New Disney Children's Programming Revealed

[2099net]

So you want to know why Phil of the Future was axed. Three words. Billy. Ray. Cyrus.

Disney got an early start on the 2006 kids’ upfront season, announcing a slate of 11 new series and 25 movies to run across its four TV platforms.

This fall, Disney Channel unveils the live-action comedy series Hannah Montana, which stars country star/actor Billy Ray Cyrus and his daughter Miley Cyrus. The series draws a bead on the teeming ‘tween demo, introducing Miley as a pop idol cast from the same mold as Disney alum Hilary Duff. The catch: When she’s not on stage, Hannah keeps a low profile as just an ordinary kid.

Also coming to Disney Channel is The Replacements, an animated series about two siblings who turn to a company named Fleemco that lets them swap out the meddlesome adults in their lives with cool replacements like a spy and a rock star. Having previously announced the pickup late last year, Disney is set to premiere The Replacements in September. Both series will also be showcased on Disney’s Saturday morning block, ABC Kids.

In a bid to build on the ratings success of its High School Musical, Disney Channel will also take the wraps off several new original movies this season, including Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior and The Cheetah Girls 2. Both movies feature actresses that are familiar to Disney’s ‘tween audience, as Wendy Wu stars Brenda Song of The Suite Life of Zack & Cody and the Cheetah Girls sequel is a vehicle for channel regular Raven-Symoné.

Meanwhile, in September, the turbo-charged animation block Jetix will move off ABC Family for an exclusive run on Toon Disney. Jetix marks the migration with two new animated series meant to “dimensionalize the comic direction we’re going in,” said Gary Marsh, president, entertainment, Disney Channel Worldwide. In keeping with that directive, Jetix will roll out Yin Yang Yo!, a cartoon about a Panda martial arts master and the two bunnies that make up his dojo, and Jackie Chan Adventures, an animated series about the titular stunt man/actor and his 11-year-old niece.

Jetix will also try its hand at kids-friendly anime with Oban Star-Racers, a space opera set to premiere in June 2006.

Lastly, Toon Disney will add a handful of Disney Channel shows to its lineup, including the home-grown properties American Dragon: Jake Long, Lilo & Stitch: The Series and The Buzz on Maggie.

Then it goes on about marketing and synergy. Yawn.

http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/cablet ... 1001995103

[dvdjunkie]

This really sounds lame, and just another tool for Disney to sell some of their stupid stuff. Do they think only kids and pre-teens watch this channel. They say they are truly a family channel, yet the shows they choose are aimed at those under the age of twelve and challenge the intelligence of them sometimes.

Bring back the old days of the Disney Channel when they used to feature Vault Disney and the Rock and Roll series "Going Home" which had some of the days hottest rock and roll groups in an imformal setting and then featured them in concert in their home town.

We need the old Mickey Mouse Club, and lots of 'true' family programs. Not this drivvel.

[Escapay]

This channel just gets worse and worse each year. "Hannah Montana" seems like a Lizzie McGuire clone (tween show focused on the trials and tribulations of a tweenage girl, but get this, the twist is she's a rock star! Give me a break!) "The Replacements" just sounds confusing. "The Cheetah Girls 2"???? One Cheetah Girls movie is one too many, must we be treated to a second? And as usual, Jetix is completely unnecessary and un-Disney.

Can only speak for my generation, but anyone remember the glory days of "Jett Jackson", "So Weird", "The Jersey", "In a Heartbeat", "Flash Forward", "Even Stevens", need I go on?

And yes, BRING BACK VAULT DISNEY!

Escapay

[DaveWadding]

Don't tell my heart
my achy breaky heart

...

[MouseHouse55]

Thanks for the post. I agree, Jetix does not belong on any "Disney" channel. It was fine for ABC Family, and has sadly ruined Toon Disney. Timon and Pumba, which was a pretty fun show, is now only shown at 6am thanks to Jetix's 12-hour daily slot. But they didn't ask us now did they.

