A Channel for Boys and A Channel For Girls

    Joshuaonline  Presents

 

  

 

            When television was just broadcast over the air TV (and free, we've been swindled) local stations and networks tried to appeal to as many mass audiences as they could, because, especially on commercial television the viewer is the product and the ad buyer is the costumer  and would like to make sure they are buying right.    Cable comes around , and I mean cable in the sense of having new channels as pay only channels, there was new spaces for demographic targeted channels. 

  

         Children had spaces on broadcast TV, the main 3 networks would give them Saturday Morning, CBS also did weekday Mornings until the 80's with Captain Kangaroo.  If you lived in a market that had more stations; mostly independent (non network affiliated stations) then you would have some weekday morning and/or afternoon programming; maybe even a local kids' show. (WGN had Bozo) and maybe Sunday (for the non God-fearing families).  That was it, until cable and some guys thought up having a children's channel.    Also PBS had children's programming in the non-commercial space. 

   

         Nickelodeon, as example since it's the first one, was focused on a child audience (at least during daytime hours) and could do more program hours toward kids than WGN or KTLA could.  Even they still had limitations, they figured kids should not be watching TV at 11pm and had block for their parents to watch called Nick at Nite, but that's different than what was around before this revolution. 

       Nickelodeon even split demographic their audience: pre school aged kids get their own section.  As the 1990's came around there was a lot of choice for children's television.  For the purpose of this post, FOX Kid was running on the FOX network and later the company bought Pat Robertson's Family targeted channel called , uh Family Channel, and rebranded it as FOX Family (Channel).  

  

    FOX Family strived to do something like Nickelodeon, and what Family Channel kind of did before it,  and that was focus on trying to get different audiences to watch their channel. Kids had daytime, families had evenings, and adults had later evening. (Though was more like a Nick to Nick at Nite switch and not a Cartoon Network to Adult Swim switch in program tone) . FOX had goals, back to them soon. 

  

         Now, back to talking about channels focused on demographics. In general, ESPN does skew male, that doesn't mean ladies don't watch it, it's just that it's more targeted to guys like most sports broadcasts have advertising that skews toward things someone thinks males like.   Lifetime, the cable channel, used go by "Lifetime: Television for Women" it's purpose was to skew to a female audience, and even sparked competition with  WE TV launching the name WE meant Women's Entertainment , which a bit direct,  (Meanwhile, ME TV didn't mean Men's Entertainment) and there was Oxygen (because only women like to breath) which still kind of does skew towards women in their true crime programming, at least that's what their suits say.  Later Spike TV shows up, and becomes the first network for men. (Named Spike!) 

   

             Gendered focused television wasn't new because of cable, it was around before. Networks did it, daytime television was targeted towards women  because "Ladies are at home during the daytime being wives so... they might want see adverts for stuff wives need to buy" --some guy probably said this in 1950.   

     

                Now children's TV did have more gender neural in its thought, that's not say there wasn't some targeting towards different genders at anytime before the 80's, but the 80's really did bring a lot of that up. Thanks to many shows being based on toys, and toys getting a big gender bifurcation in the 80's (not to say there wasn't gendered toys before the 80's). There was "My Little Pony" marketed towards girls and  "Transformers" marketed towards boys. 

        Nickelodeon, on the other hand, didn't buy into the toys= shows thing, they acquired and later made their own as well, children's programming they thought would be of value to children and just trying to sell by gender to their advertisers.  You'll see that most of their shows were gender neutral in the sense that a boy could even watch "Clarssia Explains it All" and relate to something.  That's not say the programs might have had more skew in audience by the audience watching, but that wasn't Nick's intentions. 

         This is were everything to comes together.  FOX had a broadcast kids block and a family/children's cable channel. There was something coming along, then called "Digital Cable"  This allowed for the concept of having more channels, having spinoff channels, having even more niche channels, and hoping that people would be willing to pay a little more to watch them.  This exploded, and FOX wanted to get into the game too.  

