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We splat ourselves now into Viacom's main kids channel, Nickelodeon! Name History: C-3 (official name; 1977-1979) Pinwheel (1977-1979; on-screen) Nickelodeon (1979-present) Short History: Nickelodeon began its life on the QUBE cable service in 1977 as C-3, it was one of 10 community channels for the service. The channel, branded on-screen as Pinwheel (after its then-flagship show) focused primarily on educational children's television programs. Warner-Amex would expand C-3 into a dedicated national cable channel known as Nickelodeon. The channel continued to air educational children's programming during a period known as the "Green Vegetable Era". In 1981, the channel began airing some non-educational programming and by 1984, began actively pushing straightforward kid-friendly programming, during the "Splat" era. Viacom would purchase MTV and the other Warner-Amex channels from Warner Communications and American Express in 1985. Initially airing reruns of classic kids shows, it began producing its own live-action programming. It, however, didn't have its own in-house production facilities for its shows until 1989 with the launch of Nickelodeon Studios in Orlando. The next year, Nickelodeon launched Games Animation (later Nickelodeon Animation Studio) to produce in-house animated series. The division was led by Vanessa Coffey, the former head of development at Murakami-Wolf-Swenson. Nickelodeon would grow throughout the 1990s, serving as the dominant force of kids television, despite heavy competition from Disney Channel, Cartoon Network and Fox Kids. Viacom would merge with International Family Entertainment to form Viacom-IFE in 1996. The network would open a second live-action production studio in Burbank, California in 1997. Viacom-IFE would change its name back to Viacom in 2006. Nickelodeon would quietly discontinue usage of the "Balloon" typeface in 2009 after 25 years, replacing it with a custom font known as "Nick Sans". Currently, Nickelodeon airs a mix of both original and acquired live-action and animated series aimed at kids and tweens ages 6-14.
