Toon Disney

Toon Disney was a 24-hour American cable television channel owned by The Walt Disney Company that aired mostly children's animated television series. A spin-off of Disney Channel, Toon Disney showed children's cartoons 24 hours a day (except for minimal live action programming); its format had similarities to those of Cartoon Network and NickToons. Toon Disney's target audience were children ages 2–12, with the exceptions of programming used in a night time block aimed at children ages 7–14 called Jetix. A Spanish language audio track was available on Toon Disney through the SAP option; some cable and satellite systems also offered the Spanish language feed as a separate channel.

History


Toon Disney launched on April 18, 1998 (coinciding with Disney Channel's 15th anniversary), as a spin-off of the Disney Channel. Originally, the channel's programming consisted of older Disney animated television series, including those from The Disney Afternoon. Toon Disney has also shown some other cartoons, most of them produced by DIC Entertainment, which was Disney owned at the time the network was launched. For the first year of the channel's existence, a block of programs seen on Toon Disney would air on Sunday evenings on Disney Channel as a "sneak preview" of the channel for interested subscribers.

In the 2000s, Toon Disney gained a variety of new programming expanding the vast collection of Disney animation. Many programs from One Saturday Morning and ABC Kids joined the lineup, mostly without the expense of other programs. However, in 2004, with the addition of Jetix and reruns of animated programs from Disney Channel, many of the older programs on Toon Disney vanished.

Like most other Disney-owned cable channels, starting in 2008, Toon Disney began airing in High-Definition (the only ones which didn't were ESPN Classic & SOAPnet). Toon Disney, at launch, was commercial-free until September 9, 2002. This was when the network reached two years of "critical mass" in subscribers of over 15 million.

On August 6, 2008, Disney-ABC Television Group announced they would re-brand Toon Disney in early 2009 as Disney XD, which would be aimed at kids from ages 6 and up. Toon Disney ceased broadcast on February 13, 2009 (two months and five days shy of eleven years since it first started broadcasting), and was re-branded as Disney XD. Toon Disney/Jetix ran a preview night starting at 7:00pm on Thursday, February 12, the day before the network launched, the preview night included more promos about the new Disney XD shows. The final program on the channel was The Incredible Hulk, as part of Jetix. The first program to air on Disney XD was Phineas and Ferb.

Live action programming
Although the majority of the network's programming was animation, live-action programming had become a part of Toon Disney during its final years. Live children were featured in bumpers aired from 1998 to 2002, and fan-made animations done in live-action were aired in these bumpers. The Jetix block aired the show Power Rangers. Toon Disney has also aired Muppet movies, including Muppets from Space (one of the few Muppet productions that was not included in Disney's acquisition of the franchise).

During the network's existence, Toon Disney aired the Disney Channel Original Movies Jett Jackson: The Movie, and Up, Up, and Away. The theatrical films Max Keeble's Big Move, Snow Dogs, and Herbie: Fully Loaded have also aired recently. Toon Disney contained more than 10 short segments includes video/slideshow format. The short series Check This Kid Out aired randomly during the commercial breaks between July 7, 2008 and February 13, 2009. On September 7, 2008, one of Disney's only live-action short films, Frankenweenie, aired on Toon Disney.

