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 aired reruns both on Disney Channel and on Toon Disney. Starting on October 2, 1995, four of the shows were rerun on Disney Channel as a two-hour programming block called "Block Party" which aired on weekdays in the late afternoon/early evening.
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 lost its name but was known internally as Disney-Kellogg Alliance, shortened to 90 minutes, followed by its gradual replacement by Disney's One Too for UPN in 1999. Some of the shows also aired on Saturday mornings on ABC or CBS concurrently with their original syndicated runs on The Disney Afternoon. The only show to reach the 2000s was Goof Troop with the 2000 direct-to-video finale An Extremely Goofy Movie, and the only shows to reach the 2010s are DuckTales with a same name reboot and Darkwing Duck as a show within the reboot on Disney Channel.
Background
The Disney Afternoon goes back to Michael Eisner becoming Disney's CEO in 1984 and his push into steady animated television production, which would be based on new characters to bring in new young fans, with a newly launched TV animation department. He set up a Sunday meeting at his house days consisting of creatives. They included Tad Stones from feature animation and Jymn Magon and Gary Kriesel from the music division. Mickey and the Space Pirates was pitched by Stones, but was turned down being that Mickey Mouse is the company symbol, thus wanting to do him right. Stones also pitched a Rescuers TV series, which its sequel was already under development at the time. Eisner suggested the Gummy bear as a series, given his kids liked the candy. Disney Television Animation's first two shows, The Wuzzles and Adventures of the Gummi Bears, were sold to two networks, CBS and NBC, respectively, for their Saturday morning cartoon blocks.History
In the fall of 1989, DuckTales and were being offered in syndication as an hour long weekday afternoon block. The new block kept these show, and added Gummi Bears and TaleSpin. The Disney Afternoon programming block, as a named block, premiered on September 10, 1990 via Disney's syndication arm Buena Vista Television.However, around the same time, Disney had purchased Los Angeles TV station KHJ-TV, channel 9, from RKO General, and renamed it KCAL-TV. At the time, Disney's syndicated cartoons had been airing on KTTV channel 11, and many of the other Fox O&Os and affiliates also aired the block; this may have been due to the fact that the Walt Disney Company's chief operating officer at the time, Michael Eisner, and his then-Fox counterpart, Barry Diller, had worked together at ABC and at Paramount Pictures.. Disney opted to move the block onto their newly purchased station; furious at the breach of contract, Diller pulled DuckTales from all of Fox's other owned-and-operated stations in the fall of 1989. Diller also encouraged the network's affiliates to do the same, though most did not initially. This caused the retaliatory formation of Fox Kids.
As the years went on, new shows would be added at the start of the block, with the oldest shows being dropped from the lineup. The 1991-92 season, for instance, saw Gummi Bears
By the fifth season in 1994, the block had undergone a makeover, with the primary branding being the block's initials, TDA. At this point, the original idea of shows being added and removed yearly was dropped, as both new and old shows were now stripped all week, or only aired on certain days. The original four shows were gone from the line up by the 1995-1996 season. The lineup at this point included Aladdin and Quack Pack stripped, while one daily slot was split between The Shnookums and Meat Funny Cartoon Show and Gargoyles, book-ending three days a week of Bonkers.
The Disney Channel had developed its own copy, called Block Party, concurrent with TDA's sixth season, that was similarly scheduled and stripped with early Disney Afternoon series like TaleSpin and Rescue Rangers.
Disney-Kellogg's Alliance
By August 1996, 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. Buena Vista established a partnership with Leo Burnett and Kellogg's—who had been a major sponsor of The Disney Afternoon, to purchase an amount of dedicated advertising inventory. The new block did not carry any blanket branding, but was referred to internally as the "Disney-Kellogg Alliance."With the September 1, 1997 season start, the block dropped The Disney Afternoon name, a half hour from the stripped block and the Gargoyles series. Moving to the Disney Channel were Disney's Aladdin and The Lion King's Timon & Pumbaa. , which was shared with ABC's Disney's One Saturday Morning, premiered on the block. The Mighty Ducks and Quack Pack reruns shared the second slot in a Monday, Tuesday and Wednesdays through Fridays, split respectively. DuckTales repeats filled the third half hour slot, with flexibility for the local station to air it at other times.
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.
International broadcasts
Some of The Disney Afternoon's shows also aired on international versions of Disney Channel, Toon Disney, Disney Junior 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". Furthermore, shows that never aired on the American version of The Disney Afternoon did air on foreign versions of the block.In Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, the city's then-independent TV station ITV 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. ITV was at that time also available on cable and satellite in various mid-sized and smaller markets across Canada, as far away as St. John's.
Disney Parks
Characters from the shows first appeared in Disney Parks with the debut of Mickey’s Birthdayland in the Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney World.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, two years before Mickey's Toontown opened in January 1993.
