Saturday Morning Kids Shows are a type of hybrid programming that was produced and aired in both the US and UK for years — the variation more common in the UK than the US is essentially a Variety Show aimed at kids. Some were actually run five times a week, on weekdays — but they have almost entirely been phased out in favor of shows that are cheaper to produce, easier to re-run, and have higher profit margins. (And most US networks have actually phased out all Saturday-morning children's fare entirely.) The genre seemed to be dead in the UK, Toonattik was the last real example and it dumped its presenters and become just a cartoon block before being axed at the end of 2010. However, The BBC brought back the format as Saturday Mash-Up! in 2017.
They frequently include the following elements:
- Cartoons, often recycled theatrical shorts or Merchandise-Driven shows such as ThunderCats (1985).
- At least two (more often than not, three or more) noticeable presenters/hosts - on UK television, at least one of these will often be a puppet character.
- Spoofs of popular TV shows (especially common with the UK variation — Taggart appears to have been done once, Doctor Who has been done far too many times to count).
- Celebrities being interviewed and/or singing.
- A live audience of young and old kids.
- Phone-in competitions (often involving things that require you to watch the cartoons).
- People getting Covered in Gunge.
- Childish humour.
- Parent Service.
For Saturday Morning cartoons as shown in the US, rather than variety shows, see Saturday-Morning Cartoon. Compare and contrast Sunday Evening Drama Series, an unobjectionable, family-friendly series meant to air on Sunday night.
Notable examples:
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Argentina
- Dibujuegos, hosted by musician Manuel Wirtz, often alongside Big Bird
. Ran in 1991.
Australia
- Australia also has a lot of these, the longest running being Saturday Disney.
Brazil
- An infamous example from the nineteen-eighties is Xuxa, hosted by an oversexed (and not very smart) former model that inspired the wrath of Moral Guardians and produced a few short-lived imitators. Xuxa is also infamous for the fire on the set of her later show Xuxa Park.
Canada
- You Can't Do That on Television started out as one of these (with live-action sketches instead of cartoons); the call-in segments were dropped as soon as the show was repackaged for sale to markets outside Ottawa and the music segments phased out after the first couple years while the Show Within a Show aspects of the link segments were played up, until what was left was a Sketch Comedy.
France
France had a quite bunch of such shows which alternate cartoons and skits involving live-action hosts. This may have had some legal causes (laws requiring homeland-produced original content, etc.).
- The Club Dorothée show hosted by popular childrens' songs singer Dorothée in the late '80s and in The '90s is the quintessential example in the history of French TV. For better or worse, this show is the reason there's massive Anime and Toku fandoms in France. It ran for nearly a decade ('87-'97) before its somewhat speculated-aboutnote cancellation.
- Décode pas Bunny (1988-2000) eschewed the live-action hosts in favor of re-dubbed scenes from Looney Tunes, using the regular French dub cast.
- Hanna Barbera Dingue Dong (1990-1996), was just a collection of HB cartoons (Scooby-Doo, Wacky Races, etc.) interspersed with the live-action host's antics. Based on the American The Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera.
- Les Minikeums (1993-2002 / 2017-2021 for the revival), puppet show with skits in-between the cartoons and series. Grew massively popular in The '90s, especially after the end of the Club Dorothée.
- La Planète de Donkey Kong (1996-2001), which featured cartoons interspersed with skits featuring the Donkey Kong Country cast's antics (in the show's earlier days, they were joined by the TV presenter Mélanie Angélie). Spun off the more well-known Donkey Kong Country (1996).
- Récré A2 (1978-1988), hosted by the aforementioned Dorothée, then by Marie Dauphin when Dorothée left. Holds the distinction of broadcasting the first three animes to be massively successful in France — UFO Robo Grendizer (known as Goldorak there), Space Pirate Captain Harlock (known as Albator there) and Candy♡Candy.
- Televisator 2 (1993-1994) was a show about video games and cartoons (Tiny Toon Adventures, etc.)
- Zouzous (1999-2014) — for its initial run as Debout/Midi/Bonsoir Les Zouzous — eschewed live-action hosts in favor of skits featuring the characters from Rolie Polie Olie.
