Disney Christmas Week: One Hour in Wonderland

In the beginning of the television era, the major Hollywood studios declared it to be off limits. While nowadays the networks and studios are typically all part of the same entertainment conglomerates, they were considered enemies in the 1950's. It was Walt Disney who first saw the possible benefits of aligning with this new medium.

On Christmas Day in 1950, Mr. Disney crossed into "enemy territory" by producing One Hour in Wonderland for NBC. Presented by Coca-Cola, it was the first production on television produced by a Hollywood studio. The hour was hosted by Walt Disney and featured Edgar Bergen and Kathryn Beaumont, who was the voice of Alice in the upcoming Alice in Wonderland.

It was the highest rated show that year and it sparked an idea in Walt Disney's mind- could TV help him finance his biggest dream- DISNEYLAND?

Davy Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier

Thanksgiving Week: Mickey is Upgraded

Being the trendy mouse he is, Mickey was always up for a makeover. In the 1960's, Mickey donned a yellow polo shirt, but still kept his famous red shorts for his Thanksgiving walk down 34th Street.

Music Mondays: "Gitchee Gitchee Goo"

It was a song that would cause a huge change in how one of Disney Channel's biggest hits would be produced. When production began on Phineas and Ferb's first season episode Flop Starz, the show hadn't premiered yet. Network executives were keeping a close eye on the production, unsure of its future success. When they saw a rough cut of this particular episode and heard the catchy song, they knew they had something special on their hands. They also asked the show's creators to include a song in every episode, something the creators were more than happy to do.

Bow, chicka, bow-wow!

That's what my baby says!

Mow-mow-mow!

And my heart starts pumping!

 Chicka-chicka choo whop!

 Never gonna stop!

 Gitchee gitchee goo means that I love you!

My baby's got her own way of talking

Whenever she says something sweet

And she knows it's my world she's a-rockin'

Though my vocabulary's incomplete!

I know it may sound confusing...

 (Ooh!)

Sometimes I wish she'd give it to me straight!

But I never feel like I'm losing

 (Losing!)

When I take the time to translate!

Here's what I'm talkin' 'bout!

 Bow, chicka, bow-wow!

That's what my baby says!

Mow-mow-mow!

And my heart starts pumping!

(Oh) Chicka-chicka, choo whop!

Never gonna stop!

 Gitchee gitchee goo means that I love you!

Well I don't know what to do!

(I don't know what to do.)

But I think I'm getting through!

(I think I'm getting through.)

Cause when I say I love you...

(When I say I love you!)

She says, "I gitchee gitchee goo you, too!"

(Gitchee gitchee goo you, too!)

Gitchee gitchee goo you, too!

 (Gitchee gitchee goo you, too!)

 Don't need a dictionary!

Bow, chicka, bow-wow!

That's what my baby says!

Mow-mow-mow!

And my heart starts pumping!

 Chicka-chicka, choo whop!

 Never gonna stop!

 Gitchee gitchee goo means that I love you!

I said, a-bow, chicka, bow-wow!

That's what my baby says!

Mow-mow-mow!

And my heart starts pumping!

 Chicka-chicka, choo whop!

Never gonna stop!

Gitchee gitchee goo means that I love you!

Gitchee gitchee goo means that I love you!

Gitchee gitchee goo means...

That I love you

Baby! Baby! Baby!

Baby-baby-baby-baby

 Gitchee gitchee goo means that I love you!

Little Bird, Big Star

Not every Disney character is meant to be hugely popular. Every story requires supporting or one shot characters and the world of Disney has many of them. Every once in awhile one of those characters stands out in unintended ways.

One of those times was in The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. Rabbit happens upon a poor baby bird who has become separated from her flock. Originally, he wants little to do with her because she represents chaos and disorder in his life. Over time, however, he begins to grow fond of his little charge.

As spring returns, however, the little bird- by now named Kessie- sees her flock. After a teary-eyed goodbye with promises of future visits, Kessie returns to her flock, leaving a saddened but happy Rabbit.

Kessie wasn't meant to be shown again, but the audience loved her memorable appearance so much that she has returned to the 100 Acre Wood several times to see her beloved "Rabbie".

Stan Lee in Daredevil

When Netflix premiered Marvel Daredevil, anxious Marvel fans enjoyed the excitingly dark take on the differently-abled superhero, but they wondered when they'd see the Generalissimo himself- Stan Lee.

