Conception (197783)

In early 1977, Walt Disney Productions executive Jim Jimirro brought forth the idea of a cable
television network that would feature television and film material from the studio.[4] Since the
company was focusing on the development of the Epcot Center at Walt Disney World, Disney
chairman Card Walker turned down the proposal.[5][6] Disney revived the idea in 1982, entering
into a partnership with the satellite unit of Group W (which had sold its 50% ownership stake in
one of The Disney Channel's early rivals, Showtime, to Viacom around the same time); however,
Group W would ultimately drop out of the intended joint venture that September, due to
disagreements over the channel's creative control and financial obligations that would have
required Group W to pay a 50% share of the channel's start-up costs.[6]
Despite losing Group W as a partner, The Disney Channel continued on with its development
now solely under the oversight of Walt Disney Productions, and under the leadership of the
channel's first president Alan Wagner;[7] Walt Disney Productions formally announced the
launch of its family-oriented cable channel in early 1983. Disney later invested US$11 million to
acquiring space on two transponders of the Hughes Communications satellite Galaxy 1, and
spent US$20 million on purchasing and developing programming.[6] The concept of a premium
service aimed at a family audience which Walt Disney Productions would choose to develop
The Disney Channel as had first been attempted by HBO, which launched Take 2 in 1979 (the
service, which was HBO's first attempt at a spin-off niche service (predating Cinemax's launch in
August 1980), would shut down after only a few months on the air), and was followed by the
1981 launch of the Group W-owned Home Theater Network (which was the only premium
channel that strictly competed with The Disney Channel for that demographic for much of the
1980s, until the 1987 launch of Festival).

Launch and early years as a premium channel (198390)

The Disney Channel launched nationally as a premium channel on April 18, 1983 at 7:00 a.m.
Eastern Time.[8] The first program ever aired on the channel was also its first original series,
Good Morning, Mickey!, which showcased classic Disney animated shorts.[9] At the time of its
launch, The Disney Channel's programming aired for 16 hours each day,[7] from 7:00 a.m. to
11:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific Time[8] (comparatively, its competitors HBO, Cinemax,
Showtime, The Movie Channel and Spotlight all had been operating on 24-hour programming
schedules for a few years at the time). By the fall of 1983, the channel was available to more
than 532,000 subscribers in the United States;[10] this total would increase to 611,000 subscribers
in December of that year.[11]
Programming during the channel's run as a premium service carrying through to its transition
to a basic cable channel targeted children and teenagers during the morning and afternoon,
families during primetime, and adults at night. The Disney Channel differed from other premium
services in that it not only acquired broadcast rights to theatrical feature films, but, in addition to
producing its own original programs, the channel aired several television series that were
acquired through corporate sister Buena Vista Television and other program distributors. In its
first years, The Disney Channel's programming included original series such as Welcome to
Pooh Corner and You and Me Kid, along with several foreign-imported animated series and

movies including Asterix, The Raccoons, Paddington Bear and the Australian western Five Mile
Creek; in addition to movies, the original late night schedule also featured reruns of The
Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.

Original logo used from April 18, 1983 to April 5, 1997; the wordmark (at bottom), based on
The Walt Disney Company's 1986-2010 corporate logo, replaced a generic all-capital text logo
in 1986. The "Mickey Mouse TV" served as the de facto primary logo, with the wordmark being
used intermittently on-air.
The channel's daytime schedule during its existence as a pay service was populated primarily by
series aimed at children (as opposed to the movie-driven daytime lineups of other premium
services), interspersed with a limited number of movies usually a single daytime feature on
weekdays, and two or three films on weekends, along with occasional live-action and animated
specials for children. The nighttime schedule featured a mix of theatrical, made-for-cable and
straight-to-video films (recent and older family-oriented movies were shown in the early
evenings, while classic films mainly releases from the 1930s to the 1960s usually ran during
the late evening and overnight hours) and original specials (primarily in the form of concerts,
variety specials and documentaries). D-TV, a short segment featuring popular music interwoven
with scenes from Disney's animated shorts and feature films, also periodically aired as filler
between shows. Unlike other premium services, The Disney Channel opted not to disclose a
film's Motion Picture Association of America-assigned rating prior to the start of the feature (the
only bumpers appearing at the start of programs indicated closed captioned programs, as well as
on rare occasions, parental advisories for feature films).
The channel's primary logo (which was used until 1997, although it began to be used on-air less
frequently beginning in September 1995) featured multiple lines resembling a television screen
that featured a negative space silhouette of Mickey Mouse's head; IDs shown before programs
between 1986 and 1997 generally involved Mickey whose arms are only shown being
involved in various situations (such as him having a nightmare in which the "Mickey Mouse TV"
logo chases and then engulfs one of his gloves, Mickey wiping a foggy window or Mickey
making shadow figures on a flashlight-lit wall) that featured the logo being formed or displayed
in various ways.
For its subscribers, the channel provided a monthly (and later bi-monthly) program
guide/magazine called The Disney Channel Magazine, which in addition to carrying listings for
the channel's programming, had also carried feature stories on upcoming programs (the magazine
also lent its name to a series of interstitials seen during promotional breaks on the channel that
provided behind-the-scenes looks at The Disney Channel's programming).[8] The Disney Channel

