Disney Channel - The Rise and Fall?

This video takes a look at the rise and potential fall of the classic children's television channel.
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[@SirAsdf]

The golden days of getting a day off and switching between Nick, CN, and Disney so you could attempt that perfect balance of your favorite shows.

[@shirayasha]

ed edd and eddy was fire

[@MasterMalrubius]

@@shirayashaGet off my lawn you youngins!

[@joewilson3393]

Now you can just binge watch them. Sit there and watch all of Aggretsuko for 12 hours. And I know it's not Disney, but I can't think of a Disney one I would want to watch at the moment, lol.

[@michaelmorgan6674]

kaka beans@@joewilson3393

[@michaelmorgan6674]

@@joewilson3393 joe wheres my beans

[@MasterForte]

If you compare the ratings of the disney channel from 2012 to 2022, they lost about 90% of their audience. Kids these days dont care much in regards to television. Thats why we see Nick put nothing but SpongeBob content and CN expands more towards the adult crowd.

[@Turnpost2552]

Kids do care but they alot more options now than we dod as children They have youtube

[@mattwolf7698]

​@@Turnpost2552Also streaming, most of it is ad free and you can more easily start a show on there. Also video games are extremely popular.

[@maxpowr90]

Also, there's Disney+. Why pay for cable when streaming is an option.

[@MasterForte]

At this point we will see a declination of cable channels and a new business model for cable. Take the Spectrum vs Disney as an example. Spectrum negotiated a deal with Disney to include Disney + to their cable service while they cut other channels from the Disney service. We may see a model where there lots of channels be cut, but include a bundle of Streaming service all together in a package.

[@mechajay3358]

Yep, kids these days get their content online.

[@JM1993951]

As an adult, I’ve never been as excited for a movie as I was for a Disney Channel original movie marathon back in the day.

[@Welcometothenow]

Especially on a Friday night after a long week of week. Then, Mom decides to order pizza. Nothing like it.

[@jokerpilled2535]

Truly the good old days 😌

[@AmaraJordanMusic]

Halloween was especially awesome. There was one about being dragged into a world under the bed and I literally jumped into my bed from like two feet away every night for the next two months. 😂

[@phillinsogood]

Once HSM & Hannah Montana came out, it was clear that Disney channel was going for the musical route for obvious reasons MONEY & Viewership. The focus shifted from more realistic storylines to shows and movies about chasing fame and making it in entertainment. I definitely noticed that back in middle school.

[@JoyOgbatue]

You have shows like Wizards of Waverly Place, The Suite Life on Deck, Good Luck Charlie, Fish Hooks, Shake It Up, Jessie, Dog with a Blog, I Didn’t Do It, Girl Meets World, Best Friends Whenever, Wander Over Yander, Andi Mack, Big City Greens, Sydney to the Max, and Amphibia are the shows I can name from the 2006-onwards era that had no musical concepts to it. 😅

[@phillinsogood]

@@JoyOgbatue that’s very true I didn’t think of that. I guess to me I noticed an obvious shift and the music was so good in the movies

[@rain4242]

You sound like the mother who posted "we all pass on eventually, but not books... books stay forever - said by my 5 year old son" Yeah there was tons of other shows not in this category. Just like they did in 1990's they were testing these shows to see if they would work or was high school musical one hit wonder. Stop lying about your perception of reality so you can get random strangers online to give you likes and praise your oh so wise self. "it was clear...... for obvious reasons MONEY & viewership" clearly it was obvious you could see them purchasing star wars and marvel, right? They wanted to keep into the musical industry did they not? ah if you knew that then you must be filthy rich since you invested into disney with your amazing predictions? Yeah i am sure If you are so good at seeing the "obvious" then how about doing some more future predictions buddy?

[@ImMetalMechanika]

Nick, CN, and Disney have all went downhill in terms of programming for the last 5-6 years.

[@JonTheVGNerd]

CN was the worst offender in my brutally honest opinion, but Nickelodeon isn't far off.

[@Style_224]

​@@JonTheVGNerdyup 2010s when they only did teen titan's go that was there biggest mess up

[@pinto1221]

Nick, CN, and Disney have all went downhill in terms of programming for the last 5-6 years

[@TheProtagonistDies]

Nick is tha goat tho

[@senseijuju]

CN is basically just the Teen Titans Go channel

[@thebeebz9511]

Disney channel would NEVER run ads for anything but their own properties in the commercial breaks. You would even see behind the scenes featurettes or full music videos IN THE COMMERCIAL breaks. Thats how big this thing was. On basic cable they would only advertise other stuff that was playing later that week

[@pleaseshutup7053]

Not true they would run cereal and toys advertising. I even remember nick advertisements

[@LouisSubearth]

​@pleaseshutup7053 Toon Disney/Disney XD does, but Disney Channel doesn't run full blown ads, but tie-in promos.

[@uploadvidz4490]

​@pleaseshutup7053 I really think you have the wrong channel. Very very rarely has a TV channel never run commercials and Disney Channel was one of them.

[@pleaseshutup7053]

@@uploadvidz4490 I am correct it is mostly Disney ads but they do accept other advertising that isn’t Disney

[@samuelmeasa9283]

@@pleaseshutup7053 Your thinking of 90's Disney, when they started to move to what they became when they dropped the Pay Per View model. Back in the 80's they used their own shows and news bits as filler between shows and movies. HBO did something similar with music interviews before that got spun out into MTV.

