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Children's programming on CBS

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In regards to children's programming, CBS has aired mostly animated series for kids, such as the original version of Scooby-Doo, Jim Henson's Muppet Babies, Garfield and Friends and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Saturday morning programming

Early years with Captain Kangaroo

CBS broadcast the live action series Captain Kangaroo on weekday mornings from 1955 through 1982, and on Saturdays through 1984. For the first three months, Captain Kangaroo was only seen on weekday mornings. Thereafter, until 1968, Captain was also seen on Saturday mornings. One exception was the 1964 to 1965 season, which saw the broadcast replaced on Saturdays by a Keeshan vehicle called Mr. Mayor. From 1968 and until 1982 it was seen on weekdays only again. Except for pre-emption for news coverage, notably the three-day continuous coverage of the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963, and a few shows that were 45 minutes, the show aired a full 60 minutes on weekday mornings until 1981. It was broadcast in color from September 9, 1968 onward.

The audience of children could never compete in the ratings with such entertainment/news shows as The Today Show, although it won Emmy Awards three times as Outstanding Children's entertainment series in 1978–1979, 1982–1983 and 1983–1984. But in the fall season of 1981, to make more room for CBS Morning News, the Captain was moved to an earlier time slot of 7 a.m. and cut to 30 minutes, sporting a new title Wake Up with the Captain. In the fall of 1982, it was moved Saturday mornings to 7 a.m. (6 a.m. Central, Mountain, and Pacific). Reruns were offered to CBS affiliates to run Sunday morning in place of the cartoon reruns offered before. Most CBS affiliates only cleared Saturday mornings after that. Still a third of the CBS affiliates no longer ran Captain Kangaroo at all after 1982. It was finally canceled altogether at the end of 1984 due to lack of clearances from affiliates.

See also

1971-1986 (the In the News era)

From 1971 through 1986, the CBS News department produced one-minute In the News segments broadcast between other Saturday morning programs. The "micro-series" (as it would be labelled today) had its genesis in a series of animated interstitials produced by CBS and Hanna Barbera Productions called In The Know, featuring Josie and the Pussycats narrating educational news segments tailored for children. This was eventually metamorphized into a more live-action-oriented micro-series.

See also

1986-1998 and the "Action Zone" (1994-1995)

WildC.A.T.s was a show, along with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Skeleton Warriors, that was grouped into the "Action Zone" gimmick that featured a fly-though robotic style pre-opening that eventually went into the show's opening sequence during its CBS run. The series was canned around the same time this gimmick was dropped (even though TMNT was allowed to retain the Action Zone gimmick until the end of its run two years later).

In 1997, CBS began broadcasting Wheel 2000, and was broadcasting it simultaneously with GSN. In the News was briefly revived as part of CBS's all-"educational/informational" Saturday morning lineup during the 1997-1998 season, but without the involvement of original narrators Christopher Glenn and Gary Shepard. Since 1997, like any other network, CBS Kidshow programming varies in each CBS affiliate's schedule. For example, From 1997 to 1998, KTVT in Fort Worth, TX aired CBS Kidshow from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Saturdays and 7 a.m. to 8 a.m. on Sundays.

See also

Deal with Nelvana/CBS Kidshow (1998-2000)

See also: List_of_Nelvana_franchises § Television_series

In September 1998, CBS began contracting out to other companies to provide programming and material for their Saturday morning schedule. The first of these special blocks was CBS Kidshow, which featured programming from Canada's Nelvana studio.[1] It aired on CBS Saturday mornings from 1998 to 2000, with shows like Anatole, Mythic Warriors, Rescue Heroes, and Flying Rhino Junior High.[2] In January 1999, Franklin (on the CBS line-up) and Rupert (a part of Nick Jr. since 1991) swapped networks.[3] Its tagline was, "The CBS Kids Show: Get in the Act."

See also

Nick Jr. on CBS/Nick on CBS (2000-2006)

In 2000, CBS's deal with Nelvana ended. They then began a deal with Nickelodeon (owned by CBS's former parent company Viacom, which at one time was a subsidiary of CBS) to air its Nick Jr. programming under the banner Nick Jr. on CBS.[1] From 2002 to 2004, Nick's non-preschool series aired on it as well, under the name Nick on CBS. When the block first properly aired, it was hosted by Face from Nick Jr.

On September 14, 2002, Nick Jr. on CBS was re-branded as Nick on CBS, and airing both Nickelodeon and Nick Jr. shows. The Nickelodeon shows were removed in 2004 in favor for a return to an exclusively-Nick Jr. block. The block's continuity was provided by segments featuring Piper O'Possum.

All programming during the block, as is standard for Saturday morning network programming, was labeled as meeting E/I requirements, as tenuous as some of the claims of educational content may have been. This is part of the reason why some of Nickelodeon's most popular programs (most notably SpongeBob SquarePants) did not appear on the block, even during the more open-formatted Nick on CBS era.

At the beginning of New Year's Eve 2005, Viacom was split into two different companies, with CBS Corporation becoming its own standalone company and Nickelodeon going to the new Viacom. Nick Jr. on CBS ended on September 9, 2006 and was replaced by KOL Secret Slumber Party on CBS on September 16, 2006, as part of a multi-year partnership between CBS and DIC Entertainment.[4] (now Cookie Jar Entertainment)

Programs

See also: List of programs broadcast by Nick Jr. (block)

KOL Secret Slumber Party on CBS (2006-2007)

In 2006, after the Viacom-CBS split (as described above), CBS decided to discontinue the Nick Jr. lineup in favor of a lineup of programs produced by DIC Entertainment and later, the Cookie Jar Group,[5][6] as part of a three-year deal which includes distribution of selected Formula One auto races on tape delay.[7][8] KOL Secret Slumber Party on CBS premiered in September of that year; in the inaugural line-up, two of the programs were new shows, one aired in syndication in 2005 and three were pre-2006 shows.

