Soap opera followed by a cartoon

[Davros2006]

A recent posting of Spokane listings from November 7, 1985 got me to thinking: How many other examples have there been of a station running a cartoon immediately after the last soap of the day on their schedule. Here's that example posted this morning...

KXLY Channel 4 Spokane (ABC)
2:00: General Hospital
3:00: The Flintstones

I once read that WVII in Bangor, Maine ran a Japanese animated series immediately after The Edge of Night around late 1979.

So... show me your other similar examples of an animated program coming on right at the tail end of the day's soaps as per the station running those toons.

 

[Marckd]

In markets that had had only 3 commercial stations consisting of NBC, ABC, and CBS affiliates, running cartoons after soaps was pretty common on at least one of the stations. In Harrisburg, PA, 21 WHP TV preempted the 3 PM hour on CBS until Guiding Light took that slot by 1980. (maybe before). They ran cartoons and sitcoms between 3 and 6 PM weeknights prior to 1980. in many small markets syndicated cartoons ran in the midwest and rockies in the 3 PM hour on at least one network affiliate. Once markets got one or more independent stations, network affiliates running cartoons after soaps became less common and by the late 90's quite uncommon. Today no commercial stations runs any significant amount of weekday cartoons for children (though some run shows like Simpsons or Family Guy or King Of The Hill but they do not really count - MAYBE SOMEONE should try running thes etypes of cartoons in the 3-5 PM slot??)

 

[FreddyE1977]

Used to happen all the time. 3 o'clock used to be the magic Witching Hour when kids returned home
from school and Mom lost control of the TV. I remember here in Pittsburgh General Hospital used to
back right into the Paul Shannon's Adventuretime cartoon show on WTAE-4. Similar things on other stations as well.

 

[jwk1979]

In Knoxville, WATE-TV (then NBC affliate) would show Popeye show every afternoon at 4 following "Another World" while WTVK-TV (then ABC) would show the Bozo the Clown for a few year, then the Flintstones a few years later and then Tom and Jerry and the Little Rascals after General Hospital until at least the mid to late 70s.

 

[crainbebo]

Not a soap opera, but on WEHT 25 Evansville [CBS], after Tattletales ended, they would show something called "Cartoon Carnival." This was 1977.

-crainbebo

 

[ShawnHill1]

WREX, the then-ABC affiliate in Rockford, Illinois, back in the mid-80s aired Scooby-Doo right after General Hospital. Of course, there was already an established independent station in place (WQRF, who eventually took the Fox affiliation by '89), and if I remember correctly, they were airing The Flintstones in that same 3pm slot.

 

[Laura151]

In the days when I was a child-late 50's-early 70's, it was common to have locally hosted children's programming directly after the afternoon soap operas.

 

[firepoint525]

I remember the after-school specials which occasionally pre-empted local programming, but I am thinking that nowadays, television stations must run whatever programming that they are contractually obligated to run, so such pre-emptions are rarer now.

 

[jwk1979]

I remember the after-school specials which occasionally pre-empted local programming, but I am thinking that nowadays, television stations must run whatever programming that they are contractually obligated to run, so such pre-emptions are rarer now.

Back when ABC aired the "After-School Specials", there were only three or four stations in alot of markets (usually ABC, NBC, CBS, and PBS affliates) and cable was not yet available in most areas of the country, so it was a little easier to pre-empt a regular scheduled show than it is now. Most network affliates today are either showing talk shows (Dr. Phil, Dr. OZ, The Doctors, etc.) after the network programming today or are showing three or four hours of their local newscast, repeating the same handful of stories for the entire 3 or 4 hours.

 

[pkffrom724]

Used to happen all the time. 3 o'clock used to be the magic Witching Hour when kids returned home
from school and Mom lost control of the TV. I remember here in Pittsburgh General Hospital used to
back right into the Paul Shannon's Adventuretime cartoon show on WTAE-4. Similar things on other stations as well.

