Children's television series (orchildren's television shows) aretelevision programs designed specifically forchildren. They are typically characterized by easy-going content devoid of sensitive or adult themes and are normally broadcast during the morning and afternoon when children are awake, immediately before and after school schedules generally start in the country where they air.Educational themes are also prevalent, as well as the transmission of cautionary tales and narratives that teach problem-solving methods in some fashion or another, such as social disputes.
The purpose of these shows, aside from profit, is mainly to entertain or educate children, with each series targeting a certain age of child: some are aimed at infants and toddlers,[1] some are aimed at those aged 6 to 11 years old, and others are aimed at all children.[2]
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Children's television is nearly as old as television itself.[3] In the United Kingdom, theBBC'sFor the Children was first broadcast in 1946, and in English-speaking circles, is generally credited with being the first TV programme specifically for children.[4]
Some authors posit television for children tended to originate fromsimilar programs on radio. For example, the BBC'sChildren's Hour was launched as a radio broadcast in 1922,[5] withBBC School Radio commencing live broadcasts in 1924.
In the early 1930s, radioadventure serials such asLittle Orphan Annie began to emerge in the United States and became a staple of children's afternoon radio listening.[6]
Early children's shows includedKukla, Fran and Ollie (1947),Howdy Doody, andCaptain Kangaroo. Another show,Ding Dong School, aired from 1952 to 1965. Its creator and host,Frances Horwich, would sit in front of the camera and simulate small talk with the viewing audience at home, demonstrating basic skills for the camera.
This practice lives on in contemporary children's broadcasting as a genre in of itself, with Australia's ongoing programPlay School one example.
At one time, a program calledWinky Dink and You took a more interactive approach, prompting its viewers to affix a clear vinyl sheet to their television and draw pictures to match what was going on on-screen. This format did not persist, nor was it replicated, due to a number of factors unrelated to its popularity: children whose parents did not buy them the vinyl sheet would draw with crayons directly on the television screen itself, potentially causing expensive damage; there were also concerns that having children within arm's length of a television screen of the era could expose them to harmful radiation.[7]
Later and more recognisably modern shows for young children includeSesame Street,The Electric Company andMister Rogers' Neighborhood. In the 1990s, more children's television series such asBarney & Friends,Blue's Clues,SpongeBob SquarePants,Bear in the Big Blue House, andThe Big Comfy Couch were created.
A voluminous range of children's television programming now exists in the 2020s.
Notable successes outside the US include shows likePlay School,Noggin the Nog,Clangers,Bagpuss,Teletubbies,Thunderbirds,Danger Mouse,Count Duckula,Mr. Men andThomas & Friends originating from the UK,The Adventures of Blinky Bill from Australia,The Busy World of Richard Scarry andPaw Patrol from Canada,Le Manege Enchantè from France,Pingu from Switzerland,Moomin from Finland,Die Sendung mit der Maus from Germany,Alfred J. Kwak from the Netherlands, andMarine Boy andPokémon from Japan.
Canadian studioNelvana is a particularly prolific producer of children's programming. Much of Nelvana's product is broadcast worldwide, especially in the US, where the similarities in dialect do not require any dubbing or localization.
In the United States, early children's television was often co-opted as a platform to market products and it rarely contained any educational elements (for instance,The Magic Clown, a popular early children's program, was primarily an advertisement for Bonomo'sTurkish taffy.) In the early years of television, advertising to children posed a dilemma as most children have nodisposable income of their own. As such, children's television was not a particularly high priority for the networks.[8]
This practice continued in a toned-down manner through the 1980s in the United States after theFederal Communications Commission prohibited tie-in advertising on broadcast television. These regulations did not apply to cable, which remains out of the reach of the FCC's content regulations.
Due in part to the success ofHe-Man and the Masters of the Universe,[9] the 1980s saw a dramatic rise in television programs featuring characters of whom toy characters were being sold to retail consumers in bricks and mortar stores, underscoring the value potential of manufacturing merchandise for fans of children's programs. This practice remains firmly embedded in the broadcast sector's business case broadly in the 2020s.
Commercial-free children television was first introduced withSesame Street onPBS in November 1969. It was produced by what is now known asSesame Workshop (formerly Children's Television Workshop, known as CTW).
In the United States, Saturday mornings were generally scheduled with cartoons from the 1960s to 1980s.
