20 Years Ago this month in syndication...

[dth1971]

...the 2 hour Disney Afternoon block with Gummi Bears, Duck Tales, Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers, and Tale Spin was launched.

[spidey4545]

...the 2 hour Disney Afternoon block with Gummi Bears, Duck Tales, Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers, and Tale Spin was launched.

Yep, the Disney Afternoon premiered on Monday, September 10, 1990 in syndication (2 days after the premiere of the Fox Kids Network).

[spongebob03]

Good times. :) Now here's the funny thing. I was playing the DIsney Afternoon cd for about a couple of hours straight on the eleventh of this month. I had no idea that it premiered this month, but I just had this urge to play it over and over again. It's been the first time I've listened to it since last year.

[Michael24]

Jeez, it doesn't even feel that long, does it? I was just starting sixth grade at the time, too. Wow. LOL!

But yeah, good times, though I never really watched Gummi Bears. I think I'll give my Disney Afternoon soundtrack a spin this evening in celebration. :)

[dth1971]

The 2 hour Disney Afternoon block ran in syndication from 1990 until 1997.

[Dr.Pepper]

I used to watch this but I was so young at the time I thought I was watching the Disney Channel.:o

[ReijiAzuma]

I miss the Disney Afternoon. I've been watching all my Dinsey Cartoon sets recently because of this...

I remember that that was actually the way I first saw Gummi Bears. I didn't watch it on NBC/ABC or whatever channel it aired Saturday Mornings, so this finally allowed me to catch it. Ducktales and Rescue Rangers were already syndicated, and I'd seen Talespin on the Disney Channel.

I also vividly remember seeing a certain purple-costumed duck character during the very beginning of the intro, but had no idea who he was since he didn't appear in any of the shows... I'd have to wait a couple months until we received the new Disney Channel Magazine to find out.

[Tobias]

Yeah, I always wondered who that purple costumed duck was at first myself. It was only when I saw the promos on the Disney Channel that I knew who it was. Then I saw the poster for Disney Afternoon season 2 with him among all the characters, and my mind quickly went to 'Where are the Gummi Bears?'.

[steet]

Yeahness! Probably the best animated TV shows block ever produced (even though I'm not american, there was almost the same thing called "Disney Club" here in France) I really, really hope they can become popular again. The comics may be a first step!


Ducktales and Rescue Rangers were already syndicated, and I'd seen Talespin on the Disney ChannelMore precisely : people tend to forget it, but TaleSpin was introduced at the exact same time as The Disney Afternoon (and I remember reading the staff behind TaleSpin was frustrated at the time that Disney did not promote the show as much as the block), so it's also the 20th year anniversary of TaleSpin (http://www.animationsource.org/talespin/en/)!

[dth1971]

Yeah, I always wondered who that purple costumed duck was at first myself. It was only when I saw the promos on the Disney Channel that I knew who it was. Then I saw the poster for Disney Afternoon season 2 with him among all the characters, and my mind quickly went to 'Where are the Gummi Bears?'.

That purple costumed duck you are talking about is Darkwing Duck.

Bonkers D. Bobcat even was added to the Disney Afternoon opening credits in 1991 but didn't start until a year later first on Raw Toonage airing on CBS before going to the Disney Afternoon for his own Bonkers series starting in 1993.

[Darklordavaitor]

There's a good part of my childhood right there, and I wasn't alive for the first month of the block's existance. Over the years, I think the 91-92 season mgiht have been my favorite, when DuckTales was still on, Darkwing Duck started up, and you could also catch Rescue Rangers and TaleSpin. 1994-95 was probably my first year, and I think that mgiht be my second favorite year as well.

If anyone cares, my blog did a retrospective on the block earlier in the summer (http://arevelationfeechurs.blogspot.com/2010/05/disney-afternoon-20-years-of-mouses.html), which looks over most of the shows that aired back then.

[Toonatic]

Happy 20th Anniversary Disney Afternoon! :)

[A.Magik]

Question: did anyone prefer the schedule of the 1st 3 years? This was when all four shows were together with their OP shortened and the ED removed, with one big ending where we see clips of tomorrow's episodes.
Personally, I perferred seeing the shows intact. Although I knew what the complete DWD and GT OP & ED were because they were on ABC, I missed AotGB's ED.

[ABrown]

...the 2 hour Disney Afternoon block with Gummi Bears, Duck Tales, Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers, and Tale Spin was launched.


