The
ABC Weekend Special is a weekly 30-minute
anthology TV series for children that aired Saturday mornings on
ABC from 1977 to 1997. It featured a wide variety of stories that were both
live-action and
animated. Similar to both the
ABC Afterschool Special and
The ABC Saturday Superstar Movie that had started five years previous, 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 Specials that had been targeted towards younger viewers were subsequently repackaged and re-run instead as
ABC Weekend Specials.