High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The American Broadcasting Company coined the term after school special in 1972 with a series of made for television movies, 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. The specials were generally broadcast four to six times a year during the school year, pre-empting local programming that would usually follow the network schedule in the late afternoon hours.