ABC Weekend Special

Title card from the first intro.

***ABC Weekend Special*** was a weekly 30-minute American television anthology series for children that aired Saturday mornings on ABC from 1977 to 1997 which featured a wide variety of stories that were both live-action and animated. Similar to both *ABC Afterschool Special* and *The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie*, the *ABC Weekend Special* differed in that it was primarily aimed at younger viewers following ABC's Saturday-morning cartoon lineup, whereas the *ABC Afterschool Special* was known for its somewhat more serious, and often dramatic, storylines dealing with issues concerning a slightly older teen and pre-teen audience.

With the debut of the *ABC Weekend Special*, some of the early *ABC Afterschool Special*s that had been targeted towards younger viewers were subsequently repackaged and re-run instead as *ABC Weekend Special's*.

Ever since its cancellation in 1997, this show became rarely known by children today. Most episodes hadn't surfaced on DVD, but very few have surfaced on VHS, which are considered extremely rare and hard to find, which are assumed expensive.

## Title sequence

During the series' tenure on Saturday Mornings, *ABC Weekend Specials* had three main opening title sequence packages, all of which included storybook/literary elements and characters in varying forms.

The original opening, designed and animated by Rick Reinert Studios, consisted of a stack of books on a library desk accompanied by a rhythmic disco theme tune in the background. A larger book in the middle of the display (with the show's title printed on the cover) magically opens, with the ABC logo printed on the first page. Various figures from literature and intertitles pop up from out of the book. The intertitles read *Children's Novels for Television* and *Short Story Specials* respectively. The series title "blossoms" into view at the end of the intro.
 September 1990–September 1994
With a new decade comes a new visual sequence and theme song. For this package, *Weekend Specials* combined computer animation with live action elements, as neighborhood kids discover the wonders of reading with a turn of a page and a little bit of magic. When the enchanted books are open, the readers become part of the story...from cowboys to undersea explorers to cave kids. One of the books (with the series title printed on the cover) magically grows and flips open, with Cap'n O. G. Readmore ushering the readers for fun and adventure.
 September 1994–August 30, 1997
During the mid-1990s, the graphics package was again updated. This CGI opener takes place back at the library, where we pan through a row of books. The camera stops at a book with the ABC Circle signature printed on the side. The logo then magically pops out and grows arms and legs and leaps to a book on a nearby desk. It opens the book and dives into an array of worlds and universes inhabited by letters! The Circle figure fights off combatants at a medieval castle, swings a vine in the jungle and flies through the solar system in its spacecraft. The Circle figure ends its journey on the front cover of a book with the show's title beside it.
The closing sequence varied over the years. In the 1970s and 1980s, a short version of the theme played as a bookmark floats into view, gently landing in the closing Pop-Up Book. An intertitle fades in: Recommended by the National Education Association. The latter title was used until c. 1983.

## List of episodes

*This list only contains the episodes Rick Reinert produced and directed. The other episodes that aren't related to Reinert's work are off-limits from this list.*