Telling Tales...

It's hard to believe, but twenty-two years ago today Carl Barks greatest creation became a television superstar...

Disney's "Ducktales" premiered today in syndication across the country and became an instant hit. This lead to the creation of a block of two hours of animation that became known as the "Disney Afternoon."

But the cornerstone of it were the adventures of Scrooge McDuck and lovable nephews that were inspired by the comics drawn by Barks over a quarter of a century before. I remember watching these episodes with giddy, geeked out abandonment as I never thought I'd get to see those comics I read as a small child actually turned into an animated series.

If you happen to have them on DVD like me, pop in a disc and reminisce a bit...

Disney's First Foray Into Saturday...

Twenty-three years ago today, Michael Eisner put Disney animation where it hadn't gone before...

Saturday morning.

Kids today are used to cartoons/animation all the time, everywhere... but if you take the wayback machine into the past a little more than a decade you'll find that the primary time for kids to see animation was Saturday morning.

The Wuzzles and the Gummi Bears were a statement to television that Disney under Eisner was going to be a far different Disney than what came before. These shows would build the road to the "The Disney Afternoon" that fans around the world love to this day...

After The Disney Afternoon...

It's been a long time since I remember happily getting home each day and flipping on the tube to watch the "Disney Afternoon"... but the Disney Channel premiered one of its new series the other day and the results are pretty good.

Variety's got an article stating that Disney's "Phineas and Ferb" became cable's most-watched animated series premiere among Tweens and the Mouse Channel's second-most-watched animated series premiere(4 million viewers). Not bad... not my cup of tea, but it appears the guys in charge over there have definitely tapped into a vein when it comes to today's youth. That just makes me feel soooo much older.

Thanks a lot.