We now return to all our children's programs. Well, that got your attention, this time we are talking Kids WB something about this block to really note. It ran longer than the network it was created for , and it was the last weekday children's block on commercial TV.
The WB network was announced in 1993 as the network of Warner Brothers and Tribune Company (who owned a minority share and provided affiliates in major markets) and it launched in January of 1995. Many of the affiliates were stations that were non-affiliated (independents)and some former network affiliates. Like when we talked about FOX KIDS , many of these stations may have had their children's programming blocks of syndicated programs. But like the network itself , why not have a place to show-off Warner Brothers cartoons and library of shows for Children?
A new block of children's program yay!!!/ Warnerbrothers/Youtube
In the new fall season 1995, Kids WB launched it ran Weekday afternoons for 1 hour 4-5pm (all time zones , though could be adjusted) , and Saturday Mornings ,of course, 8AM-11AM. The Early programs were some Warner Brother's programs that were originally on FOX Kids or syndication: "Animaniacs". New series included : "Sylvester and Tweety mysteries" (Where the cat and bird solve mysteries together ) , Freakazoid! (about a teenager who absorbs his computer and gains all knowledge of things on the internet and becomes a super-hero), "Earthworm Jim" ( a super hero worm, no we didn't make these shows up) , and "Animaniacs" spin-off "Pinky and The Brain" (Narff).
See... we didn't make it up Warnerbrothers/ Youtube
They also later added cartoons of Batman and Superman and was doing well enough to expand Weekdays by 2 more hours ( 1 hour in the morning, and 1 more hour in the afternoon, though some stations would combine into 3 hours in the afternoon) , in 1997. Then something BIG happened. In 1999, Kids Wb picked up the English Dub of anime program , "Pokemon". The Program was a hit. (Stop!, Kids WB was not the first home on American TV for Pokemon, it was originally in syndication. Now back to your whatever this is) This helped it beat FOX Kids. (We bet someone at FOX Kids was not very happy about not getting Pokemon)
Oh my Gosh! it's Something amazing! Call Everyone!!!! | Youtube
When you buy anime and it does well, you buy more anime , and that's what they did.. like "Yu-Gi-Oh!". Oh , and the whole block didn't become anime fueled it still had other series to make the non anime fans happy.
OK, time for learning.. (E/I).
In 1996, Time Warner owned Warner Brothers (well of course) , Ted Turner (for some odd reason) sold his company to Time Warner, one of those properties was Cartoon Network. Cartoon Network was launched in 1992, as a place for Ted Turner to put all his cartoons that he had bought in the 80's somewhere. In March of 1997, Cartoon Network launched a block in the afternoon called Toonami. It was the home of Cartoon Network's action shows. (Yeah!!! Action!). Now keep that in mind.
( Can we get back to Kids'WB Now?)
In 2001 , the afternoon block was renamed Toonami on Kids WB it didn't air everything the Cartoon Network block did, but it did shows from Cartoon Network to the block ,namely the "Powerpuff Girls". Other shows were shared with Cartoon Network ,and some were Kids WB's own shows namely, "Nightmare Room". Sadly in 2001 the weekday morning block was discontinued. (For Newscasts, bad talk shows , or infomercials depending on where you are because that's fun) . This was around the same time as FOX Kids was in it's dying days, the weekday block of FOX kids had ended. UPN's weekday block ,which was done by Disney, and Kids WB were the only network weekday children's blocks left.
It's mix of outside and done-by-Warner-Brothers, and Cartoon Network co-operating continued. They introduced a new version of Scooby-Doo called "What's New Scooby-Doo" (Yes Scooby,what is new?) It was the first new Scooby Series in about a decade (the last Scooby-Doo series was A Pup named Scooby Doo , it was him as a puppy) after some direct to video releases and the other series airing in reruns on Cartoon Network, it was time. Scooby had a new voice and the series was a hip, cool 21st century making of "Scooby Doo, Where are you?"