[lord-of-sith]

All of the shows sound lame. Both of the movies sound lame (Cheetah Girls 2!?! What?!? Why? So we see yet a second display of horrible writing, acting, and singing?). I guess I'm going to be watching re-runs of Fairly Odd Parents more than I thought.

[Loomis]

Ouchie wouchie heart!

Well, I won't be another to bash Billy Ray before he graces our TV screens and becomes our new god, but some of the other projects sound interesting.

The Replacements, in particular, could be cool. If it is done with the right sense of Disney humour (in the vein of Kim Possible or TENG), then that may be a potential classic. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to have anything to do with the Paul Westerberg band from the 1980s.

[MickeyMousePal]

Why doesn't Disney just make a show that crap just falls down the sky for 30 minutes? That's how I feel with all these new shows

The only worthy shows on Disney Channel are Kim Possible, Emperor's New School, House of Mouse and Lilo and Stitch: The Series.

[Mouseketodd]

My two girls (ages 8 and 6) like "Raven" and "Zach and Cody."

These programs, and more, are fine. Disney can market to kids. That's okay.

But.... Please think about the kids of the past!

Please bring back all of the Mickey Mouse Clubs (well, forget about 'MMC' -- just kidding!!!), classic Disney movies, The Edison Twins, Walt Disney Presents, The Wonderful World of Color/Disney, classic cartoons....

These are all sorely missed. And if you want to sell your classic library in the future, you've got to get today's generation watching that library, so they will want to buy it!

What do I mean? I wasn't alive to see "Pollyanna," "Old Yeller," "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea," etc. at the cinema, but I watched them on the tube when I was a kid. Now I'm thrilled to own them! I wasn't alive when the original Mickey Mouse Club was on TV, but I saw watched the '70s reruns, and now I wish I could see and get more! I watched "The North Avenue Irregulars," "Freaky Friday [Jody Foster]," "Treasure of Montacumbe," "The Black Hole," and "The Rocketeer" on the big screen, and cheer that movies like these are being released on DVD.

But if you don't make "Toby Tyler," "So Dear to My Heart," and "Dr. Syn, Alias the Scarecrow" a part of today's television fare, how are today's kids going to find out about them? Where will the demand be if you don't promote your wealth of entertainment on at least ONE of your channels?

Sure, some titles may have limited reach, but adding variety to the airwaves would broaden youthful tastes and please older palettes. Please consider even a 2-hour block a few times a week during primetime.

Thank you.

[JEANYLASER]

what about Mickey Mouse programming for kids in the disney channel this year?:edna::mickey:

[Fidget1234]

ugh-im so over jetix...

i like the dc movies- they are usually pretty entertaining.

Yeah, def need some sort of new Mickey Mouse series on Disney Channel...

i love house of mouse- but i think ive seen every episode like 50x.

[DisneyFan05]

I wasn't alive when most of the old Disney movies were popular. I do remember having to order the Disney Channel for a week free before it became like a channel that every person who has cable has automatically. I'm from the generation of the Disney Channel from the late '80s to early '90s and that includes the MMC days and there were a few shows I miss dearly:

Alice In Wonderland- I loved that show.
Kids Inc.- Don't really remember that much but I know I watched it
MMC-Watched it
Fraggle Rock
The Wuzzles
The New Adventures of Winnie The Pooh
Chip N Dale: Rescue Rangers
The Gummi Bears

I have to admit that I do enjoy watching the Disney Channel movies and some of the programming but I kind of wish there was another Disney Channel that had all of the classic tv shows and movies on it. Now that would be perfect.

It would be nice to see the Disney Channel keep the shows and original movies that have done well in the ratings and kind of mix it up with maybe a classic Disney movie instead of seeing the same movies that some aren't original Disney Channel movies!

[DisneyPrincess]

The Disney Channel stinks and has stunk every since their removal of "Vault Disney". I never will get over the e-mail that was sent back to me by a Disney PR person in response to my question as to why they took off Vault Disney. They said- "We want our programming to target younger audiences." From 1-4 in the morning????? Sure...... Plus, at that time, and maybe now, all of the stuff they showed were repeats from that day! Anyway.....

