Magical Wayback: The Disney Afternoon!

Hello, fellow Disney-philes! Daddy Shutterbug here with the first of, what we hope will be recurring column here on Buttons and Gloves, a look at Disney from the past, be it movies, TV shows, park attractions, even food!

For my first wayback column I decided to delve back to how I spent many afternoons in my childhood...The Disney Afternoon!

The Disney Afternoon began in September of 1990 and ran for nearly 7 years, ending it's run in August of 1997. This type of programming was unique because it was created especially for syndication. The original lineup laid the groundwork by featuring:

• Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears
• Ducktales (woo-oo!)
• Chip N' Dale Rescue Rangers
• Talespin      

Gummi Bears was already a huge success for Disney syndicated television. The fantasy, sword and sorcery setting followed the Gummi Bears of Gummi-Glen, the last of an ancient race. They brewed Gummiberry juice that gave the the bears the ability to bounce to crazy heights and gave humans super strength. Much of the series followed the failed attempts by Duke Igthorn and his band of trolls to uncover and exploit the Gummi secrets. And seriously what about this theme?

 

 

Disney was on a roll now and Ducktales proved to be an even bigger success than Gummi Bears! Ducktales was colossal!!! Following the globetrotting adventures of "The Richest Duck in the World", Scrooge McDuck and his nephews, Ducktales was like watching an Indiana Jones show every afternoon! I dare you to resist the urge to sing along to the show's theme that surprisingly reminds me of Hall and Oates " You Make My Dreams" lol

 

 Rescue Rangers was an awesome show. Following the exploits of Chip and Dale, you might remember them as the chipmunks that drove Donald Duck insane, who along with Gadget, a female mouse who's a genius with contraptions and Monterrey Jack, a strong mouse with an affinity for cheese along with his best pal Zipper the Fly (not the most appropriate name looking back) fought crime and solved mysteries both big and small. I always loved the vehicles Gadget made from household items

 

Rounding out the original lineup was Talespin. Talespin reimagined the cast of the Jungle Book and put them in a 1930's serial setting. Good Ol' Baloo was now a bush pilot, King Louie owned a tiki bar and Shere Khan was now a powerful business man in the port city of Cape Suzette. Talespin was a fun throwback to the old adventure serials and featured a lot of great aerial action sequences. Plus who didn't want one of those air foils that Kit Cloudkicker had?

 

As great as the original lineup was, in this bloggers opinion, the second lineup was the one that most people remember when they think back about the Disney Afternoon. As Gummi Bears rotated out, the afternoon got a little more "Dangerous" with the inclusion of Darkwing Duck!

 

HOLY COW, DID I LOVE DARKWING DUCK!!!! Ok, now that i have that out of my system...
The second "season" of the Disney Afternoon broke down like this:

• Ducktales
• Chip N' Dale Rescue Rangers
• Talespin
• Darkwing Duck.

With all seriousness, was this not one of the best toon lineups?  Darkwing Duck proved to be a hit not just with kids but adults as well. Cleverly spoofing comics (Batman in particular) as well as spy films, DWD was a smart well written show that took all the superhero/spy tropes and lovingly poked holes in the cliches'.  This lineup was the one I remember the most fondly as do must people when you bring up the Disney Afternoon.

Unfortunately, after Ducktales rotated out of the line up I started to lose interest because to me Ducktales was the anchor that the whole afternoon built on. As the other 3 shows slid down a timeslot, Goof Troop filled out the block. Goof Troop brought Disney All-Star Goofy back to the small screen, this time re imagining him as a widowed parent to son Max. the show sound it's humor from the situations of Max trying to be cool despite his father and Goofy doing, well, What makes him Goofy!

Goof Troop was part of the last incarnation that I actively watched. But the Disney Afternoon continued on for 4 more line up changes adding shows like Gargoyles, Bonkers, Aladdin and Timon and Pumbaa in and out of rotation but Ducktales and Chip N' Dale were never rotated back in after the third lineup. 

So there you have it, The Disney Afternoon. It truly showed the power that Disney Animation had at the time. And surprisingly these type of shows have never been duplicated on current Disney networks which made these programs more special to those of us who tuned in every afternoon after school.