[@eccentricbass3730]

I don’t really think it’s fallen any further than TV has fallen. I stopped watching cable as soon as I left home for college. Most people in Disney Channel’s target demographic probably did, too. Now, you’d expect a younger generation to replace that viewership, but as we’re seeing millennials and even Gen Z start to become parents, their households typically don’t have cable. So of course Disney Channel wouldn’t survive that.

[@JTsLeague]

the best era is by far the era with Wizards of Waverly Place, Hannah Montana, Suite Life, That's So Raven, KP, etc. After those shows ended it was very hit or miss, but shows like Good Luck Charlie, and the Descendants movies were so well done and felt like that old Disney.

[@RacgoonGamer967]

That's sad because I grew up watching Disney's Recess and Kim Possible on Disney Channel as a kid. They were my childhood favorites as a kid and now seeing the channel going downhill is really heartbreaking to me.

[@jacoblyman9441]

Recess is one of the shows that actually aired on ABC's Disney One Saturday Morning block first. There were a few shows like that whose re-runs became part of the line up on Disney Channel after their Saturday morning block was done, but weren't originally designed for Disney Channel to begin with. Later on ABC Kids got more stuff from Disney Channel in return and some of the Disney Channel stuff aired on the Saturday Morning block until that ended.

[@YouJustAmazeMe]

Buzz lightyear and Lloyd in space were great too

[@YouJustAmazeMe]

Oh I almost forgot fillmore was good too

[@PeterGriffin11]

At this point the whole entire Disney cooperation is going downhill.

[@monkeystuff661]

Recess and Kim Possible is good I didnt watch that when I was a little kid it's on Disney plus like shows like Lab Rats Kick It Phineas and Ferb and stuff

[@Tazzer88]

My personal experience with watching Disney Channel was primarily about watching Kim Possible, by far one of the best animated shows of the era. So glad it broke through that ceiling of an episode limit and gave the fans a season four and a subsequent conclusion. However, the less said about that live-action movie, the better.

[@nicktechnubyte1184]

Couldn't have said it better myself! I knew the live action adaptation was going to be complete garbage the instant I heard it was being made!

[@marcdimartino9118]

I know a lot of folks love Phineas and Ferb & Gravity Falls, but I think Kim Possible is the greatest thing to come out of Disney Channel. Unlike PF and GF, Kim had to go toe to toe with pre-movie SpongeBob which is truly impressive since she found success during that brutal competition. As for the live-action movie, I believe people are way too hard on it. At best, it was cute, at worst, it was harmless. I mean, we've seen today how Disney can do A LOT WORSE with live-action remakes of their own properties. What bothered me the most was them making her a soccer player instead of a cheerleader. That was a slap in the face to cheerleaders everywhere, but I digress. Given the movie released twelve years after the show ended, it was never going to live up to what the cartoon was.

[@JHollowayNetwork]

But I think Kim Possible is bound for a spinoff now (called "Kim Possible: The College Years").

[@marcdimartino9118]

@@JHollowayNetwork That's a sweet idea, but I don't trust 2020s Disney to do it justice for a number of reasons. Keep Kim FAR away from 2020s Disney.

[@arrowghost]

I love the cartoons, but it all went downhill when I sense High School Musical that started the plague and later became a pandemic with the live action movie remakes.

[@huggablecat9456]

Brink, Smart House, Luck of the Irish, Alley Cat Strike, Johnny Sunami, Halloweentown. Those were some absolute BANGERS of my childhood. Thanks for covering this Company Man!

[@herrelladventures]

Our kids still prefer watching these than half of the crap that's on nowadays.

[@CharBar07]

Have you noticed shows today are animated and not live action?

[@huggablecat9456]

Phantom of the Megaplex was good too. Forgot to mention

[@WhatAboutZoidberg]

"Go Big or go home" and "Skate Better" were two VERY common phrases in my friend group growing up lol.

[@alyssajones4368]

Don't forget "Under Wraps" and "Mom's Got a Date With a Vampire"!

[@otakubullfrog1665]

As the only premium channel I could convince my parents to get at first, watching early Disney Channel with no commercial breaks felt magical. Any time leftover between shows was used to spotlight other Disney offerings and for neat little bumpers that really kept the mood going.

[@jhoughjr1]

Epcot Center got promoted a lot on it back in the 80s.

[@scottstark5528]

2002-2014 is the only era I am familiar with. My son was born at the beginning of this era and from 04-14 we watched our fair share of Disney Channel. My wife and I even enjoyed many of the shows, Suite Life, Life with Derek, Hannah Montanna, Wizards of Waverly Place, Good Luck Charlie, and many of their original movies. I even remember taking our son to see High School Musical 3 and Hannah Montanna the movie in theaters. During this ten year period if you came to our house the television was usually on ESPN or any NFL game on Sunday/Monday night , Disney Channel or Food Network the rest of the week.

[@KH-lw5ze]

This basically sounds like my childhood summed up 😅

[@truinright]

All hail the 1997-2002 Disney Channel Era! Us Millennials will forever cling to the nostalgia of it all! The best shows came from that era…and those characters are immortalized for eternity!

[@redskins5926]

I worked at Disney HQ in California from 2007-09. Disney Channel was the most important thing at that time. The internal employee newsletters always highlighted the biggest Disney Channel shows and stars (it’s how I first heard the names Demi Lovato and Taylor Swift). Even other properties like Pixar did not get as much hype internally. This was also the same time when Netflix launched its streaming service, and at a town hall Anne Sweeney said Disney would never get into streaming. Of course, we all know how that turned out.

[@marcdimartino9118]

Cool, thanks for sharing. TV worked so well for a healthy industry. Streaming ruined the balance.

