Children's programming on the American Broadcasting Company


In regard to children's programming, the American Broadcasting Company has aired mostly programming from Walt Disney Television or other producers. 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

Early programming (1950–1996)

In August 1950, the American Broadcasting Company produced and aired its first Saturday morning children's shows, Acrobat Ranch and Animal Clinic.
From 1973 to 1985, ABC aired the award-winning Schoolhouse Rock! series of educational shorts as interstitials. The shorts mixed original songs and animation with lessons on basic school subjects such as mathematics, science, and history. It returned to ABC's Saturday morning schedule in 1992, and a fifth season was released from 1994 to 1996. Schoolhouse Rock! was one of several animated interstitials that aired during this time; others included Time for Timer and The Bod Squad, both of which were discontinued in the 1980s.
In 1986, ABC made a brief effort to shift its program block to target younger audiences with lighter fare such as Little Clowns of Happytown and The Care Bears Family, shows that were strongly influenced by the consulting firm Q5, which heavily sanitized the scripts. By 1988, the network had fallen to a distant third in the ratings, a problem that ABC executives blamed on the people meter, which had recently been introduced as an audience measurement tool and which ABC believed young children were not capable of operating. ABC responded to the crash by eliminating almost all of its preschool programming and replacing it with programs capable of appealing to a whole family audience, most successfully with The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and reviving the Scooby-Doo franchise with A Pup Named Scooby-Doo.
At the start of the 1991–92 season, executive producer Jim Janicek brought the hosted programming block concept, one that he had successfully implemented in the Friday night time slot with TGIF, 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.
From 1992 to 1995, short 30-second segments from America's Funniest People, 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 (1996–2011)

The merger of Capital Cities Communications into The Walt Disney Company in 1996 marked a shift in the network's Saturday morning cartoon output. The merger resulted in Disney increasing the amount of programming content it produced for the network, including in regards to children's programming. Following the merger, in fall 1996, ABC's Saturday Morning lineup debuted the fifth season of Doug the third season of Gargoyles, Mighty Ducks, and Jungle Cubs. The following spring, it debuted the original animated series Nightmare Ned and began airing reruns of Ducktales.
Disney's One Saturday Morning debuted on September 13, 1997, formatted as a two-hour sub-block that originally featured some programs that had already aired on the co-existing ABC Saturday Morning lineup and incorporated live-action and animated interstitials. 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. The company's president and CEO Michael Eisner sought to create a Saturday morning block that was different from those carried by its competitors at the time, recruiting Peter Hastings to help overhaul ABC's Saturday morning lineup. The concept that was developed revolved around the idea that Saturday is different from every other day of the week; Hastings also came up with the idea of utilizing virtual set technology for the hosted interstitial segments. 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. The hosted and animated segments were dropped from One Saturday Morning in 2000 in a cost-cutting measure.
In 2001, ABC entered into a program distribution agreement with sister network Disney Channel to air its original programming as part of the network's Saturday morning lineup. As a result, live-action series were added to the Disney’s One Saturday Morning lineup that September as part of the newly created "Zoog Hour," an hour-long sub-block – named after the cable channel's weekend programming block at the time, Zoog Disney – featuring the Disney Channel sitcoms Lizzie McGuire and Even Stevens. Additionally, Disney acquired the rights to the Power Rangers franchise after its purchase of Fox Family Worldwide, which included the rights to the majority of the program libraries of Fox Kids, and the outright purchase of the production studio behind Power Rangers and Fox Kids Worldwide part-owner Saban Entertainment.
In 2002, Disney’s One Saturday Morning was rebranded as ABC Kids. Upon the relaunch of the block, in addition to the Disney Channel series, ABC Kids contained two original series and reruns of a former Disney’s One Saturday Morning series. ABC also acquired the rights to NBA Inside Stuff through the network's acquisition of broadcast television rights to the NBA from NBC, which aired alongside the ABC Kids block during the [2002–03 National Basketball Association|NBA season|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, reruns of Disney Channel original live-action and animated series came to dominate the lineup by 2003. To comply with the Children's Television Act, ABC chose to carry only select episodes of Disney Channel series featuring moral lessons and/or educational anecdotes. ABC Kids ceased to import new Disney Channel series onto its schedule after the 2006–07 season, when Hannah Montana, The Emperor's New School, and The Replacements were added to the block. As a result, the block relied entirely on repeats of the channel's shows that first aired on ABC Kids from 2005 to 2007 for the remaining three years of its run. Power Rangers ended its run on ABC Kids in 2010 after Haim Saban repurchased the franchise's intellectual rights from Disney and leased the broadcast rights to Nickelodeon, which began airing new seasons and repeat episodes of the series starting in 2011.

Litton's Weekend Adventure era (2011–present)

In 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 syndication package that would air exclusively on ABC owned-and-operated and affiliate stations. ABC announced a time-lease agreement with Litton Entertainment to produce a new Saturday morning block, originally titled ABC Weekend Adventure, which was subsequently renamed Litton's Weekend Adventure, prior to its debut in 2011.
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.

