The Lookback: Kids WB!

The Flashback 

             The door that FOX opened just by existing is something of a television historical note that, if not for television or the media around today, would not exist in its current form. In short, without FOX existing as a broadcast network, there would have been no The WB or UPN, and probably no major vertical integration mergers where a movie studio with a TV studio would be co-owned with a broadcast network. There would have been no Disney owning ABC.

   

             In 1993, well November 1993, Warner Bros. , a large movie and TV studio which would also be a a factor in many successful TV shows, including the soon to be big and popular "Friends" for NBC, was going to start their own broadcast network. Called The WB. Their primary partner, since WB didn't own local TV stations, compared to how Murdoch bought TV stations before launching FOX, would be Tribune Company. (Source)  Tribune owned major stations in  the top markets  and a few other locals. (like the owners of the local station in Denver KWGN)    They also owned a cable channel feed of Chicago's WGN, which would also be of help.  

   

       The WB was going to launch in January of 1995, and was coming a market that as different than FOX came in. There was way more cable competition, which was hurting local independent stations. Maybe having a network would help these stations, that was a theory. Even when though there was an explosion of new , mostly UHF, indie stations coming on in the 80's the market had worked for the content. Including weekday and non-Saturday children's programming. This gave us the Disney Afternoon , which birthed us FOX Kids.   FOX Kids history should be noted here benefited from Warner Bros. programming in their assent to a top spot. 

            The WB network launched January 11, 1995, the KIDS WB block didn't launch until September 9, 1995.  In theory, if anybody could launch a powerful kids with animation block would well Warner Brothers. Again, they had success on Fox with shows like "Animaniacs" , "Tiny Toon Adventures" , "Bat Man the animated series". If someone was to make up a theory that Warner saw how well their stuff was doing but not fully reaping the benefits and decided to go it on their own and here we go; that could make sense. 

     

          “People think networks produce shows and networks seem to take creative credit, when in fact, studios are the producers. Now people know who should take the bow, and that’s Warner Bros. Studios Animation.”

                                                                                                                            (source)  

      Those words from Jamie Kellner, the first head of The WB.   He was also the former Fox president. Maybe the magic of FOX would help the WB. Though our post is only about the Kids block.

   Kids WB, took FOX's model of being a Saturday Morning and Weekday block. When FOX came in there were 3 other blocks on Saturday morning, but NBC was bowing out,  but three's also Nickelodeon on cable to worry about.  In fact, cable is part of the WB more than FOX.  In many markets the WB didn't not exist, even in the early days. In some markets, the cable company would pipe in a close by one, especially like Colorado Springs already having KWGN-TV in Denver on cable systems. (Hometown talk)  Remember I also mentioned the WGN cable feed, which was also a WB network feed (unless a sports game took that out)  that means for a selection of people the WB was a cable network, not a broadcast network.  Of course, cable brings in local TV stations that do have over the air, but the WB might not be over the air in some areas.  FOX Kids would be accessible than Kids WB! in some markets.   In major top cities that wasn't a problem since the WB would even be on prime VHF stations like Channel 11 New York, Channel 5 LA, Channel 9 Chicago.  

more after the jump

The Early Days 

         The weekday block, like FOX's start, was 1 hour long. Most stations airing the programming from 4-5pm.  This might be a way to allow stations that  still had syndicated shows like the burning remains of the Disney Afternoon to allow those blocks to air too.   WGN would air the block 4-5pm ET/ 1-2pm PT ,because WGN had one feed East to West.  The Saturday block would air 8am- 11am doesn't matter which time zone, if WB said 8am they meant 8am no matter where.  (Though stations could air it when they felt would work)  WGN aired the block from 8am-11am or 5am-8am PT  (source)

          The Weekday line up was two shows. First "That's Warner Bros!" or "Bugs n' Daffy"  this was a package show with Warner Bros. cartoon shorts. There was something like this on other networks, even FOX had a show like this, so did ABC, here's WB using their ownership's power to bring their heavy weights to their network.  The other show was "Animaniacs" which  Warner got away from FOX.  The weekday block was reruns of the episodes that aired on FOX as away to hopefully guide the kids away from FOX to watch the show they might have watched on FOX.  Meanwhile on FOX, they had "Power Rangers" and "Goosebumps" in the slot. (FOX wasn't going down with a fight) 

           The Saturday line up lead off with more "Animaniacs" reruns to hopefully be launch guide lead-in.    It's a smart idea, the first half  hour across the other networks wasn't too interesting. (This is not to attack "The New Adventures of Madeline"). It's not like reruns also didn't exist either.  

