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Wednesday, July 02, 2014

Looking Back : Disney's One Saturday Morning and ABC Kids

The Flash Back Kids Programming  
    Written by Skyler
                  I guess this is a series with-in a series  , we take another look at Children's programming blocks on network TV in the past.As their eventual death is coming.    This week , we look at Disney's One Saturday Morning, Disney's One Too and ABC Kids.


So how did this this block start ?  In 1995 Walt Disney Company announced they were acquiring  Capital Cities /ABC   so this means they finally owned a network.   Disney had worked in broadcast tv for a long time , they had "The Wonderful world of Disney"  Disney Afternoon  Syndicated block and  some programs on CBS.  So they announced a  new 2 hour block on ABC's Saturday morning  to encompass the 5 hour block of programming geared toward children.   "Disney's One Saturday Morning " started September 13th ,1997.  It was a block of New Disney Original programming  : Doug ,Which Disney bought from Nickelodeon  and made new episodes of,  "PepperAnn" and "Recess".  It also had to follow the  Children's Television ACT (E/I)   so there was some educational element to the block  and the 5 hours as a whole.

                         
                            An intro to start the block makes in special / Youtube
        Outside of the 2 hour   block with in a block there was more "One  Saturday Morning " with  The Bugs  Bunny and Tweety show  interesting thing about this  : It was pretty much the classic Bugs Bunny and Tweety shorts  airing in a 1hour block , it wasn't by Disney , and wasn't educational .  Disney's Jungle Cubs , "The New  Adventures of Winnie the Pooh" , and Science Court ( renamed Squigglevision in 1998).
What is Science Court ? It sounds like some sort of show  where Judge Judy teaches kids about science.  (Wait that would fun).   No, it was animated series  that taught kids about science but it was shown as trail. It was an entertainment educational show  to fit into the new TV rules.   Looked like this .
     The  line up stayed the same pretty much for 2 years  , with some show swapping  Hercules! , an animated series replaced 101 Dalmatians  animated series, then 101 came back.
 The Weekenders premised in 1999 : the Novel thing about this children's series was that it pretty much only took place on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday ( the Only days that Matter)  , the opposite of "Disney's Recess" really.  Sabrina the Animated series was another series , made by DIC (now owned by DHX Media)  made during the popularity of the ABC TGIF series about the teenage witch, though she was 12 in the cartoon . As the Bugs and Tweety show wasn't really educational it was shortened to 30  minutes for it's final Big 3 Network season.  Note : Don't confused that Sabrina with the 1970'S series.
                         
                             Is she cool ? Is she Lame?  ....    Disney/ Youtube
       In 2000,  everything was change  , besides checkbooks that had the 19_  still there so you would cross out the 19 and add a 20  in anger ( sorry got distracted) . Well , the block didn't change to much ... stop! We forgot something;  the programs that aired between programs. (Interstitials)
    Mrs.Munger's Class  was about a teacher and her class done in a year book form.
                            
                           Odd isn't it? ...  Simmer, Simmer you,.... sorry     Youtube /ABC
How Things Werk (No that is how it is spelled) which taught (see learning)  the viewers about how things worked. In a fun comic book way.
             
                     
                      Yay America!!!!!                 Youtube/ABC

 There were others too ... now back to our normal blog post.

In 2000 , Bugs and Tweety were sent packing  , they were still airing on Cartoon Network ( thanks Ted Turner),   New series "Teacher's Pet" about a dog who disguised himself as a human  to go to school with his human. (Yay Learning).   And "Buzz Light year: star Command" where we see Buzz Lightyear and his squadron fight space crime.
 
 We are going to stop there and change channels a second . To UPN .
    Wait , UPN?  Why are we going to UPN?  Disney Never owned UPN?! UPN?!

Well no, they didn't own UPN  but they did program Children's programming  , a block called "Disney's One Too" (See what they did there?)  UPN and Disney in 1998 agreed to let Disney do Children's programming for them .  It aired Sunday Mornings and Weekday afternoons.  The Block debuted  September 5th 1999, It had the same series that aired on ABC on Saturday Mornings.
                          
                            Youtube/ UPN/Disney
Instead of  interstitial breaks  it had "gags" done by the tv series that aired in the block  so feautring Sabrina, Recess,  Doug, and the Rest.  The  Disney's One too name lasted until 2002 ( We will say why that is later), and in 2003 it was killed off completely  , and a few years later UPN died.

We have more after the jump


Back to ABC's Disney One Saturday Morning now..  any the block continued the same until 2001  ,the block was very much a Saturday Morning  Cartoon block .  Over on Disney Channel , the network was introducing original series. Two series were becoming very popular "Lizzie McGuire" and "Even Stevens" so Disney decided to add these two programs to ABC  in 2001  using the same name they were under on Disney Channel "Zoog  Disney.  These programs did fit under E/I so it worked two ways.
                         
                    
                            youtube/ Disney
    2001 ,was also the final season with  Disney's One  Saturday Morning as the name  , this is why the Disney's One Too block had no name in 2002.  In September  of 2002 , the block was renamed ABC KIDS more Disney Channel series were added  including "The Proud Family"  and "Kim Possible"  though a new original to Sat AM program was still added "Filmore!".  In late 2001 , Disney bought FOX Family and included in the deal was FOX Kids programs including "Power Rangers" , a new Power Rangers series  (Wild Force) was added to the block  as the last program of the block.
 
                         
                    Disney's one Saturday Morning  is becoming ABC kids  /Disney
   3 hours of ABC Kids followed E/I mandates   the rest "Power Rangers" and "Kim Possible" did not .  In 2004  it was shortened to 4 hours so "Good Morning America" weekend could air. By this time most of the programs were repeats of Disney Channel Original Animated and Live-action series , and the Power Rangers series.   In 2006, the final  line up changes happened , "Kim Possible" was dropped and replaced by another episode of "Power Rangers". The rest of the line up was  Disney Channel series : "The Emperor's new school" , "The Replacements" , "That's So Raven" , "Hannah Montana" and "The Suite life of Zack and Cody"  all these programs were E/I . This is also the final line up it stayed this way until 2011,  even though all those shows had ended runs. In some cases the programs aired were only their first seasons from when they launched on the block in 2006.
               Disney Packed it in and sold the time to Litton in 2011, and this was the end of Traditional children's TV on ABC.
   So it began with a great mission to educate and entertain it's audience for a chunk of Saturday Mornings  or in UPN's case Sunday and Weekdays. Pretty much ended without a a peep or much notice. It had many programs that are still remembered now "Recess" for example. Tune in next time we may just do more .

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