Full transcript of “The Rise & Fall of Fox Family”. Click a timestamp to open the video at that moment. Need another video? Use the YouTube transcript generator.
0:00 we live in a world in which reinvention is the norm buildings come and go brands completely change overnight and in the world of television this concept is taken to the max as programs are cancelled as fast as they premiere and entire networks often rebrand themselves in attempts to be noticed and remembered in the late 90s one such cable network would take boundless risks in order to do just that but would ultimately suffer the fate of being lost in the shuffle [Music] in 1960 yale law school graduate and recent born again christian pat robertson purchased a fledgling uhf tv
0:46 station in portsmouth virginia for 37 thousand dollars the son of a long-serving u.s congressman robertson had very little capital to invest into actual programming so armed with only a single camera robertson began preaching on air directly to viewers while televangelism was already an established practice most tv preachers were broadcast giving sermons before live congregations thus robertson's approach was rather unorthodox by 1963 he had established the 700 club which time magazine once called a hybrid of telethon talk show in sunday school class robertson's initial goal was to find 700 viewers willing to sponsor the program for 10 a month which would cover production costs and basic overhead this goal was met and exceeded
1:32 exponentially and by 1977 cbn was pulling in 5 million a year in donations alone enabling robertson to launch the cbn satellite service the first nationwide cable network dedicated solely to religious programming with the 700 club as its temple the network featured televangelism as well as news segments and robertson's focus began to veer into the political spectrum as he often shared his conservative leaning views on current affairs robertson appointed his son tim as the head of the network and under his leadership the channel's programming evolved to include secular but family-friendly content featuring reruns of sitcoms from the 1950s and 60s family dramas like the waltons westerns and game shows tim robertson's programming approach was
2:19 to emulate the format of the traditional big three networks airing soap operas in the afternoon news at five and movies in the evening being that audiences were accustomed to this schedule the robertsons aimed to make cbn the destination for family programming in the cable sphere even becoming one of the earliest broadcasters of anime in the us however a solid one-third of the schedule was still devoted to explicitly religious content like a 700 club and the network even introduced a faith-based soap opera entitled another life by the late 1980s the still technically non-profit network was becoming far too profitable to retain its status as a solution the robertsons founded holding company international family entertainment to serve as a parent company of the cbn cable
3:06 network which was shortly thereafter renamed the family channel robertson's 700 club however remained non-profit and retained its prime slot on the ever-growing network the televangelist had become a household name but was also receiving significant notoriety regularly making headlines for superfluous claims and statements on the air in one instance he insisted that his prayers had redirected the route of a hurricane and his stance on social issues generally fell in line with the mainstream religious right ideology of the time perhaps no example of what can come along to warp the minds of youth stands out stronger than that of what's known as the violence punk rocker movement that originated in england his increasing focus on conservative culture wars culminated with a run for
3:52 president in 1988 challenging vice president george h.w bush in the republican primary while robertson was ultimately defeated he did receive over nine percent of the vote placing third in large part thanks to the vast audience he had accumulated on television meanwhile the family channel continued to boost its investment into original and acquired programming tim robertson stated that the channel's purpose was to foster quote values between husbands and wives and children where they can have loving caring relationships in which children aren't smart alex and parents aren't buffoons however the network received criticism for its unabashed airings of war films and westerns which often featured violent content that seemed counter to its mission statement
4:37 regardless by the early 90s the family channel was boasting a whopping 48 million subscribers compared to the disney channel's meagre 5 million while the family channel continued to grow and dominate the cable market another network was gradually expanding its reach and becoming a tour de force in children's tv the fox kids network originally titled fox children's network had launched in 1990 as a joint venture between the news corp owned fox network and its local affiliates as a way of streamlining its saturday morning programming schedule the block featured plethora of original mostly animated series upon its launch but as the programming block grew and evolved its most notable and high-rated series were emanating from saban entertainment producer heim saban's company which
