ABC Afterschool Special - "My Mom's Having a Baby" (Complete Broadcast, 2/16/1977) 👶 📺

Here's yet another awesome original airing (and one of the most famous of all) of the ABC Afterschool Specials - "My Mom's Having a Baby" as aired on KTXS Channel 12, the ABC affiliate out of Sweetwater-Abilene, Texas.
In this story - produced by DePatie-Freleng (of "Pink Panther" fame) - a 10-year-old boy, Petey (Shane Sinutko), wonders how babies are born as his mother (Candace Farrell) is pregnant with his soon to be baby brother, as related through animated fantasies and flashbacks; with friends Oskar (Jarrod Johnson) and Kelly (Rachel Longaker) accompanying him, he visits the office of Lendon Smith, M.D. (as himself) who uses animation to show how babies are really born.
This was notable for showing a live birth (taped some three years in advance of this film; that footage was originally shown as part of a 1974 special, Of Birth and Babies, which is why Ms. Farrell may look younger in parts).
Most of this cast, save for Ms. Farrell, would later appear in the follow-up / sequel, "Where Do Teenagers Come From?," in 1980) Wouldn't it be great if we could eventually see that one here too? ;-)
A small bonus will follow.
Includes:
Commercial: Lester Humphrey Pest & Termite Control Service
Station ID / long-winded promo for "KTXS Electronic Report Instant Eye News"
Bumper slide with intro, joined in progress by station (voiceover by Gilbert Hodges)
ABC Afterschool Special earlier (original?) opening with "gumball machine" and synth/Moog music
Segment 1, featuring opening titles and credits
Sponsor billboard for Post cereals (voiceover by Bill Owen)
Commercials for:
Post Honey Comb cereal
Milky Way candy bars
Segment 2
Commercials for:
Dentyne breath freshening gum
Post Cocoa Pebbles (with kind of frightening animation of Fred, Wilma and Betty looking "possessed" by their Cocoa Pebbles mania)
M&M's (jingle sung to tune of "The Candy Man")
Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup (check out typo on label - "Lettue, Tomato and Green Pepper Toss")
Segment 3
Commercials for:
3 Musketeers candy bar
Post Super Sugar Crisp (Sugar Bear [voice of Gerry Matthews] wears golden coat that attracts two bank robbers)
Dynamints - "They Look So Little, They Refresh So Big"
Animated ABC logo with local station ID voiceover
Commercial: Tang Orange and Grape Flavor instant breakfast drink (animated with space aliens)
Segment 4
Commercials for:
McDonald's (Ronald McDonald working to recycle newspapers to help environment)
Snickers chocolate peanuts candy bar
Kool-Aid (kids at skating rink)
PSA for Action for Children's Television - "TLC - Tender Loving Care" (sung by Bob Dorough, with animation in style of "Schoolhouse Rocks")
Segment 5 (key scene starts at 42:43, but some 6 minutes edited out with explanation given at 43:15)
Commercials for:
Campbell's new Chicken Alphabet and Meatball Alphabet soups (with the voice of Mel Blanc as Foghorn Leghorn)
Mars Almond Bar - "An Almond in Every Bite"
Promo for Blansky's Beauties and Fish (main voiceover by Ernie Anderson) (ending voiceover by Gilbert Hodges)
Promo for next Afterschool Special, "The Horrible Honchos," (main voiceover by Bill Owen) (ending voiceover by Gilbert Hodges)
Commercials for:
Post Alpha-Bits cereal
Starburst Fruit Chews (featuring Maureen McCormick of "Brady Bunch" fame)
Sponsor billboard for M&M / Mars, makers of Milky Way (voiceover by Bill Owen)
Film ending credits (with voiceover promo for Welcome Back, Kotter and What's Happening?! by Gilbert Hodges)
Educational Consultant: The Bank Street College of Education
Recommended by the National Education Association
Main Title Music Composed by John Morris
Main Title Film - Eleanor Bunin
followed by ending Afterschool Special title sequence
Promo for Wonder Woman (main voiceover by Ernie Anderson) (ending voiceover by Gilbert Hodges)
Commercials for:
Abilene Arrow Ford
Dairy Queen "Beltbuster" hamburgers
Promo for TV Guide (February 19th-25th issue, with Nancy Walker on cover) (voiceover by Taylor Grant)
Station ID slide
Bonus: First nearly two minutes of music variety show, Nashville on the Road, from Six Flags over Texas, hosted by Jim Ed Brown and Jerry Clower (video begins to drop out in last few seconds as Jim Ed performs his opening number, before recording finally ends)
This aired on local Sweetwater-Abilene TV on Wednesday, February 16th 1977 during the 3:30pm to 4:30pm timeframe.
About The Museum of Classic Chicago Television:
The MCCTv (FuzzyMemoriesTV) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit whose primary mission is the preservation and display of off-air, early home videotape recordings recorded off of TV (in Chicago or other cities now too); things which would likely be lost if not sought out and preserved. We save the entire broadcasts in our archives (or however much is present on the tape). For information on how to help in our mission, to donate or lend tapes to be converted to digital, please e-mail [e-mail] Thank you for your help!