That is so very true. But by the late 70's into the early 80's, WTAE-4 would run Tom & Jerry cartoons, as well as Mighty Mouse and Made-for-TV Popeye 'toons during the 3PM-4:30PM block, causing them to run General Hospital and Edge of Night from 9:30AM to 11AM one-day behind, after their old "AM Pittsburgh" local show. By the spring of 1982, GH returned to 3PM, and EON remained @ 10:30 AM until mid-summer of that year, when then-independent WPTT-22 picked up EON until the end of its run in December, 1984.

 

[bpatrick]

Both WGHP and WLOS pre-empted "Edge Of Night" and
ran Bugs Bunny cartoons after "General Hospital." Their
NBC competitors, WXII (Winston-Salem) and WYFF (Greenville,
SC) likewise ran Tom and Jerry after "Texas." And don't forget
that WLOS pre-empted "One Life To Live" in its early years and
carried "The Flintstones" between "General Hospital" and "Dark
Shadows."

 

[firepoint525]

I remember the after-school specials which occasionally pre-empted local programming, but I am thinking that nowadays, television stations must run whatever programming that they are contractually obligated to run, so such pre-emptions are rarer now.

Back when ABC aired the "After-School Specials", there were only three or four stations in alot of markets (usually ABC, NBC, CBS, and PBS affliates) and cable was not yet available in most areas of the country, so it was a little easier to pre-empt a regular scheduled show than it is now. Most network affliates today are either showing talk shows (Dr. Phil, Dr. OZ, The Doctors, etc.) after the network programming today or are showing three or four hours of their local newscast, repeating the same handful of stories for the entire 3 or 4 hours.

Yeah, back then, channel 6 in Paducah (for example) used to show reruns of Gilligan's Island and Brady Bunch every afternoon. Probably a lot easier for channel 6 to pre-empt those than whatever they are carrying in the afternoons now.

 

[crainbebo]

I remember the after-school specials which occasionally pre-empted local programming, but I am thinking that nowadays, television stations must run whatever programming that they are contractually obligated to run, so such pre-emptions are rarer now.

Back when ABC aired the "After-School Specials", there were only three or four stations in alot of markets (usually ABC, NBC, CBS, and PBS affliates) and cable was not yet available in most areas of the country, so it was a little easier to pre-empt a regular scheduled show than it is now. Most network affliates today are either showing talk shows (Dr. Phil, Dr. OZ, The Doctors, etc.) after the network programming today or are showing three or four hours of their local newscast, repeating the same handful of stories for the entire 3 or 4 hours.

Plus, kids can get their entertainment from cable or online, YouTube, etc. When Fox and WB quit their afternoon cartoons that was IIRC because of cable and satellite taking over kids entertainment [Nick, Disney, etc].

-crainbebo

 

[harrisburgpatv]

In markets that had had only 3 commercial stations consisting of NBC, ABC, and CBS affiliates, running cartoons after soaps was pretty common on at least one of the stations. In Harrisburg, PA, 21 WHP TV preempted the 3 PM hour on CBS until Guiding Light took that slot by 1980. (maybe before).

WHP-21 never pre-empted the 3PM hour on CBS, at least not anytime in the mid to late '70s. They ran CBS in pattern until at least 4PM..Sometimes they ran the 4PM show at 1PM, but it was never pre-empted for kid shows, at least not from 3-4. They did run some cartoons after 4...

 

[Bob1370]

Back in the 1960-65 era in my home town (Rochester, NY) the "children's hours" were usually 4 to 6 PM after the kids got home and before the local news started at 6. On the NBC station (then WROC-TV) you got Popeye cartoons after the last network game show of the afternoon, which was usually Gene Rayburn's original Match Game. On the CBS affiliate, WHEC-TV, it was usually Bugs Bunny cartoons after the last game show. Finally on ABC affiliate WOKR, American Bandstand wrapped up and gave way to the Mickey Mouse Club at 5:00 followed by a dinner hour movie at 5:30 (they ran local news followed by a delayed broadcast of the network news between 7:00 and the start of network prime time programming at 7:30 for the first couple of years after they signed on in 1962)

 

[harrisburgpatv]

In markets that had had only 3 commercial stations consisting of NBC, ABC, and CBS affiliates, running cartoons after soaps was pretty common on at least one of the stations. In Harrisburg, PA, 21 WHP TV preempted the 3 PM hour on CBS until Guiding Light took that slot by 1980. (maybe before).

