Coming off the success of the ever popular Afterschool Specials ABC decided to try their luck with the ABC Weekend Special which featured animated stories from nearly every animation company in the universe to live action movies such as the popular Runaway Ralph movie starring Fred Savage to the Little Lulu series but the very first ABC Weekend Special animated show was The Last Of The Curlews which was animated by Hanna-Barbera. When ABC first began the ABC Weekend Special the original host was a guy named Michael Young and then Willie Tyler and his puppet friend Lester took over hosting duties until 1984 when Captain O.G. Readmore made the scene and "no his initials did not stand for Owen Grady" but Captain Readmore was an animated cat dressed in a captain's uniform teaching kids all about the world of books. Although ABC did away with the Weekend Specials and replacing them with other programming in 2000 perhaps someday ABC should think about reviving new versions of the ABC Weekend Special and Afterschool Specials for today's generation because they were an important part of kids TV and ABC should think seriously about reviving this show
Bestie

Before he hosted the ABC Weekend Special, Michael Young was the host of the network's Kids Are People Too, replacing original host Bob McAllister. He helped boost the show's ratings 30%.

I got to see some of the ABC Weekend Specials on Youtube this morning and it brought a bit of nostalgia for me and I often wonder why shows like this doesn't exist for kids anymore today? Because ABC's Weekend Specials had amazing stories and exciting animated stories too and Captain O.G. Readmore was such a funny character and since his debut in 1984 he showed a fun side to the show. There was even a puppet version of Captain Readmore that I didn't know existed because I only had seen the animated version of Captain O.G. Readmore when I would watch the show sometimes. If only shows like this could be made for today's generation of kids i'm sure it would be a hit. Why ABC decided to cancel the Weekend Specials is a mystery today
Bestie

Hi, Bestie! What years were the afternoon specials on? I remember them a little. Do you know if any actors who are famous now started out ob the afternoon specials?
DTK

I really enjoyed these as a kid. What was the name of the one on CBS with Kukla, Fran & Ollie?

It was The CBS Children's Film Festival.

It was The CBS Children's Film Festival.

Thank you

I got to see some of the ABC Weekend Specials on Youtube this morning and it brought a bit of nostalgia for me and I often wonder why shows like this doesn't exist for kids anymore today? Because ABC's Weekend Specials had amazing stories and exciting animated stories too and Captain O.G. Readmore was such a funny character and since his debut in 1984 he showed a fun side to the show. There was even a puppet version of Captain Readmore that I didn't know existed because I only had seen the animated version of Captain O.G. Readmore when I would watch the show sometimes. If only shows like this could be made for today's generation of kids i'm sure it would be a hit. Why ABC decided to cancel the Weekend Specials is a mystery today
Bestie
I think that what led to the cancellation of this show was ABC being bought by Disney in 1996. When that happened, a lot of the Saturday morning shows that ABC had, that were not produced by Disney, were slowly cancelled over the next year. While ABC did produce some episodes of the show, other episodes were produced by Ruby-Spears, Hanna-Barbera, Dic Entertainment (Which ABC owned at the time.) & other companies. The last time ABC aired the show was on August 30, 1997. 2 weeks later, the timeslot that the ABC Weekend Special aired in was taken over by Science Court.

ABC Weekend Special will remain a thing of the late 70s era, entire 80s era & early to mid 90s era.