Some might have gotten to the end of the very first season thinking that he didn't appear at all. In actuality, he did; just not the way people were used to.

There he is, depicted as a police officer who received an honor of some kind in the background of a police station.

"May the Fourth" Week: The Cartoons of Star Wars

In the 1980's, George Lucas sought to expand his empire. The huge profits coming in from films and merchandising gave him unparalleled opportunities. ABC eagerly took advantage of the opportunity to greenlight two series based on the world of Star Wars. Star Wars: Droids and Star Wars: Ewoks.

Star Wars: Droids took place in the timeframe before Star Wars: A New Hope. R2D2 and C3PO were still just floating around, unowned and moving from master to master. The show featured their hijinks as they tried to stay functional and help their new masters.

Star Wars: Ewoks featured the lovable Ewoks in the years before Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. Unlike the Ewoks in the film, these Ewoks spoke regular English and were less prone to the violence depicted in Return of the Jedi. 

The shows were never given stable time slots, which contributed to their low ratings. Lucasfilm insisted on high quality animation, which meant that the shows were more expensive than others. ABC decided to cancel the Droids after just one season and the Ewoks after two.

Disney Legends 18 & 19: The Sherman Brothers

Richard and Robert Sherman are unique. Unlike many other Disney Legends, their work touched just about every division of the company. As songwriters, they were involved in film, television, theme parks and records.

The Sherman Brothers got their songwriting start when their father, a songwriter himself, dared them to write a song together and sell it. They did it successfully and launched a career writing teenage pop, including "You're Sixteen". The brothers came to the notice of Walt Disney when they began writing songs for Annette Funicello, including "Tall Paul," and "Strumming Song". Mr. Disney hired the brothers as staff writers, positions that gave them first crack at any songwriting assignments that came up around the studio.

The Shermans had never written a movie score or for a movie before, but Walt Disney entrusted them with the task for The Parent Trap a job they eagerly tackled. Their success with the project led to getting the biggest job of their lives- Mary Poppins.

Walt Disney had battled for decades to get the rights for Mary Poppins and it was a special project for him. It would have been excusable if Mr. Disney had hired a more accomplished songwriting team, experienced in writing songs for films. Walt Disney, however, had full confidence in the brothers and they were given the opportunity to write for the biggest project of their lives. The results were extraordinary- practically perfect in every way. The brothers won Academy Awards for their amazing work.

The Shermans were given even bigger projects, directly from Walt himself, writing songs for other films and other projects at DISNEYLAND. Their most famous and beloved song was "it's a small world (after all)" the title song for the beloved DISNEYLAND attraction that has been replicated at every Disney Magic Kingdom park around the world. The brothers were even given the job of writing DISNEYLAND's tenth anniversary song. The first birthday song for Walt's pride and joy.

The Brothers' reach extends to today; Richard Sherman wrote "Make Way For Tomorrow Today" for Disney's Marvel Films' Iron Man 2. The famed Stark Expo from the film was inspired by the visionary Walt Disney and his optimism for the future. The song was inspired by The Sherman Brothers' own "Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow".

The Sherman Brothers were always proud that they had written Walt Disney's favorite song- "Feed the Birds (Tuppence a Bag)". They would often play it for him at the end of a particularly rough week. On December 5th, 2001 on what would have been Walt Disney's 100th Birthday, Richard Sherman gave a special performance at Walt Disney's favorite place on earth- DISNEYLAND. Towards the end of his performance, he apologized to the crowd; the next song would not be performed for them- it would be performed for his boss and friend- Walt Disney. Mr. Sherman began performing Walt's favorite song. To the astonishment of those in attendance, a bird descended on the edge of Mr. Sherman's piano where it stayed until the end of the song before flying off. Apparently Mr. Sherman's favorite boss approved.

Robert Sherman passed away in 2012. Richard Sherman is still alive and sharing his stories about his beloved boss Walt Disney.

The company has honored the Sherman Brothers in many ways- by naming them the 18 & 19th Disney Legends and giving them a Window on Main Street in DISNEYLAND. If you'd like to see it, you can find it next door to the Magic Shop.

Strange But True: The Dick Tracy Special

April Fools Week concludes today with the final Strange But True story. The Story of DISNEYLAND will return next Friday.