Programming blocks
Toon Disney frequently aired groups of series in blocks; over the course of Toon Disney's broadcast history, it had several programming blocks that featured at least two of their shows.
 * 12 Days of Christmas - (1998–2008), a block that aired around Christmas between 1998 and 2008, and showed Christmas themed episodes and movies.
 * @Toon - (2002–2004), a spinoff of Toons in the House. Shortly after @Toon's premiere, before each first commercial break for most of the shows, it featured some viewer submissions and game high scores from the official website.
 * After Class Laughs - (2004–2006), two-hour block of "The Most Funny Shows" on Toon Disney. The shows are Lilo & Stitch: The Series, American Dragon: Jake Long, Disney's Recess, and Kim Possible. This block is shown on weekdays from 3:00 pm Eastern/2:00 pm Central to 5:00 pm Eastern/4:00 pm Central. It came back in 2006 under a slightly different name (After Class Laugh Attack). It was replaced by Mega Jam.
 * Big Movie Show - (2004–2009), a daily showing of films, usually animated Disney films, but the film shown may be produced by another studio or live-action (the latter happens extremely rarely). The Big Movie Show was often the subject of theme weeks, which usually heralded in the initial Toon Disney broadcast of a given film.
 * Chillin' with the Villains - (2000–2004), a two-hour marathon of a certain show presented on Sunday afternoons. However, these particular marathons focused on a certain villain from whichever series was being featured.
 * Friday Night Movie - (1998-2003) a feature film presentation on the Magical World of Toons every Friday night starting at 7:00pm. It featured films made by the Walt Disney company, as well as non-Disney films such as The Land Before Time series.
 * Double Feature Movie Show - (2002–2004), it featured back-to-back movies airing every Friday from 5:00pm to 9:00pm and repeating Saturday from 11:00am to 3:00pm.
 * Hangin' with the Heroes (2002–2004) originally aired on weekends, but then aired on weekdays, too. It featured Aladdin, Gargoyles, and Hercules: The Animated Series.
 * Jetix - (2004–2009), a fourteen-hour block on weekdays and a seventeen hour block on weekends. It featured action shows that some of which were originally on Fox before Disney bought its children's shows and this block was what Fox Kids eventually became in 2004, during its first two years on ABC Family had no proper name and was known simply as ABC Family Action Block. Originally the network's nightly block, it eventually took up more than half of the network's schedule.
 * Magical World of Toons (1998–2003) a four hour nightly block that aired from 7:00pm to 11:00pm Sunday to Thursday until 2003, when its slot was replaced by The Power Pack, a bunch of three-hour marathons of certain shows.
 * Play it Again Jam! - (2006–2007), replacing the Bonus Stacks. This format had three episodes of a given show in a row instead of four. Its name is a pun to the phrase, "Play it again, Sam!". It was replaced by Mega Jam, then Treasure Cove.
 * Princess Power Hour - (2000–2007), a one-hour block featuring episodes of Aladdin and The Little Mermaid. The block ended up airing only in the afternoons on weekends. Formerly known as Princess Power Hour. It was replaced by The Great Toon Weekend Getaway.
 * Pumbaa Bowl - an all day marathon of Timon & Pumbaa that aired on Super Bowl Sunday every year.
 * Screaming Meanies - (1998–2003), a block that aired around Halloween between 1998 and 2003, and showed Halloween-themed episodes of shows.
 * Super Stacked Weekdays - (2007–2009), which consisted of a mini-marathon each weekday. On Fridays a random show would air sometimes a show that wasn't aired often. It began as Mega Movie Jam, but changed its name afterwards to Mega Jam. Starting October 1, 2007, it was renamed Toon Disney Treasure Cove. After this, it was changed to Super Stacked Weekdays to coincide with the Super Stacks, at this time known as Super Stacked Weekends.
 * Super Stacked Weekends - (2007–2009), a three-hour weekend marathon of two random programs, one Saturday, and one Sunday. It was known as Super Stacks before its concision with Super Stacked Weekdays.
 * The Brother Hood - (2008–2009), a one-hour block, which aired two times a day. It showed The Suite Life of Zack & Cody and Phineas and Ferb. Technically, this block still airs on Disney XD, but they don't use any bumpers for it.
 * The Great Toon Weekend Getaway - (2007–2008), a five-hour weekend block featuring shows based on Disney movies: Aladdin, Timon and Pumbaa, The Little Mermaid, The Emperor's New School, and Lilo and Stitch: The Series.
 * The New For You Show! (2002–2004) featured new episodes of Lloyd in Space, House of Mouse, The Weekenders, Teamo Supremo, and Fillmore! every Friday and Saturday night at 9:00 pm Eastern/8:00 pm Central.
 * Toons in the House - (1998–2002), a four-hour weekday-afternoon block similar in spirit to The Disney Afternoon.
 * Weekday Bonus Stacks - (2004–2006), basically three 2-hour marathons of three different shows that aired from 11:00 am Eastern/10:00 am Central to 5:00 pm Eastern/4:00 pm Central. Everyday were three shows different from the previous day. Though many kids have enjoyed these shows, many of these programs were already airing in good time slots, so it decreased the variety of shows on the network. In September 2005, this block was renamed the Superstar Bonus Stacks and its starting time changed to 10 am, but this time airing 7 different shows for an hour each and on a more regular schedule. However, this didn't last long. In October 2005, Toon Disney went back to the regular Bonus Stacks. It was replaced by Play it Again, Jam!