J.R. MacReady

Fox Kids was the Fox Broadcasting Company's American children's programming division and brand name from September 8, 1990 until September 7, 2002. It was owned by Fox Family Worldwide Inc, (now ABC Family Worldwide Inc.) airing programming on Monday-Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings.

Fox Kids ended in 2002 when News Corporation and Haim Saban sold the money-losing Fox Family Worldwide Inc to The Walt Disney Company, owing to widening competition from cable channels like Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network and Disney Channel. The programming block continued to run repeats until September 7, 2002. At that time, Fox put the time slots up for bidding, with 4Kids Entertainment winning and securing the Saturday morning programming block. Along with the cancelation of Fox Kids was Disney's One Saturday Morning, which became ABC Kids, hence the title switch.

History
According to James B. Stewart's DisneyWar, Fox Kids' history is intertwined with the history of The Disney Afternoon. DuckTales, the series which served as the launching pad for the Disney Afternoon, premiered in September 1987 on Fox's owned-and-operated stations, as well as various Fox affiliates. This may have been due in no small part to the fact that then-Disney chief operating officer Michael Eisner and his then-Fox counterpart, Barry Diller, had worked together at the ABC network and at Paramount Pictures.

In 1988 Disney purchased Los Angeles television station KHJ-TV, later renaming it as KCAL-TV. The station's new owners wanted DuckTales to be shown on KCAL, thus taking it away from Fox-owned KTTV. Furious at the breach of contract, Diller pulled DuckTales from all other Fox owned-and-operated stations in the fall of 1989, and encouraged Fox affiliates to do the same, though most did not initially. As Disney went forward in building the Disney Afternoon, Fox then began the process of launching its own children's programming lineup.

Fox Kids launched in September 8, 1990, originally headed up by division president Margaret Loesch and airing programming originally for 30 minutes per day Monday through Friday, and three hours on Saturday morning. In 1991 programming expanded to 90 minutes on weekdays and four hours on Saturday mornings, and a year later grew to 2½ hours on weekdays.


Radio
Fox Kids had its own radio lineup as well. Entitled the Fox Kids Radio Countdown, it was two hours in length and was hosted by Chris Leary of TechTV and ZDTV fame. The show consisted of contests, gags, and funny sound effects. It was later renamed to Fox All Access and continues to air currently.


Scheduling
By 1993, Fox Kids was up to three hours on Monday-Fridays (usually 2 p.m.-5 p.m. local time) and four hours on Saturdays (8 a.m.-noon ET/PT, 7 a.m.-11 a.m. CT/MT). Stations had the choice of airing one weekday hour in the morning and two hours in the afternoon, or all three at the same time in the morning or afternoon. This was because some stations had morning newscasts. In 1995 and early 1996 Fox acquired three former ABC affiliates and Savvoy/Fox (Emmis a few years later) acquired three former NBC affiliates and an ABC affiliate. Those stations all had evening newscasts, but wanted to continue to have regular syndicated programming to lead into the news instead of cartoons, so they would run Fox Kids one hour earlier in the afternoon from 1-4 p.m.


Later history
In 1995, Fox Kids merged with Haim Saban's Saban Entertainment, Inc. to form Fox Kids Worldwide Inc. Some of this programming also aired on Fox Family Channel (now ABC Family).

In 1999, the Fox Kids programming weekday block was trimmed to 2 hours, and added The Magic School Bus, which had previously aired on PBS. In 2000, affiliates were all given options to push the block up to 2-4 p.m. instead of 3-5 p.m.. In the 6 or so markets with 5 p.m. newscasts that carried Fox Kids (such as St. Louis and New Orleans for example) they already were running the block an hour early back in 1996. Some affiliates (like WLUK) would even tape delay the block to air between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m., one of the lowest-rated time periods on US television. A few only aired The Magic School Bus in this inconvenient slot, in order to fulfill FCC-mandated 'educational/informational programming' requirements, which require a station air 3 hours of E/I shows per week and to reduce the hit taken by airing lower-cost children's advertising instead of higher-rated syndicated programming with more advertising revenue.


End of Fox Kids
By 2001, Fox stations felt they were on much more even footing with "The Big Three" networks and wanted to take back the Fox Kids programming blocks to air their own programming. Saturday mornings, long only the province of children's programming, had become a liability as the other networks started to extend their weekday morning show franchises to the weekends, and the local Fox stations wanted to start Saturday morning newscasts, owing to the cultural change of Saturday becoming the theoretical "sixth weekday".

