This another re-write edition, where I take an old post and re-do it to see how it can be improved. I originally did the the TNBC block post in back in 2014, but I also combined it with UPN Kids. This time, I'm going to just focus on TNBC, and there's something big to tell. TNBC, is not as well known, but it's place in history is important, not just for the block but what it was a sign of in the future.
Our story begins in 1988, the idea of concept of giving up Saturday Morning cartoons was bubbling up. Even a rumor in 1987 about deciding to drop the concept themselves. The idea is that the ratings were slipping, or the real reason: business. NBC was #1 in ratings on Saturday Mornings, but being #1 doesn't matter if you aren't making money on that. Around this time, syndication (so not really cable affecting anything just yet) was booming for kids programming. Kids had more options beyond Saturday morning and also content that might have made it to NBC, CBS, and ABC weren't and showing up on UHF 53 or something instead. Around that time, the average cost of a Saturday morning cartoon episode was $300,000.
Brandon Tartikoff was running NBC at the time, he was one of the most successful NBC presidents in their history. He had said there was other potential for Saturday Morning, beyond cartoons. He was thinking about news (more on that later) travel shows, and well anything else. A think of note here is that Saturday Morning , along with other day parts, were produced by outside companies. Hanna and Barbera, for example. Why not have NBC Studios make stuff instead, in house is cheaper than paying some cartoon to make a cartoon that'll last maybe 13 episodes.
(source: https://www.nytimes.com/1988/09/19/business/the-media-business-nbc-considers-scrapping-saturday-cartoons.html)
That didn't happen. Well, in 1988, or 1989, or 1990, but it was coming. Funny enough, Tartikoff left before TNBC was launched, but there is something we have to do before we get to TNBC. (This is a long story) Tartikoff had tasked a man named Peter Engel (get used to him) to work on a new series for NBC primetime, back in 1986. That brings us to a series that first pilot aired in 1987.
Let's take Hayley Mills and make her a teacher. (Wonderful!) That's fine enough but she needs some interesting students. Let's see, how about a boy who is kind of mischievous and scheming named Zach Morris. Let's also have other characters named Lisa Turtle, Samuel "Screech" Powers and Mikey. Maybe some more to round it out. The pilot of this series aired in June of 1987 and NBC decided that no never mind we don't want it.
"Good Morning, Miss Bliss" was the name of this proposed series, but even though, NBC passed it over, it did get to have 13 episodes that aired on The Disney Channel (back when Disney Channel had a The like it thought it was better than everyone else) Disney was going to air more, but the show was retooled and they passed up on it.
Now, the spark to help begin the TNBC story! This is when Tartikoff felt taking this series and redoing it with new elements, new time slot, and different spot. That's right this is "Saved By The Bell" . Saved by the Bell was launched in primetime in 1989, but it's main drive would be part of Saturday Morning as a way to get older kids who NBC felt they were losing in ratings. This was new, usually any live-action on Saturday morning for kids would be those teen shows, or those specials programming.
Tucked between "Alvin and the Chipmunks" at 11am/10c and Alf : The Animated Series at 12pm/11c part of NBC's 5 hour block for kids, was this new series. That was the spark needed to light a fire that'd change things for history.
Over on the new Fox Network, they had decided to launch a new weekday and Saturday morning block called FOX Kids in 1990. FOX probably the thing that helped hasten the concept of the syndicated programming, but you also can maybe levy a good bet that may have put a squeeze on NBC, ABC ,and CBS in the mornings. This also may have helped NBC decide it's time to pack it up.
This is Today ...now on Saturday
In 1987, the Today Show had gone on a day of the week in never touched: Sundays. Before this, only CBS really had a morning show on Sunday. (Or weekends in general) This was something besides Meet the Press. In 1988, they were floating around the idea of expanding "Today" to Saturdays. This would be cheaper than having 2 hours of Saturday Morning cartoons, reducing the amount would be a cost saver. More families were also having more television sets than just one, so why not have programming for the adults up in the morning? That's the logic set up. Well the meeting room eventually was convinced and on August, 1, 1992, the Today Show on Saturday launched. By this point, the NBC Saturday Morning cartoons were just waiting for execution, their death dates had already been set for the next month.