[@terejosh13]

Taylor Swift and Disney were a thing 😂

[@livdafish1165]

@@terejosh13 She was in Hannah Montana the Movie!

[@mr.tomraypaz6085]

Looks like Anne Sweeney was proven wrong, because now we have Disney+.

[@marcdimartino9118]

@@mr.tomraypaz6085 Or she'll be proven right since Disney+ is not doing well financially.

[@Eastsid3]

I never paid too much attention to Disney channel favoring Nick and CN more. What I can say is that I worked at Game stop in the mid 2000s and the amount of Hannah Montana, high school musical and suite life games we sold was very surprising.

[@siennahartle9069]

For months before finding Nemo was even announced Disney channel aired fish facts during commercial breaks in order to get kids excited about fish so they would beg their parents to take them to see the fish movie

[@nintendofan7586]

I see you also watched Defunctland's video on the channel 😅

[@weightlessfilms5651]

What a nostalgia trip. The hype around each month's Disney Channel Original Movie was real. I loved the Zoog Disney era with Even Stevens and Lizzie McGuire. I also have a special place in my heart for Vault Disney (+ Happy Days /Brady Bunch era Nick@Nite), watching those shows/movies with my parents and grandparents was quite special. It was like seeing them become children again; such a great bonding experience. Jumping Ship, Johnny Tsunami, Brink, and Even Stevens Movie were some of my favorite DCOMs.

[@meankatrina]

OMG that Happy Days era of Nick@Nite, you just nostalgia-punched me in the face with that.

[@weightlessfilms5651]

@@meankatrina Hopefully in a good way! haha

[@meankatrina]

@@weightlessfilms5651 oh you bet!

[@JoeHusosky]

Backing 1982 to 84, My friends worked in telemarketing selling the Disney channel and the Playboy channel. It was pretty funny that the most popular option was the combo pack by a large margin.😂

[@LatitudeSky]

My family was involved in the cable industry for a period of time in the 80s. One perk was that we got free cable, every premium or PPV channel unlocked. Just to be clear, this was an employee benefit everybody got, not an insider pirate box or something. They even had recip agreements for employees who worked for one cable company but lived in another company area. Every employee got free cable, from whoever served their home. It was a very popular benefit. Anyway, Disney and Playboy were also the paid channels watched most often by the employee households with the free service. Go figure.

[@jalabi99]

Can't remember the IG Reel I watched but it had a former Disney Channel star from _Liv & Maddie_ explaining the real reason for the "65 episode" season: the contracts they signed with Disney were at scale (basically minimum wage), and once the show gained great popularity the honchos at Disney would force a change of the name of the program, and force all the cast to sign a new contract, thus bringing them back to scale. That's why it went from _The Suite Life of Zack and Cody_ to _The Suite Life on Deck_ or from _Liv & Maddie_ to _Liv & Maddie: Cali Style._ Insidious.

[@WillmobilePlus]

I was part of the OG Disney Channel generation. We got it in 83 briefly, and the "free preview" weeks you got 4 times a year, were as big as Christmas for me! The shows were like another level of quality back then, until they went basic cable.

[@meankatrina]

I was a kid at the tail-end of the OG generation (born in 85) and this video made me remember those "free preview" weeks. Those were amazing, and I'm sure my parents looked forward to them too, because us kids were GLUED to the Disney Channel for those few days!!!

[@richardterroni9433]

I agree it was the only time I was able to watch the channel so I watched almost non-stop

[@jaylenadegoke]

It’s interesting that the downfall of Disney Channel and Nickelodeon happened around the same time. Although there are many reasons for this, I think it all comes down to Social Media. Disney and Nick began to fade in relevance around 2014. It was also the same time that Disney and Nick seemingly put an end to their “pop star machine” they had going throughout the 2000’s that brought us some of the biggest pop stars we know today. For many, Good Luck Charlie and Victorious (which ironically debuted just a week from each other in 2010) are regarded as the last great shows from both networks and after those shows ended, both networks were never the same again.

[@jfs1988]

You should do the rise and fall of Radio Disney.

[@KTJohnsonkidThunder]

I second that.

[@tridoc99]

I’m grateful for Phineas and Ferb. That show is like classic cartoons that are fun for both parents and children (I’m the parent in this case). Watching Phineas and Ferb with my kids reminded me of watching Looney Tunes with my dad with the added bonus of the awesome songs.

[@saveronshadow]

Disney+ has fallen HARD. They bought titles way beyond their weight and/or talent to take over and it really shows this past year where they are spending $400mil to make $200 mil for their streaming service content per movie/series.

[@darkdudironaji]

It blows my mind to learn that Under Wraps and Halloween Town are only a year apart. I remember there being such a big gap as a kid. Weird how much your perception of time changes as you grow older.

[@maddiemiller7548]

I was always more into the animated side of Disney Channel. Stuff like Kim Possible, Phineas and Ferb, and Gravity Falls defined different eras of my childhood. Even more recently, stuff like The Owl House and Amphibia really stand out. If the channel does end up shutting down altogether, I really hope they continue producing shows like this for Disney+, because as of now, original animated series are basically nonexistent on that platform.

[@pinto1221]

thank you

[@runrafarunthebestintheworld]

Honestly Disney is just the Miraculous Lady Bug channel.

[@kevin10001]

I agree and the show they have now miraculous ladybug wasn’t even a show they originally acquired the American distribution rights for Nickelodeon actually had it for a little while cause I watched some of it and when they stopped airing it I thought they had cancelled it not knowing it wasn’t a Nickelodeon original production but a show they had acquired from France and dubbed in English if it wasn’t original done in English

[@flurpoid]

I think there's some prevailing notion within digital media companies which assumes families don't want 2D animated stuff any more.