Yeah rock theme song.... cool Warner Brothers/ Youtube
There was also more "Pokemon" , !Mucha Lucha!, more "Yu-Gi-Oh!", and more. In 2002, the Toonami on Kids WB name was removed and the weekday block was just called Kids WB. So it continued it's competition around it was changing around 2002. CBS had Nickelodeon programming, ABC was more Disney Channel Programming , FOX had given up and sold it's kids slot to 4Kids Entertainment , UPN didn't do children's TV ( local stations had to find their own), and NBC had gone to Discovery. So, Kids WB was the only commerical network with it's own programmed block of new programming. Though Cartoon Network programs were shared with Kids WB.
more after this jump
Was this Kid's WB anwser to Disney's Recess ? it's not bad Warner Brothers/ Youtube
Wait ! there is gotta be something misssing here , I mean where is the E/I children's television talk ?
Here's something , many networks like CBS, NBC,ABC pretty much provided E/I programming for their stations (still do, even though they are not that good) , Fox and The WB really did not , it was up to their affiliates. Many stations aired syndicated programs sometime during the week (many from the DIC library , I miss that block), to fulfill that 3 hour a week commitment to the FCC.
In 2005, the first hour of the Saturday block was renamed "The Pillow Head Hour" , and it fulfilled the E/I commitment with any Kids WB shows that would fit in the E/I department. (Next to the Bleeps and Boops department).
In sad news .... it was announced in 2005, that in 2006 KIDS WB's weekday block was to end and be replaced by other things by the network. This block was called Daytime WB. (No soaps though). On December 30th , 2005 the Kids WB weekday block was killed off and on January 2nd , Daytime WB started. (Boo!). The Saturday Block was expanded by 1 hour , 7AM-12PM, to Tmake up for it. (If they wanted to make up for it , they would have done 10 hours added to Saturday Morning 2hours x5 days =10 hours , yay learning!) The first line up of the Daytime WB was E.R (produced by Warner Brothers) and 8 Simple Rules (also by Warner Brothers). (At least it wasn't some stupid talk show, court show, I hate my (insert what ever) here show)
Now back to learning (Why!!!! , do you hate us? oh, and E/I)
In 2005, Viacom and CBS broke up and CBS corp was left with CBS (I'd hope ), and UPN ( some divorce Viacom gets Nickelodeon and CBS gets UPN ,that's just mean) . UPN wasn't doing that well
(but it was around for 10 years so that's something). In January 2006, there was an announcement , The WB and UPN were going to merge. This merger was really UPN and the WB were going to be shutdown a new network ,called the CW, was going to be launched in it's place. (Some Affiliates will get shafted when combing operations of both networks). So some programs from UPN had to be put down and some WB would also have to be. (The CW ran on a WB schedule : Weeknights 8e/p-10e/p , Sundays 5e/p to 10e/p and Weekday Afternoons).
So this means the end of Kids WB doesn't it? No , It didn't . Since UPN had no networked children's block , many of the CW affiliates were WB affiliates , and Time Warner owned Kids WB and half of the CW , the block would live on.
You are watching Kids WB ... on the CW(?) sounds good / Youtube
In September of 2006 ,Kids WB was now on the CW (better than calling it Kids CW) , and still ran the way it was running before. There was a New Tom and Jerry series , "Tom and Jerry tales", and a new Scooby series, "Shaggy and Scooby Get a Clue!". That was the last series produced by some from Hanna and Barbera ( Joseph Barbera ) , didn't have Casey Kasmen as Shaggy. Other shows like , "Johnny Test" stayed on the line up. By 2007 the end was now announced , in October it was announced that in May 2008 , the block would end and time sold to 4 Kids Entertainment (them again?). Like all our past pieces this one ends in death of a block ( it's like Murder, She Wrote for TV blocks). The Kids WB name lives on as a website , and a block in some countries, somewhere.
Thanks , Kids WB! you are missed .
Note: Nothing against UPN , they did make some good show(s) , like Verionica Mars, Thankyou
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