"Saved by the Bell" had done well for NBC in 1989, that they, of course renewed it, but they had ideas. In 1990, NBC's Saturday Morning cartoons were cut, meaning that one "Chipmunks" finished airing at 10:30am/9:30c. "Saved by the Bell" ushered in something different for the older audience, and the toons weren't going to come back on after that.
A new series, produced by NBC Studios was launched, called "Guys Next Door" was on after "Saved" it wasn't animated. The series is about about a mock boy band doing sketches and spoofs. (Someone was trying to remake "The Monkees" ) They did have real songs and one of them even made it to the Hot 100 charts. "I've been Waiting for you" . This show lasted 13 episodes then they replaced it with reruns of a sitcom from 1987 called "Roomies" that ran for 8 episodes. (wow!)
Do you want to see MTV, fellow Teens? But you don't have MTV? Well how about NBC?! (Where are you going?, rude, they must be VH1 fans) Not to get in long with this, because I do want to talk about TNBC. This is important too.
NBC did want an MTV crowd to watch them, somewhere. In 1983, they launched something called "Friday Night Videos" that is where they aired music videos....on Friday night. (Not to be confused with Monday Night Football...that airs on Monday nights) FNV aried during late nights, because they didn't have David Letterman running on Friday nights. They also had more music variety (and less talk?) compared to MTV. In 1987, they cut the 90 minute to 60 minutes. In 1990, they made a Saturday Morning version called Saturday Morning Videos.(Not to be confused with Sunday Night Baseball) Fun Fact: Tom Kenny, the voice of Spongebob, once hosted this show.
You can see, that NBC was going for something different on Saturday mornings. Wait, NBC had NBA rights? Some kids and teens like basketball right?( I don't know, why are you asking me?) Well, why not have a show for them, so "NBA Inside Stuff" would round out the line up.
By this point, the Saturday morning cartoons on NBC , if they were alive and sentient, were like "I'm in danger" and chuckling in nervous fear. In 1991, NBC did add some new animated series like "Yo Yogi!" (oh noooo) "Pro Stars"(ooh nooo) and "Wish Kid" (ooh) and a show about cats from space called "Space Cats" by guy who crated by ALF. This is weird.
If NBC was like doing a tank the line up so we can say we failed and get players, I think that'd be true. They were done with animation on Saturday Morning, Saved by the Bell and the stuff they were airing after it, proved that they were done. 1991's line up was just a message they were just buying time and giving up.
Out of the way, Teens get their time !
TNBC , the T stands for Teen. There you go. So that also means what they were going for in their new Saturday Morning agenda.Now the first 2 hours were turned over to "Today Show" they had only 2.5 hours to work with now. 1 hour of the 1992 line up, at launch was "Saved By The Bell". They used "Saved the Bell" to lead in their new series (so smart)
TNBC launched on Saturday, September 12th, 1992. The series that aired after the first episode of "Saved by the Bell" was "California Dreams". This series was an Engel production, not created by him but done with his production company.
This series was about the Garrison Family, that moved from Iowa to California. (Where's my California family moving to Iowa series?) The main characters from the family are teens (gotta fit the market) and have a band called The California Dreams. Their names were Matt and Jenny; meanwhile they had a parents Richard (Dad) , Melody (Mom) , and Dennis (youngest son) . The other main characters were Tiffani Smith (with an I!) , Tony, and Sylvester (see we still have an , wait that was an ABC show) The plots were mostly focused on the band kids doing band kid stuff in California doing California band stuff , teen California band stuff! (TNBC!) The show had music videos too, because band!
This sounds like something you'd get on Nickelodeon and Disney Channel in the later times, but NBC felt that this show wasn't too teen enough or something. It did get renewed (yay!?) They decided to not have family plot lines as much anymore. (Families bad or something) To just focus on the teens in the band. They even wrote out the younger brother of the Garrison kids. (They just killed a kid) They did a a new cast member named Jake to be a second drummer. They later added another character named Samantha (Sam) Woo, a foreign exchange student to be there and she replaces Jenny as a vocalist.
The rest of the seasons, they threw out the Garrisons completely, and just focused on teen band. With Matt being replaced by Mark Winkle a character who is Sly's cousin. They show ended after 5 seasons and 78 episodes in 1996.
