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NETWORK TV Fall 2024
It's that time of year again! The networks are releasing their fall line ups
UPN, the United Paramount Network, was
launched in 1995 in January of 1995, but in that fall they also jumped into
the ground other networks also did (minus NBC because it's 1995) and did
children's programming. This time we are talking about UPN's kids
programming. We kind of did that on this blog before, but we felt that
post (which was combined with TNBC) was lacking and maybe UPN needed it's own
story page. (Plus, it's good to try and improve things)
On Sunday, September 10, 1995, UPN Kids launched.
You may notice I said Sunday and not like Saturday, a lot of these blocks
start on Saturday or have Saturday programming, UPN did not. They were a
Sunday Morning block. There are reasons for this that to be at thing.
Most UPN stations were former independent stations, a lucky few
were former Fox stations that needed a network when Fox left them
for better VHF stations or something (not sure how lucky they felt, oh that
FOX thing is important for our story), others maybe just launched. Also in
1995, another network launched , The WB, and maybe a few stations were both
UPN and the WB and that's a whole other mess. The good reasons for a Sunday
block versus Saturday is that some of the new FOX stations that decided they
were too good for children's shows even on Saturday (minus the ones the
government said to air for the education reasons) a UPN station could air FOX
Kids on Saturday (and weekdays). In Milwaukee, for example, WITI was a
CBS station that ended up with FOX, but decided that FOX Kids wasn't for them
so the former FOX station, WCGV-TV, aired FOX Kids, but WCGV was a UPN station. Another reason,
could be syndicated programming, there was still syndicated children's
programming (though that market was dying by 1995) and stations had
commitments (who knows how long UPN could last?) , and the finale good reason
is Sunday is just less crowded than Saturday.
UPN Kids started as a Sunday only block and not
just Sunday but a 1 hour Sunday block. (You can't say they over did
themselves) the planned time slot of the 10am hour. That makes it easy
for us.
The first program was "Space Strikers". "Space Strikers" was a French
cartoon brought to the US from Haim Saban's company which also was an
invested owner in FOX Kids. "Space Strikers" is based on the novel
"Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea" but in Space. (yay!) This show
was was told as one story, meaning viewers had to turn each week to see where
the story went next, which wasn't a long story, because it was 13 episode
series. The show also used early computer animation for the action
scenes and also promoted the fun of 3D viewing. (alright then)
2016 marks our 10th birthday of Joshuaonline , when the site started it wasn't focused on TV and Media we eventually went that direction and refined what we cover and talk about , another thing is our record of early blog posts is missing because of quite bad early days of not understanding how posting works. Anyway, will be taking a look at Television stories that were big over the past 10 years starting with 2006.
If Joshuaonline was around in 1995, first off we would be 20 , we also would be looking at the launch of the WB and and UPN. The Concept of Independent stations , ones that if you were a kid in the 60's-80's were the ones the maybe had those movies , cartoons and sitcoms reruns without those pesky ABC,CBS,NBC clutter. They were places you could watch children's shows on the afternoon and movies and what not in the evening, some even had news at different times.
What time is the Eight PM movie ? Poor announcer ...wait someone hit the wrong button
more after the jump
Around this time between the 60's-80's there was ideas of a fourth network (never will happen) yes, a network that would make the big 3 , CBS , ABC and NBC, have to open their club to a 4th and hopefully this fourth network would make ABC finally pack it in. ( That's a joke) FOX was the most successful of that , they are still on the air as of this writing, FOX had began after buying up Metromedia stations and then having other independent stations join them. This was chipping away at the independent stations , something else was too: Cable. HBO had movies (jerks) and so did AMC. HBO and being able to rent movies or buy them (insert rich person name here) why watch on ole channel 32 with commercials or wait a couple years for the latest movie of 1982 come out when I can watch in 1983 anytime I want? Independent stations were still OK , they had other things, some had sports to benefit from (for now) Plus why watch channel 32 air "Lassie" at 5:30pm when I can watch whatever the heck this new cable thing was doing?
