Two Words, One Answer.
Nickelodeon television
 Nickelodeon Nation: The History, Politics, and Economics of America's Only TV Channel for Kids $21.00 Nickelodeon is the highest rated daytime channel in the country, and its cultural influence has grown at an astounding pace. Why are Nickelodeon shows so popular? How are they developed and marketed? And where do they fit in the economic picture of the children's media industry? Nickelodeon Nation, the first major study of the only TV channel just for children, investigates these questions. Intended for a wide range of readers and illustrated thorughout, the essays in Nickelodeon Nation are grouped into four sections: economics and marketing; the production process; programs and politics; and viewers. The contributors?who include a former employee in Nick's animation department, an investigative journalist, a developmental pyschologist who helped develop Blue's Clues, and television and cultural studies scholors?show how Nickelodeon succeeds, in large part, by simultaneously satisfying both children and adults. For kids, Nick offers gross-out jokes and no-holds-barred goofiness, while for adults it offers a violence-free world, ethnic and racial diversity, and gender parity. Nick gives kids the fun they want by gently violating adult ideas of propriety, and satisfies adults by conforming to their vision of "quality" children's programming. Nickelodeon Nation shows how, in only twenty years, Nickelodeon has transformed itself from the "green vegetable network"?distasteful for kids but "good for them," according to parents?into a super-cool network with some of the most successful shows on the air. This ground-breaking collection fills a major gap in our understanding of both contemporary children's culture and the television industry. Contributors include: Daniel R. Anderson, Sarah Banet-Weiser, Henry Jenkins, Mark Langer, Vicki Mayer, Susan Murray, Heather Hendershot, Norma Pecora, Kevin S. Sandler, Ellen Seiter, Linda Simensky, and Mimi Swartz.  Nickelodeon Spongebob Cuddly Wrap $16.99 Sponge Bob Spongebob Squarepants Catch of the Day Cuddly Wrap Blanket With Sleeves - Just like seen on TV! Best friends Spongebob and Patrick adorn this plush 100% polyester, wrap blanket. This cuddly throw easily wraps around your youngster and fastens with snaps. This vibrant throw measures 51X43. Great for any child who love Spongebob & Nickelodeon and wants to stay warm this winter season.  Doug Season 3 (3 Disc Set) $35.98 WOW! I'm so glad to see this will be coming available. I was ecstatic to pre-order Doug seasons one and two from Amazon's Made On Demand DVD Create A Space. Watching the first two seasons took me right back to my childhood and reminded me how truly fun and well written children's television used to be. After watching those first two seasons I began to worry, Amazon had a history of making available the first couple seasons of a Nickelodeon series and then giving no news on further seasons. I can't say how happy I am to hear that Doug's next two seasons will be coming available so quickly. The third season contains the following 26 eleven minute episodes (13 full half hour episodes altogether): 27 Doug's Fat Cat/ Doug and Patti P.I. 28 Doug is Slave for a Day/Doug Rocks the House 29 Doug's Comic Collaberation/Doug's Pet Capades 30 Doug's Career Anxiety/Doug's Big Brawl 31 Doug's Huge Zit/Doug Flies A Kite 32 Doug and the Weird Kids/Dougs Behind the Wheel 33 Doug's New Teacher/Doug On First 34 Doug's Cartoon/ Doug's Monster Movie 35 Doug's Hot Property/Doug the Little Liar 36 Doug Inc./Doug's Nightmare on Jumbo Street 37 Doug's Shock Therapy/Doug Is Hamburger Boy 38 Doug and the Yard of Doom/Doug's Garage Band 39 Doug's Great Beet War/Doug's Magic Act This is such a well written show. A lot of shows nowadays aimed at preteens focus too much on the wrong things. They still try to have a lot lessons, I'll give them credit for that, but they always make the main character's lives too perfect, more perfect than I feel your average preteen feels their life is. They've stopped trying to give the audience something to relate to and started giving a young impressionable audience something to buy into like Hannah Montana, Sonny with a Chance, Suite Life, and Sutie Life on Deck, all shows where the main characters have these unbelievably amazing lifestyles. Even That's So Raven starred a girl with special powers. Shows nowadays, in my opinion, are rarely about relating to the common experience most of us have of feeling like underdogs, slightly out of place and just wanting so badly for a few things to go right. Doug is such a show and deserves credit for being such, it relates to it's audience but never patronizes to us and takes every issue as seriously as we did or might have at that age. Anyone who may be worried about the quality of these episodes because they are DVD-R, I wouldn't. Like I've stated, I own the first two seasons of this show on Amazon DVD-R and they play great on all my DVD players. On top of that I own several other Nickelodeon series released on DVD-R such as Rugrats, Hey Arnold! and Rocko's Modern Life and they all play great. I tend to be a rather uptight person about things feeling 'of quality' and have never been bothered by these sets. The episode quality is that or better of the shows when they originally aired in the nineties. That said the sets do have very simple DVD menus and come in very simple DVD cases with rather basic artwork but it all looks nice enough and gets the job done. My only issue with these Nickelodeon sets, me being a purist, is that I would prefer the option of watching the opening theme before every episode but on these sets it only plays before the first episode on each disc. I believe they do this to preserve the quality of the episodes because of compression issues that could start arising and I'm aware that most people skip show openings anyway, so that said it's forgivable (despite the fact that this show's theme is so great). The other thing is not to expect any sort of special features, just the episodes themselves. Though it is a bit of a shame to not see proper DVD sets released of such a great series, if you're like me and many others and love these episodes you'll want to be able to own them and this is a great way to do it and to possibly convince Nickelodeon there would be a market for their older series in proper sets. I still hope that one day we'll see shows like Doug and Rugrats in proper sets with possible special features and remastered quality but until then I can't recommend this product enough. FIVE STARS based on the quality of the previous sets and the quality of the episodes themselves. Thanks for your time. |
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