There’s no more prominent player in Kid’s TV than Nickelodeon. It’s the channel that introduced us to iconic shows like All That and Hey Arnold!, and stars of the genre, including Kenan Thompson, Ariana Grande, and Nick Cannon.
Let’s be real: Nickelodeon does best when it comes to cartoons. Nicktoons has ultimately shaped pop culture, from a lovable sea sponge that owns a meowing pet snail to a goldfish kid who is a secret fairy.
You don’t need to be a kid to love cartoon characters, although childhood is when many of us first fell in love with them. This list of the Nickelodeon characters highlights the ones that have defied the test of time.
Jimmy Neutron
The titular main protagonist of the Jimmy Neutron franchise is James Isaac “Jimmy” Neutron. He is named after Isaac Newton and James Chadwick, nicknamed “Jimmy Neutron” due to his first neutron discovery.
Jimmy is a brilliant kid, with an impossible I.Q. of 210. His classmates are angered in many episodes because he is smart and continues to outdo them in anything related to science and math.
His brain, a source of constant comment, enables him to invent devices that even make the impossible come true. But it also causes Retroville to experience accidental trouble.
He designs his wild inventions to help him deal with trivial tasks, but they often cause bigger problems.
Arnold Shortman
Arnold Phillip Shortman is a fictional character created by Craig Bartlett. He has featured in claymation shorts and comics, but his primary role has been the lead character of Hey Arnold!.
The original Arnold was illustrated as a wealthy, prep school kid with a great imagination. He always wore a pre-school uniform and his signature cap and was rendered in clay in a series of shorts.
One of them was televised on Sesame Street in 1991 and continued to air there, even after the debut of the Nick version.
Timmy Turner
Timothy “Timmy” Tiberius Turner is a ten-year-old boy who is the central character of The Fairly OddParents, along with his fairy godparents, Cosmo and Wanda.
He is described as “an average kid that no one understands,” by the theme song of the show. Timmy’s parents, identified as Mom and Dad, are careless of him and sometimes leave him under the care of his cruel nanny, Vicky.
Timmy was then given two magical fairy godparents, Cosmo and Wanda, and later on a fairy godbrother, Poof, whom he wished for, after a year of Vicky always making him miserable.
Aang
Avatar Aang is a fictional main character of Avatar: The Last Airbender. He was a male Air Nomad born during the century-long conflict known as the Hundred Year War in 12 B.G.
His immediate predecessor was Avatar Roku, and Avatar Korra is his direct successor. As the Avatar of his time, he was the only one who can use all four bending arts: air bending, water bending, earth bending, and fire bending.
He was also one of the few chosen Avatars to first learn the ancient art of energy bending in many cycles. Additionally, he is the first recognized Avatar to have consciously used the technique.
Tommy Pickles
Thomas Malcolm “Tommy” Pickles is the main protagonist and center character of Rugrats (and all films except Rugrats in Paris: The Movie, in which he is the deuteragonist) and its spin-off All Grown Up!.
He is only clad in a T-shirt and diaper and is bald with large blank eyes. As with most babies, he translates everything adult into baby gibberish.
Arlene Klasky, the show’s co-creator, said she based Tommy’s character upon her own son. Tommy does not typically wear shoes but was seen wearing shoes, most often with specific outfits.
SpongeBob SquarePants
SpongeBob SquarePants is the main character of the Nickelodeon animated series of the same name. He was designed by Stephen Hillenburg, a former marine biologist.
SpongeBob is a childish and joyful sea sponge living in a pineapple with his pet snail, Gary, in the underwater city of Bikini Bottom. He works at the Krusty Krab as a fry cook – a job he is exceptionally skilled at and enjoys very much.
This character is very kind and loves hanging out with his best friend, Patrick. Her teacher is Mrs. Puff, and Mr. Krabs is his boss.
Conclusion
It is hard to think of a studio that did it better than Nickelodeon when it comes to cartoons. Nickelodeon birthing lots of shows that many people have grown up with makes it challenging to forget about characters like the ones mentioned above.