lot of Victorian and Edwardian designs were key to the hippie/counterculture aesthetic. So who were they marketing to? Probably upper middle class boomer parents who were ex-hippies/hippie adjunct who comfortable with the aesthetic.

[@NJ_Dsneybuf]

If you didn't know, Nickelodeon did eventually get rerun rights to _Shining Time Station_ , at least for a very short time - Nick Jr. aired some episodes in, like, 2000, to promote _Thomas and the Magic Railroad_ .

[@daelen.cclark]

“This show is about everything under the sun, everything over the sun, and also the sun.” I need to reuse that. There’s comedy in that.

[@nemalki]

You literally made magic out of nothing here, a well-done episode with a title that fits.

[@sugarfrosted2005]

*throws a nickel into a theater and a band comes out playing*

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

If there's anything to really say about Nickelodeon's initial years, it was obviously the work of an older group who were probably Depression-Era survivors who probably remembered those years well or were told about them from their elders. Nostalgia has a way of coming back in different ways depending on its use and purpose. I suppose for early Nick, it was pure kitsch value to a network undecided whether to devote time to fun, general entertainment or to be something of a cable equivalent to public television. It really couldn't have it both ways, but that battle would only really end in a few short years anyway (the first being the introduction of ACTUAL commercial breaks/sponsors in '83).

[@meyerj75]

FYI, The character Josie would look like a cross between two other people: Wynn of Kids' Writes and Sharon of Sharon, Lois, & Bram's Elephant Show. That's a tough thing to find these days as Nickelodeon was finding themselves in 1979.

[@electricmastro]

"Structured to make kids aware of the ever changing issues to be dealt with along the path of life." inclines me to think this is some sort of news program for kids. I suppose anyone's guess is as good as mine at this point. Haha.

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

electricmastro I'm getting the impression it's a lot of educational shorts, the ones that companies like Encyclopedia Britannica and Coronet were cranking out at the time. You see 'em a lot up here if you check hard enough!

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

electricmastro Just thought of this right now, but it's pretty much what I think "By The Way" was doing. archive.org/details/LintolaAdditionWithCarrying

[@aperson22222]

electricmastro My thought was that it was sort of little moral nuggets: dealing with bullies, telling the truth, saying no to drugs, etc.

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

Probably was that too. Nickelodeon otherwise had another show on at the time called "America Goes Bananaz" (also started in Columbus where it was called "Columbus Goes Bananaz"). We might get a video on that here, but who knows. It seemed like an earlier version of what became "Livewire" in 1981 or whenever they began production of that series.

[@poparena]

Just want to confirm, there will be a video on America Goes Bananaz.

[@GoingRampant]

Hey, I know this song! That's the Sharknado song! It's a minimalistic 1950s version, but it's the same melody. Also, my film teacher thought a nickelodeon was a Kinetoscope too. Interesting to see what they actually were and what might have led to the public perception of them as Kinetoscopes.

[@spencerkoelle184]

Wow. That black and white ad is just...really expected the voices of the dead to start emerging from the zoetrope.

[@DrGonzoChronic]

I had completely forgotten about Shining Time Station until I saw the image of the Jukebox characters and then a wave of memories of the show crashed over me.

[@cbschannel1cuba]

The subtitles when the 1st promo shows: Introducing: The Colonia! 😂😂😂

[@CrowRider1999]

That “Music, music, music” song is pretty catchy, so I can see why people liked it. I think for me it might be the old-timey rhythm going on, but either way I couldn’t help nodding my head along.

[@Musicradio77Network]

Crow Rider That song was by Teresa Brewer, but I still have the 78 of this. There was also another song by Teresa Brewer called "An Ild Fashioned Girl" with the "Scooby-Doo" reference if you listen to the actual Bridge of the song. That was long before "Scooby-Doo" started in 1969, and that was what Teresa was scatting during the song.

[@QUANTUMJOKER]

I've seen a drearier ad campaign than Nickelodeon's initial commercials. It's Apple's 1985 Super Bowl commercial 'Lemmings' for the Macintosh Office.

[@gannonschlader]

I looked this up, and I regret it...

[@matthewhunter1193]

I initially thought you were talking about the 1984 ad, but then I decided to look up the ad you were specifically talking about and... yeah, the vibe's pretty similar.

