Why Doesn't Disney Air Some Of Its Classic Toons.

[Mr Flintstone]

Why is it that none of the Disney networks air any Disney classics? I'm talking about Disney toons from the 40's and 50's, The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and Ducktails.

Is there a reason or they just simply decided to not air them?

 

[droosan]

Back in the 1980's & early 90's, when the Disney Channel was a premium (pay) cable station, they did air classic Disney animated shorts and films -- and even classic movies from other studios -- all commercial-free.

I miss those days.

I'm kinda surprised Disney hasn't launched a new 'D23' pay channel, to re-create that experience.

 

[Silverstar]

That's just not where Disney's head's at right now. The current Disney regime consciously aims its' programming at teens/tweens, and the general feeling over at Disney is that tweens have no nostalgic connection to those cartoons and therefore would have no interest in seeing them. (Not saying that I agree with this sentiment, but that's the attitude.)

Case in point: Toon Disney started out as channel devoted to showing Disney toons, both theatrical shorts as well as TV series, but in time, Disney got a hankering to attract the action crowd and launched Jetix, and gradually the Jetix shows began taking over the network. Meanwhile, Disney's live-action tweencoms, many of which were consciously aimed at girls, exploded and began dominating TDC. In response, Disney transformed Toon Disney into Disney XD in order to attract boy viewers, and they felt the best way to do this would be to show a bunch of action cartoons and tweencoms with male protagonists.

I'd really like to see Disney's shorts and half-hour cartoons resurface somewhere, perhaps as a separate channel or at the very least as a programming block on one of the Disney stations, but 24-hour rerun channels don't seem to be in vogue right now. The sad truth is that currently nostalgia isn't profitable.

 

[Dragnatek]

Back in the 1980's & early 90's, when the Disney Channel was a premium (pay) cable station, they did air classic Disney animated shorts and films -- and even classic movies from other studios -- all commercial-free.

I miss those days.

I'm kinda surprised Disney hasn't launched a new 'D23' pay channel, to re-create that experience.

And crappy rween shows that dominated the channel during the day. Somethings never change.

 

[droosan]

Actually -- at least during the 1980's -- the Disney Channel was not primarily 'tween'-oriented. In fact, the only truly 'tween' show I can think of, offhand, was The New Mickey Mouse Club.

Morning hours were mostly geared to little kids (Mousercise, The House at Pooh Corner, etc).

Mid-day would often see short package shows (Mickey & Donald cartoons, Dtv 'music videos', etc) and old sitcoms, like Lassie or Ozzie & Harriet .. in the late-1980's, the Disney Afternoon cartoons (Gummi Bears, Duck Tales, etc) began to appear.

Evenings often had classic Disney live-action films, along with similar fare from other studios (starring Jerry Lewis or Doris Day, for example). Occasionally, there'd be a special 'mini-series' such as the canadian Anne of Green Gables TV movies.

.. all of which was about as far from today's (mostly-obnoxious) 'tween' programming as it is possible to get.

 

[Sketch]

Most channels consist of 90% reruns or more but they're recent reruns as opposed to older shows. Though there's no short supply of 80s and 90s television shows rerunning on various networks at this time.

Disney just doesn't seem to see much value in their animated television series. Barely any have been released on DVD, only a few have been streamed in any capacity and most have not aired on television for years. Rather than create an an animation network or even a channel with old live action shows Disney turned their attention to making a new pre-school channel and US television isn't exactly hurting for those at this point.

It would be great if Disney Channel or Disney XD made more creative use of their overnight hours and air some of those shows.

It's a bit perplexing that you can still easily enough watch Rocko, Ren and Stimpy, Rugrats and various other older Nicktoons but you can't do the same with the Disney cartoons that some people consider among the best cartoons of all time. On the bright side, you can still watch Gargoyles so that's 1. I would say the same for the silverage WB shows as well though, so it's not like Disney is the only one dropping the ball.

I'd like to see Disney make either another family oriented channel with their various old live-action and animated shows or another 24/7 Toon Disney since DXD replaced that and serves it's own purposes. Chances are neither are going to happen though so a streaming service or more DVD releases would do just fine and they should at least be able to do a streaming service.

 

[SF4Ever]

Most channels consist of 90% reruns or more but they're recent reruns as opposed to older shows. Though there's no short supply of 80s and 90s television shows rerunning on various networks at this time.

