Disney on TV

The first Disney television program, a special entitled One Hour in Wonderland, aired on Christmas Day in 1950. Disney and TV have had a symbiotic bond ever since.

It was ABC that helped a cash-strapped Walt Disney with money to open Disneyland in 1955. In exchange, Walt produced a weekly anthology series and The Mickey Mouse Club. After years of successful broadcast television, the company would launch a cable station, the Disney Channel, in 1983. They'd own a local Los Angeles television station before acquiring ABC/Capital Cities in 1996, which greatly expanded their television domain. Now with their broadcast and cable networks, including powerhouse ESPN, Disney's television operations are a major part of the company's entertainment portfolio.

Because of its presence, I find myself watching Disney television programming with some frequency, though the choice is very rarely mine since I don't control the remote control. Below are some thoughts and observations of what I've seen lately ...

Dancing with the Stars - Last night, Drew Lachey and his professional dance partner Cheryl Burke took home the disco ball trophy as the top couple on the surprising reality show hit. We were tuned in to see the coronation. If you had asked me, even after the successful summer run of the first edition of this program, whether this show would have factored into the rating success of ABC -- on Thursday nights no less -- I would have said no way. But there is something captivating about watching B- and C-level "stars" doing the cha-cha and tango on live TV. Personally, I was rooting for Stacy Keibler to win it all but Drew was a worthy winner. At least Jerry Rice didn't take home the honors.

The Amazing Race - And speaking of reality show hits, the ninth season of this Emmy-winning, around-the-world sprint is about to air on CBS. Produced in part by Touchstone Television, it is one of the more engaging reality shows on TV. Sometimes the challenges are silly, sometimes they are lame but it is always fun to see people out of their element trying to win a million dollars. We actually didn't watch last season's "family" edition and haven't always been thrilled with their stunts of adding reality stars from other CBS shows to the mix. Hopefully, this new season will just go back to the basics and have teams of two with some relationship to one another go to places that I know I'll never travel.

ABC Primetime - We're watching a lot more primetime programs on ABC than in some time. It's nice to see that the network is again competing for eyeballs after languishing near the bottom of the Nielsen ratings for a number of years. Luckily, the success is built upon quality programming rather than stunts that offer only short-term gains, such as six nights of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire every week. The success of Desperate Housewives has helped make a monster hit out of Grey's Anatomy. I'd love to get into Lost but have been holding out since I didn't watch the series from the beginning. I really need to catch up via DVD or iTunes.

ABC Daytime - in primetime - Kathy loves her ABC Soaps. We used to record them and watch them after getting home from work but we actually bought a subscriber tier on our cable system just for SoapNet, which allows Kathy to watch All My Children, One Life to Live and General Hospital each night or on the weekends. Needless to say, I have lots of free time to take care of chores around the house when Kathy goes into soap mode.

Big Mondays - Monday nights on ESPN often provide an opportunity for Kathy to watch her favorite college basketball team play on TV. With coverage of the Big 12 division, we try to catch Kansas whenever their games are aired. Sometimes that means watching ESPN on other days of the week too, depending on the schedule.

Conspicuously absent from our viewing schedule is any programming on the Disney Channel. I used to love watching some of the vintage programming that they'd show. I even watched some of the originally programming and re-broadcasts of recent Disney-produced shows like Smart Guy and Boy Meets World. But now that the station is geared predominately for 'tweens, I find I'm not drawn to the channel's programming.

There are other Disney shows that we'll watch from time to time. Kathy loves a good Lifetime Movie. We're keeping our fingers crossed that In Justice will get better. And the Oscars are an annual tradition.

I'm hoping that Disney continues to produce great programs and that ABC and the various cable stations all deliver compelling, funny, interesting and most of all entertaining television. The TV's on quite a bit in our household. We'd prefer to watch good stuff over the junk that often times invades people's living rooms.

P.S. If you'd like to know more about the history of Disney and TV, check out Bill Griffiths' excellent The Wonderful World of Disney essay here on StartedByAMouse.com.

StartedByAMouse.com Mail Bag - A Selection of Recent Letters

When I was the editor in chief of my college newspaper, I was amazed at how many letters we received. The amount of mail was astounding and I suggested to the editor who replaced me that she might want to keep all that she received in a closet and take a picture of the mountain of mail at the end of the semester and write a column about it.

As editor of StartedByAMouse.com, I still get an amazing amount of mail each and every day. It is all electronic now so there's no need to store it in a closet to later be amazed by the massive quantities I've received. But that's not going to stop me from writing a column about it.

