An after school special is a television film, 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. [1] The term comes from the title of the ABC Afterschool Special , an anthology series of films that debuted on ABC in 1972 and ran until 1996. [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.