PBS Kids: A Retrospective (Rise and Fall)

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Whether you grew up with PBS Kids through PTV Park, PBS Kids Go! Or you have kids that watch the channel today, this special channel offered a lot of creative shows whose legacies live on.

What were some of the shows you remember from the channel?

ABOUT THE LOST MEDIA SOMEDAY SCHOOL

• The only information about the block itself comes from a few video clips found on YouTube, one being the footage used in this video, and the other being an article from The Washington Post on July 18th, 1998 by Scott Moore.
  
• The article names all the shows and described "My World" as a game show with "wildlife footage and computer animation to introduce viewers to natural history" made in New Zealand.

This timeline represents shows that aired on the PBS Kids and related blocks from the year of 1968 to 2020. Graphs are based on both original air date and time spend on PBS Kids programming. Get a kick of nostalgia from your favorite PBS shows of the past or learn more about the channel history.

My favorites were Reading Rainbow and Arthur. How about you?

[Hawkee]

PBS was hugely popular during the 80's and 90's for children's educational programming and starting with the launch of Sesame Street in 1969 and based on Sesame Street's success PBS began launching more kids shows and once again with Children's Television Workshop PBS repeated the same success with The Electric Company which was targeted at older kids and I can say that if it wasn't for Children's Television Workshop "Now Sesame Workshop" PBS would've never had the chance to add quality educational children's programming and by the time the 80's began PBS saw the debut of another Children's Television Workshop series known as 321 Contact. Like The Electric Company 321 Contact was aimed at older kids and discussed science in a educational manner and even spun-off a series of videos for schools known as Classroom Contact. In between Sesame Street and Mister Rogers Neighborhood which was still going strong in the 80's for toddlers PBS attracted more older kids programming with shows like The Big Blue Marble Newton's Apple and as math started to be a popular subject for kids PBS saw that and launched Square One TV in 1989 and Square One TV was successful it continued into the 90's but in between learning about science reading books was a huge fad among kids and PBS knew this and launched Reading Rainbow in 1983 with future Star Trek The Next Generation star Levar Burton as host and I think it's because of Levar that this series became successful for PBS and kids really liked the subjects Reading Rainbow taught. But in the 90's PBS went through changes to it's lineup and with shows like Ghostwriter and Where In The World Is Carmen Sandiego they knew that older kids really liked those shows but the infant and toddler audience was forgotten about and even with Sesame Street and newcomer at the time Barney And Friends PBS returned back to toddler and infant programming with shows like Tots TV and the UK import Teletubbies and Arthur and Maya And Miguel for older kids. And with so much programming for any kid PBS Kids was launched but I think the one show that took off like a rocket was Dragon Tales and it granted PBS Kids a lot of popularity but I think PBS Kids went downhill was when Arthur ended and Dragon Tales ended and they started focusing on making spin-offs of old shows. Like I cannot figure out why they created Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood which was based on the Daniel Tiger character from Mister Rogers Neighborhood? I think the main reason they made that show was to honor Fred Rogers's legacy. Then they started showing American imports of kids shows like Noddy from the UK JayJay The Jet Plane from Canada Bob The Builder and Theodore Tugboat also from the UK. But next to Sesame Street I think the second children's show PBS Kids is focusing on is the Thomas And Friends series because ever since Shining Time Station Thomas The Tank Engine has become a huge celebrity for PBS. But PBS Kids needs to bring back shows for older kids and that would improve them very much indeed

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With thirty years of PBS Kids gone by, I decided to take a look back at the best channel for kids without cable, only to discover that it has fallen into obscurity in recent years.

• 0:00 - Intro
• 1:03 - okay the intro for real
• 2:50 - The Death of Saturday Morning Cartoons
• 6:34 - Disclaimer
• 8:24 - Sesame Street: Fifty Years and Counting
• 13:48 - Mister Roger's Neighborhood: An Instant Classic
• 15:17 - The Overhated World of Barney & Friends
• 20:29 - The Magic School Bus: Wackiness At Its Best
• 23:18 - BILL! BILL! BILL! BILL! BILL! BILL! Bill Nye The Science Guy
• 25:41 - Arthur: Wonderful Kind Of Day
• 29:32 - Redwall: PBS KIDS's Only Non-Educational Show
• 40:00 - Dragontales: The Show That Made Dragons Kid Friendly
• 44:30 - Clifford and its Big Awful Reboot
• 49:57 - Cailou: This Was Hated?
• 52:16 - The Painful Deletion of Cyberchase
• 1:11:10 - The Charming World Of The Berenstain Bears
• 1:16:25 - Maya&Miguel: PBS's First Show For Older Kids
• 1:20:07 - Intermission: Get Popcorn or Something
• 1:22:10 - THE GREATEST PBS KIDS SHOW EVER MADE: Fetch With Ruff Ruffman!
• 1:46:53 - Curious George and the Curious Review
• 1:50:33 - Super Why!: Protogent's Evil Twin?
• 1:53:19 - The Emotional Maturity That Is Wordgirl
• 2:04:00 - Martha Speaks About Its Lawsuit
• 2:09:37 - The Show PBS Wants You To Forget: The Electric Company
• 2:15:25 - Hey Arnold's Creator First PBS KIDS Show: Dinosaur Train
• 2:21:02 - The Cat in Hat Show
• 2:24:12 - Wild Kratts: It's Still Standing
• 2:30:08 - The Death Of PBS KIDS GO!
• 2:30:51 - The Once Wonderful Website That Was PBS KIDS
• 2:36:47 - Daniel Tiger Made PBS KIDS Decline In Quality
• 2:40:31 - Peg + Boring
• 2:43:46 - The Last Good Show on PBS KIDS: Odd Squad
• 2:49:26 - THE END
• 2:50:22 - Nature ruined PBS KIDS
• 2:53:46 - Hey Arnold's Creator Second PBS KIDS Show: Ready Jet Go!
• 2:57:29 - The FORGOTTEN Joe Murray Show: Let's Go Luna!
• 3:09:04 - Xavier Riddle and Okay Museum
• 3:11:14 - Molly of Mediocre
• 3:12:14 - Hero Elementary: Boring
• 3:13:11 - Elinor Wonders Why PBS KIDS IS BORING NOW
• 3:13:58 - Donkey Bor-die
• 3:14:56 - Pinkalicious (just watch barbie instead)
• 3:16:40 - Alma's Boring Way
• 3:18:37 - Rosie's Rules: Get Out
• 3:19:13 - Wombats Should Work Into Another Better Show
• 3:22:54 - THE WORST PBS KIDS SHOW: Lyla In The Poop
• 3:29:27 - Carl the Okay Collector
• 3:48:00 - The Line Between Cartoon Shows Being Canned and the Animators
• 3:49:50 - Saving PBS KIDS
• 4:02:34 - PBS KIDS PEOPLE ARE THE WORST
• 4:04:14 - Why are they so defensive?
• 4:06:40 - What "THE DEATH OF CHANNEL" actually means
• 4:10:21 - Wishbone is one hot dog
• 4:11:39 - PBS KIDS is becoming like HBO MAX and Paramount+
• 4:12:38 - Creators vs. Fans vs. Critics
• 4:14:10 - Can PBS KIDS Be Saved?
• 4:16:31 - Proposed PBS KIDS Expansions
• 4:26:30 - From Snoopy With Hope
• 4:29:08 - Legacy
• 4:30:39 - the end for now
• 4:31:20 - My "indie" PBS KIDS show
• 4:32:08 - The Forgotten Lands Of Sagwa
• 4:32:36 - Credits