Nicktoons is the brand name used byNickelodeon for their originalanimated series. All Nicktoons are produced partly at theNickelodeon Animation Studio and list Nickelodeon's parent company (Viacom, now known asParamount) in their copyright bylines.Since its launch in the late 1970s, Nickelodeon's schedule incorporated animated series produced by other companies. The channel did not invest in its own original cartoon series until 1989 when producerVanessa Coffey visitedLos Angeles to accept pitches from local animators.Geraldine Laybourne, the channel's then-president, greenlit three pitches for full series. On August 11, 1991, the three cartoons premiered as part of a 90-minute block, becoming the first branded Nicktoons. In contrast to the merchandise-based cartoons that dominated the 1980s animation industry, Vanessa Coffey and Geraldine Laybourne agreed that the Nicktoons should be creator-driven: based on original characters designed by animators.
The first Nicktoons debuted to financial success, convincing Viacom to invest in original animated shows for its other networkMTV. Until 1998, Nickelodeon's animation division operated out of a rented office complex inStudio City, California. Production moved to an individual building in nearbyBurbank on March 4, 1998. Among the first shows produced at this new facility wasSpongeBob SquarePants, which by 2004 had become the most profitable Nickelodeon program. In 2002, a cable channel also calledNicktoons was launched, followed by multiple international versions. Several original shows have premiered new episodes on the channel.
In the early 2010s, Nickelodeon debuted the first two Nicktoons based on preexisting television franchises, as opposed to new characters:Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles andWinx Club. These two revamped shows were developed at Nickelodeon Animation Studio following Viacom's purchases of both properties. In 2019, Nick Animation debuted its first streaming-exclusive Nicktoon,Pinky Malinky, which was released onNetflix rather than television. Several months later, the studio announced a multi-year deal to produce animated content for Netflix, including new properties andspin-offs of previous Nicktoons.
Nickelodeon's first original animated program,Video Dream Theatre, was left unaired.[1] It was produced over a half-year period in 1979, when the network hired its future presidentGeraldine Laybourne to make two pilots for the show.Video Dream Theatre used animation to visualize children's dreams in different styles, such ascolor Xerox.[2] According to an interview with Laybourne herself, Nickelodeon did not broadcast the show because it was deemed too frightening; she commented, "the trouble with kids' dreams is they're really scary. It's a lot about abandonment, it's a lot about suffocation. They don't make very good stories."[3]
The network did not have its own original animated series, and mainly aired animated shows from other companies. Two years before the launch of the brand, the network had a compilation show titled "Looney Tunes on Nickelodeon" (which consisted of the Warner Bros. owned post-1948 Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies cartoons that would feature the cartoons melded with Nickelodeon idents and bumpers, the shorts would later move to Cartoon Network in the late 1990s), The network continued to only broadcast externally produced animation until almost a decade later, when animatorRalph Bakshi pitched an original animated series calledTattertown. In 1988, a half-hour pilot episode was produced, overseen by Debby Beece (Nickelodeon's senior vice president of programming). Nickelodeon declined to pick up a full series, and the pilot "Christmas in Tattertown" premiered on December 21, 1988, as a standalone Christmas special. The network's next attempt at an original animation wasNick's Thanksgiving Fest, which was composed of two shorts. According toLinda Simensky, the Thanksgiving shorts "gave Nickelodeon executives the confidence they needed to get the animation department started".[4]
During production ofNick's Thanksgiving Fest in 1989, Geraldine Laybourne held a meeting at her house to develop a philosophy for the channel's original cartoons. She played tapes of current animated shows, which her colleagues viewed as merchandise-driven and overly commercial. The group decided that Nickelodeon should aim for the opposite of their contemporaries, producing cartoons that would keep their creators in a key creative role rather than prioritizing an efficient "assembly line" process.[5]
Everybody else was doing toy-driven stuff and it was garbage. It's hard to create a character out of a toy for a lot of reasons. You have limited time to produce because you have to get the thing out when the product hits the market. How about, instead, we do this radical thing of looking around the country for animators who have great characters living inside them?