Disney just doesn't seem to see much value in their animated television series. Barely any have been released on DVD, only a few have been streamed in any capacity and most have not aired on television for years. Rather than create an an animation network or even a channel with old live action shows Disney turned their attention to making a new pre-school channel and US television isn't exactly hurting for those at this point.

It would be great if Disney Channel or Disney XD made more creative use of their overnight hours and air some of those shows.

It's a bit perplexing that you can still easily enough watch Rocko, Ren and Stimpy, Rugrats and various other older Nicktoons but you can't do the same with the Disney cartoons that some people consider among the best cartoons of all time. On the bright side, you can still watch Gargoyles so that's 1. I would say the same for the silverage WB shows as well though, so it's not like Disney is the only one dropping the ball.

I'd like to see Disney make either another family oriented channel with their various old live-action and animated shows or another 24/7 Toon Disney since DXD replaced that and serves it's own purposes. Chances are neither are going to happen though so a streaming service or more DVD releases would do just fine and they should at least be able to do a streaming service.

If Disney could create a new network primarly for classic TV shows and animation from its own library, the working title should be "Retro Disney". Personally, I grew up with Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies classic cartoon series. At the same time, no TV station I've ever watched ever carried classic Disney Silly Symphonies cartoons- it might have something to do with Disney objecting to releasing those classic cartoons to TV stations or some other reason. Case and point, while Warner Bros. is easier to figure out as far as releasing its classic theatrical cartoons to broadcast and cable TV outlets, Disney, not so much, and that's still hard to understand to this very day.

 

[Mr Flintstone]

If Disney could create a new network primarly for classic TV shows and animation from its own library, the working title should be "Retro Disney". Personally, I grew up with Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies classic cartoon series. At the same time, no TV station I've ever watched ever carried classic Disney Silly Symphonies cartoons- it might have something to do with Disney objecting to releasing those classic cartoons to TV stations or some other reason. Case and point, while Warner Bros. is easier to figure out as far as releasing its classic theatrical cartoons to broadcast and cable TV outlets, Disney, not so much, and that's still hard to understand to this very day.

It makes no sense. Disney have 2 channels, 3 if you count ABC Family, and they continue to not show any classic toons? Next year, they're adding Disney Junior. Just what we need, another preschool channel.

 

[jfoley85]

What the USA would need to do is launch the current Disney Cinemagic. Over in the UK and places like France they have this channel and its alot like Toon Disney was. They have Disney XD as well over there and depending on the market they might launch it as a program block before a channel. The US would appreciate having this sort of channel and I wish our country Canada could get it as well as the USA. Its a pay TV channel as well if not a block on Disney Channel.

 

[jfoley85]

http://www.disney.co.uk/DisneyChannel/cinemagic/

 

[Silverstar]

Personally, I grew up with Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies classic cartoon series. At the same time, no TV station I've ever watched ever carried classic Disney Silly Symphonies cartoons- it might have something to do with Disney objecting to releasing those classic cartoons to TV stations or some other reason.

Nail on the head. That's exactly the reason. Disney has always been an exclusive club. The reason why you never saw any Disney cartoons airing on local or syndicated program blocks was because Disney wouldn't distribute them to any local affiliates. This is why you never saw anything like a "Bugs & Mickey Show" or "Goofy & Popeye" airing on some local UHF station. The only time Disney cartoons were shown on TV was on Disney owned programs such as The Wonderful World of Disney (NBC) or on the syndicated reruns of the old Mickey Mouse Club.

It makes no sense. Disney have 2 channels, 3 if you count ABC Family, and they continue to not show any classic toons?

It does make sense (in a corporate business sense, anyway) when you consider who the Mouse House currently aims the programming on these channels at. Like I mentioned in my previous post, the current Disney aims their shows at kids aged 6-13, those being people who are kids now, not people who were kids 20+ years ago. If you're over 13, Disney doesn't care about you or what you want to see on their channels. The general feeling over at Disney is that kids today didn't grow up with the classic shorts or the Disney Afternoon shows and therefore have no nostalgic connection to them, so they don't air them. Like Cartoon Network and Nick currently, the general feeling is that anything made before 1999 is considered 'retro' and therefore doesn't air on their mainstream channels; case in point: aside from Tom & Jerry and (presently) the Looney Tunes shorts (which are mainly on right now to promote The Looney Tunes Show), all of the HB shows that were made before the 00's air on Boomerang, CN's retro channel, rather than CN proper. At the present time, Disney has no such outlet; they used to, the aforementioned Toon Disney, but that got changed when the Mouse House got the desire to make a genuine profit from the channel. Of course it would be possible to create a Disney Retro channel or at least a Retro Disney programming block on one of their existing channels, but again, you'd have to convince the suits at Disney that doing so would guarantee them ratings and money. Like I said, right now nostalgia isn't profitable, and so the suits aren't all that interested in it.

