Some things in life are undeniable, and one of those things is that the children who grew up during the '90s enjoyed great productions of both TV series and cartoons. Productions that, beyond their special effects or animation quality, were entertaining, had a strong message, and told unique stories that entertained the audience. The shows you grow up with undoubtedly leave their mark, not only on you, but also on all those who shared your generation. Indeed, there were tons of great cartoons 30 years ago on several channels aimed exclusively at kids. One of these channels was Nickelodeon which, with its bright orange logo, mesmerized children and brought them to the screen with its characteristic and well-remembered shows and characters that even today are still a source of nostalgia.

Updated August 31, 2022: If you just can't get enough of that beloved '90s nostalgia, you'll be thrilled to know we've updated this article with additional Nickelodeon gems and fan-favorite shows of the decade.

Due to some of these shows' success, many production companies over the years have decided to remake the '90s shows that were kept under lock and key in our memories. This was the case with Netflix when it released Rocko's Modern Life: Static Cling in 2018, or recently when the Paramount+ platform made a reboot of the Rugrats series (and many others). To update these classics, producers alter the story a bit, in some cases changing characters and giving them new plots, spin-offs, locations, and stories to tell, but the original shows will almost always be the best. In this article, we take a look at the greatest '90s Nickelodeon cartoons.

8 Rocko's Modern Life

Rocko's Modern Life
MTV Networks 

Rocko's Modern Life, created in 1993 by Joe Murray, follows the wanderings of Rocko, an Australian wallaby who decides to emigrate to the United States. He is a rather clumsy animal, yet big-hearted, who often finds himself involved in all sorts of odd and bizarre situations, all of which are extremely amusing for young audiences. Surrounded by some equally striking supporting characters such as Heffer, Filburt, Ed and Bev Bighead and his adorable puppy Spunky, Rocko spends most of his time trying to get out of all sorts of problems that come his way in his new American life.

Rocko's Modern Life is, in a sense, a cartoon that inherits many characteristics of The Ren & Stimpy Show, adapting to that type of humor and animation style with all kinds of totally unthinkable details. Due to these features it worked well for both young and adults to enjoy. And because of the audience's fond memory of this adorable wallaby, in 2018 Netflix released a special called Rocko's Modern Life: Static Cling, a 45-minute production gifting viewers with a new adventure of Rocko and his friends.

7 Aaahh!!! Real Monsters

aahh real monsters
MTV Networks 

Aaahh!!! Real Monsters features the adventures of three rather atypical characters: little monsters Ickis, Oblina and Krumm, students at a special school in New York City which is located under a dumpster and specializes in scaring humans. Scary Ickis resembles a violet rabbit and has the ability to increase in size, just like his renowned father, the famous Slickis. The studious Oblina comes from a wealthy family and is considered by the director to be one of his best students. She can change her appearance to provoke nightmares. Finally, there is Krumm, hairy and orange, with pestilent armpits and a pair of eyeballs outside his body that he usually carries in his hands.

Mischievous, with hardly any sense of seriousness and no fear at all, this comedy's main characters filled the afternoons of many children in the '90s with some wild stories (and seems like it was almost plagiarized for Monsters, Inc.). Created by Gábor Csupó and Peter Gaffney, this production premiered in October 1994 and was broadcast until 1997 with a total of 52 episodes. Out of all the '90s kids shows, Aaahh!!! Real Monsters deserves a reboot.

6 The Ren & Stimpy Show

The Ren & Stimpy Show
MTV Networks

In 1991, Nickelodeon launched The Ren & Stimpy Show, created by John Kricfalusi, which would go on to become one of the most popular animations of the '90s that had the peculiarity of appealing to both children and adults largely due to its grotesque and extravagant humor. The series featured Ren, a very unbalanced Chihuahua, and Stimpy, a good and silly but extremely stupid cat. Together they live through hilarious and totally surreal adventures. This animation has been one of Nickelodeon's most revolutionary endeavors, to the point that it had to be censored in 1995 due to its humor and constant satire of American society that left many people uncomfortable.

Related: Old TV Shows From the 90s That Could Never Air Today

Over the years during which it aired, it premiered five seasons and 51 episodes. The series' staff did not want to create an educational series, which annoyed Nickelodeon and led the parents of the audience to criticize the series. As a result, some segments of the show were modified to exclude violent and suggestive scenes and unwanted references. Years later, the cartoon reappeared on MTV, but this time with an adult version. Despite censorship and negative reviews, John Kricfalusi is still considered to be the father of a specific kind of irreverent, grotesque animation and a major influence on subsequent cartoons.

5 SpongeBob SquarePants

Spongebob Squarepants
Nickelodeon

SpongeBob SquarePants is a 1999 animated series by animator, cartoonist, and marine biologist Stephen Hillenburg recounts the adventures of a sea sponge and his friends, a cartoon that evolved from Hillenburg's crude Bob the Sponge drawings into arguably the biggest kids cartoon of the 2000s. SpongeBob lives in a pineapple under the sea, in the imaginary town of Bikini Bottom. His best friends are Gary, his pet snail, Patrick, a friendly starfish, and Sandy, a clever squirrel who adapted her clothes and house to live underwater. SpongeBob makes a living at Krusty Krab, along with his co-worker and neighbor, the sophisticated Squidward Tentacles who is often irritated by SpongeBob's friendliness and unconventional way of living. This little sponge has no logical way of acting in everyday situations, and his good intentions and eagerness for doing good often create quite a few problems.