In 1992, teen comedies and a "Today" show weekend edition were first to displace the cartoon blocks on NBC.[10] Starting in September 2002, the networks turned to affiliated cable cartoon channels or outside programmers for their blocks.[11]
On September 27, 2014, the last traditional Saturday network morning cartoon block,Vortexx, ended and was replaced the following week by the syndicatedOne Magnificent Morning onThe CW.[10]
Children's television series can target a wide variety ofkey demographics based on age and gender. Few television networks target infants and toddlers under two years of age as it would not be practical.[12]
Preschool-oriented programming is generally more overtly educational. In a number of cases, such shows are produced in consultation with educators and child psychologists in an effort to teachage-appropriate lessons (the seriesSesame Street pioneered this approach when it debuted in 1969).[13] A format that has increased in popularity since the 1990s is the "pseudo-interactive" program, in which the action of the show stops and breaks thefourth wall to give a young viewer the opportunity to answer a question or dilemma put forth on the show, with the action continuing as if the viewer answered correctly, Shows targeting this demographic are generally DVD-only.
Shows that target the demographic of persons 6 to 11 years old focus primarily on entertainment and can range from comedic cartoons to action series. Most children's television series targeting this age range are animated (with a few exceptions, perhaps the best-known being thePower Rangers franchise). Typically, programs are either 'for boys' or 'for girls'.
The teen demographic targets viewers 12 to 18 years of age. Live-action series that target this demographic are more dramatic and developed, includingteen dramas andteen sitcoms. In some cases, they may contain more mature content that is usually not permissible on shows targeting younger viewers, and can include someprofanity or suggestive dialogue.
Educational programming targeted at this demographic has historically been rare, other than onNASA TV's education block. However, some programming aimed at the demographic has had some tangential educational value in regard to social issues, such as the now-defunctTNBC block of sitcoms, which often tackled issues such as underage drinking or drug use.
According to at least one journalist, for years,Broadcast Standards and Practices departments of networks,Parental Guidelines, and campaigns bysocial conservatives limited "efforts to make kids animation more inclusive."[14]
One former executive of Disney, David Levine, said that "a lot of conservative opinion" drove what was depicted onCartoon Network,Disney Channel, and other alike channels. Some argued that cable television, which began to pick up in the 1990s, "opened the door for more representation" even though various levels of approvals remained.[15]
Through the 2000s', advocacy groupGLAAD repeatedly highlighted the lack of LGBT representation in children's programming in particular.[16][17][18][19][20] Two years later, they recorded the highest number of LGBTQ characters they ever recorded up to that point.[21]
In 2017, some said that LGBTQ+ characters in animated television were somewhat rare,[22][23] despite the fact that GLAAD praised the number of characters in broadcast and primetime television.[24][25][26]
From 2017 to 2019,Insider noted that there was a "more than 200% spike in queer and gender-minority characters in children's animated TV shows."[15] In 2018 and 2019,GLAAD stated thatAmazon,Hulu, and Netflix, had increased LGBTQ representation in "daytime kids and family television."[27][28]
In their January 2021 report,GLAAD praised LGBTQ representation in episodes ofDuckTales,The Owl House andAdventure Time: Distant Lands.[29] Despite this, some industry practitioners state that more than 90% of LGBTQ characters in kid's animated shows withinInsider's database of characters in children's animated television shows "require either a cable, satellite, streaming, or internet subscription to view them on first airing."[30]
In the United States, there are three majorcommercialcable networks dedicated to children's television. All three also operate secondary services with specialized scopes drawing upon their respective libraries, such as a focus on specific demographics, or a focus upon classic programming that fall within their scope and demographics; all three have also extensivelyfranchised their brands outside the United States.
Under current mandates, allbroadcast television stations in the United States must show a minimum of three hours per week ofeducational children's programming, regardless of format. Until 2019, this rule also applied todigital subchannels; as a result, digital multicast networks whose formats should not fit children's programming, such asLive Well Network andTheCoolTV, were required to carry educational programs to fit theFCC mandates. (The rule for digital subchannels was repealed in July 2019;[32][33] in practice, most still carry educational programs anyway.) In 2017, there was a programming block that aired on syndication calledKidsClick; it was notable as a concerted effort to program children's shows on television without regard to their educational content, one of the first such efforts since the E/I rule took effect. The transition to digital television has allowed for the debut of whole subchannels that air children's programming 24/7; examples includePBS Kids andBabyFirst, along with multiple streaming providers.