[@simplyjuannie5128]

I remember in grade school we had Nickelodeon as a vocabulary word, which was one of those 5 cent churn operated movies. But I wrote "Ch 54. The First Kids Network."

[@coyoteartist]

Obliviously they thought a nickelodeon was a kinetoscope with that original logo featuring the man looking into the eyepiece. However the first recorded use of the word for a business was a dime museum so it's never had a clear run of it has it.

[@amwfan88]

I just wanted to thank you, Greg, for getting "Music! Music! Music!" stuck in my head. I first saw this video Saturday when you first uploaded it and I haven't been able to get the song out of my head.

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

It does that for everyone!

[@Musicradio77Network]

That’s the song that I have on a 78, on the London label that is, not Coral. She also re-recorded this song and later released on the Coral label for a reissue.

[@twilightman2816]

I remember back around 1987, when I was in junior high school, our class performed a quasi-musical called "Nickelodeon: The Magical Music Machine". www.amazon.com/Nickelodeon-Magical-Musical-Machine-Brymer/dp/B004I7M6PS While we were singing such silver screen classics like "Pennies From Heaven", "Alexander's RagTime Band", and "Button Up Your Overcoat", not to mention that "Nickelodeon" song heard above, the musical insisted, as well, that a nickelodeon is some weird junkbox machine.

[@jsh357]

I'm in awe you have managed to make this series so interesting. I'm seriously looking forward to every single video of it.

[@PersephoneDarling28]

It's funny rewatching the episodes on lost shows after watching the videos on the found episodes

[@stephenholloway6893]

Fast foreword to December 2018 and By The Way was found.

[@WesleyWhiteside]

Because early Nickelodeon often showed short films, it's a fitting name because most Nickelodeon films were no more than 15 minutes.

[@aperson22222]

Holy shit! _George Carlin_ played Mr Conductor? How the fuck did I never notice that??

[@nemalki]

There were actually two Mr. Conductors, George Carlin and Ringo Starr. Three if you count the movie, where he was played by Alec Baldwin.

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

nemalki Ringo was used in the first season (which sorta came in handy as he had originally narrated the Thomas shorts years earlier back in the UK).

[@benjaminkellog7311]

Carlin will always be my primary image of Mr. Conductor, although I was also quite familiar with Ringo's incarnation. I certainly enjoy Carlin's narrator voice better than Ringo's, at any rate. It always felt to me like Carlin enjoyed being part of the action, making each engine really stand out and have clearly defined thoughts and motivations, whereas Ringo was just kind of there out of sheer obligation. They were both great, don't misunderstand me, but Carlin was the freaking MAN to me.

[@deeblite]

There are apparently a few clips of this that have been found, as the intro and a few host segments are now on youtube

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

I think there was a rather minor interest in that pre-WWII Americana that was quite big in the 1970's, often due in part to Pop Art's use of its imagery in certain things. Yellow Submarine sorta opened up the floodgates to a lot of odd ideas for evoking nostalgia and aesthetics within the frameset of the current Baby Boomer generation just getting out of high school/college. An ad for 7up for example used very cartoony images evoking a 1930's rubber hose aesthetic set to the tune of a familiar theater intermission song. m.kzbin.info/www/bejne/aIrPnYCMnK2JbpI Probably a more interesting choice of evoking nostalgia was a once popular restaurant chain called "Farrell's Ice Cream Parlour Restaurants", who used the early 20th Century as it's template for what it considered a good old-fashioned time. m.kzbin.info/www/bejne/l5C3gnx8bcSLsKs Similar themed family restaurants of this ilk may include "The Ground Round" or "The Spaghetti Warehouse". I think Nickelodeon's use of the name and device, let alone the song "Music, Music, Music" might be seen as the last gasp of that sort of nostalgia for your grandparents/great-grandparent's generation. By 1980 the trend for an optimistic future led by computers started to take shape (what we see today as "Vaporwave" by the remix scene). Incidentally, Teresa Brewer was born in my hometown (Toledo, OH), her song was included on an album either sold or given away at a local bank called 'We Believe in Toledo", which was where I first heard the tune, having found a copy at a Goodwill in the 80's! The album has quite an eclectic selection of pre-WWII tunes as well. www.discogs.com/Various-We-Believe-In-Toledo/release/6846588

[@mjacton]

Interesting...also, baesball uniforms relected this, with 1910s style uniforms with 1970s colors.

