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Saturday morning preview specials were aired on television annually to present previews of each network's fall lineup of Saturday-morning cartoon children's programming. Similar to the model for their new prime time counterpart shows, television networks in the United States and Canada would film a preview special for the fall season. These would often air as part of the regular network schedule, or be made available to their affiliates for airing at any time, especially to fill timeslots which contained programming canceled months before.

Format

The Saturday morning previews were generally aired on the network in prime-time, usually the Friday night before the new schedule began. Specials were staggered between differing time slots and days in order to allow each network's show to stand out.

The preview specials are usually hosted by stars of one or more of the network's popular series and feature an array of special guests, with the continuity between each program preview being fictionalized with a small plot or theme to keep viewers interested. The previews were for new and returning series, with each preview featuring the show's opening credits and a scene from that program. They also unveiled a network's new imaging for Saturday morning programming.

History

Hanna-Barbera Productions created a half-hour syndicated film called "Here Comes a Star" (1964) with Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera playing themselves promoting its newest series, The Magilla Gorilla Show. The program, hosted by You Bet Your Life announcer George Fenneman, offered an inside look at the animation studio and a peek at the upcoming feature, Hey There, It's Yogi Bear. The first network preview special was The World of Secret Squirrel and Atom Ant (1965), a 60-minute special airing on NBC in primetime to celebrate Hanna-Barbera's first animated series made for Saturday morning television.

Decline

Main article: Saturday-morning cartoon § Decline

CBS, which had only irregularly carried preview specials, aired its last in 1985. The other two major networks continued near-annually. NBC's last was in 1991, as by 1992, the network had abandoned cartoons in favor of its teen sitcom block TNBC. ABC continued an annual Saturday preview special as part of its TGIF block through the 1990s, finally ending the practice in 1999, TGIF's last year in its original form.

4Kids Entertainment aired preview specials sporadically for its two blocks, FoxBox and The CW4Kids. Neither Fox Kids nor Kids' WB continued the practice as an annual tradition, though both had aired one-off preview specials in the 1990s.

Because the preview specials incorporated clips from a variety of sources with cross-platform licensing, it was legally impossible to sell them in syndication packages or release them on home video or streaming services.[1]

Year-by-year guide

This television-related list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (October 2021)

Syndication

ABC

CBS

NBC

FOX

The WB

The CW

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Mangels, Andy (August 2020). "Saturday Morning Preview Specials Part Two: 1978-1983". RetroFan. United States: TwoMorrows Publishing (10): 31–42.
  2. ^ Scheimer, Lou (2012). Creating The Filmation Generation. TwoMorrows Publishing. p. 136. ISBN 978-1-60549-044-1.
  3. ^ "It's a Saturday Supercade Fun Fun Fun!".
  4. ^ Rock 'n' Wrestling Saturday Spectacular at IMDb Edit this at Wikidata
  5. ^ "Saturday Morning Video Fare To Be Previewed". The Rock Hill Herald. 1 September 1973.
  6. ^ The Bay City Rollers Meet the Saturday Superstars at IMDb Edit this at Wikidata
  7. ^ Back to Next Saturday at IMDb Edit this at Wikidata
  8. ^ Alvin Goes Back to School at IMDb Edit this at Wikidata
  9. ^ Alf Loves a Mystery at IMDb Edit this at Wikidata
  10. ^ "PJB Digital Artistry".
  11. ^ https://archive.org/details/G-Fan_060_Daikaiju_2003_WildBlueZero/page/n75[dead link]
  12. ^ "'What's Inside the FOX BOX?' Find Out in the Half-hour Special Sunday, Sept. 1, On FOX". www.thefreelibrary.com. Archived from the original on 2019-04-27.
  13. ^ The Fight for the Fox Box at IMDb Edit this at Wikidata

External links

Children's programming on NBC
Children's programming on CBS
Children's programming on the American Broadcasting Company
Kids' WB
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