   

     So. I've always wanted to write about these channels, but didn't know how, because unlike even Cable Music Channel which lasted a month, these channels really don't have much internet content of them floating around.  I can only cobble together a few things, so that's why I'm trying this different styled post to see if maybe there's a way to do it. 

More after the jump

The Last Episode : Newhart Wipes Your Mind

The Flashback  Essays 

        Newhart was a funny series with it's strong cast of  strange characters and the main characters of Dick Loudon (played by Bob Newhart) and his wife Joanna (played by Mary Frann). Where most of the time it was Dick trying to contend with oddness around him.  The series ran on CBS from 1982 to 1990 .

  So spoilers ahead.

     How do you end Newhart?

             The last episode starts with the people of this unnamed town in Vermont (we don't have enough sitcoms taking place in Vermont) having a unnamed town meeting.  Talking about important issues like the town fish.  The Stratford inn the place that the Loudons run is turning 200 years old.  The episode starts like a normal "Newhart" episode.  Then a Japanese Business man (because late 1980's early 1990's) says that he wants to buy the town and turn it into a golf course. (because of course?)  So we are doing a save the town episode?  Nope, he offers a million per home and they are all in , except one. Guess who?  Yep Dick Loudon.  So that's gonna stop it from happening?  Ha ha ! No they are willing to build their course around the inn.

   Everyone leaves the town but Dick and Joanna.  But first we get the townspeople going fiddler on the roof on us.  It cuts to five years later where it's a golf course now except the Stratford Inn. This finale has everything.   Dick and Joanna have tried to make the best of it but, Dick does want to sell now. The business man refuses because of Dick's pride.  Stephanie and Michael return with their older daughter.   So does George the handyman. And some of the other old townspeople.  Apparently, they all want to live in Sratford. They argue and not listen to Dick so he decides to leave and gets hit in the head with a golf ball and falls down.

  Now the famous finale part.  The show returns to a familiar set to that of the bedroom of the Bob Newhart show.  With Bob Newhart being  Dr. Bob Hartley, with  and the his wife,Emily, in that series (played by  Suzanne Pleshette )  saying he had a crazy dream.

      The finale is famous for that ending. Kind of interesting way to end a series kind of like a fellow made MTM (Mary Tyler Moore studio) series that had a twist at the end.    Does make it a remember able finale.  I will start with everything before the famous scene.  The whole episode goes all in with the strange like above the normal episodes. They were giving something special with this episode  and yet it doesn't seem so out of place from the series.  The last episode still has great comedy and  even skipped anything that would make a dramatic finale to more serious they went straight for the comedy.  It's a good trick when they started with  wonder if this finale is going to be the characters trying stop the purchase , or maybe Dick changes their minds and they all gather saying how great the town they live is or something.  It could have gone the way of Dick deciding to sell and either that's how it ends (many finales have )  or Dick plans to sell when everyone then changes their minds.     Instead , it's just used as away to put Dick in another strange situation.  The golf ball  thing was great at foreshadowing and how eventually he gets hit in the head with a golf ball.

   I think it's a good finale. It's a show that didn't take itself to seriously had well written comedy and was fun and knew how to go out. 

 That's it for now on our series finales ,we may return in the future. (This isn't our series finale)

  Tune in next time when we wake up.

The Last Episode : Sabrina Teenage Witch : End With Tying One Last Loose Swing

The Flashback Essays 

         "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" the series that ran from 1996 to 2003 ,  actually has two finales.  ABC ran the series from 1996 to 2000 and they ended it with that episode where spoiler?  Harvey finds out that she is a witch.  The WB network decided that Sabrina was right thing for their channel and picked up the show and there it aired for 3 more seasons.  What I am going to talk about is the finale from the final season.

   The finale is chosen because  I am a fan of the series  personally and it's an example of a finale that has a big two part story and ties up something that was arc in the series.

