Everything about After School Special totally explained
An
after school special is a type of
American television program intended to be viewed by
adolescents when they returned home from school, usually at about
4:00 pm
The
ABC Network coined the term with a series of programs known as
ABC After School Specials.
CBS distributed its own productions as the
CBS Schoolbreak Special. CBS had a program called
Famous Classic Tales, which aired Australian cartoons that were adapted from literature books (similar to
Family Classic Tales).
NBC also had afterschool programs under the umbrella title
Special Treat.
ABC's name has since come to define the entire genre of programming designed for adolescents to view in the late afternoon. All three networks tended to use the young stars of their
prime time programs in the specials. Other similar programs included the
ABC Weekend Special.
History
ABC began airing the specials in
November 1972, the first of which was the
Emmy Award-winning
cartoon Last of the Curlews.
CBS began its series of
Schoolbreak Specials in
1984. The networks continued production of these series through the
1990s, finally ending their run in
1996. NBC discontinued
Special Treat by the mid-1980s, and as a result, these programs are not remembered as well as the CBS and ABC programs.
Despite their long runs, the revival of interest in these shows is often seen as a part of the 1970s and 1980s
nostalgia.
Format
Typically, networks aired four to six after school specials sporadically throughout each year. Many of these were re-aired during subsequent seasons. Most specials were self-contained single episodes, but some were two-part stories.
Summer Stories: The Mall (ABC-
1992) was the only three-part
miniseries.
Much like a "
very special episode" of a prime time television sitcom, after school specials presented cultural issues of the day and moral lessons in a format meant to be accessible to teenagers and pre-teens. Some after school specials were well regarded by educators; during the 1980s and 1990s they were often videotaped and shown in the classroom. Indeed, some after school specials were
documentaries or well-paced dramas with a humorous edge. However, the genre as a whole eventually gained a reputation for heavy-handed moralizing, not unlike the
"scare" films of the
1950s in the U.S. This was in part due to the
melodramatic handling of some topics as well as their penchant for overly literal and
prosaic titles:
Decline
By the
1990s, the popularity of
syndicated talk shows (especially
The Oprah Winfrey Show) airing in the same time slots made after school specials unprofitable. In addition, viewers complained about stations preempting the popular (and highly-rated) talk shows for a program not meant for a broad general audience. A more realistic treatment of teen issues in movies and
prime time television of the
1990s also caused after school specials to fall out of favor. However, one
CBS Schoolbreak Special was considered too important to air in the after school time slot. It was called
Kids Killing Kids and was so realistic in its treatment of kids using guns that CBS decided to air it in prime time and offered it to the other three networks to be simulcast, commercial free.
FOX picked it up and both networks broadcast the show with much fanfare as it became the 10th highest rated show of that week. It received the EMMY Award for Best Children's Program of 1994 for David Eagle, its writer, producer and director, who was also one of the genres most prolific producers.
Nostalgia and DVD releases
Nostalgia and some of the shows' lingering popularity have prompted the release of some episodes on
DVD. Some of the issues appear to be dubs from lower-quality video recordings of the shows, rather than the master copies. A number have been re-titled.
Further Information
Get more info on 'After School Special'.
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