suzie_dee said:
What ever happened to the original The Wonderful World of Disney, not the new movie one but when they would have like things telling about the park and have little mini series? And also what happened to vault Disney at late night on the Disney Channel?
Just wondering if someone can clarify some of my questions?
I think that both have succombed to the "new" management direction of aiming all "Disney"-branded (their words) television on prime time toward "tweens" (middle-school agers). They think that the best way to do this is the build on (i.e., "kill") the success of such shows as "Lizzie McGuire" and their original Disney-Channel movies aimed at the same group, by running them around the clock and in multiple places.
They can then "re-purpose" the same movies by (re)running them on ABC as "Wonderful World" shows. Fills programming time cheaply.
Michael Eisner originally hosted the "new" Wonderful World, but dropped out with no replacement. Now the movies (some of which are not even Disney movies -- like
The Sound of Music recently) are run as "Wonderful World of Disney" shows with no real context or introduction... Just space filler, and a reason to show the Disney name before the movie.
Just shows lack of care and concern about the product and name (excuse me, "brand") to me.
As for the Vault Disney stuff, it was taken off, because it didn't fit the target demographic, even late at night. One of the execs (I think Bob Iger, but not sure) said at the time that there are thirteen-year-olds that need to be served around the world, watching at different times (paraphrased).
Also, the park stuff went off Disney Channel (along with the Vault and classic Disney shows) about the same time that they pushed to make The Disney Channel a basic cable channel.
You can find most of the above in a search of these threads.
So, I think that essentially two things are really going on:
1) Marketing people are making the decisions soley around their perception of a targeted group of pre-teens and early teens, and
2) They are using the Wonderful World as a place to re-use ("re-purpose") movies (and increase short-term profit), rather than really caring about the show (as evidenced by its lack of a host or context). They care more about short-term gain (by slapping on the Disney name or filling the air with a cheap, haphazardly-chosen rerun from The Disney Channel) than maintaining the value of the Disney name and legacy as special and valuable for the WHOLE family.
Sounds bad, but search these threads and other sites and you will find evidence of how these decisions have been made. Misguided, I think. "Brand management" and "market segmentation," they think.
Paul
