Why did Fox buy The Family Channel and rename it FOX Family Channel?

[Hawkee]

When it was announced that Fox had bought The Family Channel and transformed it into Fox Family Channel it seemed that Fox had always wanted the chance to have it's own family oriented channel but I never understood the story what made Fox buy The Family Channel in the first place. I didn't even know that Fox had bought The Family Channel until I saw the announcement on my Anastasia VHS and they had a trailer for it and when I saw it I thought it was gonna be a spinoff channel of The Family Channel. But when I first saw the transformation in 1998 I was shocked that most of it's morning lineup was devoted to cartoons and then they would show the talk show Home And Family with Chuck Woolery and Christina Ferrare then they would show cartoons again in the afternoon until the night and I couldn't see how this format worked. I mean where were the game shows where were the sitcoms and what about a variety of shows? Why I think Fox Family Channel tried this format at first was to see how successful it would be for a starter channel. But when you saw their cartoon lineup it was all reruns of 80's cartoons like Dennis The Menace and Camp Candy and The Super Mario Bros Super Show and they should've developed their own original cartoons rather than show reruns of classic 80's cartoons. And just like Disney Channel I think Fox Family Channel tried to give new celebrities a chance of stardom. Take for example Fox Family Channel took British group S Club 7 and turned them from being unknown to superstars by giving them their own show S Club 7 In Miami and they also gave teen pop group Wild Orchid their own reality show titled Great Pretenders and it made Wild Orchid more famous. But they were lacking in the game show department until the game show Paranoia with the late Peter Tomarken debuted and since the end of Paranoia you never saw game shows on Fox Family Channel again. But I think Fox made a wrong move by buying The Family channel because once Fox bought them The Family Channel was ruined for good

[24/7 reruns]

One program you forgot to list was The 700 Club. CBN forced that show on Fox Family as well as ABC Family and Freeform.

[Hawkee]

As I mentioned in my opening post why I think Fox wanted to buy The Family Channel was to make them stray far away from their Christian roots and The Family Channel thought that having Fox buy them would change their image while keeping The 700 Club but when Fox brought The Family Channel they knew that they would mean a different image while not fully abandoning their Christian roots

[Hawkee]

I did some more research into why Fox bought The Family Channel and renamed it Fox Family Channel and from what I learned that the reason why The Family Channel got sold to Fox was because of Rich Cronin who was the former CEO of GSN and he had planned a different vision for the new christened Fox Family Channel and that was to have more family oriented stuff and edited versions of movies to make them family-friendly. But they were able to carry programming from The Family Channel to Fox Family Channel such as the Halloween oriented 31 Days Of Halloween October block and the Christmas oriented 25 Days Of Christmas December block but they were also focused on interactive shows which is why Fox Family Channel had developed the game show Paranoia and although it was a hit it was never renewed for a second season. In my eyes I think what hurt Fox Family Channel was when ABC bought them and renamed itself ABC Family because when you looked at their new image they were focused on attracting the teen audience and that's the reason when they became Freeform they focused on teen dramas. Also from I learned is that Fox Family Channel was in danger of going belly up and when ABC bought them and became ABC Family they actually saved them because when Fox Family Channel debuted the ratings were weak and people thought it would not be successful. I think ever since they became Freeform Freeform is trying to copy TeenNick and what they could do is return to the old The Family Channel image that made the channel worthy of watching

[Hawkee]

I generally think Fox was wrong to buy The Family Channel because I think The Family Channel knew that if Fox bought them as I mentioned in my previous posts this would hurt their original wholesome Christian image but how they were able to keep The 700 Club I can understand why because the late Pat Robertson was the founder of The Family Channel and host/creator of The 700 Club. But I can say when The Family Channel was at it's prime was in the 90's when they had good shows like The New Adventures Of The Black Stallion Snowy River The McGregor Saga and Rin Tin Tin K9 Cop. But what I think caused The Family Channel to go downhill was when they tried to become like Game Show Network and develop and create their own original game shows such as Baby Races hosted by Fred Travelena Family Challenge/All-New Family Challenge hosted by the late Ray Combs and later Michael Berger Shopping Spree Small Talk and Wait Til You Have Kids and also developed Trivial Pursuit with Wink Martindale but they also tried to copy Nickelodeon with the game show Masters Of The Maze originally hosted by JD Roth and later Mario Lopez and how The Family Channel got Shop Til You Drop reruns is beyond me. But when Fox bought The Family Channel game shows were removed completely. But the shows that were huge moneymakers for them in Fox Family's debut months were The New Addams Family The All-New Captain Kangaroo and the cartoon Donkey Kong Country but even though those shows got good ratings Fox Family Channel cancelled them but cartoon rerun blocks seemed to make them big money. But when ABC bought FOX Family Channel and christened themselves ABC Family they focused "as I mentioned in my earlier post" on teen dramas and they got Freaks And Geeks after it got cancelled by NBC but they also added reruns of Early Edition too and they knew that this was a new image for them. And I think that's why when they became Freeform they wanted to attract the mature and young teenage audience which is why they had the shows Wildfire and the drama series State Of Grace all aimed at the teenage market. But with so many family oriented channels now such as Hallmark Channel UP TV INSP Dove TV Network and Odyssey Channel Freeform really has competition when it comes to family oriented programming

