|
This page is owned by Haruhipunny |
| Please contact Haruhipunny or a staff member to edit this page. If you're a staff member, you can edit this page. |
For the brand itself, see The Gabrielpika. For the television channel, see The Gabrielpika (TV Channel).
The Gabrielpika was a daytime television block that aired on the Texan network, TPEN and a upcoming televsion block on Cells. The block was one of last few surviving non-educational kids blocks on a broadcast network. The block is scheduled to relaunch on February 20, 2026 at 3:00 PM CT.
History[]
TPEN Children[]
The block launched at September 1, 1980 as TPEN Children and its original purpose was local educational programming and animated cartoons for children. Over the years programming expanded into syndicated kids shows and later foreign animations.
The first station to carry the block was KRGT-TV from Harlingen, Texas broadcasting in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, and the station itself (founded in 1955) was established and ran by ex-publisher of the Valley Morning Star newspaper, McHenry Tichenor who previously launched radio station, KYWW. The block was financed by various O&O TPEN stations, TPEN affiliates, H-E-B, and Whataburger. The block later expanded to the original TPEN station in Austin, and several stations in San Antonio, Laredo, Corpus Christi, Dallas-Forth Worth, Houston, Waco, El Paso, Beaumont, Victoria, Lubbock, Texarkana, and Amarillo.
TPEN Kids[]
Since May 31, 1982, the block provided international animated series that weren't available in the US at the time. Making deals with international distributors and animation studios to provide animated shows for TPEN. Because of the success of these deals, TPEN Children became TPEN Kids to showcase more entertainment programming over local educational programming. Programming format remain the same for over a decade with some shows switch in and out.
These changes were done by the block's founder Gabriel Gerts Pika, Dennis Livson (who later founded Telecable Benelux B.V.), Henk Krop, Flavio de Souza (who later produced the series Rá-Tim-Bum and Glub-Glub), Richard Wolfe (who previously worked at Warner-Amex), and Jacqueline Joubert (who previously worked on Antenne 2's Récré A2 block). They formed a foundation concept that'll later be carried in various kids and animation channels around the world including later the international TPEN Kids channels and blocks.
The block later expanded into Mexico in April 6, 1985 starting with TPEN's first established 6 stations from the 1960s in Tamaulipas and Chihuahua under the name "TPEN Niños". TPEN Kids/The Gabrielpika aired syndicated episodes of The Ed Sullivan Show and movies featuring Topo Gigo along with a anime series based on him, The Adventures of Topo Gigio. TPEN Niños ratings boosted when Topo Gigo was added to their lineup in 1986.
The Hungarian movie, The Little Fox aired on TPEN Kids in 1988 months after Nickelodeon's broadcast and had since aired the movie every few years.
All eight videos of Barney & the Backyard Gang aired on TPEN Kids from 1989 to 1990 and The Gabrielpika from 1990 to 1993 shortly after the series' successor Barney and Friends aired on PBS.
The eventual downfall of TPEN kids as a American block[]
In the late 1980s, TPEN planned to launch TPEN and TPEN Kids as separate television channels, and blocks into the international market after expanding TPEN stations into Mexico, Foopiia, and Qwertyland. Though because TPEN Kids' ratings were getting low, TPEN decided to experiment with TPEN Kids by dissolving the brand entirely in the US and form a new company that'll manage the TPEN Kids brand internationally called TPEN Kids Worldwide. As a way if the brand itself is more popular over at United Kingdom and Japan.
So by 1989, they launched TPEN UK that included a 3-hour TPEN Kids block in the late morning and early afternoon. After a year, TPEN executives had a meeting with the new employees at TPEN Kids Worldwide to compare the ratings between the two TPEN Kids blocks. The British TPEN Kids block was more popular than the American block due to the audience's familiarity of European cartoons. So TPEN Kids Worldwide took over the rights of TPEN Kids brand and this led the announcement of the eventual shutdown of the TPEN Kids block in United States. The block was originally scheduled cease operations by the ending of 1989 and was gonna be either removed from the schedule or become a unbranded kids block however due to a 2-year long development for its replacement, the closure was pushed back to a unspecified date of 1990.
