Children's programming on the American Broadcasting Company

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

In regard to children's programming, the

Warner Bros. Entertainment, Nelvana and DIC Entertainment).[1]
This article outlines the history of children's television programming on ABC including the various blocks and notable programs that have aired throughout the television network's history.

History

The Schoolhouse Rock! era (1973–1995)

The crown jewel of the network's children's programming lineup was the award-winning Schoolhouse Rock! series of educational shorts, which mixed original songs and animation with lessons on basic school subjects such as mathematics, science, and history. The series aired from 1973 to 1985, before going on what turned out to be a temporary hiatus prior to its return to ABC's Saturday morning schedule in 1992. New episodes concerning money were released from 1994 to 1996. Schoolhouse Rock! was one of several animated interstitials that aired during this era, others included Time for Timer and The Bod Squad, both of which were discontinued in the 1980s.

At the start of the 1991–92 season, around the same time that ABC launched I Love Saturday Night – a block that was inspired by the success of ABC's Friday night

TGIF sitcom block (the former of which ultimately ended after several weeks due to low ratings), executive producer Jim Janicek also brought the hosted programming block concept to Saturday mornings, under the brand More Cool TV. Stars from live-action series aired as part of the Saturday morning lineup, most notably including the cast of ABC's Land of the Lost
revival, hosted interstitials every half-hour during the block. The MCTV segments at times were several seconds shorter than those shot for TGIF and I Love Saturday Night. While an opening sequence and custom last-segment show bumpers were included, the theme music used was the instrumental version of ABC's 1991 America's Watching campaign. The MCTV concept was soon abandoned, although not as quickly as I Love Saturday Night.

From 1992 to 1995 (during the latter half of the show's run, and for at most until a year after it was canceled), short 30-second segments from America's Funniest People (a spin-off of the long-running America's Funniest Home Videos), which were branded as America's Funniest Kids, ran within commercial breaks during the ABC Saturday morning lineup. These would usually consist of excerpts from longer segments, usually featuring young children telling jokes or engaging in stunts.

Disney programming era (1995–2011)

The merger of

virtual set technology for the hosted interstitial segments.[2]

The concept debuted as Disney's One Saturday Morning on September 13, 1997, formatted as a two-hour sub-block (before expanding to become the sole brand for the Saturday morning lineup in 1998) that originally featured some programs that had already aired on the co-existing ABC Saturday Morning lineup and incorporated live-action and animated interstitials.[3] It was originally scheduled to premiere on September 6, but was delayed by one week due to ABC News' coverage of the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales (a news event which resulted in CBS and NBC pre-empting their children's programming blocks that day). Disney would later create a spin-off block, Disney's One Too, which debuted on UPN on September 6, 1999, which featured many of the programs shown on Disney’s One Saturday Morning.[4] The hosted and animated segments were dropped from Disney’s One Saturday Morning in 2000 in a reformatting of ABC due to low ratings.

In 2001, ABC entered into a program distribution agreement with sister network

ABC Family following the sale's completion).[5]

On September 14, 2002, Disney’s One Saturday Morning was rebranded as ABC Kids.[6] Upon the relaunch of the block, in addition to the Disney Channel series, ABC Kids contained two original series (Teamo Supremo and Fillmore!) and reruns of a former Disney’s One Saturday Morning series (Recess). ABC also acquired the rights to NBA Inside Stuff through the network's acquisition of broadcast television rights to the NBA from NBC (where the series originally premiered in 1992), which aired alongside the ABC Kids block during the 2002–03 and 2003–04 seasons, before being replaced by NBA Access for the 2004–05 season. NBA Inside Stuff would return on NBA TV in 2013.

However, in September 2003, reruns of Disney Channel original live-action and animated series

intellectual rights in May 2010 from Disney and leased the broadcast rights to Nickelodeon, which began airing new seasons and repeat episodes of the series starting in 2011.[7]

Litton's Weekend Adventure era (2011–present)

In March 2010, ABC decided that it would no longer provide E/I-compliant programming as part of its Saturday morning network lineup to its affiliates, with the network's affiliate board agreeing to seek a

Litton's Weekend Adventure, prior to its debut on September 3, 2011 (ending the entirety of conventional children's programming – animated or otherwise – airing on ABC).[8]

The block, designed by Litton to counterprogramming the then-traditional Saturday morning fare of animated and live-action scripted series, features unscripted and "pro-social programming"; however, the block is not structured as a conventional Saturday morning lineup, in that purchased advertisements within the block are commercials that would otherwise be targeted at the 18–49 demographic and shows within the block, while educational in nature, are marketed for a family audience – although intended to be aimed at teenagers ages 13–16 – rather than just children.[9][10][11]

Programming

Scheduling issues

Programs featured on the current Litton's Weekend Adventure lineup are designed to meet federally mandated educational programming guidelines.

college football games) scheduled in earlier Saturday timeslots as makegoods to comply with the E/I regulations. Some stations may air the entirety of the Weekend Adventure block on tape delay to accommodate local news or other programs of local interest (such as public affairs shows, real estate
or lifestyle programs).

Daylight Saving Time (as Hawaii runs on Standard Time year-round), effectively pre-empting ABC Kids programs from their regular timeslots and forcing the shows to air elsewhere on the station's schedule; this is particularly true of late morning and primetime college football
games aired during the fall (for instance, a college football game with a 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time kick off would air in Hawaii at 9:30 a.m. Hawaii-Aleutian Time).

During the college football season, ABC affiliates in the Western U.S. will often realign programming for college football telecasts that have a 9:00 a.m. Pacific Time start (as a noon Eastern Time game is often scheduled). Some affiliates moved the ABC Kids programming to Sunday mornings (something that is still sometimes the case with the Weekend Adventure lineup); however, until all Sunday-afternoon NASCAR races moved to ESPN in 2010, this usually pre-empted the pre-race show ESPN NASCAR Countdown.

List of programs

Interstitial series

Saturday morning preview specials

See also

References

  1. .
  2. Reed Business Information
    . Retrieved March 29, 2015.
  3. ^ Grove, Christopher (August 29, 1997). "Webs roll out season geared to kids". Variety. Reed Business Information. Retrieved August 13, 2009.
  4. ^ Pursell, Chris (July 19, 1999). "Mouse brands UPN kidvid". Variety. Reed Business Information. Retrieved August 13, 2009.
  5. ^ DiOrio, Carl (October 24, 2001). "Fox Family costs Mouse less cheese in final deal". Variety. Reed Business Information. Retrieved August 13, 2009.
  6. ^ a b Bernstein, Paula (September 29, 2002). "Kid skeds tread on joint strategy". Variety. Reed Business Information. Retrieved August 13, 2009.
  7. Penske Media Corporation
    . Retrieved May 12, 2010.
  8. ^ "Litton Entertainment to Produce and Distribute Original Programming for ABC Stations for Fall 2011". Litton Entertainment. The Futon Critic. April 19, 2010. Retrieved May 11, 2020.
  9. ^ a b "ABC Orders Saturday Kids Block From Litton". TVNewsCheck. NewsCheck Media. May 24, 2011. Archived from the original on December 4, 2013. Retrieved May 24, 2011.
  10. ^ "ABC to Premiere ABC Weekend Adventure on Sept. 3". Broadcasting & Cable. NewBay Media. May 24, 2011.
  11. ^ a b "Litton Announces "ABC Weekend Adventure"". Business Wire. May 24, 2011.

External links