     Warner Bros. used their characters to effect like, "The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries" series. A series where the cat, bird, and Granny, go out and solve mysteries instead of being a 22 minute show where Sylvester tries to eat Tweety.   It ran pretty long on Kids WB, 5 years.  

       Then they had new episodes of "Animaniacs"  so they weren't just throwing old episodes and hoping the viewers wouldn't notice. Of course, taking it from FOX  they would nee to have to new episodes to rub it in.   Ironically, the same slot FOX aired the show. (Ironic not meaning the word ironic at all here)    The next series, was a brand new spin-off series of "Animaniacs" that would be "Pinky and The Brain".  Actually, there's more to this story.  "Pinky and The Brain" wasn't just intended for the Kids WB block was also airing in primetime. Sunday Nights on the WB at 7/6c. This is a bad slot.  Even more now, even back then, you kind of know that you will lose to "60 Minutes" either accept that and do something or give up and just renew "America's Funniest Home Videos" for 30 more years, and whatever NBC and FOX do. It is funny they though the show was worthy of primetime (not disputing that) but were cowards to put it on against "The Simpsons" (cowardly but maybe smart). It could have worked and we'd be in a different world, who knows?  Pinky and The Brain did run on Kids WB for a few more seasons.  

             Another series with "Steven Spielberg Presents" on it  (man was presenting so much, I'm kind of concerned)  That would "Freakazoid!"  With more work for Tom Ruegger to do as well.  Simple, it's a superhero animated comedy series where a teenager fights baddies. This show, should have been the one that WB should have tried in primetime, It seemed to work better with an older audience. That or they should have made an older kids block to compete against TNBC, oh well too late now.   

          Oddly enough, the last show on the block wasn't from Warner Bros.  that's "Earthworm Jim", another super-hero comedy series.  Again, this show wasn't from Warner Bros, being MCA TV instead, and it kind of shows that Kids WB wasn't just going to be based on classic Warner Bros. characters or shows made by them only.  (Like how FOX Kids had other companies with input)

      That's the first season.  I won't say that Kids WB! set the world on fire that season, it existed but it wasn't the highest rated or biggest.  Kellner was in a long run mode, this was the first year of the network and there would be time, to  bed in.  There is an advantage they had, and that would be heavy weight shows and use of Warner Bros. characters. 

                   

        Kids WB! also was selling an environment in a way. Much like how Animaniacs had a fictionalized world of the Warner Bros. studio lot, the Kids WB block also mimicked that.  It even connects it to the original network in a way. You'd see stars from the main network also in bumpers. This also fits in with the WB network trying skew younger.   

     Kids WB!  shifts some things around for the 1996-97 season, though 1/4  of it's line up on Saturday is "Animaniacs".  The block became one hour in 1996. Warner Bros. owns DC Comics, but they couldn't move Batman: The Animated series to the WB.  Since the show had ended and FOX had exclusivity until 1997.  They  had Superman come in and there's "Superman: The Animated Series". (Not to be confused with Superman: The Claymation Animated Series, which sadly doesn't exist)  Another show with Tom Ruegger as producer was Road Rovers. Dogs with superpowers.  With Bill Clinton's dog as a lead. (What?) There was also the short-lived Warner and Nelvana co-produced series from Damon Wayans, "Waynehead". 

             This is where I cut out for Corporate stuff is happening!  In a sad moment, in 1996 Ted Turner decided to sell his company to Time Warner. In the world of stuff this meant that pre-1948 Warner Bros. cartoons, 1986 MGM stuff, including cartoons, Hanna-Barbera toons, and even Cartoon Network are now all owned by Warner. 

         For the 1997-1998 year.   Kids WB, like FOX, now had 2 hours of weekday afternoons, and a morning block (umm which I don't the WB stations starting AM news wanted).  Some stations aired the whole morning hour in the afternoons too, 2-5pm.   Going back to  Turner, this purchase (they called it merger but really) does affect Kids WB.  It's a puts a context,  Cartoon Network was gearing into original programming and Kids WB and it are now under the same ownership. Though Warner didn't run them together, it does make a context of what's going on. Warner Bros. TV animation didn't have like full run of Cartoon Network they treated as separate things, just the same parents.   