[Hawkee]

When I was researching for my essay about why Fox bought The Family Channel and turned it into Fox Family Channel I found the same announcement trailer that originally appeared on the Anastasia VHS tape and when I saw this trailer I couldn't believe my eyes how much effort they put into this announcement trailer and they even were gonna have a new slogan which was "New Attitude" and the logo that was originally gonna be used was a new version of the round The Family Channel logo but when it was launched Fox Family Channel got an entirely different logo than the one seen on the launch trailer. Also I found out that there was an announcement about why The Family Channel became Fox Family Channel and they had a phone number which people could call to learn about the fate of The Family Channel's former shows and lineups and I think this made people mad when "I think" The Family Channel cancelled all of it's former programming and people didn't know what had happened once the channel became FOX Family Channel and I bet the phone number got a lot of calls demanding that people wanted the old The Family Channel programming back. But I think why Fox wanted to buy The Family Channel was so they could show their animated movies and family oriented shows and they thought the channel would be successful like they had when they launched FX in the 90's. But I think Fox had visions of launching their own family oriented channel. But they could've made the Fox Kids cartoon lineup into it's own channel and put the Fox cartoons in addition to the cartoons that Fox Family Channel had. But like Disney Channel and it's celebrities Fox Family became a target for giving music stars their own shows like they did with teen pop group Wild Orchid with Great Pretenders and turned S Club 7 into superstars in America with the popular S Club 7 In Miami which launched a series of shows with S Club 7 which were moneymakers for Fox Family and made S Club 7 a bestselling group in America and if it wasn't for Fox Family Channel S Club 7 wouldn't be big in America. But had they not become Freeform and before that ABC Family I think Fox Family Channel would've survived more

[Hawkee]

If Fox Family Channel had not been bought by ABC and became ABC Family they would've survived a lot longer because I think ABC when they bought Disney one of the dreams they had was to buy The Family Channel and transform it into Disney Family Channel but Fox bought The Family Channel first before ABC could do anything. But I think Hub Network got inspiration from Fox Family Channel to create Hub Network because you can see visions of Fox Family Channel in Hub Network. But what really could've helped Fox Family Channel was add more original cartoons created exclusively for them and cut down on the reruns of 80's cartoons and that could've been better in my opinion

[Hawkee]

What I can't figure out and can't understand how in the world Fox Family Channel got Chuck Woolery to team up with Cristina Ferrare to launch the show Home And Family? Because Chuck Woolery seemed out of place for this show and someone like Marc Summers could've been a better choice for working with Cristina Ferrare than Chuck Woolery. I think Fox Family Channel gave Chuck Woolery this show as a way to make him a Comeback Kid and since he did have a talk show in the 90's with The Chuck Woolery Show Fox Family Channel gave him the Home And Family show as a stepping stone for future host of Fox's Greed The Series. But I cannot also figure out how Fox Family Channel came up with Home And Family? Because when I saw a clip of this show it seemed to be a ripoff of ABC's Home and how Home And Family got ratings i'll never understand. Some of Fox Family Channel's other shows that they had that were huge monster hits were Oh No It's Mr. Bill and Show Me The Funny and how those shows got big time ratings is a mystery. But I remember when every Sunday The Family Channel had Shirley Temple Theater where they would show a different Shirley Temple movie every Sunday and when The Family Channel became Fox Family Channel they should've kept the Shirley Temple Theater because it was cute. The other thing I cannot figure out and this was odd to me is why The Family Channel got into NASCAR and sponsored a race team and had it's own race car in the 90's driven by a driver named Ted "Teddy" Musgrave? Because when I would watch NASCAR racing as a teen I couldn't see how The Family Channel got into NASCAR and when Fox Family Channel bought The Family Channel they should've kept their NASCAR team and renamed it Fox Family Channel Racing. Because this was a wrong move for The Family Channel to do. I guess The Family Channel wanted to broadcast NASCAR racing due to their NASCAR team I suppose

[Hawkee]