Next year, they're adding Disney Junior. Just what we need, another preschool channel.

Disney wants to compete head-on with Nick Jr., which is doing quite well, and Disney's preschool shows have proven to put butts in seats, so it makes sense that they'd launch a preschool channel of their own. However, no one's forcing you to watch it. Disney Junior gives the kiddies something to enjoy, so I've got nothing against it. At least the preschool shows feature Disney's classic shorts and features characters.

 

[jfoley85]

Next year, they're adding Disney Junior. Just what we need, another preschool channel.

Sure up here in Canada they launched a Playhouse Disney Channel back in 2007. It recently re-branded as Disney Junior and that seems to be the direction Disney has taken. Do I watch it?? No, but I commend Disney for their programming to toddlers at least. Maybe both our countries will finally get some classic Disney Toon's once the little kids are taken care of.

In Three weeks we are getting Disney XD.. So Disney could do just about anything they want.. Just because we might not see many classic disney toons now doesn't mean we will never see them.

 

[TnAdct1]

http://www.disney.co.uk/DisneyChannel/cinemagic/

(looks at the schedule) So, the UK gets the Stitch anime, but the USA doesn't.

Yep, something needs to be fixed with the American Disney networks.

 

[Mr Flintstone]

It does make sense (in a corporate business sense, anyway) when you consider who the Mouse House currently aims the programming on these channels at. Like I mentioned in my previous post, the current Disney aims their shows at kids aged 6-13, those being people who are kids now, not people who were kids 20+ years ago. If you're over 13, Disney doesn't care about you or what you want to see on their channels. The general feeling over at Disney is that kids today didn't grow up with the classic shorts or the Disney Afternoon shows and therefore have no nostalgic connection to them, so they don't air them. Like Cartoon Network and Nick currently, the general feeling is that anything made before 1999 is considered 'retro' and therefore doesn't air on their mainstream channels; case in point: aside from Tom & Jerry and (presently) the Looney Tunes shorts (which are mainly on right now to promote The Looney Tunes Show), all of the HB shows that were made before the 00's air on Boomerang, CN's retro channel, rather than CN proper. At the present time, Disney has no such outlet; they used to, the aforementioned Toon Disney, but that got changed when the Mouse House got the desire to make a genuine profit from the channel. Of course it would be possible to create a Disney Retro channel or at least a Retro Disney programming block on one of their existing channels, but again, you'd have to convince the suits at Disney that doing so would guarantee them ratings and money. Like I said, right now nostalgia isn't profitable, and so the suits aren't all that interested in it.

They don't need a retro channel, all I'm asking for is for a couple of hours a day on one of their two or three channels. And I disagree about nostalgic not being profitable. If that was the case, you wouldn't have channels like Nick at Nite, ESPN Classic, Centric, Hub or VH1 Classic. Nostalgic will never go out of style.

 

[Silverstar]

They don't need a retro channel, all I'm asking for is for a couple of hours a day on one of their two or three channels. And I disagree about nostalgic not being profitable. If that was the case, you wouldn't have channels like Nick at Nite, ESPN Classic, Centric, Hub or VH1 Classic. Nostalgic will never go out of style.

Dude, I'm not the one you need to convince. A classic animation block sounds like a great idea to me. Heck, if not that, I'd settle for proper series DVD releases of the Disney Afternoon shows. It's the majority of TV execs who aren't keen on programming for the retro crowd, not me. Like I said before, Disney doesn't aim the majority of their programming at nostalgia buffs, they aim them at kids 6-13. People our age don't register a blip on Disney's radar right now. As long as the Mouse House suits continue to aim their channels at kids, who aren't clamoring to see these old cartoons, there's not going to be a Disney Rewind channel or a programming block. That's just how it is.