   "Sabrina The Teenage" finale  aired on the WB network on April 24th, 2003 as a two part episode   called "What a Witch Wants" and "Soul Mates".

       Spoilers ahead. (Warning)

    Background first: In this season , Sabrina and her college friends  have moved into the house together , the aunts have left.  To a point there's been an arc where Sabrina was dating a man named Aaron and they plan to get married which leads us to the episode  "What a Witch Wants". 

           What a Witch wants is Sabrina going out for her bachelorette party and that episode focuses on her and friends proving they they have a strong friendship.  So the episode I am more going to focus on is the last last episode "Soul Mates"  It's now Sabrina's wedding day and she has little cold feet, and since this show's humor sometimes goes into the literal humor , she has ice blocks on her feet. (get it?)   Salem tells her that there's a reason this happened. (need to turn the AC down a bit there)

     Also for a series finale they brought back some of the show's  past stars like her cousin Amanda (played by  Melissa Joan Hart's real life sister) , her mom , which is big because of the show's lore of she not being able to see her mom.  Her Aunt Hilda returns (Caroline Rhea). Her father, also makes another appearance.  Sadly, Aunt Zelda doesn't make a reappearance.  (in human form)  Amanda ,who is also a witch finds Harvey to get him to come to the wedding.   Doubt appears yes in literal form and tells her that there's doubt around and gives her Aaron's soul stone and  tells her that she doubts that they are soul mates.

       Sabrina searches for her soul stone at the North Star and wants to see if her stone matches with Aaron.  Do they match?  Well no.  The Wedding eventually starts after some snags ,but she's having some doubt still so it gets stalled again. Her aunt and mother tells here that everything is not against the wedding , she is so she tries again to get married. At the vows she stops again and tells Aaron that she doesn't want to get married to him after all. (Not getting that deposit back)  She leaves the church were she sees Harvey with  a soul stone of his own.   They kiss and ride off on his motorcycle. The two stones fall on the ground and they match.  Guess what they did something for those who've been watching the show since the start, the 12:36 time where she and Harvey first met.

   One thing about the show is that Harvey and Sabrina seem to be a big thing of the series. This finale kind of finishes where these characters who seemed to made for each other end up together.  Much of the series showed us how much they cared for each other even when they broke up so, it doesn't feel as some sort of weird  they did that because they were a couple once and so stick them together. In fact , it felt more that way with Sabrina and Aaron in the last few episodes of the season that he kind of just shows up in the series and then they announce to get married.

  Is it a good finale?  Yes, it gives us a good wrap up of the series with most of the characters that were big on the show a chance to return. (-3 pts for no Aunt Zelda) It gives its fans a satisfaction that yeah it's over but it ended in away that would make him feel it ended on a good note.  It gives us a little drama too, where we honestly don't know how it ends until it ends.
 
   Next time, a series finale that takes a whole show and makes you go WHAT?


Tune in  next time when we find soul stones and start a dating service.

The Last Episode: Alf: The Finale that wasn't supposed to be

The Flashback Classics 

     May is the month that is usually the home of season and series finales, since it's the end of the TV season. Many shows never have a chance to have  a planned finale since most most shows fail in catching on in the first place. This month we take a look at some examples of how shows made their ends.

     Unlike the last show we looked at where it had a finale that they had planned this show didn't have that chance , but even more their finale left loose threads and this is a finale that wasn't supposed to  be one. We look at "Alf"  Consider Me Gone.   Though that would a good title for a finale.

        "Alf" had ran for four seasons on NBC from 1986 to 1990 and was popular where when the show wrapped up it's fourth season they had some well something, something to make sure that the fifth would start off fun but, plans changed.

