Featured Attractions

Thursday, May 21, 2015

The Recycled World of Disney


In 1988, NBC decided to lure The Disney Sunday Movie away from ABC. The new iteration of Disney's storied anthology series would be called The Magical World of Disney and bring the show back to its first color home. It would be a perfect homecoming at a time when The Walt Disney Company was about to experience a true renaissance.



Except- 1988 would prove to be a bad year for television. A writer's strike meant that production of new television shows would cease until a new agreement was signed. Disney had a plan to get its centerpiece show back on the air without writers. How could it do so? By recycling old scripts!

Disney quickly put remakes into production- like The Absent Minded Professor with Harry Anderson:



And a nod to the original Disneyland TV show- Davy Crockett:



When the strike ended, the show quickly returned to producing new programming.