               

      That doesn't mean there wasn't early signs of sharing.  That extra hour since it was mornings, and some stations aired it maybe when kids were at school in the afternoon, and the stronger E/I rules came in to play, meant it wasn't the power hour of anything.  FOX didn't have the rights to "Tiny Toon Adventures"  that meant reruns could migrate over to the WB. (The series ended in 1995) Ted Turner's "Captain Planet and The Planeteers" could also be screened, and it was providing E/I content. (It's educational! someone said)  

        They also changed the logo which be the 2nd and last logo of the block and would also be used for the Australian version of the block.  I'd guess that would be the most remembered of the  logo.  New for 1997-1998 season was "Channel Umptee-3" a series that works as an educational series for that E/I stuff, and also not made by Warner Bros. It's a series about a channel between the channels (someone watched this series who thought up the promotional for HD radio) It was has Norman Lear working on it.  

now on UHF 72

        The contract with FOX to air "Batman the Animated Series" was up, but of course that series was over.  They made a new package show called "The New Batman/Superman Adventures"   It was them taking a part of the "Superman Animated Series" reruns and adding on either a rerun of "Batman: The Animated Series" or  a new story form "The New Batman Adventures".  This meant that 1/2 of the line up of Kids WB was Animaniacs and this.  It's funny how it doesn't happen really much at all, but there was still even as late as 1997 where a major Hollywood live-action movie gets an animated TV show. That being "Men in Black: The Series"  Based on the 1997 film. Which meant they had to hope that movie did well where this series was going to have anything of value for it's name.  It's an alternate timeline (oooh) to the movie because um they probably didn't know there was going to be a second movie either.  It's so weird that they really struck before the fire was hot to make this series and hoped.  Lasted 4 seasons. 

            

        "The Legend of Calamity Jane" is an interesting series because it doesn't look like Saturday Morning at all.  It takes place in 1876, It's a Western animated series, wow that is different and maybe too different for Kids WB!  Which if you have say something they were playing it kind of safe, even with Pinky and The Brian existing.  Three episodes aired and then nope. gone.  This series being removed, never finished it's US run but did finish in other countries.         

         

     1997 is also a major year because other networks come in to play. Disney now owned ABC and was exhorting their force on ABC with a Saturday morning block that in that season would bump FOX Kids and become number 1.  The other is CBS kind of just gave up there and went for E/I programming fully.  I do have to say if there was  race it'd be between FOX, The WB, and ABC , maybe Nickelodeon. CBS was out really, and NBC was TNBC which probably wasn't a factor for lot of the audience that'd be also watching FOX Kids.  

  When in doubt... acquire 

         The 1998 to 1999 season is kind of going to be different.  Kids WB was about to get something that will change its history, probably cause FOX to stumble.  But be patient. 

    

      On Fox, someone thought there should be a Mr. Potato head show, so maybe they were stumbling on their own ... anyway, added in from summer a series produced by DreamWorks Television Animation.  A sci-fi series cared by Steven Spielberg and Harve Bennett, called  "Invasion America"  Story is a classic aliens want to come to Earth because they are running out of their own resources, but first civil war on their own planet, then some aliens come to earth fall in a human and have kids. Stuff.  The series didn't fully run on the block that season it just kind of aired.  BRATS of Lost Nebula is a series that used both puppetry and computer animation.  The production is interesting because it has  Margaret Loesch, who'd recently left FOX Kids  and worked for the Jim Henson company who worked on this series, hence the puppetry.  5 orphan kids are coming from their war-torn planets to search for surviving family members.  This will also be another short lived wonder.  

     In the weirdest thing ever.  Someone  at Warner Bros. thought let's take "Pinky and The Brain" then let's take "Elmyra" from "Tiny Toon Adventures" and yeah that's an idea.  Even though the show says created by Tom Ruegger, it was not.  This was a corporate decision of madness.  Even though it was forced by the network, it didn't even last that long, just 13 episodes.     

           

     

     Apparently, "Captain Planet" was no longer needed (thankfully) and they needed a new series to reach E/I rules.  Here comes a fun Tom Ruegger series.  "Histeria!" A sketch comedy series about History.  It lasted two seasons.  Just to make sure it would fit the E/I rules of 3 hours a week they ran it weekdays.  Which was the only change to weekdays besides removing "Captain Planet" and  the Looney Tunes cartoons, gone.  (for now) 

       The winter part of the season is the meat.  First, they decided for a short while to cut out 90 minutes of their line up on Saturday, and make one 90 minute package show called "The Big Cartoonie Show"  It aired a mixture of Looney Tunes shorts, shorts featured on Animaniacs, The Sylvester and Tweety  Mysteries", "Pinky and the Brian", and "Pinky, Elmyra, and the Brain".   The show was 90 minutes, but it would be cut in February, because hold on. (Rolls eyes) 

[Naked Day, alright then, this is for the cool BNL fans, promo watch here ]

      

     In January 1999, they launched a new Batman series called "Batman Beyond" (Not Batman Bed and Bath) The series takes place in the futuristic year of 2019. then later the futuristic year of 2039. 

