And Now This: the lost Nickelodeon show pilot of 1998
HEY, 90′S KIDS! You still do that thing where you say “only 90′s kids remember x?” Because I’m looking for something that might actually only be remembered by a very small number of 90′s kids.
And Now This was a pilot for a Laugh-In style variety show on Nickelodeon that aired only once: February 17th, 1998. I saw this on television when it was aired, and I remember it being promoted on Nick. I was 11 years old at the time, and I remember it being surreal and slightly creepy, with a lot of bizarre-looking puppets and egg puns. Most distinctly, I remember a puppet of some kind of rat man, with broad shoulders and a scrawny-necked, ugly rat head hand puppet poking from between the shoulders. It looked like that one dream sequence from Eraserhead, where the baby’s head replaces Henry’s. Only this was for children.
Not really surprising that it never got picked up.
Out of nowhere, a few days back, I remembered it existed (though truthfully, this thing has haunted me for years) and decided to Google it, expecting that I would find that somebody had uploaded a version ripped from VHS. There was a mention of the program on Wikipedia, but there was no article. Given how obsessive 90′s Nickelodeon fans can be, I found this particularly odd. I made a post about it, and I found myself embarking on a strange journey.
The Lost Media Wiki has a discussion thread on it that ends rather abruptly: the OP says they’re sure they have it on VHS, but they never come back to update the users on the status of the tape. Now, if this were a creepypasta they’d be presumed dead. It’s far more likely that they just forgot they made the post, or were just unable to find the tape.
TV Tropes brings it up during a larger discussion of half-remembered television shows. Most of the posts are from 2011 and this tiny thread has provided the most information I’ve been able to gather.
There are a few other links, including a cryptic forum discussion about “new episodes,” some old news articles made before the show’s premiere, and a shout-out on the Wikipedia article for one of the actresses who appeared in it. Rosie O’Donnell was apparently producing it, and Coolio was a “guest host.” The Backstreet Boys might have also been involved.
There are other people that remember this thing existed: on The Lost Media Wiki, on TV Tropes, and at least one other Tumblr user that I know of. For those of you who are deep into 90′s Nickelodeon (and I know you’re out there), I ask you for your help. I need a copy of this pilot, goddammit. I need to watch it again with my adult eyes. I need closure.
I’ve included a rendition of the rat-man as best as I can remember him. I hope maybe somebody else might flash back to this, and we can discuss.
Please pass this around. Signal boost, as the cool kids say. I’m going to see if i can contact Nickelodeon directly, though truthfully, I don’t think I’ll hear anything back. If anybody else remembers this, reblog and add onto this post what you’re able to remember, if anything. And for reference, here’s my personal tag for this search on my blog. Maybe together, we can piece together this mystery.
In the words of TV Troper ClinkerGynoid, “ HELLO, real life Candle Cove.”
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