My six year old daughter only watches Playhouse Disney when she is at home (for the exception of The Doodlebops- GROSS). She has no interest in Raven or any of the other shows that are on. Her dvd and vhs library are full of the old Disney cartoons and movies. Yes, she would choose Swiss Family Robinson over Cheetah Girls. I watched the Disney Channel when I was little, and it makes me sick to see how far down the toilet they have gone. I am an old fashioned girl (well 26 year old girl) who has a daughter who shares my same interests in Pollyanna, Elliot the Dragon and Moochie. She also happens to favor Fraggle Rock, The Muppet Babies and Looney Tunes to the other cartoons offered today.

I hope some day in their "infinite wisdom", they will wake up and create a "Vault Disney Channel" aimed directly at us folks who aren't OLD, but want to see the shows that WE were raised with. We are still here, we are still buying Disney, and we have children who we want to see what we were raised on.

That's my two cents!

[toonaspie]

to answer most of your questions, they want to air what rolls in the high ratings, and if that's nothing but crap then there's nothing much we can do about that

[numba1lostboy]

Can only speak for my generation, but anyone remember the glory days of "Jett Jackson", "So Weird", "The Jersey", "In a Heartbeat", "Flash Forward", "Even Stevens", need I go on?

Escapay

I definitely do. "Jett Jackson", "Flash Forward" were my weekly shows! "So Weird" was a little too weird for me back in the day, but now it might not be so bad. "Even Stevens" was just annoying to me. "The Jersey" didn't last very long, so I only got to see like one episode.

"Phil of the Future" was okay. I was glad that DC actually had a show that focused around a male main character for once. I do not understand why it got axed. They could have axed the shows that did'nt do well AT ALL..."Life With Derek" and "Naturally Sadie".

For a while, ToonDisney was the source of all the vintage Disney cartoons (Aladdin, Little Mermaid, Gummi Bears, Talespin), but now it just features the same crappy cartoons as Disney Channel. It even has that Power Ranger crap, which goes against the channel's moniker: TOON!!!

I also agree that the DCOM are all, for the most part, entertaining.

And I don't have a problem either with Disney marketing to a younger audience...it's called Playhouse Disney! But nowadays, it seems that younguns can just watch the whole damn day cuz all the shows are aimed at them!!

GAWD!!!

Come back to your senses DC!!!!!! We love you!!!!!

[numba1lostboy]

PS if you didnt know...."Flash Forward"'s Ben Foster will be portraying Warren Worthington, III, aka "Angel", in X3: The Last Stand.

PSS i TOTALLY didnt mean to post twice before....oops

[Fidget1234]

And yes, BRING BACK VAULT DISNEY!

Escapay

AGREED!!!

Maybe eventually down the road Disney will make a vintage disney channel much like Boomerang...

I'd pay extra for it especially if it includes all the old classic movies that we never see on TV anymore....

[DisneyPrincess]

Maybe eventually down the road Disney will make a vintage disney channel much like Boomerang...

I'd pay extra for it especially if it includes all the old classic movies that we never see on TV anymore....

YES, YES, YES- so would I.

They could call it the "Vault Disney Channel". They could fill their slots with classic cartoons, specials and movies from their birth through the 80's. One concern, though would be that they would be showing things from the tins and dvd's that they are wanting people to pay for (I think this is why Looney Tunes has been taken off of Boomerang). But, since Cartoon Network created Boomerang, and now TV Land is looking into a POSSIBLE TV Land 2 to show some of their older tv shows, Disney may not be too far behind. It's not like they'd be against it, they've already got Toon Disney.

[bennyb98]

Another reason to hate Hannah Montana.

[hudday]

Another reason to hate Hannah Montana.

I personally love the programme and find it nice and refreshing and Jackson makes me laugh a lot, each to his/her own I guess