      Alright, it's time.   While first run animation was still a thing, there had been a little anime from Japan running in syndication.  From 4 Kids entertainment who was dubbing this series and it was still in syndication.  From February 13, 1999, the shots were fired Kids WB picked up and starting running the anime "Pokémon"  It would be airing new episodes then airing the full series exclusively in the 1999-2000 season.  (source) 

Meet the faces that will change KIDS WB 

  

        This is a big moment in Kids WB history in kids TV history. Disney's One Saturday Morning and FOX Kids were the big 2, then maybe Kids WB coming in third. But this help them stomp the heck out of both. (source) 

 

   This sets off a chain reaction and probably even changes a few things. Fox Kids co-owners Saban, got the rights to "Digimon" (an also good series) and would start airing that in August 1999.  Kids WB  can be separated here from as the era before Pokémon and the post Pokémon era.  

  

        In the year 1999,  The WGN Superstation feed would stop airing the WB and Kids WB from October 1999. The WB felt confident they had enough stations, and were doing something else a new feed called the WB 100+ which provided WB as affiliates through cable. This still exists as the CW Plus as a feed to have CW with digital sub channels.  

        Let's talk about 1999-2000 season. Sorry I didn't explain Pokémon.  I do have to mention FOX Kids jumped into anime too, besides Digimon they had Monster Rancher, but the WB will get there.

    

We have to go back! 

     Kids WB was able to absorb the Pokémon syndication package and run the episodes twice a day. They had the morning/ some stations afternoon showing, and a weekday afternoons. Histeria! still filling the E/I role.  The Big Cartoonie Show, was also on weekday afternoons. 

     Saturday morning of course,  doesn't change too much, at first, They did add a new animated series "Detention"    kind of underlooked series about 8 kids always in detention. It's like Kids WB wanted a Recess and this was it.  I think it's a good series.  Still the line up was Batman,  Superman, Pokémon,  Men in Black, The Big Cartoonie Show, and Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries.   

   

   Later in the season, a toy-based show , "Max Steel" entered the line up.  Teenage boy gets superpowers. Fits well with the line up. I do want to say I think in general, Kids WB was trying to skew towards boys. (Not saying girls don't want to watch this  stuff, but you can see what I mean)  They picked up a second anime, called "Cardcaptors" the orignal name was Cardcaptor Sakura.   

   

   Cardcaptors was dubbed Ocean Studios with Nelvana being the license company. This series was edited and refocused to what they felt would fit an American kids audience. The dub does get critisim today, but I think in the same aspect, you can kind of figure yeah, that was probably not the best, but at the same time, this and other anime being aired on Kids WB! , Fox Kids, etc. might have helped kids get into anime as they got older.

        

                     

     

    "Cardcaptors" first aired on June 17, 2000 and Kids WB! had a more edited version because they wanted it to appeal to male viewers, again fitting what I think they wanted to go for in this era.  To honest, it would be easier to do and have nobody notice, versus now, where people notice and find out.   

      The 2000-01 season.   "Jackie  Chan Adventures", "The Zeta Project" ( a Batman Beyond Spinoff) , and "X-Men: Evolution" joined the line up.  It is funny to see a network  that was co-owned with DC Comics having a series from Marvel, but also kind of sad that probably won't happen anymore. (We can't have nice things, we have to have corporate energy of synergy)   

  

     I think it bogs down the post to describe every show, I say, as I make this, somehow. I think Kids WB felt the most stable around here, it seems to be aiming for an audience and watching FOX Kids implode at the same time.  2001 would be the year , where FOX decided to just give up sell the entire Fox Family Worldwide to Disney, can the weekday block of Fox Kids and announce they are shutting the whole thing down in 2002.   I  don't think Kids WB was the only reason why, but it was crowded as a market place.   Which also would include Cartoon Network, the WB's sister channel. 

