Branding and Commercials
Nick at Nite has used a myriad of unusual and unorthodox commercials, logos and, promotions. Alan Goodman & Fred Seibert assembled a team of highly imaginative writer/producers, modeled on their original 1981 creative team that had launched sister channel MTV: Music Television. Including Scott Webb, Jim Levi, Dave Potorti, Jay Newell, Will McRobb, and Tom Hill, the group was guided towards created a series of internal campaigns to emphasize the seeming paradox of a contemporary network setting that programmed reruns from the 1960s. A series of five "promises" were organized into four 30 second spots each hour, each emphasizing an attribute of the innovative programming format.
In 1986, the channel began running a few different animated 10 second channel identifications with a similar premise that all had vastly different endings, produced by Eli Noyes & Kit Laybourne, and the Fred/Alan agency. One of them was of a couple who would bring objects for a living room onto the screen, including a couch and a television, then sit down in front of the TV. The male would click the remote and something bizarre would happen, such as a gorilla appearing. Before the commercial was over, the Nick at Nite logo would appear, somehow tied to the premise of the commercial. Others were either a woman setting up her backyard behind a "city", which was made of cardboard, or a man setting up his bedroom, and then the unusual happening. These idents were used in many different variations until 1991 when they were discarded, and replaced with updated and newer idents.
Throughout most of the 1990s (beginning particularly in 1991), Nick at Nite started running a wide variety of idents. These were made with almost every imaginable technique from limited animation, to claymation and stop motion, to original live action and stock footage. Almost every commercial had a different jingle professing Nick at Nite as being "A TV Viewer's Dream" for "the TV generation" and as coming from a place called TV Land ("Hello Out there, from TV Land!"), and promoting "Better Living Through Television" and proclaimed itself curator of "Our Television Heritage", although these claims were always somewhat tongue in cheek. They would also create sarcastic commercials for shows on their network: an announcer's voice would discuss the series, accompanied by clips and music, sometimes the show's theme song. The commercials would use an actor's line or expression and take it out of context to create a new subversive meaning. The channel still uses this technique today, although often in a more hybrid way. A popular take-off of the Michelob Light commercial; "The Nite belongs to Nick" ran for a short period of time before being taken off because of copyright woes. One series of promos had Dick Van Dyke (whose own '60s sitcom was a mainstay of the channel in the '90s) depicted as "Chairman of Nick at Nite" (ironically, this idea was later reused as one of Nick at Nite's sister networks, TeenNick, would use actor and television personality Nick Cannon depicted as the "Chairman of TeenNick" in a series of promos that began airing in 2009).
The early '90s also saw the addition of Nick at Nite's mascot, Dixie the TV Land Pixie. For a time, the network would also play a short bumper called "Milkman", about a milkman who would distribute wholesome advice to customers on his milk delivery route. In 1995, on the occasion of the network's 10th anniversary, a tribute to the commercials throughout the network's existence was aired and hosted by former network President Rich Cronin.
The channel also had a unique way of telling viewers what shows were about to play next. Beginning as only an announcer reading off that evening's block of shows and the times they would be on while the list was displayed and music was played, this simple concept would be revised and re-revised many times over. At one point a television with objects and people from the show scrolling by (for instance, for Get Smart a shoe phone, gun, and Max and 99) would appear on the screen while the announcer read off the show and time. The time that the show was on would be displayed in another box. This continues to be changed and updated.
The station also had a wide variety of "bugs" or logos displayed in the corner of the screen during logos would be on the lower left side of the TV screen, and from 1998 on, it would be on the lower right side of the TV screen. The network had a variety of bumpers. From 1992 to 1998, the bumpers had a yellow diamond Nick at Nite logo with next to it. At the end of them, the announcer said "Nick at Nite: Classic TV with a capital C", or "Nick at Nite: Open all nite" (which had an animated background of a diner with the words "Nick at Nite" on top). The announcer from 1992 to 2007, Bill St. James, has also been heard on the premium channels Showtime, The Movie Channel, and HBO. From 1997 to 2002, the bumpers had either a cartoon drawing of a girl watching TV, two tikis with a tucan and a TV or a drawing of three guys in a taxi above the moons and stars. At the end the announcer would say "On the place for TV Hits", then there would be a woman's voice that would say "Nick at Nite". Although introduced in 1997, it was used intact with the 1992 Nick at Nite "Classic TV" schedule bumper until 1998. In fact, one bumper had the "TV Hits" background schemes (a city with the Nick at Nite logo on a billboard), and the announcer announced "It's Classic TV", and the woman singing "Nick at Nite". Another bumper from 1992 had the yellow Nick at Nite logo against colorful squares and the announced "Right here on", and the woman singing "Nick at Nite".
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