Jubenhimer
Member
In the 80s, Saturday Mornings were the flagship time period for Kids TV and Animation. CBS, ABC and NBC all competed for the under-12 eyeballs by ordering series after series of action-adventures and crudely drawn cuddly mascot shows designed to sell kids toys as they gorge upon Sugary Breakfast Cereals in front of the TV. But in 1985, a newcomer to the Broadcast space was launched by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, the FOX Broadcasting Company. Named after Murdoch's Movie Studio, Twentieth Century Fox, known for the Alien and Star Wars franchises, Fox Broadcasting quickly made a name for itself with edgy, subversive programing like Married... With Children, and The Simpsons that flipped every perceived notion about broadcast television on its head. Fox eventually branched out to air Sports programing, and by the end of the 80s, it was already giving the big three a run for their money.
But up to this point, there was one thing missing from Fox's TV offerings... Children's programing. While the network was popular with adults and families, Kids' shows weren't something Fox had offered compared to the big 3. In 1990, Fox decided to fix that. After a failed time-lease agreement with The Walt Disney Company, which led to the creation of The Disney Afternoon for syndication, Fox decided to produce a lineup of kids shows themselves. The broadcaster wanted to take a different approach altogether though. They'd noticed that most of their stations were originally independents that were already airing popular children's shows during Weekday Mornings and Afternoons, rather than just Saturdays, and their competition, have only ever aired Children's shows on Saturday Mornings exclusively, with Adult fare such as Game Shows and Soaps running on weekdays. Fox didn't just want to make a block of Kids shows for Saturday mornings, they wanted to make essentially, an entire Kids Network for its stations. A semi-autonomous entity that would broadcast not just on Saturdays, but also in Weekdays in the Mornings and Afternoons, which were growing to be key timeslots for kids. After discussing the idea with their affiliates, Fox Children's Network, Inc. was formed.
FCN would broadcast Weekday Mornings, Weekday Afternoons, and Saturdays, for a total of 19 hours each week, and would function as a separate entity from the main Fox Network programing. The person in charge from inception, was Margret Loesch, who came to Fox from Marvel Productions. Fed up with the low quality and commercialism of broadcast animation at that point, Loesch wanted to avoid the strategy used by the Big 3, and put more of a focus on quality rather than just quantity. Fox Children's Network also setup its own production studio, Fox Children's Productions to develop shows for the start-up network. Fox launched its first slate of kids programing on September 9th, 1990. The launch consisted of shows such as Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, Bobby's World (which would go on to be one of its longest running shows), and Peter Pan & the Pirates. It was simple, but it was a start.
Fox Children's Network changed its name to Fox Kids Network in 1991, and from that point on began to become a forced to be reckoned with in Kids TV. Fox at this time also started its relationship with Warner Bros. Animation, which led to hit shows like Batman: The Animated series, and Animaniacs. Another company that would become a key player in Fox Kids' growth, is Saban Entertainment, Inc. A company founded by Israel business tycoon, Hiam Saban, known for his work in music. Saban's first show for the network was an adaptation of Marvel's X-Men, which became a smash hit for the network, and helped established Fox Kids as THE network for comic book adaptations. Fox's standards for children's programing at the time were much less restrictive than on the Big 3, allowing shows to have a bit more violence, and crude humor than what was found in typical broadcast animation. Like its primetime counter part, Fox Kids proved to be a subversive and edgier alternative to most of its contemporaries.
In 1993, Fox Kids greenlit a series from Saban that would become its flagship, and the network's longest running show, even all the way up to its death. The Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. Hiam Saban had been pitching an adaptation of Super Sentai Rangers to networks for years, but most executives saw it as either too violent, or too strange. But Margret Loesch, who was willing to take risks, saw potential in Hiam's idea, and took on a full season, knowing that Kids would love it, and she was right. Power Rangers became a smash hit for Fox Kids, and an overnight phenomenon spawning tons of merchandise and stage shows.
Fox Kids would continue to develop new and innovative programing to keep momentum up such as Eek The Cat, Tiny Toons, Carmen Sandiago, and Life with Louie. The network also continued to make well received comic book shows such as Spider-Man TAS and The Tick. Another hit series for the network, was Goosebumps. A horror anthology series for Kids based on the series of books by R.L. Stein, showing that Fox was willing to take on shows the big three wouldn't touch on Saturdays.
But the mid-1990s saw some trouble. While Fox Kids was dominating Kids attention on broadcast, Nickelodeon was quickly becoming a powerhouse in Cable, thanks to the channel's unique style, and innovative live-action and animated programing with Ren & Stimpy, Rugrats, Clarissa, and Double Dare. Adding insult to injury, Warner Bros., one of Fox Kids' most prominent suppliers began taking back many of their popular animated series, such as Animaniacs and Batman, moving them over to their broadcast startup, Kids' WB!
It was also around this time, that the US government started getting weary of the content in kids programing, and was forced to take drastic measures. In 1996, the FCC, was given control of The Children's Television Act, which was passed into law in 1991, and the organization quickly instituted a more hands-on approach to regulating kids programing. The FCC now mandated that Broadcast TV stations must air a minimum of three hours of Educational or Informational programing every week aimed at kids or teens, and that the shows must be approved by the FCC on a yearly basis to ensure there's no getting around it. This was a big blow to the major networks, as that now meant that future seasons of programing needed to be designed with this restriction in mind. Fox, who was against this mandate from the beginning, managed to find a loophole. The FCC mandated broadcast stations carry 3 hours of E/I programing a week, but they said nothing about broadcast networks, which were separate. Seeing an opportunity, Fox passed E/I quota duties on to their affiliate stations, requiring them to supply most of the E/I programing themselves if they want to be affiliated with the network, a practice later adopted by The WB. With Fox weaseling their way out of the FCC's clutches, Fox Kids Network continued business as usual for 1997, it was also around this time that the network went through some major restructuring. Earlier in 1996, Fox Children's Network, Inc. merged with Saban Entertainment, Inc. Forming a new subsidiary of Fox Entertainment Group, Fox Kids Worldwide, Inc. The new entity, half owned by News Corporation, and Hiam Saban, would serve as the parent company of Fox Kids Network and Saban Entertainment, with Fox Kids' production studio, being folded into Saban. The merger also allowed for international expansion, with Fox launching Fox Kids networks on cable in place like Europe and Latin America.
Even though Fox Kids was still doing well, ratings were slipping, with Nickelodeon and other networks like Cartoon Network and Disney Channel eating into broadcast's lunch. Fox and Margret Loesch knew they needed a cable outlet for the already large Fox Kids library of shows, and fast. The company purchased International Family Entertainment, Inc. Owners of The Family Channel from Pat Robertson in 1997, and in 1998 relaunched the network as the Fox Family Channel. This is where things started to fall apart for Fox Kids. Now Fox needed to split its children's resources between broadcast and cable, and the company had a hard time establishing new hits for both. In 1999, rival network Kids' WB! began airing the Pokemon anime series from 4Kids Entertainment. It became a massive phenomenon, and did for Kids' WB!, what Power Rangers did for Fox Kids. In presumably a moment of panic, Fox Kids quickly ordered production on a direct answer to Pokemon, Digimon: Digital Monsters, licensed and dubbed by Saban Entertainment and based on the line of virtual pets from Bandai.
While Digimon wouldn't reach the hights and popularity of Pokemon, it proved to be a solid alternative to WB's offering, becoming Fox Kids' highest rated show for most of the early 2000s. But aside from Digimon, and Power Rangers, which was waning in popularity, Fox Kids had no other real hits, as the network developed a nasty habit of cancelling anything that wasn't either of those two.
Things weren't going well for Fox Family either, as Fox and Saban consistently argued over what exactly that network was trying to be. Fox Kids' Weekday block also came under fire from Fox affiliates at this time. With waning ratings, lack of hit programing, and affiliate's desire to air more adult programing in the weekday timeslots. It became harder for stations to justify carrying the network's weekday programing at this time. Fox had become a larger network by this point, joining the ranks of the Big 3 and making it a 4 man race, and affiliates felt Fox needed to move on from children's programing. With all these factors and tons of money lost on the Fox Family Channel and Fox Kids Network, Fox decided... maybe they were right. In July 2001, Fox reached an agreement to sell Fox Family Worldwide, Inc. to The Walt Disney Company, a deal that was completed later in October. Disney would acquire Fox Family Channel, Fox Kids' International feeds, and Saban Entertainment, along with all of the Fox Family Worldwide programing. Fox Kids Network in the US however, would stay at Fox for the time being, with the network's operations merged into the flagship FOX Broadcasting Company, leading to numerous layoffs. Fox Kids premiered its Fall 2001 schedule as usual, but with all of Fox's family entertainment now owned by a rival conglomerate, the company was already looking into outsourcing. Fox Kids officially ceased weekday airings in December, with Fox handing the time back to their affiliates, leaving only a 4 hour block of leftover programing on Saturday Mornings. Fox put that time period up for bidding. The winner? None other than 4Kids Entertainment, who was hot of the heels of its second big hit for Kids' WB!, Yu-Gi-Oh! Fox continued to air ABC Family Worldwide Programing licensed from Disney under the Fox Kids name on Saturdays for most of 2002, until September, when 4Kids launched its "FoxBox" which mostly consisted of cheesy English dubs of Japanese anime, which is what Fox Kids devolved to in its last year anyway, so it wasn't a much of a departure.
Fox Kids Network is an icon for most 90s and early 2000s kids. It was the network that launched a new age of Saturday Morning cartoons, showing that they can be more than just sugar-coated toy commercials with no substance. They can be smart, they can be edgy, they can even entertain adults. Things may have gotten rocky in the later years, but it's kind of tragic that Fox no longer had any kind of family division on television afterwards to compete with the others, Not like it matters now, as nearly 20 years later, Disney now owns ALL of Fox's Entertainment operations.
But up to this point, there was one thing missing from Fox's TV offerings... Children's programing. While the network was popular with adults and families, Kids' shows weren't something Fox had offered compared to the big 3. In 1990, Fox decided to fix that. After a failed time-lease agreement with The Walt Disney Company, which led to the creation of The Disney Afternoon for syndication, Fox decided to produce a lineup of kids shows themselves. The broadcaster wanted to take a different approach altogether though. They'd noticed that most of their stations were originally independents that were already airing popular children's shows during Weekday Mornings and Afternoons, rather than just Saturdays, and their competition, have only ever aired Children's shows on Saturday Mornings exclusively, with Adult fare such as Game Shows and Soaps running on weekdays. Fox didn't just want to make a block of Kids shows for Saturday mornings, they wanted to make essentially, an entire Kids Network for its stations. A semi-autonomous entity that would broadcast not just on Saturdays, but also in Weekdays in the Mornings and Afternoons, which were growing to be key timeslots for kids. After discussing the idea with their affiliates, Fox Children's Network, Inc. was formed.
FCN would broadcast Weekday Mornings, Weekday Afternoons, and Saturdays, for a total of 19 hours each week, and would function as a separate entity from the main Fox Network programing. The person in charge from inception, was Margret Loesch, who came to Fox from Marvel Productions. Fed up with the low quality and commercialism of broadcast animation at that point, Loesch wanted to avoid the strategy used by the Big 3, and put more of a focus on quality rather than just quantity. Fox Children's Network also setup its own production studio, Fox Children's Productions to develop shows for the start-up network. Fox launched its first slate of kids programing on September 9th, 1990. The launch consisted of shows such as Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, Bobby's World (which would go on to be one of its longest running shows), and Peter Pan & the Pirates. It was simple, but it was a start.
Fox Children's Network changed its name to Fox Kids Network in 1991, and from that point on began to become a forced to be reckoned with in Kids TV. Fox at this time also started its relationship with Warner Bros. Animation, which led to hit shows like Batman: The Animated series, and Animaniacs. Another company that would become a key player in Fox Kids' growth, is Saban Entertainment, Inc. A company founded by Israel business tycoon, Hiam Saban, known for his work in music. Saban's first show for the network was an adaptation of Marvel's X-Men, which became a smash hit for the network, and helped established Fox Kids as THE network for comic book adaptations. Fox's standards for children's programing at the time were much less restrictive than on the Big 3, allowing shows to have a bit more violence, and crude humor than what was found in typical broadcast animation. Like its primetime counter part, Fox Kids proved to be a subversive and edgier alternative to most of its contemporaries.
In 1993, Fox Kids greenlit a series from Saban that would become its flagship, and the network's longest running show, even all the way up to its death. The Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers. Hiam Saban had been pitching an adaptation of Super Sentai Rangers to networks for years, but most executives saw it as either too violent, or too strange. But Margret Loesch, who was willing to take risks, saw potential in Hiam's idea, and took on a full season, knowing that Kids would love it, and she was right. Power Rangers became a smash hit for Fox Kids, and an overnight phenomenon spawning tons of merchandise and stage shows.
Fox Kids would continue to develop new and innovative programing to keep momentum up such as Eek The Cat, Tiny Toons, Carmen Sandiago, and Life with Louie. The network also continued to make well received comic book shows such as Spider-Man TAS and The Tick. Another hit series for the network, was Goosebumps. A horror anthology series for Kids based on the series of books by R.L. Stein, showing that Fox was willing to take on shows the big three wouldn't touch on Saturdays.
But the mid-1990s saw some trouble. While Fox Kids was dominating Kids attention on broadcast, Nickelodeon was quickly becoming a powerhouse in Cable, thanks to the channel's unique style, and innovative live-action and animated programing with Ren & Stimpy, Rugrats, Clarissa, and Double Dare. Adding insult to injury, Warner Bros., one of Fox Kids' most prominent suppliers began taking back many of their popular animated series, such as Animaniacs and Batman, moving them over to their broadcast startup, Kids' WB!
