Nickelodeon
Inducted in 1997

"Whether we're talking to consumers or cable affiliates, we always speak with one voice: The voice of kids."
- Nickelodeon

At 6:00 am on April 1, 1979, a new commercial-free, cable TV network, named Nickelodeon and billed as the young people's channel, was born. Its corporate parent then, Warner-Amex, never expected Nick to turn a profit. Rather, the company saw the young network as a showcase for the value that cable television could bring to communities. Parents quickly came to appreciate Nick's cheerful, wholesome attitude and programs. Unfortunately, the intended audience, the kids, rated it somewhere between orthodontic headgear and green vegetables.

Strangely enough, starting life as a miserable failure was the best thing that ever happened to Nick. It forced the network to reexamine its whole approach. For example, if kids didn't want what Nick was offering, what did they want?

So in a series of focus groups held in 1983 and 1984, the cable network learned that kids weren't happy about being kids, but they were even less happy-frightened, in fact-about growing up and facing the complexities of being teenagers. Right then and there, Nickelodeon was reborn.

The new idea was simple. Nick would be a safe haven for childhood - place on TV where kids could just be kids, where anything and everything having to do with being a kid would be celebrated. In a world which too often made kids feel like they didn't matter, they would be top priority. They would never be talked down to; they would be included in the creative process; they would be challenged; they would be encouraged to question; they would be surprised; they would laugh; they would be made to think. All would be done from their point of view.

A talented team of writers, producers, graphic artists, musicians and animators were told "Here's the philosophy of Nick. What should it look like? How should it behave? What is its sense of humor, tone of voice, color palette?"

Boing! Nick's philosophy came to rowdy, funny, irreverent life. With an ever-morphing orange logo that could take as many shapes as a kid's imagination, Nick expressed its playfulness and spontaneity. Kids described Nick as pretty much in the "pizza topped with chocolate chips" category.

Because of the brand's appeal, it soon began appearing everywhere-original programming, toys, apparel, trade campaigns, and the backs of cereal boxes. And whether the network was talking to consumers or cable affiliates, Nick always spoke with one voice: the voice of kids.

Today, consistent branding, commitment to philosophy and lots of talking to kids have paid off in a big way. Nickelodeon, now having a different parent Viacom, is in 70 million homes in the U.S., and its original programming is seen in more than 70 countries. Kids watch Nick more than all other kids' programming on TV combined.

If anyone is thinking, "Wow, Nick is all grown up." Nah. They're still a bunch of kids. Always will be.