Fox Kids, long the #1 kids network since at least 1992, had been overtaken by Kids' WB! two years prior with the stronger animated block backed by Warner Brothers and containing Pokémon as well as other video game and anime-based shows like Yu-Gi-Oh!. ABC & UPN aired mostly comical cartoons with the exception of Lizzie McGuire and Even Stevens which where sitcoms aimed at teenagers, while CBS aired preschool programming from Nick Jr., and NBC was airing the E/I programming from Discovery Kids, splintering the audience. The added factor of Nickelodeon's aggressive schedule that out-rated all the broadcast networks among children on Saturday mornings left Fox Kids behind, and the programmers could find no way to catch up and stand out in this crowded field.

On October 24, 2001, Saban and News Corp sold the group to The Walt Disney Company, at which time Fox discontinued the daytime children's programming, giving the time back to their affiliates. FOX put their programming up for bidding, and 4Kids Entertainment, producers of Pokémon (which never aired on the block), won. Fox Kids maintained a Saturday morning schedule, programmed by Disney, until September 14, 2002, when it gave the time to 4Kids Entertainment. The block was renamed FoxBox and then in January 2005, three years later renamed again to 4Kids TV. The 4Kids block lasted until 2008, when Fox and 4Kids parted ways.


After Fox Kids
While Fox Kids was ending on United States broadcast television, Disney instituted a two-hour morning block on its newly acquired ABC Family, programmed similarly to Fox Kids. Internationally, Fox Kids continued to air under the same name, despite its new Disney ownership.

It was not until 2002 that Disney unveiled its new brand name for action and adventure programming, Jetix. The new name was applied first in the United States on the ABC Family morning block and a new prime-time lineup on Toon Disney. Internationally, the name was phased in, first as a programming block, then the new network name.

Disney now holds the rights to nearly all of the Fox Family/Saban archives, including Power Rangers, Digimon, The Tick, Eek The Cat and The Terrible Thunderlizards. Most of these shows air on Jetix, although Eek! The Cat, The Terrible Thunderlizards, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, and select other shows are being streamed online (complete with Fox Family branding during end credits) at ABCfamily.com.

Logos
Fox Kids has had some well-known logos throughout its run. The first logo (from 1990) was the words "FOX KIDS NETWORK" stacked on a gold stack, similar to the movie logo. In 1993, the logo was changed to the words "fox" in lowercase letters with 4 searchlights behind it with a yellow, zig-zag under it.

In 1996, the logo was once again changed to the words all in capital letters except for "network" (which remained lowercase) and the logo looking as if it were set against a stage. The now-famous Fox Kids logo was introduced in 1997 and the "stage" logo was dropped to the letters set against a black square and the letters all in red except for the "X" which is two yellow-coloured searchlights crossing over forming an "X" shape.

In 1998, the logo was modified. The "Network" byline was removed leaving the logo reading just "Fox Kids". The logo was in use until 2002. Fox Kids began using its own logo bug in 1997, prior to this, the regular Fox logo was used on-screen. At the time, the logo was transparent, starting in 1998, the logo became a solid color. Internationally, the logo was in the upper left hand corner of the screen, without the "black box" behind the letters.

Most of the time, the website logo would appear. The 2002/2004 logo still remained in its place. The logo was once again modified in early 2002. The same thing as the previous logo only the words are now set against a red circle with a yellow outline and all of the letters are yellow.



1990
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes: The Animated Series (1990 - 1992)
Bobby's World (1990-1998)
Fun House (game show) (1990-1991)
Peter Pan and the Pirates (1990 - 1991)
Piggsburg Pigs (1990 - 1991)
Tom & Jerry Kids (1990 - 1993)
Zazoo U (1990 - 1991)

1991
Beetlejuice (1991)
Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventures (1991-1993)
Little Dracula (1991)
Little Shop (1991-1992)
Swamp Thing (1991)
Taz-Mania (1991-1993)
Dark Water (1991)

1992
Batman: The Animated Series (1992-1995)
Dog City (1992 - 1995)
Eek! The Cat (1992-1997)
Super Dave - Daredevil for Hire (1992 - 1993)
Tiny Toon Adventures (1992-1994)
X-Men (1992-1997)

1993
Animaniacs (1993-1995)
Droopy, Master Detective (1993-1994)
Incredible Crash Dummies (1993)
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (Season 1) (1993)
Terrible Thunderlizards (1993-1997)

