Chances are, you know
Disney. You know their characters, you know their theme park, and you’ve
probably seen at least one of their hundreds of movies and shorts sometime in
your life. What you may not know is that Disney was relatively absent on the
television front for a good while until the mid 1980s.
Looking to expand its
animated series portfolio, Disney began producing additional shows before
deciding to package several together for syndication. The result was a two hour
block called The Disney Afternoon.
The block began in September of 1990, produced by The
Walt Disney Company and distributed by Buena Vista Television. It aired weekday
afternoons between the hours of 3-5 PM featuring four individual programs
brought together by an intro and commercial bumpers made specifically for the
block. Each season, a new show would join the block at the 4:30 slot, knocking
the one at 3:00 off (which led fans to dread when their favorite show reached
that time). International versions of the block would sometimes run under different
names and feature other Disney programs not seen in the American one.
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| A collectible stamp "map" of Disney Afternoon Avenue from the The Disney Afternoon Live! stage show. |
The popularity of the block led to the creation of
the temporary “Disney Afternoon Avenue” at Disneyland in 1991. In 1994, Disney
partnered with Marvel Comics (which they would come to own over a decade later)
to produce a line of comics based on the block as well as for some of the
individual shows themselves. Disney also ran their own comics based on the
featured programs in their magazine Disney Adventures.
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| The Disney Afternoon soundtrack album cover. |
In 1990, Walt Disney Records released a
soundtrack of 13 songs. 2 tracks were of the block’s theme while 9 were song
featured in shows from the block’s first season line-up. 2 of the songs from TaleSpin were created specifically for
the album; one was used later in the The Disney Afternoon Live!: Plane Crazy stage show.
In August of 1997, Disney decided to retire the name
and shorten the block by a half hour. The now-unnamed block began that
September and featured some of Disney’s newer offerings, as well as a couple of
veterans from The Disney Afternoon.
Ultimately, the block was cancelled in 1999 in favor of Disney’s One Too that
began airing on UPN to replace their UPN Kids block.
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| The Disney Afternoon promo. |
While it was a weekday block, several of the programs
also found homes on Saturday mornings. Naturally, those are the focus of our
entries for this month. So, without further ado…
March 7th will give us the original modern
Disney series, DISNEY’S ADVENTURES OF THE
GUMMI BEARS and the terror that flaps in the night, DARKWING DUCK.
March 14th takes us to Spoonerville for a
visit with the GOOF TROOP before we
head for Arabian nights with DISNEY’S ALADDIN.
March 21st brings us to New York City for an adventure with GARGOYLES before we head deep
into the jungle with THE LION KING’S
TIMON AND PUMBAA.
March 28th rounds out the month with the
intergalactic hockey team of THE MIGHTY
DUCKS. Since we’ve run out of official shows, we’ll plug up the gaping hole
with a Saturday entry that did lead to the creation of a few shows for the
block. That’s right, it’s none other than RAW TOONAGE.
What was your favorite Disney Afternoon program? Let us know in the comments, via E-Mail, or on Facebook.
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