1996. You might be wondering why we are looking at a random year (though in 2021, 1996 is 25 years ago, eek) of programming on a random broadcast network, when we could be doing anything else. (Whatever that is) Well, 1996, wasn't just some random year, in theory, for Saturday morning kids block there was some change.
In 1995 (Nooo you can't do that... what are you doing, this is about 1996!), one new block joined the big 3 Saturday morning kids blocks and it joined the big 1 weekday race. Joining ABC, CBS, and FOX was the WB's Kids WB (on the WB) . UPN also launched a block, but they said, woah Saturday is crowded, we'll die so Sunday and Weekdays for them. (I'm sure they didn't say that line like that , but it's implied) Anyway, we're talking about ABC. We have to go back to 1993. (Oh come on!)
In 1993, the wise FCC decided, nah it's good for syndication and production companies to be owned with networks. Now, FOX and a few others had found ways around the rule, anyway, but this meant something. This is also how UPN and the WB were able to exist. On July 31st, 1995 it happened, The Walt Disney Company announced it's intentions to buy Capital Cities/ ABC, this was approved by shareholders (duh money) and later by the FCC (because sure why not, allow bad decisions to happen?) ABC was now no longer a company it was now part of a larger company, it had been demoted from crown jewel to a piece of future in the house that exists next your fancy stuff. (what?)
Sticking to the theme of this blog post, 1996-1997 season on Saturday morning would be a transition year. February 1997, Peter Hastings joined Disney and decided that they needed to something different with this real estate on Saturday morning on ABC. (Meanwhile at CBS, we see them burning their Saturday morning down , and seeding to FOX , Kids WB, and the FCC) That block would be called Disney's One Saturday Morning, ( Disney buy Saturday Mornings in the future probably) (source: https://variety.com/1997/digital/news/abc-hopes-for-virtual-success-1116677612/)
1996-1997 would be the last year of what essentially was an unnamed block. It wasn't tradition to call these things names until like FOX Kids started. So we look at this block, a moment in time, a snap shot, a time , a piece. Let's get on with it.
First in the line up : Disney's Jungle Cubs. This was the first year of Disney ownership of ABC, but before this Disney relied on syndication (Disney Afternoon) and selling programs to networks, like ABC and CBS. A model that had been the standard for decades like with Hanna and Barbera. Disney didn't make their programs exclusive to ABC(yet,) Disney Afternoon was dying at this point, but that's a different story. On CBS this season there were still some Disney animated shows running there. But this series was the first one to premiere on ABC with Disney ownership.
"Jungle Cubs" takes the making shows with characters but younger route. It's based off their "The Jungle Book" movie, but with the animals as "kids" and no human child. Now because this is more a snap shot look, I won't be going too deep into every show's plot, but mostly giving a look at this time period.
In a weird twist, a Nickelodeon show. Alright, Disney had purchased "Doug" one of Nickelodeon's first Nicktoons. This has only happened once and Viacom will probably fight to the death than allow this to happen again. Disney had acquired the studio that made "Doug" (Disney's rampage goes long) and it had already ended on Nickelodeon, and Disney thought to make their investment have a purpose, since they didn't own the original Nick episodes, they needed to make more Doug. (It's like Disney with Star Wars) In September of 1996, here on the ABC line up, the "Brand New Sparking Doug" (what?) premiered. It would last through the One Saturday Morning block as well. Confusing kids as to how Doug can run on two different channels at once. (Jokes on Disney, Nick had their cash cow of Rugrats in their back pocket)
This time feels like it was Disney's One Saturday Morning, the preview, because the third show is also from Disney. "Disney's The Mighty Ducks" based off their live-action movie, but not directly, because now the cast is ducks, get it ? Ducks and the team is called the Ducks. ( Remember that movie? Yeah. Now what if they were ducks?) This series was the shortest of the three Disney made series I mentioned so far, not even seeing new episodes in the 1997-98 year. (Shrugs)
What is a duck's mortal enemy? If you said sharks, then what? A series not from Disney, but from Dic (which at one point would be owned by Disney because well duh) In a twist, this series wasn't brand new, it was in syndication, but made it to ABC in 1996. This series seems to be one of the last gasps of shows made with TV show about toys to sell toys, that mostly died off by this point.
