Discussion Fox Kids Network vs. Kids' WB!, which defined your cable-free childhood?

[MagiCarbo]

If you were a kid in the late 90s and very early 2000s, and your parents couldn't afford to pay for cable tv (which meant no Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, or Cartoon Network). Then aside from PBS's edutainment fare and whatever syndicated shows and blocks that local tv stations were able to grab up, there were two networks just for you.

There was Kids' WB!. The kid-targeted arm of the former WB network that aired 14-hours of children's entertainment a week (Mon-Fri afternoons, and Saturday mornings) on WB affiliates, until 2005 when it switched to a Saturday-only block before being dissolved entirely in 2008. Being home to of course, Warner Bros. and DC-owned properties like Looney Tunes, Batman, Superman, and Pinky & The Brain, as well as a host of anime and action cartoon series such as Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh!, Jackie Chan Adventures, and X-Men Evolution.

And then there was the Fox Kids Network. Initially a unit of the FOX Broadcasting Co., before becoming part of Fox Family Worldwide (owned in partnership between Fox and Haim Saban) until its sale to Disney in 2001. A similar 14-hour-a-week block that was home to X-Men, the initial run of B:TAS, Bobby's World, The Tick, Goosebumps. It later became known for the Power Rangers franchise as well as off-beat Canadian shows and anime such as Digimon, Cybersix, Action Man, The Ripping Friends, and Medabots.

Ironically, the remains of both Fox Kids and Kids' WB were taken over by 4Kids in 2002 and 2008 respectively.

Between the two, which network was your go-to for kids programing if you didn't have cable (or did have cable, but still wanted to watch saturday moring cartoons anyway).

 

[Mekanos]

I'd say there were more shows I enjoyed on Kids WB, but none of those shows I enjoyed as much as Digimon. Digimon was an obsession at the time and one of the biggest gateways into anime for me, even bigger than Pokemon probably. It was my first real experience watching a show with overarching storylines and character development, and having rewatched the Japanese version on Blu-Rays recently, it's still a show I love very much.

Tough call. I'd be inclined to give the nod to WB, but a lot of those shows I watched more in syndication on CN than WB's Saturday morning block. I'll say Fox just for Digimon and the occasional other odd show on it.

 

[batfax]

I couldn't get WB unless the weather was just right, so Fox was my only option. But then they cut the block in half in favor of, like, a talk show or Judge Judy or something before airing something decent again (The Simpsons I think?) around 6 PM. Since I was one of the last kids off the bus, I missed basically the whole block Fox had and, ultimately, became a PBS Kid since they were still airing stuff that was interesting for a kid.

 

[wakko]

During its prime, Fox Kids had a pretty incredible lineup.

Batman: The Animated Series
X-Men: The Animated Series
Spider-Man: The Animated Series
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
Tiny Toon Adventures
Animaniacs
Taz-Mania
Goosebumps
The Tick
Bobby's World
Life with Louie

Digimon is an interesting case, because it was on Fox Kids at one point in time. There was a period of time when Fox Kids was airing more Japanese cartoons.

Fox Kids commercial for Digimon.

 

[ngpdrew]

Yeesh, this is tough. I certainly have memories of watching some shows on FOX, but the bumper ads between programs on WB Kids! stick out in my head like nothing else. I think Pokémon was also on WB, sooooo...I think that's the winner!

 

[chocolate_supra]

During its prime, Fox Kids had a pretty incredible lineup.

Batman: The Animated Series
X-Men: The Animated Series
Spider-Man: The Animated Series
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
Tiny Toon Adventures
Animaniacs
Goosebumps
The Tick
Bobby's World
Life with Louie

These plus The Disney Afternoon were my upbringing.

 

[SammyJ9]

I was more mid-late 90s and while I liked Fox Kids and Kids WB (loved Animaniacs!), I grew up on the Disney Afternoon which IIRC aired on like... ABC or something? It was non-cable I believe pre-1996. Talespin, Darkwing Duck, Rescue Rangers, Ducktales!, and so on were my jam.

Also shoutout to Disney's "One Saturday Morning" which started in 1997 on ABC and had Doug, Recess, and Pepper Ann

 

[Christo750]

Kids WB, which Pokemon essentially carried on its back.

New episodes of Pokemon aired right as I would have breakfast in the morning before school and my friends and I would talk about it. Still remember the discourse around Charmeleon evolving.

 

[chocolate_supra]

Holy shit a perfect 3-way split on the poll atm

 

[Chie]

We had cable so I watched mainly cartoon network and nickelodeon (not disney channel, really didn't like disney much as a kid or adult).

