I still use to remember old Nick. Watching Duckula at the unheard of hour at 6:00am at the beginning of Nick in the Morning block. Yes, times have definately changed since.
These are some of the things that led to height of Nickelodeon in the late-90's
-Knowing their 20th birthday
-Putting back Inspector Gadet after a long hiatus
-Stick Stickly
-Weinerville(showed classic cartoons which brained wash some children)
-New episodes of Rugrats from 1997-2000 (including their 10th anniversary)
-Classic live action during weekend afternoons & Saturday nights on Snick
-Buying up episodes of Garfield, Tiny Toons, and Charlie Brown(they almost made it a series, but Charles Shultz died)
-Extending Nickelodeon from 8 to 9
-Treatment of Nicktoons
-Orginal Nick Jr. programs
-Nick News
Things that led to their downfall
-Cancelling Zim
-Firing Ren & Stimpy excutives
-Not ordering episodes of Doug which made them leave to ABC
-The newer, newer episodes of Rugrats
-The expansion of Clasy & Cusipo
-Catdog
-Removing live action on Saturday afternoons replacing them with more Nicktoons
-Jamie Spears
-Teennick
-Cancelling All That(they are successful with Keanen Thompson on SNL & Fat Albert movie)
-U-Pick Live
-Slam which later became a bad thing
Nick should buy the rights of some anime shows and Sailor Moon to compete with Fox, Toon Disney, and Cartoon Network maybe making Cartoon Network even worse.