Remember that one day when you could wake up without an alarm? When you would get your favorite bowl of cereal and sit between the hours of 8 and 12? This is a blog dedicated to the greatest time of our childhood: Saturday mornings. The television programs you watched, the memories attached to them, and maybe introducing you to something you didn't realize existed. Updated every weekend.
She provided the Mexican dubs for Diamond Tiara, Fleur De Verre and
Cloudchaser in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic; Flora in Pokémon:
Black and White;Frankie Greene in Transformers: Rescue Bots;
Pip in Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal;Sid Chang in The Loud House; Elise
in Pokémon XY; Shasa Guten in Beyblade Burst: Evolution; and Makini
in The Lion Guard.
American Bandstand was a musical television
program that showcased Top 40 music as teenagers danced along to the songs. The
show began in 1950 as Bandstand on Philadelphia’s WFIL-TV Channel 6 (now
WPVI-TV), a local program replacing a weekday
movie that would air in the timeslot. It was hosted by Bob Horn as a spin-off
to his radio show of the same name. Bandstand was a precursor of sorts
to MTV as it would show short musical films
produced by Snader
Telescriptions and Official
Films with occasional guests. However, the ratings were abysmal and Horn
quickly grew bored with the show. He decided to change it to a dance program
that showed teens dancing on camera as records played; based on an idea from WPEN
(now WKDN) radio show, The 950 Club.
Dancers choosing the next song Bob Horn would play.
The new Bandstand debuted on WFIL-TV on
October 7, 1952. The studio could hold up to 200 dancing teenagers for which
time was allotted for Horn to interview them to find out their names, schools,
hobbies and whatever else. The music films from the previous version were
maintained as filler while dancers were changed out between segments. Horn was
given a new co-host in Lee Stewart. Stewart was a local businessman and a large
advertising account for WFIL, and his being made co-host was part of the deal.
He remained with the show until 1955 when WFIL became more financially stable
and didn’t rely on his account as much. In 1956, Horn was fired from the show
after becoming involved in a series of scandals; including his involvement in a
prostitution ring and being arrested for a DUI while WFIL was doing a news series
on drunken driving. Producer Tony Mammarella served as interim host until Dick
Clark was hired for the position permanently.
America's teenager: Dick Clark.
That spring, ABC
was looking for programming suggestions to fill their 3:30 PM timeslot. Clark
pitched the program to ABC president Thomas W. Moore, who eventually
agreed to carry the show and bring it to a national audience under the new
name, American Bandstand. Baltimore affiliate WAAM (later WJZ) opted not to air Bandstand in
favor of attempting to produce their own similar program. Local disc jockey Buddy Deane was named the host
of The Buddy Deane
Showwhich aired for two hours daily. A rivalry occurred between Clark
and Deane that often resulted in acts first booked on Deane’s show being
rejected by Bandstand, and acts first booked on Bandstand were
asked never to mention their previous appearance. Deane’s show only ran for 7
years, ending in 1964.
In October of 1957, ABC gave Bandstand a new
30-minute evening show on Monday nights, but it failed in the ratings and was
cancelled that December. Also, in November, ABC opted to air their newly
acquired game show, Who
Do You Trust?, right in the middle of Bandstand on most of their
networks. WFIL chose to tape-delay the game show for a later broadcast and air Bandstand
in its entirety.
Clark interviewing The Beatles.
By 1959, Bandstand had a national audience of
20 million viewers. It became daily essential viewing and greatly influenced
American pop culture. As the show entered the 1960s, ABC opted to truncate the
show’s runtime from 90-minutes to 60, and then down to a daily half-hour
program. By 1963, the show abandoned its live format and an entire week’s worth
of programs were videotaped on the preceding Saturday. This move actually
allowed Clark the freedom to pursue other interests as both a producer and host
while remaining as Bandstand’s host. That year, the show also moved to Saturday
where it would remain in various timeslots after noon throughout the rest of
its run.
Many of the local Philadelphia teens became famous
following their appearances on the show. Clark would often interview the
audience members in a segment called “Rate-a-Record”. He would ask them to rate
two records on a scale that Clark would average out, then asked the audience to
justify those scores. The segment gave rise
to the phrase “It’s got a good beat and you can dance to it” when describing
the songs. Once, the comedy team of Cheech and Chong appeared on the
show as participants in a humorous segment of “Rate-a-Record”.
Clark interviewing musical guest Paul Petersen in front of their ABC-inspired logo.
In 1964, production of the show moved from
Philadelphia to ABC Television Center in Los Angeles (currently The Prospect
Studios) and they adopted a new logo that emulated the ABC logo, reading
“AB” in a circle accompanied by the current two-digit date. After a disastrous
first attempt to go color in 1958, which failed because of the size of the
cameras required at the time in the small studio space plus ABC’s refusal to
transmit in color, Bandstand finally went colorized beginning on
September 9, 1967. In 1969, the show gained an entirely new set and another new
logo. Notably, after the move, the dancers featured on the show became more
integrated. Because of segregation,
while WFIL happily exhibited the city’s interracial music scene in order to
create a successful program, they kept black teenagers out of the studio so as
not to alienate viewers and advertisers.
In 1973, Clark managed to cause a bit of racial controversy
of his own when he attempted to expand the Bandstand brand. He created
the similar Soul Unlimited, hosted by Buster Jones, with a focus on
soul music. Bandstand and Unlimited would share a timeslot for
several weeks. Two years prior, Don
Cornelius had created his own dance program, Soul Train, which
featured music from genres such as R&B, jazz, funk, soul, and hip hop (although
Cornelius wasn’t a fan of that particular genre, feeling it did not positively
reflect African-American culture). Cornelius and Jesse Jackson
openly accused Clark of trying to destroy television’s only program created and
run by African-Americans. Unlimited’s target audience also wasn’t
pleased with the show due to its alleged use of racial overtones on top of its
being created by a white man. Ultimately, Unlimited was cancelled after
a few weeks and some of its set pieces were integrated into Bandstand’s.
As Bandstand entered the 1980s, ratings began
to steadily decline. MTV and other programs began to fill the niche Bandstand
had dominated over the decades, taking away more and more of their
audience. Also, many ABC affiliates opted to pre-empt or delay the program for
things like college football games, which were getting ever-increasing ratings,
or for special presentations like an unsold pilot. In 1986, ABC once again
reduced Bandstand from an hour down to 30 minutes. Clark decided to end
the show’s association with ABC on September 5, 1987 and moved it to first-run
syndication two weeks later, restoring the hour format. The show was now filmed
at KCET’s Studio B with a new set similar
to Soul Train and was distributed by LBS
Communications.
Following the broadcast on June 4, 1988, Bandstand
went on a 10-month hiatus. When it returned in April of 1989, it had moved
over to cable’s USA Network with
comedian David Hirsch assuming hosting duties. Clark remained on as executive
producer. The new version of Bandstand ditched the studio setting for
the first time and was filmed outdoors at Universal
Studios Hollywood. However, Bandstand had ultimately run its course
and was cancelled after 26 weeks. Of the over 3,000 episodes produced across
the decades, only 883 are known to survive.
Clark posing with New Edition over an anniversary cake.
Bandstand used several themes over the years.
Its first was “High
Society” by Artie
Shaw. After the series was picked up by ABC, the theme became varying
arrangements of “Bandstand
Boogie” by Charles
Albertine. Les
Elgart’s big-band
version of the theme was released as a single in March of 1954 by Columbia Records. Mike Curb wrote the
synthesized rock instrumental piece “Bandstand Theme” which
was used from 1969-74 and also received a single release by Forward Records. A new disco
version of “Bandstand
Boogie” arranged and performed by Joe Porter
replaced it in 1974. Another version of “Bandstand Boogie”, this
time by Barry Manilow, became the theme
from 1977 through 1986. Although Manilow had previously recorded and released
the song in 1975, the show’s version featured lyrics by him and Bruce Sussman referencing
elements featured on the program. Porter’s theme was retained as bumper music
for commercial breaks alongside Billy
Preston’s “Space Race”,
which had been used on the show since 1974. David Russo arranged a new closing theme that was
used from 1986-87, and later performed a new version of “Bandstand Boogie” when
the show went into syndication.
In 2002, Clark hosted a special 50th
anniversary edition of the show in Pasadena, California. Frequent guest Michael Jackson led a group of
performers that included The
Village People, Brandy, members of KISS, Dennis Quaid and The
Sharks, Cher and Stevie Wonder. In 2004, Clark, along
with frequent collaborator Ryan
Seacrest, announced plans to revive the show for the 2005 season. However,
these plans were indefinitely delayed when Clark suffered a stroke that year,
and would never come to fruition before his death in 2012. A segment of the
proposed revival, a national dance contest, was eventually turned into the
series So You
Think You Can Dance.
Don Herbert
was a science and English major from the University
of Wisconsin-La Crosse that had an interest in drama. After serving in World War II as a B-24
bomber pilot, Herbert joined Chicago radio station WMAQ where he acted in
children’s programs such as the documentary series It’s Your Life,
created by the Chicago Industrial Health Organization. During this time,
Herbert got the idea of using the new medium of television to bring science to
the masses. He pitched his idea and it was accepted by Chicago’s NBC station, WNBQ
(now WMAQ-TV).
Don Herbert with one of his books looking on at an experiment.
Watch
Mr. Wizard debuted on March 3, 1951. Filmed live, the series starred
Herbert as Mr. Wizard, a science hobbyist, who would show either a little boy
or girl a science experiment. To hook the audience, Herbert would show the
results of the experiment, then proceed to explain how it was done and the
science behind it. The experiments seemed extremely complicated at first, but
ended up being simple and easily re-created by viewers at home. In fact, to
keep the show accessible, Herbert refused to don a lab coat and performed his
experiments in a garage or kitchen-like setting with everyday household items
(which also helped stretch the practically non-existent budget).
Mr. Wizard demonstrating an experiment to one of his young female assistants.
The series proved a hit, drawing in
millions of viewers. It was broadcast
live by 14 stations by 1954, and an additional 77 stations aired the show via
kinescope recordings. It also netted a Peabody
Award and three Thomas Alva
Edison National Mass Media Awards. By 1956, over 5,000 Mr. Wizard science
clubs were created with an estimated membership of more than 100,000 people
(that number increased to 50,000 clubs within the next decade). Teachers had
also begun incorporating the experiments from the show into their lesson plans.
Initially, the show was sponsored by The Cereal Institute until 1955. NBC took
over financing by classifying it as a public affairs program from its news
division. The series also moved production from Chicago to New York.
Science!
After 547 episodes, NBC cancelled
the series in 1965; feeling that it had run its course and audiences weren’t tuning
in to be educated. However, Herbert wasn’t done with edutainment yet. He
produced an 8-film series called Experiment: The
Story of a Scientific Searchthat aired on public television
through grants from the National Science
Foundation and the Arthur P. Sloan Foundation,
as well as Science
20, which were 20-minute films of experiments designed for use in
classrooms. In 1968, Herbert formed Mr. Wizard Enterprises, Inc. to raise money
for production and distribution of his classroom films. He also penned numerous
articles and opened a Mr. Wizard Science Center in Wellesley, Massachusetts.
After five years off the air, NBC
decided to produce a revival of the series. Production was done in Ottawa,
Canada and in color for the first time. Renamed simply Mr. Wizard, the
revival debuted on September 11, 1971 and ran for a single season of 26
episodes. Additionally, Herbert produced 50 Mr. Wizard Close-Ups which
were 30-second spots that would also air on NBC Saturday mornings, and later on
ABC-affiliated stations. The Close-Ups would
receive a nomination for “Outstanding Individual Achievement in Children’s
Programming” from the National Academy
of Television Arts and Sciences. Herbert continued producing educational
content, including one last revival of Mr. Wizard as Mr. Wizard’s
World on the then-fledgling Nickelodeon
network in 1983.
Behind the scenes photo during Mr. Wizard's NBC tenure.
Herbert is often credited with
inspiring scientific interest and curiosity within generations of children,
with some of them going on to careers in science themselves. Further, Herbert’s
legacy continues to be recognized in pop culture: such as having the penguin
puppets named after him on similar science program Beakman’s
World, a mention of his program in the “Weird Al” Yankovic song “Cable TV”, and most
recently as the inspiration for the Professor Proton character played by Bob Newhart on The Big Bang Theory.
Notable Roles: Rocket J. Squirrel, Natasha Fatale, Nell
Fenwick, Granny, Witch Hazel, Jokey Smurf, Magica De Spell
Foray got her start in radio through the WBZA Players, getting her own
series, Lady Make Believe, in the late 1930s. She became a popular voice
actress, appearing on multiple national network shows. In the 1940s, she began
doing film work which included a few live-action roles but was mostly voice
work; including roles in Disney’s Cinderellaand Peter Pan, Donald
Duck short Trick or Treat, and a variety of characters in Woody
Woodpecker cartoons. She was invited to join Warner Bros. in the mid-50s where she
became the permanent voice for Granny in their Looney Tunes franchise (taking
over for Bea Benaderet, whom
she would lose the role of Betty Rubble to in Hanna-Barbera’s The
Flintstones). Along with Disney, WB and Hanna-Barbera, she would do
work for Jay Ward
Productions, DiC
Entertainment and Nickelodeon. In the
1960s, she became an advocate for the preservation and promotion of animation,
writing numerous articles about it. She joined ASIFA-Hollywood and came up with the
idea of the Annie Awards, which began
celebrating the field of animation in 1972. Foray would also continuously lobby
the Academy to make an award for animation,
which they did in 2001 by creating the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
ASIFA-Hollywood would also establish the June
Foray Award in 1995, which honored “individuals who have made a significant
and benevolent or charitable impact on the art and industry of animation”.
Foray was the first recipient. She made sporadic appearances in live television
and had cameo roles in the films Boris & Natashaand The
Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle, both based on the Rocky
and Bullwinklefranchise she was part of. Foray died in 2017 after
suffering from declining health caused by a car accident two years prior.
Saturday Credits:
Andy’s Gang
The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle
The Bugs Bunny Show
George of the Jungle
Super President
Here Comes the Grump
The Pink Panther Show
Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!
The Pink Panther Laugh and a Half Hour and a Half Show These Are the Days
Known as the man of 1,000 voices, Blanc became an orchestra
conductor at age 19 and performed schtick in vaudeville shows. He made his
acting debut in 1927 on the Portland, Oregon radio show The Hoot Owlswhere
he gained attention for his ability to do multiple characters’ voices. He
bounced between radio in Portland and Los Angeles before landing a recurring
spot on The
Jack Benny Program, playing multiple characters and providing sound
effects for Jack Benny’s
jalopy. That led to his own radio show, The Mel Blanc Show.
In 1936, Blanc joined Warner Bros.
where he would come to voice almost every male character in the Looney Tunes stable for his
entire career. He also originated the voice and laugh of Woody
Woodpecker for Universal Pictures
before becoming a WB-exclusive player. In 1944, he became the first voice actor
to receive on-screen credit for his work in an era when only the director and
producers were credited. After his contract expired, Blanc became a regular
performer for Hanna-Barbera
while still working for WB; notably in their flagship franchise, The
Flintstones. He continued to provide the voices for most of the
characters he originated throughout his entire career (certain ones becoming
more difficult to do with age, and ceded to replacement actors). After a car
accident left him comatose in 1961, his neurologist successfully managed to
work him out of it by addressing him as his characters instead of Blanc
himself. His son Noel and
colleague Daws Butler voiced
several of his characters while he recovered. In 1962, he and Noel formed Blanc Communications Corporation,
which produced thousands of PSAs and commercials. Blanc had been a smoker since
age nine, quitting at age 77 after being diagnosed with emphysema. In 1989, he
was hospitalized with advanced coronary artery disease and died shortly after.
Betty Crocker is a brand and fictional
character utilized by General Mills.
The character was created by General Mills’ precursor, the Washburn-Crosby
Company, and advertiser
Bruce Barton in 1921 as a way to give personalized responses to consumer
questions that had been submitted to the company with responses to a contest
they ran. “Betty” was chosen for sounding like a cheery, all-American name,
while “Crocker” was a tribute to Wasburn-Crosby Company director William
Crocker. In 1924, she acquired a voice as the host of the Minneapolis radio
program The
Betty Crocker Cooking School of the Air, portrayed by Blanche Ingersoll
and later Marjorie
Husted, who supervised Crocker’s development for General Mills. When the
show went national, Agnes White also assumed the role and the three women would
anonymously portray Crocker for the next 30 years.
Ad from NBC radio congratulating Hawley on the first year of her radio show.
In 1949,
General Mills hired actress Adelaide Hawley to become the face of Betty
Crocker. Despite her lack of cooking knowledge, Hawley was ideal for the role
due to her broadcasting experience (she hosted her own radio show through the
early 1950s). She would appear in commercials for the brand during The George Burns and Gracie
Allen Showbefore gaining her own program, The Betty Crocker Show, on
CBS. A year into it, Hawley also came to star
in another show on ABC: Betty Crocker Star Matinee.
Hawley as Betty Crocker.
Betty Crocker Star Matinee debuted
on ABC on November 3, 1951 as a replacement
for Two
Girls Named Smith; later changing timeslots to replace another sitcom, A
Date With Judy. Itwas a half-hour drama/interview anthology
series that featured interviews, food demonstrations, and short dramas or drama
excerpts. Among the featured guests were Jonathan Harris, June Lockhart, Jessica Tandy, Veronica Lake, Audrey Hepburn, Basil Rathborne, David Niven and Uta Hagen. Despite the show
only lasting a single season and The Betty Crocker Show ending soon
after, Hawley continued to be the face of Crocker until she was let go in 1964
when General Mills decided to take the character in a new direction.
EPISODE GUIDE:
“The Late Christopher Bean” (11/3/51) – NO SYNOPSIS
AVAILABLE.
“For Love of Money” (11/10/51) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
“An Inspector Calls” (11/17/51) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
“Mr. Pim Passes” (11/24/51) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
“Eastward in Eden” (12/1/51) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
“The Linden Tree” (12/8/51) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
“Shining Hour” (12/15/51) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
“Jason” (12/22/51) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
“Farewell to Love” (12/29/51) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
N/A (1/5/52) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
“Mary Rose”/ (1/12/52) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
“Topper” (1/19/52) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
“Open Storage” (1/26/52) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
“The Weak Spot” (2/2/52) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
“The Tally Method” (2/9/52) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
“The Willow and I” (2/16/52) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
“Mr. Bell’s Creatures” (2/23/52) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
“Interviews” (3/1/52) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
“Bridging the Years” (3/8/52) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
“Women in His Life” (3/15/52) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
“The Stove Won’t Light” (3/22/52) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
“The Three Hats” (3/29/52) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
“Night School” (4/5/52) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
“The Confession” (4/12/52) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
“Sense of Humor” (4/19/52) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
“Split Infinitive” (4/26/52) – NO SYNOPSIS AVAILABLE.
Two
Girls Named Smith was a sitcom that followed the misadventures of two
cousins—Babs (Peggy Ann Garner) and Fran (Peggy French)—as they moved from
Omaha to New York City to pursue their careers. Babs dreamed of being a singer,
while Fran sought to become a fashion designer. Along for the ride was their
kindly landlord and adviser, Mr. Basmany (Joseph Buloff), Fran’s boyfriend,
attorney Jeffery Carter (Kermit
Kegley), and Babs’ boyfriend, played by Garner’s real-life husband Richard Hayes.
Two
Girls Named Smith debuted on ABC on
January 20, 1951. One of the series’ writers was Peter Barry, while music was
provided by Jacques Press.
Because of illness, Garner missed several weeks of filming in July and August
and was replaced by Nina Foch. Garner left for the final time in September,
either because of her illness or to spend more time with her husband who likely
wasn’t a regular performer on the show, and was replaced for the final weeks by
Marcia Henderson. The show was also the subject of a lawsuit, as the creators
of the book-turned-movie My Sister, Eileenfelt
the show’s concept skewed a little too close to theirs. Ultimately, the show’s
final fate was determined when it was dropped by its sponsor, B.T. Babbitt, Inc.
Because the series was broadcast live and there wasn’t an in interest in
archiving programs at the time, very little of the show is known to exist
beyond the opening and end credits and one of the Henderson episodes.
One of the first Saturday morning offerings from ABC came from a partnership with the Acrobat Shoe Company. Throughout the 1940s, Acrobat would offer free circus-themed story and coloring books with their shoes, initially starring a character named Tumblin Tim and later Flyin Flo. They decided to expand on the concept by bringing those characters to life on television.
Ad for Acrobat shoes.
Acrobat Ranch debuted on ABC on August 19, 1950 and ran almost a full year. Itwas a variety show set on a ranch backdrop, filmed live in Chicago and sent to other markets via video recording, with Billy and Valerie Alberts filling the Tim and Flo roles. Hosted by Uncle Jim (Jack Stillwell), the show served as a showcase for a number of acrobatic feats with a touch of physical comedy, animal and magic tricks. At a point in the show, children from the studio audience are asked on stage to participate in various games for merchandise prizes. Advertisements for Acrobat shoes would also be featured in the form of little skits between segments, which would also include merchandise giveaways and any contests the company would run.
Happy New
Year, Saturday morning fans! It’s 2020! And as we get further into the future,
it’s a good time to take a look into the past. 70 years into the past, to be
exact, for the very first Saturday morning television schedule.
Early television.
That’s right—while
Saturday mornings wouldn’t evolve into the form most of us recognize until the
end of the 1960s, they actually started in the 50s. Networks began programming
for children on both weekdays and weekends, incorporating a variety of
live-action programs featuring animals, acrobats, puppets and more. In light of
this, Saturday Mornings Forever will be doing a year-long celebration of
Saturday mornings. Every two months, we’ll be covering each decade as we see
where it all began, where it ended up, and maybe even where it’s going to go.
1945 television.
When 1950 rolled around, television
was still in its infancy. Despite having been in existence for a quarter
century, the technology needed to bring some semblance of the system we’re
familiar with today hadn’t yet caught up to the concept. Add a depression and a
war, and TV’s overall development was hindered quite a bit.
1950 TV by Zenith.
However, once
the war was over, TV began finding its way into the home. The technology for
coast-to-coast broadcasting still wasn’t in place yet, so for anything
resembling a national broadcast required the participation of affiliated local
stations and physically sending a recording of the broadcast to them to air at
a later date. Despite being the last network to enter the TV game, ABC was the first to eschew local programming
for a national schedule on Saturday morning. It would be followed that winter
by CBS, then NBC
and, to a lesser extent, DuMont by
the following fall.
1959 TV ad.
The 50s are
also notorious for the lack of an archival mentality. Because of the expense of
the material used to record a program, studios opted to reuse them frequently
resulting in the wholesale destruction of anything previously recorded. Nobody
ever considered the historical significance of what they were doing, or that
anyone would ever want to see a broadcast again after seeing it once already.
The concept of the rerun slowly came into fashion towards the end of the
decade, thanks in large part to I
Love Lucy, and the practice of erasure diminished more and more.
Whatever did manage to survive was nothing short of miraculous. For many
shows, the only evidence it even existed could be limited to merely blurbs in
magazines and newspapers about them.