[@macgeorge8229]

Belos did nothing wrong I would help him clean the isles with nukes.

[@Hollowdude15]

It's sad to see Cartoon Network, Disney, Nick fall off because of not having a great series and nice video man :]

[@pinto1221]

😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀😀

[@kootunesscrewy]

And thanks to the purge issue we had last year, I'm starting to defend Doodle Toons, BFDI, Ollie and Scoops and Spooky Month. I'm glad internet cartoons are getting trusted more again.

[@youdontknowsponge6218]

Blame parents who give their kids a mac as a babysitter rather than just using physical media.

[@mattwolf7698]

Cable is just pretty much dead to anybody under 40, that's why they are failing

[@charlesferrer9814]

Actually Disney Channel’s current era isn’t that bad! It has new toons that slap… Moon Girl, Cricket, Molly, Gretel, Hailey… it’s much more pleasant than that yellow sponge or talking pups.

[@darkfoxfurre]

You kind of gigantically missed how much of an impact the Disney channel had when it came out; and when it released Duck Tales. Duck Tales was one of the first, high budget cartoons made for television. Prior to that cartoons were of the cheaper Hanna Barbara variety. But Disney showed that high budget animation was viable on television.

[@thema1998]

The original DuckTales wasn't a Disney Channel show though. It was syndicated.

[@amywilson7540]

High School Musical came out when I was a high school senior, and I knew people my age who loved it! And the next year when I was in college, there were people listening to the soundtrack in my dormitory. I think a lot of us millennials kept watching Disney Channel when we were technically way too old for it, but today it's just not cooI, I can't imagine any self-respecting teenager watching Disney Channel.

[@emmettturner9452]

65 episodes was standard for syndicated kids shows on other networks… and that includes the Disney Afternoon. If they were successful enough they’d get a delayed “second season” of sorts, like DuckTales. Also, some shows might get a trial run with a short set of episodes before the full 65 are ordered/produced and cancel if it doesn’t do well. This is why many shows either have a ridiculously short or ridiculously long “first season” compared to later “seasons” and have to be released in “volumes” instead. The first volume might be S1 plus S2, or some portion of the first 65. …and, no, Breaking Bad S1 was only 8 episodes because it got cut short by the 2008 Writer’s Guild of America strike. ;) S5 got split up to drag the show out another year and double-dip DVD sales.

[@dwood78part23]

It's not just the Disney Channel, but Nick & Cartoon Network. All these cable channels that's geared towards kids are Shadows of their follow selves. Which is sad to say as all 3 were a part of my childhood. I never had the Disney Channel until they became a regular cable channel. But I did watched during it's hay day in the 1990s & 2000s.

[@runrafarunthebestintheworld]

and you probably should've back in it's hay day. I briefly got an idea as to was on those channels at the Dentist an at my cousins house in it's early days.

[@jrehr90]

The Jersey was such a great show!! It teeters on forgotten. I really feel nostalgic for the media/commercials that usually surrounded that show. Just the whole Disney vibe at that time felt so surreal.

[@TheFourthWinchester]

The 2002-2008 era was their best. So many constant hits.

[@christophergarrett7082]

2002 through 2010 was the greatest Era of Disney channel

[@MissRarity0079]

It's worth mentioning that there has recently been some regional broadcaster disputes regarding Disney Channel and its fees, and some of them have been resolved by dropping Disney Channel from the cable package entirely and giving customer's a Disney + subscription instead. So your idea that they are sacrificing the channel for streaming is spot on.

[@mrflamewars]

The original Disney channel that was a premium channel was absolutely golden - If you're old enough you'll remember Welcome to Pooh Corner and Dumbo's Circus. 80s Nickelodeon was awesome too - If you remember Pinwheel (and nobody seems to) You're Awesome too! 👍🏻

[@richardterroni9433]

I agree, when it became a basic cable channel it slowly began to decline

[@trevonpernell0814]

Even Stevens, Lizzie McGuire, The Proud Family, Kim Possible, Brandy and Mr. Wiskers, Dave The Barbarian, Phil of the Future, The Suite Life of Zach & Cody. That's just some of MANY classic Disney Channel shows I grew up with.

[@jenc3825]

I was a Disney channel kid from about 1998-2003 or 2004. I loved the concert specials , that’s so Raven, Even Stevens , Bug Juice, Jett Jackson , the original movies and of course the TGIF syndicated reruns

[@TheNewgreatlife]

I'd love to have a video on the former channel Toon Disney and it's history and how it was morphed into Disney XD. I thought Toon Disney was the true equal equivalent to Cartoon Network growing up.

[@RB01.10]

I am genuinely surprised that Disney XD and Disney Jr are still around, considering they’re both on secondary cable packages that less people pay for anymore

[@marcdimartino9118]

Toon Disney supremacy!

[@ReapTheWhirlwind]

In the year of Our Lord 2003, I went to LA for a Buffy con. On my way to an event I had to take an elevator in a hotel and when I entered it was filled with little girls, ages 8-10. We got off on the same floor and I was treated to the view of a massive event for the Lizzie McGuire movie! There had to be 3 times as many people going to that vs the Buffy event I went to. 🥰

[@stratoplayer1988]

I used to watch the big 3 networks back in the 90s and into the early 2000s. I loved watching the Disney Channel because it had shows not just for kids, but it also had programming that appealed to everyone. I could watch Even Stevens in the afternoon, and then a classic Disney movie in the evening. Heck, even their educational shows were very entertaining! Once they started to only show programs for teens in the early 2000s, that’s what I stopped watching it altogether.

