Why 90s Parents will Love Paramount Plus

As far as I’m concerned, the early 90s were the golden age of kids TV. Disney was still making some of the best cartoons ever made - which we were excited to see return on Disney Plus recently. Saturday Morning Cartoons was still a memorable weekly event. And, perhaps most notably, Nickelodeon absolutely ruled the kids world - pumping out hit after legendary hit. Slime was king.

I’m not exaggerating one bit when I say that SNICK - the two-hour programming block that aired every Saturday night on Nickelodeon - is somehow responsible for some of my fondest childhood memories. Heck, I even still have Stick Stickly’s mailing address memorized because of the jingle he sang. Objectively that might sound depressing, but I assure you I had a very happy childhood. It’s just that SNICK - which was capped off by my favorite kids show of all time, Are You Afraid of the Dark? - was special. And I’m sure 90s parents can back me up on this, right?

Another thing that I’m certain parents can relate with is the desire to share things from your own childhood. We’ve certainly done it with our favorite kids books and our favorite board games - many of which I found stored away in my parents’ attic. Nostalgia has a powerful influence, and sharing the things we love with the people we love is a special thing.

But the crazy thing has always been, despite the unprecedented success of all of these remarkable Nickelodeon shows during the 1990s, it's been a huge headache to track down any sort of legal copies of our favorite childhood shows. Some great cartoons like Doug and Rugrats slowly became more available than others, while other cult favorites like Pete & Pete are still nowhere to be found. Most of the shows in the middle have gradually been offered for sale digitally over the years with a strange hodgepodge of limited and incomplete seasons.

For years it felt like Nickelodeon was fine pretending they never existed - nowhere to be found on TV or even on their own app. And frankly, in the streaming environment we now live in, it’s been nothing short of bizarre how hard it has been to unearth most of Nickelodeon’s treasures. You can’t even buy complete sets on DVD. But finally, after almost 3 decades, Paramount Plus - the streaming service formerly known as CBS All Access - has actually done something about it. And 90s parents are really going to rejoice.

© ViacomCBS - Paramount Plus

Owned by ViacomCBS, Paramount Plus has the rights to all of the childhood treasures from Nickelodeon you know and love. And just this month they finally threw a bone to parents who grew up in the 90s and released a mountain of the old classics. Here’s just a taste of some of the shows now on Paramount Plus that I’m most excited to share with my kids (and I’m not ashamed to admit that I’ve been enjoying some without my kids too):

Are You Afraid of the Dark?
Salute Your Shorts
Double Dare
Hey Dude
Guts
Doug
Rugrats
Clarissa Explains It All
Kablam!
Ren & Stimpy
Legends of the Hidden Temple
All That
Aaahh!!! Real Monsters
Rocko’s Modern Life

Now, granted, some of these releases are still incomplete, with a few missing random episodes or entire seasons - but, by far, this is the best we’ve gotten yet. There’s a lot of content here that hasn’t been available in any way for decades. Still no Pete & Pete yet, for whatever reason, but Paramount Plus has earned enough good faith with this latest content update that I’m not giving up hope on things improving even more from here, especially if they see that the content is popular and driving subscriptions.

And we’ve personally been trying to send that message to Paramount with our viewing habits over the last week. One thing that has always disappointed me is that kids game shows seem to have dropped off the map - because that was always one of my favorite genres growing up. So it has delighted me that both of my kids have enjoyed watching both Guts and Legends of the Hidden Temple - and I haven’t even introduced them to Double Dare yet!

But with my love of spooky kids stories, it probably comes as no surprise that Are You Afraid of the Dark? was always my favorite childhood show, and the one I want to talk about the most. It was my introduction to horror, and I am having so much fun sharing it with my kids I can barely express myself. My 8-year-old seems to love it just as much as I remember loving it, even wanting to reenact the midnight society and tell scary stories around a campfire with us. And if that doesn’t warm your heart I don’t know what will!

Even my 5-year-old insists on watching Are You Afraid of the Dark? with us, although I’m extra careful about which episodes I choose when she’s watching. She probably doesn’t need to know who Zeebo the Clown or the Ghastly Grinner are yet. But she loves it. And I can definitely see that I’ll be getting my wish of having a couple of spooky movie buddies.

© ViacomCBS - Paramount Plus - Are You Afraid of the Dark?

With her brother, on the other hand, I’ve been rewatching some of my very favorite episodes of all time - including the ones that scared me the most as a kid. So, just for fun, here are my 5 favorite Are You Afraid of the Dark? episodes:

The Tale of Laughing in the Dark
The Tale of the Dark Music
The Tale of the Pinball Wizard
The Tale of the Midnight Madness
The Tale of the Twisted Claw

Nobody has ever approached making scary stories for kids the same way Are You Afraid of the Dark? did, and I’ll be shocked if anyone ever does it better. And what I truly love about it now as a dad is that the show really seems to spark a love for storytelling in our son - in just the same way I remember it did for me. Just like our son asking to tell scary stories around the fire (complete with the midnight society introduction) - I vividly remember climbing into my tree house at night to try and be the midnight society with my friends.

© ViacomCBS - Paramount Plus - Are You Afraid of the Dark? - Dr. Vink

The show offers more than being scared - although obviously that’s a big part of the appeal. It’s also about storytelling and imagination. The format is perfect for getting the wheels turning in the minds of young storytellers - and it was certainly responsible for several attempts at short stories when I was young. And now my own kids and I get to enjoy it together and talk about our favorite stories told by the midnight society.

It’s also worth pointing out, just in case you didn’t know, that Nickelodeon has also rebooted Are You Afraid of the Dark?, and the second season just wrapped up. I’m thankful for the reboot, because it actually kickstarted my son’s love for the show. Even though I personally don’t like the fact that they’re making one story last for the entire season, he really loved the story of the shadow man - and it’s part of the reason we’re enjoying the old shows together now.

Paramount Plus certainly doesn’t yet have the amount of content to compete head to head with the biggest players in streaming in a general sense - but they most certainly have filled a niche that parents from the 90s will find pretty tempting. They do also have all the new Star Trek content, and the reboot of The Twilight Zone - but heck they could have sold me on a service that only provided old Nickelodeon content, and I’m sure I’m not the only one.

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What was your favorite Nickelodeon show from the 90s? What’s your favorite episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark? Have you tried Paramount Plus yet, and are you satisfied with the old Nickelodeon content they’ve provided so far? Let us know in the comments!