            As mentioned before, Ole' Ted Turner sold his company to Time Warner in 1996. When Cartoon Network was still mostly a reruns affair, but was getting into originals.  On March 17, 1997, they launched a block called Toonami.  Mostly focused on action cartoons from the west, and first was that, then also anime.  It was also a weekday afternoon block....oh...  there was redundancy in the sense of exitance of Cartoon Network and Kids WB, but let's make this weirder. 

        Cartoon Network WB 

            On July 30, 2001, the launch of Toonami on Kids WB.  So they brought over shows like Sailor Moon, Dragon Ball Z, The Powerpuff Girls and yeah.  It was the afternoon hours the same-ish time when Toonami would be on Cartoon Network.   I think the logic here was to try to make the weekday block which didn't stand out as much as the weekend to have a a little more to it. They were also about to lose Fox Kids weekdays as competition, but they probably didn't want their stations to start to think "Why are we still airing this block?" so they needed something as a hook for kids. This kind of hurts it because kids with cable could just go to the real Toonami, and if they weren't intertestd in this programming they could go to UPN, or Nickelodeon, Disney Channel. what was left of Fox Family, or something else.  

  

   Toonami on Kids WB! also still featured "Pokémon". Like it was 1/2 of the line up. Kids WB really clinged to that show.  Detention would air weekly. So would Generation O!  An animated musical comedy series from what was left of Sunbrow Entertainment.   They would mix in the shows including Scooby-Doo.  "Powerpuff Girls" came in near the end and then it ended on June 28, 2002. 

         In September 2001, the morning block was gone.  Most of the Tribune flagship stations aired the morning block in the afternoon anyway, because local morning news, Some stations wanted to add their own news or were sister stations, or had deals with other stations to have expanded newscasts.  This was the same season FOX was going to drop weekdays altogether and mornings were gone, already. (No one is sad for what happened to weekday morning cartoons) 

            

      That also meant that Kids WB was now down to 2 hours on weekdays. This also meant stations had to find their own E/I programming. (oops)   

For the season,  they went to 4Kids for another series, and that'd be a Korean series called Cubix.  Men in Black: The Series was gone so Kids WB had to fill their apparent quota of animated series based off live-action movies with "The Mummy : The Series" from Universal television.  (They had to wait 2 years after the movie this time)  

        

   Live-action comes up and that's "The Nightmare Room" oddly copying something FOX Kids did years and years before, they picked up an R.L Stine series.  It's kind of like Goosebumps or a youth version of "The Twilight Zone" . Sadly, this series didn't last as long as either of those. 

       Finally, new for the season was "The Phantom Investigators"  which I've written about before. (here)   

 

        Over on NBC, ABC, Fox, even UPN and CBS had some changes in fall 2002. TNBC was gone and NBC had sold their block space to Discovery Communications ending their run of producing their own children's programming.  ABC's Disney's One Saturday Morning was  gone  and ABC Kids launched it had become mostly a Disney Channel on ABC.   Kids WB was older than OSM, and OSM was , for a bit, the highest rated block, but it slowed down and by this point Disney was now focusing on Disney Channel.   FOX, sold their time to the Pokémon dub makers  4 Kids, but that didn't mean they got Pokémon. We'll be seeing 4 Kids later.  UPN which was Disney's One Saturday Morning, but for weekdays and Sunday, lost it's branding still airing the programming also Digimon Disney didn't want to air on their own network. (Rude,  also aired on ABC Family)  CBS just swtiched from Nick Jr on CBS to Nick on CBS with also some Nick Jr. programming. 

  

    For the WB, they were now the only broadcast commercial network with  a network produced block for kids airing on weekdays and Saturdays.  This is amazing for a block that started slow and really got a boost thanks to Pokémon and a little help from Fox and Saban internally on fire.  This doesn't mean it's safe. It's own sister network is a threat, as much as now Disney Channel and of course Nickelodeon. Their own stations could be in this too.  Thanks to Cartoon Network not seemingly being heavily into Warner Brothers animation 's newer stuff and focusing on it's own originals this does help keep Kids WB living.  

    

         Scooby-Doo had been running on Cartoon Network with reruns of past movies and series for a few years now. It was one of their biggest rerun series. Thanks to Ted Tuner's sale in 1996, Warner now owned the property.  Scooby had laid dormant for a while since the end "A Pup Named Scooby Doo". There's a return to Scobby-Doo for the first time since that series, and this one returns to the roots of the series in a way, after a many  series actually moved away.  It's the first series made after Hanna-Barbera studio closed (mostly subsumed into Cartoon Network Studios) and this was made by Warner Bros. Animation, and that's "What's New, Scooby Doo?"  with a theme song sung by Simple Plan. (how 2000's ) 

    "What's New Scooby-Doo" takes the original series and gives it a it takes place in modern times series. Joseph Barbera  did work on this series as an executive producer, William Hanna had died in 2001.  It's a pretty good series. Warner Bros. Animation found that Scooby Doo, thanks to the reruns was profitable and staying in the longevity. 