SpongeBob SquarePants is Nickelodeon's longest-running series, with thirteen seasons running to date, and has won a number of awards, including Annie Awards, Golden Reel Awards, Emmy Awards, Kids' Choice Awards and BAFTA Children's Awards. Its unprecedented success spurred the producers to release three movies featuring the characters: a Broadway musical based on the series, and spin-off Kamp Koral: SpongeBob's Under Years, a prequel that tells the story of Bob and his friends' childhood.

4 Doug

Doug
MTV Networks

Centering on the growing pains and adolescent lives of Douglas "Doug" Funnie and his best friends Skeeter and Patti Mayonnaise in the small town of Bluffington, the aptly named classic '90s series Doug was groundbreaking at the time for focusing on and animating the mundanity of real life. The show tackled weighty topics such as bullying, rumors, and self-esteem, along with just the banal regularity of day-to-day childhood. Conceptualized by Jim Jinkins, the cartoon depicts the eponymous 11-year-old as he attempts to navigate life in a new school which was heavily inspired by the animator's own experiences growing up in Virginia as a child; he based many of the uniquely designed and colorful characters on real people in his life.

Throughout the show, Doug desperately tries to blend in with his classmates but since he possesses such an extraordinary imagination he can't help but stand out. Audiences watched as Doug escaped the stress of the real world by finding comfort in his journal, which he used to document his many everyday experiences and included the fun appearance of his alter ego Quailman. Doug ran for four seasons at Nickelodeon before changing homes and heading to ABC, but it nonetheless remains one of the latter network's most top-rated and inspiring programs.

3 Rugrats

Rugrats
MTV Networks

Tommy, Chuckie, Angelica, and twins Phil and Lil star in Rugrats, one of Nickelodeon's longest-running series. This American animated series, by Arlene Klasky and her husband Gábor Csupó together with Paul Germain, premiered in 1991 and chronicles the story of these little kids and their adventures, with themes and concepts that were quite advanced for that time. It portrays the activities of everyday life through the eyes of the very little ones. The adventures of the imaginative protagonists are already worthy of a marathon, but in addition to that, there is also a brilliant cast of supporting characters and the most advanced stories: feminist mothers, ethnic representation, and cultural and gender diversity.

Related: Best Kids Shows That Adults Can Enjoy Too

This cartoon went down in history for having one of Nickelodeon's best villains: the moody Angelica. In addition to its nine seasons, there were also several widely popular movies: The Rugrats Movie (1998), Rugrats in Paris: The Movie (2000) and Rugrats Go Wild (2003), a crossover with The Wild Thornberrys. In May 2021 Paramount+ premiered a reboot of Rugrats, the success of which resulted in a renewal for a second season.

2 Hey Arnold!

Hey Arnold
Viacom Media Networks 

Hey Arnold! was a perfect cartoon from almost any point of view: it features memorable and highly distinctive characters, great animation, and fascinating stories with narratives that run through a wide variety of genres, ranging from comedy and romance to drama and horror, all with that unique Hey Arnold! touch. This animated fiction, created by Craig Bartlett, premiered in October 1996 and due to its charismatic main character (inspired by a clay figure created by Bartlett himself), it immediately garnered the interest of thousands of boys and girls.

Arnold is a 9-year-old boy who lives with his grandparents in Hillwood City, a large fictional city located in Washington, mixing elements of New York, Seattle and even London. In addition to being optimistic and always willing to help anyone in need, he has a distinctive football-shaped head. This is how Helga, his classmate, refers to him, a girl who despite showing her hatred for him is completely in love with Arnold. Throughout the show's five seasons and hundreds of episodes, Arnold and his friends spend their days having hilarious adventures (and others not so much) while learning about values and lessons with the help of Hillwood City's adults.

1 The Angry Beavers

The Angry Beavers
MTV Networks

Following the entertaining misadventures of the bickering beaver brothers Daggett and Norbert, the often underrated but widely hilarious series The Angry Beavers takes place in the fictional town of Wayouttatown, Oregon and chronicles the mismatched duo's interactions with colorful characters like Big Rabbit, Stump and Truckee. Created by Mitch Schauer, the program was inspired by the animator's early years living homeless in Oklahoma where he would frequently spot beavers in a local river; Schauer specifically set out to make the lead pair a bit more edgy and bad-tempered as opposed to cute and cuddly.

Schauer often butted heads with Nickelodeon regarding the show's content, with the creator frequently pushing back against the network's normal family friendly cartoon formula by implementing more risqué humor and visuals. When describing his approach to the cartoon, Schauer stated, "I like to buck whatever is popular at the time or considered society's way of doing things, because you get more interest when you stand outside the box." Despite constant pushback from Nickelodeon, The Angry Beavers went on to have a successful five-season run, with its unfinished finale notoriously featuring Daggett and Norbert breaking the fourth wall when they realize the show has been canceled.