Now back to FOX, they had started off slow but did starting growing and well if someone sees a someone doing well with something and if they think (and have money to) they can do the same thing better well there you go. Also the government changed some rules (we could use this alot in writing TV and Radio topics) there was a set of rules called the Financial Interest and Syndication Rules. Not to get into explaining the whole thing , one thing of importance was that the FCC in the 1970 did not want the networks to have monopoly on television . (Insert your 2016 laughs here) They prevented the networks from owning the programs they made in primetime and also prevented programming being aired by a network (their owned stations ) from airing programming they had any stake in. If these rules were around today: NBC couldn't air Chicago Fire because Universal Television is a corporate relation. (This is alternate history if everything else stated the same) Also CBS owned stations couldn't air Entertainment Tonight ( eeehhh ) because CBS makes the show. This law may be the reason why MTM studios (Marty Tyler Moore) and the Norman Lear stuff was all over the networks more , because they were independent companies. (We may talk more about 70's TV in the future) The rules were relaxed in the 80's , though not removed due to Hollywood lobbies and Ronald Regan (who was an actor before ). The rules were seen as outdated after the rise of FOX (yep ) and cable. All the rules were repealed in 1995. (our source for this)
In 1993-4, when the rules were pretty much sharks without teeth now and would soon be starved off Warner Brothers and Paramount thought hey it would be a good time to jump into some network fun. Warner Brothers , along with Tribune , and Jamie Kellner came together and announced a new network , using Tribune's stations (in turn for 25% ownership of this new network) as their neculus. Tribune had stations in top markets and a national cable feed to help fill the gaps. This network was called the WB which launched on January 11, 1995. Meanwhile Paramount had kind of always wanted a network, they tried in the 40's and 50's they did have a stake in the first fourth TV network, Dumont. While they also were instrumental in helping the 3rd network , ABC, exist some more. Paramount bought some TV stations in the 90's and they found a partner to part own a new project : a network. Chris-Craft industries ,which owned a few stations including in the top 3 markets. They announced their new network , UPN, in 1993 . United Paramount Network, owned by Paramount (later Viacom ) and Chris-Craft (get it ? United) . They launched a few days after the WB in 1995. (We could have done a history of UPN and WB thing )
This brings us to our main 2006 point. On January 24th, 2006 it was announced by CBS and TimeWarner (see things changed ) that they were going to take their respective networks , UPN and The WB shut down them down, and take some programs and "merge" them this new network would by 50% owned by CBS corp and 50% by Time Warner, (Tribune got left out in the cold, but there was a deal for most of their affiliates that were WB to join this network for 10 years) (source)
The WB and UPN had moderate successes and failures but they felt it would be stronger to take the strongest programs, stronger stations (in some areas there was only a UPN or WB station while the other network didn't exist or had to be piped in on cable from a near by market) , and a name . The CW stands for Cbs and Warner Brothers.
this was the first logo .... ermmmm yep
Now in markets were there was a both this meant they had to choose their favorites , or the strongest station. In Tribune markets (except in Philadelphia ,Seattle, Atlanta ) they went with Tribune's WB affiliates , While in Philly and Seattle they went to CBS's UPN station because business politics is fun. In Boston, Miami, and Dallas CBS's UPN stations lost out so that was even , while in other markets CBS owned a UPN station minus the whole Tribune thing CW went there. In other markets it was whoever the network felt was stronger. The whole point was to make a stronger network out of the carnage of UPN and WB left overs. The Network structure was originally the WB's . They were doing Sunday Nights from 5/4c to 10/9c, Weeknights for 2 hours , daytime (formally the kids block ) from 3-5pm (time zone meaning nothing) and the Kids WB children's block. The Network launched in September.
this is logo they later announced and use today.
Now this plan looks good on paper and the first season did alright , not better than UPN or WB but alright . That writers strike (might do a 10 years thing about that ) that affect 2007-08 TV season and this hurt the CW. They killed off their comedy department they also laid off others and un filled some empty jobs. This is a factor in the end of KIDS WB (which you read our whole look back of here) where they sold the time to 4KIDS TV, while the CW was leasing things (Joshuaonline should have bought Tuesdays, darn it) they gave the 5 hour Sunday Nights to Media Rights Captial . CW was their weak night so someone buying their weakest night makes sense... it of course didn't work and they cut the deal in November 2008 (the same year) and replaced it with Drew Carey Show repeats and Jericho . WWE Smackdown (one of the UPN carry-overs) left in 2008 , for My Network TV (more on them later), even though it did well they dropped it because they were going after female viewers ages 18-34. (source) Then again if you are network with ratings problems and might not see 2010 , then you drop something people were watching on your network because it's not part of demographic is well , the wrong decade it's not like 1970's where people still might watch because there's only 6 channels, they can leave you and not come back.