5:22 created the hits mighty morphin power rangers and goosebumps strategically in 1996 the two entities merged to form a single holding company entitled fox kids network worldwide jointly owned by news corp and saban and ambitious plans were on the horizon that would expand the network exponentially 1997 proved to be a watershed moment for the cable industry as the disney channel was rebranding itself in attempts to be integrated into basic cable packages the announcement was made in june of 1997 that tim and pat robertson had closed a deal to sell international family entertainment to new scorpion saban for a whopping 1.9 billion dollars as the robertsons owned 6.5 million shares of ife the family would
6:08 make an approximate 227 million dollars from the sale ifv was renamed fox family worldwide and the new owners of the family channel soon to become the fox family channel began plotting their strategy in 1998 former nickelodeon executive rich cronin was brought on board to head the network while the family channel's programming had been middle of the road and focused on quote-unquote traditional values fox family would employ a more cutting edge approach with cronin telling the press quote our focus is families that are a little younger urban or suburban more plugged into pop culture what we call contemporary families who appreciate a network with attitude this assessment was no understatement as on august 15th fox family channel launched with a brand
6:53 new schedule okay okay okay listen up so like someone had this idea about a tv channel for the whole family and they called it the fox family channel over 500 million dollars was invested into programming that included an even mix of original and acquired content gone were reruns like hawaii 5-0 and diagnosis murder replaced by the likes of pee-wee's playhouse from 6am to 6pm children were the main focus with four main blocks dividing the schedule morning's scramble for kids of all ages the captain's treasure house for preschoolers tic-tac-toons serving as an all-animated block and the basement which veered slightly edgier and rounded out the day before adult-oriented programming began at 6pm oh no mr bill presents offered niche comedy segments of various origins
7:40 while show me the funny and life camera action featured funny and rare video clips borrowing in format from abc's popular america's funniest home videos 9 p.m was reserved for a movie presentation and over 20 original movies were commissioned for fox family's first season including an unauthorized michael jordan biopic animated programming ranged from derivative to quite innovative as one of the earliest shows to premiere was donkey kong country the series was a cgi animated adaptation of the immensely popular super nintendo game of the same name and was one of the first shows on tv to employ then cutting edge motion capture technology the series also gave us this cutting edge and historic moment
8:26 other highlights of the channel included the 13 days of halloween which launched in its inaugural year you don't want to miss live camera action coming up next on fox family channel i thought we were having the new neighbor for dinner yeah dude's almost ready the event featured halloween oriented shows and films airing from october 19th until halloween night and kicked off with the premiere of the new adams family a revival of the cult 60's sitcom aside from fox family channel's investment in new programming there were several prominent carryovers from the family channel era the 25 days of christmas had launched in 1996 and remained relatively unchanged the other major program to survive the leap was the 700 club but not for the sake of sentimentality
9:12 pat robertson had cleverly woven into the family channel sale an agreement that the new owners would continue to run his flagship show forever while religious sermons certainly did not fit in with the modern cutting-edge aesthetic that the channel was trying to create they did their best to work around this obligation creating a seemingly foolproof schedule that catered to a multitude of demographics executives expected ratings to soar given this new approach however as often is the case expectation and reality did not line up less than a year into its launch the fox family channel was already showing signs of trouble the network had planned to adopt a schedule that would appeal to families through children specifically this would allow for the retention of the adult viewership that made up the
9:58 family channel while bringing in new young viewers who would otherwise be watching nickelodeon or cartoon network unfortunately the network was experiencing the worst of both worlds as adult viewers had fled the network following the retooling and the overall rating amongst viewers 2 to 11 was flat concerns about the channel's new strategy began in the summer of 1998 when president rich cronin was quoted as saying that he saw the simpsons as the template for the kinds of family programming that fox family was after many cable operators began voicing complaints expressing that the simpsons was far too radical of a departure for the family channel others saw the schedule as being too similar to fox kids saturday morning schedule questioning whether the network would be cannibalizing its audience cronin had assured critics and cable