Development of The Gabrielpika[]
Back in June 1987, the co-founder of the TPEN Kids block Gabriel Gerts Pika had a idea in changing the block into a much more original block that can be enjoyed for all ages and still maintain the obscure cartoons element of the block while the much more educational content can stay in the morning to educate kids before going to school. While Gabrielpika was pitching the new idea to TPEN executives his brother Armand Gerts Pika received a new job at Peter Piper Pizza. When first saw the pizza dough, he questioned himself if the dough can transform more than just pizza which after he worked with the dough he switch to do cleaning duties so he looked at birthday parties, kiddie rides, in-door playgrounds, and the arcade. He started to really enjoy his job seeing potential of a pizza place would give that good "pop" to a kids brand like TPEN Kids. So he went back home, and brought this new idea to Gabrielpika, very fascinated to the idea they merged the two ideas they both made and started sketching drawings of the dough, creating logo designs, bought a dough from H-E-B, and even written a pitch book/pitch bible to prepare the presentation of the proposed new kids block.
They brought in everything into the new meeting at TPEN pitching it to TPEN executives in office for the new kids brand. The executives gave a greenlight to the new dough party brand having the potential boosting out even more creativity than that of TPEN Kids. As the planned kids block rebrand continue to develop in August 1988, the brand's signature shapeshifting dough allows the kids block to stand out from other brands and they also came up with a temporarily name called "Project Dough". While further development was happening in the new kids block, some ex-Nickelodeon employees who previously worked in the early years of the channel and children's series Pinwheel would later join forces with Gabrielpika and Armandpika to form a new company that'll manage the TPEN Kids block, Project Dough, and future ventures to form a new company temporarily named Dough Entertainment in 1989.
In April 1989, The "Dough" team sneak out to search for sponsors to promote the block. Peter Piper Pizza surprisingly signed up to promote the block in exchange of Armandpika officially becoming the president of Dough Entertainment, H-E-B and Whataburger would follow suit. This led the creation of TPEN's first ever publicity stunt where certain posters of a yellow dough are placed around locations of H-E-B stores, Peter Piper Pizza Pizza chains, and Whataburger fast food chains. The poster features a yellow dough sitting on a blue table in front of solid colorful cookies with red balloons wrapped in orange chairs and the walls are in different colors with a message saying "Be Transformative!". Customers in those places were really confused at first but then after the team partnered up with a stop-motion animation studio to produce new bumpers featuring a animated yellow dough for TPEN Kids to promote the new rebrand everyone recognized the yellow dough from the posters meaning a change was going to happen to TPEN Kids ultimately exciting audience for the block's next chapter. These bumpers aired during the block's last 10 months before the scheduled closure which was announced a month later for the launch date of the new block on February 18.
The team figured the "Dough" name was a temporarily name due to the name sounding too dull for the kids demographic they thought of naming the block Blob, Abstract Kids, Wonderland, Gerts, DoughDough, PlayClay, PlayMax, Armand, and Armandpika. While the team tried name the block with Gabrielpika's brother name they thought of using his name "gabrielpika", everybody agreed and finalize the name with "the gabrielpika" as it sounded whimsical enough to see a yellow dough with that weird name to transform into anything. The dough design was also finalized to include purple doughs surrounding the yellow dough. Bumpers, promos, and idents went into production in mid 1989 and production wrapped up in November 1989, three months before the block's launch. By the ending of 1989, TPEN granted permission in letting H-E-B, and Whataburger (who previously financed the kids block nine years prior) to invest a minority stake in Dough Entertainment each owning 12.5% in the company.
The Gabrielpika (1990-2001)[]
By February 18, 1990, TPEN Kids rebrand itself as The Gabrielpika and increased amount of foreign series as syndication programming became redundant for the block. This help the block to stand out from other kids blocks at the time. This allows shows like Pingu, Alfred J. Kwak, Calimero, Ovide and the Gang, Mr. Men, Ric Raven, Moomin, Pimpa, and Kukori and Kotkoda to be introduced to American audience with some of them aired on Potty and Handy Show as animation segments during the early 1990s. The Adventures of R.F. Ant also aired on The Gabrielpika annually from 1991 to 2002.
