Spike TV’s Rebranding Makes Me Nostalgic

By Allison Johnson
Assistant Web Content Manager

If you haven’t heard, Viacom is rebranding Spike TV, which means programming will be a little different. Here is what to expect on the Paramount Network.

• Waco- A six-part series about the 1993 siege.
• American Woman- A sitcom about sexual revolution and rise of feminism in the 70s.
• Syndicated Shows: Friends, Cops.

Don’t get me wrong, their original shows seem interesting, but Spike has made dramatic changes over the years. I should’ve seen this coming but somehow the name change really made things official. If you were a fan of Spike TV, let’s take a stroll down memory lane. The year is 2008, you’re coming home from school. You’re hungry and decide to eat three different snacks. Your mom is mad– she says, “Make a sandwich if you can’t wait till dinner is ready. Those snacks are for school lunches.” You turn on Spike and get ready to be schooled on 1000 Ways to Die.

No doubt about it, the transition to middle school was when our sense of humor was geared towards raunchy things, but still more on the innocent side. At this age, Spike TV was able to deliver the content we needed. Many others including myself were still a little rough and playful, so of course wrestling appealed to me. Every Thursday night Spike aired TNA Wrestling. My sisters and I would watch it together and wrestle until our parents told us to chill out.

Another program many tweens were a fan of was Blue Mountain State. Blue Mountain State was a show about goofy college football players. The shenanigans they got into were ridiculous. This was a preview of the comedy I would later like. Dynamic friend groups getting into schemes is my type of comedy to this day. If you’re wondering why 11- to 13-year-olds were watching this, remember we’re outgrowing Disney Channel at this age. (Except for Hannah Montana and Good Luck Charlie.)

This might be one you forgot about, but Spike aired a show called Manswers. Manswers was a hot mess. Think of a bawdy Mythbusters. The most iconic episode I remember is the producers answering a weird question: “Can you freeze a fart?” Yeah, I’m sure Spike’s target audience was 18- to 40-year-old men, but their actual audience was tweens who always kept a dollar on them at all times so they could buy a candy bar from a band member fundraising for a trip to D.C. or something.

I really miss these shows, and I hope to see most of their current shows stick around. Don’t worry though, we’ll still have time to watch Cops for hours on end. That show is a classic. I’m sure it’s syndicated on more channels other than Paramount because it’s that iconic, but if anyone can link me to every season of 1000 Ways to Die on DVD, let me know.

Featured image via www.spike.com.