Yep, the Disney Afternoon premiered on Monday, September 10, 1990 in syndication (2 days after the premiere of the Fox Kids Network).

Let's see now. While those shows were airing, I would've been watching the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon and The Super Mario Brothers Super Show (which featured The Legend Of Zelda on Fridays!). The first Disney cartoon that I ever really got into was Kim Possible.

[Darklordavaitor]

Let's see now. While those shows were airing, I would've been watching the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon and The Super Mario Brothers Super Show (which featured The Legend Of Zelda on Fridays!). The first Disney cartoon that I ever really got into was Kim Possible.
Any reason why it took so long for a Disney show to grab your interest?

[ABrown]

Any reason why it took so long for a Disney show to grab your interest?

As a kid, I really was for the most part into action cartoons. So all of the cartoons like Duck Tales didn't feature the action that I was looking for.

[Michael24]

Let's see now. While those shows were airing, I would've been watching the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon and The Super Mario Brothers Super Show (which featured The Legend Of Zelda on Fridays!). The first Disney cartoon that I ever really got into was Kim Possible.
Interesting. For me at that time, TMNT and Mario went comfortably alongside the likes of DuckTales, TaleSpin, and Rescue Rangers. As far as my 12 year old self was concerned, it was all just good cartoons to watch. :)

[Rick Jones]

I had already been watching DuckTales regularly and I remember seeing movie length special presentations of Rescue Rangers but I left the country at the beginning of 1990 when I was about 6, so it would be about a year before I ever saw the Disney Afternoon block . I just so happened to catch it and get hooked during the same summer that I went to Disney World for the first time, and the summer that my mother got Disney Channel added to her cable package, so I was on a serious Disney rush. The mental sugar rush got even worse once those rapping promos for Darkwing Duck, with the kids dancing, started airing.

[Romperstoomper]

This is huge. I grew on this crap! It was great!

And it still is! The animation and the feel of those shows are many times greater than the shows to this day.

Yeah, I know I should not pull the "old cartoons are awesome the new is crap" thing. But that, right now, seems so right when I think back at those shows.

Yes, those where gooooooood times.:cool:

[ABrown]

And I forgot about Tiny Toons! I would've been watching Tiny Toons while these shows were on.

I'm pretty sure that here in the Chicago market, these shows aired on WGN. And that would've meant that whenever a Cubs game was on, no Disney afternoon block for kids to watch.

[speedy fast]

That purple costumed duck you are talking about is Darkwing Duck.

Bonkers D. Bobcat even was added to the Disney Afternoon opening credits in 1991 but didn't start until a year later first on Raw Toonage airing on CBS before going to the Disney Afternoon for his own Bonkers series starting in 1993.

I wonder what was up with characters appearing in the opening a year before their shows debuted.

I watched the DA a lot during the 1991-1992 season (though I don't remember seeing Bonkers in that opening). I watched the Disney Afternoon less after 1992. My household got cable, and I was being babysat by a household that had The Disney Channel, and I was often watching either Disney or Nickelodeon in the afternoon (I also watched the Fox afternoon line-up a lot afterwards, though I did alternate between watching Disney Afternoon and Fox Kids during the time I heavily watched the Disney Afternoon).

It would be cool if Disney released a special "Disney Afternoon" DVD box set, to include the openings and various shows (preferably episodes not on the main DVD sets). Each disc could represent a different year, with the line-up matching.

[DarthGonzo]

I watched the DA a lot during the 1991-1992 season (though I don't remember seeing Bonkers in that opening).

Me neither, but people insist he was there, so who knows.

[Antiyonder]

Actually I do recall DW appearing in the line up even before his show was announced. Always puzzled me who this character was until the show debuted.

[JohnDMoore]

This was probably the single entity with the greatest impact and influence on me in my childhood. And it's been twenty years! Wow.

I'd already been watching Rescue Rangers with regularity from the year before, but this two block of Disney programming every afternoon became what my life revolved around. Especially a year later, when Darkwing Duck debuted. I would sadly often miss the first show or two starting that school year, but when Darkwing Duck was move back to the 3:30 slot, I walked home just a bit faster.

Did Darkwing perhaps make his debut in the opening animation sometime between his Disney Channel premier and September?

