Saturday Morning Kids Show

The types of hybrid shows that are shown in the UK on Saturday mornings — effectively a Variety Show aimed at kids. Broadcast US television used to have a milder variety of this kind of program — and 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 and which have higher profit margins. (And one US network has actually phased out all Saturday-morning children's fare entirely.) The genre is probably now 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.

They frequently include the following elements:

• Cartoons, often recycled theatrical shorts.
• Two or three noticeable presenters.
  • On UK television, at least one of these will be a puppet character.
• Satires of popular TV shows (Taggart appears to have been done once, Doctor Who has been done).
• Celebrities being interviewed and/or singing.
• A live audience of young children
• 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.

---

Argentina

• Dibujuegos, hosted by musician Manuel Wirtz and Sesame Street's Big Bird. Ran in 1991, was full of late 80s cartoon goodness.

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.

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

• A single woman ("Dorothée") hosted a show of this type for over fifteen years (1978-1987 and 1987-1997), building up a gigantic network of ancillary co-stars, gags, sets, etc. etc. etc. For better or worse, this show more-or-less introduced France to Anime (and Super Sentai years before Power Rangers).
• Televisator 2 (1993-1994) was a show about video games and cartoons (Tiny Toons, etc.)
• 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

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: Live And Kicking (1993-2001)
  • And its predecessors (Multi Coloured) Swap Shop (1976-1982), Saturday Superstore (1982-1987) and Going Live (1987-1993) - all essentially variations of the same format.
  • Dick and Dom in da Bungalow (2002-2006)
  • During the some summer months the regular saturday morning show take a break. Replacements included 8:15 from Manchester, Parallel 9 (set on a alien planet of the same name), and Fully Booked (set in a fictional Scottish hotel).
• On ITV: Tiswas (1974-1982, starting as a regional series in The Midlands before it went nationwide by its final series)
  • 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.
  • 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)
  • 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.

United States

• Late lamented examples include Wonderama, Gene London, and Captain Kangaroo. (None of which were literally speaking Saturday fare, but it's the format, not the broadcast time that counts.) Also, Pee-wee's Playhouse was equal parts straight and subvertive of the genre. And then there's all the regional variations of The Bozo Show.
  • The Krusty The Klown Show is a parody of these; Groening and others acknowledge the anachronism.
• Probably one of the originators of the genre was Howdy Doody Time, dating back to the 1950s.
• Jim Varney, as his Ernest P. Worrell character, briefly revived the genre with Hey Vern, It's Ernest! in 1988.

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.