That said I regularly watched kids wb. I would always get up early to watch kids wb every Saturday morning.Loved seeing Batman Beyond, Pokémon, Jackie Chan Adventures, Xiaolon Showdown, Static Shock, etc.

Fox Kids, I really don't have vivid memories of that. I really didn't watch much power rangers or digimon as a kid (a few episodes here and there randomly, but not consistently).

I definitely watched a bunch of 90s Warner stuff as a kid. Shows like: Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs, pinky and the brain, freakazoid!, batman the animated series, superman the animated series. Some of those were on fox kids before moving to kids wb and cartoon network for reruns. Not sure we're I watched some of them bit I definitely remember them.

Tiny Toon Adventures definitely started in first run syndication because there was an episode were buster and babs announced they were now on the fox network (and proceeded to be chased by foxes).

 

[BlackthornOrion]

We had Nick and Cartoon Network growing up, but Kids WB had Pokemon so I'd generally tune in for that on Sundays(?) and then stick around for the other stuff

tbh I don't really remember Fox Kids being on my radar. I think I was a bit too young for its heyday so most of the shows people associate with it were already doing reruns on other channels

 

[Josh5890]

Oh man, I could talk about this topic all day.

WB Kids- Outside of Pokemon and Animaniacs, I don't have too many fond memories. It seems like the hey days of Kid's WB was in the early 2000's when I was starting to age out of that programming. I certainly watched my fair share of Pokemon though.

Fox Kids- Definitely the prime of my childhood. Every afternoon there was Power Rangers at the center of my life. Yes kids, there used to be kids shows in the weekday afternoons on broadcast TV. Beetleborgs and VR Troopers was cheesy but fun live action shows as well. Fox had a lot of Marvel content so there was Spider-Man and X-men, among others. I was a closet Digimon fan for quite a while, but that was also a big part of FOX in the late 90's, early 2000's. Still, Power Rangers was the center of everything for me. I stayed pretty dedicated through Lost Space as I felt that the death of Zordon was kind of the end for me. Light Speed Rescue was the last season that I put any serious effort into watching.

ABC's One Saturday Morning was full of great shows as well. Recess (which is still the greatest cartoon show from the 90's), Doug, Pepper-Ann, The Weekenders, and so much more made for an incredible line up. Heck, Winnie the Pooh cartoons were great to see as well. Eventually, ABC started gravitating more towards live action shows for tweens, but I my interest was already starting to wane.

Saturday mornings were basically AMC and FOX fighting for my attention. I made it a point to be up by 7 am in order to watch
this start to an amazing 5 hour block. Every commercial break was me flipping back and forth between both channels to enjoy as much as possible. Like I mentioned above, everything largely revolved around the Power Rangers and when that aired. Getting excited for stuff like a Power Rangers finale was my experience at hype cycles. If I didn't have an activity Saturday mornings or my Mom wasn't yelling at me to get off my butt and do something, I was glued from 7-12 in front of my tv. Ironically, I would get upset when ABC cut off cartoons an hour early for college football, but now I spend all of my Saturdays watching college football.

PBS- I still have to give a shout out to the Public Broadcasting Service. There were an important part of my early childhood like most kids my age and before me, and Arthur is the king of internet memes. Liberty's Kids is top tier stuff as well. Also, Magic School Bus is still amazing.

I know that every generation likes to lament about how good it used to be, I really think that kids today are missing some magic with Saturday morning cartoons. It is hard to quantify to kids today that can just watch whatever they want on an iPad 24/7. You had to be there.

 

[big lantern ghost]

Thanks to the tyranny of Canadian telecom, nearly all of the shows that have been mentioned so far played on YTV

 

[metwars]

both? both is good.

Its honestly hard for me to say, because shows from both of these line ups helped define my childhood very much. I watched a lot of power rangers and Digimon on Fox Kids. But I also watched a lot of animaniacs, pokemon and jackie chan adventures on Kids WB. Kids WB is also how I first got into One Piece (ya yo ya yo).....actually I might have to chose Kids WB due to One Piece.

Edit: OH, I FORGOT ABOUT BATMAN....HOW DID I FORGET ABOUT BATMAN. more specifically Batman singing the Jigglypuff song

 

[Síriocaz]

I got late to the party. When I began watching both channels, WB was about to get removed (or fused with Cartoon Network? IDK) and Fox was going to become Jetix, with the latter being the one I watched the most. Unfortunately, I frankly don't remember too many programs anymore.

There was Pucca, which I really liked, the first seasons of Fairly Oddparents, several Power Rangers arcs, and some other stuff.

I was always more of a Cartoon Network kid. Billy & Mandy, Dexter Laboratory, Powerpuff Girls, Foster's Home, Teen Titans, Kids Next Door, Samurai Jack, Ben 10. Now we would be talking.