             The series also ran on Cartoon Network , later on, because of course it would.    I thought I was making a joke about the whole animated series being based on movies thing being a quota, but they made a series based off  Osmosis Jones . It mostly takes place inside the body and there's no live-action segments. (They also don't have Bill Murray money)  !Mucha Lucha! and MegaMan NT Warrior round out the new series.  !Mucha Lucha! is a series based around kids doing Lucha wrestling!  

      

      In 2003, there was some changes for the fall season. First over on UPN, the no longer Disney's One Too was gone, so UPN was out of the weekday cartoons market, fully. Digimon was no longer on broadcast TV.  Kids WB was now the non-PBS lone wolf, unless  you had a local FOX/UPN/ Indie stations doing their own things like from the syndicated DIC block.   

   

    Kids WB! Weekdays were "Scooby-Doo" , "What's new Scooby-Doo?",  then a few other non-anime being the first hour. The 2nd hour were "Pokémon" and "Yu-Gi-Oh"  

    If there was a slight hint of Cartoon Network interaction before, that comes back. The  Cartoon Network series "Teen Titans" and "Codename Kids Next Door" did air on the block, not that long in both cases, but it did happen.  This block so far was still not Cartoon Network on WB like how ABC Kids was Disney Channel on ABC or Nick on CBS was .... or Discovery Kids on NBC was .... 

 

   A new "Astro Boy" series aired though it seemed it didn't air very long, apparently the kids or something didn't  really have interest in  a  remake anime of one of the oldest anime ever?  And a new Warner Bros. animated series "Xiaolin Showdown".   I do have to mention that 4 Kids took Cubix with  FOX ...hmmm. 

         

            The 2004-05 season saw the end of  X-Men: Evolution , the Marvel on Kids WB thing was over.  Funny enough as much as anime had helped change Kids WB to be the highest rated block, well one anime, they really didn't pick up more besides keeping the newest Pokémon series,  more Yu-Gi-Oh, and MegaMan: NT Warrior.  If anything it could have also done with the fact that 4Kids had their own block and was a major US kids anime distributor. (we use kids' anime lightly in some cases)   

  

         Kids WB! added a new Batman themed cartoon, in this case, "The Batman" .  Which will last for the rest of the block existing.  From the creator of "The Proud Family"  it's "Da Boom Crew".  With that second show, it only aired 4 episodes then was just pulled.  The slot was given over to a second run of Pokémon, which feels like a Kids WB as a whole thing.  Pokémon was their go to show that saved it. 

promo for Daytime WB that ran in late 2005 

            Time's Out 

            May 31, 2005. After the main TV season was over and the WB had another announcement. This one was that they were going to longer do weekday Kids WB after the last Friday of the year 2005. The final weekday networked children's block (besides PBS) was going away. The WB said at the behest of their affiliates.  The network was going to keep the two hours but air more adult programming. Unlike Fox stations, there wasn't much drive seeing the WB local stations adding early-evening newscasts or being moved to more legacy stations.  Oh no! Is The Batman messing with your reruns of "Friends"?    

    

      This was really them tapping out of the market, they had a sister network that could really take that place and probably already did. They really didn't care about those that didn't have cable.  There was a march towards the plug being pulled on weekdays after this.  The Weekday line up aired Pokémon, then random mixtures of other Kids WB shows until December 30, 2005. 

    

     The WB later replaced those hours with 2 hours of reruns called Daytime WB. Which started with reruns of E.R (Produced by Warner) and 8 Simple Rules, because sure.  Sure adults would like reruns of shows that could be found on cable too, and 8 Simple Rules, for some reason.  

  

           There was something else, though instead of 10hours a week of weekday programming, they added a 7am hour to Saturdays instead  and with no time zone affecting meaning 7am in your area, unless your station had weekend morning news.    Instead of Kids WB peak amount of hours being 14 hours a week, it was now down to 5 hour as week.  We'll get back to winter 2006 soon, hope there was no other big news.