Mexico
- Two famous examples: Chabelo, which was actually aired on Sunday mornings, and Caritele, which was a Saturday morning show interspersed with other shows and mostly shounen anime.
United Kingdom
- On The BBC: (Multi Coloured) Swap Shop (1976-1982), Saturday Superstore (1982-1987), Going Live (1987-1993), Live And Kickingnote (1993-2001) - which were all essentially variations of the same format.note
- Dick & Dom in da Bungalow (2002-2006), which did so well that it won a BAFTA, and has sparked a fanbase which has persisted to the present day, long after the series came to a close.
- During the summer months the regular Saturday morning show took a break. Replacements (usually from the BBC Regions, unlike the London-based main show) included On the Waterfront, UP2U, 8:15 from Manchester, Parallel 9 (set on a alien planet of the same name), and Fully Booked (set in a fictional Scottish hotel). Fully Booked would initially air on Saturdays, but then move for a spell over to Sundays, with the Saturday strand taken over by The Saturday Aardvark, which was more of a generic studio-based CBBC programming strand hosted by Kristian O'Brian and the puppet Otis The Aardvark. It nevertheless still achieved something of a cult following.
- 2017's Saturday Mash-Up! saw the format return over a decade after Dick and Dom.
- Arguably the Ur-Example for the BBC was Crackerjack, a children's variety show that aired from 1955 to 1984 (most prominently on Friday evenings), which typically featured a mixture of music performances, game segments, and sketch comedy by a cast of regulars (though by its final years on-air, its prominence had degraded in favour of the aforementioned Saturday shows at the peak of their popularity, and the focus on comedy steadily decreased).
- On ITV:
- Tiswas (1974-1982, starting as a regional series in The Midlands before it went nationwide by its final series), notable for being the codifier for many of the elements of programs of this kind, as well as instantly standing out with its chaotic, high-activity tone, setting a standard which many of its successors would aim to match or surpass.
- No. 73 (1982-1988), notable for its Sitcom elements; it was supposedly set in an ordinary suburban house, where the residents just happened to be showing cartoons, interviewing celebrities, and organising The Sandwich Quiz.
- Get Fresh (1986-1988), a road show where the location was different every week. Notable for launching the career of future How 2 presenter Gareth Jones and also contributed to a short high profile career for the puppet Gilbert the Alien, who had a habit of Getting Crap Past the Radar. A pre-recorded version of the show aired on Sundays.
- Motormouth (1988-1992): Notable for it's live-action adaptation of the famous board game Mouse Trap. Started off as an informal variety show but delved more and more into sketches and eventually comedy drama not unlike No.73.
- What's Up Doc? (1992-1995) which as its title implies had a lot of Warner Bros.-related content along with the usual ingredients. Notable for introducing UK audiences to Animaniacs and Batman: The Animated Series as well as two memorable puppet wolves in Bro and Bro, who would receive their own spin-off programme Wolf It, before their pupeteers defected to BBC's Live & Kicking to perform as the Leprechauns.
- A British version of Saturday Disney (1993-1996) as part of the breakfast service GMTV, with Carmen Ejogo as the only presenter to stay for the entire run.
- Time Out (1995-1998) broadcast as part of GMTV. Hosted by keep-fit guru Mr. Motivator and later a young Craig Young (pre-NCIS fame), who would provide links to episodes of Power Rangers and other shows, and in between, would review movies and try to get the audience interested in other activities. Would also have weekday editions whenever there was a school holiday.
- Scratchy and Co (1996-1998), a madcap comedy vehicle for the late presenter Mark Speight, who, accompanied by his sidekicks like 'Reg', would host cartoons while basically acting like a cartoon himself. Started off with the actor's appearance enhanced by computer graphics before it got so terribly expensive that they cut the budget and just let Speight host the show as his ordinary self from a cheaper studio set.
- Tricky (1997): Another attempt at out-the-box Saturday morning presentation, a 'live' call-in show hosted by an animated dragon. Notable only for the dragon ultimately being recycled a few years later to act as the inaugural host of the children's POP Channel.
