Focus : Child by Day, Vintage Hip by Night

Nickelodeon actually is two basic cable networks living on one.

For 13 hours every day, it’s an award-winning, slightly irreverent kids network. At 8 p.m. it turns into the hip Nick at Nite, airing such vintage series as “The Donna Reed Show,” “Saturday Night Live,” “Alfred Hitchcock Presents,” “Dobie Gillis” and beginning Monday, “Get Smart.”

Geoffrey Darby, senior vice president, programming, Nickelodeon and Nick at Nite, boasts that the 11-year-old network is Rolder than MTV, older than CNN, older than ESPN, older than Lifetime. We have 55 million subscribers. We are in the Top Five of basic cable stations. We have more subscribers than MTV. We are a profitable enterprise.”

That wasn’t the case in 1979. Nickelodeon was created for children as a hook for cable companies to obtain cable franchises. “It was something that all cable operators could hold up and say we are doing something good for your community,” said Herb Scannell, vice president of programing, Nickelodeon.

“It had a lot of cable industry support,” Darby said. “It lost money, but its purpose was to sell cable franchises, so it was OK to lose money.”

But in those days nobody watched Nickelodeon, especially not children. There was no advertising and most of its 13 hours were filled with old Canadian children’s series. “At one time,” said Darby with a laugh, “Nickelodeon had more Canadian content than the Canadian networks had.”

Nickelodeon did have one original series, “Pinwheel,” which was five hours of programming for preschoolers.

“It was an electronic sandbox,” Darby said. “It had puppet segments and short films from around the world.” In 1982, Nickelodeon premiered another original series, the comedy “You Can’t Do That on Television,” which is still in production. “It was a gleaming light as what we could do as TV producers,” Darby said.

“It was a show that kids watched out of all the shows on the network,” Scannell said. “The other programming on Nickelodeon was stuff that adults thought were good for kids, but kids didn’t think was any good.”

In 1984, Nickelodeon became advertiser-supported. “America was pretty well cabled and Nickelodeon was a business,” Darby said.

The business set out to change its image.

“We created a fun home base for kids,” Darby said. “We made rules of what Nickelodeon is-Nickelodeon is kids; it’s a place where only kids win; it’s the first channel for you; it’s on every day and it’s what you want.”

Programming evolved over the years, and the network now attracts such heavyweight talents as Whoopi Goldberg, Shelley Duvall and David Lynch’s Propaganda Films.

“One of our promises of Nickelodeon was variety,” Darby said. “One of the things we wanted to do was create a channel where what you got was good old stuff and good new stuff: animation, science shows like ‘Mr. Wizard’s World.’ We also segregated a period out called ‘Nick Jr.,’ which is all our preschool programming.”

A year after Nickelodeon changed its format, Nick at Nite was introduced.

“The big issue is: What do you put on a channel that basically is a kids’ channel?” Scannell said. “Some of the realities of it were there wasn’t a lot of money at the time, so what is going to fit on this channel? There were bunch of shows kids liked in the ‘60s that had gone by the wayside. They were available and we put them on the back end of Nick. We found it was way for kids to bring parents to TV. After Nickelodeon goes off the air, a kid might want to stay with Nick at Nite. In the case of ‘Mr. Ed,’ it’s a new show to the kid and adults might want to stay with it.”

Nick at Nite’s success took Nickelodeon by surprise. “There were a couple of things that were smart,” Scannell said. “When Nick at Nite was launched, we very clearly shied away from the idea that it was going to be the nostalgia channel. It’s meant to conjure up positive memories and positive images in a way that doesn’t scream of yesterday.”

Nick at Nite recently aired its first original pilot, “The Early Days,” and will air another, “Hi, Honey I’m Home,” next month. “We are treading into production somewhat cautiously,” Scannell said. “You have to be careful about your audience. What do you put on a channel that shows ‘Donna Reed’?”

Nickelodeon recently opened its own production complex at Universal Studios in Orlando, Fla.

“Universal wanted someone who makes a lot of TV to have a permanent home there,”

Darby said. “Nickelodeon makes a lot of TV. They were looking for something to draw a kid audience to the park and Nickelodeon is kids.”

“We are on the verge of launching our first narrative series which will be home-based in Orlando called ‘Clarissa Explains It All,”’ Scannell said. “We are doing new episodes of ‘Kids Court.’ We are looking at issues that are more universal to kids that are 10 to 14 years old. It’s a good show for our studio. It’s an audience show and we have 1,000 kids coming through our doors (at Universal) every day.”