[Peter Paltridge]

How to celebrate this occasion....I know! Here's a cool link:
http://michaelperaza.blogspot.com/
This guy actually worked on several Disney Afternoon shows and he tells the story of how Double O Ducks turned into Darkwing. Also, there's a nifty Black Cauldron retrospective....

[JohnDMoore]

How to celebrate this occasion....I know! Here's a cool link:
http://michaelperaza.blogspot.com/
This guy actually worked on several Disney Afternoon shows and he tells the story of how Double O Ducks turned into Darkwing. Also, there's a nifty Black Cauldron retrospective....

Yeah, I've been reading these posts all wide-eyed. He has great notes on Goof Troop and DuckTales, too. Very illuminating.

Also, the secret Bullwinkle show Disney was developing but didn't have the rights to.

[speedy fast]

I enjoyed that blog retrospective of Disney Afternoon shows. I read all of them, but had trouble reading the Gargoyles one (the others were more interestig to me). I didn't know that Timon and Pumba or Quack Pack were part of The Disney Afternoon.

Thinking about it, I don't think any of my local channels showed the last few seasons of The Disney Afternoon. The local channel that aired the program became the affiliate for The WB in 1995, and the afternoon line-up was repalced with the Kids WB line-up of programming. And ironically the call letters for that station were "WBNA"

[JohnDMoore]

In 1994, I moved from a market with The Disney Afternoon to a place that only syndicated Bonkers and Aladdin. I'm not sure if they'd had Disney Afternoon the season prior. Towards the end of 1994, they ran the same episode of Aladdin every day for a full week, and then all Disney afterschool programming disappeared and was replaced by court shows. Not until much later did I have any idea that any of the post-Aladdin shows actually played the Disney Afternoon, or that the Disney Afternoon extended into 1997.

It always felt weird to me when anything but Gummi Bears, DuckTales, Rescue Rangers, Talespin, Darkwing, Goof Troop, or Bonkers was identified as being part of the Disney Afternoon.

[Ghostbuster Man]

I'm getting all these shows on dvd!

[John Pannozzi]

Dang, that Michael Peraza blog is a great source of information!

On a related note, Toby Shelton has recently posted some model sheets he did for Rescue Rangers and Darkwing Duck up on his blog:

Darkwing (http://tobyshelton.blogspot.com/2010/06/darkwing-duck-model-sheet-1of-2.html)

Gosalyn and Launchpad (http://tobyshelton.blogspot.com/2010/07/more-model-sheets-from-darkwing-duck.html) (BTW, the original Launchpad design from DuckTales has done by an artist named Skip Morgan)

Monterey Jack and Zipper (http://tobyshelton.blogspot.com/2010/08/chip-n-dale-rescue-rangers-model-sheets.html)

Gadget (http://tobyshelton.blogspot.com/2010/09/gadget-model-sheet-rescue-rangers-1988.html)(Interestingly, he claims that the inspiration for Gadget's hair style and costume came from a petite story-board artist at Disney TVA with blond hair and bangs who wore a lavender jumpsuit to work on occasion. )

[speedy fast]

I recall that a couple of years ago when I was reading about Darkwing Duck and became interested to finally purchase the DVDs, I couldn't find a copy of either set anywhere, same with any other Disney Afternoon boxed set that isn't a DuckTales set. But recently I've been seeing several copies of most of them in stores again (the exceptions being Gummi Bears and volumes 2 of DWD and TS). I've also seen copies of both volumes of Chip and Dale: Rescue Rangers at Wal-Mart, on the end-side of a shelf as opposed to scattered in a big childrens section (I don't know how tod escribe it, but it seems like a section for DVDs Wal-Mart wants to promote).

Which gets me wodnering: Could the various DA series be more widely-available again because of the anniversary of the DA? It would be great if this 20th anniversary would promt Disney to release more boxed sets (at least complete the shows that only need one more volume; Those would require less episodes and therefore less disc space anyway).

[DarthGonzo]

Seeing those great Rescue Rangers model sheets makes me realize it was a real crime that the animation on that show never reached it's full potential. Aside from the handful of episodes that went to TMS (far, far fewer than Ducktales) most of the episodes don't really hold up well from an animation standpoint. While Darkwing got animation from some great A-units from WDTA-Japan, the up-and-coming Australian studio, France, some nice rubbery stuff by Hanho Heung-Up and some fun John McClenahan animation in the Kennedy episodes, Rescue Rangers was always pretty bland when it wasn't animated in Japan.