What if Nickelodeon would started as a studio before launching its own TV channel?/Possum Creek Stories

Possum Creek Stories is an adult animated television comedy series created by marine biologist and animator Stephen Hillenburg for Nickelodeon's late-night programming block NickAdult. The series chronicles the adventures and endeavors of 100 anthropomorphic animals in the fictional city of Possum Creek. The series' popularity has made it a media franchise, as well as the highest rated series to ever air on Nickelodeon, and the most distributed property of MTV Networks. As of late 2017, the media franchise has generated $13 billion in merchandising revenue for Viacom.

Many of the ideas for the series originated in an unpublished comic book series featuring the characters, which Hillenburg created in 1989. He began developing Possum Creek Stories into a television series in 1996 and turned to Tom Kenny, who had worked with him on Ren and Stimpy, to voice some of the characters.

The series officially premiered on July 17, 1999. It has received worldwide critical acclaim since its premiere and gained enormous popularity by its second season. A feature film, The Possum Creek Movie, was released in theaters on November 19, 2004, and a sequel was released on February 6, 2015. In 2017, the series began airing its eleventh season and was renewed for a twelfth season.