Also, not to labor the point, but you'll notice that both Nick at Nite and TV Land now show original programs alongside of the reruns, Nicktoons now shows original programming as at least 50% of it's lineup and ESPN Classic is no longer available on the basic package for most cable/satellite subscribers. VH-1 Classic is likewise an digital extra channel. How many mainstream basic cable/satellite are nostalgia heavy right now? Very, very few. The fact of the matter is that cable companies aren't interested in acquiring a channel with zero original programming, because they don't make any money off of said channels outside of subscription fees. This is why Boomerang is in the sad state that it's in right now. Again, I'm not saying that I agree with this trend, but it is what it is.

Also, not to nitpick, but The Hub isn't a retro channel. The main (if not only) reason why The Hub's night time lineup consists primarily of old sitcoms and other programs is because the channel is less than 2 years old and Hasbro can't afford to produce or acquire a plethora of original programming for adults/general audiences just yet. Acquiring a slew of reruns not in heavy demand for a cheap price and running them all night is just easier than producing original programs for them right now. I can easily see The Hub going the way of TBS and having more new and original programming as soon as they're able to.

 

[Toon Master]

The only way I could think of seeing the classic shorts nowadays is by purchasing the Walt Disney Treasures sets. Only a few are still available in stores like Best Buy where I usually see the Mickey Mouse In Living Color Vol. 2 set pop up every now and then.

I was lucky enough to get most of them.

As for the shorts on tv....I don't think you'll be seeing them anytime soon. Disney just doesn't seem to care about animation as much as it used to. That could change in the future.

 

[Ed Liu]

The only thing I'd inject into the discussion at this point is that Disney seems to be extremely selective about how they market nostalgia. They certainly don't seem to have any problem milking the "classic" label for all it's worth for the animated films and must be spending colossal amounts of money for those super new Diamond Edition Blu-ray discs. Most of those movies seem to be getting air time on Disney Channel and even Disney XD, so clearly someone at Disney recognizes the value of older material.

I can't pretend I understand why it's only the movies and not the TV shows, considering the wide fanbases that many of these TV shows have, but Disney's TV strategy has always seemed to be to treat it as largely disposable material. I'd say they're one of the worst as far as getting TV on DVD or on digital services. I am pretty sure they'd sell tons of Phineas & Ferb season sets, but so far we've gotten 2 lame DVDs (in full-frame, no less) and the Xmas movie and that's it. It's not like the tweencoms get treated much better, either.

 

[Shawn Hopkins]

I wish they would make a channel for us Olds. I mean, it's not just cartoons, they have tons of live action movies, TV series and TV movies and specials that never see the light of day. And they own most of the Muppet stuff now.

 

[Antiyonder]

For the most part, I kind respect that Disney doesn't view them as a gold mine. Best I can figure is that the DVD didn't sell well enough to convince them that their oldies are a goody.

On the other hand, I'm still maintain belief that at some point or another that some of their older cartoons do have some relevancy and should at least have a trial airing:

1. Goof Troop/Quack Pack- Has traditional Disney characters in the sitcom setting that Disney loves doing, and could merit a spot on XD.

2. Aladdin, Hercules, The Little Mermaid, and The Legend of Tarzan- These are based off movies that are well known to the general audience and thus should fare well. And if a regular (albeit rotational) airing is undoable, then maybe a marathon airing followed by the movie.

3. Jungle Cubs/Tale Spin- Either one could have been aired to coincide with The Jungle Book 2. And yeah, I get that there's some royalty issue, but it didn't prevent some DVDs of Tale Spin from getting released.

4. Darkwing Duck- The comic has been doing pretty well considering that the show it's based off of hasn't aired for a while, thus I'd think that the show has earned a trial airing.

5. Buzz Lightyear of Star Command- From Toy Story 3's theatrical release to it's DVD/Blu-Ray release.

 

[Master Toon]

They don't need a retro channel, all I'm asking for is for a couple of hours a day on one of their two or three channels. And I disagree about nostalgic not being profitable. If that was the case, you wouldn't have channels like Nick at Nite, ESPN Classic, Centric, Hub or VH1 Classic. Nostalgic will never go out of style.

1. The Hub will soon have more original programming than new. It's just that the channel is new so they haven't got that much original programming yet. Remember how Disney XD was still a bit like Toon Disney when it was first created? Remember how it changed once it got more shows?

2. I think you mean "classics" will never go out of style. Nostalgia can belong to anyone. Even if you do say classics who's to say that some of the modern stuff won't be someone's classics one day?