Their demo chasing maybe did pay off anyway , they introduced shows like Gossip Girl ,and 90210. which had buzz and viewers, compared to whatever the heck "Valentine" was. They did give up on Sundays , giving that slot to the affiliates in 2009.
This brings us to around now , they did have a change in action in 2012 . First off , If I wrote in 2007 , that the CW would still be on the air in 2012, I would have called myself crazy. They dropped the whole one demo , everyone else go to CBS or NBC or wherever for your fun instead , for inclusive audience. Arrow came out which had 2 things going for it, it had corporate synergy since DC comics is owned by the parent company , and ratings. They added other genres too instead of just soapy soap stuff , they added "'Who's Line is it anyway?" a revival , Sci fi shows and more.
10 years into's life the network looks much better off than it did back in 2006 or even 2008 that it has more viewers , programs that people are watching, and even one of those shows won an Emmy. "Jane the Virgin" was their first show to do such. Interestingly, a lot of the shows on the network are from CBS or Warner, more so from Warner than CBS. Since it's a digital age they also have delved well into that . CW Seed is an internet platform with original shows, some library stuff .
What about those other stations left in the cold from that "merger" (it wasn't really a merger)? Well FOX owned the Chris-Craft stations for a few years, UPN affiliates in NYC, Chicago, LA, and some others were owned by FOX for 6 years. Their stations were in that group being left out of the CW. ( Tribune which had a relationship with the WB seemed more senese than having another an owner of another network run ...well that wasn't an owner of the CW.. your major affiliates) In February of 2006, about a month after the CW was announced they announced they were launching a new network called My Network TV. Not the best name, but FOX's parent had just bought Myspace , which was hot at the time , and was My everything. Their location stations websites were myfox.... .com . Stations that weren't owned by FOX but maybe were left out of the CW , could instead of becoming independent (because who needs that?) could join FOX's thing. They had a unique strategy that I personally found interesting they were going to bring telenovelas but in English
airing 5 nights a week in strip. The shows were in 3 month cycle and have recaps on the 6th night.
my Network TV, mine you don't touch!
Most networks have different programs each night , though the spanish networks , Univision , for example airs Telenovelas in prime time and airs them in a daily fashion. They also were going after that 18-34 audience the CW was going for, Now the network could have developed this more gone more traditional American soap , if they had to change the telenvoelas anyway , with cut off dates. A comedy running daily could have been fun and interesting where it's plots could run through the whole series in a few months, etc. They debuted in September of 2006, about 2 weeks before the CW. The ratings were alright they would be great if it was cable ,but getting less than a million on broadcast doesn't work well so they dropped the telenovelas in 2007. They really were on some lost track for 2 years of airing anything they could find. They did have one program that helped a little starting in 2008, they picked up the rights to WWE Smakdown , the first night that aired , MY Net(hahhaha ) beat the CW (ironc). In 2009 they found a new focus ...well an old focus they stopped being a network (didn't change the time) and started airing syndicated repeats. Smackdown packed up to Syfy in 2011. Currently they air one of the Law and Order spinoffs (so does everyone else) cable off repeats of The Closer, the biggest thing is they air the Walking Dead from AMC, which is the only thing not in weekend drama syndication.
It's not really a network anymore it's stations can move their programs to other times , for example in Seattle they air My Network TV stuff 12am-2am , some stations air their programs with digi network , like METV sharing the rest of channel space.
2006 was an interesting year in what happened in broadcast TV ,and as of this writing there's not been new networks launched on broadcast TV (well skipping the digital networks) and there may not ever be again. That was the last hurrah for ideas like that , there maybe other things done in a structure. If Joshuaonline had been doing TV talk in 2006 , I don't know what would have been said (we need a time machine) but it would been interesting to write about the new networks and what they were doing. That's our first 10 years article and we hope you will love the rest , though the others might not have so much back story.