Programming

Scheduling issues

Programs featured on the current Litton's Weekend Adventure lineup are designed to meet federally mandated educational programming guidelines. However, as with its predecessor network-programmed blocks, programs may be deferred to Sunday daytime slots, or Saturday afternoons due to breaking news or severe weather coverage or, more commonly, regional or select national sports telecasts 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.
Honolulu affiliate KITV aired programs within the former ABC Kids and the current Weekend Adventure lineups over three weekdays, with two programs airing each day from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., preceding the ABC Daytime lineup. This scheduling is used only in the event of Saturday afternoon sports telecasts broadcast by ABC – which due to the time difference between the Hawaii–Aleutian Time Zone and the United States mainland, may air live as early as five hours behind the game's airtime in the Eastern Time Zone, or six hours during Daylight Saving Time, 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.
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. Some affiliates moved the ABC Kids programming to Sunday mornings ; 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

101 Dalmatians: The Series The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie ABC Weekend Specials Acrobat Ranch The Addams Family The Adventures of Gulliver Adventures of the Gummi Bears Aliens in the Family The All-New Pink Panther Show American Bandstand Animals, Animals, Animals Animal Crack-Ups Annie Oakley Beany and Cecil The Beatles Beetlejuice Bewitched Bone Chillers The Brady Kids Buffalo Bill, Jr. The Bugs Bunny Show and later incarnations Bump in the Night Buzz Lightyear of Star Command The Buzz on Maggie Capitol Critters Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels The Care Bears Family The Cattanooga Cats Cro Curiosity Shop Darkwing Duck Devlin Disney's Doug DuckTales Dudley Do-Right Dumb and Dumber: The Animated Series Dynomutt, Dog Wonder The Emperor's New School Even Stevens Fangface Fantastic Four Fantastic Voyage Fillmore! Flash Forward The Flintstone Kids Fonz and the Happy Days Gang Free Willy Fudge The Funky Phantom Gargoyles: The Goliath Chronicles George of the Jungle Goldie Gold and Action Jack Goober and the Ghost Chasers Goof Troop The Great Grape Ape Show Groovie Goolies Hammerman Hannah Montana The Hardy Boys Heathcliff Hercules: The Animated Series Here Come the Double Deckers Hong Kong Phooey Hoppity Hooper Hot Wheels House of Mouse H.R. Pufnstuf Jabberjaw Jackson 5ive The Jetsons Jonny Quest Journey to the Center of the Earth Jungle Cubs Junior Almost Anything Goes Kid Power Kim Possible The King Kong Show Krofft Supershow Laff-A-Lympics Lancelot Link, Secret Chimp Land of the Lost Lassie's Rescue Rangers Laverne & Shirley in the Army Lidsville Lilo & Stitch: The Series Linus the Lionhearted Little Clowns of Happytown The Little Rascals Little Rosie The Littles Lizzie McGuire Lloyd in Space The Lost Saucer Madeline The Magic Land of Allakazam Magic Ranch The Magilla Gorilla Show Make a Face Make a Wish Mary-Kate and Ashley in Action! Matty's Funday Funnies The Mickey Mouse Club Mickey Mouse Works Mighty Ducks Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Mighty Orbots Milton the Monster Mission: Magic! Monchichis The Monkees Mork & Mindy/Laverne & Shirley/Fonz Hour The Mumbly Cartoon Show My Friend Flicka My Pet Monster NBA Inside Stuff The New Adventures of Beany and Cecil The New Adventures of Gilligan The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh The New Casper Cartoon Show New Kids on the Block Nightmare Ned The Oddball Couple On Your Mark The Osmonds The Oz Kids Pac-Man Pepper Ann Peter Potamus Phil of the Future The Pirates of Dark Water The Plastic Man Comedy/Adventure Show Pound Puppies Power Rangers Dino Thunder Power Rangers Jungle Fury Power Rangers Mystic Force Power Rangers Ninja Storm Power Rangers Operation Overdrive Power Rangers RPM Power Rangers SPD Power Rangers Wild Force The Proud Family The Puppy's Further Adventures The Real Ghostbusters ReBoot Recess The Reluctant Dragon & Mr. Toad Show The Replacements Richie Rich The Road Runner Show Rocky and Bullwinkle Rubik, the Amazing Cube Sabrina: The Animated Series Science Court Scooby-Doo Shenanigans Skyhawks The Smokey Bear Show Sonic the Hedgehog Speed Buggy Spider-Man Spider-Woman Squigglevision Star Wars: Droids Star Wars: Ewoks Star Wars Rebels The Suite Life of Zack & Cody Super Friends Tales From the Cryptkeeper Teacher's Pet Teamo Supremo Tennessee Tuxedo and His Tales That's So Raven These Are the Days Thundarr the Barbarian The Tom and Jerry Show Top Cat Turbo Teen Uncle Croc's Block The Weekenders What-a-Mess Wild West C.O.W.-Boys of Moo Mesa Will the Real Jerry Lewis Please Sit Down? W.I.T.C.H. The Wizard of Oz Wolf Rock TV The Wuzzles

Interstitial series

ABC Fun Facts ABC Funfit America's Funniest Kids The Bod Squad Computer Critters Dear Alex and Annie Dough Nuts From Me to You H.E.L.P. Joking Around with the Little Clowns Manny the UncannyThe Monkey BoysMenudo on ABC Nutrition Series O.G. Readmore One to One Posse Philosophy Schoolhouse Rock! Time for Timer Toy Story Treats Willie Survive
  • ''Zack of All Trades''

Saturday morning preview specials

  • 1972 – Preview Special
  • 1973 – Sneak Peek
  • 1974 – Funshine Saturday
  • 1975 – Funshine Saturday
  • 1976 – Sneak Peek
  • 1977 – All-Star Saturday
  • 1978 – All-Star Saturday
  • 1982 – Pac Preview Party
  • 1983 –
  • 1984 – Preview Park
  • 1985 – Saturday Sneak Peek & Fun Fit Test
  • 1988 –
  • 1989 – Perfectly Strange Saturday Morning Preview
  • 1990 –
  • 1991 –
  • 1992 –
  • 1993 –
  • 1994 – Whole New Level of Fun
  • 1995 – Saturday Morning Jam
  • 1996 – Preview Party
  • 1997 – One Saturday Morning
  • 1998 – One Saturday Morning on Friday Night
  • 1999 – ''One Saturday Morning on Friday Night''