A smart way Fox Family Channel could've done to save itself is develop a game show block full of original game shows like The Family Channel had in the 90's and replaced the afternoon cartoon block with it and as any game show fan knows every successful cable network has to have a game show that everyone can enjoy and had Fox Family Channel developed another hit game show besides the interactive Paranoia they would've been #1 in game show hits. Another thing I cannot figure out how in the world Fox Family Channel developed the kids talent show Great Pretenders? Because I didn't even know who Wild Orchid were until I saw this show and I think Fox Family Channel mainly let Wild Orchid host Great Pretenders as a way to boost their popularity as a teen pop group the same way Fox Family Channel treated S Club 7 with their own line of series and I think Fox Family Channel wanted to give music groups their own shows as a way to market and appeal to the teen crowd. But I think in the future Freeform will no longer exist and it will be renamed Disney Family Network. Because when you get the general picture Disney has gotten appeal from families and since Disney bought ABC as I mentioned Disney had always wanted to get their hands on The Family Channel for quite sometime and when Disney bought Fox Family Channel and became ABC Family they knew they had gotten their wish. But like I mentioned when a channel changes it's name it develops a new identity and loses viewership which is what happened when ABC Family became Freeform

[Hawkee]

I think why Fox wanted The Family Channel was so they could develop another channel to add to their list because after Fox launched FX in the 90's they knew a family oriented channel would draw in huge numbers of watchers so the logical step they took was buying The Family Channel and it worked the first months it was on the air. Because when you get the general picture there wasn't any other family oriented cable networks since all the other channels catered to kids with cartoons but Fox Family Channel really did try but had they not done wrong things like cancelling some of their original shows and sitcoms they would've done a whole lot better

[Hawkee]

To be honest I didn't know that The Family Channel had The New Adventures Of The Black Stallion until I got the DVD sets of the first and second seasons of the show and it was a wonderful show that The Family Channel should've continued and based on that success of The New Adventures Of The Black Stallion they would later create The New Adventures Of Black Beauty which also should've more seasons and seeing how these horse dramas were huge for The Family Channel they could've had a block of horse shows and it would've worked well. But Freeform would launch a horse show called Wildfire which I think was meant to compete with Heartland when Heartland debuted as a TV show. Another odd thing The Family Channel did and they could've had a better cartoon instead of it was launch The New Adventures Of Prince Valiant and I think the only reason that cartoon was a hit was because Robby Benson provided Prince Valiant's voice and the late James Avery voiced a character in that show. But when I saw episodes of The New Adventures Of Prince Valiant it really wasn't meant for kids and had an adult appeal to it and even being produced by Hearst didn't help at all. But I think this was the reason why when The Family Channel bought Fox and became Fox Family Channel Fox Family Channel had so many reruns of classic 80's cartoons and they thought it would bring high ratings to watchers who loved nostalgia. But I think The Family Channel knew that being bought by Fox would soon mean a new image and when you look at it I think The Family Channel was soon used for inspiration for creating more family oriented channels such as PAX TV INSP Up TV and Dove TV

[Hawkee]

Just like Nickelodeon and Disney Channel I think when The Family Channel bought Fox I think they had a vision of marketing teen stars and new child actors/actresses to make them famous and I think that is what they were thinking of now that The Family Channel was FOX Family Channel. And when they got S Club 7 and gave them their first ever American show S Club 7 In Miami FOX Family Channel knew that this was their ticket to fame and because of FOX Family Channel S Club 7 became more popular in America and FOX Family Channel did even more S Club 7 shows for the channel. And they repeated the same thing with Wild Orchid but before becoming hosts of Great Pretenders Wild Orchid had a hit with the song Talk To Me in 1996 but when their second album Oxygen came out in 1999 Wild Orchid was already a household name and I mainly think FOX Family Channel gave Wild Orchid the show Great Pretenders as a way to promote their albums and to achieve more success just like S Club 7. But today you don't hear about any former FOX Family Channel teen actors/actresses. As I mentioned many times in this thread when a cable channel gets bought by another channel it can hurt their image and I think being bought by Disney and renaming itself ABC Family damaged Fox Family Channel and the new name meant a whole new image and lineup which is why ABC Family began to copy Nickelodeon's The-N/TeenNick channel and started focusing on airing teen dramas and movies aimed at teens and when ABC Family became Freeform they still did that even today. But I think Freeform will go broke and no longer exist in a couple decades from now
Do you agree?