[@impalaman9707]

This is the kind of show that makes me proud to be Gen X! We had the best childhood of any generation in history--I don't care what anyone says!

[@coldsamon]

The sequel to this was released in 1980 "Where Do Teenagers Come From?"

[@AMEER-114-]

Yeah...we see it posted right next to this one

[@toonalootown2331]

0:25

[@tobyphillips2105]

that one is one of my fav afterschool specials

[@williammoore7108]

I love the first intro on ABC Afterschool Special when it first started, that is an original intro and it is awesome.

[@toonalootown2331]

0:25

[@RusstheTroubadour]

The ABC Afterschool Special ran for 25 years ( 1972-1997) . The series won 51 Daytime Emmy Awards and 4 Peabody Awards

[@jodiross6320]

As it shouldwhen I was younger and it's really special 😍

[@AMEER-114-]

Yeah... But it became more like crap as the anti Chr.. agenda to corrupt youth advanced.. Innocence and value was depleted after 83..

[@toonalootown2331]

0:25

[@ronswansonsdog2833]

This song STILL gets stuck in my head 40 years later lol

[@azure628]

Being a kid in the '70s and the '80s was the best. Us Gen X'ers were the lucky ones! 😊

[@RusstheTroubadour]

19:30 Hap Lawrence was the M&Ms Candies Man. He has a part in the current release OPPENHEIMER as President Lyndon Johnson.

[@ken_danerdiest1]

The 1972-77 ABC Afterschool Special intro sequence and its bumpers would be replaced with the updated ones the following year. Great find, Fuzzy!

[@johnp4008]

Yes, And I'd been looking for this original intro for YEARS with no luck. I even bought a DVD set of "Afterschool Specials" (with Dear Lovey Heart lol) expecting it to have this but it didn't have any opening. So this is awesome.

[@kdizzle79]

I've been looking for this particular intro for years

[@CoolComix]

Out of all the intros for the ABC Afterschool Special, this was always my favorite! I've been trying to find it since there was KZbin!

[@harleymax01]

So glad I was a 70's - 80's kid!

[@impalaman9707]

Me too--I'm proud to be Gen X! We had the best childhood, didn't we?

[@TomBeiter]

I'd never seen this, but with the familiar DePatie/Freleng animation and incidental music along with 70's child actor staples Shane Sinutko and Rachel Longaker, it felt like I had.

[@jennifermcbryde8887]

At first glance, I'm actually glad DePatie Freleng made this special since the Pink Panther

[@chipdrusano]

This analog antique broadcast seems to be in pretty good shape after all these decades.

[@FlavioGirl]

i was 5 when this came out

[@lloydmarshalljr1951]

I was 6.

[@moonraker30]

I was born two months later 😂, so cool to see

[@azure628]

I was 7 going on 8. 😊

[@RusstheTroubadour]

This special won the 1977 Daytime Emmy Award for Best Children's Informational Special.

[@dlamancha5697]

I believe it. I don't think I'd ever seen it, but I thought it was an intelligent, up-front, and sensitive Afterschool Special. It didn't talk down to the kids or treat them like dummies. It also showed the kids there was nothing to be embarrassed about either. I had to giggle at the McDonalds spoof "baby store." Very cute.

[@ttintagel]

Really sweet and nowhere near as patronizing as so much kids' programming. The kids seemed like real kids.

[@gsnfan]

This was rerun well into the 80's

[@lloydmarshalljr1951]

I remember this aired in April 85. I wonder if, for example, the 5:00 PM *Eyewitness News* (Please forgive this New Yorker) had a segment in which Dr. Jay Adlersberg spoke on "how best to communicate a new child's birth with your current children."

