Fox Family Channel definitely bought by Disney...

[Sogturtle]

Yahoo business news and Jerry Beck have confirmed a rumor...

Although it will have zero impact on the great WB and MGM toons, it should be noted that Disney has confirmed the purchase of the Fox Family Channel and its whole worldwide organization. This also gives Disney ownership of ALL of the Saban TV cartoon product. (Quit yawning!:))

The company will be renamed ABC Family... for now. Sounds like the Disney name will be appended in the future.

So let's see, from the Christian Broadcasting Network, to the Continental Broadcasting Network, to The Family Channel, to the Fox Family Channel (noted by many as an oxymoron!!). And now to the ABC Family Channel... And then to the Disney Family Channel?? Quite a little path!!

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/010723/0311.html

Annnnnnd it should also be noted that this represents a further massive retreat on the part of Fox (and Rupert Murdoch) from animation. If we recall, it was just last year that they slaughtered the Fox Feature Animation studio...

[bushnader666]

Originally posted by Sogturtle
This also gives Disney ownership of ALL of the Saban TV cartoon product. (Quit yawning!:))

The company will be renamed ABC Family... for now. Sounds like the Disney name will be appended in the future.

So let's see, from the Christian Broadcasting Network, to the Continental Broadcasting Network, to The Family Channel, to the Fox Family Channel (noted by many as as oxymoron


How much did Murdoch pay for The Family Channel?

$3 Billion plus $2.3 bil in debt for a channel no one watches. Smart move, Eisner. I'd start short-selling Disney very soon. I've already heard that the credit ratings for Disney are going down the tubes. Investors are nervous. And don't forget about the Pearl Harbor and Atlantis debacle...

They must be counting that viewers of the "Give us $700 club" will actually pay up...

[Thad Komorowski]

Even if the Disney company wants to be greedy little bas@#$%s, they should really give CN running rights to all of the Disney cartoons. I bet CN would leave more than HALF of the cartoons uncut which are still edited on Disney. In fact, aren't more than HALF of the edited Disney scenes involve smoking, drinking, and lighting matches? Hmmmm..........

-Thad:D

[Jack]

Thad has a good idea, but would Disnip really send CN uncut prints (or let their cartoons happy be mixed with WB and MGM cartoons on the ACME Hour?)? Or would they be like WB and send them pre-edited cartoons.

What's the deal with smoking being edited anyway? I doubt kids are smoking less because Disney characters aren't doing it.

If CN were made into an ideal network (what an ideal network for me would be, that is) they would get the rights to the Lantz and Disnip cartoons, show letterboxed cartoons, and maybe aquire some more unknown/forgotten product, like the Columbia cartoons and UPA cartoons. Not to say that new animation would be shut out, it would just be toned down so that every time I turn CN on I don't get bombarded with ads telling me I must watch Cartoon Cartoons and Scooby Doo. I mean, Scooby isn't awful, he just gets way too much airetime. Imagine if CN chose only 100 Looney Tunes and ran those cartoons and only those cartoons on Bugs and Daffy ect. BTW, this weeks Car-toon-Olio is yet another Scooby Doo series, three hours of "A Pup Named Scooby Doo."

And I'd like to see more Buzzy the Crow, I like him.



Jack:D

[Thad Komorowski]

Here's a lineup I'd like to see on CN, something called Classic Cartoon Saturdays, and would have five hours straight of nothing but classics. Here's a lineup I'd like to see (from 7PM-11PM):

Looney Tunes & Merrie Melodies

Tom & Jerry

Mickey & the Gang

Woody Woodpecker & Pals

Popeye

Toonheads

Acme Hour

The Jay Ward Hour

What do you think?

-Thad:D

[Brandon Pierce]

If Disney DOES get FFC lets hope they air Inspector Gadget and Heathcliff. AND restore Heathcliff's original credits sequence. If anyone would like to download a video file of Heathcliff's original credits sequence:
Heathcliff's Original Credits Sequence (http://members.nbci.com/catillaccats/video/ending.mov)

[Jack]

When did they change the Heathcliff credit sequence? That's the version I remember.


Jack:D

[Garrett]

Originally posted by Sogturtle
This also gives Disney ownership of ALL of the Saban TV cartoon product.

This is hilarious, given that Saban (which essentially owns everything that Marvel Productions, Ltd. made when it was around in the 1980s) owns the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon. I'm sure that the people still afraid of that franchise are aware of this.

Also, Disney owns the Power Rangers, which just will not die. Plus, they own a company that has a working relationship with Marvel Comics (which is re-discovering the value of their liscenses), and effectively programs all of the Fox Network's Saturday morning programming.

Also, Fox Family shows those horrid Mary Kate & Ashley....things, which seem to be popular with girls. :rolleyes:

Of course, I'd like to know what is going to air on this network, esp. since Disney just sold off DIC not too long ago.

