The Disney Afternoon

The Disney Afternoon was a created-for-syndication two-hour animated television programming block, produced by Walt Disney Television Animation, with distribution through their syndication affiliate, Buena Vista Television. Before and after its cancellation, the shows in the block were rerun both on The Disney Channel (during the mid-to-late 1990s) and on Toon Disney (all of them between the channel's launch in 1998 and 2004, with some remaining until as late as 2008). Starting on October 2, 1995, four of the shows (Darkwing Duck, TaleSpin, DuckTales, and Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers) were rerun on The Disney Channel as a two-hour programming block called "Block Party" which aired on weekdays in the late-afternoon/early-evening.^[1] Several of the block's shows are available on DVD in the United States.

The Disney Afternoon's two-hour block was broken up into four half-hour segments, each of which contained an animated series. As each season ended, the first series shown in the lineup would typically be dropped while the remaining three would move up a time slot, and a new one would be added to the end. The Disney Afternoon itself featured unique animated segments consisting of its own opening and "wrappers" around the cartoon shows shown.

The Disney Afternoon originally ran from September 10, 1990 to August 29, 1997. For the 1997 and 1998 television seasons, it was replaced by an unnamed block, shortened to 90 minutes, followed by its replacement by Disney's One Too for UPN in 1999. The block did not air in every market across the United States, but for those markets that did not air the block in full, individual shows featured on The Disney Afternoon could be packaged by themselves, allowing the shows to be aired anytime of the day (morning or afternoon), while The Disney Afternoon only aired on weekday afternoons. Some of the shows also aired on Saturday mornings on ABC or CBS concurrently with their original syndicated runs on The Disney Afternoon.

History

Some of the early cartoon series on The Disney Afternoon came from already in-circulation cartoons, such as Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears which aired on NBC from 1985 to 1988 and then moved to ABC in 1989. DuckTales premiered in 1987 as Disney was focused on incorporating animated series into its portfolio in the era of cartoons; it was Disney's only syndicated cartoon series until accompanied in 1989 by Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers. These two shows had been packaged together as a one-hour-long cartoon block from 1989 to 1990, until both shows were incorporated into The Disney Afternoon in September 1990.

Both DuckTales and Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers were syndicated and packaged at first through their original television affiliates, most of which evolved from independents to Fox affiliates with successful children's lineups. However, due to disputes between Disney and Fox later on, both shows were pulled from many Fox affiliates by Disney and landed on other stations in the same markets that were still independents by the time The Disney Afternoon came to play. Other Fox affiliates simply passed it down to their independent competitors by choice due to shorter time frames for local programming, mainly with the debut of The Disney Afternoon's main competitor Fox Kids and more stations premiering local morning news programs. However, some Fox affiliates aired The Disney Afternoon during the first two years of their existence before they either passed it down to their independent competitors or packaged the shows individually. This is mainly due to Fox Kids expanding their afternoon lineup to two hours.

Some of The Disney Afternoon's later additions were inspired by shorter cartoon segments in the short-lived series Raw Toonage, which appeared on the CBS network in the fall of 1992. For example, the show's "Marsupilami" segment was spun off into the series Marsupilami which in turn spawned The Shnookums and Meat Funny Cartoon Show which aired on the block. Likewise, the Raw Toonage segment "He's Bonkers!" was spun off into the series Bonkers which aired on the block.

Beginning with the 1994 season, Marvel Comics (which would eventually be acquired by Disney) began publishing a comic book series based on the programs featured on the block, as part of their line of comics based on modern Disney properties (the classic properties were licensed to Gladstone Publishing). The series mainly consisted of stories based on Darkwing Duck, with occasional stories featuring Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers and TaleSpin. It ended at 10 issues, but stories based on the block's shows continued in Marvel's Disney Comic Hits! and in the children's magazine Disney Adventures.

In October 1995, owing to decreasing business in the syndicated children's television market due to new competitors such as the cable networks Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon, and the children's blocks of the new UPN and The WB networks, Buena Vista entered into an agreement with the Leo Burnett agency to market and distribute a revamped version of the block for the 1997-98 and 1998-99 television seasons. Leo Burnett established a partnership with Kellogg's—who had been a major sponsor of The Disney Afternoon, to purchase an amount of dedicated advertising inventory.^[2] The revamped block, downsized to 90 minutes, debuted on September 1, 1997 to replace The Disney Afternoon.^[2] The new block did not carry any blanket branding, but was referred to internally as the "Disney-Kellogg Alliance".^[3][4] In 1998, Disney reached a deal to program a new children's block for UPN, Disney's One Too, as a replacement for that network's internal UPN Kids block. The syndicated block ran until the debut of One Too on September 6, 1999.^[3][5][6]

The shows that aired from 1997 to 1998 were DuckTales, Quack Pack, Mighty Ducks and 101 Dalmatians: The Series, and from 1998 to 1999 it was formed by DuckTales, Disney's Doug and Hercules.^[7][8][9]

International broadcasts

Some of The Disney Afternoon's shows also aired on international versions of Disney Channel (including Disney Channel Asia), Toon Disney (later Disney XD), Disney Junior (including Disney Junior in Southeast Asia) and Disney Cinemagic, and on several local channels in various countries. In Europe, blocks similar to The Disney Afternoon were produced, mostly with names which translate in English as "Walt Disney Presents" (not related to the anthology series). Furthermore, shows that never aired on the American version of The Disney Afternoon (such as The Little Mermaid and The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh) did air on foreign versions of the block.

In Edmonton, Canada, the city's then-independent TV station ITV (now Global Edmonton) produced its own version of The Disney Afternoon over roughly the same period as the American block, but only once per week in a two-hour block on Saturday afternoons, though using the same cartoon lineup as the American weekday block. Apart from the animated introduction, the block did not use any Disney-produced wrapper segments, instead using locally produced live-action segments between programs with host Mike Sobel.^[10] ITV (and thus the Sobel-hosted version of the block) was at that time also available on cable in various mid-sized and smaller markets across Canada, as far away as St. John's.

Disney Afternoon Avenue

The popularity of The Disney Afternoon led to a temporary attraction at Disneyland in Fantasyland called "Disney Afternoon Avenue". Disney Afternoon Avenue was a feature of Disneyland from March 15 to November 10, 1991,^[11] two years before Mickey's Toontown (a name linked to the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit) opened in January 1993.

On September 14, 1991, Disney owned KCAL-TV broadcast a one-hour TV special Disney Afternoon Live!, which included the opening of Splash Mountain, at Disneyland.^[11]

Approximate lineup by seasons

Video games

Many of The Disney Afternoon shows were made into video games.

References

External links

• Disney Afternoon On Retro Junk
• Disney Afternoon vs. Tiny Toons (1989) (first nine pages of publicity packet touting The Disney Afternoon over syndication offerings of Warner Brothers)