The Disney Afternoon
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The Disney Afternoon was a created-for-syndication two-hour television programming block which aired from September 10, 1990 until Spring 1999. In the Fall of 1998 Disney began programming a weekend block for ABC. while the weekday block remained in syndication. In the Fall of 1999 the weekday Disney Afternoon block was taken out of syndication and moved to UPN while continuing weekends on ABC. In the fall of 2003 the weekday block was discontinued on UPN. The Disney children's block was produced by The Walt Disney Company.
The two hour block was broken up into four half-hour segments, each of which contained a cartoon series. As each season ended, the first cartoon shown in the lineup would typically be dropped, and a new one added to the end. The Disney Afternoon itself featured unique animated segments consisting of its own opening and "wrappers" around the cartoon shows shown.
Some of the early cartoon series in The Disney Afternoon came from already in-circulation cartoons, such as Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears (created years earlier). DuckTales and Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers had been a one hour long cartoon block in 1989-1990 (shown right after K-MOUSE, which was a one-hour compilation of classic Mickey Mouse cartoons), until both were incorporated into The Disney Afternoon. TaleSpin was the first series presumably created expressly for The Disney Afternoon. This block did not air in every market across the United States, but for those markets that did not air the block, some of its programming would still air on weekday mornings.
Some of the later additions were inspired by shorter cartoons in the short lived series Raw Toonage, which appeared on the CBS network in Fall, 1992 -- see Marsupilami; also He's Bonkers!, which, with storyboard revision, eventually became Bonkers.
The other main source for Disney Afternoon cartoons were series inspired by movies created previously; for a time, a 'two year rule' of sorts became almost reliable, whereby about two years after a Disney summer movie came out, a Disney Afternoon series by the same name or feauring characters from that film premiered (example: Aladdin, and Timon and Pumbaa, from The Lion King.)
The popularity of the Disney Afternoon led to a temporary sub-park at Disneyland called Disney Afternoon Avenue. At this time, the block even garnered its own parade and a stage show titled Plane Crazy (not to be confused with the Mickey Mouse short of the same name). Walk-around costumes were created for the characters featured on the shows and regularly appeared throughout the theme parks, mostly in Mickey's Toontown, which featured an attraction based on Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers - Gadget's Go-Coaster. As of today, most of the character walk-arounds have been retired, unfortunately.
Beginning with the 1994 season, The Disney Afternoon was, as a named series, shortened to just TDA. That same year, Marvel Comics 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.
On about September 1, 1997, The Disney Afternoon was terminated as a formally named series. An eighth season, only 90 minutes long, was no longer named The Disney Afternoon or TDA, and was by accounts essentially a simple 90 minute syndicated block of cartoons. In addition Toon Town Kids which was from Disney was also in syndication but not part of this package but some stations ran it with the 90 minute Disney Block.
It soon became clear that Disney was moving in a different direction along with the Children's Television industry in general. With its many half-hour cartoon series; by December 8, 1997 Disney announced the planned launch on April 18, 1998 of Toon Disney, a 24-hour cable cartoon network. At the same time local stations found it hard to comply with FCC restrictions on children's advertising in terms of allowed quantity and content and still remain profitable in such blocks. Still Fox, UPN, and WB wanted to try to hold on to children's programming during the week. Disney continued the 90-minute syndicated block until the Fall of 1999, at which time Disney and UPN teamed up for a UPN Kids block. Also, a two-hour Sunday Morning kids' block of shows from Disney aired on UPN stations.
By the 1999-2000 television season, some remnants of The Disney Afternoon package were moved to Saturday mornings, solely on the ABC network, under the name Disney's One Saturday Morning. Weekdays though the remnants of this block aired on UPN affiliates. By early 2001, One Saturday Morning had begun broadcasting a weekday afternoon spinoff called Disney's One Too, which bore virtually no resembalance to the Disney Afternoon.
Disney would buy the animation department of Fox in 2001 along with Fox Family Channel which was renamed ABC Family Channel. Fox ended its weekday kids block at the end of 2001. In 2002, some of the former shows from Fox Kids landed on the weekday 2-hour UPN Kids Block along with Disney-produced shows. While popular, the UPN/Disney Kids block lost money in its time slots on most UPN stations. In the Fall of 2003, the UPN Disney Children's weekday and Sunday Morning block ended; the following February, the shows were moved to Toon Disney's schedule under the Jetix name, a move which proved to be controversial among Toon Disney's viewers.
Up until November 2004, many of the series previously seen on The Disney Afternoon were regularly shown on Toon Disney. As of mid-2006, many of these series are being released to DVD.
[edit] Approximate lineup by seasons
| Season | Show 1 | Show 2 | Show 3 | Show 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| One (1990-1991) | Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears | DuckTales | Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers | TaleSpin |
| Two (1991-1992) | DuckTales | Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers | TaleSpin | Darkwing Duck |
| Three (1992-1993) | Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers | TaleSpin | Darkwing Duck | Goof Troop |
| Four (1993-1994) | TaleSpin | Darkwing Duck | Goof Troop | Bonkers |
| Five (1994-1995)1 | Darkwing Duck | Goof Troop | Bonkers2 | Aladdin |
| Six (1995-1996) | Goof Troop | Bonkers | Aladdin | Gargoyles3 |
| Seven (1996-1997) | Darkwing Duck | Aladdin | Gargoyles | Quack Pack4 |
| Eight (1997-1998)5 | DuckTales | Quack Pack6 | 101 Dalmatians: The Series | none |
| Nine (1998-1999) | 101 Dalmatians: The Series | Disney's Doug | Hercules: The Animated Series | none |
- Disney attempted to diversify The Disney Afternoon in the 1994-1995 season. It was attempting to make 'Monday Mania', and 'Disney Action Friday', as is implied from the Monday/Friday breakup of slot 3. The format idea did not catch on and was dropped after this season.
- The Schnookums and Meat Funny Cartoon Show was shown on Mondays - and Gargoyles, on Friday, in this slot
- The Lion King's Timon and Pumbaa ran on Fridays in this slot
- The Lion King's Timon and Pumbaa ran on Mondays, and The Mighty Ducks, on Fridays, in this slot
- The Disney Afternoon/TDA was no longer used as a title; format shortened to 90 minutes
- The Mighty Ducks ran Mondays and Tuesdays in this slot
Some of these cartoons, when originally airing on Disney Afternoon also had Saturday morning episodes that were being broadcast for ABC and CBS. These are:
- Darkwing Duck 1991-1993, ABC (seasons 2 and 3)
- Goof Troop 1992-1993, ABC (seasons 2)
- Aladdin 1994-1996, CBS (seasons 2 and 3)
- Timon and Pumbaa 1995-1997, CBS (seasons 2 and 4, as the Disney afternoon showed seasons 1 and 3)
- The Mighty Ducks 1996-1997, ABC (Both showed the first episode of the series)
- 101 Dalmatians: The Series 1997-1999, ABC (season 1, as season 2 was shown on the Disney afternoon)
Gargoyles does not fall into this category because only the third season episodes subtitled The Goliath Chronicles aired during the 1996-1997 season on ABC, while The Disney afternoon was only showing reruns of the first 2 seasons. Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears continued running on Saturday mornings during the 1990-1991 season on ABC, but ABC was only showing new episodes while the Disney afternoon was also showing only reruns.
