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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