See more of our Nick-at-Nite posts here. Â
Nick-at-Nite network identifications 1987-1989Â
(The Nick-at-Nite video posted here is really long. But, if you just watch the first 90 seconds youâll get the gist.)
The assignment to create network IDs for Nick-at-Nite arose from two different circumstances. The first and best is that the channel that we had created was a roaring success (thank goodness, weâd expended a lot of our reputation on this nutty idea) and they deserved a chance to strut their stuff. But, the second was fostered by their confusion.
Two years in, by 1987 Nick-at-Nite had been a tough sell for the advertising sales department. After 35 years of traditional broadcast networks, a certain conventional wisdom had set in with media buyers. And Nick-at-Nite exploded all of them.
Color good, black & white bad. Logical on the surface. New good, reruns bad. Got it. Network television (CBS, NBC, ABC) good, cable not so much.
Well, our channel was all B&W, all reruns, all cable. Never mind that in six months weâd become the #2 primetime cable channel (after USA), branded ourselves as âgood TVâ and the greatest hits of the TV generation, and brought in an audience that loyally followed our unstated premise to reject the idea of âUgh, rerunsâ and shouted âOh boy! Reruns!â
Nonetheless, the media buyers at the ad agencies, while on the surface adhered to the manta of âjust show me the numbers!â turned their back on us.
Our sales team was hurting.They made their case to the programming and marketing folks at NAN and suggested that we position the channel as âall comedy.â Not a bad thought (HA! and Comedy Central would be around the corner) but it didnât really work for Nick-at-Nite.
Nonetheless, they persisted. So, the brain trust at Fred/Alan put our heads together. Led by Alan, we had often referenced bits from the Rocky & Bullwinkle show, particularly our favorite.
Bullwinkle: âHey Rocky, watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat!â
Rocky: âThat trick never works.â
Alan: âIn my view the most brilliant bumpers ever because as a kid you knew there were three endings. You'd wait through the commercials to see which of the three it was this time.
âOf course Jay Ward probably did it because he got five for the same money. The man was even more brilliant than he knew.âÂ
Basically, what Ward had done was take about 10 seconds of animation, and make five one second pieces, and Bullwinkle says, âPresto!â he had five surprise endings for about the money of 1.25 films. A great method for us to use a budget more efficiently and still get dozen of films that could be reused for years without wearing out the viewers. These IDs were stop motion live action, in color, to contrast with the programming.
We quickly huddled with two of our long term creative companions, Eli Noyes and Kit Laybourne who jammed ideas with Fred/Alan producer Tom Pomposello, put together a production and we were off to the races.
Live action filming in stop motion (a neat trick) with a six second opening that would be repeated in all 45 spots and 45 different, silly, hopefully surprising and funny 4-second back ends. That meant, for the first set alone, we shot three minutes of footage, but got seven and a half minutes of final film. Not bad.
Over the next couple of years we did three sets, the first in April starring a man, the second âeight months laterâ with a woman, and the last in 1989 with both actors as a couple. About 20 minutes of 10-second pieces. Whew! Top it off with Pomposelloâs take on the opening chord of âA Hard Dayâs Nightâ and there was the making of a pretty unique branding stab.
Of course, Nick-at-Nite as a comedy channel never took off. A new ad sales chief came in from Turner Broadcasting and declared Nick-at-Nite to be âmarketing machine!â and we were at last profitable, not just successful.
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Nick-at-Nite Network Identifications Agency: Fred/Alan, Inc., New York  Executive Creator Directors: Alan Goodman & Fred Seibert  Producer: Tom Pomposello  Directors: Eli Noyes & Kit Laybourne (1987) and Tim Boxell (1989), Noyes & Laybourne, NY & SF Audio production: Tom Pomposello & Tom Clack



