It was also around this time, that the US government started getting weary of the content in kids programing, and was forced to take drastic measures. In 1996, the FCC, was given control of The Children's Television Act, which was passed into law in 1991, and the organization quickly instituted a more hands-on approach to regulating kids programing. The FCC now mandated that Broadcast TV stations must air a minimum of three hours of Educational or Informational programing every week aimed at kids or teens, and that the shows must be approved by the FCC on a yearly basis to ensure there's no getting around it. This was a big blow to the major networks, as that now meant that future seasons of programing needed to be designed with this restriction in mind. Fox, who was against this mandate from the beginning, managed to find a loophole. The FCC mandated broadcast stations carry 3 hours of E/I programing a week, but they said nothing about broadcast networks, which were separate. Seeing an opportunity, Fox passed E/I quota duties on to their affiliate stations, requiring them to supply most of the E/I programing themselves if they want to be affiliated with the network, a practice later adopted by The WB. With Fox weaseling their way out of the FCC's clutches, Fox Kids Network continued business as usual for 1997, it was also around this time that the network went through some major restructuring. Earlier in 1996, Fox Children's Network, Inc. merged with Saban Entertainment, Inc. Forming a new subsidiary of Fox Entertainment Group, Fox Kids Worldwide, Inc. The new entity, half owned by News Corporation, and Hiam Saban, would serve as the parent company of Fox Kids Network and Saban Entertainment, with Fox Kids' production studio, being folded into Saban. The merger also allowed for international expansion, with Fox launching Fox Kids networks on cable in place like Europe and Latin America.
Even though Fox Kids was still doing well, ratings were slipping, with Nickelodeon and other networks like Cartoon Network and Disney Channel eating into broadcast's lunch. Fox and Margret Loesch knew they needed a cable outlet for the already large Fox Kids library of shows, and fast. The company purchased International Family Entertainment, Inc. Owners of The Family Channel from Pat Robertson in 1997, and in 1998 relaunched the network as the Fox Family Channel. This is where things started to fall apart for Fox Kids. Now Fox needed to split its children's resources between broadcast and cable, and the company had a hard time establishing new hits for both. In 1999, rival network Kids' WB! began airing the Pokemon anime series from 4Kids Entertainment. It became a massive phenomenon, and did for Kids' WB!, what Power Rangers did for Fox Kids. In presumably a moment of panic, Fox Kids quickly ordered production on a direct answer to Pokemon, Digimon: Digital Monsters, licensed and dubbed by Saban Entertainment and based on the line of virtual pets from Bandai.
While Digimon wouldn't reach the hights and popularity of Pokemon, it proved to be a solid alternative to WB's offering, becoming Fox Kids' highest rated show for most of the early 2000s. But aside from Digimon, and Power Rangers, which was waning in popularity, Fox Kids had no other real hits, as the network developed a nasty habit of cancelling anything that wasn't either of those two.
Things weren't going well for Fox Family either, as Fox and Saban consistently argued over what exactly that network was trying to be. Fox Kids' Weekday block also came under fire from Fox affiliates at this time. With waning ratings, lack of hit programing, and affiliate's desire to air more adult programing in the weekday timeslots. It became harder for stations to justify carrying the network's weekday programing at this time. Fox had become a larger network by this point, joining the ranks of the Big 3 and making it a 4 man race, and affiliates felt Fox needed to move on from children's programing. With all these factors and tons of money lost on the Fox Family Channel and Fox Kids Network, Fox decided... maybe they were right. In July 2001, Fox reached an agreement to sell Fox Family Worldwide, Inc. to The Walt Disney Company, a deal that was completed later in October. Disney would acquire Fox Family Channel, Fox Kids' International feeds, and Saban Entertainment, along with all of the Fox Family Worldwide programing. Fox Kids Network in the US however, would stay at Fox for the time being, with the network's operations merged into the flagship FOX Broadcasting Company, leading to numerous layoffs. Fox Kids premiered its Fall 2001 schedule as usual, but with all of Fox's family entertainment now owned by a rival conglomerate, the company was already looking into outsourcing. Fox Kids officially ceased weekday airings in December, with Fox handing the time back to their affiliates, leaving only a 4 hour block of leftover programing on Saturday Mornings. Fox put that time period up for bidding. The winner? None other than 4Kids Entertainment, who was hot of the heels of its second big hit for Kids' WB!, Yu-Gi-Oh! Fox continued to air ABC Family Worldwide Programing licensed from Disney under the Fox Kids name on Saturdays for most of 2002, until September, when 4Kids launched its "FoxBox" which mostly consisted of cheesy English dubs of Japanese anime, which is what Fox Kids devolved to in its last year anyway, so it wasn't a much of a departure.
Fox Kids Network is an icon for most 90s and early 2000s kids. It was the network that launched a new age of Saturday Morning cartoons, showing that they can be more than just sugar-coated toy commercials with no substance. They can be smart, they can be edgy, they can even entertain adults. Things may have gotten rocky in the later years, but it's kind of tragic that Fox no longer had any kind of family division on television afterwards to compete with the others, Not like it matters now, as nearly 20 years later, Disney now owns ALL of Fox's Entertainment operations.
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