The Disney Afternoon

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The Disney Afternoon gang.

The Disney Afternoon was a created-for-syndication two-hour television programming block which aired from September 10, 1990, until mid-1997. At that time, it was taken out of syndication, and a new Disney weekday afternoon block was started on UPN. The Disney Afternoon was produced by The Walt Disney Company. After its cancellation, the shows in the block were rerun both on Disney Channel (during the late 90s and early to mid-2000s) and on Toon Disney (all of them between the channel's launch in 1998 and 2004, with some airing until 2007-2008). Currently, the only Disney Afternoon show which is airing in the U.S. is Gargoyles, which continues to air on Toon Disney's replacement Disney XD.

Some of the block's shows continue to air on international versions of Disney Channel and Toon Disney, and on several local channels in various countries. Also, 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 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. In the 1994-1995 season this practice changed somewhat, as Gargoyles and Shnookums and Meat premiered at 4:00 p.m. Also, the practice changed again as Bonkers was replaced with the 1996-1997 season (see below).The Disney Afternoon itself featured unique animated segments consisting of its own opening and "wrappers" around the cartoon shows shown.

This 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. In Europe, similar series were produced, mostly translated into "Walt Disney presents" (not related to The anthology series)

History of the block and programs that aired

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, until both were incorporated into The Disney Afternoon the next year. TaleSpin was the first series presumably created expressly for The Disney Afternoon.^{[citation needed]}

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—for example, Marsupilami; also He's Bonkers!, which has characters that also appear in Bonkers.

Another source for Disney Afternoon cartoons were series inspired by Disney animated films; 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).

Beginning with the 1994 season, the name of The Disney Afternoon was shortened to TDA^{[citation needed]}. 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.

Popularity

The popularity of the Disney Afternoon led to a temporary attraction at Disneyland called Disney Afternoon Avenue.^[1] Disney Afternoon Avenue was a feature of Disneyland in 1991, two years before Mickey's Toontown (a name linked to the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit) opened in January 1993. The Avenue was temporary "land" featuring fronts of cartoon buildings in the space leading up to the "It's a Small World" attraction and Videopolis (now the Fantasyland Theatre) in the area currently known as the Small World mall. The entrance to Baloo's dressing room was under the train tracks, where the entrance to Mickey's Toontown is now. Some say that Disney used Disney Afternoon Avenue as a test to gauge interest in a Mickey's Toontown concept.

At this time, the programming block also 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 park.

The Disney Afternoon is also a feature of Mickey's Toontown, with an an attraction based on Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers - Gadget's Go Coaster and costume character's from the TV shows continuing to make appearances throughout the '90s.

At Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom in Florida, Mickey's Birthdayland was renamed Mickey's Starland in May 1990. This new "land" featured a stage show called Mickey's Magical TV World and starred the new Disney Afternoon characters.

As of today, most of the character walk-arounds have been retired, but costumed Disney Afternoon characters occasionally make an appearance on board the Mark Twain during the final celebration scene finale of Fantasmic! at Disneyland and at other Disney theme parks.

Toon Disney and cancellation of the block

The Disney Afternoon started to run out of helium in the mid 1990's as Disney started producing more animated shows than could be accommodated in the two-hour timeframe. One such show was the spinoff from The Little Mermaid, which was broadcast on Saturday mornings on CBS because it couldn't fit in The Disney Afternoon's block.

By 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^{[citation needed]}.

On December 8, 1997, Disney announced the planned launch of Toon Disney, a 24-hour cable cartoon network, effective on April 18, 1998. 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 UPN made a deal for Disney to take programming control over their children's block, which had struggled to find an audience under two iterations as a general cartoon block and with programming targeting young teenage girls.

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, the remnants of this block aired on UPN affiliates under the name of Disney's One Too until its full discontinuation in the fall of 2003.

Many shows formerly featured on The Disney Afternoon continued in syndication as individual shows, or continued in reruns on Toon Disney and Disney Channel.

Approximate lineup by seasons

1. 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.
2. The Schnookums and Meat Funny Cartoon Show was shown on Mondays - and Gargoyles, on Friday, in this slot
3. The Lion King's Timon and Pumbaa ran on Fridays in this slot
4. The Lion King's Timon and Pumbaa ran on Mondays, and The Mighty Ducks, on Fridays, in this slot
5. The Disney Afternoon/TDA was no longer used as a title; format shortened to 90 minutes
6. The Mighty Ducks ran Mondays and Tuesdays in this slot

Saturday Mornings

Some of these cartoons, when originally airing on Disney Afternoon also had Saturday morning episodes that were being broadcast for ABC and CBS. When the Saturday morning run ended for the first 4 of these shows, the episodes would be part of the Disney Afternoon package. 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)
• The Lion King's 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)
• Disney's 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.

Video games

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

• Gargoyles - GEN
• DuckTales - NES, GB
• DuckTales 2 - NES, GB
• Tale Spin - NES, GB, GEN, GG, TG16
• Goof Troop - SNES
• Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers - NES
• Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers 2 - NES
• Darkwing Duck - NES, GB, TG16
• Bonkers - GEN, SNES, GG, SMS

References

External links

• Disney Afternoon On Yahoo! Groups
• Disney Afternoon On Retro Junk