1998

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Events

  • Nick Latino goes online.
  • Klasky-Csupo opens up their own Rugrats site, which later became part of their Cooltoons site.
  • Oh Yeah! Cartoons, the 9th Nicktoon, goes on the air.
  • Nick cancels Ren & Stimpy -- by this time, it was seen only on Saturday afternoons.
  • February 6-Rugrats -- A Live Adventure, their first live show, began touring, starting in Wallingford, CT (near Hartford).
  • March-Nicktoon Studios opens in beautiful downtown [Burbank, CA]; it's the first major animation studio to open in the Los Angeles area since 1963.
  • April 3: The Rugrats' 7th season begins, not in the US, but in Canada on YTV; it would be August before Americans saw these new episodes. These episodes include Lady Luck, David Doyle's last episode, and Fugitive Tommy, Joe Alaskey's first.
  • April 4 : Rugrats win their third Kids' Choice Award in the animation category.
  • April 4: CatDog was previewed following the Kids' Choice Awards; however, it did not appear regularly until October. CatDog is the first Nicktoon to have 5 first-run episodes a week, once a day, weekdays.
  • April 5 & 6: Rugrats From Nickelodeon comic strip debuts in around 70 papers nationwide.
  • April 26-Rugrats appear for a brief Sunday-night run at 11:30PM ET on Nick-At-Nite through May 31. In July, Rugrats returned as part of Nick-At-Nite's Block Party Summer, with a 3-hour Rugrats marathon every Friday, 8:30PM ET to 11:30PM ET.
  • May 16-Nicktoons TV, a 5-hour mixed bag of various Nicktoons in 15-minute portions, debuted as a one-time special; another special, this one 12-hours long; was seen on August 15 before becoming a regular 4-hour Saturday morning series on August 22. It was discontinued in the fall of 1999, in favor of entire, regualrly-scheduled Nicktoons. During 2000, it was a half-hour, daily mixed bag of Nicktoons, thought it was mainly a rest home for Nicktoons that no longer have a series on Nick US, such as Ren & Stimpy, Rocko & Real Monsters. In 2001, Nicktoons TV lurked around Nick's TV schedule in place of Rugrats, but the only Nicktoon featured on Nicktoons TV... was Rugrats.
  • June: Production began on the second Rugrats movie.
  • June 1-Citing competition and advertising problems, Nick shuts down its German service. Rugrats would later resurface on Pro Sieben (and SAT1 in January 2000), while most other Nicktoons find a home on RTL in Germany, and SF2 in Switzerland.
  • June 6-14: The cable industry held its second annual Tune In The Kids And Family week; on June 8, 29 channels (including Nick), presented a multi-channel simulcast of Take A Moment, a variety special hosted by Melissa Joan Hart that stresses the reasons for the family to watch TV together.
  • June 16: The Rugrats Father's Day Special, the first ersatz (fake) Rugrats episode, goes on the air on Nick. It was seen only for 2 years.
  • July: Dil makes his first official debut in the press and online.
  • July 17: The Rugrats Movie website goes online.
  • August 10: Nickelodeon becomes officially available in Brazil, though a Portuguese soundtrack was included on the Latin American version since it was launched in 1996.
  • August 15: The Family Channel (US) became the Fox Family Channel, designed to compete against Nick. Many cable channels counterprogrammed with specials; Nick shown an all-day Nicktoons TV marathon (before becoming a 4-hour series on August 22), followed by an all-evening Brady Bunch marathon. Ironically, one of Fox Family's programs were Three Friends & Jerry, which was produced by Nick UK; it's the only Nicktoon seen in the US on a channel other than Nick (Doug doesn't count, as ABC & Nick continue to show their own versions). Fox Family lasted over 3 years -- in 2001, Disney purchased the channel and reflagged it ABC Family.
  • August 22: Toons From The Planet Orange, featuring animated shorts from 8 countries served by Nick, was seen on all versions of Nick worldwide (except Nick Germany, which ceased to exist by this time).
  • August 31: Nick expanded to 9PM ET with a new Nickel-O-Zone block, which involves the entire 8PM ET hour. The block and the expanded hours lasted until 9/15/2000.
  • Fall: The Aquarius Theater in Hollywood, CA, was remodelled and renamed as "Nickelodeon on Sunset". This venue is the home of live-action Nick series taped in Hollywood, such as "All That","The Amanda Show" and "Taina", as well as some concert specials produced for Nick. It is located near the southeast corner of Sunset and Vine, about 2 blocks east of Klasky-Csupo's studios.
  • September: Les Razmoket, the French version of Rugrats, returned to France on France 3.
  • September 1: The Wild Thornberrys go on the air.
  • September 20: The ill-fated synogogue Rugrats strip published in many papers; event led to removal of Boris from strip.
  • October- Nick airs a marathon of the contravestal 1970s show "All in the Family", with a warning before the episodes.
  • October 3: The Rugrats Movie soundtrack was released in the US & Canada, featuring songs from the Rugrats and various popular artists.
  • November: Blue's Clues host Steve Burns appears on The Rosie O'Donnell Show to debunk rumors that he died of a heroin overdose.
  • November 1: Klasky-Csupo's first book, The Making of "The Rugrats Movie", goes on sale (though it went on sale in October on their website).
  • November 5: Nickelodeon goes on the air in the Philippines.
  • November 8: The Rugrats Movie had its world premiere at the Mann's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood.
  • November 9: Spanish-language versions of Rugrats, Real Monsters, Hey Arnold, Rocko & Blues Clues debut on Telemundo. Nickelodeon programs were seen on Telemundo on weekdays until 9/25/2000, when they were relegated to weekdays only, to make room for a morning news program. Telemundo cancelled all Nick programming in November 2001.
  • November 15: Nickelodeon goes on the air in Japan, Malta, Russia (including the former Soviet republics) and Gabor Csupo's homeland, Hungary.
  • November 17-20: As a measure to prepare Rugrats fans for the movie, Nick puts all Rugrats episodes on hiatus for 4 days, replacing it with Hey Arnold. Even though this hiatus period was very brief, it was the first time since early 1994 that Rugrats was not part of Nick's daily schedule.
  • November 20: The Rugrats Movie opens in the US & Canada.
  • December 13: A 2-hour marathon of The Renford Rejects, a Nick UK production about a British youth soccer team, made its Nick US debut as part of the International Day Of Children's Broadcasting.
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Shows on Nick