10:44 operators that the fox family channel would be more family oriented than the old family channel and that quote once people see the network on the air i think they'll understand however this hypothesis was not shaping up the family channel had relied mostly on reruns of established network shows that attracted an older crowd in spite of the fox family channel sinking nearly half a billion dollars into programming they didn't have a single established recognizable show to attract in adult viewers while the new adams family did prove to be successful with audiences the network experienced a 36 dip in prime time ratings compared to the family channel's numbers and some blamed this on the fact that the prime time schedule mostly consisted of reality-based clip and game shows before the network had launched cronin
11:29 had promised advertisers a 1.0 rating amongst viewers 2-11 but by late 1998 the network was only delivering a 0.3 rating trailing far behind nickelodeon and cartoon network cronin placed most of the blame for the lagging ratings on the network's preschool block captain's treasure house which aired daily from 11am to 1pm directly followed the 700 club and pat robertson's christian news magazine proved to be a very inappropriate lead-in for programs like shining time station and the new captain kangaroo cronin lamented that quote we can't count on any audience flow from the 700 club overall he remained upbeat about the future calling the network's revamped launch in 73 million homes an amazing accomplishment
12:15 in order to boost its daytime numbers fox family cut commercials from its preschool block and launched its itsy bitsy time an offbeat mix of animated and live action shorts in hopes of winning approval from adweary parents they also began a gradual process of pruning the overall schedule by early 1999 several prime time series were cancelled while animated series like donkey kong country were renewed and the network sought to capitalize on the recent success of pixar films by ordering new series that utilized innovative animation techniques like angela anaconda more tv movies were commissioned and the summer debut of the original film au pair proved to be a huge hit scoring the highest ratings in the 22-year history of the network
13:00 individual series aside fox family would employ an entirely new strategy for its fall 1999 season prime time would cater specifically to adult viewers but remain family-friendly airing unconventional non-violent substantive programming the new schedule ran the gamut from edgy dramas to unscripted series and specials in a similar vein to what major networks and adult-oriented cable stations were airing while music-based series like great pretenders and live-action comedies like i was a sixth-grade alien did help boost the rookie network's ratings among children it had yet to recover much of its adult audience lost during the switchover and the faltering ratings were starting to have very real consequences in october of 1999 fox family channel worldwide
13:45 nearly fell into default on its 710 million dollars in bank loans while its parent company would ultimately swoop in and infuse the company with 125 million dollars to avoid default the situation underscored the immense problems facing the one-year-old network it needed to boost its audience fast and the year 2000 would force executives to leave no stone unturned attempting every strategy possible to save the ship from sinking at the television critics association tour in january of 2000 fox family announced the launch of a live and interactive programming initiative touting shows in which viewers would have the power to influence the outcome in real time one series under this initiative a game show entitled paranoia debuted in april
14:31 of 2000 and featured in studio contestants competing against viewers all across the country via satellite the network also relented in acquiring established syndicated shows as inspirational dramas like seventh heaven and early edition as well as sitcoms like who's the boss began inundating the schedule some of these changes were showing signs of promise with the network's saturday morning kids ratings increasing 75 but serious shake-ups were imminent and the forthcoming series of events would result in the complete dismantling of the fox family channel in may of 2000 the network announced via press release that president rich cronin would be stepping down some sources claimed that the network had abruptly terminated him stemming from disagreements with heim saban about the programming direction
15:19 cronin allegedly wanted to create a nickelodeon type atmosphere while saban wanted to mold the network after his successful fox kids series like the action-centric mighty morphin power rangers rumors even began to swirl that saban was so unhappy with the direction and performance of fox family that he was considering exercising a contract option to sell his stake in the network to news corp however savann denied these allegations entirely and corporate press releases only explained that cronin would be leaving to pursue other opportunities maureen smith who had served as general manager for the fox kids network took over cronin's duties and doubled down on the new strategy to draw in viewers the network would focus on attracting young viewers through adults not vice versa as was initially
16:04 attempted and saban publicly made the claim that the network was set for a quote sharp angle takeoff as 400 million dollars would be dedicated to the acquisition of new series a new logo was introduced in the fall of 2000 and one such major acquisition was that of freaks and geeks a series that had struggled to accumulate an audience during its freshman season on nbc only to be canceled with several episodes remaining unaired these episodes would ultimately make their premiere on fox family though executives ruled out commissioning new episodes due to cost the network vowed to take a less is more approach to original programming producing a select few high quality series projects included a les miz miniseries starring john malkovich and october's annual 13 days of
