Disney's Animation Weekdays

Disney's Animation Weekdays (originally known as Disney's One Too until 2002) was an American two-hour weekday and Sunday children's programming block that aired on UPN (and sometimes in syndication) from September 6, 1999 to August 31, 2003. Marketed as a spin-off of the ''Disney's One Saturday Morning'' block on ABC (which is owned by The Walt Disney Company), it featured animated series from Walt Disney Television Animation aimed at children between the ages of 6 and 11.

History

Beginning deal with UPN

In January 1998, UPN began discussions with The Walt Disney Company (owner of rival network ABC) to have the company program a daily two-hour children's block for the network, airing on weekdays (during the morning or afternoon hours) and Sunday mornings. Attempts to reach a time-lease agreement deal with Disney were called off one week after negotiations started due to a dispute between Disney and UPN over how the block would be branded and the amount of E/I programming that Disney would provide for the block; UPN then entered into discussions with then-corporate sister Nickelodeon as both networks were owned by Viacom (now known as Paramount Global) to produce a new block, but never came to fruition and Nickelodeon finally joined forces with CBS two years later. That February, UPN entered into an agreement with Saban Entertainment (then a subsidiary of Fox Family Worldwide, which Disney later acquired in 2001 and reunited 18 years later following the merger of 21st Century Fox along a library of kids' content) – which distributed two live-action series recently aired on the UPN Kids block around that time, ''Sweet Valley High'' and ''Breaker High'' – to broadcast the Sunday-to-Friday block.

In March 1998, UPN resumed discussions with Disney and the following month, The Walt Disney Company and UPN came to an agreement to provide Disney-produced programs on the network on weekdays (from 7:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m. or 3:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.) and Sunday (from 9:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.). The block was originally announced under the working title ''Whomptastic'' to distinguish it from Disney's recently-launched ''One Saturday Morning'' block for ABC. However, amid the success of ''One Saturday Morning'', the UPN block was rebranded prior to launch as ''Disney's One Too'', aiming to capitalize on brand awareness.Issue 3.2.

The block premiered on September 6, 1999, replacing UPN Kids, which ended its run the day before (on September 5) after four years. Compared to the format of ''One Saturday Morning'', ''One Too'' varied in that, instead of incorporating hosted segments, short segment gags from the series featured in the block (such as DIC's '' Sabrina: The Animated Series'', '' Doug'' (revived for Disney) and '' Recess'', all of which – along with a few other series – were originally aired on ''One Saturday Morning'') were actually shown, often preceding the beginning of each program, and after commercial breaks. The block also featured an alternate opening sequence, using more futuristic buildings and a theme similar to that used on ''One Saturday Morning''. Many series previously aired on ''One Too'' continued in reruns on two Disney-branded cable television networks, Toon Disney and Disney Channel.

Closure of block and syndication

In September 2002, the ''One Too'' branding was discontinued (due to ''Disney's One Saturday Morning'' replacing with '' ABC Kids''); although the UPN block wasn't rebranded (with bumpers and promos simply being created for each individual show). However, the Disney.com website referred to it under the title ''Disney's Animation Weekdays'' as a result of the rebranding of the ABC block from ''One Saturday Morning'' into ''ABC Kids''. The block aired for the last time on August 31, 2003, with the time periods being turned over to UPN's affiliates; this left UPN as the only "big six" broadcast television network without children's programming (and for the rest of its existence through its 2006 shutdown, never again ''would'' UPN air any children's programming), and one of only two major commercial broadcast networks that did not air a children's programming block (the other being Pax TV, which discontinued its ''Pax Kids'' lineup in 2000, until returning children's programming as I: Independent Television through the 2006 launch of Qubo (joint venture of Canada-based Corus, NBC Universal, and Scholastic), as a 24/7 network, it was pulled off the air in 2021 due to Ion's acquisition by Scripps Media).

Aftermath

UPN was not the first "big six" network to phase out children's programming: NBC became the first to remove children's series entirely in August 1992, when the network launched a live-action block for teenagers called TNBC; children's programming returned to NBC in 2002, through a time-lease agreement with Discovery Kids. In the years since the block was discontinued, all other major broadcast networks, including UPN successor The CW (sister of the "Big Three" network CBS), would gradually abandon children's programming by selling their respective children's blocks to Litton Entertainment, who produces primarily unscripted E/I content targeted nominally at teenagers (but having an older demographic overall by ratings), or in the case of Fox, removing children's programming entirely. Fox's sister network, MyNetworkTV, has never supplied children's programming as part of its lineup; both networks leave the responsibility of acquiring E/I programming to the affiliates, primarily through the syndicated block Xploration Station in the case of the former.

Programming

* ¹ Program also aired on ABC prior to the block.
* ² Program aired episode premieres.

Disney's One Too

Original programming

Acquired programming

† - Program transitioned to Disney's Animation Weekdays

Disney's Animation Weekdays

Original programming

† - Program transitioned from Disney's One Too

‡ - Program transitioned from final schedule of Fox Kids

See also

* The Disney Afternoon – a syndicated children's program block that ran from 1990 to 1997.
* ABC Kids – a Saturday morning children's block that ran on ABC from 1997 to 2011.

Notes

References

{{UPN Kids

Television channels and stations established in 1999
Television channels and stations disestablished in 2003
Children's television networks in the United States
Former joint ventures
UPN original programming
Television programming blocks in the United States
Television syndication packages