Garrett

[Sogturtle]

Iffffff...Disney had lost out on the bidding to buy Fox Family, then it would have been to one of two other outfits... One named AOL-Time-Warner, and the other Viacom (aka Viacom/Paramount/CBS). We can only speculate what Warner would have done with it... Ditto for Viacom. Although the Viacom possibility is far more tantalizing... Think about that one for a sec! Viacom owns the Betty Boop cartoons. Viacom owns the Terrytoons. With Disney buying it, it would APPEAR that we are getting the proverbial short end of the stick!!!

Buuuuuut Disney REALLY has resented Warners, Paramount, and Universal becoming bigger and bigger through the mega-mergers. And they were quite unhappy a year or so ago with the suggestion that they should sell out to Yahoo!. So this soothes bruised egos over in the mouse-hole. Now they're one of "the big boys". Soooooo now Warner's is going to desperately want to buy NBC;).

[Jon Cooke]

Wouldn't it be nice if Disney transformed the FOX Family Channel into a "Vault Disney Channel". A channel filled with nothing but the classic cartoons, television shows and specials, movies, etc. from their archives. It would be like an all-Disney version of TV Land or Boomerang. There's more than enough material.

However, I recall reading a rumor of Disney planning to launch a "Playhouse Disney Channel" devoted to toddler shows at some point next year. Perhaps this is what we'll see FOX Family transform into?



-Jon

[Joe Tully]

I am hoping that they will bring in a lot of classic cartoon blocks, kind of like the old Disney Channel used to have, as well as more recent material such as Duck Tales, Gummi Bears, and Darkwing Duck. I think that this would probably be the best way to launch the channel, too; using material that you know the audience is interested in, and has already been made so there are no production costs.

Like most of you other guys, I am not the biggest Disney fan, but I would definitely tune in now and then, esp. if they ran some of the B&W stuff.

[Sveven Dvorking]

I've heard a lot about and seen a little of Playhouse D*sn*y. It is total trash! You would have to be a fool to watch it if you are over 8 years old. If you are under 8, you are a fool already (I can't be offending anyone here unless they are PC:D)

[Greg Method]

I have a feeling instead of anything really worthwhile like tons of classic shorts, we'll simply be seeing a 24/7 version of "Disney's 1 Saturday Morning," with a two-hour block for Power Rangers and Bobby's World. I mean, we would have already seen more than just Gargoyles, ex-Disney Afternoon shows, and Gadget Boy on Toon Disney if they gave a hoot about airing their vintage stuff (do they even air "Ink and Paint Club" anymore?).

And speaking of Gadget, I vaguely recall the rights to the character reverting back to DiC sometime after the movie was released. I dunno, but there was something done so that DiC would operate as a separate company again.

Ugh...I just realized that Disney now owns that live action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles show. With the movies in Warner Bros.' control and the animated series in some TV distributer limbo, this makes for a very spead-out licensed propety.

Meanwhile, does this mean the only Marvel Productions shows Disney did not get were Muppet Babies and the actual Marvel Superhero stuff?

I can already picture future video packages. "Disney's Mighty Mophin Power Rangers." I couldn't be happier.

[Garrett]

Originally posted by Greg Method

Meanwhile, does this mean the only Marvel Productions shows Disney did not get were Muppet Babies and the actual Marvel Superhero stuff?


Pretty much. There might be joint ownership with the Marvel Comics characters' shows, though, as that was about all that MPL actually owned when the parent company shut it down in the early 1990s. For instance, Marvel has no stake in anything they did with Hasbro and Sunbow (huge mistake), Defenders of the Earth (King Features owns this one), the old Robocop cartoon (which I presume is owned by whoever owns the character), and a lot of other shows. IIRC, Marvel got a half stake at best with pretty much all their non-superhero shows, and as bad as nothing for the various Sunbow cartoons (which are, ironically, the shows with the biggest value). All I know is that they now own D&D, but only because it aired last year with the Saban logo and third season credits squashed on the side while the next show started.

Garrett

[J Lee]

It's amazing to me that Michael Eisner thinks he can program a third network when Toon Disney is crap city for 95 percent of its broadcast day. Leftover "Disney Afternoon" shows, and other DIC bad ideas from Andy Hayward repeated over and over and over again (you think Scooby Doo is overplayed on CN? Turn on Toon Disney and watch "Bonkers" or "Sonic the Hedgehog" three or four times a day). The classic Disney shorts are rolled out apparently only when someone puts a gun to the head of the people running the VCR machines in Burbank (fast becoming the Worst City in the World for classic animation fans, given the bizzare edits and ultra-sped up cartoons WB keeps sending to Atlanta).

