Introduction

Growing up in the 80s and 90s in the north of England with TV choices limited to four channels, my first exposure to Disney came in the form of the animated classics (on very occasional cinema trips and on VHS) and Disney cartoon series—such as Gummi Bears, Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers, and Aladdin—shown on Saturday and Sunday morning kids TV—but I never saw a Disney anthology series. Unlike Richard Rothrock, who writes nostalgically about the role The Wonderful World of Disney played in his childhood in Sunday Nights with Walt (2017), I have no memories of sitting down with my family to get lost in the dramas and backstage stories of Disneyland and its successors, thus such productions inspire no nostalgia in me.

This lack of familiarity with the Disney anthology show or any of the Disney Channel Original Movies (available on cable and satellite channels) growing up, means that I’ve always experienced such shows and films afresh, as an adult viewer—when I’ve been able to track them down, that is. For Disney’s TV movie output seems a poor cousin to the big screen releases, and even the direct-to-video fare, covered in the first volume of Disney Connections & Collections. But Disneyland and its successors represent a rich source of comedy and drama, acting and writing debuts, behind the scenes trivia and more.

For this second volume of Disney Connections & Collections I wanted to focus on the factual and fictional episodes of the various anthology series, along with the longer-form, sometimes multi-part TV movies that Disney has produced, to discover their connections with the wider world of Disney. From the earliest days of Disney TV in the 1950s and the Davy Crockett phenomenon, right up to the 2018 TV movie adaptation of the Freaky Friday stage musical—which was preceded by the original book, the 1976 Disney movie and a 1995 Disney TV movie version—this reference book demonstrates how Disney’s approach to TV content has changed over 60 years of broadcasting.

Anthology shows were regularly used to promote Disney’s theatrical movies and theme parks, with behind the scenes glimpses at how they were made, as well as providing packages of animated shorts and natural history stories alongside original drama and literary adaptations. Very occasionally, the success of a TV movie would break out into the wider cultural consciousness—witness the fandom and spin-offs that High School Musical has wrought—but often these self-contained dramas have passed largely unremarked upon in the Disney literary field, both popular and academic, despite the joy and memories that such productions have brought and continue to bring to audiences both young and young-at-heart.

With Disney soon to launch their new Disney+ streaming service, which aims to rival the likes of Netflix, it will be interesting to see whether more of their anthology and TV movie content is released for modern consumption. Whether that happens or not, you hold in your hands a useful guide to Disney TV movies and anthologies to help you navigate this exciting and somewhat hidden part of the Disney entertainment empire.