To continue on with Disney Heritage’s second seminar, after diving into the Golden Age of Animation we then explored the history of Walt’s fascination and ideas surrounding television. As I explained previously, Walt saw the possibilities for Television and he understood that he could use it to his advantage. Other people in Hollywood thought that television was the enemy because it would take away people visiting movies in the theater, but Walt saw it as a possibility to create more entertainment through it and reach more people. He understood that great storytelling and entertainment transcends technology.

His first attempt at using television came with his TV special “One Hour in Wonderland”. This made for TV special was shown on NBC on Christmas Day 1950. The storyline was that Walt was having a party at the Disney studios and everyone, even the viewers were invited to join along. This special was Walt’s way of getting word out about new projects coming out and practicing with TV media. In the special, the actors who voiced the main character in both Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan stopped by and talked with viewers about their respective movies and what they were about. Walt then explained that if viewers like these new characters that they should go see these movies in the coming year. He knew that he was able to market these new films through TV in a way that the studios weren’t able to before, by giving audiences a peek into what the projects were he got viewers excited for these new films in a whole new way.

Walt Disney’s “Disneyland” (1954-1958)

After this special, networks everywhere came calling the studios wanting Walt to do a weekly show for them. At this time Walt had another big project in mind and said that he would only sign up to do a weekly show if they helped finance his project. ABC network finally signed up to undertake this and Walt went on to host the TV series “Disneyland” which premiere October 27th, 1954. Each week introduced and featured a new land that this theme park would have which marketed the theme park to guests even more.

Walt went on to produce even more behind the scenes shows that explained to viewers how certain projects were made. The next one was entitled “A Story of Dogs” which showed the history of dogs and ended with how animators made the upcoming film Lady and the Tramp. This short promoted the movie coming out soon and fed audience requests for more insight on to how certain movies and project were made. Another project that Disney was working on under the Disneyland series was the Davy Crockett mini-series which premiered on December 15th, 1954 and it soon became TV’s first big hit! Audiences everywhere fell in love with the character and everyone in the country started buying coon skinned caps and humming the theme song.

The Mickey Mouse Club (1955)

Ater the success of Davy Crockett, Walt wanted to produce a new original TV series aimed at the younger generation. On October 3rd, 1955, the Mickey Mouse Club debuted to amazing ratings. Walt made sure that the show talked about important stuff and had morales so then kids watching could actually learn from the show. To the delight of Walt the fans absolutely loved the series and it soon became part of the pop culture of the time.

Other projects that Walt Disney would go on to produce for Television included

• Zorro (Oct 10, 1959)
• World of Color (September 24th, 1961) which helped promoted color TV to audiences.
• The Wonderful World of Disney, which lasted up to 50 years on the air
• Disney Channel (1983)
• Purchase of ABC (1996) and began expanding its Television network channels.