If they replaced "Toon Disney" with color bars or a test pattern tomorrow, I doubt too many people would ever notice or care that it was gone. Given that, I don't hold out much hope for this new endeavor, though with 72 hours of programming to fill a day on three different cable networks, they may have no choice but to air the classic cartoons a little more just to fill up time (or they could do an animated version of the "700 Club" for the 11 p.m. EDT time slot -- who knows what that wacky Mr. Eisner will think of next?).

[BobChief]

Brandon Pierce wrote, in part:
If Disney DOES get FFC lets hope they air Inspector Gadget and Heathcliff. AND restore Heathcliff's original credits sequence.
{link deleted}

I forgot that hizzoner John K. was involved with that series!

I remembered that Haim (Chayim) Saban, soon to be the former head of Fox Kids Worldwide (FFC) once the sale to D~sn~y is closed, started out as a songwriter!

What, no zippy, video-ish DiC logo? Or sparkling LBS logo? Or did the Closing Logo Group on Yahoo Clubs swipe 'em?? :)

I gotta go to bed, but it's like 90 degrees in here...yeesh...

[TServo2049]

Oh, you've been to that club? Who are you on it?

[Garrett]

Originally posted by J Lee
It's amazing to me that Michael Eisner thinks he can program a third network when Toon Disney is crap city for 95 percent of its broadcast day. Leftover "Disney Afternoon" shows,

And they edit these too. Darkwing Duck is frequently edited (and I have yet to see any of the episodes with Negaduck or Taurus Bulba (it's been so long, I'm not even sure if this is the right name.... :(). Plus, the episode of Gargoyles where Elisa is shot hasn't aired either.


Originally posted by J Lee
and other DIC bad ideas from Andy Hayward repeated over and over and over again

Oh boy. Don't get me started on DIC......


Originally posted by J Lee
(or they could do an animated version of the "700 Club" for the 11 p.m. EDT time slot -- who knows what that wacky Mr. Eisner will think of next?).

That would be funny.....and scary as hell.

Garrett

[Brandon Pierce]

When did they change the Heathcliff credit sequence? That's the version I remember.

When Fox Family aired it, they bunched up the credits on the right hand side of the screen, and the cartoon stuff was edited out. Originally a Heathcliff video montage of clips from different episodes were show during the credits. Later FF aired advertisments with the credits still binched up on the side. Nickelodeon is now doing this to their shows, which effects the original credits sequence of Angry Beavers featuring Dag & Norb beating each other up.

[DR. BELCH]

Actually, they did something like that on South Park...it was the one where Starvin' Marvin steals an alien spacecraft and goes on a global junket looking to relocate his people...also a weird Star Wars parody with Sally Struthers as Jabba the Hut. Scary thing? They didn't exaggerate her obesity by much.

One thing Fox Family did that irked me was in the episode of Toonsylvania with the doctor's werewolf grandmother. The hunchbacked fellow showed her a card with the Dreamworks moon logo on it to see if it wolfed her out--and the network s.o.b.'s blurred it out, ruining the joke!

[BobChief]

J Lee wrote, in part:
(or they could do an animated version of the "700 Club" for the 11 p.m. EDT time slot -- who knows what that wacky Mr. Eisner will think of next?)

Thou shalt not p*ss off Mr Robertson! He might run for office again...;)

[barnyarddawg]

Originally posted by Jack


What's the deal with smoking being edited anyway? I doubt kids are smoking less because Disney characters aren't doing it.

[/B]

People don't even smoke because of tobacco ads, much less Disnip (Disnip?) characters, they smoke because other people around them do, and they give in to peer pressure, or whatever other weaknesses they may have. Nothing makes me angrier than when somebody sues a tobacco company, because everybody knows smoking is bad for you, if people read the ads, there's a surgeon general warning explaining this. How many smokers out there started smoking because of a tobacco ad, or a cartoon character?

(If the moderators feel this is too off topic, please delete it)

[Jon Cooke]

Originally posted by J Lee
It's amazing to me that Michael Eisner thinks he can program a third network when Toon Disney is crap city for 95 percent of its broadcast day.

I agree with you that Toon Disney is practically unwatchable. While Mickey, Donald, Pluto and the other classic characters are featured prominently in Toon Disney's commercials, the Disney shorts only seem to air when they need some time filler after the movie they show on Friday nights.

It also looks like "ABC Family Channel" is going to showcase reruns of ABC's primetime shows. It doesn't look like there will be much of interest when the channel launches... if there is, it will probably be dumped within weeks. I still wish I had recorded FOX Family's short-lived Harveytoons Show. :(


-Jon

[Patrick McCart]

At least Eisner isn't having delusions of grandeur.

:D

[DarthGonzo]

Toon Disney edits Darkwing Duck? Why???