1994
The Fox Cubhouse (1994-1996)
Jim Henson's Animal Show with Stinky & Jake (1994-1996) (as part of the Fox Cubhouse)
Johnson and Friends (1994-1996) (as part of the Fox Cubhouse)
Rimba's Island (1994-1996 as part of the Fox Cubhouse; 1997-98 independently)
Britt Allcroft's Magic Adventures of Mumfie (1996 as part of the Fox Cubhouse)
Budgie the Little Helicopter (1995-1996 as part of the Fox Cubhouse, 1996-1997 independently)
Spider-Man (1994-Early 1998 late 2001)
Eek! Stravaganza (1994-1997, formerly Eek! The Cat and Eek! And The Terrible Thunderlizards)
The Tick (1994-1996)
Life with Louie (1994-1998)
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (Season 2) (1994)
Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego? (1994 - 1996)
Red Planet (3 part mini-series, repeated in early 1995 and Spring of 1996)

1995
Goosebumps (1995-1998, renamed Ultimate Goosebumps in 1997)
Klutter (1995 - 1996, as part of Eek! Stravaganza)
Masked Rider (1995-1996)
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers (Season 3) (1995)

1996
Big Bad Beetleborgs (1996-1997)
Casper (1996-1998)
C Bear and Jamal (1996-1997, 1999)
Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers (mini-series) (1996)
Power Rangers: Zeo (1996)
Siegfried & Roy: Masters of the Impossible (1996, miniseries)

1997
The Adventures of Sam and Max: Freelance Police (1997-1998)
Beetleborgs Metallix (1997-1998)
Chimp Lips Theatre (1997)
Eerie, Indiana (1997-1998)
Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation (1997-1998)
Power Rangers: Turbo (1997-1998)
Round the Twist (1997)
Space Goofs (1997-1999)
Stickin' Around (1997)

1998
Cartoon Cabana (Summer 1998)
Eerie, Indiana: The Other Dimension (1998)
Godzilla: The Series (1998-2000)
Mad Jack the Pirate
The Magic School Bus (1998-2002) (reruns of 1994-1997 PBS show)
Mowgli: The New Adventures of the Jungle Book (1998)
The Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog (1998-1999)
Ned's Newt
Power Rangers in Space (1998)
The Secret Files of the Spy Dogs (1998-1999)
The Silver Surfer (1998)
Toonsylvania (1998-2000)
Young Hercules (1998-1999)
The Mr. Potato Head Show (1998-1999)
(Donkey Kong Country was not a part of the lineup. It aired only two episodes as specials in December 1998 on the Fox Kids Block. All the other episodes were aired on Fox Family.)


1999
The Avengers: United They Stand (1999-2000)
Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot (1999, 2000-2002)
Digimon: Digital Monsters (1999-2000)
The Magician
NASCAR Racers
The New Woody Woodpecker Show (1999-2002)
Oggy and the Cockroaches
Power Rangers: Lost Galaxy (1999-2000)
Spider-Man Unlimited (1999, 2000-2001)
Beast Wars: Transformers (1999)
Beast Machines: Transformers (1999-2001)
Xyber 9 (1999)
Big Wolf on Campus

2000
Action Man (2000-2001)
Cybersix
Digimon: Digital Monsters Season 2 (2000-2001)
Dinozaurs
Escaflowne
Flint the Time Detective (2000-2001?)
Kong: The Animated Series
Monster Rancher
Power Rangers: Lightspeed Rescue (2000)
Real Scary Stories
Shinzo

2001
Alienators: Evolution Continues
Digimon: Digital Monsters Season 3 (2001-2002)
Los Luchadores
Medabots
Mon Colle Knights
Moolah Beach
Power Rangers: Time Force (2001)
The Ripping Friends
Transformers: Robots In Disguise

2002
Galidor: Defenders of the Outer Dimension
Power Rangers: Wild Force (2002)

LucyHyde

Add me?

Was there a better way to waste away our childhood afternoons? Really? I remember racing upstairs for so many of these after school.... namely MMPR and X-MEN but still!

lechin

I loved Bobby's World and MMPR!

az2008

Add me please!

I miss Young Hercules...He was my first poster on the wall

goodbreakingbad

Please add me.

~Unfaithful~

BOBBY'S WORLD FTW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I loved that show!

Stars Fade

I miss coming home from school just watching Digimon or Xmen or Power rangers. i miss those days.

Also add me.

J.R. MacReady

You've all been added!
Man, I had one entire wall that was plastered with nothing but FOX KIDS posters, I mean covered! I loved getting the Magazine every week or month (whichever) in the mail as well. I wish hadn't thrown them out; Lord I feel dumb now .

J.R. MacReady

*bump*