WHP-21 never pre-empted the 3PM hour on CBS, at least not anytime in the mid to late '70s. They ran the daytime lineup in pattern from 10AM-4PM with some exceptions....I have a June 1975 TVG in which, during the 4pm hour, "Musical Chairs" was not cleared, opting for episodes of "Ironside" instead. And, on occasion after 1978, the 4pm show was aired at 1pm (as that was the "local programming" period until Y&R expanded to an hour in 1980).

They ran "The Flintstones" at 4:30pm in '78 (also, for a short time at 4:30, "Little Rascals"). The last cartoon to run daily on WHP was an hour of "Tom and Jerry" from 4:30-5:30 in the summer of 1980, succeeded by "Hour Magazine" in September.

 

[spb]

From the early 1970's through September 1978, Omaha's KMTV 3 followed NBC's Somerset and For Richer, For Poorer at 3:00 p.m. with either Warner Bros. cartoons (the program title was The World's Greatest Cartoons) or The Flintstones at 3:30 p.m. They would rotate on the schedule every few months.

From June 1981 to March 1982, Omaha's KMTV 3 preempted NBC's Texas with Popeye cartoons at 2:30 p.m. and Warner Bros. cartoons (retitled Bugs Bunny and Friends) at 3:00 p.m.

In September 1980, KETV 7 followed ABC's The Edge of Night at 3:00 p.m. with Tom and Jerry cartoons. Curiously, T&J replaced ABC's Ryan's Hope which was tape delayed from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. (KETV started a midday newscast at 11:30 a.m. in January 1979).

 

[harrisburgpatv]

In markets that had had only 3 commercial stations consisting of NBC, ABC, and CBS affiliates, running cartoons after soaps was pretty common on at least one of the stations. In Harrisburg, PA, 21 WHP TV preempted the 3 PM hour on CBS until Guiding Light took that slot by 1980. (maybe before).

WHP-21 never pre-empted the 3PM hour on CBS, at least not anytime in the mid to late '70s. They ran the daytime lineup in pattern from 10AM-4PM with some exceptions....I have a June 1975 TVG in which, during the 4pm hour, "Musical Chairs" was not cleared, opting for episodes of "Ironside" instead. And, on occasion after 1978, the 4pm show was aired at 1pm (as that was the "local programming" period until Y&R expanded to an hour in 1980).

They ran "The Flintstones" at 4:30pm in '78 (also, for a short time at 4:30, "Little Rascals"). The last cartoon to run daily on WHP was an hour of "Tom and Jerry" from 4:30-5:30 in the summer of 1980, succeeded by "Hour Magazine" in September.


[/quote]
[/quote]

 

[therealjm12]

In upstate (Central) N. Y. I know WKTV-2 (NBC) ran Bozo at 4:00. WNYS (ABC now WSYR-9) ran Baron Daemon & his Buddies -great show at 4 or 4:30 and WSYR ( NBC now WSTM-3) had Denny Sullivan's Popeye's Funhouse at 5:00. I watched then all.

 

[McCorryKL]

A recent posting of Spokane listings from November 7, 1985 got me to thinking: How many other examples have there been of a station running a cartoon immediately after the last soap of the day on their schedule. Here's that example posted this morning...

KXLY Channel 4 Spokane (ABC)
2:00: General Hospital
3:00: The Flintstones

I once read that WVII in Bangor, Maine ran a Japanese animated series immediately after The Edge of Night around late 1979.

So... show me your other similar examples of an animated program coming on right at the tail end of the day's soaps as per the station running those toons.

The Japanese animated series on WVII that you refer to was Star Blazers. It did indeed air after The Edge of Night. Until is was taken off the air and replaced with The Real McCoys.