Saturday morning preview specials


Saturday morning preview specials were aired on television annually to present previews of each network's fall lineup of Saturday-morning cartoon children's programming. Similar to the model for their new prime time counterpart shows, television networks in the United States and Canada would film a preview special for the fall season. These would often air as part of the regular network schedule or be made available to their affiliates for airing at any time, especially to fill timeslots that contained programming canceled months before.

Format

The Saturday morning previews were generally aired on the network in prime-time, usually the Friday night before the new schedule began. Specials were staggered between differing time slots and days in order to allow each network's show to stand out.
The preview specials are usually hosted by stars of one or more of the network's popular series and feature an array of special guests, with the continuity between each program preview being fictionalized with a small plot or theme to keep viewers interested. The previews were for new and returning series, with each preview featuring the show's opening credits and a scene from that program. They also unveiled a network's new imaging for Saturday morning programming.
The specials often included previews for prime-time programming as well. According to Mark Evanier, who wrote several Saturday morning preview specials, this was because the network's prime-time department had to clear the time slot for the special, and convincing them to do so was difficult without agreeing to promote one of their shows in the special.

History

Hanna-Barbera Productions created a half-hour syndicated film called "Here Comes a Star" with Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera playing themselves promoting its newest series, The Magilla Gorilla Show. The program, hosted by You Bet Your Life announcer George Fenneman, offered an inside look at the animation studio and a peek at the upcoming feature, Hey There, It's Yogi Bear. The first network preview special was The World of Secret Squirrel and Atom Ant, a 60-minute special airing on NBC in primetime to celebrate Hanna-Barbera's first animated series made for Saturday morning television.

Decline

CBS, which had only irregularly carried preview specials, aired its last in 1985. The other two major networks continued near-annually. NBC's last was in 1991, as by 1992, the network had abandoned cartoons in favor of its teen sitcom block TNBC. ABC continued an annual Saturday preview special as part of its TGIF block through the 1990s, finally ending the practice in 1999, TGIF's last year in its original form.
4Kids Entertainment aired preview specials sporadically for its two blocks, FoxBox and The CW4Kids. Neither Fox Kids nor Kids' WB continued the practice as an annual tradition, though both had aired one-off preview specials in the 1990s.
Because the preview specials incorporated clips from a variety of sources with cross-platform licensing, it was legally impossible to sell them in syndication packages or release them on home video or streaming services.

Year-by-year guide

Syndication

ABC

  • 1969 - Super Saturday Cartoon Preview
  • 1971 - The Brady Bunch Visits ABC
  • 1972 - The Brady Bunch Meet ABC's Saturday Superstars
  • 1973 - Sneak Peek
  • 1974 - Funshine Saturday
  • 1975 - Funshine Saturday
  • 1976 - Sneak Peek
  • 1977 - All-Star Saturday
  • 1978 - All-Star Saturday
  • 1979 - [The The Plastic Man Comedy/Adventure Show|Plastic Man Comedy/Adventure Show|Plastic Man] and ABC Saturday Morning Sneak Peek - Due to a cartoonists' strike delaying show premieres, this special aired over two weeks before the season debuted, and a second preview special, The Plastic Man Preview Hour, aired on Saturday of the following week.
  • 1982 - Pac Preview Party
  • 1983 - Preview Special
  • 1984 - Saturday Morning Preview Park
  • 1985 - Saturday Sneak Peek & Fun Fit Test
  • 1988 -
  • 1989 - Perfectly Strange Saturday Morning Preview
  • 1990 - ABC Saturday Morning Preview
  • 1991 -
  • 1992 - ABC Sneak Peek with Step by Step
  • 1993 - ABC Saturday Morning Preview Special
  • 1994 - Whole New Level of Fun
  • 1995 - Saturday Morning Preview Special
  • 1996 - Saturday Morning Preview Party
  • 1997 - One Saturday Morning
  • 1998 - One Saturday Morning on Friday Night
  • 1999 - ''One Saturday Morning on Friday Night''

CBS

  • 1969 - CBS Funtastic Preview
  • 1974 - Socko Saturday
  • 1975 - Dyn-o-mite Saturday
  • 1976 - Hey, Hey, Hey! It's the CBS Saturday Morning Preview Special
  • 1977 - The Wacko Saturday Morning Preview and Other Good Stuff Special
  • 1983 - Preview Special
  • 1984 - Saturday's the Place - The hosts tour an animation studio, the people in which are all real animation staff, not actors, and include Alan Zaslove, Larry Houston, and Bill Melendez.
  • 1985 - ''All-Star Rock 'N' Wrestling Saturday Spectacular''

NBC

  • 1965 - The World of Secret Squirrel and Atom Ant
  • 1969 - The Banana Splits and Friends
  • 1972 - Howdy Doody and Friends
  • 1973 - Starship Rescue
  • 1974 - Preview Revue
  • 1975 - Preview Revue
  • 1976 - Smilin' Saturday Morning Parade
  • 1977 - C'mon Saturday
  • 1978 - The Bay City Rollers Meet the Saturday Superstars
  • 1979 - The Thing Meets Casper and the Shmoo - Due to a cartoonists' strike delaying many season debuts, this special was cancelled and never aired.
  • 1983 - The 1st Annual NBC Yummy Awards
  • 1984 - Laugh Busters
  • 1985 - Back to Next Saturday
  • 1986 - Alvin Goes Back to School
  • 1987 - ALF Loves a Mystery
  • 1989 - Who Shrunk Saturday Morning?
  • 1991 - ''NBC's World Premiere Cartoon Spectacular''

FOX

  • 1999 - Fox Kids Sneak Preview
  • 2002 - What's Inside the FoxBox?
  • 2003 - ''The Fight for the FoxBox''

The WB

The CW