      The episode  starts with Alf being his normal self  when eventually he picks up a signal that he thinks is from someone from  his home planet ,Melmac. His friends apparently have bought a planet and they want Alf to join him.  Alf is considering if he wants to leave or not. (Should I stay or should I go?) Meanwhile, the alien task force is also getting the signals and they wonder if it is aliens. (Insert picture of  guy on History Channel saying aliens here)  If Alf wants to leave he has only one chance to do so. He gives his answer  he decides that he wants to leave. The task force also captures Alf's signal back to his friends and know it's from Earth but not where it's from.

     The Tanner family is un happy that Alf is leaving (Well not Kate) at his going away party. They give him some gifts.   [Cutting away from the episode for a minute]  This scenes here would have actually made a good series finale, with Alf deciding to leave and the family saying goodbye. It has all the great workings of being a series finale and a fine one.  [more on that later]  So, Alf say his goodbye to the house as the family is going to drive him to spot where he's going to picked up.  The Alien Task Force finds out about the space craft is coming down and they of course, are going to do their thing. The aliens come done to pick up Alf when the Alien Task Force come from behind and his friends fly away in fear. The Task Force surrounds Al, and the original cut of the episode ends with to be continued.

       My personal note about this episode: When I was watching the series on repeats as a kid, I never knew the show ended  so when this episode came on and I saw the line to be continued, apparently the channel I had watched on it didn't use the cut where that doesn't appear (Amazon Prime Streaming's version for example doesn't have that message) and I  thought the next day when they were airing the first episode , i  thought I had somehow missed it or the channel messed up. I didn't know for years that this was how Alf ended.

    As said above, I feel the episode before the alien task force comes in and Alf's friends leave would  have actually made a great series finale for Alf.  Though, I will add the build up with the task force was also hinting to more than just a finale.  The people working on this show didn't know this was going to be the last episode and they had  made a two parter as an insurance policy and sadly, it ended  up being the last episode.  It is kind of funny how this show ended though , Alf crashes into  the world causes  a stir makes messes and the end of the whole thing it's a mess.  Many series do get unexpected or unplanned finales, because maybe the show was getting expensive or the network was trying a different direction or 892 other reasons.  Alf's finale is remembered because of the cliff hanger and it wasn't supposed end here it's like reading something in a book or something and it just.

       Alf did get some sort of reprieve  in 1996 thanks to ABC. We have written about that  HERE   

    Next time, some series don't get a chance to choose their finales, but what if a series never really had a chance to end and it's final episodes weren't even for the series?  That's Next time.

 Tune in next time,  after we get picked up by a space ship, we just got a call and we are going!  

A Look at What Killed Weekday Cartoons

Joshuaonline's Essays

              There has been much said on what "killed" off the Saturday Morning network children's television programming block,  so much you can find them on Youtube and other places easily, but we are going to a different side of this, what caused the end of Weekday children's programming (that is not PBS) on over the air television?

The Animaniacs  were a weekday cartoon during their run. 

       The Early Days 

       Weekdays, after school, was the prime time for children and teens because they had just gotten out of school and television stations hope that maybe they would spend a little tile watching their channel instead of doing other things.  Kind of like, how networks felt that daytime television was a way to target housewives.    Weekday mornings , before school, was also a prime time location for children targeted programming.    

     NBC used to offer children-targeted programming on weekdays from the start of their television broadcasting to 1956, yes they gave up really early on Weekday cartoons.   Alot of the NBC, ABC, CBS affiliates did their own local children's shows around this time as well. "Captain Kangaroo" ran CBS weekday mornings from 1955 until the 80's it was the only consistent thing about CBS' morning programming in their history. 

    With daytime television for the affiliates being mostly done by the networks (though local stations could preempt for what they wanted to do)  Non affiliated, also known as - independent stations, saw an market they could go for, Children's TV.  WGN-TV had the famous Bozo's Circus. So programs that were targeted to the children's market were strong on weekdays as much as Saturdays. 