In the late 1980's, Hollywood was looking for big budget franchises. Despite the fact that Superman had fizzled out as a franchise after 1987's disastrous Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, Hollywood still had faith in superheroes. This faith was rewarded in 1989 with the blockbuster success of Batman. That success made Disney excited about the prospects of its major film for 1990- Dick Tracy. Dick Tracy would feature bigger stars than Batman and benefit from a bigger promotional push since Disney now saw how big the rewards could be.

The film made a big splash, but it wasn't as big as Disney had hoped. The decision was made to not automatically greenlight a sequel but to keep the company's options open. After several years, the Tribune Company, which owned the Dick Tracy copyrights, sought to get them back from Disney. Warren Beatty, however, thought that he could perhaps get a new project going, so he acquired them from Disney.

Several years later, seeing no movement on a new project, Tribune decided to force Warren Beatty to either get a new film or television project off the ground or give them back their rights. Warren chose to fight back, therefore The Dick Tracy Special was born.

Despite no longer having any connection to The Walt Disney Company, the slapdash special was filmed on the Disney backlot.

Seemingly filmed by the dumpsters behind a sound stage, this project featured an interview with a geriatric Dick Tracy played by Warren Beatty, interviewer Leonard Maltin, and Austin Powers actress Mindy Sterling playing a production assistant who has an awkwardly long and dull conversation next to a dumpster.

The 30 minute production, which aired on Turner Movie Classics was also syndicated to any local station willing to air it. It practically screamed "contractural obligation" and seemed like a sad effort to retain the copyright that any court of law would see right through.

Except... It totally worked. The court ruled that this project was good enough to allow Warren Beatty to retain the film and television rights to Dick Tracy. With Disney totally uninterested in a Dick Tracy sequel, it's unclear what Mr. Beatty can actually do with the character. However, with his rights secured, the world (and the Tribune Company) are waiting to see what Warren Beatty will do with them.

The Disney Sunday Movie

In the early 1980's, The Walt Disney Company had stopped producing programming for broadcast television. Studio management at the time felt that The Disney Channel would have a hard time signing up subscribers as a premium channel if it had to compete against free programming. This caused a few problems for the company's other businesses. Walt Disney had successfully used television to launch and promote DISNEYLAND. In the early 80's, the company had grown to include two Florida theme parks surrounded by thousands of hotel rooms. Not having a weekly television show made it harder to fill those theme parks, much less the hotel rooms. Many in the company attributed EPCOT Center's initial failure to a lack of promotion. So in 1986, the company chose to return to broadcast television with The Disney Sunday Movie.

Hosted by the new company CEO Michael Eisner, the program was intended to showcase not only that week's film, but also the company's latest offerings. As shown in the graphic, the company highlighted its Florida properties heavily in order to resolve the attendance issues at EPCOT Center. The first movie aired in the time slot, however, had little to do with the company's theme parks- Help Wanted, Kids. The film starred Cindy Williams and Bill Hudson as child-less yuppies who hire two orphans to pretend to be their kids. It later became a Disney Channel Original Series.

The Real Mystery Shack!

The Mystery Shack in Disney's Gravity Falls is a roadside attraction of dubious value run by the notorious cheapskate Grunkle Stan.

Show creator Alex Hirsch has admitted basing the establishment on the real life Santa Cruz, California landmark The Mystery Spot.

Monk- Rejected by ABC

One might assume that every television show produced by a division of The Walt Disney Company has an automatic chance at getting picked up by Disney's network ABC. That's not necessarily the case! Take, for example, USA Network's "defective detective" Monk.

Monk was produced by Touchstone Television and was originally presented to ABC as a possible new series. But ABC was riding high with Who Wants to be a Millionaire at the time and wasn't interested in the quirky series. (It also rejected other shows such as CSI and The Sopranos for similar reasons.) When an acquisitions person at USA Network heard of the rejection, the show was brought to the attention of the network's management who were looking for an original series that would help USA stick out from the pack. They believed Monk to be just that show. And it was, well beyond everyone's wildest dreams.

So while the show wasn't airing on ABC, it was being produced by a Disney subsidiary, though the company was not making as much cash as it would have if ABC was airing it. After Who Wants to be a Millionaire imploded, the network was reduced to rubble. They had rejected a slew of programs that were now successfully airing against ABC. The network tried to make a deal they thought USA couldn't refuse; ABC would take new episodes of the show first, then let USA air them for free. An unprecedented deal, but USA didn't take it, leaving ABC with the unenviable task of rebuilding itself. (Something it would do seemingly easily with the introduction of Lost & Desperate Housewives just a few years later.)