In English,Corus Entertainment operates two original specialty channels (YTV andTreehouse) and localized versions of three brands (Cartoon Network,Boomerang, andDisney Channel).
In French, Corus operatesTélétoon,TVA Group operates the preschool-orientedYoopa, andBell Media runs the teen-orientedVrak. Via its majority-owned subsidiaryTelelatino, Corus also operates two children and family-oriented networks in Spanish and Italian,TeleNiños andTelebimbi respectively.
On broadcast television and satellite to cable undertakings, children's television content is relegated to the country's public and designated provincial educational broadcasters, includingCBC (CBC Television andIci Radio-Canada Télé),City Saskatchewan,CTV Two Alberta (formerly Access),Knowledge Network,Télé-Québec,TFO, andTVOntario (TVOKids).
Aided by the cultural similarities between Canada and the US, along with film credits and subsidies available from the Canadian government, a large number of animated children's series have been made in Canada with the intention of exporting them to the United States. Such programs carrya prominent Government of Canada wordmark in their closing credits.
TheBBC operates children's oriented television networks on digital terrestrial television: the BBC runsCBBC as well as the preschool-orientedCBeebies. The BBC was spun off from children's television strands on their respective flagship channels (BBC One andBBC Two). The BBC has largely phased out children's programming from their main channels to focus on the dedicated services; in 2012, as part of the "Delivering Quality First" initiative, the BBC announced that it would end the broadcast of CBBC programmes on BBC One following the completion of the transition to digital terrestrial television, citing low viewership in comparison to broadcasts of the programmes on the CBBC channel.[34]Channel 5 also broadcasts a preschool-oriented block known asMilkshake!, while its owner,Paramount Networks International, also runs versions ofNickelodeon and its sister networksNicktoons andNick Jr.
Narrative Capital operate a number of children's channels under thePop andTiny Pop brands.British versions of Cartoon Network and its sister channelsBoomerang andCartoonito also operate in the country, some 25 years after the initial launch.
On 1 September 2023, CITV ceased broadcasting as a Freeview channel after 40 years on air and all programs are currently broadcast everyday onITV2 in the morning timeslot which runs from 6am to 7.45am.
Ireland has one dedicated children's TV service,RTÉjr. Since 1998RTÉ2 has provided children's programming from 07:00 to 17:30 each weekday, originally titledThe Den, the service was renamedTRTÉ andRTÉjr in 2010. Irish-language serviceTG4 provide two strands of children's programming Cúla 4 Na nÓg andCúla 4 during the day. Commercial broadcasterTV3 broadcast a children's strand calledGimme 3 from 1998 to 1999. And then broadcast a new strand called3Kids.
Children's channels that exist in Australia areABC Family,ABC Kids,Nickelodeon and its spin-offNick Jr., andCartoon Network and its spin-offBoomerang.
Children's channels that exist in Japan areNHK Educational TV,Kids Station,Disney Channel,Disney XD,Nickelodeon (also under a block onAnimax, known as "Nick Time") andCartoon Network (Cartoon Network's age demographic is moving towards older viewers with shows such asHello Kitty,Regular Show andAdventure Time).
In Finland,MTV Oy operates theMTV Juniori channel targeting children. The channel is available on digital terrestrial networks, cable, broadband and satellite networks.[35]
One of the most well-known children's TV programmes comes from Iceland,LazyTown, was created byMagnus Scheving, European Gymnastics Champion and CEO ofLazytown Entertainment. The show has aired in over 180 countries, been dubbed into more than 32 languages and is the most expensive children's show of all time.
In 1995,Cartoon Network became the first children's channel to be launched in India. Subsequently, Disney Channel andNickelodeon arrived.Hungama TV (2004) was the first children's channel that had local content.Pogo andBabyTV came later in 2006. By 2018, 23 channels have aired in India.
Nickelodeon was the first children's channel in Romania, launched in December 1998. Afterwards,Minimax became the first Romanian children's channel to air locally produced content, launched onChildren's Day in 2001.[36] Since then, channels likeBabyTV andDisney Channel have arrived.
Children's channels that exist in Turkey areCartoon Network,TRT Çocuk,MinikaÇOCUK,Minika GO andZarok TV.