- SM:TV Live (1998-2003), notable for launching the mainstream careers of Ant and Dec and Cat Deeley, and for having an extremely high amount of Parental Bonuses.
- Ministry Of Mayhem and Holly and Stephen's Saturday Showdown (2004-2006), notable for being the last regular Saturday morning show for eight years and for censoring much of Gerry Anderson's New Captain Scarlet to his and the fanbase's great annoyance, and launching the mainstream careers of Holly Willowby and Stephen Mulhurn, who would front many daytime and prime time ITV shows long after.
- Toonattik (2005 to 2011) - broadcast as part of the breakfast service GMTV, it fired its presenters in May 2010. Ended completely on New Years Day 2011, as part of the changeover from GMTV to Daybreak. Notable also for a guest appearance on one edition from Charlie Brooker, creator of Black Mirror.
- Scrambled! (2014 to 2021)- Simulcast on both ITV during it's breakfast hours and the CITV Channel. It also would air on Sundays. Unlike most other shows on the list, the programme was pre-recorded for both days of the weekend. Only two of the original presenting line-up stayed for the duration of the programme.
United States
- Probably one of the originators of the genre was The Howdy Doody Show (1947-1960).
- Much-loved regional examples included Wonderama (New York City area), Gene London, and all the variations of The Bozo Show (with the Chicago version the most famous and longest-running, through 2001).
- The Krusty The Klown Show is a parody of these; Matt Groening and others acknowledge the anachronism.
- Captain Kangaroo, which featured former Howdy Doody performer Bob Keeshan, was one of the few national examples of this trope, featured on CBS affiliates. Most of his long original run was on weekday mornings, but the final two years (1982-84) saw it moved to early Saturday mornings as a lead-in to the network's cartoon lineup. It was revived on PBS in 1986 and ran through 1990.
- Pee-wee's Playhouse was not only a straight example of this genre but also playfully subverted the format with its surreal aesthetics, being as they were derived from a stage show intended for adults. It was only the most successful of a whole run of (often celebrity-led) shows CBS offered in the 1980s and '90s:
- Pryor's Place featured Richard Pryor interacting with kids and Sid and Marty Krofft Productions puppets as both himself and original characters in a series of pro-social stories.
- Hey Vern, It's Ernest! in 1988 featured skits led by Jim Varney's character Ernest P. Worrell.
- Riders in the Sky featured the titular singing cowboy throwback troupe in 1991.
- They acquired Beakman's World from TLC.
- The Weird Al Show lasted one season in 1997; notoriously by this point all CBS kids' programming had to qualify as educational in some way to fit FCC mandates for broadcast children's shows, so the format was often sidetracked by Aesop-heavy storylines.
- The Aquabats! Super Show! is a sort of half-Homage, half-parody of these types of kids' shows.
- Nickelodeon has mounted several shows of this type, usually on weekday afternoons:
- Total Panic (1989-90) was a Sunday morning version that originally ran three hours, featuring celebrity interviews in and out of studio, kids discussing recent movies and voting on music videos, and plenty of Double Dare (1986)-style games, among other things. In 1990 it was briefly retooled into the daily half-hour show Outta Here, which featured younger hosts and put more emphasis on games.
- Weinerville was a weekday afternoon throwback hosted by comedian/puppeteer Marc Weiner that featured old Bat Fink cartoons and audience participation games often complicated by said audience members being "turned into" puppets to play them.
- In 2003, Cartoon Network turned their all animated Cartoon Cartoon Fridays block into a block hosted by Tommy and Nzinga (later replaced by Tara) called "Fridays". In addition to cartoons, there were two puppet characters, celebrity interviews, and musical guest performances. It ended in 2007, and was replaced by Friday Night Premiere Thunder.
- MeTV's Toon In With Me is a weekday morning variant with a puppet co-host, featuring classic theatrical cartoon shorts.
Venezuela
- Thanks to deals RCTV had with Disney, they had Club Disney during the 80's and 90's, while its rival Venevisión had El Club de Los Tigritos. Both shows were phased out around early 00's, though Venevisión still has cartoon hosts presenting cartoon hosts, but nothing else.
