The Disney Afternoon (later known internally as the Disney-Kellogg Alliance when unbranded from 1997–1999), sometimes abbreviated as TDA, was a created-for-syndication two-hour programming block of animated television series. It was produced by Walt Disney Television Animation and distributed through its syndication affiliate Buena Vista Television. Each show from the block has aired reruns on Disney Channel and Toon Disney. Disney Channel reaired four shows (Darkwing Duck, TaleSpin, DuckTales, and Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers) on "Block Party," a two-hour block that aired on weekdays in the late afternoon/early evening.
The Disney Afternoon's block had four half-hour segments, each of which contained an animated series. As each season ended, the lineup would shift - the remaining three would move up a time slot and a new show would be added to the end. The Disney Afternoon itself featured unique animated segments consisting of its opening and "wrappers" around the cartoon shows.
The Disney Afternoon originally ran from September 10, 1990, to August 29, 1997 as The Disney afternoon. For the 1997-1999 television seasons, it lost its name but was known internally as Disney-Kellogg Alliance, and shortened to 90 minutes. This version was followed by its gradual replacement by Disney's One Too for UPN in 1999. Some of the shows also aired on Saturday mornings on ABC and CBS, concurrently with their original syndicated runs on The Disney Afternoon.
Goof Troop is the only show to reach the 2000s, with the 2000 direct-to-video finale An Extremely Goofy Movie. The 2010s and 2020s saw revivals of some shows such as DuckTales as a reboot on Disney Channel (and Disney XD), and Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers with a live-action animation hybrid film on Disney+. In 2023, a reboot for TaleSpin and a live-action series for Gargoyles were reported to be in development for Disney+.
Background
The Disney Afternoon goes back to Michael Eisner becoming Disney's CEO in 1984 and his push into steady animated television production, which would be based on new characters to bring in new young fans, with a newly launched TV animation department. He set up a Sunday meeting at his house consisting of creatives. They included Tad Stones from feature animation and Jymn Magon and Gary Kriesel from the music division. Mickey and the Space Pirates was pitched by Stones, but was turned down because Mickey Mouse is the company symbol. Stones also pitched a Rescuers TV series – the sequel was already under development at the time. Eisner suggested the Gummy bear as a series, given his kids liked the candy. Disney Television Animation's first two shows, The Wuzzles and Adventures of the Gummi Bears, were sold to two networks, CBS and NBC, respectively, for their Saturday morning cartoon blocks.
History
The Disney Afternoon
DuckTales, the series which would serve as the launching pad for what would become The Disney Afternoon, premiered in first-run syndication in the fall of 1987. Two years later in the fall of 1989, DuckTales was joined by Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers, and both series were being offered in syndication as an hour-long program block. The Disney Afternoon kept these shows, added Gummi Bears and TaleSpin,
DuckTales had been airing on many affiliates of the then-young Fox network and its group of owned-and-operated stations, including KTTV in Los Angeles; this may have been due to the fact that the Walt Disney Company's chief operating officer at the time, Michael Eisner, and his then-Fox counterpart, Barry Diller, had worked together previously at ABC and at Paramount Pictures. However, as Chip 'n Dale was being launched, Disney was in the process of purchasing Los Angeles independent station KHJ-TV from RKO General. Through Buena Vista Television, Disney opted to reclaim the Los Angeles broadcast rights for DuckTales and moved it from KTTV to be paired with Chip 'n Dale on its newly purchased station, which was renamed KCAL-TV in December 1989. Furious at the breach of contract, Diller pulled DuckTales from all of Fox's other owned-and-operated stations in the fall of 1989. Diller also encouraged the network's affiliates to do the same, though most did not initially. This caused the retaliatory formation of Fox Kids. The lineup at this point included Aladdin, Goof Troop and Darkwing Duck stripped, The new block did not carry any blanket branding, but was referred to internally as the "Disney-Kellogg Alliance."
In 1998, Disney reached a deal to program a new children's block for UPN, Disney's One Too, as a replacement for that network's internal UPN Kids block. The syndicated block ran until the debut of One Too on September 6, 1999.
International broadcasts
In Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, the city's then-independent TV station ITV (now Global Edmonton) produced its own version of The Disney Afternoon over roughly the same period as the American block, but only once per week in a two-hour block on Saturday afternoons, though using the same cartoon lineup as the American weekday block. Apart from the animated introduction, the block did not use any Disney-produced wrapper segments, but instead used locally produced live-action segments between programs with host Mike Sobel.
In Denmark, DR1 started its version of the block ("Disney Sjov") on October 25, 1991. It aired every Friday night and would consist of two half-hour shows along with two classic cartoons, all within one commercial-free hour. The block ended on December 30, 2022, in favor of locally produced Nordic children's programming.
In Hungary, MTV1 offered a Sunday afternoon programming block for children of programming from The Walt Disney Company dubbed into Hungarian, titled (Walt Disney presents).
Here is also a scheduled for The Disney Afternoon [https://sites.google.com/view/krudvid/disneyafternoon]
{| class="wikitable"
|+
! Title !! Block run
|-
! colspan="2" |The Disney Afternoon
|-
| Adventures of the Gummi Bears
| 1990–91
|-
| DuckTales (1987)
| 1990–99
|-
| Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers
| 1990–93
|-
| TaleSpin
| 1990–94
|-
| Darkwing Duck
| 1991–97
|-
| Goof Troop
| 1992–96
|-
| Bonkers
| 1993–96
|-
| Aladdin
| rowspan="2" | 1994–97
|-
| Gargoyles
|-
| The Shnookums & Meat Funny Cartoon Show
| 1995
|-
| Timon & Pumbaa
| 1995–97
|-
| Quack Pack
| rowspan="2" | 1996–98
|-
| Mighty Ducks
|-
! colspan="2" |Disney-Kellogg Alliance
|-
| 101 Dalmatians
| 1997–98
|-
| Hercules
| rowspan="2" | 1998–99
|-
| Doug
|}
Adaptations
Comic books
The block was adapted into comic books, films and launched the Disney Adventures magazine. Two attractions were also made over to match series from the block.