Originally Posted By x Pirate_Princess x Like I mentioned before, I'm sitting here at HoJo, watching the "disney" channel ... this one episode is being repeated, apparently, the one with the 10th anniversary. So, why can't Disney have a separate channel (like ESPN or Discovery) that plays JUST Classic Disney stuff like this? I would watch it all the time!!! (I think FanBoy mentioned this a while back on the PodCast)
Originally Posted By Sara Tonin They used to have stuff about the parks all the time...now it's all Hannah and those twirps in the hotel.
Originally Posted By mawnck >>So, why can't Disney have a separate channel (like ESPN or Discovery) that plays JUST Classic Disney stuff like this?<< They did. Not enough viewers.
Originally Posted By matthewdort Yeah, there just isn't enough interest necessary to justify such a thing. I always say Disney should just put all that old stuff on iTunes or something, but then again, so much of their output, especially the old television shows, falls under the "I'll watch it if it's free, but it's not good enough to buy" category.
Originally Posted By ecdc >>They did. Not enough viewers.<< They had a separate channel or they had Vault Disney?
Originally Posted By mawnck >>They had a separate channel or they had Vault Disney?<< What difference does it make?
Originally Posted By ecdc >>What difference does it make?<< It potentially makes a huge difference. If Disney examines their viewer's habits with focus groups, ratings samples, advertising demographics, etc., and determines that reruns of Hannah Montana, et al gets them more viewers in a more coveted demographic than Vault Disney, even at 3AM, then it's obviously worth it to them to make the change, which they did. Since there's only one channel for the shows to compete on, the other had to go, losing another demographic. But the net gain is worth it to Disney. But if Disney started a "Classic Disney" channel, with animated and live-action movie showings, anthology series, etc., they could potentially regain people like myself who now never tune into the Disney Channel, while retaining their Hannah Montana demographic. Don't get me wrong, I don't work in "the biz" and I'm woefully ignorant of the in's and out's of this kind of thing. Disney may have mulled over another channel, and decided it wouldn't gain enough advertising to be profitable enough to pay for additional staff, programming, etc. Or maybe it would be profitable, but not as profitable as DVD releases of this material, which they believe would be cut into by TV broadcasts. I just have a hard time buying the, "Oh there's not enough interest" argument. I start looking through my DirecTV channels that I never watch, and wonder how on earth there's enough interest in a Tennis Channel, Style Channel, Fox Reality Channel, etc. A lot of these channels appeal to a small demographic, but the advertising is there to justify the channel. The Disney brand name is powerful, and I've got to think it could get more viewers than some of these channels already in existence.
Originally Posted By Disney and beyond Boomerang Works, and it has a worse libary to to work with (Quick Draw McGraw is not really a classic of Animation the way Mickey Mouse is)
Originally Posted By Disney and beyond In fact, A classic Disney Channel that worked similar to Boomerang would be great. Have huge blocks of classic animation and live action movies, also including blocks of the Disney Afternoon shows the way Boomerang shows blocks of the classic Cartoon Network shows of the early 90s.
Originally Posted By mawnck >>Boomerang Works, and it has a worse libary to to work with<< It has a dramatically *larger* library to work with because they're working mostly with made-for-TV stuff that has about a hundred cartoons for *each series*, all of which were transferred to digital by Ted Turner in the 80s and are thus readily available. They're working with the combined animation libraries of MGM, Warner Bros., and Hanna-Barbera - many thousands of hours of programming. And it's all stuff that people immediately recognize because it's been on TV all their lives. Disney only has Disney cartoons with a very small cast of starring characters (and a lot of toons that are either not PC or would put a modern audience to sleep), a few animated series from the 80s and 90s, the features, the cheapquels, about 6 live-action movies everyone remembers, several dozen that nobody does, and a few TV series that only exist on fading film or obsolete tape formats like 2". (Something else to thank Eisner for.) To start rerunning the Disneyland series, for instance, would require a huge investment in restoring, transferring, and re-editing the material, and for how many viewers? A lot fewer than are watching Atom Ant on Boomerang, and a HECK of a lot fewer than are watching Hanna Montana at 3 am. It just ain't worth it. The early Disney channel made ample use of the library they had available, so much so that it quickly burned out and they were forced to run a lot of rubberhead shows and inferior stuff from other studios, thus diluting the brand. Then they hit on the tween girl market, started raking in the dough, and never looked back. Your best bet is to subscribe to Netflix and rent your own Classic Disney Channel. And hope iTunes starts selling enough of the obscure old stuff to make it worthwhile to transfer more of it.
Originally Posted By ecdc >>Your best bet is to subscribe to Netflix and rent your own Classic Disney Channel. And hope iTunes starts selling enough of the obscure old stuff to make it worthwhile to transfer more of it.<< That's what I'm hoping happens. I'd love to see Disney anthology series on iTunes. And I think you're spot on with the restoration costs. But I still think the audience is there for the existing stuff, even if iTunes is a better outlet.