[@dfull]

Shining Time Station! Haha, I realized where you were going about 2 seconds before you said it. I feel so smart

[@MaliceInCandyland]

I'd say the aesthetic Nick was going for was the 90s music video for "Another Night (UK Version)" by Real McCoy. In it, flapper robots (who look like characters from Aelita Queen of Mars) watch random silent comedy shorts on a kinetoscope.

[@PublicDomainArchive1]

Give it away, give it away, give it away now.

[@LethalBubbles]

I feel like the old tiimey, kinda creepy bumpers are just like, the producer's own tastes. It gives me kind of a "tartuffe the spry wonder dog" feeling.

[@joshgellis3292]

*_"It's about matter and anti-matter!"_* I LOVE that part!

[@Lurker1979]

Tom Jackson was my favrite actor on Shingling Time Station, followed by Didi Conn

[@chubbiMommi]

Did I dream Turkey TV? I remember watching this as a kid in 1983-84 in Banning Ca. I remember out of control at that time, and the short Fishheads. Well the song. I am new to the channel, maybe you have covered it. I'll wait and see💕

[@matthewhunter1193]

No, you didn't. Unfortunately it's real.

[@cameronmarnoch5236]

Bizarrely I love the earliest days of cinema as an aesthetic. I loved HUGO. However, a whole channel is just a really daft design.

[@TedJustTed47]

this is the best! please keep them coming :-D

[@AnEndlessStrategy]

Goddamn, it's like you're squeezing water from a stone here. Real effort.

[@christopherb501]

Imagine what archaeologists with less to go on - written in dead languages - have to put up with. If the early episodes of this project teach us anything, it's empathy for the historian's entire process.

[@ChristopherSobieniak]

People in the art and advertising community especially went for this vintage/old tyme/turn-of-the-century approach, I suppose due to the length of time that passed from that point, let alone becoming something of a faded memory in the oldest of generations that were still around then to tell of what they knew. I suppose it's a more romanticized view of the past that didn't necessarily happen given what we know of history. The "Gay Nineties" is one example, often seen come up in films and cartoons during the 30's and 40's when that generation was now in their senior years. I suppose the 1910's to the 1930's probably held a particular interest to those growing up during the late 60's/early 70's when there was a sudden interest in certain figures again like the comedy stars of the silent and early sound screens.

[@spookyvillevideo]

Former tape trader? Do you still dabble in tapes? I have made some fun finds recently.

[@lamontyaboy718]

How does stupid crap channels like Jake Paul and markipier have millions of subscribers but you only have a few thousand?? You actually put care and thought, time and effort in what you do. That ain't right.

[@TedJustTed47]

excited for the next one!

[@only257]

Great 👍

[@Dragonatrix]

Welp, working my way through the full series and not just the scant bits that are relevant to me, specifically, and... now I have Music! Music! Music! stuck in my head. Thanks, y'clever, jerk. :P

[@cartooningfanart]

Love your videos. Please make more goosebumps 😊👍

[@sablelioness]

I wonder if they went with the theme based on the programming they could get - old black-and-white footage in the public domain or otherwise cheaply available. After all, if you came up with a name and theme that kids would love - but all you had was a single original program (a puppet show with shorts) and black-and-white serials... how successful would your channel be? They might have gone with the name Nickelodeon because it fit the theme then, AND it wasn't such an old-fashioned-sounding word that couldn't be tweaked later. Maybe the team behind the fledgling network was just working with the materials they had at the time. They seemed to transition out of that theme once they got more programming made within the last decade, and more people in the business were willing to put faith in this experimental new channel. =) Just my thoughts!

[@ilselindberg6557]

Now I'm not even sure that this was a Nick show, but what popped immediately into my head when you read the discription of "by the way" was this show I used to watch in the mid 90's... It was hosted by Dame Judi Dench(???) And it had a group of 13 y/o kids she would guide through a discussion of current events. The kids sat in a circle on the floor. Does anyone else remember this? I think at on point the host (was it Dench??) Was battling cancer? Anyway my thought was that maybe my mystery show was some producer recycling concepts from "by the way". But maybe the original had a mime named Josie instead of a British woman fighting cancer?