Note: Though it seems now , the Tribune company and the CW are in discussion mode to see if they renew or if the CW will have to do something else.
The Flashback Children's TV UPN NBC
Some blocks were not long lived enough to warrant it's own post others because the block was around for a long time but didn't do much. These are the cases for the blocks we are taking a look back at Today. First, TNBC (Teen NBC in English). But to talk about this block we have to talk about "Saved By The Bell" (Yeah sounds confusing doesn't it? Hang with us) 2 Things : 1) This is the show that changed Saturday Morning TV for NBC , 2) We have to talk about Disney Channel.
"Saved by the bell" Began in 1989 on NBC , but let's go back further (time machine). "Good Morning ,Miss" is where this show comes from... it began on Disney Channel created by NBC for Disney Channel (Now that's something) . It stared actress Hayely Mills ("The Parent Trap" ) , she played the teacher for Zach Morris, Lisa Turtle ,and Screech. They were in 8th Grade. After 13 Episodes it was canceled. (The End ?)
Good Morning , Miss Bliss /Youtube
So NBC not wanting to give up ( persevering is good| E/I) so they picked up the show and decided to create a spin-off , of sorts. It was changed to be in LA instead of Indy (awwww) , and they would be in High School , and no Miss Bliss. They kept Zach, Screech, and Lisa and added some new characters (A.C Slater) . The new show aried on NBC and it became very popular and high rated.
In 1992 ,NBC was very happy that "Saved by the Bell" was doing so well they decided that they were going to convert their entire Saturday Morning line up.
First , they threw out the cartoons and other kids programs (not literally , maybe literally) kind of ironic twist that after FOX started kids programming , NBC bows out. Second, they gave something to adults (oooh my ) and maybe news loving kids , A Saturday edition of the "Today Show". (Yay?) Third, they started a new block for teenagers (old kids). The centerpiece was "Saved By The Bell" , it was so important to them it aired twice a Saturday. 2 new programs included : "Name Your Adventure" a teen reality series where Mario Lopez, Jordan Brady , and Tatyana Ali help teens' dreams come true. The other series was "California Dreams" (same executive producer as "Saved by The Bell", this block was made for him you'll see what I mean) The Show was a sitcom that focused on teenagers (take that Disney Channel) and it showed their issues about growing up.
Funny thing about a block that was built because of success of "Saved By The Bell" , the program that helped birth it ended in 1993. So what did they do ? They created a spin-off (like you do , remember "Joey" ? ) "Saved By the Bell :The New Class" This show ran longer than it's parent show ( 8 years , 143 episodes) and became the anchor this block. The series focused on Bayside HighSchool and Mr. Belding after our original cast has moved on. A show about high school students can go three ways : 1 . Normal progression , 2: The same kids going to High School longer than 4 years (they didn't study very well) 3: End the show after a focus set of characters "leave the school". "The New Class" did the first thing , but not just that they would change people in the season and not tell you what happened. ("Hey , where's Steve?" , ,"Steve is away , we talk about Steve" ) Then they had to bring back Screech (Dustin Diamond) from the original "Saved By the Bell". Anyway, it aried 7 years on TNBC. (Now on DVD , Bing it )
Who are these people? NBC/Youtube
Other programs over the 10 years this block lived were : "Brains and Brawn" a teen game show hosted by Mark-Paul Gosselaar ( Zach Morris ) , "Running the Halls" , "Hang Time" , "City Guys" , "One World (like City guys and the Saved by the bell shows were by Peter Engel ). Teen comedy-drama " Just Deal" (yeah dude) co-created by Thomas Lynch (creator of "The Secret World of Alex Mac) , he also created Sk8 (Skate?) for this block , and "All about us". The block pretty much ran that way with one or two new series a season. In that 10 year period , things changed , the E/I rule came into effect forcing stations to have education shows for under 16's ,this block fulfilled that need already. Disney had bought ABC , Viacom and CBS had merged (then divorced in 2005). But NBC deiced to get out of producing their own Children's -Teen TV ( The E/I rule affected advertising rules therefore money) so they sold their time to Discovery. Teen NBC bowed out in September of 2002 and Discovery Kids on NBC came in the next week. (Read about that , if you haven't already, here)
