A nifty concept for a TV channel

Tonight, my chatroom got into a discussion about TV programming. (It's that kind of channel.)

In the 1980s, Nickelodeon had a great idea. Since most children are asleep after 8 p.m., they bought the syndication rights for old shows like the Patty Duke Show and Car 54, Where Are You? Since these shows weren't being aired anywhere else, they were cheap and popular with the Baby Boomers who grew up on them. They used old commercials and PSAs as interstitial material and ran documentaries about popular commercials. Eventually, they spun that off as TV Land, although they still use the Nick at Nite concept.

So my idea is this. Since most parents of children are Generation Xers who grew up watching the original Sesame Street, The Electric Company, 3-2-1 Contact, Captain Kangaroo and other shows of the 70s, I think Nick could successfully base a channel around these shows. For example, during the day, they could show the old Children's Television Workshop shows commercial-free. They already have an agreement with Sesame Workshop, so it stands to reason that they could extend that into getting the broadcast rights to the old shows, especially since they used to air classic Sesame Street episodes on their Noggin channel, which is aimed at pre-schoolers. During the after-school hours, they could use programs aimed at older children like the old ABC After School Specials and perhaps some of the 1970s and 80s-era Saturday morning cartoons. For interstitial programming, they could air Schoolhouse Rock cartoons, classic commercials and PSAs.

This idea is appealing for a number of reasons. First, as was mentioned before, the current generation of parents grew up in the 1970s and 80s, so the channel would appeal to parents, so there are two demographic groups being served. Second, the concept worked for Baby Boomers. Third, the programs themselves are gathering dust except for DVD box sets that are marketed as nostalgia. Fourth, a number of these programs touched on many different academic subjects like reading, science and math; recent history may be introduced by showing the old CBS In the News shorts narrated by the recently-departed Christopher Glenn. Finally, advertisers have the Gen X demographic.

The downside comes from companies that obtain the DVD rights to these shows. But this can be overcome by the fact that these shows would be exposed to a whole new generation of children whose parents would then buy the box sets, both as nostalgia for their own childhoods, as well as for their kids, who would know and like the show.

I think it's very do-able and I have to wonder why Nickelodeon hasn't done something like this.