After the second airing of "Saved by the Bell" they have "Name Your Adventure" A show hosted by Mario Lopez from the show on before it, Jordan Brady and Tatyana Ali. This was a reality show (early time) where the premise is helping teens' dreams come true. (Yay?) Simple show really, it lasted 3 seasons until 1995.
The next show that last 7 episodes (ouch) was a game show called "Double Up" a game show where siblings find dates for each other. (What?) Sister would ask three girls dating game style questions and Brother would do the same to boys. This is the dating game , but with kids. (What?) NBA season started up and they brought back "NBA Inside Stuff" and Double Up was never heard from again.
After NBA season, they brought in a new series called "Brains and Brawn" a game show hosted by Mark-Paul Gosselaar, (Zach Morris) I mean he was already in the building, so why not? This was a summer game show, that ran from July 1993 to October that year. Teenagers would compete (duh) in a mixture of academic and physical challenges. (Someone liked Double Dare)
Funny enough about the 1992-1993 season. This was the last season of "Saved by The Bell" that's right the show that helped NBC launch a new block, was over. Now Now, hmm we can do this! Saved by the Bell did get a continuation series called "Saved by the Bell: The College years" but that a) wasn't on TNBC and b) Wasn't the only spin-off. Now I present you with the longest running, Saved By the Bell series, coming in at 7 seasons ! It's "Saved by the Bell : The New Class" That's right! A new whole new cast of series in Bayside High doing high school stuff. The Principal was the same.
"The New Class" premiered September 11th 1993 and didn't give up until NBC got tired of it in 2000. This length meant they would cycle in new cast members when they needed. (Also Screech showed up) They did keep the same theme through the series, so consistency. Funny enough for a show that ran on this block the longest, there's not much to say about it. It's "Saved By The Bell" but with different characters.
"Running the Halls" was on after the New Class for it's one season. It's about teens in a boarding school, and the twist is they aren't in California.
The 1994 line up, feels like they gave up. "Name your Adventure" chugged for it's final season, then they doubled on "The New Class" and "California Dreams" ran. No new series that season. The 1995 schedule was the same , but they got rid of "Name your adventure" and replaced it with a new show called "Hang Time" which was surrounded by two episodes of "The New Class"
"Hang Time" premiered on September 9th, 1995. This is another Engel produced, but not created series. This is about a boy's basketball team at a school in Indiana. (Daring today aren't we?) Now now we couldn't have an all male series, so they need .... yes... so a girl from Chicago moves to the fictional town of Deering that this show takes place in and wants to be on the basketball team. The series is focused on them being a team , plus teen stuff like dating.
The second season, because it was renewed ( a few times) and now Peter Engel was the show runner. This made the show change its cast. They also added more serious plots about drugs , drinking, and more fun teen stuff! (don't drink and drugs teens!) Later seasons they changed casts around some more, also adding Dick Butkus, because why not? (Football is just indoor basketball)
In 1996, they were fine. I should say , a network not adding new shows when you feel like shows are doing well isn't a bad thing. It's just kind of interesting. They did really like the idea of just 2 episodes of "The New Class" run. It was like it was holding up the block.
1996 is an interesting year, this would be the first year that ABC would be under Disney (because the government regulators are constant failures), CBS would be in its year of traditional animation block . Two new networks had launched in 1995, the WB and UPN. The WB had a Saturday Morning block too! Oh this block on NBC did comply with the Children's television act very well, they were targeting the 13-16 age range of that rule. (That did mean they could get more ad money than say the others who were under 12s and had to cut back on ads) TNBC was probably the only block making good money and also the cheapest at this point.
In 1997, across the networks, there was some change. ABC had gone full Disney , and the Disney One Saturday Morning block. CBS has decided to clear out animation and just go with E/I safe programming and a Saturday Morning News show . "CBS News Saturday Morning" . FOX Kids was at it's peak and Kids WB existed.
NBC had ended "California Dreams" in 1996, meaning they had a new slot open. They asked Engel for a new show and this time he did it himself. He and Scott S. Gorden crated a new series that premiered on September 6 1997 called "City Guys". This show takes place in a thee big city of New York. Two teenagers were the main characters. Jamal Grant and Chris Anderson, Chris is from a wealthy family and Jamal is from working class family. They have an extended cast of friends like Dawn Tartikoff (hmmm) , Al Ramos , Cassidy Giuliani (hmmmm) , Lionel Johnson. It's a teen show (why did you write that?) that did teen stuff.
