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Revision as of 21:08, 23 February 2006 by 24.225.138.64 (talk) (→The 2000s)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Disney Channel is known for its original series. The following is a summary of original series from the Channel's 20+ year history.
The 1980s
Disney's first original series is Kids Incorporated, which was also Disney Channel's first series to be syndicated. The series was mainly a musical series with a cast of kids ages 8 to 13. The series lasted from 1983 to 1990 and featured a young Jennifer Love Hewitt as one of its many cast members.
Disney Channel premiered a series called Still the Beaver, also called The New Leave It to Beaver in 1985. It featured most of the cast from the 1960s classic sitcom that starred Jerry Mathers as Beaver Cleaver, a boy who gets into some pretty funny situations that get him into trouble.
Disney launched Good Morning, Miss Bliss in September 1987, a series which would later be known by another name, Saved by the Bell. The series starred Hayley Mills as Carrie Bliss, a widow who teaches at a junior high school in Indianapolis. The series was initially rejected by NBC but was later accepted by the network following some retooling. The series aired only 13 episodes on Disney. The series is currently syndicated packaged together with the original Saved by the Bell and its College Years series. The series featured most of the cast of Saved by the Bell, Mark-Paul Gosselaar (Zack Morris), Dustin Diamond (Samuel "Screech" Powers), Dennis Haskins (Principal Richard Belding) and Lark Voohries (Lisa Turtle).
The 1990s
Disney premiered MMC, a '90s update of The Mickey Mouse Club which featured as cast members, Keri Russell, JC Chasez and most notably Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Justin Timberlake. MMC lasted until 1993.
Disney also aired its own production of Avonlea from 1993 to 1996.
In 1997, Disney premiered a sitcom (Disney's first Canadian import) called Flash Forward that starred Ben Foster and Jewel Staite as two teens who were best friends (and next door neighbors) since childhood and also chronicled their own friends and family. The series lasted until 1999.
Disney premiered a couple of game shows during the late 1990s including a television version of the Parker Brothers game Mad Libs.
Disney's Original Series really began developing in the late '90s with the series So Weird. Seen by many as sort of a version of The X-Files for younger viewers, So Weird premiered in early 1999 and starred Cara DeLizia as Fiona Phillips (usually referred to as Fi by her friends and family), who always investigated the supernatural. Her brother didn't really believe in the supernatural however but his friend Clu (Erik von Detten) and his brother Carey (Eric Lively) became part of Fi's journey's.
After the show's second season, DeLizia left the series for unknown reasons, (her character had apparently wanted to live a "normal" life after investigating the supernatural most of her life) she did appear in one last episode and Alexz Johnson joined the series as Annie Thelen, who continued Fi's investigations of the supernatural. Annie's (and Alexz Johnson's) singing talents were explored on a few occasions during her run on the series. The show one of only two Disney Channel Original Series not to feature a "nuclear family" as Fi's rock star mom Molly (Mackenzie Phillips) was a widow.
Disney also premiered The Famous Jett Jackson in 1999. The series starred Lee Thompson Young as the title character, a teenager who starred in the action series Silverstone, a show-within-a-show about a teenage secret agent. Jett wanted to live a normal life away from Hollywood but wanted to keep doing the show, so he (and Silverstone) moved to Jett's old hometown, (the fictional) Wilsted, North Carolina. The pilot showed how much of a celebrity Jett was in his hometown as he had to outrun a mob of fans. He reconnected with his cop father (Gordon Greene), his grandmother (Montrose Hagins) and his best friend (Ryan Summers Baum). He also made a new friend in Kayla (Kerry Duff, no relation to Hilary Duff of Lizzie McGuire). Jett also kept in touch with his mother (Melanie Nichols-King) back in L.A., who visited Jett in Wilsted on occasion. The show featured some guest appearances by Britney Spears and Beyoncé Knowles. The series lasted until 2002 and in the same year, the series became the first Disney series to have a movie version titled Jett Jackson: The Movie, appropriately enough.
- 1983
- 1985
- 1987
- 1990
- 1997
- 1999
- 2000
- 2001
- 2002
- 2003
- 2004
- 2005
- 2006
See also
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