[@poparena]

I don't believe Judi Dench has ever had cancer. I'm about 80% sure you're thinking about Nick News with Linda Ellerbee, which was a current event show, occasionally had a live young adult audience (though not all the time), and host Linda Ellerbee beat breast cancer in 1992. She wasn't British, but I suppose her haircut was similar to Judi Dench's.

[@rexsexson5349]

@@poparena you are 100% correct

[@ryantimony6692]

At the 6 min mark, that's Eugene Sandow!! The Father of Bodybuilding!!

[@Fangarius]

Judging from the description, I suspect By The Way was Nickelodeon's attempt to emulate shows like The Big Blue Marble and Rebop. But also with Josie.. duplicate something CBS attempted called In the Know. In the Know was basically shorts about how things were made, narrated by Josie & The Pussycats. Which didn't last, later becoming In The News. My theory is either the show didn't take off, or perhaps producers feared their character Josie would be mistaken for the Archie Comics character, with some possible litigation issues with CBS.

[@Lynn17]

That promo with the kid in the dark would have scared the everloving SHIT out of me if I'd seen it as a kid. Glad they got rid of it!

[@cbschannel1cuba]

Yes! That was scary! Super creepy in my dreams! That was so ultra creepypasta!

[@tannith_toyart]

Ooh so are these always gonna be in two's?

[@samrtnr97]

That would be awesome as I've already watched the Nickel Flicks episode twice today :o

[@poparena]

That's the plan. :)

[@tannith_toyart]

excellent

[@rftt6y7tr]

poparena did u get a strike from KZbin so you only get 15 minute videos

[@poparena]

Seeing as my previous six videos were over 15 minutes, I'm going to say no.

[@tvguy1979]

For more information about Nickelodeon's original branding see this interview: classic-nickelodeon-fan-blog.blogspot.com/2014/02/interview-with-joseph-iozzi.html

[@literallyeverythingstaken]

i love history

[@TDudley1995]

Love the concept and the exploration into Nickelodeon's timeline, this is all stuff i was fascinated in for years (even though I was part of a newer generation of Nickelodeon). Lots of time spent on the internet in the mid-2000's or so got me interested in the earlier years of the network and the programs that were produced. I do personally, however, find it difficult to watch some/most of these episodes when you start bringing in your satirical analysis and (what I'm going to consider bad) jokes. I get what you're going for and it works for some, but for me it almost overshadows the excellent work you're doing here. I get occasional opinions/comedy, it doesn't have to be a stern documentary like something you'd see on PBS or anything. But I feel like it's done too frequently and makes for a cringe-worthy watch at times for me personally. Oh well, I'm just one man and that's my opinion. I'm thankful that you've taken the time and research to make information more readily accessible then it was for me a decade and a half or so ago. Jon QUBE has done a great service on the part of providing us with all the QUBE material, including early Pinwheel footage. You have done your own in making this series. I'm finally getting to learn something about the programs I had only known the names of (such as Nickel Flicks, By The Way, .etc) on a web page. So for that I say thanks!

[@mayofthedead6212]

How did a video on a package show turn into a video telling graphic designers not to use great war themes for kids?

[@nazishhussain2712]

Hey poparen I grew up with 2000s nickedeolodon

[@zacharybusch338]

Sound like nick news

[@Montork]

if you want to hit that feeling hard?? putmans parie emporium

[@benjaminkellog7311]

One slight problem with your "Shining Time Station" analogy, pal, but not exactly world-breaking. Stacy Jones and company, as well as the station itself, did indeed evoke the look and feel of the 1910s, but Thomas the Tank Engine and crew were explicitly not a part of that era, neither literally nor figuratively. Several official sources, including the Rev. W. Awdrey himself (the guy who wrote the original "Thomas" stories, doncha know) have stated the stuff on Sodor happens during the late '30s and early '40s, with occasional dips into the early '50s (at least, that was the case before Mattel bought the franchise, but that's way after "Shining Time" anyway, the period of most concern here). I guess you could say the classic "Thomas" theme music on the organ/calliope fits the era, but we barely ever heard that on "Shining Time." (Heck, I didn't even know that music existed until the episodes aired raw on Fox Family Channel years later; boy, was my face red!). Creative anachronisms sure are a running theme of early Nick, huh?