A vast majority of the emails are spam and quickly get deleted but there are a number of messages that are in response to stories we run on the site or to Disney in general. It's amazing that when you run a collection of pictures of a certain ice skating champion, people will email you thinking that you are Michelle Kwan. Or that if you right an article about a visit to a scrapbooking store at Walt Disney World, people suddenly think that you sell the merchandise you've reviewed. But most of the emails we receive are more on the mark. Below are a few messages from the past month that I thought I'd share with you:

This email was a little unusual in the sense that there was no text included. Entitled "Disney on Ice," it contained two pictures of a frozen Mickey Mouse antenna ball from Walt Disney World with some fuzzy precipitation. I'm including one of the pictures below ...



The next email I'm going to share also was received with a photo attached but this one was in response to the riding in the Mark Twain pilot house article we recently ran.

Hi Matt,

What a great surprise to find an article about the Mark Twain pilot house!

I've attached an photo of me at the helm that was taken by a reporter (Dixon Geyer) of the Garden Grove Daily News (it was later purchased by the OC Register) in mid June or the first week of July 1955.

I was taken on a pre-opening press tour - the idea was to preview Disneyland through the eyes of a child.

The attached picture is the only one of dozens that I used to have. My parents moved overseas in the 70's and in the move, all others were lost. The only other surviving material from my visit is the full page newspaper article.

50 years later, I still feel that my life was affected by that visit and my myriad visits through high school.

Thank you for a great web site.

J. R. Hines
Louisville KY

What an absolutely cool story, no?

Here's an email regarding the Nick.com ads running at the top of each page ...

First off, I LOVE your site. I hit the picture of the day every morning and the wallpapers are super too.

With that said, one SMALL complaint...the musical banner you are running now (from Nickeldeon?) is REALLY annoying. The music is intrusive and really unwelcome. If it were Disney, it might be ok but really probably not.

Hate to complain but wanted to vent just a little.
Keep up the GREAT work
Heath

No problem venting. I apologize to anyone who was taken aback by the sound played with the Game of the Week ad (I know I was). I asked the advertiser to provide a soundless version, which we've now gotten. I never envisioned StartedByAMouse.com to be someplace overrun with ads and the decision to accept them is sometimes a difficult one to make. The money made from advertisements helps offset the cost of running the site. But I never want their inclusion to turn readers off to the content that we post. I appreciate both the compliment that the site is worth returning to and the comments that something can be done to better StartedByAMouse.com. Like this email I received about recent Wallpaper of the Week ...

I am a regular to this site and look forward each week with great anticipation to the new Wallpaper of the Week. I must admit though that I am somewhat disappointed with the last two submissions. The Cinderella Castle from last week was too dark, and the Spaceship Earth at Night is out of focus.
Usually I am not one to complain, but for the caliber of quality that I have come to expect from your wonderful site, I am suprised that these two have made it as part of the Wallpaper Archive. Please don't take this response as being negative. It's just that your site deserves the best, and compared to all of the submissions I have seen or downloaded, these are definitely not worthy downloadables.
Thank you in advance for your attention.

In Disney Spirit,

Michael Wolff

I definitely want to say that I would never run something that I felt was intentionally bad but I do apologize to Michael for disappointing him with recent Wallpaper of the Week selections. There are times that I feel I've got a great picture to share with everyone and it is greeted with apathy and there are other times that I'm less sure about the quality of the image but people love it. The Cinderella Castle picture he referred to was one of the most downloaded Wallpapers that we've ever run so I'm a bit surprised that he didn't care for it. And while the guest-submitted Spaceship Earth picture is a bit soft, I thought it made for an interesting image to share. Apparently, the bar is set high so I'll definitely continue to try to provide top-of-the-line images while at the same time realizing that I might not please everyone. But I do very much appreciate the comments.

And I do value feedback that you guys send. Share your thoughts with us via the Talkback feature at the bottom of each article or via the email address that's included with every story. Talk about what you've read here or create Disney topics of your own at our Disney Discussion Forums. The great thing about being a part of the new media is the ability to exchange ideas, share thoughts and provide feedback in a fast and simple way. I encourage everyone to join in and participate in StartedByAMouse.com.

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.

Happy 5th Birthday, DCA!



The much-maligned younger sibling of Disneyland is celebrating its fifth anniversary today. For some, this is just another day to lament the park's opening. But for me, it represents an interesting point of reflection on the first Disney theme park that I've been able to see open and grow.

I've been a vocal supporter of Disney's California Adventure since January 2001. That's when I first climbed an outside staircase at the Grand Californian Hotel to take pictures of the new park. It was a preview day for Disney cast members and I could hear the happy screams of patrons enjoying themselves. I'd visit White Water Snacks and eat lunch on the patio where I could see into the park itself and wish that I could be among the day's visitors. I'd have my chance early the next month while attending an Annual Passholder preview.

It was a neat feeling stepping into a new theme park where once a parking lot lay. It was neat to have seen the landscape change and structures erected whenever I'd visit Disneyland prior to DCA's opening. I visited Disney's Animal Kingdom about 15 months after it opened but here I was visiting the latest Disney theme park even prior to its official opening. Kathy and I even made our way down there on opening day after work only to find a nearly deserted place.