However, during the 1990s many American kids blocks started to air original programming over distributing old foreign cartoons. The Gabrielpika decided to start airing newer foreign cartoons that other blocks didn't grabbed. This would become a common thing throughout the block's run.
In 1995, The Gabrielpika premiere their very first original animated series "E's World". The series was one of their longest lasted animated series in history airing from 1997-2002, and 2006-2011 and having over 10 seasons and 260 episodes. In 2003, shortly after their theatrical movie came out, a anime spin-off series based on E's World was produced and lasted until 2006 lasting in 3 seasons and 156 episodes. A spin-off series The Jumpers premiered in 2004 and lasted until 2007 having 3 seasons and 78 episodes.
In the mid 1990s, Pingu was removed from The Gabrielpika and eventually Cartoon Network picked up the show to air on their preschool block "Small World".
In 2000, a animated television series based on the comic book of the same name and the mascots of Whataburger restaurant named "Whatapals" premiered on The Gabrielpika being the block's first original animated series that's based on a existing property. Peter Piper Pizza (Rocky the Dinosaur) and H-E-B (H-E-Buddy) later received their own series on the block in early 2001 and 2003 respectfully. Though these three animated series entered in a controversy by FCC believing they were violating the Children's Television Act as the shows themselves were advertisements to the chains. TGP and the chains' defense were each of the three shows have moral lessons and that the shows tried to follow the E/I rules carefully. The three shows ended their run in 2004, 2005, and 2007 after all of them reach 4 seasons and 104 episodes. They also each have holiday specials that aired on the block seasonally. Though all of them were removed by 2007 shortly after H-E-Buddy ended and moved to TCC which had aired them since 2002.
During 2002 with the failure in launching its own channel, TPEN partnered up with TCC to integrate their programming into the block and vice versa. This lead the creation of a new lineup of kids programming adding Space Goofs, Oggy and the Cockroaches, Dinobabies, Fly Tales, Untalkative Bunny, and a few others into the block. Around the same year, TCC received the rights of Pingu after HIT Entertainment acquired the series in 2001. As a result, Pingu was readded into the block's lineup after it stopped airing on Cartoon Network.
Pingu eventually was pulled again from The Gabrielpika by 2004 when HIT Entertainment joined up with Comcast, Sesame Workshop and PBS to form PBS Kids Sprout.
By Summer 2005, the animated series Space Goofs started to air new episodes on The Gabrielpika block replacing season 1 and conclude season 2 by Fall 2006. However, TCC continued to carry season 1 of Space Goofs.
2007-2012[]
Former logo (2007-2017)
In 2007, The Gabrielpika got a major overhaul when it rebrand itself and introduced to a new preschool block called The Gabrielpika Jr. moving most preschool programming into the new block allowing TGP to focus primary on entertainment programming for all ages. Around the same time, The Gabrielpika was slowly phasing out the older foreign programing it had for years and dump them into TCC. Wanting to add more recent international cartoons and anime into their lineup.
Shows like Space Goofs and Oggy and the Cockroaches stayed as they both match what the block wanted in their lineup. A hybrid of dialogue and non-dialogue global animation shows that's enough to compete with the major cable kids channels. One of the few long running programs that been airing since the 1980s and 1990s like Kukori and Kotkoda were removed from the lineup. The series still remains airing on TCC so it wasn't that much of a loss despite some viewers feeling upset of the removal of the show and other older shows that kept the legacy of the block.
In early 2008, TGP also partnered up with Bandai Entertainment to add in shows for more mature and teen audience during the afternoon blocks as a promotion of the DVD releases of their licensed anime. Although it remained as a unbranded block of TGP, this was the beginning of the brand expanding beyond of being a brand for children but rather more of a brand for art of animations for all different age groups. The first few lineup under that new partnership was Lucky Star and The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. This was a risky decision but it was proven successful as the airings help the DVD sells of those anime and later added Bandai's last licensed anime K-On! to the lineup in 2011.