[@Emigdiosback]

But that era you described was pretty good. That’s So Raven, Suite Life, Hannah Montana

[@vancexel]

I'm with OP here that is the time I stopped paying attention to Disney as well. There are some interviews where the programmers said they began to focus on girls and that happened around 2003. Not saying those shows are bad, but the shows did cater more to 10-14 year olds rather than a larger audience. I would still pop my head in from time to time to see what was playing, but gave up around the time cheetah girls movie released. I did enjoy KP but I wasn't following the show religiously either. Also agree about the playhouse Disney stuff PBJ otters was actually a pretty good show lol 😆

[@zepcrazyfre]

*’2002-2014 Disney Channel Era’* 🤩🤩🤩🥲🥲🥲 Thanks very much Company Man you made me cry 🤣🥹😭🗣️💯

[@gundam833]

Unfortunately when I was a kid I did not have the experience of the Disney Channel in my household. Mainly due to the fact that my family lived out in a rural area that had little options for cable TV. Wasn't until almost the 2000s when my parents got a Satellite dish and purchased a basic cable package and I was able to enjoy Cartoon Network. That was really the only kids channel I really got to experience. I missed out on so much because of that situation.

[@Allen_Leigh_Canada]

Well, we never had Disney back then in China. :)

[@DontcallmeaCuck]

@@Allen_Leigh_CanadaYou have Winnie the Pooh as president of China 🇨🇳 😊

[@diegorivas1991]

When I was a kid in the early 2000s here in Latin America the big 4 were Cartoon Network, Nickelodeon, Disney Channel and Fox Kids, until Disney bought Fox Kids, renamed it as Jetix and turned it into an eternal non stop repetition of The Fairly OddParents that agonized for years until they changed it again to DisneyXD. For several years Fox Kids made bit the dust to Cartoon Network when the AOL Time Warner disastrous merging shaked all the former Turner cable TV stations to their very core.

[@justanormalguy563]

With respect, there was a lot more to Jetix than FOP. Pucca, Monkey Team, Sonic X, Dino King, etc.

[@diegorivas1991]

@@justanormalguy563 The first half of Jetix existence was from good to awesome, the second half went downhill as soon as many of their licenses from the Fox Kids years expired.

[@BiancaGreysin]

I remember growing up in the 90s, they were still subscription based, only my more wealthy friends had it. I had to go over to their house to watch the Disney channel. Every once in a while they had a free week they would promote it on regular cable tv to help get subscribers. I don’t remember getting the Disney channel on cable until the early 00s

[@ballinn0430]

Back in the early 2010s, my mom would watch my cousin and she would watch Disney Channel sitcoms, some of the things like the theme songs or the "You're watching Disney Channel" are planted in my head, nostalgic.

[@bloodCount8895]

As a 90s kid I had great choices in shows between the 3 channels. I also liked those Disney original movies like Johnny Tsunami

[@phillinsogood]

I feel like Nickelodeon really played a significant role in Disney channels rise. Nick had a wide variety of original content cartoons, game shows and live action shows and Disney needed something to draw in viewers

[@TheBuenaventura93]

Brandy and Mr Whiskers was awesome. That show introduced me to Kaley Cuoco (Penny from Big Bang Theory). I just wish the show had an actual ending where she finally comes back to Florida.

[@mattyian1208]

I loved Brandy and Mr Whiskers 🐩 🦶 🐾

[@MidnightRaindrops]

Something that I find interesting is that one of Disney’s biggest stars from recent years, Olivia Rodrigo, saw what happened to former Disney stars and made the decision to sign into a different record label.

[@olleselin]

My favourite Disney Channel shows will always be The Owl House, Gravity Falls, DuckTales and Phineas & Ferb. And i certainly hope that this network will continue to amaze future generations.... Happy 40th Anniversary, Disney Channel!

[@macgeorge8229]

Belos did nothing wrong i would have helped him clean the isles.

[@alexthetiger7806]

I was more of a Cartoon Network kid. The only thing I watched on Disney Channel was the Lilo & Stitch show (and some Kim Possible), I was obsessed with Lilo & Stitch for a while after the movie came out, and the show was right there for me.

[@Ashrudel]

I was born in 86, so I grew up watching the early years of the channel. Adventure in Wonderland, Dumbo's Circus, and movie likes "Npt Quiet Human" or Felix the Cat the movie.

[@SuperKitaroShinX]

Vault Disney was my favorite block as a kid, I used to stay up and watch Zorro The original Mickey Mouse Club, The Wonderful of Color, and more on Saturday nights, I always wanted a vault Disney channel back then since Toon Disney and Playhouse Disney got their own channels but sadly it never happened.

[@Raelarial]

When I noticed that they kept adding more live content and removing cartoons, I just started to hate it when they removed a lot of good cartoons for crappy live shows

[@runrafarunthebestintheworld]

I honestly don't know why Cartoon Network and Disney Channel haven't just rebranded or just go off the air and stop being a cable channel entirely because they're not coming up with new shows either way.