[Jamey Greek]

Originally Posted by Hawkee

When I was researching for my essay about why Fox bought The Family Channel and turned it into Fox Family Channel I found the same announcement trailer that originally appeared on the Anastasia VHS tape and when I saw this trailer I couldn't believe my eyes how much effort they put into this announcement trailer and they even were gonna have a new slogan which was "New Attitude" and the logo that was originally gonna be used was a new version of the round The Family Channel logo but when it was launched Fox Family Channel got an entirely different logo than the one seen on the launch trailer. Also I found out that there was an announcement about why The Family Channel became Fox Family Channel and they had a phone number which people could call to learn about the fate of The Family Channel's former shows and lineups and I think this made people mad when "I think" The Family Channel cancelled all of it's former programming and people didn't know what had happened once the channel became FOX Family Channel and I bet the phone number got a lot of calls demanding that people wanted the old The Family Channel programming back. But I think why Fox wanted to buy The Family Channel was so they could show their animated movies and family oriented shows and they thought the channel would be successful like they had when they launched FX in the 90's. But I think Fox had visions of launching their own family oriented channel. But they could've made the Fox Kids cartoon lineup into it's own channel and put the Fox cartoons in addition to the cartoons that Fox Family Channel had. But like Disney Channel and it's celebrities Fox Family became a target for giving music stars their own shows like they did with teen pop group Wild Orchid with Great Pretenders and turned S Club 7 into superstars in America with the popular S Club 7 In Miami which launched a series of shows with S Club 7 which were moneymakers for Fox Family and made S Club 7 a bestselling group in America and if it wasn't for Fox Family Channel S Club 7 wouldn't be big in America. But had they not become Freeform and before that ABC Family I think Fox Family Channel would've survived more

Most of the stuff the old Family Channel had moved to Pax.

[Jamey Greek]

Originally Posted by Hawkee

What I can't figure out and can't understand how in the world Fox Family Channel got Chuck Woolery to team up with Cristina Ferrare to launch the show Home And Family? Because Chuck Woolery seemed out of place for this show and someone like Marc Summers could've been a better choice for working with Cristina Ferrare than Chuck Woolery. I think Fox Family Channel gave Chuck Woolery this show as a way to make him a Comeback Kid and since he did have a talk show in the 90's with The Chuck Woolery Show Fox Family Channel gave him the Home And Family show as a stepping stone for future host of Fox's Greed The Series. But I cannot also figure out how Fox Family Channel came up with Home And Family? Because when I saw a clip of this show it seemed to be a ripoff of ABC's Home and how Home And Family got ratings i'll never understand. Some of Fox Family Channel's other shows that they had that were huge monster hits were Oh No It's Mr. Bill and Show Me The Funny and how those shows got big time ratings is a mystery. But I remember when every Sunday The Family Channel had Shirley Temple Theater where they would show a different Shirley Temple movie every Sunday and when The Family Channel became Fox Family Channel they should've kept the Shirley Temple Theater because it was cute. The other thing I cannot figure out and this was odd to me is why The Family Channel got into NASCAR and sponsored a race team and had it's own race car in the 90's driven by a driver named Ted "Teddy" Musgrave? Because when I would watch NASCAR racing as a teen I couldn't see how The Family Channel got into NASCAR and when Fox Family Channel bought The Family Channel they should've kept their NASCAR team and renamed it Fox Family Channel Racing. Because this was a wrong move for The Family Channel to do. I guess The Family Channel wanted to broadcast NASCAR racing due to their NASCAR team I suppose

Home and Family came the last years before Fox Family it was cancelled because of the network changing to Fox Famiky. Chuck Woolery was co host in it's first year 1996 and then stepped down then Michael Burger of the Mike and Maty show took over.

Both Home and Family and ABC's Home show were both produced by the recently departed Woody Fraser.

[Jamey Greek]

Originally Posted by Hawkee

A smart way Fox Family Channel could've done to save itself is develop a game show block full of original game shows like The Family Channel had in the 90's and replaced the afternoon cartoon block with it and as any game show fan knows every successful cable network has to have a game show that everyone can enjoy and had Fox Family Channel developed another hit game show besides the interactive Paranoia they would've been #1 in game show hits. Another thing I cannot figure out how in the world Fox Family Channel developed the kids talent show Great Pretenders? Because I didn't even know who Wild Orchid were until I saw this show and I think Fox Family Channel mainly let Wild Orchid host Great Pretenders as a way to boost their popularity as a teen pop group the same way Fox Family Channel treated S Club 7 with their own line of series and I think Fox Family Channel wanted to give music groups their own shows as a way to market and appeal to the teen crowd. But I think in the future Freeform will no longer exist and it will be renamed Disney Family Network. Because when you get the general picture Disney has gotten appeal from families and since Disney bought ABC as I mentioned Disney had always wanted to get their hands on The Family Channel for quite sometime and when Disney bought Fox Family Channel and became ABC Family they knew they had gotten their wish. But like I mentioned when a channel changes it's name it develops a new identity and loses viewership which is what happened when ABC Family became Freeform

I agree about the game show block. Someone posted something similar on alt-tv-game-shows many mooms ago. As for Great Pretenders first-time I heard about Wild Orchid waa on Before they were Rock Stars on VH1. I watched Great Pretenders every week because I had a crush on Wild Orchid. I would have loved to have dated all three of them at once.