We aren't going for high concept out of the box stuff, it's providing stuff to a market that wants it. I think. At least they didn't change the cast every five seconds. This series would run for 5 seasons and pretty much be there until the end of the block.
In theory, this would mean that the line up is closed up, but no, someone by a miracle, decided to get rid of one the airings of "The New Class" and replace it with a new series in 1998. This show wasn't created by Engel , but it was another production. This should be called ENBC. This show is called "One World" This show takes place in Miami. ( I really jumped the gun on the California joke)
An Ex basketball player and artist wife have adopted kids each one from different racial and ethnic backgrounds. They are called the Blake Family. (This show was written this way to make sure there were no random cast changes wasn't it?, I'll show you, they killed a boy off in another show)
This show did the same things as the others dealing teen stuff and family stuff. They had plots for you exploring the family relationships of adopted children, but really it's there. The title is dumb, they should have made a better name, they knew people have a hard time Yahoo-ing it , geeze.
One World ran 3 seasons with 39 episodes. Meaning it also died with the block.
1999 ...same as it ever way... bah.... 2000! There are a couple new shows! (rubs my eyes) NBC was concerned the block was sagging, so they needed some fresh blood. "Saved by the Bell: The New Class" was finally put out of it's misery. They also go Thomas Lynch of Nickelodeon series "The Secret World of Alex Mack" , he also created 2000 drama series "Caitlin's Way" that aired on Nick. Funny enough , Nick was going for the TNBC market in a way. That was when Teennick was launching too! Now this new series created by Jessica Klein and Thomas W Lynch was called "Just Deal" (Alright then)
The show is about Dylan Roberts a teenager (starts to get sleepy) who lives in the suburbs of Seattle whose older brother is the star quarter back of the high school football team. If anything this show is for younger kids to see the exploits of being a teenager. (to lull them into a false sense of security) This was the first TNBC show not be filmed in front of a live studio audience and or laugh track. If you watch the show then you will feel bathed in late 90's early 2000's you'll smell like Doriotos3D and Storm soda. This program did breath a little fresh air into the line up.
You can't be a teen forever
Weirdly enough, in August of 2001 they added a new show called "All About Us" and back to the Engel studios for content. It's a comedy-drama about 4 teen age girls who live in Chicago. It's an interesting series that feels like it's more friends but for teens and younger kids, but also with some focus on teenage problems and showing how they deal with them. It lasted 13 episodes, more on that in a second.
Another Thomas Lynch series, shows up that's Sk8. This is a show about a teenager who wants to be a pro skater, because this was big at the time in media, everyone was getting into the extreme sports programming. It premised on October 6, 2001 because of 9/11 delaying all of TV stuff.
But these final two shows were dealt with bad hand. NBC had other background plans. In December of 2001, NBC announced they were washing their hands and selling the time of post "Today" Saturday morning to Discovery. Discovery would program Discovery Kids there from Fall 2002. (source)
NBC West Coast president Scott Sassa said the network couldn't reach thetarget teen audience through its primetime programming to help market and
promote its Saturday-morning schedule.
He added that he would have programmed the block with other content if not
for the Federal Communications Commission's network requirements for kids'
programming.
The pre-teen and teen audiences much like their younger companions had other places they could go for programming. NBC felt that the TNBC was no longer worth it to their trouble anymore. It's kind of sad, but that's business. Many of the target audience wasn't watching much, and it might have been more people who had Saturday Toady on leaving it on the channel. Leasing out the space was a better way than trying to keep it in house, Fox was going to do the same the next year as well.
TNBC is important, it's an interesting impact. NBC getting out of traditional kids programming in 1992, was the canary in the mine of what was going to eventually happen. Things were already changing around it. The block did whether a lot of the the change , versus ABC and CBS, it was smart for NBC to try something different in 1992.
After 10 years, the block shutdown on September 28th, 2002. The next week, Discovery Kids on NBC launched. (You can read our post about that here) It's not well remembered as a block, but it should be mentioned and talked about. It had a purpose and was slightly interesting. The programs they had really hadn't existed on broadcast TV, and even may have sparked others to try this style of programming.
That's it for now, tune in next time , when wonder why NBC hasn't remade "California Dreams".
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