''La Piñata Loca'' ( English: ''"The Crazy Pinata"'') is an American

children's A child () is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The term may also refer to an unborn human being. In English-speaking countries, the legal definition of ''child ...

programming block Block programming (also known as a strand in British broadcasting) is the arrangement of programs on radio or television so that those of a particular genre, theme, or target audience are united. Overview Block programming involves scheduling a ...

Spanish language Spanish () or Castilian () is a Romance languages, Romance language of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin spoken on the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. Today, it is a world language, gl ...

television network A television broadcaster or television network is a telecommunications network for the distribution of television show, television content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations, pay television providers or ...

Univision Univision () is an American Spanish-language terrestrial television, free-to-air television network owned by TelevisaUnivision. It is the United States' largest provider of Spanish-language content. The network's programming is aimed at the L ...

, which debuted on March 30, 1996, and aired until February 26, 2000. The three-hour block aired Saturday and Sunday mornings from 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.

Eastern Time The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, and the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico. * Eastern Standard Time (EST) is five hours behi ...

and

Pacific Time The Pacific Time Zone (PT) is a time zone encompassing parts of western Canada, the western United States, and western Mexico. Places in this zone observe standard time by subtracting eight hours from Coordinated Universal Time ( UTC−08:00). ...

and features

animated series An animated series, or a cartoon series, is a set of Animation, animated films with a common title, usually related to one another. These episodes typically share the same main heroes, some different secondary characters and a basic theme. Series ...

aimed at children between the ages of 6 and 11. Programs featured on the block consist almost entirely of

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

-dubbed versions of series that were originally produced and broadcast in English. All shows featured on ''La Piñata Loca'' are designed to meet federally mandated educational programming guidelines defined by the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...

(FCC) via the

Children's Television Act The broadcast of educational Children's television series, children's programming by terrestrial television stations in the United States is mandated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), under regulations colloquially referred to as ...

History

In April 1995, Univision test-marketed ''

Plaza Sésamo ''Plaza Sésamo'' () is the first Sesame Street international co-productions, international co-production of the Educational television, educational Children's television series, children's television series ''Sesame Street''. Its first season p ...

'' ("Sesame Street"), Televisa and

Children's Television Workshop Sesame Workshop (SW), originally known as the Children's Television Workshop (CTW), is an American nonprofit organization and television company that has been responsible for the production of several educational children's programs—includin ...

's (now Sesame Workshop) Spanish-language adaptation of ''

Sesame Street ''Sesame Street'' is an American educational television, educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation, and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Worksh ...

'' featuring a mix of original segments featuring characters based on its U.S.-based parent series and dubbed interstitials from the aforementioned originating program, on its owned-and-operated stations in Los Angeles, Dallas and Miami. The success of the test run led the network to begin airing the program nationally beginning on December 11 of that year; the program aired on Univision until 2002, when it moved to its newly created sister network TeleFutura as part of its " Mi Tele" ("My TV") block (the Univision network resumed its relationship with the now-Sesame Workshop when it debuted the U.S.-based Spanish language spin-off '' Sesame Amigos'' ("Sesame Friends") in August 2015). The network aired its children's programs on weekday and Saturday mornings until April 1997, when Univision relegated its children's programming exclusively to Saturday mornings to make room for its new morning news/talk/lifestyle program ''

¡Despierta América! ''¡Despierta América!'' ( – ) is an American Spanish-language morning television show airing on Univision. Debuting on April 14, 1997, the program's primarily targets the Latino population in the United States. It is broadcast from the netwo ...

''.

La Piñata Loca

On March 30, 1996, Univision announced that it would launch a new Saturday and Sunday morning block, ''La Piñata Loca''. The block was hosted by George Ortuzar ('' Lente Loco''; after he left the show in 1995). The block and network opted to fully program the block with shows acquired from various programming distributors and entered in partnership with

Hanna-Barbera Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. ( ; formerly known as H-B Enterprises, Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. and H-B Production Co.), simply and commonly known as Hanna-Barbera, was an American animation studio and production company, which was acti ...

and World Events Productions (based on the product anime show, '' Voltron: Defender of the Universe''). The block's initial lineup consisted mainly of Spanish-language and dubbed version of American, European and Japanese children's programs such as with '' The Flintstone Kids'' and '' Cantinflas y Sus Amigos'' (among with the cartoon series was premiered in 1993).

Giorgiomania

On August 16, 1997, Univision launched a sub-block within the lineup, called ''Giorgiomania'', featuring dubbed version of the original series production by

Film Roman Film Roman, LLC, is an American animation studio currently based in Woodland Hills, California and formerly in Burbank. It was previously owned by Starz Inc., which is now a division of Lionsgate, and currently by Waterman Entertainment, the p ...

during the first one-hour of the block on every Saturday morning such as '' Cro'' (based on ''Sesame Street'') were the show to air as part of the sub-block. In February 2000, after George "O" left from Univision, the block were discontinued. The following in few months, Univision entered launched as every Saturday morning, ''¡De Cabeza!''; among within featuring cartoon shows (''

The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat ''The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat'' is an American animated television series produced by Film Roman. The series first aired on September 16, 1995 on CBS Saturday mornings lasting for two seasons with the final episode airing on April 12, 19 ...

'', '' Bruno the Kid'' and '' Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm''; as part of the ending in 2001, three cartoon shows returned to the Univision's sister-network, Telefutura's children's block, Toonturama for the first time in nearly two-years).

Programming

All of the programs aired within the block featured content compliant with educational programming requirements as mandated by the Children's Television Act. Although the block was intended to air on Saturday mornings (such as Giorgiomania), some Univision affiliates deferred certain programs aired within the block to Sunday mornings, or (in the case of affiliates in the Western United States) Saturday afternoons due to select national sports broadcasts (especially in the case of

1998 FIFA World Cup The 1998 FIFA World Cup was the 16th FIFA World Cup, the Association football, football world championship for List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams. The finals tournament was held in France from 10 June to 1 ...

soccer tournaments) scheduled in earlier Saturday timeslots as makegoods to comply with the E/I regulations.

Final programming

Former programming

Acquired programming

References

{{Univision programming Univision original programming Television programming blocks in the United States 1996 American television series debuts 2000 American television series endings