Geraldine Laybourne laid out a set of rules for the network's cartoons, most importantly wanting to "put the creator back, front and center."[5] She approached her fellow executiveVanessa Coffey to find artists in Los Angeles interested in pitching original cartoons. Coffey had experience working in animation and was the producer forNick's Thanksgiving Fest in 1988.[6] Laybourne gave Coffey "pretty much free rein to look for properties".[7]
Vanessa Coffey rented an apartment in Los Angeles for two weeks and accepted hourly pitches. She mailed animators a call for submissions, which she summarized as "I'm looking for ideas, I'm looking for concepts. The less developed, the better. I want drawings, not a big pitch."[8] As Coffey accepted pitches, she decided that she did not want a "consistent look like Disney",[8] specifically searching for projects that had completely different styles from each other.[citation needed]
Of the pitches she accepted, Coffey decided to approve eight six-minute pilots at a cost of $100,000 each. Laybourne would eventually select three pilots to expand into full series, which wereDoug,Rugrats, andThe Ren & Stimpy Show. meant to fill a programming block of an hour and a half. The first Nicktoon that Coffey approved wasJim Jinkins'Doug, followed byArlene Klasky andGabor Csupo'sRugrats. The final pitch that went to series came fromJohn Kricfalusi, who presented a variety show titledYour Gang[9] with a live-action host presenting different cartoons, each cartoon parodying a different genre.Ren and Stimpy were pets of one of the children inYour Gang. Coffey was dissatisfied with most of the pitch but did like Ren and Stimpy, singling them out for their own series.[9] Both Coffey and Laybourne allowed the three shows to enter development. Between the pilots and series' production, Vanessa Coffey was named Nickelodeon's Vice President of Animation.[7]
In fall 1992, Nickelodeon fired John Kricfalusi. Coffey and Laybourne asserted that Kricfalusi was in breach of contract for not delivering on time, creating inappropriate content, and going over budget.[10] Kricfalusi suspected the real reason was that the network was uncomfortable with more crude humor.[11] After Kricfalusi and Nickelodeon missed several promised new-episode delivery and air dates, the network—which had purchased the rights to theRen & Stimpy characters from Kricfalusi—negotiated a settlement with him.[11] Production onRen & Stimpy moved to Nickelodeon's animation department, Games Animation, and the show was put under the creative supervision ofBob Camp.[12] Coffey soon stepped down as animation vice president for Nickelodeon to pursue her own projects. She was replaced by Mary Harrington, a Nickelodeon producer who moved out from New York to help run the Nicktoons division after Kricfalusi was fired.[12]
At the time, the Nicktoons were produced primarily out-of-house atJumbo Pictures (Doug) andKlasky Csupo (Rugrats), with Nickelodeon's executives overseeing development. Hoping to concentrate production under one roof, Nickelodeon greenlit its first fully-in-house series,Rocko's Modern Life, in 1992. A budget freeze in 1995 at Viacom (parent company of Nickelodeon) resulted inRen & Stimpy being canceled that same year and the network passing on the final 13 episodes of their option forDoug. Jinkins sold Jumbo Pictures toDisney in 1996, movingDoug over toABC andToon Disney as a result. Nickelodeon retained the rights to the 52 episodes produced between 1991 and 1994 as a part of the agreement.[13] Rugrats was cancelled by the network in 1994, but would later be revived as two holiday specials aboutHanukkah andThe Passover before being revived in 1997 and airing until 2004, after that the Nickelodeon-Klasky/Csupo relationship would later continue until the 2010s, with shows such asAaahh! Real Monsters in 1994(which centred on monsters who constantly scare people all the time),The Wild Thornberrys in 1998(which centred around a girl who a special power where she could talk to animals),Rocket Power in 1999(which centred on four troublesome Californian kids who are talented atextreme sports such asskateboarding andsurfing),As Told By Ginger in 2000 (which centred on a teenage girl trying to be popular) and a Rugrats spinoffAll Grown Up! in 2003 (which featured the characters as teenagers).
