After school special

The American Broadcasting Company coined the term After School Special (sometimes rendered Afterschool Special) in 1972^[1] with a series of television films, usually dealing with controversial or socially relevant issues, that were generally broadcast in the late afternoon and meant to be viewed by school-age children, particularly teenagers.^[2] The specials were generally broadcast four to six times during the school year, pre-empting local programming that would usually follow the network schedule in the late afternoon hours. ABC's series ran from 1972 to 1997.^{[citation needed]}