       The 2005-06 season actually is a big turning point not just because of the weekday block going away, there's more, but first, the shows.  September 17,2005 had a few new shows from the launch gate.  First, "Coconut Fred's Fruit Salad Island"  a show about living fruits on a island  The voice of Yakko does the voice for Fred, the coconut, as there's wacky slapstick humor.  Next, There's "Johnny Test" a show about a boy named Johnny Test who lives with two older genius sisters and they like to test their inventions on him or he likes to use them himself to get a problem solved. (Fun show) This one of the three I mention will be the longest lasting, even going outside of Kids WB  in two ways and getting revived in the future.

           

    

        Another series, oddly enough, Warner Bros. kids programming block didn't really use Looney Tunes characters that much. You'd think it would be more.  Here we go... oh. The descendants of Looney Tunes characters are in the future (which opens up more questions)  are hit my a meteor (ouch) and don't die but instead now have superpowers. (What?)  

        They also picked up one more anime , Viewtiful Joe , also based off a video-game. That's your new shows.  I also notice, except for any special events, no Cartoon Network series made  no appearances here.  

        Over at CBS.... 

        The WB and UPN's history is weaved together in many ways. Paramount announced they were going to launch their own network working with Chris-Craft for stations called UPN , United Paramount Network. Infact, UPN was announced about 6 days before The WB was announced. It ended up launching 5 days after the WB.  It also had it's own problem of not being in many markets, depending on a major company for it's flagship stations.  The FOX getting the NFL messed up some plans, and probably hurt both networks more than they could see.  If FOX hadn't gotten NFL rights, it would have maybe been a slight moderate success but the WB and UPN would have been on closer equal footing, FOX had sports now.   

   

         Another common thing these two networks had were schedule structure, except in kids programming since UPN was weekdays and Sundays until 2003.  Both networks had some moderate success shows, except in the kids department where UPN really never caught fire.  They were still kind of weak. In my hometown, we had the WB through cable, but did end up a UPN station in 1999. Once Viacom had CBS, UPN probably wasn't in their main interest anymore.  CBS and Viacom broke up in 2005, and inherited the local stations Viacom owned before the 2000 merger and UPN.  In a twist, CBS and Time Warner, getting way from their own bad marriage merger,  announced on January 24, 2006 that UPN and the WB were going away. They were going to launch a new co-owned network called the CW. (CBS and Warner)  Welcome to the future.

              Kids CW! (Nah) 

            The UPN and WB "merger" did mean that some programs were not going to make it, even if the new network were going to use The WB's schedule structure.  While primetime was going to be a mess, the Kids part was safe.  Kids WB was going to be the block, since UPN got out of the business in 1999, and fully out after years with Disney in 2003. There was no UPN block, so Kids WB got to continue. The Weekday block still wasn't going to come back those days were over.   Also it wasn't going to be called Kids CW! 

          Before that announcement  in January 2006, the new 7am of Kids WB was added. 7am is kind of a weak hour for programming (even in non eastern time zones) which is why most networks kind of kept away from it.  Kids WB! probably would have been better off expanding to 1PM.  Anyway this hour was branded as the "Pillow Head Hour". They had used that name in 2005 for a special event for the 8AM hour, but now it was here.  It had a host and was space for the weaker and E/I programming , still was an hour so local stations still needed to find 2 more hours.  It went way in July 2006. 

          Amidst the network name change in some markets channel number changes and more. You could imagine how it might have been a slight dent to Kids WB! in some markets where WB affiliated stations didn't go CW and now you had to find Kids WB some where else. Philadelphia had the WB on channel 17, now the CW was on former UPN station Channel 57.  The audience would have to hopefully re-find Kids WB , this applies to Seattle, and some other places.  An advantage if you had an area that ONLY had UPN where there you go ... CW... Kids WB!   Also, thanks to digital television new CW sub channels could happen and the CW Plus  (the WB 100+ feed) didn't just need cable anymore.   

  

        Otherwise, Kids WB continued as normal, a 5 hour Saturday morning block. Like 2002, was a change year in this market so was 2006.  NBC ditched Discovery and a new block called Qubo launched, CBS was no longer co-owned with Nickelodeon and had DIC produce a block for them. Only FOX stayed the same with 4Kids, and Disney gave ABC Kids its final new schedule that would run for 5 years.  

        September 23, 2006, was the first day of the Kids WB on the CW. There was no big mentions of the CW in the block, the logo was still the same and it had its own look and feel, like it always did. It just wasn't on the WB anymore. It was an 11-year-old block, outliving many things that came before it or after it. It  would out live the network from where it started. 