Originally Posted By FiveBearRugs <<avromark Sat 12/13/2008 11:16a My question is what parent lets their tweener watch Hannah at 3am? >> I thought about that too, and then I thought that maybe Disney airs certain programs simultaneously...ie, if Hannah is on at 3 AM in CA, then it's 6 AM in NY and midnight in Hawaii. In other words, sure Hannah may be on at 3AM in CA, but there are kids watching it at 6AM while getting ready for school...I hope that makes some sense, lol.
Originally Posted By DBitz2 They need to make the vintage stuff available somehow, whether on demand, iTunes or DVD while those of us who grew up on it are still alive to purchase it and enjoy it. Those of us who were kids in the '50's and '60's are aging and when we're gone, there will be even less of a market for the stuff than there is now. And, regardless of whether there is a market to sell the material, they certainly need to restore and preserve it, as it is part of Disney history. They've let too much material be lost as it is, from what I've heard. As a Disney fan, the number one thing that I really want out of Disney is to be able to enjoy the old movies and tv shows that I have fond memories of from when I was a kid in the '60's and '70's. Those shows not only got me through some not so happy times, but, they had a great impact on who I am as a person today. As I continue to get older, I yearn to be able to enjoy those shows again. And, as a Disneyland fan who I yearn to see the old vintage park tv shows to revisit how the park once was. But, Disney continues to disappoint by trickling the stuff to us. They give lip service to how valuable their fans are, but, they don't really show it for the most part. There has to be a way to make the material available that will benefit both the Company and those of us who yearn to see the stuff. One of these days it will be too late for many of us as we age and pass on.
Originally Posted By magic0214 I would love the old stuff, just a block on shorts would be nice, but on Disney Channel, since I am 13, none of us really care for the Tween sitcom anymore, all of us want the Disney Afternoon block back, and personally I would love the old Movie Surfers T.V. show with the back stage talking with the voice overs and the animation it self.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros I doubt they would do it, but what if a Vault Disney-type channel was somehow linked in with D23? I won't know if it would be one of the membership benefits, or something extra, but depending on how well D23 does, I could see them starting a TV channel to sort of use as a home base. Nothing terribly fancy, but just show some old (and new) Disney features, shorts, and tv shows, throw in some of the information on the D23 website with real people (like today in Disney history and things like that) during the 'commercial' breaks, and you have yourself a channel. Sure, they would need ot do a lot of transfering to get the entire library in a tv-friendly format, but the Treasures set alone restored and transfered all of the theatrical shorts, so those are just waiting to be used. Looking at Disney's website, they are selling tons of DVD's of movies that I've never heard of, so I'm sure they could show many of those too. They probably would need to do some work to get the TV shows from the 50's-70's in a useable format, but I would assume that everything past that is in a format that's quite similar to what they use now. These don't need to be high quality digital restorations of everything, but I don't see how it would be too expensive to just make the transfers of the things that are reasonably clean and useable. I know it probably won't happen, but there's something about D23 and how much they've already changed what they do that makes me hopeful that something like this could eventually be in the works.
Originally Posted By rspezzano I disagree (in a friendly way) with mawnck, as far as Disney quickly using up their library for Wonderful World of Color. There were so many episodes that they use to show on the Disney channel, you could always be surprised with a new show almost daily. Disney also had a great line up for shows back in the 80's (I know, showing my age) with mornings consisting of Disney cartoons, Mousercise, and shows like you and me kid for parents and their toddlers. Afternoons brought us various series shows like Danger Bay and the Edison Twins. Evenings would allow a family to watch Disney movies and television shows such as Wonderful World of Color. I would love to see them bring back any of these series, or like a lot of people have mentioned, make them available on Itunes. They could package episodes together such as 2 series (Danger Bay, Edison Twins or even Mickey Mouse Club (take your pick of 50's, 70's, or 90's)) for .99. I am sure a lot of people would love to have Wonderful World of DIsney episodes available for .99 each (although that would be costly to complete a collection, but would be wonderful to have). We discuss some of the old shows from the Disney channel (in the 80's) on our podcast at alwaysdisney.com Keep hoping, maybe we will see our shows on Itunes soon. Robert
Originally Posted By FiveBearRugs The new Vault Disney Channel Midnight: Disney Afternoon block 2AM: WWODisney 3AM: Mickey Mouse Presents/Donald Duck Presents 4AM: Mousercise/Welcome to Pooh Corner 5AM: Dumbo's Circus/Wuzzles 6AM: Disney Afternoon Block 8AM: Danger Bay 9AM: WWODisney 10AM: Zorro 11AM: MMC Classic Noon: MMC 70s/90s 1PM: Classic Live-Action movie 3PM: Classic Animated movie 5PM: Mickey Mouse Presents/Donald Duck Presents 6PM: Disney Afternoon Block 8PM: Classic Disney movie 10PM: Ink and Paint Club 11PM: Magical World of Disney (80s) DTV will be filler... Okay, so that's not really how I would have it, but it's just a thought
Originally Posted By magic0214 YES! I would love to see the Walt age combined with the Disney Afternoon and 90's MMC stuff
