Professional Documents
Culture Documents
In September 1979, the studio agreed to the network's request for changes to the program. The
show shortened its title to Disney's Wonderful World, and updated the opening sequence with a
computer-generated logo and disco-flavored theme song, but largely kept the same format. The
problems for the show continued, as a result of the ratings strength of 60 Minutes; compounded
by low ratings, increasingly less original material, and frequent[citation needed] pre-emptions
(primarily due to sporting events such as NFL game telecasts), NBC cancelled Disney in 1981.
The program's ratings were never strong as the established 60 Minutes and scripted mystery
series Murder, She Wrote on CBS, both of which Disney was competing with for viewers,
remained the leading prime time programs on Sunday nights. In 1987, The Disney Sunday Movie
was reduced from two hours to one. The move did not help drive ratings, and the network
decided not to renew its contract with Disney, and pick up a fourth season of the second iteration
of the anthology series.
In September 2003, The Wonderful World of Disney moved to Saturday nights at 8:00 p.m.
Eastern, with the previous Sunday time slot being ceded to AFV (which moved back to Sundays
that season) and drama series in the 8:00 p.m. hour. There were rare exceptions to the program's
format during this time; for example, a Little House on the Prairie miniseries ran for several
weeks in 2004 under the Wonderful World of Disney banner. For most of its second run on ABC,
the program aired throughout the television season, with the exception of the 200506 season
(when it aired during the midseason only), and in 2007 and 2008 (when it was relegated to the
summer months), with a broader array of films occupying the network's Saturday prime time slot
at other times, when sports programming did not air.
At this point, the series began to shift focus toward Disney theatrical films, relying less on
original television films; however, the series aired two Disney Channel Original Movies (2003's
Cadet Kelly and 2008's Camp Rock, currently the only Disney Channel television films to have
aired on non-Disney Channel-branded network domestically) during its ABC run. The second
ABC revival also included some family-oriented films produced by studios other than Disney
under the Wonderful World banner, such as 20th Century Fox's The Sound of Music and Warner
Bros.' Harry Potter film series, as well as television films such as Princess of Thieves (from
Granada Productions) and the 2001 remake of Brian's Song (from Columbia-TriStar Television,
now Sony Pictures Television).
Reruns
Around the same time that the 1980s incarnations aired on ABC and NBC, reruns of older
episodes of the Disney anthology series, airing under the Wonderful World of Disney banner,
were syndicated to broadcast television stations throughout the United States[11][12] as well as in
various international markets. In Australia, the program aired on Network Seven on Saturday
evenings at 6:30 p.m., before it was dropped in 1994 due to Optus Vision (later Foxtel)'s launch
of a domestic version of The Disney Channel, with Saturday Disney replacing it as the channel's
main block of Disney films.
Reruns of the shows were a staple of The Disney Channel for several years under the title Walt
Disney Presents (which used the same title sequence as the 1980s CBS incarnation), when it was
an outlet for vintage Disney cartoons, television series and films, basically serving the same
function that the anthology series served in the days before cable. The original opening titles
were restored to the episodes in 1997. Reruns of the anthology series were discontinued when the
channel purged all vintage material with the removal of its Vault Disney late-night block on
September 16, 2002.[13] However, a few select episodes are available on VHS or DVD (some of
which are exclusive to the Disney Movie Club), with the possibility of additional future releases.
Recently, live-action Disney films from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s have aired on Turner Classic
Movies, without commercial interruption, and presented uncut and with letterboxing.
All of the episodes and existing material used on the series up to 1996 are listed in the Bill Cotter
book The Wonderful World of Disney Television, which was released in 1997 by Hyperion
Books (which is owned by The Walt Disney Company).[3]
Theme music
The program has utilized numerous theme songs, most frequently using various arrangements of
"When You Wish upon a Star" from the 1940 animated film Pinocchio; the iteration of the theme
used since 1997 uses an orchestral medley of "When You Wish Upon a Star" and A Whole New
World from the 1992 animated film Aladdin. From 1961 to 1969, the show used an original song
as its theme, "The Wonderful World of Color," written by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B.
Sherman and composed by Buddy Baker, which emphasized the use of color with its lyrics.
From 1969 to 1979, The Wonderful World of Disney used an orchestral medley of various Disney
songs.
International broadcasts
In Brazil, The Magical World of Disney aired on Sistema Brasileiro de Televiso (SBT), under
the title Cine Disney. The ABC run of the program under The Wonderful World of Disney title
originally aired in that country under the title O Maravilhoso Mundo de Disney on the Brazilian
version of Disney Channel; the program moved to SBT as Mundo Disney in 2015.