Noggin

Even though we've long since moved on from watching, I'm still kind of disappointed at the news (which I somehow completely missed when it was announced in February) that Noggin will be rebranding itself as "Nick Jr." in September.

We came in just as Children's Television Workshop was leaving (and missed the days of Sesame Street and Electric Company reruns), but Noggin would become a fixture in our home for many years. Not because my son watched too much TV (at least, not entirely so), but because I enjoyed so much of what Noggin had to offer. It was all very lively and imaginative, at a time when PBS's kids programming had become (with rare exception) increasingly dominated by series that just seemed more earnest than fun.

I was even getting into watching Blue's Clues toward the end. (Joe has always struck me as too much of a blank slate, likable but not especially deep. I'm much more fond of Steve.)

Then one day, a few months ago, my son announced that he was too old for Noggin. I'm not sure where he got this idea (it couldn't have been from his 44-year-old Father, who enjoyed it just as much as he did), but we haven't seen much of it since.

The identity the channel had built for itself was quietly charming, very much the opposite of what Nickelodeon has come to represent through the years. I'm sort of sad to see Noggin become another cog in corporate machinery — though I suppose I'd only be fooling myself to think it was ever anything else.