What Killed After School Television?

do you remember how it felt to come home from school switch on the TV and settle in for a few hours of quality curated entertainment are you hugging to TV no this Universal experience spanned decades and cross-generational divides and yet it is practically vanished from our modern existence so what happened to after school programming and will it ever return pigy and the Brain have taken over their very own kids WB show you pondering what I'm pondering we're going to dive into those questions today but first make sure you like this video And subscribe to n stalgic so you don't miss out on our next upload after school programming is just a subcategory of block programming this practice gave consumers more control which resulted in them tuning in more often and for longer periods and that made advertisers happy in turn the larger television viewing audience was parsed down into several key demographics for advertisers among these groups children were understood to be one of the more lucrative thus children's programming blocks began airing on very various television networks while Saturday morning cartoons were the earliest and most popular implementation of this idea after school programming was its own formidable Beast exhausted parents or their enterprising children could find age appropriate TV shows between the hours of 2: and 5:00 p.m. on both local and National networks at the time the most likely suspects were programs like howdy Duty Clutch Cargo Ultram man and reruns of Classics like Tom and Jerry and Looney Tunes decades passed eventually how did Duty gave way to He-Man and Transformers in the 1980s more Children's programming started to flood our TV screens along with wildly aggressive advertisements your favorite Heroes would appear in commercials to sell you action figures breakfast cereal and just about anything they could get away with that is until parents groups and political activists got a little too loud to ignore after years of complaints and lobbying the children's television Act was put in place in 1990 the CTA aimed to regulate both the type and duration of commercials that could be played during children's programming blocks it also ensured that the shows themselves held some kind of educational value this meant big changes to Children's Entertainment but in truth the tide had already been changing cynical TV shows made explicitly to sell toys continued to persist some of them were even good but plenty of worthwhile lessons were being taught to kids before 1990 as well Sesame Street and Mr Rogers Neighborhood had been a shining Beacon of wholesome educational content since the late 60s the first episode of Reading Rainbow aired in 198 three with the stated purpose of maintaining children's ability to read over summer break and Fraggle Rock aired the same year intending to teach kids about diversity and acceptance while simultaneously being a fever dream the trash sheep knows all the trash sheep tells all let's face it boys the trash she is all to true to true but 1990 made these entainment type shows a legal necessity as such some TV shows got creative by writing Easy Lessons of the week about basic Educational Concepts like the X-Men and Spider-Man animated series while other more explicitly educational shows like Captain Planet and Magic School Bus also had their Time To Shine from there a new nostalgic age of after school programming was born fox kids Nick in the afternoon Kids WB the Disney Afternoon and PBS kids were by far the most popular programming blocks during the 9s a mix of fresh content and shows from previous decades populated these time slots new episodes tended to air on Saturday mornings kids who sat down during the week were treated to reruns of legendary TV shows like Batman the Animated Series Rugrats DuckTales Ren and Stimpy and Pokemon and during aforementioned Classics like Tom and Jerry and Looney Tunes also remained in the lineup withstanding the test of time and the test of the cta's legal boundaries it was an exciting time to be a kid around this time as networks got more competitive programming blocks started to pull out all sorts of tricks and gimmicks to keep kids from changing the channel it was the themed bumpers between shows the Min games to play along with and of course the kid targeted High Energy commercials for cool toys and sugary snacks after school programming of this era was made to feel like an exclusive kids only event that we could talk to our friends about the next day like with Saturday morning cartoons there was a palpable atmosphere to these hours between 2: and 5:00 p.m. one where kids had total control and felt as though the content was speaking directly to them rather than down at them this way to commercials hey wasn't my idea but as with all good things this Golden Era could not last forever in 1996 the children's television Act was re-examined and stricter regulations were put into place known colloquially as the kid vid rules these regulations forced networks to air at least 3 hours of strictly educational content this proposal fulfills the promise of the children's television act the television should serve the educational and informational needs of our young people it became more difficult for action-oriented TV shows with vague lessons about friendship and environmentalism to stay afloat the largest networks managed to keep their kids programming alive but not without drastic changes time slots were slashed so most after school blocks only lasted a single hour advertisers were finding it difficult to skirt around the guidelines in limited airtime shows were cancelled or had their budgets severely cut less effort was being put into the event likee details we used to love and then there was the looming threat of the internet the cultural landscape was changing as home computers started to become more common the internet was going to be as unignorable as parents groups were in the80s it was easily accessible at any time or as easily accessible as dialup could be kids no longer had to rush home to catch the beginning of a show they could entertain themselves whenever they felt like it with the click of a mouse the rising popularity of video games also contributed to the dwindling ratings of once great programming blocks for the same reasons kids had more options than ever which was great for them but not so great for our favorite networks don't go away the Disney Afternoon will return go by the mid 2000s after school programming was on life support Saturday morning cartoons weren't looking too healthy either and then if this wasn't enough of a blow the 2010s brought something new to the table streaming platforms now their favorite TV shows can be played at any time not only that but they can pick which episodes they specifically want to watch sometimes totally ad free there's just no room for the after school programming of old and in some ways that's a good thing this level of consumer control means that each individual viewer can create their own block if they want to watch six uninterrupted hours of Coco melon then they can do that and leave the rest of us out of it streaming platforms aren't even our only option a huge wealth of educational children's content has found a home on YouTube where people like Miss Rachel continue the spirit of shows like Mr Rogers with an engaging level of kindness and empathy what color is this friends green w wow but there was a magic to that golden age of after school programming that's severely lacking in today's modern age event style television is much harder to come by especially for children and the sheer amount of available content means that everyone is watching something different our viewing experiences are becoming increasingly insular which hurts the sense of community audiences used to have and the creativity behind show bumpers and midow mini games has become a lost art but the internet is a double-edged sort while it is partly responsible for killing after school programming it's also helping it keep it alive re-uploads of nostalgic old Network bumpers can Garner millions of views not the shows not even the commercials just the bumpers clearly there was something special about after school programming and while we probably won't ever see anything like it again we can revisit it anytime as long as we have an internet connection and that's all we have for you today thanks so much for watching this video all the way through to the end if you liked what you saw make sure you hit the Thumbs Up And subscribe to nostalgic so you don't miss out on whatever we put out [Music] next

Channel: Nerdstalgic

Views: 222,050

Keywords: After School TV, After School Television, After School Entertainment, Saturday Morning Cartoons, Nerdstalgic, Spider-Man, Spider-Man Animated, Spider-Man TV Show, Spider-Man Adventures, Spiderman, Pokemon, Pokemon Anime, Pokemon Cartoon, Pokemon TV Show, Pokemon Movie, Pokemon Games, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtules Animated, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtules, GI Joe, GI Joe Cartoon, GI Joe Animated, Animaniacs, Loony Toons, Loony Toons TV Show, New Rockstars, Screen Crush, IGN, Nerdist

Id: 0XyhI9OzBBs

Length: 8min 10sec (490 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 10 2024