  

     I would still say that focus for makers of programs for Children were weekends, more than weekdays, meaning they'd the more "quality" or newer programming on Saturdays and weekdays was for repeats and lower budget programming.   Independent stations  would sometimes compete against other one or two doing the same kinds of programming. (In many television markets in the 50's to 80's they had more than 3 commercial stations and could just as many indies. )   

  The 80's

        The peak for syndication market , would have to be the 1980's probably the best time  there ever will be for syndicated television in the United States.  This in general , but the children's television market also got a boost in the 1980's.  One thing that happened in the late 70's and 80's was that there were more independent stations popping up , in mid-sized and smaller markets.  That means there was more market for syndication to try to get some audience it needed.   

   Afternoon cartoons were those traditional things like "Tom and Jerry" , "Looney Tunes", and more but there was something coming to add to this.  In 1983 the first cartoon series made just for syndication started.  "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" was made by Filmation in conjuction with Mattel (more on that in a second). Another series, by DIC also started this same year, "Inspector Gadget" 

     These shows were made with weekday in mind, instead of the network model where they seemed to let a show run for 13 episodes (13 Weeks) then give up and repeat them until the new season and maybe that series would return or they just finished up and went on to something, these series were made with 65 episode target.  65 episodes means you could do 5 new episodes a week for 13 weeks, then repeat them.    "He-Man" proved popular enough to have two seasons and 130 episodes. "Gadget" had two seasons reaching 83 episodes. 

     When I mention Mattel ,this is important, the 80's also started a trend that wasn't allowed before,  Cartoon series based off toys.  Mattel made the He Man toys and a great way to promote them is a TV series,  She-Ra too.  In the 1950's alot of children's programming , like alot of television at the time in general was run by the sponsor companies. Later there were regulations placed to not allow this.  But the 1980's meant alot of deregulation and one of  the things deregulated was children focused television. I  may talk about that in some more detail at some later point.  

     So the idea of a program that could be based off a toy line was able to be added to television in the 1980's.  The main 3 networks were kind of iffy on allowing these kind of shows on their Saturday Morning line up, but an independent station who is more in need for content, and reruns of "My Mother the Car" doesn't do it, this became a match made.   Hasbro made TV series based off their toys like "My Little Pony". These programs became successful and this may have seed something that I will to later. 

    A new broadcast network was launched in 1986 , called FOX, most of it's early stations were these independents but since Fox has limited scheduling (as a nice work around the rule against having a broadcast network and a production company being co-owned) the former indie stations still had alot of time to program themselves including the afternoon, and they could continue with their children's programming. 

1987 Changes Everything 

       I personally think the success of shows based off toys showed Disney the syndication market can be a viable way of making getting into television making. Disney had made their first animated TV Series, "Gummi Bears" in 1985, but that was for NBC, this was something different.  In 1987 they launched "Ducktales".  "Ducktales was different than other series in this market, it wasn't there to sale Ducktales toys, or based of a toy line (though there may have been toys after because of the popularity).   Disney putting their hat in the weekday animation game was the beginning of a big change.  Ducktales proved popular where Disney made a whole new syndicated block - The Disney Afternoon. (Which I've written about before) 

  Like a FOX 

      FOX decided to jump into the weekday and Saturday game in 1990 ,with FOX Kids (I've written about before)  FOX affiliates didn't really have to dip into the syndication market as much , Disney Afternoon could have stayed on their stations but in many markets it moved to the remaining indies. and any remaining syndicated programming could have moved off these stations as well.  Fox provided by 1993 , 3 hours a weekday of programming  there were some who also had morning blocks.   Thanks the removal of the regulation that FOX worked around in the 80's  a production company could now own a network, so Warner Brothers and Paramount saw and opening, this is also how Disney could buy ABC.  In 1995 Warner Brothers launched the WB network and Paramount/ Viacom launched UPN.  Most of these affiliates were former indies and they incorporated their children's blocks time slots for their own uses of launching Kids WB and UPN Kids. This included weekday afternoons and mornings.  

  Now the what killed part , after the jump