            Krypto the Superdog was an animated series about Superman's dog living with some a boy and stuff happens.  It's a simple series that first ran on Cartoon Network, but produced by Warner Bros. Animation.  The series ran for 1 hour , as part of the E/I requirement in the first hour.  (If Hannah Montana was considered E/I than this one can be too)   Multi-country made series based off Italian comics called Monster Allergy  premiered.  Ezekiel Zick is a boy who can see monsters he also has allergies (get it?)  It's a good series , I've seen it.  Too bad that Kids WB dropped the series after about a month.   

      Warner Animation finally dug up Tom and Jerry and made "Tom and Jerry Tales" This is the first Tom and Jerry series after the 1995 Turner purchase and it tries to do short style, like the famous  shorts.   Meanwhile a new Scooby-Doo series called "Shaggy and Scooby-Doo Get a Clue" a series with a focus on Shaggy and Scooby which is how Scooby Doo seems to be going. The animation style is different from any pervious series too.     

           "Legions of Superheroes" was a new series based on the DC Comics, it's about a younger Superman but in the 31st century. (He's younger than you) He's with a group of other superheroes.  That's the new shows. 

           

              That's all folks! 

           

              You probably know where this story is going, (time traveler?)  I mean it is a former block on a network and not currently running.  On October 2, 2007 the CW announced that they were giving up the block and selling the 5 hours to .... 4 Kids Entertainment, to create a new block called CW4 Kids. 

             The plan was in September 2008, 4 Kids would take over, ironically copying FOX, and also this would affect the FOX block later on, but 4 now (boo) we stay here on Kids WB! The thing that been brought up was competition  from cable (including their own sister network) and the ad market being soft was the final cuts in something that had been inflicted with cuts for most of the decade.  It's also ironic that a program from 4Kids helped keep Kids WB was now the company taking the block. (source) 

     I didn't want to mention this in the 2006 section since I decided to put this here instead. Pokémon left Kids WB in 2006,  With the weekday block gone, they decided to let the series leave to Cartoon Network where it stayed for 10 years.  Yu-Gi-Oh also left.   

          Let's talk about the last season.  The first hour was still filling in the E/I and low-rated spot  this time with a Canadian animated series from Cookie Jar called "Will and Dewitt" 8-year-old boy and his frog doing stuff.  Another Cookie Jar series was "Magi-Nation" which is based off a card game. These two shows would slightly outlast their Kids WB runs and end up on the 4Kids block, for a bit.  

From Ireland a new series called "Skunk-Fu! "  Skunk fable show with kung-fu added in.  Finally, and you'll notice that none of the new added series didn't come from Warner Animation. "Eon Kid" was a South Korean animated series.  

         The Kids WB! death date being September 2008 was sped up to May 17, 2008.  On May 24, 2008 CW 4 Kids launched.  Though in summer time the block was a mixture of Kids WB programming and 4 Kids programming. Even Yu-Gi-Oh came back.  

    

   That was it.  It lasted 12 years and 5 months, meaning it outlasted FOX Kids total run by 5 months. It started when networks were in change, the market was growing and changing. Kids WB fought it's own odds much like its parent network, and even managed to slightly outlast its parent network.  

  

           I did the original version of this post in 2014, right when the CW was about to give up n having a traditional block and going for the full E/I block from the same company that was making programming also for ABC and CBS.  The CW is only airing that  because they have to under the act that says broadcast networks, commercial broadcast, have to air 3 hours of educational for kids programming a week.  Are the kids watching this programming?  Nah,  and the networks would drop this completely if the rules were gone. No, the old fashion blocks won't return, because the audience for them isn't there anymore.  The target audience born when the CW ended their final block in 2014, would never have seen NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX, and the CW air a children's program (unless they saw Sinclair's attempt at at one)  they would maybe know Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Disney Channel, even Disney XD, but if a block like Kids WB was to return to CW, might catch some nostalgic eyes, but it'd have to be for current kids and well, is there support? 

  

               Kids WB existed and it's important to TV history.  If  anything, of the blocks I've written about , I'm glad it felt like they cared about it until the end, I've seen some blocks that just felt like they stopped caring near the end. (Cough ABC Kids, Cough, Cookie Jar TV). Pokémon was pivotal as well, and I think it might have helped get anime more mainstream viewing later on, or least more acceptance to have it be able to be easily accessed and even dubbed in the United States.   It is kind of sad that Kids WB! doesn't exist anymore, but at least it did.