Saturday morning preview specials were aired on television annually to present previews of each network's fall lineup of Saturday-morning cartoon children's programming. Similar to the model for their new prime time counterpart shows, television networks in the United States and Canada would film a preview special for the fall season. These would often air as part of the regular network schedule or be made available to their affiliates for airing at any time, especially to fill timeslots that contained programming canceled months before.
Format
The Saturday morning previews were generally aired on the network in prime-time, usually the Friday night before the new schedule began. Specials were staggered between differing time slots and days in order to allow each network's show to stand out.
The preview specials are usually hosted by stars of one or more of the network's popular series and feature an array of special guests, with the continuity between each program preview being fictionalized with a small plot or theme to keep viewers interested. The previews were for new and returning series, with each preview featuring the show's opening credits and a scene from that program. They also unveiled a network's new imaging for Saturday morning programming.
CBS, which had only irregularly carried preview specials, aired its last in 1985. The other two major networks continued near-annually. NBC's last was in 1991, as by 1992, the network had abandoned cartoons in favor of its teen sitcom block TNBC. ABC continued an annual Saturday preview special as part of its TGIF block through the 1990s, finally ending the practice in 1999, TGIF's last year in its original form.
4Kids Entertainment aired preview specials sporadically for its two blocks, FoxBox and The CW4Kids. Neither Fox Kids nor Kids' WB continued the practice as an annual tradition, though both had aired one-off preview specials in the 1990s.
Because the preview specials incorporated clips from a variety of sources with cross-platform licensing, it was legally impossible to sell them in syndication packages or release them on home video or streaming services.[1]
1979 - Plastic Man and ABC Saturday Morning Sneak Peek (hosted by Michael Young) - Due to a cartoonists' strike delaying show premieres, this special aired over two weeks before the season debuted, and a second preview special, The Plastic Man Preview Hour, aired on Saturday of the following week.[1]
1978 - The Bay City Rollers Meet the Saturday Superstars (hosted by the Bay City Rollers)[1][6]
1979 - The Thing Meets Casper and the Shmoo (hosted by Gary Coleman) - Due to a cartoonists' strike delaying many season debuts, this special was cancelled and never aired.[1]
