If you were looking forward to watching reruns of “Barnyard” during this past Saturday afternoon, you may have noticed something about the programming for Nickelodeon that day.
There was none.
That’s right, this past Saturday, from Noon until 3pm, Nickelodeon went off the air. Instead of regular scheduled incredible animated reruns, it was a black screen that reminded families to go outside and be active. To enjoy the weather, and do something off the couch.
I’d like to say we smiled, looked at each other, and said, “wow, Nickelodeon is right, we should go walk laps around the neighborhood.” But we didn’t. I can’t remember exactly what we did…but it probably didn’t burn too many calories. It happened during Addison’s naptime anyways.
The skeptic side of me wondered what sort of upgrades Nickelodeon had to do to their systems, or what other hidden benefit they had to going off air for 3 hours.
But overall, I was pleasantly surprised. And if there was some sentiment of self-sacrifice for the good/health of the kids who usually are babysat by burning Nickelodeon images into their retinas…then bravo. I think it’s that kind of mentality that major corporations, entire product lines, and the economy in general needs to be able to take. To make sacrifices more often, to encourage/promote not themselves, but actual healthy and responsible lifestyles.
But not once in the lifetime of a company/channel/person. A regular happening. I guess this is the 4th annual one for Nickelodeon. Which is great, but still….to make a sacrifice once a year probably doesn’t hurt them much.
To the neglect of profits, and with larger picture interests in mind. I hope we continue to see things like this. Thanks Nick.
words from wick 
I think we actually just flipped to another channel. :<) Eventually when we realized Saturday afternoon T.V. doesn't have much too offer, I took a nap and you played on the computer... Well, I guess you can burn calories when you sleep- right?
The problem here is the fact that many kids now days have DVRs or TiVos in their rooms and homes so they can just watch a pre-recorder episode of something or ‘nother.I think getting kids to be active is great but there is a much bigger issue at hand in Barn Yard…The main character is a cow with utters yet is portrayed as a boy with a male voice who actively pursues dating another cow with utters who is a female with a female voice. Now, I’m not really that concerned for the kids (i’m sure this flies over their heads), I’m more concerned about the fact that the creators of the show didn’t realize that a male cow is not a cow, but a bull.