In 1996,Albie Hecht, then-president of Film and TV Entertainment for Nickelodeon, met with Nickelodeon artists to brainstorm an idea for a new Nicktoons studio. Nickelodeon's new facility, named Nickelodeon Animation Studio, would eventually open on March 4, 1998; Hecht said, "For me, this building is the physical manifestation of a personal dream, which is that when people think of cartoons, they'll say Nicktoons."[14]
In June 1997, Nickelodeon began a five-year, $350 million investment into original animation.[15] As part of this effort, the company doubled its animation staff and produced many new pilots, including one forSpongeBob SquarePants. Before commissioningSpongeBob SquarePants as a full series, Nickelodeon executives insisted that it would not be popular unless the main character was a child who went to school, with his teacher as a main character. The show's creator,Stephen Hillenburg, recalled in 2012 that Nickelodeon told him, "Our winning formula is animation about kids in school... We want you to put SpongeBob in school."[16] Hillenburg was ready to "walk out" on Nickelodeon and abandon the series, since he wanted SpongeBob to be an adult character. He eventually compromised by adding a new character to the main cast,Mrs. Puff, who is a boat-driving teacher. Hillenburg was happy with the compromise and said, "A positive thing for me that came out of it was [how it brought] in a new character, Mrs. Puff, who I love."[16]
According to Nickelodeon writerMicah Wright, the series pickups for bothSpongeBob andCatDog were announced on the same day in 1997. Nickelodeon's senior vice president,Kevin Kay, confirmed to the animation studio's creative team that it had greenlit 100 episodes (200 individual segments) ofCatDog and six episodes (twelve segments) ofSpongeBob.[17] Nickelodeon believedCatDog had the potential to be its next breakout hit, and their order represented an investment of $50 million into the series alone.[17] Stephen Hillenburg was doubtful that his show would last, and he stated in 2009: "I was thinking if we could make a pilot, then we'd have one episode and have accomplished that. Then I thought if it did go to a full season that we'd get twelve chances to write stories and that might be it... that we'd make twelve shows and get canceled."[18]
In 1998, Nickelodeon premieredOh Yeah! Cartoons, which was intended as a "character laboratory" to test out cartoon characters.[19] CreatorFred Seibert described the show as an experiment into a seven-minute format that Nickelodeon generally avoided; he said, "they were very willing to try an experiment to see how it would work."[20] The series eventually yielded three half-hourspin-offs based on segments from the show:The Fairly OddParents,ChalkZone, andMy Life as a Teenage Robot. 1998 also marked the release of the first feature film based on a Nicktoon:The Rugrats Movie, which became the first non-Disney animated film to gross over $100 million at the North American box office.[21] On December 8, Nickelodeon'smovie division greenlit theatrical adaptations ofHey Arnold! andThe Wild Thornberrys, less than a month afterRugrats opened in theaters.[22]
At the turn of the millennium, Nickelodeon noticed that a new competitor,Cartoon Network, was attracting some of its 11–15 year old demographic. Desiring a cartoon suited for older viewers,[23] Nickelodeon producer Mary Harrington contactedJhonen Vasquez for a series pitch after reading hisSquee! comic books. Vasquez pitchedInvader Zim, which satisfied Nickelodeon's requests for "something 'edgy'."[24]
In the early 2000s, Nickelodeon briefly continued its strategy of adapting Nicktoon franchises into theatrical features. Executives at the company's movie division decided to reconsider this approach after several films (Hey Arnold!: The Movie andRugrats Go Wild) were met with poor financial and critical reception. According to theChicago Tribune, Nickelodeon believed theHey Arnold! movie "didn't just fail but actually tarnished one of the company's best selling points: its trustworthy brand name."[25] Aside fromSpongeBob SquarePants films, Nickelodeon Movies stopped producing animated theatrical features based on their shows.[25]
In February 2005, high ratings fromButch Hartman's two Nicktoons (The Fairly OddParents andDanny Phantom) convinced the network to sign a multi-year deal with Hartman.[26] As part of the agreement, Hartman developed original animated and live-action concepts for Nickelodeon and its sister channel,Noggin. In a statement, Hartman said, "Working with everyone at Nickelodeon over the past several years has been hugely satisfying and I look forward to forging the same kind of terrific creative alliances with the folks at Noggin".[26]
Nickelodeon also sought out a new action-adventure cartoon after commissioning severalanime-inspired pilots that "didn't go anywhere", according to aNew York Times article.[27] By 2002, Nickelodeon had rejected multiple Japanese series, considering them derivative or too mature for the channel's target audience.[27] In response,Bryan Konietzko andMichael Dante DiMartino pitchedAvatar: The Last Airbender, and Nickelodeon ordered six episodes of the show.Avatar premiered in February 2005 to high ratings, after which Nickelodeon increased its order to 13 episodes and again to 20.[27]
In October 2006,DreamWorks Animation (who was then in a distribution deal with Nickelodeon's corporate sisterParamount Pictures) announced that it would partner to co-produce animated shows with the channel.[28] The partnership resulted in three CGI-animated shows based on DreamWorks' character library:The Penguins of Madagascar (2008),Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness (2011), andMonsters vs. Aliens (2013).
In October 2009 and September 2010, respectively, Viacom broughtTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles andWinx Club into the Nickelodeon family by purchasing both franchises. Nickelodeon Animation Studio produced a newCGI-animatedTurtles series[29] and new seasons ofWinx Club with CGI sequences.[30]TMNT andWinx were both inducted into the Nicktoons franchise after Nickelodeon launched them.[31] The two productions comprised Nickelodeon's strategy to reboot two established brands for new viewers:TMNT was intended to reach an audience of boys aged 6 to 11, andWinx was aimed at the same age group of girls. In February 2011, Viacom bought out a third ofRainbow SpA,[32] the Italian animation studio that introducedWinx Club. The purchase was valued at 62 million euros (US$83 million)[33] and led to new shows being co-developed by Rainbow and Nickelodeon, includingClub 57[34] and a pilot for theNickelodeon Animated Shorts Program called "Crazy Block".[35]
In the early 2010s, Nickelodeon executives searched for independent animations on the Internet, looking for original ideas.Chris Viscardi, who would later become Nickelodeon Animation's senior vice president, stated that the studio desired to "[get] back to more creator-driven things."[36] Nickelodeon eventually came across two animations they enjoyed:The Forest City Rockers (a short series by Jay Howell and Jim Dirschberger) andBreadwinners (a stand-alone short by Gary DiRaffaele andSteve Borst). Howell and Dirschberger were recruited to developSanjay and Craig while DiRaffaele and Borst were asked to expand theirBreadwinners short into afull series.[37]Sanjay and Craig premiered first, on May 25, 2013. After its debut,Los Angeles Times critic Robert Lloyd optimistically compared the show to the Nicktoons of the 1990s, writing that "the goofy and delightful series ... represents a positive step back for the network to where it once belonged."[36]
In the late 2010s, Nickelodeon revived three existing Nicktoons IP as one-off movies, includingHey Arnold!: The Jungle Movie,Rocko's Modern Life: Static Cling, andInvader Zim: Enter the Florpus. The first aired on the Nickelodeon channel in November 2017, while the latter two premiered in August 2019 on Netflix.[38] Jhonen Vasquez, the creator ofInvader Zim, stated in 2019 that the studio's support for the revival films waned due to a shift in management: "We had an immense amount of support throughout most of the production. Things just turn on a dime, people get axed, new people come in."[39]
In 2019, Nickelodeon began to shift from focusing only on cable broadcasting to what it describes as a "studio model" that provides content for third-party companies.[40] The decision was made based on the sharp decline of cable viewership due to the rise ofstreaming services.[40] As part of this strategy, Nickelodeon announced that the seriesPinky Malinky would release onNetflix as "the first straight-to-Netflix Nicktoon".[41] The series premiered on the platform on January 1, 2019. On November 13, 2019, Nickelodeon expanded their relationship with Netflix with the announcement of a multi-year output deal, under which Nickelodeon Animation Studio will produce "original animated feature films and TV series based on both new and existingIP".[42] On February 21, 2020, Nickelodeon'sGlitch Techs premiered on Netflix, becoming the second Nicktoon to receive a digital-only release.[43]
Note: Animated series made for Nickelodeon's other brands (namelyNick Jr. andNick at Nite) are not included in this list.
