My childhood can be summarized like this: driveway basketball, neon windbreakers and Nickelodeon. Cartoons were (and still are) a cornerstone of my television consumption. When I saw the Klasky Csupo mural on Highland Ave. last spring I was brought back to my childhood. Night after night I’d be on the couch, with a bowl of melted ice cream soup watching these cartoons. At the time, I had no clue what the hell Klasky Csupo was or what it did, but, driving past I thought, “I might know someone who interns there.”
I don’t know what it was or how it hit me, but these characters that complemented my childhood crept into my head and I had to put their images on paper. From memory, here’s what I came up with…
AHH! Real Monsters
Perhaps one of the most underrated shows on Nick – AHH Real Monsters had a the protagonist, Ickis, with his sidekicks, the sweet Oblina, and tough Krumm, as well as Gromble, the Headmaster of the underground academy (not pictured).
DOUG
Having the main character keep a journal is one of the greatest aspects of Doug – it allows the audience to really know what he’s thinking. A missing entry, though, is the one where Doug admits that Mosquito (Skeeter) Valentine is black.
Spongebob Squarepants
Spongebob is eleven years old. This fact alone frightens me even more than his creepy buck-toothed laugh.
Rugrats
Rugrats was my “guilty pleasure” cartoon. There became a point that I knew I was too old to be watching these five kids plotting in their playpen, but, hell, I grew up with them so-to-speak. I couldn’t just stop watching. The show mirrors where it was made – from the liberal parents, to the Jewish grandparents (borscht anyone?), to the architecture (nearly identical stucco homes with red Spanish roofs line Highland Ave. near the Klasky-Csupo studios).
Rocko's Modern Life
There is an art to writing children’s programming, making it bearable – if not enjoyable – for parents to sit through the show or movie with their kids. Rocko is one of those shows that parents might like even more than their kids. The humor in this show was ahead of it’s time. Is there a doctor in the house? A cow raised by wolves, fifteen minutes of a jar of mayonnaise, the Bigheads! Hilarious.
And there are so many in addition to this. CatDog, Angry Beavers, Ren & Stimpy, Hey! Arnold, Rocket Power. The Wild Thornberrys were a bit after my time, but I’ll include them for the sake of it
It’s only a matter of time – in my opinion – until an analytical report on how Nick shows provide the perfect models for showrunning. The commonalities spanning each show from character to character are remarkable, and they all provide different worlds, premises and hooks that set each apart from the next. Someone from our generation, I’m sure will compile the annotated guide to how cartoons explain the meaning of life.
