''Kids Are People Too'' is an American television series that ran on Sunday mornings from 1978 to 1982 on

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 ...

. The series was a variety/news magazine show oriented towards kids with the intention of recognizing them as people. During its four-year run, the series was nominated for five

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

s and won the 1978

for Outstanding Children's Entertainment Series. The series included celebrity interviews, cartoons, music, and other information that appealed to children.

History

Bob McAllister Robert C. "Bob" McAllister (June 2, 1935 – July 21, 1998) was an American television personality, magician, and children's entertainer and a host of ''Wonderama''. Early career Born in Philadelphia, Bob first made his name as a ventriloquist o ...

had hosted a popular

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

-based children's TV series, ''

Wonderama ''Wonderama'' is a children's television program that originally appeared on the Metromedia-owned stations from 1955 to 1977. The show was revived from 1980 to 1987, and again in 2016. Hosts *Al Hodge (as Captain Video 1955–1956) *Jon Gnagy ...

'', for over a decade when the series was taken off the air in 1977. As the host, McAllister sang the closing theme song "Kids Are People Too". Shortly after that series was taken off the air, ABC offered him another series that tried to capitalize on ''Wonderamas more than 20 years of children's entertainment by using the song's title as the new series title. However, the show that he was hired to emcee on ABC was aimed at teens, not the younger children McAllister preferred, and this led to creative disputes with the producers and network executives over the portrayal of violence. In November 1978, McAllister was fired from ''Kids Are People Too'' and was replaced by Michael Young and later by actor/singer Randy Hamilton (who, at the same time, was playing Rikki Dekker on the NBC soap opera ''

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

'') as the program's hosts. The series later returned as a weekly syndicated program during the 1986-87 season, with Michael Young back as host.

Format

The series was a variety/news magazine show for kids. Every week it would have a celebrity guest who the host would interview, occasionally a psychologist would speak about the challenges of growing up, and there would be comedy or musical routines. Each episode also included a segment called "Dear Alex and Annie" (with William Bingham as Alex and Donna Drake as Annie), answering viewers' questions on a wide range of personal and social topics that were relevant to kids (that segment would later be seen in a stand-alone interstitial segment during ABC's Saturday morning schedule). The series attracted guests such as

Bill Cosby William Henry Cosby Jr. ( ; born July 12, 1937) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and media personality. He made significant contributions to American and African-American culture, and is well known in the United States for his eccentric ...

Debbie Harry Deborah Ann Harry (born Angela Trimble; July 1, 1945) is an American singer, songwriter and actress, best known as the lead vocalist of the band Blondie. Four of her songs with the band reached on the US charts between 1979 and 1981. Born in ...

Billy Dee Williams William December Williams Jr. (born April 6, 1937) is an American actor. He appeared as Lando Calrissian in the ''Star Wars'' franchise, first in the early 1980s for ''The Empire Strikes Back'' (1980) and ''Return of the Jedi'' (1983), and thirt ...

Cheap Trick Cheap Trick is an American rock band from Rockford, Illinois, formed in 1973 by guitarist Rick Nielsen, bassist Tom Petersson, lead vocalist Robin Zander and drummer Bun E. Carlos. The current lineup of the band consists of Zander, Nielsen and ...

Patti Smith Patricia Lee Smith (born December 30, 1946) is an American singer, songwriter, poet, painter and author who became an influential component of the New York City punk rock movement with her 1975 debut album '' Horses''. Called the "punk poe ...

and

Brooke Shields Brooke Christa Shields (born May 31, 1965) is an American actress and model. She was initially a child model and gained critical acclaim at age 12 for her leading role in Louis Malle's film ''Pretty Baby'' (1978). She continued to model into ...

. Just like CBS's ''

Kids Say the Darndest Things ''Kids Say the Darndest Things'' is an American comedy series originally hosted by Bill Cosby that aired on CBS from January 9, 1998 to June 23, 2000. A revival hosted by Tiffany Haddish aired on ABC from October 6, 2019 to January 19, 2020. ABC ...

'', the show often produced unexpected results when the host would ask the audience questions. When

KISS A kiss is the touch or pressing of one's lips against another person or an object. Cultural connotations of kissing vary widely. Depending on the culture and context, a kiss can express sentiments of love, passion, romance, sexual attraction, ...

replaced drummer

Peter Criss George Peter John Criscuola (born December 20, 1945), better known by his stage name Peter Criss, is a retired American musician, best known as a co-founder, original drummer, and vocalist of the hard rock band Kiss (band), Kiss. Criss establi ...

, they introduced their new drummer,

Eric Carr Paul Charles Caravello (July 12, 1950 – November 24, 1991), better known professionally as Eric Carr, was an American musician who was the drummer for the rock band Kiss from 1980 to 1991. Caravello was selected as the new Kiss drummer after ...

, on a July 1980 episode of ''Kids Are People Too''Kiss: ''Kissology Volume II 1978–1991''. DVD. 2007. Prior to the band's coming out on stage, the host asked an audience member, "Who's your favorite band member?" The youth responded, "Peter Criss. Er, um, I mean... Ace Frehley." ''Kids Are People Too'' was seen the first two seasons as 90 minute versions in most major city markets including

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

and

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

, and it also featured locally-produced cutaway segments by the ABC O&O stations in these markets.

Cartoon segments

References

External links

* {{Children's programming on the American Broadcasting Company in the 1980s 1970s American children's television series 1980s American children's television series 1970s American variety television series 1980s American variety television series 1978 American television series debuts 1982 American television series endings American Broadcasting Company original programming