The Disney Afternoon (later known internally as the Disney-Kellogg Alliance when unbranded), sometimes abbreviated as TDA, was a created-for-

syndication Syndication may refer to: * Broadcast syndication, where individual stations buy programs outside the network system * Print syndication, where individual newspapers or magazines license news articles, columns, or comic strips * Web syndication, ...

two-hour programming block of animated television series. It was produced by Walt Disney Television Animation and distributed through its syndication affiliate

Buena Vista Television Buena ( ) is a borough in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population was 4,603,Disney Channel Disney Channel, sometimes known as simply Disney, is an American pay television channel that serves as the flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney General Entertainment Content division of The Walt Disney Comp ...

and

Toon Disney Toon Disney was an American multinational pay television channel owned by Disney Channels Worldwide, a subsidiary of Disney-ABC Television Group. The channel's target audience was children ages 2–11, and children ages 6–13 during the Jetix ...

. Disney Channel reaired four shows (''

Darkwing Duck ''Darkwing Duck'' is an American animated superhero comedy television series produced by Disney Television Animation (formerly Walt Disney Television Animation) that first ran from 1991 to 1992 on both the syndicated programming block ''The Disn ...

'', '' TaleSpin'', ''

DuckTales ''DuckTales'' is an American animated television series produced by Disney Television Animation. The original cartoon series premiered on syndication and on Disney Channel on September 18, 1987 and ran for a total of 100 episodes over four sea ...

'', and '' Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers'') on "Block Party," a two-hour block that aired on weekdays in the late afternoon/early evening."Block Party: Four Disney Animated Series." ''The Disney Channel Magazine'', Vol. 13, no. 5, October/November 1995: p. 36. The Disney Afternoon's block had four half-hour segments, each of which contained an

animated series An animated series is a set of animated works with a common series title, usually related to one another. These episodes should typically share the same main characters, some different secondary characters and a basic theme. Series can have eith ...

. As each season ended, the lineup would shift - the remaining three would move up a time slot and a new show would be added to the end. The Disney Afternoon itself featured unique animated segments consisting of its opening and "wrappers" around the cartoon shows. 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 Disney's One Too (later known as Disney's Animation Weekdays) was an American two-hour Sunday-to-Friday children's programming block that aired on UPN (and sometimes in syndication) from September 6, 1999 to August 31, 2003. A spin-off of the ...

for UPN in 1999. Some of the shows also aired on Saturday mornings on ABC and CBS concurrently with their original syndicated runs on The Disney Afternoon. '' Goof Troop'' is the only show to reach the 2000s, with the 2000 direct-to-video finale ''

An Extremely Goofy Movie ''An Extremely Goofy Movie'' is a 2000 animated comedy film distributed by Walt Disney Home Video, produced by Walt Disney Television Animation, and directed by Douglas McCarthy. It is a standalone sequel to the 1995 film ''A Goofy Movie'' and t ...

''. The 2010s and 2020s saw revivals of some shows such as ''DuckTales'' as a reboot and ''

'' as a show within the reboot on

Disney Channel Disney Channel, sometimes known as simply Disney, is an American pay television channel that serves as the flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney General Entertainment Content division of The Walt Disney Comp ...

(and

Disney XD Disney XD is an American pay television channel owned by the Disney Branded Television and Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution units of The Walt Disney Company. The channel is aimed primarily at older children ages six to eleven yea ...

), a reboot on

Disney+ Disney+ is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned and operated by the Media and Entertainment Distribution division of The Walt Disney Company. The service primarily distributes films and television se ...

, and '' Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers'' with a live-action animation hybrid film on Disney+, released in 2022.

Background

The Disney Afternoon goes back to

Michael Eisner Michael Dammann Eisner (born March 7, 1942) is an American businessman and former chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of The Walt Disney Company from September 1984 to September 2005. Prior to Disney, Eisner was president of rival film s ...

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 Mickey Mouse is an animated cartoon Character (arts), character co-created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. The longtime mascot of The Walt Disney Company, Mickey is an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic mouse who typically wears red sho ...

is the company symbol, thus wanting to do him right. Stones also pitched a '' Rescuers'' TV series – the

sequel A sequel is a work of literature, film, theatre, television, music or video game that continues the story of, or expands upon, some earlier work. In the common context of a narrative work of fiction, a sequel portrays events set in the same ...

was already under development at the time. Eisner suggested the

Gummy bear Gummy bears (German: ''Gummibär'') are small, fruit gum candies, similar to a jelly baby in some English-speaking countries. The candy is roughly long and shaped in the form of a bear. The gummy bear is one of many gummies, popular gel ...

as a series, given his kids liked the candy.

Disney Television Animation Disney Television Animation (DTVA), formerly known as Walt Disney Pictures Television Animation Group and Walt Disney Television Animation, is the television animation production arm of Disney Branded Television, a sub-division of the Disney Ge ...

's first two shows, '' The Wuzzles'' and ''

Adventures of the Gummi Bears ''Adventures of the Gummi Bears'' is an American animated television series, created by Disney CEO Michael Eisner, produced by Walt Disney Television Animation, and distributed by Buena Vista Television. The series, loosely inspired by the gum ...

'', were sold to two networks, CBS and

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

, respectively, for their Saturday morning cartoon blocks.

History

The Disney Afternoon

'', the series which would serve as the launching pad for what would become ''The Disney Afternoon'', premiered in first-run syndication in the fall of 1987. Two years later in the fall of 1989, ''DuckTales'' was joined by ''Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers'', and both series were being offered in syndication as an hour-long program block. ''The Disney Afternoon'' kept these shows, added ''Gummi Bears'' and '' TaleSpin'', and premiered on September 10, 1990, via Disney's syndication arm

Buena Vista Television Buena ( ) is a borough in Atlantic County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough's population was 4,603, ''DuckTales'' had been airing on many affiliates of the then-young Fox network and its group of owned-and-operated stations, including

KTTV KTTV (channel 11) is a television station in Los Angeles, California, United States, serving as the West Coast flagship of the Fox network. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside MyNetworkTV ou ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

; this may have been due to the fact that

the Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on Octobe ...

chief operating officer A chief operating officer or chief operations officer, also called a COO, is one of the highest-ranking executive positions in an organization, composing part of the " C-suite". The COO is usually the second-in-command at the firm, especially if ...

at the time,

, and his then- Fox counterpart,

Barry Diller Barry Charles Diller (born February 2, 1942) is an American businessman. He is Chairman and Senior Executive of IAC and Expedia Group and founded the Fox Broadcasting Company and USA Broadcasting. Diller was inducted into the Television Hall o ...

, had worked together previously at ABC and at

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...

. However, as ''Chip 'n Dale'' was being launched, Disney was in the process of purchasing Los Angeles

independent station An independent station is an independent radio or terrestrial television station which is independent in some way from broadcast networks. The definition of "independence" varies from country to country, reflecting governmental regulations, marke ...

KHJ-TV from RKO General. Through Buena Vista Television, Disney opted to reclaim the Los Angeles broadcast rights for ''DuckTales'' and moved it from KTTV to be paired with ''Chip 'n Dale'' on its newly-purchased station, which was renamed

KCAL-TV KCAL-TV (channel 9) is an independent television station in Los Angeles, California, United States. It is owned by the CBS News and Stations group alongside CBS West Coast flagship KCBS-TV (channel 2). Both stations share studios at the CBS ...

in December 1989. Furious at the

breach of contract Breach of contract is a legal cause of action and a type of civil wrong, in which a binding agreement or bargained-for exchange is not honored by one or more of the parties to the contract by non-performance or interference with the other part ...

, 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 Fox Kids (originally known as Fox Children's Network and later as the Fox Kids Network; stylized as FOX KIDS) was an American children's programming block and branding for a slate of international children's television channels. Originally a jo ...

. (Ironically, most of the assets of Fox Kids would be bought by Disney in 2001 via their acquisition of Fox Family Worldwide.) As the years went on, new shows would be added at the end of the block, with the oldest shows being dropped from the lineup. The 1991–92 season, for instance, saw ''Gummi Bears''' removal, and ''Darkwing Duck'' being added to the end. After ''DuckTales'', ''Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers'', and ''TaleSpin'' were removed from the block in 1992, 1993 and 1994 prespectively, and they were replaced by '' Goof Troop'', '' Bonkers'', '' Gargoyles'', and ''

Aladdin Aladdin ( ; ar, علاء الدين, ', , ATU 561, ‘Aladdin') is a Middle-Eastern folk tale. It is one of the best-known tales associated with ''The Book of One Thousand and One Nights'' (''The Arabian Nights''), despite not being part o ...

'' as those shows continued to rerun in syndication until 1996. 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 ''

'' 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 Disney Channel, sometimes known as simply Disney, is an American pay television channel that serves as the flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney General Entertainment Content division of The Walt Disney Com ...

developed a similar programming block called "Block Party", which premiered on October 2, 1995 (airing concurrently with TDA's sixth season) and was similarly scheduled and stripped with the early Disney Afternoon series of ''Darkwing Duck'', ''TaleSpin'', ''DuckTales'', and ''Chip 'n Dale: 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 Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, ...

and

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its networks division's Kids and Family Group. It ...

, and the new networks

The WB The WB Television Network (for Warner Bros., or the "Frog Network", for its former mascot, Michigan J. Frog) was an American television network launched on broadcast television on January 11, 1995, as a joint venture between the Warner Bros. ...

and UPN with having children's blocks of their own, Buena Vista agreed 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 The Kellogg Company, doing business as Kellogg's, is an American multinational food manufacturing company headquartered in Battle Creek, Michigan, United States. Kellogg's produces cereal and convenience foods, including crackers and toa ...

—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 started, the block dropped ''The Disney Afternoon'' name, a half-hour from the stripped block and the ''Gargoyles'' series. Moving to the

were ''Disney's Aladdin'' and The Lion King's ''Timon & Pumbaa''. '' 101 Dalmatians'', which was shared with ABC's ''Disney's One Saturday Morning'' (which broadcast their own set of episodes), premiered on the block. ''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, ''

'', 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

Edmonton, Alberta Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city anch ...

, 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, but instead used locally produced live-action segments between programs with host Mike Sobel. In Denmark, DR1 started its version of the block ("Disney Sjov") on October 25th, 1991. The block will end at the end of 2022.

Shows

Over the years, the block featured the following shows which have all aired reruns within

Adaptations

Comic books

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 Magic Kingdom Park, previously known as Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom (1971–1994) and The Magic Kingdom (1994–2017), is a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida, near Orlando, Florida. Owned and operated by The ...

, 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 Disneyland is a theme park in Anaheim, California. Opened in 1955, it was the first theme park opened by The Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney. Disney initially envisio ...

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.

Notes

References

External links

Disney Afternoon vs. Tiny Toons (1989)
(first nine pages of publicity packet touting The Disney Afternoon over syndication offerings of Warner Bros.) {{DEFAULTSORT:Disney Afternoon, The First-run syndicated television programs in the United States Disney animated television series Disney Channel Television programming blocks Television programming blocks in the United States Television channels and stations established in 1990 Television channels and stations disestablished in 1997 Television channels and stations disestablished in 1999 Television series by Disney–ABC Domestic Television Television syndication packages