We now return to all our children's programs. Well, that got your attention, this time we are talking Kids WB something about this block to really note. It ran longer than the network it was created for , and it was the last weekday children's block on commercial TV.
The WB network was announced in 1993 as the network of Warner Brothers and Tribune Company (who owned a minority share and provided affiliates in major markets) and it launched in January of 1995. Many of the affiliates were stations that were non-affiliated (independents)and some former network affiliates. Like when we talked about FOX KIDS , many of these stations may have had their children's programming blocks of syndicated programs. But like the network itself , why not have a place to show-off Warner Brothers cartoons and library of shows for Children?
A new block of children's program yay!!!/ Warnerbrothers/Youtube
In the new fall season 1995, Kids WB launched it ran Weekday afternoons for 1 hour 4-5pm (all time zones , though could be adjusted) , and Saturday Mornings ,of course, 8AM-11AM. The Early programs were some Warner Brother's programs that were originally on FOX Kids or syndication: "Animaniacs". New series included : "Sylvester and Tweety mysteries" (Where the cat and bird solve mysteries together ) , Freakazoid! (about a teenager who absorbs his computer and gains all knowledge of things on the internet and becomes a super-hero), "Earthworm Jim" ( a super hero worm, no we didn't make these shows up) , and "Animaniacs" spin-off "Pinky and The Brain" (Narff).
See... we didn't make it up Warnerbrothers/ Youtube
They also later added cartoons of Batman and Superman and was doing well enough to expand Weekdays by 2 more hours ( 1 hour in the morning, and 1 more hour in the afternoon, though some stations would combine into 3 hours in the afternoon) , in 1997. Then something BIG happened. In 1999, Kids Wb picked up the English Dub of anime program , "Pokemon". The Program was a hit. (Stop!, Kids WB was not the first home on American TV for Pokemon, it was originally in syndication. Now back to your whatever this is) This helped it beat FOX Kids. (We bet someone at FOX Kids was not very happy about not getting Pokemon)
Oh my Gosh! it's Something amazing! Call Everyone!!!! | Youtube
When you buy anime and it does well, you buy more anime , and that's what they did.. like "Yu-Gi-Oh!". Oh , and the whole block didn't become anime fueled it still had other series to make the non anime fans happy.
OK, time for learning.. (E/I).
In 1996, Time Warner owned Warner Brothers (well of course) , Ted Turner (for some odd reason) sold his company to Time Warner, one of those properties was Cartoon Network. Cartoon Network was launched in 1992, as a place for Ted Turner to put all his cartoons that he had bought in the 80's somewhere. In March of 1997, Cartoon Network launched a block in the afternoon called Toonami. It was the home of Cartoon Network's action shows. (Yeah!!! Action!). Now keep that in mind.
( Can we get back to Kids'WB Now?)
In 2001 , the afternoon block was renamed Toonami on Kids WB it didn't air everything the Cartoon Network block did, but it did shows from Cartoon Network to the block ,namely the "Powerpuff Girls". Other shows were shared with Cartoon Network ,and some were Kids WB's own shows namely, "Nightmare Room". Sadly in 2001 the weekday morning block was discontinued. (For Newscasts, bad talk shows , or infomercials depending on where you are because that's fun) . This was around the same time as FOX Kids was in it's dying days, the weekday block of FOX kids had ended. UPN's weekday block ,which was done by Disney, and Kids WB were the only network weekday children's blocks left.
It's mix of outside and done-by-Warner-Brothers, and Cartoon Network co-operating continued. They introduced a new version of Scooby-Doo called "What's New Scooby-Doo" (Yes Scooby,what is new?) It was the first new Scooby Series in about a decade (the last Scooby-Doo series was A Pup named Scooby Doo , it was him as a puppy) after some direct to video releases and the other series airing in reruns on Cartoon Network, it was time. Scooby had a new voice and the series was a hip, cool 21st century making of "Scooby Doo, Where are you?"
Yeah rock theme song.... cool Warner Brothers/ Youtube
There was also more "Pokemon" , !Mucha Lucha!, more "Yu-Gi-Oh!", and more. In 2002, the Toonami on Kids WB name was removed and the weekday block was just called Kids WB. So it continued it's competition around it was changing around 2002. CBS had Nickelodeon programming, ABC was more Disney Channel Programming , FOX had given up and sold it's kids slot to 4Kids Entertainment , UPN didn't do children's TV ( local stations had to find their own), and NBC had gone to Discovery. So, Kids WB was the only commerical network with it's own programmed block of new programming. Though Cartoon Network programs were shared with Kids WB.
more after this jump
