Saturday morning preview specials

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. Like 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.

Overview

Typical air times

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.

Format

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.

Decline

With the changes in direction for Saturday morning, in light of FCC rules requiring programming to be educational or informational and concentration of media ownership, especially with CBS's Viacom ownership until 2005 and ABC's Disney ownership, which caused those companies to market their all-children's networks (Nickelodeon and Disney Channel, respectively) much more than their broadcast counterparts, causing purposeful viewership declines. The exodus of this programming to cable, along with the outsourcing of children's blocks to other parties, meant the preview specials on the legacy "Big 3" networks all but disappeared by the start of the new millennium, with Fox being the last network to still feature annual specials (even though Fox's Saturday morning block was programmed by 4Kids TV, which aired on other stations in larger markets in syndication arrangements, meaning that those specials advertised programming that did not actually air on those Fox stations). Fox, incidentally, abandoned all children's programming in favor of the Weekend Marketplace infomercial block in December 2008; the block was eventually leased in fall 2014 to an outside E/I programmer.

Year-by-year guide
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ABC

CBS

NBC

FOX

The WB

The CW

References
  1. ABC Funshine Saturday Sneak Peek 1974 at IMDb
  2. ABC's Saturday Sneek Peek at IMDb
  3. Kaptain Kool and the Kongs Present ABC All-Star Saturday at IMDb
  4. Pac Preview Party at IMDb
  5. ABC Sneak Peek with Step by Step at IMDb
  6. ABC Saturday Morning Jam at IMDb
  7. Scheimer, Lou (2012). Creating The Filmation Generation. TwoMorrows Publishing. p. 136. ISBN 1-60549-044-X.
  8. http://www.platypuscomix.net/kidzone/satamhogg.html
  9. Rock 'n' Wrestling Saturday Spectacular at IMDb
  10. "Saturday Morning Video Fare To Be Previewed". The Rock Hill Herald. 1 September 1973.
  11. The Bay City Rollers Meet the Saturday Superstars at IMDb
  12. NBC Saturday Morning Preview: The Yummy Awards at IMDb
  13. Back to Next Saturday at IMDb
  14. Alvin Goes Back to School at IMDb
  15. Alf Loves a Mystery at IMDb
  16. http://www.pjbproductions.com/vfx.htm
  17. https://archive.org/details/G-Fan_060_Daikaiju_2003_WildBlueZero/page/n75
  18. https://www.thefreelibrary.com/amp/%60What%27s+Inside+the+FOX+BOX%3F%27+Find+Out+in+the+Half-hour+Special...-a090892234
  19. The Fight for the Fox Box at IMDb
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