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My Salute to Nicktoons is Finally Here!
Click here to read my article.
Continuing my Nicktoons-praising spree, I have just finished my document saluting Nickeoldeon's great animated series. This is my first salute, which I have been taking my time to work on since December, concurrently with my rant on Dodie, which is still on the way. I must admit, it was a little hard to place my opinions on these shows, especially on the ones I don't watch too much of. In the end, I'm proud of this thing. Now, for some extra dosage of my love and knowledge for Nicktoons, here are fun facts for each of my 12 favorite Nicktoons that I know by heart, so I didn't need to go on Wikipedia to hunt these facts down:
Rugrats; Created by Arlene Klasky, Gabor Csupo, and Paul Germain
Angelica (along with Chuckie) was a last-minute addition to the main cast before the show actually went into production in 1991, so that's you don't see them in that hideous 1990 pilot. Paul Germain based Angelica on a childhood bully of his own.
The Ren & Stimpy Show; Created by John Kricfalusi
John K, asked Billy West to base Stimpy's voice on Larry Fine of The Three Stooges, because he wanted it to stand out from the stereotypical "duh, which way did he go, George?"-type of idiot voice done so many times by Mel Blanc.
Rocko's Modern Life; Created by Joe Murray
Rocko was going to be yellow, but Joe changed his color to beige, because of the possiblity of people mistaking the wallaby for a banana.
Hey Arnold!; Created by Craig Bartlett
Years before he had his own show, Craig Bartlett used Arnold in a series of comic strips for his brother-in-law Matt Groening's Simpsons Illustrated magazine. Also, the football-headed kid appeared in a few clay-animated shorts during the late '80s; one was shown on Sesame Street.
The Angry Beavers; Created by Mitch Schauer
Apparently, there was a little controversy when the words "Shut up!" was censored during an airing of one episode. I forgot which one.
CatDog; Created by Peter Hannan
The crazy idea of CatDog came up after Peter Hannan observed real cats and dogs fighting each other outside. Appropriate inspiration, ain't it?
SpongeBob SquarePants; Created by Stephen Hillenburg
Steve made the character of Sandy Cheeks a squirrel because, according to her voice actress Carolyn Lawerence, he felt gulity of chasing around squirrels when he was younger.
As Told by Ginger; Created by Emily Kapnek
The Fairly OddParents; Created by Butch Hartman
Want to know the real reason why Timmy's hat is pink. Forget about what you learned from the episode "The Secret Origin of Denzel Crocker". Butch originally wanted Timmy's hat to be blue, but he ran out of blue ink, so he just threw in the pink ink.
Wayside; Developed by John Derevlany
In the 2005 pilot movie, Todd was voiced by Michael Cera, instead of Mark Randall. You may remember Cera from Arrested Development; well, I best remember him for such Nelvana shows as The Berenstain Bears (as Brother Bear) and Braceface (as Josh Spitz).
T.U.F.F. Puppy; Created by Butch Hartman
Eric Bauza (who voiced Stimpy in that hideous Ren & Stimpy "Adult Party Cartoon", Marvin the Martian on The Looney Tunes Show, and Foop on The Fairly OddParents) was the original choice for Dudley Puppy's voice. But, Butch thought he wasn't a perfect match, and then he found the spontaneously funny actor from iCarly that was Jerry Trainor.
Sanjay and Craig; Created by Jay Howell, Andreas Trolf, and Jim Dirschberger
You know how Sanjay's mom would tell him some disgusting stories from work as a nurse? Well, that came from the three creators' own mothers telling them such stories when they were kids.
Enjoy my 37-page-long salute to Nicktoons, folks. And be sure to check out my awesome slideshow for Nicktoons! More salutes very soon! With Black History Month coming up, my next one might be on the African-American animators of the industry (and not just Bruce W. Smith).
