ABC Weekend Specials (1977)

Adventure · Animation · Comedy

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.

IMDb rating: 7.8 (436 votes)
Seasons: 14
Language: EN
Type: TV series

Browse all Front-loaded seasons in the explorer → Open in Rising Shows app → View on IMDb

Ratings refreshed Jul 3, 2026 · 14 seasons indexed

Seasons

Season 1 (1977)

6.01 avg 12 episodes 2.3 → 6.9 49 min avg

Season 1 episodes — IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	Valentine's Second Chance	2.3	12
2	The Haunted Trailer	4.8	11
3	My Dear Uncle Sherlock	4.5	35
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	54
7	Portrait of Grandpa Doc	8.2	31
8	Trouble River	6.2	30
9	Tales of the Nunundaga	7.4	10
10	The Escape of a One-Ton Pet	5.1	16
11	Soup and Me	6.8	51
12	The Puppy Who Wanted a Boy	6.9	33

Season 2 (1978)

6.88 avg 9 episodes 7.3 → 6.8 28 min avg

Season 2 episodes — IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	The Seven Wishes of Joanna Peabody	7.3	51
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	29
7	Weep No More, My Lady	6.4	12
8	The Horse That Played Centerfield	6.8	19
10	The Puppy's Great Adventure	6.8	24

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	12
6	The Revenge of Red Chief	5.4	15
7	The Puppy's Amazing Rescue	6.7	17
8	The Gold Bug	7.4	99
9	The Trouble with Miss Switch	7.4	149

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	227
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)

6.64 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	18
2	The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County	7.2	28
3	Bunnicula, the Vampire Rabbit	6.3	179
4	Miss Switch to the Rescue	7.7	79
5	The Joke's on Mr. Little	6.2	18

Season 6 (1983)

6.72 avg 5 episodes 6.8 → 7.6

Season 6 episodes — IMDb ratings
#	Title	Rating	Votes
1	The Haunted Mansion Mystery	6.8	102
2	The Red Room Riddle	6.7	60
3	Horatio Alger Updated: Frank and Fearless	7.1	10
4	All the Money in the World	5.4	39
5	The Secret World of Og	7.6	96

Season 7 (1984)

6.72 avg 5 episodes 7.4 → 5.8 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	29
3	A Different Twist	7.0	22
4	The Bunjee Venture	6.9	50
5	Bad Cat	5.8	16

Season 8 (1984)

6.56 avg 5 episodes 5.8 → 6.8 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	6.3	33
4	The Return of the Bunjee	6.9	18
5	The Velveteen Rabbit	6.8	44

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	25
4	The Mouse and the Motorcycle	7.1	531