The Disney Afternoon

The Disney Afternoon was a created-for-syndication two-hour television series which aired from September 10, 1990 until 1998. It was produced by The Walt Disney Company.

Related Topics:
Syndication - September 10 - 1990 - 1998 - The Walt Disney Company

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The two hour show was broken up into four half-hour segments, each of which contained an animated cartoon. As each season ended, the first cartoon shown in the lineup would typically be dropped, and a new one added to the end. The Disney Afternoon itself featured unique animated segments consisting of its own opening and "wrappers" around the cartoon shows shown.

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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. TaleSpin was the first series presumably created expressly for The Disney Afternoon.

Related Topics:
Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears - DuckTales - Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers - TaleSpin

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Some of the later additions were inspired by shorter cartoons in the short lived series Raw Toonage http://www.tvtome.com/tvtome/servlet/ShowMainServlet/showid-14696/, which appeared on the ABC network in Fall, 1992 -- see Marsupilami; also He's Bonkers!, which, with storyboard revision, eventually became Bonkers.

Related Topics:
Raw Toonage - ABC - Fall - 1992 - Marsupilami - Bonkers

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The other main source for Disney Afternoon cartoons were series inspired by movies created previously; 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 was released (example: Aladdin, and Timon and Pumbaa, from The Lion King.)

Related Topics:
Movies - The Lion King

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Beginning with the 1994 season, The Disney Afternoon was, as a named series, shortened to just TDA. That same year, though, Marvel Comics began publishing a comic book series based off of the programs featured on the block, as part of their line of comics based off of modern Disney properties (the classic properties were licensed to Gladstone Publishing). The comic mainly ran stories based off of Darkwing Duck, with occasional stories featuring Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers and TaleSpin. The comic ended at 10 issues, but stories based off of the block's shows continued in Marvel's Disney Comic Hits! and in the childrens' magazine Disney Adventures.

Related Topics:
Marvel Comics - Gladstone Publishing - Disney Adventures

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On about September 1, 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.

Related Topics:
September 1 - 1997

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It soon became clear that Disney was moving in a different direction with its half-hour cartoon series; by December 8, 1997 Disney announced the planned launch on April 18, 1998 of Toon Disney, a 24 hour cable cartoon network.

Related Topics:
December 8 - 1997 - April 18 - 1998 - Toon Disney

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By the 1999-2000 television season, the remnants of The Disney Afternoon package were moved to Saturday mornings, solely on the ABC network, under the name Disney's One Saturday Morning. By early 2001, One Saturday Morning had begun broadcasting a weekday afternoon spinoff called Disney's One Too, which bore virtually no resembalance to the Disney Afternoon. http://www.awn.com/mag/issue4.06/4.06pages/amidifalltv/amidifalltv4.php3.

Related Topics:
Disney's One Saturday Morning - Disney's One Too

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Up until November 2004, many of the series previously seen on The Disney Afternoon were shown on the Toon Disney network. They have not been seen since the network stopped airing them, much to the chagrin of many viewers.

Related Topics:
November - 2004 - Toon Disney

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More recently, the Disney Afternoon was altered and aired on the Disney Channel. The tagline was "Animate afternoons your way!".

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