[@RB01.10]

@@runrafarunthebestintheworldAdd to the fact that less people are watching cable now

[@basilcat3111]

@@runrafarunthebestintheworld Well if you look at the events over the past 4 years, several disney channels have shut down because of disney+. In fact: Disney Channel New Zealand: 30 November 2019 Disney Channel Australia: 30 April 2020 Disney Channel Italy: 1 May 2020 Disney Channel Singapore: 1 June 2020 Disney Channel UK and Ireland: 30 September 2020 Disney Channel Malaysia: 31 December 2020 Disney Channel South East Asia and Hong Kong: 1 October 2021 Disney Channel Korea: 1 October 2021 Disney Channel Taiwan: 1 January 2022 Disney Channel Turkey: 31 March 2022 Disney Channel Russia: 14 December 2022(Though Disney+ wasn’t the reason it closed)

[@alxisl]

The best Disney channel era was obviously from 2002-2013 I’d say, all the good shows and stars were there at that time!

[@paulclinton6414]

Disney shows have always been trash.

[@m56214]

​​@@paulclinton6414Even Gravity Falls, Aaron Stone, So Weird and Lab Rats.

[@averagewhiteguy2]

I watched Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon as a kid, but I had family that watched Disney Channel a lot. This was during the second and third eras you described. So I watched some of it on occasion. I was not a huge fan, but I do think the quality of the shows were good for kids during those eras.

[@sirdaveysockrocker]

I never saw any Chaplin movies, but I did watch the Ewok movies a dozen times on the the original Disney Channel, and my sisters and I loved “Welcome to Pooh Corner”, “Dumbos Circus”, and “Adventures in Wonderland”.

[@MentalLiberation]

I loved and remembered Under the Umbrella Tree

[@FigmentForever]

It was my favorite growing up!

[@YakkoWarnerTower]

the classical Disney Channel is kinda before my time because I watched Late 90s to 00s Disney Channel and One Saturday Morning but I did know it was nice and charming in the 80's.

[@broadcastmyballs]

Disney Channel was absolutely *not* a part of my childhood experience. I grew up in the Philadelphia area where Comcast was (and is) king. On Comcast Cable during the 1908s and 1990s, the Disney Channel was only available as a premium channel at additional cost and no one I knew bought it.

[@richardterroni9433]

Same, although I was in the Suburbs with a different cable system at the time so I probably started getting it a little earlier (August 1998 to be exact) and by the time my provider was bought out by Comcast in the early 2000s I believe they had it.

[@jacobs.macauley4420]

The fun era of the House of Mouse and Filmore I rewatched a couple of the old episodes of it as an adult and it still hits with great themes and writing. It’s like Law and Order for kids at a middle school with a dash of Brooklyn 99 humour.

[@Redrally]

YES! Another Fillmore fan

[@vickiwitt9828]

The first channel had a rigid schedule. I remember that Mary Poppins was shown twice a week during the month of December-- and it was Sunday morning (we were at church) and Wednesday night (also at church). We finally skipped a Christmas pageant rehearsal to let our little girl see Mary Poppins. It was the same thing every month with the major feature movie. Disney didn't consider that a more varied schedule would get more customers.

[@YugoStrange]

I mean basically Ann Sweeney was the reason why Disney channel became a hit in the late 90s to late 2000s. Which was my era when I loved watching Disney channel for it's original content they kept bringing out. Honestly it will never be the same so rewatching them now that I'm 32, it brings back nostalgic feeling of coming home from school, doing homework, having dinner and watching brink! Or johnny tsunami, etc. With my brother and sister and dad. Those days were most memorable to me.

[@ronaldoakes7139]

I’m old enough to have been watching The Disney Channel for a while in 1983 and 1984 (until our small cable system was merged into the larger system from the nearby city and it was dropped). Shows I remember from that era include D-TV (popular music of the era made into videos using Disney cartoons), Mousterpiece Theater (George Plympton hosting a Masterpiece Theater tribute featuring classic Disney shorts), and Five Mile Creek (The Disney Channel’s first original dramatic series, based on a novel by a well-known western author, but reset in Australia where it was filmed with a mixed cast in a co-production). This last show was a family favorite, at least through the original run.

[@thom_ass_]

You should make a video about the Maverick chain of Gas Station/Convenience Stores that have been slowly taking over the mountain west. i have no idea where they came from but in the last 10 years at least one if not multiple has showed up in pretty much every town across the region

[@skyden24195]

Grew up in the 80s so I was watching the Disney Channel when it started. From what I can remember there was a time period that may have been Saturdays only, or maybe just during the summer months when kids were out of school that there was a block of programming that started at 6:00am with "Good Morning Mickey" (a half hour of classic Disney shorts,) then "Disney's Mousercise" (a half hour kids fitness and exercise show that had two professional aerobics instructors who led kid friendly exercises along with costumed/live action Mickey, with appearances from Goofy, Donald, etc.) After that it was "Donald Duck Presents" (more classic Disney shorts, but mostly that featured Donald Duck). A short-lived series that they did which was to appeal to kids and adults was "DTV." It was a half hour show which featured a few songs from the very early 80s, but mostly music from the 50s to 70s. The songs played over assembled clips from various Disney shorts and full-length films that went along with the lyrics of the songs. (A couple of examples were Lena Horne's "Stormy Weather" which featured a lot of clips from the short "The Old Mill" and Barrett Strong's song "Money (That's What I Want) which was over a lot of cartoon clips that showed ridiculous money scenes, but no Scrooge McDuck as he was not a regular character in animation for Disney yet.) Lastly, the Disney Channel Original Movie: "Mr. Boogedy," which was so awesome it inspired the sequel "Bride of Boogedy." Both movies are now on Disney+. Oh, btw, some of Disney Channel's New Mouseketeers biggest successes would be Brittany Spears, Christina Aguilera, Ryan Gosling, and Justin Timberlake.

[@Style_224]

Kim possible was the best show in the early 2000

[@c0ya1]

Alongside that's so raven.

[@lvent412]

Mike as always you put in 100% effort!! I will commend you on dodging the many landmines this topic has. As a pragmatic person The trickle down effect from Disney corporate has unfortunately had a crippling influence on the Disney channel. I'll leave it at that as your comment section isn't the place to get bogged down in this type of discussion. Again love and respect the effort you put into research and production of your vids!!

[@EinhanderPilotSantos]

Disney channel was my "cinemax" back in the day. My cable TV would display Disney channel scrambled most of the day and only during certain hours in the evening it would be clear.

[@Markimark151]

I used to first watch Disney channel at my uncle’s house when I was a kid, shows like Dumbo’s Circus, kidsongs, Ducktales, and many adventures of Winnie the Pooh! Also I watched Disney channel until the mid 2000s, Even Stevens, Kim Possible, Lizzie McGuire, Recess, Dave the Barbarian! Also I feel the channel declined after the cancellation of Gravity Falls and Wander over Yonder!

[@dcsk8er990]

Great video like always, but I think you missed a big point. The Bear In The Big Blue House is was really launched Disney Channel. It was the first show that got traction and put the channel on the map to grow.

[@mrwhirly0358]

That original Disney Channel logo makes it look like the channel was made by IBM

[@TheInkPitOx]

I wish Disney didn't own Fox, Marvel, and LucasArts My childhood was Disney Afternoon, all new mickey mouse club, and One Saturday morning Born very late 1985

[@gameskyjumper1721]

My most memorable thing about Disney Channel was the short segment of "Finding Mickey." Basically you were shown a short clip of Disney cartoon and movie. Later it would slow down and circle where Mickey is. I was surprised how many Mickey symbol (three circles) were hiding in all those shows. The thing is I am from Asian so I really don't know if the same segment is in U.S. So when I mentioned that there was a real Mickey hiding in the crowd in the Goody movie, ppl in the comments were surprised. I was baffled on why no one know this.

[@hotheadtxt]

I remember that segment. I also watch those on Disney Channel Asia so yeah that could be a regional thing.

[@masteryoffgtrash7665]

My childhood was in the 90s and 00s , so that time was the golden age for me. From Darkwing Duck to Kim Possible there were a lot of great shows.

[@kevincamp1995]

I watched The Disney Channel as a child of the 80's. In those days, Disney would broadcast for free during one month in the summertime, when we were all out of school. But if you didn't subscribe after that trial month, it would no longer be offered. I begged my father to subscribe, but he never did. Always said it was too expensive.

[@TheInkPitOx]

Born in very late 1985, so the Disney Channel was still a PBS-like network at the time. I started to lose attention upon the merger with ABC.

[@nyanpirethecat2257]

I believe The Disney Channel would also serve as a lot 80s kids first exposure to Anime then known as "Japanimation" (pre-Dragon Ball and Sailor Moon) . During the channel's infancy, they used to frequently air the Unico Film series ("The Fantastic Adventures of Unico" and "Unico in the Island of Magic") throughout the 1980s based on the Unico manga by Osamu Tezuka. Disney's airings of the Unico Films caused Unico to gain a surprisingly dedicated cult following in the United States. To the point that the original manga gained an official translation in 2012, and a majority of backers for the upcoming "Unico: Awakening" manga was from American audiences. The new Unico Manga is actually being published by Scholastic (via Graphix imprint) aiming for an August 6, 2023 release.

[@LatitudeSky]

The Unico movies were also aired on syndicated TV across the US. FAR more anime content aired that way than Disney ever showed. We had local TV stations with afternoon cartoon blocks, 2:30 to 5:30 showing all anime. Every day.

[@andrewfusco7824]

Super impressive work with this video. Informative, concise, well made.

[@mRahman92]

Cable TV used to be so worthwhile! When I was a kid we used to sometimes listen to Radio Disney, and watch a lot of Disney Channel, along with ABC Family, etc. But a lot has changed since the early 2000s. And I have to admit, I don't even watch TV anymore. Some of our older LCD TVs have even stopped working at home.

[@paulparsons1996]

You should do rise and fall of Service Merchandise.

[@princess_ama]

My first real exposure to Disney Channel shows was back when That’s So Raven, Hannah Montana, and some other sitcoms used to air on ABC Kids in the late 2000s. I knew of shows like Even Stevens and Lizzie McGuire because sometimes my older cousin would come over, but I was still very young so I didn’t really watch them like that. I didn’t really start watching Disney frequently until shows like Jessie and ANT Farm started. I wasn’t even a Playhouse Disney kid (though I was familiar with a few of the shows through VHS tapes and DVDs). Up until the early 2010s, I was mostly a Nick/Nick Jr./Noggin kid. 😂

[@notthatcreativewithnames]

Growing up in 2000s Thailand, there was no such thing as "Disney Channel" here. However, Saturday and Sunday morning time slots are for kid's cartoons, and there are programmes dedicated for airing licensed "cartoons" from the US or Japan. One of these programmes was Disney Club, and the hosts were pretty memorable.

[@AmethystLeslie]

This video failed to mention that during the 2000s, the audience shifted heavily to young girls specifically. This is pretty much why Toon Disney rebranded to Disney XD, to make content for young boys. 2000s Disney Channel was my era, and I was in the target audience, so I just ate it all up.

[@wesleyjc80]

I remember growing up in the 80's and the only time I got it watch Disney was when they would have their free weekend preview. Basically just a way to advertise the channel. But I really didn't care much for it. I was a Nick kid in the 80's.

[@mechajay3358]

I say the Golden Age of the Disney Channel ended aroun the late 2010s. Before that they had a lot of great and unique shows both animated and live action.

[@kellenbigman]

The excitement the intro shows definitely explains a lot about the tone and cadence in all of these videos on this channel. I understand this creator so much more now.

[@IamSnowbird]

I had a subscription to the Disney Channel probably the second or third year it was on the air. My son was about 3 and loved the channel. We kept it for a few years as I had my daughter. She was a real fan of so many of the shows. I remember when it became basic because the kids were happy we had it again. I see the channel stopping. There really is no need with Disney+.

[@stuffingtonjfluffypantsiii]

My favorite DCOMS were the first 2 Zenon movies (not so much the 3rd one) and Pixel Perfect. live action shows I'd say my favorite was Adventures In Wonderland and animated my favorite was Kim Possible

[@MikaNTey]

Never in my life have I watched High School Musical and I have no desire to do so😂

[@herrelladventures]

I remember how pumped I was as a young kid when we'd get the free weekend preview of Disney Channel.

[@chrisbullard5901]

Am I the only one commenting that remembers watching The Disney Channel in the 80s and 90s, off a C-Band satellite dish when visiting relatives in the back country? One of the biggest events for elder Millennials in their childhood was catching the 2-3 week preview of the Disney Channel when the company would broadcast on basic cable 1-2 times a year, and run their infomercials for parents to subscribe after giving the channel that 2-3 week trial run. It was a brilliant selling strategy, and it was during one of these previews when I remembered “Darkwing Duck” premiered.

[@UmmYeahOk]

This video really didn’t discuss much about its “fall.” You really can’t blame it all on streaming, as it was already in decline. You see, in the aughts, there was this thing that A LOT of channels were doing called “marathons.” Streaming form would be binge watching, but with marathons, you had no choice. You either liked the show, or didn’t. I liked Kim Possible. I like Lilo and Stitch the animate series, so I would watch a marathon. After a few episodes though, I was done. I didn’t want to ever see it again. I was burned out. The problem with Disney however, was that, as a Disney Channel subscriber, I owned Disney Channel East, Disney Channel West, Toon Disney (Disney XD), ABC Family (Freeform), and regular good old fashion ABC. One day I checked, and, if you only look at DC East (not west) Kim Possible was being aired over 50 times a week!!! Can you imagine them doing that and sticking to the 65 episode rule? We were a generation that grew up on one episode a day, if you were even able to catch it. This was just too much. Competitors had the same problem. Nickelodeon was obsessed with airing Sponge Bob. I HATED Sponge Bob. I knew that if I did like him, the same thing would have happened that happened with KP, in that I would get burned out. Marathons essentially alienated viewers who did not like the show, or grew tired of the show. Both networks had decent content, but they refused to air it, or did so in such a random fashion and audiences did not know when to tune in.

[@marcdimartino9118]

Kim Possible being aired over fifty times a week? Sign me up!

[@jdossantos88]

3rd grade, Off the bus, pantry:Oreos, remote, Disney (ch. 56 for me), peace.

[@efeklau6502]

The recipe for happiness

[@haydendegrow945]

I live in Canada, and grew up watching Disney shows on a channel ironically called Family Channel... Coolest things about it? It did not have commercials, so showtimes were ~25 mins instead of 30. Made it fun to watch! But yeah, miss the quality of those shows nowadays

[@Lucchese18]

Great video! I LOVED Recess, Lloyd in Space, and Dave the barbarian

[@citizenblue]

I would love to see the fall of the Disney Corporation

[@Coorsdrinker444]

We all do

[@CrystalMaidenFeetLover86]

That's quite a request for the Company Man to take them down, but maybe with enough Patreon supporters he could pull it off

[@the0ne809]

not a fan of disney at all but why do you say that? just curious.

[@oliviavander1882]

Same. Groomers. But most programming is. I just don't let my kids watch anything anymore 😂

[@jelyfisher]

Disney is too powerful. They control too much.

[@AustinKelly01]

I’m genuinely terrified for the generation who didn’t get to watch shows growing up. Now they’re watching sneako, Kai and Adin Ross

[@Ukrainian-woman-of-your-dreams]

I never heard of those current shows. The young generation should watch meaningful cartoon shows such as "Dexter's Laboratory", "PowerPuff Girls", "Johnny Bravo", "Rugrats", "Hey Arnold!", etc. Yes, those were the real kids'/cartoon shows my generation has grown up watching.

[@kevinaguilar7541]

Dude, they have amphibia, the owl house, the ghost and Molly Mcgee, and The Bad Batch. They're good shows. Though I personally dislike Amphibia I can't deny many people like it. Stop being boomers about it

[@huntno]

This is not a thing lol, most little kids watch kid shows (or content directed at children). Maybe 9-10 year olds though

[@elefanta1278]

They’re becoming nutcases every day~

[@AustinKelly01]

@@Ukrainian-woman-of-your-dreamsthey aren’t even current shows they’re internet streamers. I’m making a point that the SHOULD be watching all the shows you just mentioned

[@Extinguisher10]

I didn't get Disney channel until it was moved to basic cable. By that time I was borderline too old to watch it. I remember watching a few episodes of Kimpossible and that's about it

[@CaptJohnsen]

I never got into the Disney channel. When I was a kid that still watched tv it felt like there was no preteen content and that withering they showed was either for an older or younger audience than myself. The lack of cartoons also killed it for me, I never liked live action stuff as a kid, so Nick and CN got all my attention for the cartoons.