On September 14, 1991, then-Disney owned KCAL-TV broadcast a one-hour TV special Disney Afternoon Live!, which included the opening of Splash Mountain, at Disneyland.
Shows
Over the years, the block consisted of 12 individual shows:| Series | Block premiere year | Original premiere |
| Adventures of the Gummi Bears | 1990 | NBC |
| DuckTales | 1990 | Syndication |
| ' | 1990 | Disney Channel |
| TaleSpin' | 1990 | Disney Channel |
| Darkwing Duck | 1991 | Disney Channel |
| Goof Troop | 1992 | |
| Bonkers | 1993 | |
| Aladdin | 1994 | |
| Quack Pack | ||
| Mighty Ducks | ||
| The Lion King's Timon & Pumbaa | ||
| Gargoyles | ||
| ' | 1997 | |
| Doug | ||
| Hercules'' |
Adaptations
The block was adapted into comic books, films and launched the Disney Adventures magazine.Disney Parks
Characters from the shows first appeared in Disney Parks with the debut of Mickey’s Birthdayland in the Magic Kingdom, Walt Disney World. In 1990, the characters got a daily show, "Mickey’s Magical TV World", which lasted until 1996.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. Two attractions were also made over to match series from the block.
Video games
Many of The Disney Afternoon shows were made into video games.| Main title/alternate title | Developer | Publisher | Regions released | Release date | Max. # of players | Console |
| DuckTales | Capcom | Capcom | JP, NA, EU | September 14, 1989 | 1 | NES, GB |
| Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers | Capcom | Capcom | JP, NA, EU | June 8, 1990 | 2 | NES |
| Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers | Tiger Electronics | Tiger Electronics | NA | 1990 | 1 | Handheld electronic game |
| ' | Incredible Technologies, Sierra On-Line | Walt Disney Computer Software | NA | December 31, 1990 | 1 | Amiga, Apple II, Commodore 64, DOS, Windows, Mac OS 8 |
| DuckTales | Tiger Electronics | Tiger Electronics | NA | 1990 | 1 | Handheld electronic game |
| ' | Hi Tech Expressions | Walt Disney Computer Software | NA | March 1, 1990 | 1 | PC |
| TaleSpin | Tiger Electronics | Tiger Electronics | NA | 1990 | 1 | Handheld electronic game |
| TaleSpin | Capcom | Capcom | NA, EU | December 1991 | 1 | NES, GB |
| TaleSpin | NEC | NEC | NA, EU | 1991 | 1 | TG16 |
| TaleSpin | Sega | Sega | NA, EU | 1992 | 1 | GEN, GG |
| Darkwing Duck | Capcom | Capcom | NA, EU | June 1992 | 1 | NES, GB |
| Darkwing Duck | Turbo Technologies Inc. | Turbo Technologies Inc. | NA | 1992 | 1 | TG16 |
| Darkwing Duck | Tiger Electronics | Tiger Electronics | NA | 1992 | 1 | Handheld electronic game |
| DuckTales 2 | Capcom | Capcom | JP, NA, EU | April 23, 1993 | 1 | NES, GB |
| Goof Troop | Capcom | Capcom | JP, NA, EU | July 11, 1993 | 2 | SNES |
| Goof Troop | Tiger Electronics | Tiger Electronics | NA | 1993 | 1 | Handheld electronic game |
| Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers 2 | Capcom | Capcom | JP, NA, EU | 1993 | 2 | NES |
| Bonkers | Capcom | Capcom | JP, NA, EU | December 15, 1994 | 1 | SNES |
| Bonkers | Sega | Sega | NA, EU | October 1, 1994 | 1 | GEN |
| Bonkers: Wax Up! | Sega | Sega | BR | February 4, 1995 | 1 | GG, SMS |
| Gargoyles | Buena Vista Interactive | Disney Interactive | NA | May 15, 1995 | 1 | GEN |
| Gargoyles | Tiger Electronics | Tiger Electronics | NA | 1995 | 1 | Handheld electronic game |
| Mighty Ducks | Tiger Electronics | Tiger Electronics | NA | 1996 | 1 | Handheld electronic game |
| Mighty Ducks Pinball Slam | Walt Disney Company | Walt Disney Company | NA | 1998 | 1 | Arcade |
| Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers | Dinamic Pixels | Dinamic Pixels | NA | 2010 | 1 | Mobile Phone |
| Darkwing Duck | Iricom | Iricom | NA | 2010 | 1 | Mobile Phone |
| ' | Disney Mobile | Disney Interactive | NA | July 26, 2013 | 1 | iOS, Android |
| ' | Capcom, WayForward Technologies | Capcom, Disney Interactive Studios | JP, NA, EU | August 13, 2013 | 1 | Wii U, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, iOS, Android |
| The Disney Afternoon Collection | Capcom, Digital Eclipse Software | Capcom | NA, EU | April 18, 2017 | 2 | PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows |