Those of us who grew up watching the popular Nicktoons of the ’90s often find ourselves in the mood to revisit old favorite episodes. The problem is, there are so many streaming options now that it’s almost impossible to find out where the shows you’re looking for are currently available, or if they’re even available at all. Thankfully, Hulu, Amazon Prime and Nick.com boast some of ’90s Nickelodeon‘s greatest hits, and we’ve got a rundown of which sites host which fondly remembered series.
Hey Arnold!
A decade before Hey Arnold! premiered, creator Craig Bartlett worked as an animator for Pee-Wee’s Playhouse in the late ’80s. That’s when, while helping with the show’s Penny cartoons, he created Arnold out of clay—football-shaped head and all. The popular show that resulted followed a nine-year-old do-gooder who lived in the city with his grandparents. Each episode would see Arnold, his best friend Gerald, smitten bully Helga encountering urban legends or overcoming personal problems.
Where to watch: Hulu or Nick.com
Doug
Creator Jim Jinkins’ classic Doug helped create the Nickelodeon we all know and love. Veteran voice actor Billy West brought Doug and his superhero alter ego Quailman to life, as well as many other figures who were interwoven throughout the title character’s after-school adventures. Doug’s trusty friend Skeeter and dog Porkchop were always there to help against the bully Roger Klotz, but Doug was usually left to his own devices when it came to his crush, Patti Mayonnaise.
Where to watch: Hulu
Rugrats
Not long after Doug paved the way for Nicktoons, Rugrats burst onto the scene in 1991. The hit show created by Arlene Klasky, Gábor Csupó, and Paul Germain would ultimately last nine seasons, and spawn three feature-length films. The only Nickelodeon series to best it was SpongeBob SquarePants, but we’ll talk more about that below. Viewers couldn’t get enough of one-year-old Tommy Pickles and his playmates Chuckie, twins Phil and Lil, neighbor Susie, and Tommy’s troublemaking cousin Angelica.
Where to watch: Hulu
Aaahh!!! Real Monsters
Long before Disney and Pixar‘s Monsters, Inc. introduced us to the secret world of whatever goes bump in the night, there was Klasky Csupo’s Aaahh!!! Real Monsters. From 1994 to 1997, the show followed the misadventures of Ickis, Oblina, and Krumm, three would-be frighteners who attend a monster school buried beneath the Staten Island dump. Homework assignments almost always required that they travel to the surface in order to try and scare a few unsuspecting humans, to varying degrees of success.
Where to watch: Amazon
SpongeBob SquarePants
These days, the Broadway musical adaptation and creepy memes seem to dominate the SpongeBob SquarePants conversation. Before either of these came about, however, the show, created by marine biologist-turned-animator Stephen Hillenburg (after the cancelation of Rocko’s Modern Life) dominated Nickelodeon in the late ’90s and throughout the 2000s. Like Rugrats before it, SpongeBob went on to spawn 11 seasons and three feature-length films, the third of which is due in 2020.
Where to watch: Amazon Prime or Nick.com
Rocko’s Modern Life
Mind you, Hillenburg didn’t create Rocko’s Modern Life, where he served as creative director before its cancellation in 1996. That honor belongs to animator Joe Murray, who pitched a show about a wallaby named Rocko, his cow friend Heffer, a neurotic turtle named Filburt, and Rocko’s dog Spunky. (Yes, an anthropomorphized wallaby kept a dog as a pet.) Both the character Rocko and much of the show’s story were originally used in a comic book from the ’80s that Murray never published.
Where to watch: Amazon
CatDog
As the previous entries have already demonstrated, the best Nicktoons of the ’90s were most often the weirdest. Consider CatDog a show, created by animator Peter Hannan in 1998, about conjoined brothers. They weren’t just attached at the hip, however, as Cat and Dog were literally two halves of the same hybrid cat-dog body. Per the usual stereotypes about these common pets, Dog loved to screw around and chase cars, while cat enjoyed reading plenty of books and relaxing. It’s definitely a weird one.
Where to watch: Amazon
The Wild Thornberrys
Like Rugrats and SpongeBob SquarePants, Nickelodeon’s The Wild Thornberrys ultimately escaped from its televised existence for three feature-length films and a short in the early 2000s. Before that, the Klasky Csupo-created series premiered in 1998 and ran for five seasons. The show followed the travels of the Thornberrys, a family led by nature documentarians Nigel and Marianne, but whose daughter Eliza, who could secretly talk to animals, was the star of the show. Disaffected sister Debbie, adopted brother Donnie, and Darwin the chimpanzee tagged along.
Where to watch: Amazon
The Angry Beavers
Before Angry Birds took over everyone’s smartphones and local movie theaters, Mitch Schauer’s The Angry Beavers aired on Nickelodeon from 1997 to 2001. The show mostly followed brothers Daggett Doofus and Norbert Foster Beaver, or “Dag” and “Norb” for short. The pair boasted a love-hate relationship typical of most siblings depicted on television, though it was amplified by the fact that the two bachelors roomed together (and were prone to wacky battles). A carousel of oddball characters also popped up now and then, including a giant sequoia tree stump named “Stump.”
Where to watch: Amazon
These are our picks for the best ’90s Nicktoons that are currently available to stream. What are some of your favorites? Let us know in the comments!
Images: Nickelodeon
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