The show would eventually go out with a bang, leaving USA Network with the highest ratings of any basic cable series in history.

The Ellen Name Change

The breakout Touchstone Television show that made Ellen Degeneres a household name was, of course, These Friends of Mine?!? (If you've read more than one of these this week, you know none of them are what they initially seem by now.)

Yes, the show that made Ellen a star was not originally named after her and was meant to be an ensemble effort. When Ellen stood out from the group, the show became Ellen after the first season. Future reruns of the show's first season were edited and retitled Ellen.

The Secrets of the Nutt House

You could be forgiven for not remembering The Nutt House. It was a lesser effort that only lasted ten episodes despite being created by Mel Brooks.

Perhaps its biggest problem was that it wasn't necessarily a pure creation. It started life mainly because Disney CEO Michael Eisner saw how much it cost to build the hotel sets for the Bette Midler film Big Business and wanted to re-use them. Mel Brooks did the best he could considering he had to craft a show around a pre-built set rather than the opposite, normal way things are done.

Strangely enough, The Nutt House was a huge success when it aired on the BBC in the U.K.

Golden Girls' Disappearing Cook

When The Golden Girls premiered, the four main characters were Blanche, Rose, Dorothy and Coco?!?

Yes, the "girls" originally had a gay housekeeper named Coco who would provide outspoken advice whenever they needed it. Sound familiar? That actually sounds like Sophia. Originally Sophia was going to be a recurring character who would peek in occasionally from Shady Pines. The network (and eventually the world) loved her, however, so Coco was out after the pilot and Sophia was in. She took on the role of a sharp tongued confidante and the rest is history.

Empty Nest's Cast Swap

This week we'll take a look at the lesser known stories from Disney's Touchstone Television!

Remember the classic Touchstone Television show Empty Nest? Spunoff from the humongous hit show The Golden Girls, Empty Nest became a juggernaut itself. Of course, the show starred Rita Moreno and Paul Dooley.... Wait a minute, who?

Yes, the original stars of Empty Nest were husband and wife neighbors to the girls. Their pilot episode was used as a 1987 installment of The Golden Girls. NBC wasn't sold on the concept, however, and everyone except for David Leisure was replaced. The new version centered around Richard Mulligan and his nosy daughters and became a mega success.

A Disturbance in the Force....

It was the special George Lucas doesn't want you to see! When Lucas was working on the first Star Wars film, he had to scratch & fight to get funding to finish up the special effects. Twentieth Century Fox was not eager to give him more cash, but they did let him scare up the funds any way he saw fit. (Which led to him eventually getting enough money to buy them out, but that's a different story altogether.) in any case, CBS came to the rescue. They would give Lucas much needed funds in exchange for the rights to make a special based on this "Space Film" if things worked out.

When Star Wars became a sensation, CBS remembered its little option and quickly decided to cash in. George Lucas wasn't interested in the project, but he had to follow through with the deal, so he gave his grudging approval. CBS didn't seem to grasp the reason why Star Wars was a hit, so they hired a staff more suited to producing a variety show than a science fiction themed special.

The result was a disaster that George Lucas would like to forget. Celebrities who had no business being in the Star Wars universe were hired. There were bizarre, creepy sketches, including one that featured a leering wookee watching a stripping Diahann Carroll. Using the vast wealth created by owning merchandising rights to his films, George Lucas buried the special after its one airing. Many Star Wars fans dream of an official release, but Lucas has kept it hidden from public view. With his empire now owned by The Walt Disney Company, there's a new hope that the special will see the light of day.

I'm No Fool- with Jiminy Cricket!

Millions of kids have learned how not to be a fool by listening to Jiminy Cricket, first on the Mickey Mouse Club, then through educational films shown in classrooms around the world.

Welcome to Pooh Corner

One of the first shows aired on the Disney Channel was Welcome to Pooh Corner. Featuring a cast of Disney theme park style characters with animatronic heads, the gentle program sought to teach kids about values and being nice to one another. The popular show ended its run in the early 90's.

The Launch of The Disney Channel

The Disney Channel launched as a premium channel in 1983. Early programming included Mousercise, Welcome to Pooh Corner, Dumbo's Circus and Mouseterpiece Theatre.