Magazine ceased publication in early 1997 and was replaced by Behind the Ears (a print
magazine which also shared its name with another series of behind-the-scenes interstitials that
aired on the channel from 1997 to 2000) as the channel began primarily operating as a
commercial-free basic channel.[12]
Besides The Disney Channel Magazine and DTV, interstitial segments that padded out extended
promotional breaks between programs (usually those seen within its nighttime schedule) during
this period included A Disney Moment (featuring clips from Disney feature films and animated
shorts); Backstage Pass (behind-the-scenes segments profiling upcoming Disney film and
television projects); Dateline Disney (a generalized segment focusing on Disney's various filmed
and themed entertainment projects; Dateline Walt Disney World and Dateline Disneyland were
offshoots that aired from the late 1980s to mid-1990s which focused on attractions at the Disney
theme parks); Walt Disney Imagineering (focusing on Disney projects from animation to
attractions at the Disney theme parks); and Discover Magazine (an informative science and
technology segment that was produced in conjunction with the magazine of the same name).
As a premium channel, The Disney Channel often ran free previews of five days to one week in
length four times annually, as well as two periodic weekend-only previews (with ads targeted to
cable and satellite customers who were not subscribers to the channel); this resulted in The
Disney Channel offering more preview events each calendar year during its tenure as a pay
service than HBO, Cinemax and Showtime had run during that timeframe. In April 1984, the
channel extended its daily programming to 18 hours (from 7:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. Eastern and
Pacific Time), with the addition of two hours onto its late night schedule.[13] On December 1,
1986, The Disney Channel began broadcasting 24 hours a day.[14]
By September 1983, The Disney Channel was available on cable providers in all 50 U.S. states.
In October 1983, the channel debuted its first made-for-cable movie, Tiger Town, which earned
the channel a CableACE Award.[11] The first classic Disney animated film to be broadcast on the
channel, Alice in Wonderland, premiered on the network in January 1984. By January 1985, the
channel's programming reached 1.75 million subscribers, at which time the channel had reached
profitability.
Early in 1986, the musical sitcom Kids Incorporated premiered on the channel; the series was
centered around a pre-teen (and later teen-to-young adult) group of friends who formed a pop
music group, mixing their everyday situations with variety show and music video-style
performances. Incorporating popular and recent songs that were performed by the cast (some of
which had certain lyrics toned down to be more age-appropriate), it became a hit for The Disney
Channel, spawning many future stars in both the music and acting worlds during its nine-year
run, including Martika (who went by her real name, Marta Marrero, during the show's first
season); eventual Party of Five co-stars Scott Wolf and Jennifer Love Hewitt (billed as Love
Hewitt); and Stacy Ferguson (later a member of The Black Eyed Peas as well as a solo artist,
under the stage name "Fergie").
In May 1988, The Disney Channel began scrambling its signal to prevent unauthorized viewing
by home satellite dish users that did not subscribe to the service. That August, the channel
debuted a series of concert specials, titled Going Home, with the first such special featuring

