ABC Weekend Specials (1977)

Adventure · Animation · Comedy

The ABC Weekend Specials 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 Specials 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 Specials, 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.

IMDb rating: 7.8 (445 votes)
Episode average: 6.7 -1.1 vs IMDb
Seasons: 14
Language: EN
Type: TV series

Rating trend: this show's seasons do not settle into one shape. Rising Shows ranks whole shows by the shape of their rating trend rather than one average score, which is how you find a show that got better rather than a show that started well.

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Ratings refreshed Oct 3, 2026 · 14 seasons indexed

Seasons

Season 1 (1977)

6.05 avg 12 episodes 2.7 → 7.0 49 min avg

Season 1 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	Valentine's Second Chance	2.7	13
2	The Haunted Trailer	4.8	11
3	My Dear Uncle Sherlock	4.5	36
4	Homer and the Wacky Doughnut Machine	6.0	16
5	The Winged Colt	7.3	68
6	The Ransom of Red Chief	6.6	55
7	Portrait of Grandpa Doc	8.2	31
8	Trouble River	6.2	31
9	Tales of the Nunundaga	7.4	11
10	The Escape of a One-Ton Pet	5.1	16
11	Soup and Me	6.8	52
12	The Puppy Who Wanted a Boy	7.0	35

Season 2 (1978)

6.86 avg 9 episodes 7.4 → 6.8 28 min avg

Rollercoaster

Season 2 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	The Seven Wishes of Joanna Peabody	7.4	52
2	The Contest Kid and the Big Prize	6.6	30
3	If I'm Lost, How Come I Found You?	7.3	16
4	The $1,000 Bill	6.2	14
5	Little Lulu	7.2	55
6	Soup for President	7.3	30
7	Weep No More, My Lady	6.4	13
8	The Horse That Played Centerfield	6.5	21
10	The Puppy's Great Adventure	6.8	25

Season 3 (1979)

6.64 avg 9 episodes 6.4 → 7.4 49 min avg

Rebound

Season 3 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	The Big Hex of Little Lulu	6.4	23
2	The Contest Kid Strikes Again	6.2	14
3	The Girl with ESP	7.3	17
4	The Ghost of Thomas Kempe	6.5	39
5	The Incredible Detectives	6.5	13
6	The Revenge of Red Chief	5.4	15
7	The Puppy's Amazing Rescue	6.7	18
8	The Gold Bug	7.4	101
9	The Trouble with Miss Switch	7.4	152

Season 4 (1980)

6.85 avg 4 episodes 7.6 → 6.6 72 min avg

Slow burn

Season 4 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	Scruffy	7.6	230
2	Arthur the Kid	5.5	14
3	Zack and the Magic Factory	7.7	29
4	Mayday! Mayday!	6.6	28

Season 5 (1981)

6.66 avg 5 episodes 5.8 → 6.2 35 min avg

Season 5 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	The Puppy Saves the Circus	5.8	19
2	The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County	7.3	29
3	Bunnicula, the Vampire Rabbit	6.3	186
4	Miss Switch to the Rescue	7.7	80
5	The Joke's on Mr. Little	6.2	18

Season 6 (1983)

6.74 avg 5 episodes 6.8 → 7.6

Season 6 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	The Haunted Mansion Mystery	6.8	103
2	The Red Room Riddle	6.8	62
3	Horatio Alger Updated: Frank and Fearless	7.1	10
4	All the Money in the World	5.4	40
5	The Secret World of Og	7.6	98

Season 7 (1984)

6.64 avg 5 episodes 7.4 → 5.5 45 min avg

Season 7 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	Cougar!	7.4	46
2	The Dog Days of Arthur Cane	6.5	30
3	A Different Twist	7.0	22
4	The Bunjee Venture	6.8	52
5	Bad Cat	5.5	16

Season 8 (1984)

6.56 avg 5 episodes 5.8 → 6.9 35 min avg

Season 8 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	Henry Hamilton Graduate Ghost	5.8	17
2	The Bollo Caper	7.0	28
3	The Adventures of a Two-Minute Werewolf	6.2	34
4	The Return of the Bunjee	6.9	19
5	The Velveteen Rabbit	6.9	46

Season 9 (1985)

6.72 avg 6 episodes 7.1 → 7.5 30 min avg

Rebound

Season 9 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	The Adventures of Con Sawyer and Hucklemary Finn	7.1	40
2	Jeeter Mason and the Magic Headset	5.9	13
3	Cap'n O.G. Readmore's Jack and the Beanstalk	6.5	15
4	Pippi Longstocking	7.5	46
5	Columbus Circle	5.8	11
6	The Adventures of Teddy Ruxpin	7.5	33

Season 10 (1986)

6.43 avg 4 episodes 6.9 → 7.1 45 min avg

Season 10 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	Cap'n O.G. Readmore Meets Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde	6.9	23
2	The Day the Kids Took Over	5.9	15
3	Liberty and the Littles	5.8	27
4	The Mouse and the Motorcycle	7.1	538

Season 11 (1988)

7.07 avg 3 episodes 7.4 → 6.8 42 min avg

Declining

Season 11 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	Cap'n O.G. Readmore Meets Red Riding Hood	7.4	9
2	Cap'n O.G. Readmore's Puss in Boots	7.0	12
3	Runaway Ralph	6.8	278

Season 12 (1989)

7.23 avg 4 episodes 6.8 → 5.8 41 min avg

Season 12 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	Ralph S. Mouse	6.8	105
2	Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great	9.0	10
3	P.J. Funnybunny	7.3	15
4	The Monster Bed	5.8	14

Season 14 (1992)

7.17 avg 3 episodes 6.0 → 8.7 33 min avg

Rising

Season 14 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	P.J.'s Unfunnybunny Christmas	6.0	17
2	The Magic Flute	6.8	72
3	Cap'n O.G. Readmore Meets Chicken Little	8.7	10

Season 15 (1993)

7.10 avg 4 episodes 6.1 → 6.6 41 min avg

Front-loaded

Season 15 episodes - IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	The Secret Garden	6.1	202
5	Jirimpimbira: An African Folk Tale	8.9	12
6	The Legend of Lochnagar	6.8	26
7	Commander Toad in Space	6.6	33