They are sharks but also walk on land...I'm scared/ Copyright Mattel?
We've cleared up about 2 hours now, but here's an interesting part of history. So, before Warner Brothers was owned with Turner Broadcast (this was the year that merger happened, regulators were 0-2 that year) . Warner Brothers animation had a hour long block on ABC since 1984 and it ran in this slot with a break for "School House Rock" (which was owned by ABC) and this ran into the One Saturday Morning era until 2000, when contracts expired. It made it through part of the E/I rules era and the fact that Kids WB existed.
This is kind of an interesting outlier because this was in the middle of multiple television and media upheavals at once. Hanna and Babera had mostly disappeared and was being absorbed to produce original series for Cartoon Network, the CN owner was being purchased by Time Warner, the Warner Brothers' owner. Disney bought ABC, over at CBS they were about to merge with Westinghouse. This was just a constant running show on ABC that was being surrounded by the changes in atmosphere and media.
After this hour, there was a short-lived series that might be good for it's own blog post one day. "Bone Chillers" . This series is by Fred Silverman's company (the only guy to run all three networks) and is about kids in high school. They go through high school stuff but also have to do weird stuff because they go to Edgar Allen Poe High School. It lasted the standard 13 episodes.
In 1997 (but still part of the 1996 -1997 season) The Disney series that Disney seems to not care about, "Nightmare Ned". This series is also another good candidate for a blog post. This series was also short-lived being 12 episodes. It's kind of something you wouldn't expect Disney to make, but it is kind of sad that they it's not as acknowledged.
The syndication market was drying up for kids' TV with the WB and UPN filling in slots with their own networked kids shows, why need syndication. Disney's Gargoyles moved to ABC for it's final season. It's a smart idea to take some stuff you had before and move to somewhere you own it, or that's at least what is persevered as smart.
Wikipedia calls this a Disney Channel original series, and since it seems, besides "So Weird" Disney doesn't seem to acknowledge Even Stevens Disney Channel originals it's also hard to find out about because the title "Flash Forward" is the name of a series ABC had later on as well, so oops. This is also an interesting moment of them showing something for Disney Channel on ABC. This is a) that's the future b) Disney Channel was about to change it's own purpose this time. In 1997 it went from being HBO but Disney, to USA network, but Disney. The idea it was no longer this extra channel to pay for but now on par with Nickelodeon, was showing the change in the game as well.
The finished the block later, by rerunning "DuckTales" and "The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh" (The new Adventures originally ran on ABC and Disney Channel when it was new) After 20 years, the ABC Weekend Specials ran their final episodes and ended in summer of 1997.A long mainstay in the line up getting chopped is really an interesting way to end this part of the look.
Funny enough, the Weekend Specials would have fit the best in the new E/I rules more than anything else in this line up, but it seemed that change was instore for that. Over on CBS, they were running reruns of "CBS Story Break". This block was five hours, the standard, you only needed 3 hours of E/I which some of these programs fit into. ABC was the final network to join the let's have a weekend version of their morning show race in 2003.
1996-1997 was a change a year in Saturday morning TV, but shown as a sample of the overall change in TV history. Disney was setting their stakes , getting out of syndicated TV and getting to owning their own broadcast space (to promote themselves too) and the lead up to "One Saturday Morning" is less one day , there's something else, then they switched on the parent company made shows, and is more slight drip and and start to get used to it.
The promo here does say say they are happy to have ABC. That's really our look at this moment in time, there maybe some day we go more indepth on these shows , but for now, we were looking a moment in time of transition.
If you are interested, here's our look at Disney's one Saturday Morning here. (We may re do that in the future)
That's it for now, tune in next time when we take over Thursday afternoons on all the networks!
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