As the year 2017 has dawned upon us, the world has experienced many new changes. A sort of Tabula Rasa if one wants to be specific. A new American presidency, a new start for world impact and global trade; and, of course, a brand-new start for the children’s television network, Nickelodeon. While that last bit may not be the most concerning in a sea of other issues, for many who hail from the late 90’s and early 2000’s, it is a truly tragic time indeed.
I speak of course about the recent rumors concerning the permanent cancellation of The Fairly OddParents. You know, the classic show in which a boy who never ages can and will bend the rules of reality on the whim of his short attention span using the power of his near-omnipotent, cute fairy creatures. Yeah. That one. Needless to say, it’s been quite a long time coming with a full total of a whopping ten seasons.
Now, the series is no stranger to cancellation. In fact, it’s been slotted to go off the air from as far back as season three’s direct to television movie, Channel Chasers. Anyone remember that? It had also been slotted to be cancelled for season five as well, but through luck and persistence, the show’s still continued on. And now look where that brings us. A full ten seasons that, for some, have more than overstayed their welcome.
Nostalgia plays a good factor to the show’s older fans. Some say it’s not as funny while others find the animation to be weird, unsettling, or even gross at times. Not surprising, given Nickelodeon’s history with adding gross-out humor to their Nicktoons -I’m looking at you modern Spongebob. At least Ren & Stimpy did it right- it’s not hard to see why Fairly OddParents suffers the same dip in ratings as most of the network’s scheduled programming.
And then there are those who try to enjoy the new content, but just can’t for whatever reason. Personally, I didn’t really keep up with the show’s progress but from both recollection and some research, the show had added in total three major characters; the fairy baby, the fairy dog, and a neighbor to Timmy….who shares his godparents with him? I dunno, it’s a weird show. But it seems Nickelodeon is finally running dry with their creative ideas, because this pattern of adding a character to prolong the life of the program can only go on for so long.
Soon enough, the show becomes boring, repetitive, and predictable; and that’s exactly what older and now even some of the younger fans are saying. Quite frankly, the show has worn out its entertainment value and its days are numbered. You know, assuming it doesn’t get another call for renewal in 2017. After ten seasons, several direct to television movies, and about three live-action movies, what do you think about the Fairly OddParents?
Whatever the answer is, the future for the show looks to be growing dimmer and dimmer with each month passing. But as the dark cloud that is the stagnant program filters out into the light, Nickelodeon can finally focus on producing new, original content that could potentially re-establish interest in their fan-base and growth in their ratings.
Or they could just keep piggy-backing off Spongebob. Whichever comes first.
