Nickelodeon, Disney Channel or Cartoon Network? Which Kid Are You?

[Castle]

So no matter your age unless you live under a rock (or not in North America I suppose) chances are at least some portion of your childhood past or present was spent watching one of the "Big Three" children's entertainment networks. Which one is your favorite?

Me? I was always a Nicktoon's guy. I didn't care much for Nickelodeon's live action affairs. They didn't have many sitcoms, especially later on, but they did have a bunch of live action game shows and variety shows. But Nickelodeon's specialty was their Nicktoon's lineup. Rugrats, Ren & Stimpy, Ah! Real Monsters, Hey Arnold, Rocket Power, The Wild Thornberrys, and later Fairly Odd Parents and Spongebob Squarepants were the network's top contenders. Most recently Nickelodeon caught huge success with Avatar: The Last Airbender which is pretty much the last thing the network did that I never got to see. Of those, Hey Arnold, The Wild Thornberrys, Fairly Odd Parents and Spongebob were my favorites. I also watched a whole lot of Rugrats and Rocketpower by necessity because they played them constantly. I enjoyed the former far more than the latter.

I never really watched much Cartoon Network. None at all really. Their shows just didn't click with me but they were really popular with my friends.

Of the three I dislike Disney Channel the most. Disney Channel is really hard pressed to justify its existence. Here's a company known for being the masters of animated children's entertainment and they could never do television right. Disney had some of the coolest shows of yander year. Gargoyles is one of my top favorite cartoons of all time, but Disney Channel did more sketchy live action sitcoms than they did cartoons. Mostly exploitative garbage and Disney knew it worked which is why they kept doing it. But Ducktales is a top notch cartoon. Darkwing Duck is another all time great, and Tail Spin is to die for.

I can't really account for how any of these networks are doing these days because I don't have cable (GASP!) and so I haven't really seen them at all in years. But from what I can gather the general prognosis is "not good." Hopefully something will breath new life into them soon. I hear this Gravity Falls is insanely popular on Disney Channel, and Nickelodeon could sure stand to have another surprise hit like Avatar in the near future.

 

[Mido]

I actually didn't have cable myself until a bit later on, so I tended to stick with Disney's One Saturday Morning on ABC or PBS Kids. After eventually hitting the big three, I spent most of my time between Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network, but overall, I'd say the latter had me hooked the most. Two of my favorite animated series ever, Xiaolin Showdown and Codename: Kids Next Door, were huge staples at the time. Not to mention, Ed, Edd, and Eddy was a hard hitter during the time. While I liked shows on all three networks, CN had more of my favorites before it delved into the infamous "CN Real" era.

 

[Kylo Ken]

Cartoon Network cause Justice League, Teen Titans, and Toonami

 

[Dio]

So no matter your age unless you live under a rock (or not in North America I suppose) chances are at least some portion of your childhood past or present was spent watching one of the "Big Three" children's entertainment networks. Which one is your favorite?

I would come under the not living in North America category (I also dont live under a rock in case you were wondering) so I didn't watch those channels.

However I enjoyed shows such as Fairly Odd Parents and The Wild Thornberries which were played on some of our channels. So I guess I would be a Nickelodeon man.

 

[Morbid Minish]

I watched a lot of all three channels, but Nickelodeon was definitely my favorite. Rugrats was my absolute favorite cartoon. I feel like Nickelodeon was the most rounded of the three as well, with cartoons, game shows, and live-action shows. I'm pretty sure every kid in the 90s dreamed of being slimed, climbing the Aggro Crag, or solving the Shrine of the Silver Monkey puzzle. And who wouldn't want to be a member of the Midnight Society? Even into the early 2000s, Nick was doing pretty well. Spongebob, Fairly OddParents, Danny Phantom, Drake and Josh, As Told By Ginger, Invader Zim, and Jimmy Neutron were all fantastic shows.

I think Disney Channel had their best shows in the 80s/90s, but hasn't really had much going for it since then except for some live action shows and a couple of great cartoons. Though they definitely win a lot of points for the Disney Channel original movies.

 

[selicyc]

I'm actually a decent mix of all three, but...

