How's This For Lucky? Oswald Comes Home

I just read a story from the Associated Press about Al Michaels leaving ABC/ESPN and joining NBC Sports so that he can continue to partner with John Madden in broadcasting primetime football on broadcast TV. Though that news in itself is not necessarily that exciting to a non-football loving Disney fan, an interesting bit of compensation was included in Disney letting Michaels out of his contract early.

In addition to favorable usage rights for sports footage, Disney also acquired "the rights to 'Oswald the Lucky Rabbit,' a character in silent cartoons made by Walt Disney from 1927-28."

Anyone who knows their Disney lore is familiar with the story of Walt Disney going to New York to ask for a raise from Universal for producing the animated series. Instead, Walt was offered less and told that if he didn't go along with the new terms that the series would be taken away (Universal actually owned the rights to the character and Universal is now part of the NBC Universal conglomerate owned by General Electric, which is how the rights were available to be transferred in this transaction) as well as most of his staff who had agreed to -- like Al Michaels -- jump ship. Walt said, "Thanks but no thanks!" and, according to legend, created Mickey Mouse on the train ride back to California. The rest, as they say, is history!

And history is what the Walt Disney Company got today in exchange for letting a very well-respected announcer change networks.