ABC Weekend Special
| ABC Weekend Specials | |
|---|---|
Main title card
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| Genre | Saturday morning anthology |
| Starring | Cap'n O. G. Readmore |
| Theme music composer | Tommy Leonetti (1977–90) |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 17 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 30 min. |
| Release | |
| Original network | ABC |
| Original release | September 10, 1977 – August 30, 1997 |
| Chronology | |
| Related shows | |
The ABC Weekend Special is a weekly 30-minute anthology TV series for children that aired Saturday mornings on ABC from 1977 to 1997. It featured a wide variety of stories that were both live-action and animated. Similar to both the ABC Afterschool Special and The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie that had started five years previous, the ABC Weekend Special differed in that it was primarily aimed at younger viewers following ABC's Saturday Morning cartoon lineup, whereas the ABC Afterschool Special was known for its somewhat more serious, and often dramatic storylines dealing with issues concerning a slightly older teen and pre-teen audience. With the debut of the ABC Weekend Special, some of the early ABC Afterschool Specials that had been targeted towards younger viewers were subsequently repackaged and re-run instead as ABC Weekend Specials.
Beginning in 1979, the series was hosted by Michael Young, who served as host of the show for two seasons.
In 1981, ventriloquist Willie Tyler and his puppet Lester took over as the new hosts of the series, appearing in an opening segment introducing that week's episode as well as an ending segment wrapping up the show and often recommending the book that that week's episode had been based on.
In 1984, the puppet character Cap'n O. G. Readmore took over as host of the series, along with Jon "Bowzer" Bauman. The character also starred in five animated episodes of the show, as well appearing in animated Saturday morning PSAs encouraging children to "read more".
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