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ABC Kids
Launched	September 13, 1997
Owned by	ABC, Inc. The Walt Disney Company
Slogan	ABC Kids is gonna rock your day!
Formerly called	Disney's One Saturday Morning (1997-2002)
Website	Official Site

ABC Kids is a four-hour block of animated television series and live-action children's television series (normally shows from Disney Channel), broadcast on the ABC network in the U.S. and was broadcast on the CTV network and BBS in Canada on Saturday mornings until 2002.

[edit] History

Sometime around 1997 Peter Hastings, the creator and excutive producer of One Saturday Morning, who wrote on Animaniacs and Pinky and the Brain left both shows in order to produce cartoons for Disney and ABC. ABC was told by Michael Eisner to create a Saturday morning block that was different from the rest at the time. They asked Hastings to do it. In February 1997 Peter Hastings pleged the idea that Saturday is different from every other day and to repsent buildings as week days. He also propsed to use virtual set technology; Although he knew little about it at the time and the technology used was just starting development. Disney and ABC liked the idea. He hired Prudence Fenton as Consultant Manger and Co-Executive Producer. Together they sampled virtual set technology at NAB 1997 and chose technology developed by Accom and ELSET. Rutherford Bench Productions which had previously worked with Disney hired Pacific Ocean Post, POP Sound today, to produce the virtual set. The building was initially a drawing of Grand Central Station with a roller coaster but evolved into a towering mechanical 1. Even the interior has similarities such as a central high raised room with two wings on left and right sides and another on the south side.

[edit] Disney's One Saturday Morning

On September 13, 1997, Disney's One Saturday Morning was created as a successor to both The Disney Afternoon and the recent ABC Saturday Morning lineup, and originally featured some of the shows that had been on them. The block originally lasted 2 and half hour but changed to 5 hours and finally 5 and a half. On September 6, 1999 a spin-off, Disney's One Too, aired on UPN and in syndication every weekday in the morning or afternoon. One Saturday Morning's last airdate was September 7, 2002.

During the introduction to One Saturday Morning as well as other introductions on the block, a tiny lightbulb icon would appear in a bottom corner of the screen and an announcer would say, "Illuminating Television," stating the programming block's educational programming. The lightbulb's chain would be pulled by a hand and the lightbulb would have an animation (turning into a rocket, falling into a garbage can, jumping in a pool) etc.

[edit] ABC Kids

On September 14, 2002, Disney's One Saturday Morning was terminated and rebranded as ABC Kids, whose main target is children ages 8-16, while One Saturday Morning's was children ages 5-12. The block formally contained new programs, but in the present, most ABC Kids programming are reruns of Disney Channel originals (excluding Power Rangers, which airs on Toon Disney's Jetix).

Power Rangers was previously aired on Fox Kids until mid way through Wild Force. Then starting with the Power Rangers Wild Force episode "Unfinished Business", Power Rangers moved to ABC Kids for the 2002 Fall season and Power Rangers has since aired on ABC. The remainder of the Wild Force season and all of the following Ninja Storm season were premiered on ABC and then later on Jetix. Beginning with the DinoThunder season, premieres were moved to Jetix on cable and then re-run in later weeks on ABC. With the rise of educational and informational programming guidelines, some of the network's affiliate groups, mainly Hearst-Argyle Television and Allbritton Communications, refuse to carry the Power Rangers series in order to instead free up time to air locally slotted E/I programming.

[edit] Power Rangers RPM

Power Rangers RPM replaces Power Rangers Jungle Fury starting March 7th 2009. ABC will air the final two episodes of Jungle Fury on January 10 and January 17 2009 respectively.

[edit] Programming

[edit] Current schedule

According to the official ABC Kids website^[1]

[edit] Former Programming

[edit] Disney's One Saturday Morning programming

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• ABC Kids official site
• Blast From The Past 1990s ABC