Children's television series are television programmes designed for and marketed to children, normally aired during the morning and afternoon hours, mainly before and after school. The purpose of the show is mainly to entertain and sometimes to educate the young audience about basic life skills or ideals. A television program is the content of television broadcasting. ... “Children” redirects here. ... Students in Rome, Italy. ...

Programmes vary in their intended age group audience and style of presentation. Some take the form of game shows or comedies, and many take the form of animated series, although early animation were often intended for an adult audience. “Quiz show” redirects here. ... The word comedy has a classical meaning (comical theatre) and a popular one (the use of humor with an intent to provoke laughter in general). ... An animated series or cartoon series is a television series produced by means of animation. ...

Children's television is nearly as old as television itself, with early examples including shows such as Blue Peter, Captain Tugg, The Magic Roundabout, Howdy Doody, The Clangers, Flower Pot Men and The Singing Ringing Tree. In the United States, early children's television was often a marketing branch of a larger corporate product such as Disney, and it rarely contained an educational element. Though there is some debate on the intended audience, later non-educational children's television programs included the science fiction programs of Irwin Allen (most notably Lost in Space), the fantasy series of Sid and Marty Krofft, and the extensive cartoon empire of Hanna-Barbera. Blue Peter is a popular, long-running BBC television programme for children. ... Captain Tugg was a local childrens show that was broadcast in the early 1950s by WTTG, Channel 5, a Washington, D. C. television station. ... The Magic Roundabout (Known in the original French as Le Manège enchanté) was a childrens television programme created in France in 1963 by Serge Danot. ... Howdy Doody was a childrens television program (with a decidedly frontier/western theme, although other themes also colored the show) that aired on NBC from 1947 through 1960. ... The Clangers is a British stop motion animated childrens television series made by Smallfilms, the company set up by Oliver Postgate (writer and narrator) and Peter Firmin (modelmaker, animator and illustrator). ... In the 1950s and 1960s, BBC television ran a series of childrens programmes under the collective title of Watch with Mother. ... The Singing Ringing Tree (German: Das singende, klingende Bäumchen) was a childrens film made by East German studio DEFA in 1957 and shown in the form of a television series by the BBC. It was a story in the style of the Brothers Grimm, directed by Francesco Stefani. ... The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) is one of the largest media and entertainment corporations in the world. ... Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... Irwin Allen (June 12, 1916 – November 2, 1991) was a television and film producer nicknamed The Master of Disaster for his work in the disaster film genre. ... Lost in Space is a science fiction themed TV series produced by television producer Irwin Allen for the American television network CBS. The show ran for three seasons, with eighty-three first-run original episodes airing between September 15, 1965 and March 6, 1968, replacing the short-lived World War... Sid and Marty Krofft are a sibling team of prolific television producers who were influential in childrens television and variety show programs, particularly throughout the 1970s and early 1980s. ... Cartoon Network Studios, formerly known as Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. ...

Many children's programmes also have a large adult following, sometimes in appreciation of their quality and educational value, and sometimes among adults who watched the shows as children or with their own children and now have a nostalgic emotional connection.

See also

• List of local children's television series
• List of children's television series by country

. ... The following is a partial list of television programs for children that have received particular recognition or popularity, listed by their country of origin. ... A cartoon is any of several forms of illustrations with varied meanings that evolved from its original meaning. ... Weekday cartoon is an animated television programming block for children and later teens during the weekday mornings and afternoons. ... Saturday morning cartoon is the colloquial term for the animated television programming which was typically scheduled on Saturday mornings on the major American television networks from the 1960s to the 1990s. ... Sunday Morning Cartoons have been a part of television programming since the 1950s, but aired far less than Saturday morning cartoons. ... // While The Flintstones (originally running on ABC from September 30, 1960 – April 1, 1966) is generally considered the first cartoon to air in prime time, it was preceded by CBS Cartoon Theater, which aired reruns of Terrytoons theatrical shorts for three months in 1956, and was hosted by a young...

External links

• Children's Television, online exhibition from screenonline, a website of the British Film Institute
• The 1950's-2000's Week-By-Week - includes listings and factoids for local/national children's shows.
• The future of children's digital television - an interview with Gloria Tristani