[@stephenr3910]

My mother made us watch this so she didn't have to talk to us about things she was too uptight to talk about.

[@ttintagel]

My parents made sure there were lots of good reference books in the house for the same reason, because they knew sooner or later I'd get around to reading everything on the shelves.

[@MMAfighter38113]

The kid at 7:43 was in an episode of ‘Little House on the Prairie.’ He and Laura thought they found gold in a creek. It was actually pyrite or iron sulfide. He was also in an episode of ‘ABC Weekend Specials’ called ‘The Ghost of Thomas Kempe.’

[@lauribricker9439]

Thanks for the memories-and the upload! You made my day with this!💕

[@PugetSoundFlyer]

It's fitting that the song at the very end of this tape is "Rolling in my sweet baby's arm's".:)

[@julinalilly7439]

Great ABC After-school special

[@nancyhodge7331]

i whish we had like this again

[@r66fplaysgames]

I do know that ABC was still doing this in 1991, however they were only listing captioned ABC programs at that time.

[@jameswillett7186]

That's Timothy Maitland from the show FAMILY.

[@jameswillett7186]

I'm referring to the baby.

[@kennethhuang371]

THIS ABC AFTERSCHOOL SPECIAL WON A 1977 EMMY FOR BEST CHILDREN’S SPECIAL. I TIP MY HAT TO DICK CLARK WHO PRODUCED THIS. Kenneth Huang 11/17/23.

[@2011paramedic]

Regularly Scheduled Programming Will Not Be Seen At This Time, So That Today We May Bring You An ABC Afterschool Special, My Mom's Having A Baby, Next!

[@catherineannelockman3805]

Oscar's gum chewing and bubble blowing drives me crazy!!!...

[@moonprincessRN]

A birth segment that was OK on an ABC after school special in the 70s cannot be shown on KZbin? That is insane. You need to change how strict you are KZbin. There is nothing wrong with seeing birth. The movie really downplayed how long and how painful labor can be.

[@tobyphillips2105]

was it a real birth? it looked pretty realistic

[@moonprincessRN]

@@tobyphillips2105 It was real.

[@Harveycartoonlvr11]

At last...the Full Opening that I remember from 1972/1973! Kudos to the Museum Of Broadcast Communications In Chicago! 😊 ❤

[@FuzzyMemoriesTV]

Wrong museum.

[@Harveycartoonlvr11]

Sorry About That...I meant to say, The Museum Of Classic Chicago Television!@@FuzzyMemoriesTV

[@catherineannelockman3805]

Cute baby...

[@mizzprettyhuston]

1:42 what kids done before staring at a screen all day 😢

[@sexymama1966]

I haven't heard the theme in decades and brought to you bys always gave me tingles😊. General Foods was actually doing it with about 3 minutes and M&M/Mars with 2 and half minutes of commercials😊. I probably would have gone with: ABC Afterschool Special is brought to you by: the many fine products of General Foods. I can picture the logo in my mind.

[@kascnef]

You’re in the news lately I hope your channel doesn’t go away

[@markasflood8196]

An ABC Audio Promo For "Welcome Back Kotter" & "What's Happening!!" @ 49:58

[@mananimal3644]

2:10 that’s right. We GenXers laughed in the face of danger. No helmets, no knee or shoulder pads. 👍🏿😂

[@videox222ify]

Lester Humphrey looks like the monopoly man

[@2011paramedic]

And Now! ABC Afterschool Special Brings You, My Mom's Having A Baby!!

[@lonniedavenportii1764]

0:24 The ABC Afterschool Special 1972 intro

[@connielaws1674]

I turned 4 years old that day!🎉🎉🎉

[@2011paramedic]

A Portion Of This Program Was Recorded!!

[@darrylh1971]

16:57 - McDonald's spoof for the Hospital Baby Store? Also, for this animated segment, the animated guy working the counter dressed in hospital scrubs sounds like it's voiced by veteran actor Frank Nelson.

[@sexymama1966]

Yes!

[@andyrose5616]

I think that’s John Stephenson doing the voice, but he’s certainly playing a Frank Nelson type. Why didn’t they just hire Frank Nelson? Well, the cartoon writer Mark Evanier has said that they tried to cast Frank in a role in a Garfield show in the 80s, but the casting director said Frank was dead, so they hired Hal Smith to be a soundalike. Hal, to his credit, informed them that Frank was still alive and even called Frank himself so they could give the role to him.

