The
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is an American commercial broadcast television network. It is the flagship property of the ABC Entertainment Group division of The Walt Disney Company. The network is headquartered in Burbank, Cali ...
coined the term Afterschool Special in 1972 with a series of
television films, usually dealing with controversial or socially relevant issues, that were generally broadcast in the late afternoon and meant to be viewed by school-age children, particularly teenagers. The specials were generally broadcast four to six times during the school year, pre-empting local programming that would usually follow the network schedule in the late afternoon hours. ABC's series ran from 1972 to 1997.
Competitors
CBS distributed its own productions as the ''CBS Afternoon Playhouse'' (later known as ''
CBS Schoolbreak Special''). It also had a program called ''
Famous Classic Tales
''Famous Classic Tales'' is an animated anthology television series featuring animated adaptations of classic children's stories which aired on CBS from 1970 to 1984. The series was produced by the Australian division of Hanna-Barbera and Air Pr ...
'', which aired Australian cartoons that were adapted from literature books (similar to ''
Family Classic Tales
''Family Classic Tales'' is an animated literature series that is produced by Air Programs International (API). These cartoons were later aired on CBS. This series is similar to ''Famous Classic Tales
''Famous Classic Tales'' is an animated anth ...
'').
NBC had afterschool programs under the umbrella title ''
Special Treat''.
ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
had the ''
ABC Afterschool Special
''ABC Afterschool Special'' is an American television anthology series that aired on American Broadcasting Company, ABC from October 4, 1972, to January 23, 1997, usually in the late afternoon on weekdays. Most episodes were dramatically presen ...
''; similar programs included ''
The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie'' and the ''
ABC Weekend Special''.
Legacy
The cult TV show ''
Strangers with Candy'' and its
2005 feature film adaptation, featuring
Amy Sedaris as an ex-con, prostitute, and junkie, spoofs afterschool special conventions.
Strangers With Candy, AV Club
/ref>
See also
* ''Degrassi'' (franchise)
* ''Last of the Curlews
''Last of the Curlews'' is a novel, a fictionalized account of the life of the last Eskimo curlew. It was written by Fred Bodsworth, a Canadian newspaper reporter and naturalist, and published in 1954.
Plot introduction
The story follows the bird ...
'' – The very first ''ABC Afterschool Special
''ABC Afterschool Special'' is an American television anthology series that aired on American Broadcasting Company, ABC from October 4, 1972, to January 23, 1997, usually in the late afternoon on weekdays. Most episodes were dramatically presen ...
'' (1972), and one of a very few animated ones.
* ''Schoolhouse Rock!
''Schoolhouse Rock!'' is an American interstitial programming series of animated musical educational short films (and later, videos) that aired during the Saturday morning children's programming block on the U.S. television network ABC. The theme ...
''
* Public information film
Public information films (PIFs) are a series of government-commissioned short films, shown during television advertising breaks in the United Kingdom. The name is sometimes also applied, ''faute de mieux'', to similar films from other countries, ...
– In the UK, extended versions of these were shown in schools. These were often about safety.
* Very special episode
* WonderWorks
''WonderWorks'' is an anthology series which ran from 1984 to 1992. Produced by the Public Broadcasting Service, the Walt Disney Company purchased the home video rights to the series in 1987 and was responsible for making the series available t ...
– Produced several afterschool-type specials for PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...
References
External links
Complete list of ''ABC After School Specials''
at the Internet Movie Database
IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...
Complete list of ''CBS Schoolbreak Specials''
at the Internet Movie Database
IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...
Partial list of ''NBC Special Treat'' episodes
at the Internet Movie Database
IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...
Reviews of a DVD collection of ''ABC After School Specials''
"The Strange Afterlife of the After School Special"
by Joanna Weiss, ''The Boston Globe
''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
'', January 1, 2006
*
My Dad Lives in a Downtown Hotel: The Subtle Brilliance of the After School Special
by Marisa Meltzer, ''Slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...
'', July 20, 2006
{{DEFAULTSORT:After School Special
1970s American television specials
1970s in television
1970s neologisms
1980s in television
1990s in television
Television specials
Television terminology