When I was a kid, Nickelodeon was my jam. There was so much going for the channel like Hey Arnold; AAAHH!! Real Monsters; Ren and Stimpy; Rugrats and Doug that watching anything else would be blasphemous. Even the game shows were a fun romp, especially Legends of the Hidden Temple. The early 2000s were a bit of letdown, but Invader Zim and Jimmy Neutron was a pretty fun show to watch. Then there was Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra... in which Korra eventually became online only. Such a shame Nick has really fallen on hard times, with the only real redeemable cartoon on the network being The Loud House. It throws back to a lot of 90s to mid 00s cartoons on Nick.

When Nick at Nite would come on, I'd just switch over to Cartoon Network. At least something better would be on, and from there I started watching Powerpuff Girls, Dexter's Lab and Johnny Bravo. Saturday nights were Toonami nights and I'd be up late into the night watching Rurouni Kenshin, Gundam Wing and all sorts of other anime goodness. Later, there was The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy; Codename: Kids Next Door; Ed, Edd n Eddy; Teen Titans; Justice League -- really, Cartoon Network was the best place for superhero cartoons, especially since a good chunk of the DC Animated Universe was there. Then they had that weird live action phase, but now I'd argue that Cartoon Network has the best cartoons with shows like Adventure Time and Steven Universe (if you can ignore the blight that is Teen Titans GO!).

Disney never really got my attention with their cartoons because they struggled so much with them. Outside of Kim Possible; Gargoyles; DuckTales (it's coming back!!) and Gravity Falls, I couldn't get into their TV show offerings. Their original movies, on the other hand, were far superior to the other two networks.

And I'll give mention to the Fox Kids and Foxbox blocks because that was the **** growing up. I'd always wake up at 7am to watch Pokemon; The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers; Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego; Escaflowne and Digimon. Then when FoxBox was introduced there was Sonic X; Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (the 2003 version); Yu Gi Oh and Kirby: Right Back at Ya!.

 

[Feverish]

Cartoon Network for sure, shows like Billy and Mandy and KND were my favorites.

 

[el :BeoWolf:]

I use to mostly watch Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network back in the day. Nothing really caught my interest on Disney.

 

[Agent of Majora]

I watched quite a bit of both Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network. For the former, it was mostly Spongebob (which was actually pretty good back then), Jimmy Neutron, Drake and Josh, and some of the game shows. The latter had the two favorite cartoons of my childhood; Ed, Edd n' Eddy, and Courage the Cowardly Dog. I also watched the original Clone Wars cartoon and Dexter's Lab.
I never really watched Disney channel at all, because at the time there just wasn't anything worth watching.

 

[Mamono101]

I pretty much watched all three on a regular basis, but I think I watched more Disney than the others. Each channel seemed to offer a different style of kid's show, all of which appealed to me at various points as a child.

On Disney, I used to watch Kim Possible, Teacher's Pet, The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, That's So Raven, Recess, The Gummi Bears, and, more recently, Gravity Falls (if Disney XD counts). I also watched pretty much any TV show that spun off from a movie like Lilo & Stitch: The Series, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, Hercules, The Lion King's Timon and Pumbaa, Tarzan, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, etc. This list could go on for a very long time.

On Nickelodeon, I used to watch Doug and Hey Arnold!, Kenan and Kel, Rocket Power, Rugrats, Rugrats: All Grown Up! and dubbed anime like Tokyo Mew Mew and Yu-Gi-Oh! which were on Nick for some reason. One show I never got into was Spongebob though. Still can't stand that show.

Cartoon Network were shows like Foster's Home For Imaginary Friends, Ben 10, Cow and Chicken, The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, Dexter's Laboratory, Johnny Bravo, Scooby Doo, and of course, Pokémon.

 

[Djinn]

Nickelodeon primarily for years. They were the powerhouse of kids entertainment for the longest time and even then it was still the channel to leave it on when there was nothing else anyway.

I don't think I ever cared about Disney channel until later on anyway and not really until the ToonDisney/Jetix times, and even then that was mostly old Fox stuff.

 

[Link Floyd]

I watched all of them, but most of my days were spent watching Cartoon Network. ^^ My favorite shows were Powerpuff Girls, Dexters Laboratory, Totally Spies....good times. As I got older I started watching the Disney channel more frequently and more live action shows. I also loved iCarly, but that was the only Nickolodeon show I was into.