16:50 halloween would introduce a slate of new series including the zac files real scary stories and scariest places on earth the latter hosted by exorcist star linda blair and narrated by poltergeist actress zelda rubenstein featured families visiting allegedly haunted locations a reality-style answer to the previous year's sleeper hit the blair witch project what is it that makes a place scary the series proved to be a huge hit and was quickly renewed but the writing was on the wall for the network as a whole in december heim saban confirmed long-standing suspicions by announcing that he would be selling his share of fox family worldwide this put news corp in a bind as they would be required to either buy his
17:35 share outright find another buyer for his share or sell the network entirely as the corporation weighed its options the fox family channel continued to chug along a whopping 200 hours of programming were included in its annual 25 days of christmas event and major league baseball games were added to the schedule resulting in a modest ratings bump more original made for tv movies were commissioned and at the upfront in april of 2001 network head maureen smith proclaimed that quote we've turned this ship around citing significant prime time gains in the 18 to 49 demo over the previous season she admitted that the network had been too trigger-happy in the past to cancel series and vowed to be more cautious moving forward showcasing plethora of new series for the fall
18:20 this optimism would ultimately be short-lived as the fox family channel was officially put up for sale the following month in spite of the ratings improvements that had incurred over the year prior overall prime time ratings had fallen an average of 35 percent since its launch as the family channel's older viewers were chased away with no replacement despite their best efforts investing hundreds of millions of dollars into original and unique programming fox family channel was never able to establish a brand that could rival nickelodeon or disney channel news corp initially sought four to six billion dollars for their network of 81 million subscribers and viacom in the usa network were early potential buyers in july of 2001 the walt disney company agreed to purchase fox family for 3
19:06 billion plus its 2.3 billion debt load the sale was finalized in october disney saw the struggling network as great real estate an opportunity to expand its reach and bring in the types of viewers that its other networks could not in november of 2001 fox family channel officially dissolved transitioning into abc family slowly but surely a new schedule was introduced mostly consisting of reruns of abc shows like alias and whose line is it anyway though several fox family originals like scariest places on earth and the period dramedy state of grace did survive the rebranding another notable program to make the cut was the 700 club due to the contract pat robertson had signed when selling the family channel disney's ceo michael eisner had
19:53 initially referred to the 700 club as an asset and seemed optimistic about its scheduling but robertson always had a flare for making outrageous comments and this impulse would not wane with the sale of the network to disney in 2005 robertson called on the us government to assassinate venezuelan president hugo chavez and in 2010 robertson proclaimed that the devastating haitian earthquake was a result of the nation's people making a pact with satan they got together and saw a pact of the devil while abc family issued statements denouncing each of these comments public calls to cancel the 700 club were quickly dismissed as the network was under a contractual obligation and could not pull the series without robertson's consent abc family was eventually renamed
20:38 freeform in 2016 and evolved even further away from the network's original mission becoming an epicenter for edgy teen dramas however for better or for worse somebody take that kid to the woodshed and let him understand the blessings of discipline the owners of pat robertson's former family channel would be stuck with the controversial televangelist what if somebody wanted to marry his dog forever well you could become a muslim then you could beat her if there's one thing that the fox family channel should be recognized for it's the bold and abundant creation of innovative and off-beat original series more than one could ever adequately cover in one single video while not every series was a winner the network took an admirable risk in
21:24 attempting to build the schedule from the ground up rather than resting on the laurels of bland but success guaranteeing second-run programming a common practice of other cable channels considering its existence lasted only three years the fox family channel left its mark and will surely exist in the annals of our collective consciousness for years to come if you'd like to see more content like this please hit the like and subscribe button i'm channel surfer and until next time thanks for watching [Music]
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