''First Row Features'' is an American
anthology series
An anthology series is a written series, radio, television, film, or video game series that presents a different story and a different set of characters in each different episode, season, segment, or short. These usually have a different ca ...
that premiered on the television network
Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon (nicknamed Nick) is an American pay television channel and the flagship property of the Nickelodeon Group, a sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first ca ...
in February 1980
and continued to air until January 1982. It mainly carried British
television film
A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie, telefilm, telemovie or TV film/movie, is a film with a running time similar to a feature film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a Terrestr ...
s (mostly from the
Children's Film Foundation
The Children's Film Foundation (CFF) is a non-profit organisation which makes films and other media for children in the United Kingdom. Originally it made films to be shown as part of children's Saturday morning matinée cinema programming. Th ...
) for children and family audiences, most of which were filmed in the 1950s–60s. It featured a
claymation
Claymation, sometimes called clay animation or plasticine animation, is one of many forms of stop-motion animation. Each animated piece, either character or background, is "deformable"—made of a malleable substance, usually plasticine cl ...
title sequence created in-house at Nickelodeon's temporary headquarters in
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is a Administrative divisions of New York (state), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and county seat of Erie County, New York, Erie County. It lies in Western New York at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of ...
. ''First Row Features'' was a predecessor to the similarly formatted ''
Special Delivery'', which debuted later in the same year and eventually replaced it.
Overview
The program featured made-for-TV films from the United Kingdom, which were selected by employees at Nickelodeon. In January 1982, the
Gannett
Gannett Co., Inc. ( ) is an American mass media holding company headquartered in New York City. It is the largest U.S. newspaper publisher as measured by total daily circulation.
It owns the national newspaper ''USA Today'', as well as several ...
newspaper ''
The Times
''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
'' described the show as a collection of "one hour feature films for children ranging from comedies and adventures to dramas and semi-documentaries." Although most of the content on ''First Row Features'' had been filmed and released in Europe decades earlier, the films were marketed as new to U.S. viewers. New films premiered on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. At the time of its creation, ''First Row Features'' was one of only five programs that were aired in a loop to fill the entire Nickelodeon schedule.
It was
non-commercial
A non-commercial (also spelled noncommercial) activity is an activity that is not carried out in the interest of Profit (economics), profit. The opposite is Commerce, commercial, something that primarily serves profit interests and is focused on bu ...
and advertisements were never played between features.
Films featured
See also
*
History of Nickelodeon
References
{{Former Nickelodeon original series
1980 American television series debuts
1982 American television series endings
1980s American children's television series
1980s Nickelodeon original programming
1980s American anthology television series
American English-language television shows