Ashford & Simpson.[11] That same year, Good Morning, Miss Bliss, a starring vehicle for Hayley
Mills (of Polyanna and The Parent Trap fame), made its debut. Following its cancellation by
The Disney Channel after 13 episodes due to low ratings, the series was picked up by NBC in
1989, and retooled as Saved by the Bell, with Mark-Paul Gosselaar, Dustin Diamond, Lark
Voorhies and Dennis Haskins being the only cast members from Miss Bliss that were carried
over to the new show; the retooled series became a hit as part of NBC's Saturday morning lineup
(producing two spinoffs in the process) and through worldwide syndication.
In April 1989, the channel revived one of Disney's early television staples with The All-New
Mickey Mouse Club (later known as simply MMC);[11] it became an immediate hit that proved
Disney's basic variety show formula still worked in the modern era (unlike the short-lived 1970s
revival). This version contained many elements featured in the original series from "theme days"
to updated mouseketeer jackets, but the scripted and musical segments were more contemporary
(featuring a broad mix of pop, rock and R&B artists in music performances, as well as sketches
and serials such as Emerald Cove and Teen Angel). MMC served as the launching pad for several
future stars such as Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears, Ryan Gosling, Keri Russell, JC Chasez
and Justin Timberlake.
In August 1989, the channel launched a series of interstitial segments called The Disney Channel
Salutes The American Teacher; the channel subsequently began telecasting the American
Teacher Awards in November 1991.[11] By January 1990, The Disney Channel had about five
million subscribers nationwide. In May of that year, The Disney Channel won its first Daytime
Emmy Awards for the original made-for-cable film Looking for Miracles, the documentary
Calgary '88: 16 Days of Glory, and the special A Conversation with... George Burns, as well as
its first Peabody Award for the television film Mother Goose Rock 'n' Rhyme.[11]

As a hybrid premium/basic channel (199097)

On September 1, 1990, TCI's Montgomery, Alabama system became the first cable provider to
carry the channel as a basic cable service.[11] In 1991, eight additional cable providers
volunteered to move the channel to their expanded basic cable tiers, with the first to make the
transition (as a test run) being Jones Intercable's systems in Fort Myers and Broward County,
Florida.[15][16] Other cable providers eventually began moving the channel to their basic tiers,
either experimentally or on a full-time basis.[16] Even as major providers such as Cox
Communications and Marcus Cable began offering The Disney Channel on their basic tiers,
executives for The Walt Disney Company denied that the channel had plans to convert into an
ad-supported basic service, stating that the move from premium to basic cable on some systems
was part of a five-year "hybrid" strategy that allowed providers to offer the channel in either
form.[17]
In 1991, The Disney Channel tested a two-channel multiplex service on two cable systems[18]
(HBO, Cinemax[19] and Showtime also launched their own multiplex services that same year,
however The Disney Channel would not make its own multiplex service permanent unlike the
others). By 1992, a third of the channel's subscriber base were estimated by Nielsen Media
Research to be adults that did not have children;[20] and by 1995, its subscriber base expanded to

15 million cable homes,[21] eight million of which paid an additional monthly fee to receive the
channel.[22]
In March 1992, the channel debuted the original children's program Adventures in Wonderland, a
contemporary live-action adaption of Alice in Wonderland (which, in turn, was based on the
novel Alice Through the Looking Glass). In September 1992, the channel began carrying the
Disney's Young Musicians Symphony Orchestra series of specials, which aired annually until
1998. In honor of its 10th anniversary, the channel embarked on a 14-city nationwide bus tour
starting in April 1993.[11] By January 1995, The Disney Channel was available to 12.6 million
subscribers; the period from 1994 to 1995 saw the largest yearly subscriber increase with 4.87
million households with cable television adding the channel. In March 1995, the first
international Disney Channel service was launched in Taiwan. That year, the documentary Anne
Frank Remembered premiered on the channel; that film would earn an Academy Award for Best
Documentary in 1996.[11]
In 1996, veteran cable executive Anne Sweeney was appointed to oversee The Disney Channel
as its president; that September, the channel began offering a film in primetime each night
starting at 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time, with the expansion of the Sunday Magical World of Disney
film block to Monday through Saturday nights; the new primetime schedule launched in
September with the pay cable premiere of The Lion King.[11][23]