| Title | Premiere date |
|---|---|
| Video Dream Theatre | Produced from 1979 to 1980; unaired |
| Christmas in Tattertown | December 21, 1988 |
| Nick's Thanksgiving Fest | November 22, 1989 |
| # | Title | Seasons | Episodes | Premiere date | Finale date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Doug[note 1] | 4[note 1] | 52 | August 11, 1991 | January 2, 1994 |
| 2 | Rugrats | 9 | 172 | August 1, 2004 | |
| 3 | The Ren & Stimpy Show[note 2] | 5 | 52 | December 16, 1995 | |
| 4 | Rocko's Modern Life | 4 | 52 | September 18, 1993 | November 24, 1996 |
| 5 | Aaahh!!! Real Monsters | 4 | 52 | October 29, 1994 | November 16, 1997 |
| 6 | Hey Arnold! | 5 | 100 | October 7, 1996 | June 8, 2004 |
| 7 | KaBlam! | 4 | 48 | October 11, 1996 | May 27, 2000 |
| 8 | The Angry Beavers | 4 | 62 | April 19, 1997 | May 26, 2001 |
| 9 | CatDog | 4 | 68 | April 4, 1998 | June 15, 2005 |
| 10 | Oh Yeah! Cartoons | 3 | 34 | July 18, 1998 | August 30, 2002 |
| 11 | The Wild Thornberrys | 5 | 91 | September 1, 1998 | June 11, 2004 |
| 12 | SpongeBob SquarePants | 16 | 321 | May 1, 1999 | present |
| 13 | Rocket Power | 4 | 71 | August 16, 1999 | July 30, 2004 |
| 14 | As Told by Ginger | 3 | 60 | October 25, 2000 | November 14, 2006 |
| 15 | The Fairly OddParents | 10 | 172 | March 30, 2001 | July 26, 2017 |
| 16 | Invader Zim | 2 | 27 | August 19, 2006 | |
| 17 | Action League Now! | 1 | 12 | November 18, 2001 | February 10, 2002 |
| 18 | ChalkZone | 4 | 40 | March 22, 2002 | August 23, 2008 |
| 19 | The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius | 3 | 61 | July 20, 2002 | November 25, 2006 |
| 20 | All Grown Up! | 5 | 55 | April 12, 2003 | August 17, 2008 |
| 21 | My Life as a Teenage Robot | 3 | 40 | August 1, 2003 | May 2, 2009 |
| 22 | Danny Phantom | 3 | 53 | April 3, 2004 | August 24, 2007 |
| 23 | Avatar: The Last Airbender | 3 | 61 | February 21, 2005 | July 19, 2008 |
| 24 | Catscratch | 1 | 20 | July 9, 2005 | February 10, 2007 |
| 25 | The X's | 1 | 20 | November 25, 2005 | November 25, 2006 |
| 26 | El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera | 1 | 26 | February 19, 2007 | September 13, 2008 |
| 27 | Tak and the Power of Juju | 1 | 26 | August 31, 2007 | January 24, 2009 |
| 28 | Back at the Barnyard | 2 | 52 | September 29, 2007 | November 12, 2011 |
| 29 | The Mighty B! | 2 | 40 | April 26, 2008 | June 18, 2011 |
| 30 | The Penguins of Madagascar[note 3] | 3 | 80 | November 28, 2008 | December 19, 2015 |
| 31 | Random! Cartoons[note 4] | 1 | 13 | December 6, 2008 | December 20, 2009 |
| 32 | Fanboy & Chum Chum | 2 | 52 | October 12, 2009 | July 12, 2014 |
| 33 | Planet Sheen | 1 | 26 | October 2, 2010 | February 15, 2013 |
| 34 | T.U.F.F. Puppy | 3 | 60 | April 4, 2015 | |
| 35 | Winx Club[note 5] | 3[note 5] | 78 | June 27, 2011 | April 10, 2016 |