Since its opening, DCA has battled attendance problems and bad word of mouth, primarily among locals who felt that it didn't measure up to Disneyland a couple hundreds yards away. Its hip-and-edgy theme didn't feel Disney enough. And the thought of a park about California in California wasn't easily understood. But despite all of its faults and shortcomings, I still really enjoyed my time at DCA.

I liked taking family and friends to DCA for their very first time. I liked pointing out some of the little details that I had discovered on previous visits. Kathy liked taking them to Soap Opera Bistro. The whole place had that new car smell to it. And while we personally liked the place for what it was and what it offered, part of its charm was the newness factor.

So how does DCA stack up 5 years later?

I must admit I don't care for it nearly as much as it first opened. It isn't quite as fresh and new. There are too many film-based attractions that can only be viewed so often. Too many empty buildings and eating facilities for such a young theme park. The park's California theme is stretched a bit thin. Too many quick fixes. We miss eating at Soap Opera Bistro. We miss riding Superstar Limo.

There's still fun to be had at DCA. Grizzly Peak is an appealing icon to me and I love that it can be seen from just about anywhere in the park. Paradise Pier is beautiful, especially when lit up at night. The lobby of the Animation Building is a real treat to immerse yourself in for 20 to 30 minutes during the day. Soarin' Over California, Grizzly River Run, Twilight Zone Tower of Terror and California Screamin' are all great attractions. The food choices are still better at DCA than Disneyland.

There's also a lot of promise to such a young park. Things will continue to be reworked and tweaked. There's still room for expansion. New ideas and new technologies will provide new opportunities to wow us. Closures of old favorites, like Superstar Limo, will allow for the opening of new favorites, like Monsters, Inc. - Mike and Sulley to the Rescue! Perhaps we'll receive a nighttime spectacular on Paradise Bay ala the Bellagio water show. Who knows? But that's the excitement of visiting a Disney theme park, especially one only 5 years old.

I believe in the power of dreams. And I believe that as long as there is imagination in the world, DCA will never be complete.

Do You Want To Know A Secret?

In Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, there's a scene right before the song "I'm Wishing" where Snow turns to the forest animals and asks:

Do you want to know a secret?
Do you promise not to tell?
We are standing by a wishing well.

It is said that the first two lines inspired John Lennon of the Beatles when he penned, appropriately enough, "Do You Want to Know a Secret?"

Secrets are always so much fun. The person who has one is either proud to know something no one else knows or is afraid that someone will find out what their secret is. The person who is outside of the loop usually desperately wants to be included and jumps through hoops to find out what's being kept from them. If knowledge is power then secrets are power plays.

Two of Disney's worst-kept "secrets" were officially announced today. The news may have been a little more exciting if they really were new.

In case you haven't heard, Disney has given the go ahead to produce a sequel to the highly successful Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. What a surprise! Almost every story about Narnia in the press talked about how Disney was banking on turning this series of novels into a franchise, a la Harry Potter or The Lord of the Rings. And with Disney's penchant for churning out sequels, a la the upcoming Bambi 2, the only surprise in this announcement may have been that Narnia's sequels aren't direct to video.

The second piece of news today was that Walt Disney World and Disneyland will both be incorporating an Audio-Animatronic Captain Jack Sparrow into their respective Pirates of the Caribbean attractions. This is what I would call Victor/Victoria Imagineering at its best - it's an attraction that became a movie that's being turned into an attraction. And it too is no surprise. We've had a discussion topic dedicated to the transmogrification of the ride on our forums since the beginning of December.

Even though both of these events were widely expected doesn't mean that the events themselves are not exciting. But it's a little like having unwrapped Christmas presents sitting under the tree. You might be happy with what you're receiving but it loses a little luster when it comes time to "open" presents.

I like secrets and spoilers and peeking behind the curtain. But wouldn't it have been cool to just show up at Disneyland one day and ride Pirates as always but have Jack Sparrow hanging around? Wouldn't it be neat to go to the theaters to watch a movie stand on its own rather than going in knowing that it's the first of a multipart series?

While the Internet is a great tool for sharing news and information with people around the world, it also plays the role of spoiler. Many discussion topics are labeled as containing information that is probably better left undiscovered but the temptation to open a Pandora's Box of tidbits and secrets is usually too much to resist. Winners of contests and awards are often announced in real time on the East Coast, much to the chagrin of those who won't experience the even for another three time-delayed hours. And the anonymity of the Internet allows for secrets to be shared by those in the know, who are busting at the seams to share their knowledge.

If you want to know a secret, there's a good chance someone has broken their promise not to tell. Just go online and read about it before it officially happens or is officially announced. But just to be clear, you didn't hear that from me!