[@darrylh1971]

@@sexymama1966 YEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSS???!!

[@maziebunny2]

I was only a toddler when this special aired (14 months to be exact) and I was fortunate to see it on Vision TV...which was odd where they originally aired Christian programming.

[@That0neMonkey]

Guess what, the pains/contractions are NOT the most exciting part fellas…..

[@ttintagel]

And LOTS of women labor for more than 5 hours!

[@oldradiosnphonographs]

19:27 Gen X (and boomers) how did you survive just having only regular and peanut M&Ms!? No Peanut butter M&Ms? Almond M&Ms?? Come on now!

[@ttintagel]

And we didn't even have blue or green or red colored ones! We made do with all earth tones, and we liked it!

[@2011paramedic]

Or The Syndicated Weekend Or Weekday tv country music show, Nashville On The Road! Remember?!

[@lloydmarshalljr1951]

I think I remember "Nashville on the Road" when we were living in Minnesota, being carried, IINM, on 10 and 13 in the Iron Range area on weekends. In early 77, we moved from Minnesota to San Francisco, and this aired on Channel 7 there at 3:30. I think they (and the other ABC/Cap Cities O-and-O's) aired a Young People's Special afterwards, followed by the newscast.

[@user-eu4wq3oz5c]

"""COME TO THE HONEYCOMB HIDEOUT""" When Cereals tasted great and the boxes looked great,even those cereal prizes worth alot today, was at an auction where a couple of those exact glow in the dark premiums , still in their plastic wrappers sold for over $1,000. MacDonalds to tasted much better. $2 you can get a full meal. No fat and unhealthy mentally sick kids back than like today.Same with adults.

[@user-eu4wq3oz5c]

Sure missed Post Alphabets, many of the good things gone replaced by """CRAP"""

[@jims3251]

It all turns into that eventually...but I think that's a different Afterschool Special. ba-ZING!

[@oldradiosnphonographs]

12:11 this song sounds like something from 1967 than 1977.

[@andyrose5616]

18:56 Holy crap, that Cocoa Pebbles commercial is creepy. Weird premise, bad animation, off-model characters, and poor voice imitations. I think Mel Blanc is still Barney here, but I have no idea who the others are. Fred is definitely not Henry Corden or Alan Reed (Hal Smith maybe?), and it sounds like Wilma and Betty are being voiced by the same actress.

[@wmbrown6]

Actually, Alan Reed died in June of '77. Apparently, in his last years, he had emphysema. Wonder if that was why Fred didn't sound much like him or his eventual successor, Henry Corden. I also wonder if by then he was too ill to voice Fred - but how would that be possible, as he continued to voice him in some shows to the end.

[@andyrose5616]

@@wmbrown6 Henry Corden had already been quietly filling in for Reed frequently for years before he died, especially for singing or when a scene needed extra energy. But this definitely is not Corden, and I think even Reed in a weakened condition wouldn't have sounded this different.

[@jaredjlinden]

It’s Alan Reed - probably one of his final times playing Fred. He’s definitely off at the beginning, but there are times in the middle of the commercial where you can tell it’s him. Betty and Wilma are some generic voice actor.

[@mrgiosb123]

As You Look Very Closely In The Wonder Woman Promo, You Can See That The Original Hollywood Sign Was Beginning To Crumble As It Was Aging. I Think Either By 1978 Or 1979, The Sign Got A Real Big Makeover.

[@flickrennels]

The blonde girl - wasn’t she Amy on the Waltons?

[@po9318]

Might have been

[@wmbrown6]

I saw snippets of this "back then," but it was a year after this special that I got a book, "What's Happening To Me?," that was in my collection for years. It pretty much covered the same ground as the sequel to this show.

[@user-eu4wq3oz5c]

Kids don,t play anymore,they sit home and get fat,to bad

[@theokkali467]

19:31 who this dude? he the person in da white van or somethin?

[@jims3251]

43:10 Clever. 😆

[@toonalootown2331]

0:25

[@stantonrogers]

Request: Diaparene Corn Starch Baby Wipes

[@StudioZ7]

38:25--Action for Children's Television, in my opinion, ruined children's television.