| 36 | Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness[note 3] | 3 | 80 | September 19, 2011 | June 29, 2016 |
| 37 | The Legend of Korra | 4 | 52 | April 14, 2012 | December 19, 2014 |
| 38 | Robot and Monster | 1 | 26 | August 4, 2012 | March 4, 2015 |
| 39 | Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles[note 6] | 5 | 124 | September 28, 2012 | November 12, 2017 |
| 40 | Monsters vs. Aliens[note 3] | 1 | 26 | March 23, 2013 | February 8, 2014 |
| 41 | Sanjay and Craig | 3 | 60 | May 25, 2013 | July 29, 2016 |
| 42 | Breadwinners | 2 | 40 | February 17, 2014 | September 12, 2016 |
| 43 | Harvey Beaks | 2 | 52 | March 28, 2015 | December 29, 2017 |
| 44 | Pig Goat Banana Cricket | 2 | 40 | July 16, 2015 | August 11, 2018 |
| 45 | The Loud House | 8 | 284 | May 2, 2016 | present |
| 46 | Bunsen Is a Beast | 1 | 26 | January 16, 2017 | February 10, 2018 |
| 47 | Welcome to the Wayne | 2 | 30 | July 24, 2017 | May 31, 2019 |
| 48 | The Adventures of Kid Danger | 1 | 10 | January 15, 2018 | June 14, 2018 |
| 49 | Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles[note 6] | 2 | 39 | July 20, 2018 | August 7, 2020 |
| 50 | Pinky Malinky[note 7] | 3 | 60 | January 1, 2019 | July 17, 2019 |
| 51 | The Casagrandes | 3 | 60 | October 14, 2019 | September 30, 2022 |
| 52 | It's Pony | 2 | 40 | January 18, 2020 | May 26, 2022 |
| 53 | Glitch Techs[note 8] | 2 | 19 | February 21, 2020 | August 17, 2020 |
| 54 | Kamp Koral: SpongeBob's Under Years[note 9] | 2 | 39 | March 4, 2021 | July 10, 2024 |
| 55 | Rugrats[note 10] | 2 | 46 | May 27, 2021 | present |
| 56 | The Patrick Star Show | 4 | 64 | July 9, 2021 | |
| 57 | Middlemost Post | 2 | 33 | October 21, 2022 | |
| 58 | Star Trek: Prodigy[note 11] | 2 | 40 | October 28, 2021 | July 1, 2024 |
| 59 | Big Nate[note 11] | 2 | 52 | February 17, 2022 | August 26, 2024 |
| 60 | Monster High | 2 | 50 | October 6, 2022 | October 24, 2024 |
| 61 | Transformers: EarthSpark[note 11] | 3 | 44 | November 11, 2022 | present |
| 62 | Rock Paper Scissors | 1 | 20 | February 11, 2024 | |
| 63 | The Fairly OddParents: A New Wish[46][47] | 1 | 20 | May 17, 2024 | August 8, 2024 |
| 64 | Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles[note 6] | 1 | 12 | August 9, 2024 | present |
| 65 | Max & the Midknights[48][49][50] | 1 | 10 | October 30, 2024 | |
| 66 | Wylde Pak | 1 | 26 | June 6, 2025 |
| # | Title | Episodes | Premiere date | Finale date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Making Fiends[note 4] | 6 | October 4, 2008 | November 1, 2008 |
| 2 | Rugrats Pre-School Daze | 4 | November 16, 2008 | December 7, 2008 |
| 3 | Middle School Moguls | 4 | September 2, 2019 | September 29, 2019 |
| Title | Premiere date | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| Avatar: Seven Havens | TBA | [1] |
