Children's television series or children's television shows are programs specifically designed for young audiences, combining entertainment, education, and social development. Since the early days of broadcasting, these shows have shaped childhood culture, influenced learning styles, and reflected changing social values. 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, some are aimed at those aged 6 to 11 years old, and others are aimed at all children.
History
Children's television is nearly as old as television itself. In the United Kingdom, the BBC's For the Children was first broadcast in 1946, and in English-speaking circles, is generally credited with being the first TV programme specifically for children.
Some authors posit television for children tended to originate from similar programs on radio. For example, the BBC's Children's Hour was launched as a radio broadcast in 1922, with BBC School Radio commencing live broadcasts in 1924.
In the USA in the early 1930s, radio adventure serials such as Little Orphan Annie became a staple of children's afternoon radio listening.
In Japan, early children's programming developed alongside the rise of anime in the 1960s, with shows such as Astro Boy helping establish animation as a dominant format for young audiences. Meanwhile, in Latin America, locally produced educational programs reflected regional culture and language.
Evolution of style in the United States and beyond
Early children's shows included Kukla, Fran and Ollie (1947), Howdy Doody, and Captain 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 program Play School one example.
At one time, a program called Winky 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.
Shows such as Sesame Street began to revolutionize children's television by combining research-based educational methods with entertainment. Its use of puppetry, music, and multicultural casting set a new standard for educational programming worldwide (The Electric Company and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.) In the 1990s, more children's television series such as Barney & Friends, Blue's Clues, Bear in the Big Blue House, and Wishbone were created.
A voluminous range of children's television programming now exists in the 2020s.
Notable successes outside the U.S. include shows like Play School, Noggin the Nog, Clangers, Bagpuss, Teletubbies, Danger Mouse, Count Duckula, Mr. Men and Thomas & Friends originating from the UK, The Adventures of Blinky Bill from Australia, The Busy World of Richard Scarry, The Big Comfy Couch and Paw Patrol from Canada, Le Manège Enchanté from France, Pingu from Switzerland, Moomin from Finland, Die Sendung mit der Maus from Germany, Alfred J. Kwak from the Netherlands, and Marine Boy and Okaasan to Issho from Japan.
Canadian studio Nelvana 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.
Role of advertising
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's Turkish taffy.) In the early years of television, advertising to children posed a dilemma as most children have no disposable income of their own. As such, children's television was not a particularly high priority for the networks.
This practice continued in a toned-down manner through the 1980s in the United States after the Federal 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.The rise of toy-based programs in the 1980s blurred the line between entertainment and advertising. Series such as He-Man and the Masters of the Universe were designed partly to promote action figures, leading critics to argue that children's programming had become a form of extended commercial marketing.
Due in part to the success of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, 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 with Sesame Street on PBS in November 1969. It was produced by what is now known as Sesame Workshop (formerly Children's Television Workshop, known as CTW). From early radio-inspired broadcasts to global streaming platforms, children's television has continuously evolved in format, content, and purpose. While educational goals and entertainment remain central, issues such as commercialization, representation, and digital access continue to shape the industry's future. As technology advances, children's television will likely remain a powerful influence on childhood development and culture worldwide.
Saturday morning cartoon blocks
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. Starting in September 2002, the networks turned to affiliated cable cartoon channels or outside programmers for their blocks.
On September 27, 2014, the last traditional Saturday network morning cartoon block, Vortexx, ended and was replaced the following week by the syndicated One Magnificent Morning on The CW.
Demographics Children's television series can target a wide variety of key demographics based on age and gender. Few television networks target infants and toddlers under two years of age as it would not be practical.
Preschool programming often emphasizes repetition, bright visuals, and direct audience interaction to match early childhood cognitive development. In contrast, programming for older children tends to include more complex narratives, humor, and character development. In a number of cases, such shows are produced in consultation with educators and child psychologists in an effort to teach age-appropriate lessons (the series Sesame Street pioneered this approach when it debuted in 1969). 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 the fourth 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, Attempts to reach this demographic with ad-supported programming largely ended in the late 1980s with the introduction of the people meter as the standard for audience measurement; most young children were too young and lacked the attention span to operate the device properly, causing major declines in ratings for shows that targeted them. Such programming has instead been carried mainly via non-commercial networks and by subscription-based cable networks.
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 the Power 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, including teen dramas and teen sitcoms. In some cases, they may contain more mature content that is usually not permissible on shows targeting younger viewers, and can include some profanity or suggestive dialogue.
Educational programming targeted at this demographic has historically been rare, other than on NASA 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-defunct TNBC block of sitcoms, which often tackled issues such as underage drinking or drug use.
Under-represented groups
According to at least one journalist, for years, Broadcast Standards and Practices departments of networks, Parental Guidelines, and campaigns by social conservatives limited "efforts to make kids animation more inclusive."
One former executive of Disney, David Levine, said that "a lot of conservative opinion" drove what was depicted on Cartoon 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.
Through the 2000s', advocacy group GLAAD repeatedly highlighted the lack of LGBT representation in children's programming in particular. Two years later, they recorded the highest number of LGBTQ characters they ever recorded up to that point.
In 2017, some said that LGBTQ+ characters in animated television were somewhat rare, despite the fact that GLAAD praised the number of characters in broadcast and primetime television.
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." In 2018 and 2019, GLAAD stated that Amazon, Hulu, and Netflix, had increased LGBTQ representation in "daytime kids and family television."
In their January 2021 report, GLAAD praised LGBTQ representation in episodes of DuckTales, The Owl House and Adventure Time: Distant Lands. Despite this, some industry practitioners state that more than 90% of LGBTQ characters in kid's animated shows within Insider'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."
Channels United States In the United States, there are three major commercial cable 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 extensively franchised their brands outside the United States.