Saturday morning preview specials

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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 that contained programming canceled months before.

Format

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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.

The specials often included previews for prime-time programming as well. According to Mark Evanier, who wrote several Saturday morning preview specials, this was because the network's prime-time department had to clear the time slot for the special, and convincing them to do so was difficult without agreeing to promote one of their shows in the special.[1]

History

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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

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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.[2]

Year-by-year guide

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Syndication

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ABC

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CBS

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NBC

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FOX

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The WB

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The CW

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See also

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References

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  4. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  5. ^ Rock 'n' Wrestling Saturday Spectacular at IMDbLua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 29: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
  6. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  7. ^ The Bay City Rollers Meet the Saturday Superstars at IMDbLua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 29: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
  8. ^ Back to Next Saturday at IMDbLua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 29: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
  9. ^ Alvin Goes Back to School at IMDbLua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 29: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
  10. ^ Alf Loves a Mystery at IMDbLua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 29: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
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  12. ^ https://archive.org/details/G-Fan_060_Daikaiju_2003_WildBlueZero/page/n75 [dead link]
  13. ^ Lua error in Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration at line 2172: attempt to index field '?' (a nil value).
  14. ^ The Fight for the Fox Box at IMDbLua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 29: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
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