After the announcement of the CBS/DIC partnership, the latter announced programming block was originally going to be called CBS's Secret Saturday Morning Slumber Party (or CBS’s Saturday Morning Secret Slumber Party), but was later renamed KOL Secret Slumber Party on CBS after DIC, who produced all of the children's programming for the block, partnered with KOL, the children's area of AOL, which co-produced programming with DIC. AOL managed the programming block's website, and produced public service announcements which aired both on television and online[9] This alliance was what led to the name change for this block, and also because some of the programs were airing on Sundays (depending on the market).

KEWLopolis on CBS (2007-2009)

In mid-2007, KOL withdrew sponsorship from CBS's Saturday Morning Block and the name was changed to KEWLopolis on CBS. Complimenting CBS's 2007 line-up was Care Bears, Strawberry Shortcake, and Sushi Pack. On February 24, 2009, it was announced that CBS renewed its contract with Cookie Jar for another three seasons, through 2012.[10][11]

On September 19, 2009, KEWLopolis was re-branded as Cookie Jar TV.[12] The block airs at different times on some CBS stations (some air it on one day, and others split into both weekends.), CBS (as with any network) and the block's producers ask viewers to check local listings to find out when the shows air in their area. While KEWLopolis was willing to carry Cake and Horseland over from KOL Secret Slumber Party, Cookie Jar TV removed all KEWLopolis programming except Strawberry Shortcake upon its re-branding on September 19, 2009.[13][14]

List of notable Saturday morning programming

See also: List of shows previously aired by CBS

Saturday morning preview specials

Main article: Saturday morning preview specials

Animated primetime holiday specials

CBS was the original broadcast network for the animated primetime holiday specials based on the comic strip Peanuts, beginning with A Charlie Brown Christmas in 1965. Over thirty holiday Peanuts specials (each for a specific holiday such as Halloween) were broadcast on CBS from that time until 2000, when ABC acquired the broadcast rights. CBS also aired several primetime animated specials based on the work of Dr. Seuss (Theodor Geisel), beginning with How the Grinch Stole Christmas in 1966. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, produced in stop motion by the Rankin/Bass studio, has been another annual holiday staple of CBS since 1972, but that special originated on NBC in 1964. Frosty The Snowman is also another CBS hoiday staple since its debut in 1969.

All of these animated specials, from 1973 until 1990, began with a fondly remembered opening animated logo which showed the words "A CBS Special Presentation" in colorful lettering. The word "SPECIAL", repeated in multiple colors, slowly zoomed out from the frame in a spinning counterclockwise motion against a black background, and rapidly zoomed back into frame as a single word, in white, at the end; the logo was accompanied by a jazzy yet majestic up-tempo fanfare (believed to be incidental music from the CBS crime drama Hawaii Five-O) with dramatic horns and percussion (this appeared at the beginning of all CBS specials of the period (such as the Miss USA pageants and the annual Kennedy Center Honors presentation), not just animated ones). (This opening logo was presumably designed by, or under the supervision of, longtime CBS creative director Lou Dorfsman, who oversaw print and on-air graphics for CBS for nearly thirty years, replacing William Golden, who died in 1959.)

References

  1. ^ a b Schneider, Michael (June 15, 2000). "CBS picks Nick mix". Variety. Retrieved August 13, 2009.
  2. ^ Kelly, Brendan (December 22, 1998). "CTV pacts for 3 Nelvana series". Variety. Retrieved August 13, 2009.
  3. ^ Adalian, Joseph (1998, December 14). "Nick vet CBS-bound as nets alter kidvid skeds". Variety Magazine. Retrieved June 22, 2006.
  4. ^ Guider, Elizabeth (January 19, 2006). "Synergy not kid-friendly at Eye web". Variety. Retrieved 2009-08-13.
  5. ^ "Cookie Jar and Dic Entertainment to Merge, Creating independent global children's entertainment and education powerhouse". Cookie Jar Group. June 20, 2008. Retrieved December 23, 2008.
  6. ^ "COOKIE JAR ENTERTAINMENT EXPANDS BRAND PORTFOLIO, TALENT AND GLOBAL REACH WITH CLOSING OF DIC TRANSACTION". Cookie Jar Group. July 23, 2008. Retrieved December 23, 2008.
  7. ^ "World Screen – Home".
  8. ^ Guider, Elizabeth (January 19, 2006). "Synergy not kid-friendly at Eye web". Variety. Retrieved August 13, 2009.
  9. ^ DIC, KOL to Produce on CBS, Mediaweek, June 21, 2006
  10. ^ "CBS Reups With Kids Programmer Cookie Jar". Broadcasting & Cable. February 24, 2009. Retrieved February 26, 2009.
  11. ^ "CBS RENEWS COOKIE JAR ENTERTAINMENT'S SATURDAY MORNING BLOCK FOR THREE MORE SEASONS". Cookie Jar Group. February 24, 2009. Retrieved March 25, 2009.
  12. ^ "CBS Sets Lineup for Cookie Jar Block". WorldScreen. September 4, 2009. Retrieved September 10, 2009.
  13. ^ "CBS Sets Lineup for Cookie Jar Block". WorldScreen. September 4, 2009. Retrieved 2009-09-10.
  14. ^ "Zeroing In". Kidscreen. May 8, 2009. Retrieved 2009-07-14.
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