In January 2012, Bandai Entertainment was downsizing their anime distribution and sold many licenses of anime to various other companies including Funimation. TGP was hesitate to renegotiate with Bandai to continue airing their anime on their afternoon block. After the merger, TGP partnered up with Funimation to replace the existing 4Kids (TCC's previous partner) and Bandai deals. Shortly after, Bandai Entertainment gave full broadcast rights of Lucky Star, K-ON!, and Haruhi Suzumiya to The Gabrielpika to continue airing the series as part of a two-year nondisclosure agreement.
However, the block decided not to continue broadcasting the anime block and replace the afternoon slot with reruns of normal programming. This was due to TGP wanting to avoid dealing with broadcast restrictions when being a block for all ages which they shift back as a kids block. As the result all Bandai licensed anime moved to TCC for the remaining months of the channel's operation before relaunching.
Following the 3-way merger between The Gabrielpika Entertainment, TCC, and TPEN Kids Worldwide, H-E-B, and Whataburger's 12.5% shares in TGPE were combined with TKW's shareholders. (which included Sony's 2% in TKW) When The Gabrielpika Company established in February 2012, H-E-B, and Whataburger each owned 1% in the company before they sold their tiny stakes in early 2013 as they figured the company can remain financial without them and were reduced as just local sponsors to the block in O&O TPEN stations. Later that year, headquarters of The Gabrielpika Entertainment were relocated to Austin, Texas and the company gave half of the Harlingen building to KRGT-TV separating the company from its original roots. The only remains of The Gabrielpika in the city was the block's localization in the TPEN station and its first location of The Gabrielpika Party which the latter still remain open to this day.
Post-merger (2012-2017)[]
With the launch of The Gabrielpika as a TV channel, the block also a receive the new graphics and idents.
2017-2023[]
Former logo (2017-2021)
Revival (2025-present)[]
Following TGP LLC spinning off from QWE Networks and TPEN in October 2025, they announced Cells will stop simulcasting in the morning and afternoon timeslots of TPEN stations. As a result, the morning and afternoon slots that were once the space of The Gabrielpika ceased and will be replaced with a block revival of TPEN EDU in order to follow regulations of FCC. Unlike the previous blocks, the new educational block is much more generalized and is targeted less on children.
For the past few years, they were plans in launching The Gabrielpika as a FAST channel as Cells recently launched its FAST channel but due to TGP's more recognizable programming already in broadcast in different FAST channels such as Pingu airing on Mattel Junior which launched eariler this year, TGP's launch as a FAST channel alongside a revival of TPEN Kids were scrapped for now. Instead TPEN decided to keep Cells as a subchannel under a non-fixed agreement with free of charge. TPEN also granted Cells to also be available in stations outside of TPEN whenever its a affiliated station or a independent station.
In December 2025, a month after TGP's channel rebrand, Cells announced the revival of The Gabrielpika as a block in broadcast television. This time the block will appear during Saturday mornings (8 AM to 11 AM), weekday afternoons (3 PM to 6 PM), and as a nighttime block daily (7 PM to 12 AM) with the 6 PM slot being a new "flex time" themed block of Cells which will often be taken off and replaced with movie or television special broadcasts during the summer and holidays. TGP's programming will carry mostly old cartoons (both American and foreign)to directly compete with MeTV Toons and a selection of their current programming with anime programming airing on the nighttime block.
Because Cells' schedule is different from each station allows a massive variety set of programming that would air on Cells and with over thousands hours of programming being added to the channel's lineup. TGP will not be available on the FAST channel of Cells for the same reasons as before months prior and Cells' channel outside of broadcast/subchannel will not receive the block either as The Gabrielpika is already available as a 24-hour channel over there. Instead the FAST and cable/satellite channels will share the same schedule.
The Gabrielpika will relaunch on February 20, 2026 at 3:00 PM CT. Returning after almost three years being off the air from broadcast television.
Programming[]
Main article: List of programs broadcast by The Gabrielpika (Block)
|
This article/section is a stub. |
| Please help this article by expanding or finishing it; if you have permission from the page owner. Additional information: None. |
Schedule history[]
Expansion as a brand[]
Main article: The Gabrielpika
|
|
This article/section is a stub. |
| Please help this article by expanding or finishing it; if you have permission from the page owner. Additional information: None. |