Nickelodeon

Nickelodeon (or Nick for short) is an American children's channel owned by Viacom and operated under its Nickelodeon Kids and Family Group. It originally began broadcasting as The Pinwheel Network in 1977 before relaunching with its current name in 1979.

Reruns of Pinky and the Brain began airing on Nickelodeon on September 4, 2000, and remained there until 2003. The episodes themselves were generally unedited, but Nickelodeon literally wrote their name all over the intro sequence by having their logo replace the original colors of a background or foreground object. For example, Brain's mathematical equation during the line "One is a genius, the other's insane," was changed to a drawing of the Nickelodeon logo. Also, at the very end of the intro sequence, a lightning bolt was shown striking the sign on the Acme Labs building and changing it to the Nickelodeon logo. Nick usually did not do this to any show they had not created, and this caused quite a bit of controversy with the show's fans.

Appropriately following Pinky and the Brain joining the channel, Animaniacs reruns came to Nickelodeon on September 1, 2001, and aired on the channel for the next two years. But in what proved to be even more controversial than with Pinky and the Brain, Nick not only wrote their name on the intro (the zoom-in to the WB Water Tower at the start was replaced by the logo breaking through a screen with the Nickelodeon logo), but they also shortened down the song and replaced all the variable lines with a custom-made one of their own. Additionally, the first half of the lyrics were set to clips that came later in the song and sped up to the PAL recording speed. The shortened lyrics to the theme song were as follows:

It's time for Animaniacs!

And we're zany to the max! [set to "We have pay-or-play contracts!"]

So just sit back and relax [set to "We're zany to the max"]

You'll laugh till you collapse, [set to "There's baloney in our slacks!"]

We're animany,

Totally insaney,

Nickelaney,

AN-I-MANI-ACS!!!

Those are the facts.

The fans were outraged, so much that some of them refused to watch the show on the channel, on suspicion that Nick was even editing the episodes to change all mentions of Warner Bros. to mentions of Nickelodeon. The episodes were indeed edited on the channel, but instead it was some scenes being cut out for timing purposes (though in some cases, such as "Cutie and the Beast", it would ruin a joke).

Animaniacs and Pinky and the Brain would also be shown on one of Nickelodeon's sibling channels, Nicktoons TV, from its launch in 2002 until its revamp as the Nicktoons Network in 2005.

Connections

• Jim Cummings voiced Skrawl in ChalkZone, Cat in CatDog, and Ultralord in The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron.
• Maurice LaMarche voiced Big Bob Pataki and Douglas Cain in Hey Arnold! as well as providing numerous roles such as Gart & Perry in Robot and Monster
• Tress MacNeille voiced Charlotte Pickles (Angelica's mom) in Rugrats, Spy Fly in ChalkZone, and Robert Joseph "Hoodsey" Bishop in As Told By Ginger. 
• Rob Paulsen voiced Mark Chang in The Fairly OddParents, Carl Wheezer in The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Jack Fenton and Technus in Danny Phantom, Bird Brain in TUFF Puppy and The Craniacs in ChalkZone as well as a live-action role as the voice of a parrot in Big Time Rush
• Jess Harnell voiced Joe Tabootie as well as singing some songs in ChalkZone and live-action role as Babylace in Big Time Rush
• Cree Summer voiced Susie Carmichael in Rugrats and All Grown Up!, Tiff Krust in My Life as a Teenage Robot, Miranda Killgallen in As Told By Ginger, Valerie Grey in Danny Phantom and Spitfire in Robot and Monster
• Frank Welker voiced Goddard in The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron.