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.
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.
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.
Some of the later additions were inspired by shorter cartoons in the short lived series Raw Toonage [1], which appeared on the ABC network in Fall, 1992 -- see Marsupilami; also He's Bonkers!, which, with storyboard revision, eventually became Bonkers.
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.)
Beginning with the 1994 season, The Disney Afternoon was, as a named series, shortened to just TDA.
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.
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.
By the 1999-2000 television season, the remnants of The Disney Afternoon package were moved to Saturday mornings, sorely 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. [2].
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.
More recently, the Disney Afternoon was altered and aired on the Disney Channel. The tagline was "Animate afternoons your way!".
Approximate lineup by seasons
- 1. Disney attempted to diversify The Disney Afternoon in the 1994-1995 season. It was attempting to make 'Monday Mania', and 'Disney Action Friday', as is implied from the Monday/Friday breakup of slot 3. The format idea did not catch on and was dropped after this season.
- 2. The Schnookums and Meat Funny Cartoon Show was shown on Mondays - and Gargoyles, on Friday, in this slot
- 3. The Lion King's Timon and Pumbaa ran on Fridays in this slot
- 4. The Lion King's Timon and Pumbaa ran on Mondays, and The Mighty Ducks, on Fridays, in this slot
- 5. The Disney Afternoon/TDA was no longer used as a title; format shortened to 90 minutes
- 6. The Mighty Ducks ran Mondays and Tuesdays in this slot
- 7. Dave the Barbarian was only on the weekends in this slot
- 8. Brandy & Mr. Whiskers airs on the weekends in this slot
Others that did exist for a time:
