Characters from the seven years of The Disney Afternon, representing all shows except The Shnookums & Meat Funny Cartoon Show
The Disney Afternoon (TDA) was a 2-hour programming block that aired in syndication during much of the 1990s and featured several Disney Television Animation series, including the original DuckTales.
History[]
Original line-up: Adventures of the Gummi Bears, DuckTales, TaleSpin, and Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers
Following the success of the first season of DuckTales, which had been Disney's first foray into syndicated television in 1987-1988, the company wanted to extend its presence in afternoon television.
During 1988-1989, new DuckTales episodes aired edited into feature films – "Time is Money" and "Super DuckTales" – but in the fall of 1989 the show was back on the afternoon schedule with its second season, now paired with Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers, which had aired its first season on Disney Channel.
Second year line-up, with Darkwing Duck replacing Adventures of the Gummi Bears
One year later, The Disney Afternoon made its debut, with new episodes of Adventures of the Gummi Bears, (season six, following five years on network TV), DuckTales (season 3), Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers (season 3) and new series TaleSpin.
The Disney Afternoon on the cover of The Walt Disney Company's annual report of 1990, a testemony of its success
Disney was happy with the outcome, and TDA continued for the following years. From year two and on, the first three slots were typically reruns, while the final slot (4:30–5:00PM), was held for a new show, replacing one of the former series.
With a new series typically debuting each year, TDA continued for a total of 7 years, although DuckTales was removed after year two. In 1997 Disney removed the DTA name and shortened the block to 90 minutes, while still saving the last slot for new series. Finally, in 1999, Disney moved away from syndication to network TV, and since 2002, new Disney shows – such as the DuckTales reboot of 2017 – are released through the company's own networks.
List of the shows[]
13 shows, including DuckTales, aired on The Disney Afternoon during the seven proper years of the block, and another three premiered during the two final syndicated years, when the block lacked an actual name.
While only DuckTales is covered by DuckTales Wiki, the majority of the other shows have separate Wikis dedicated to them, as per below, and they are also covered by The Disney Afternoon Wiki, Disney Wiki, and Wikipedia.
Schedule[]
| 3:00PM | 3:30PM | 4:00PM | 4:30PM | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season 1 (1990-1991) |
Adventures of the Gummi Bears | DuckTales | Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers | TaleSpin |
| Season 2 (1991-1992) |
DuckTales | Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers | TaleSpin | Darkwing Duck |
| Season 3 (1992-1993) |
Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers | TaleSpin | Darkwing Duck | Goof Troop |
| Season 4 (1993-1994) |
TaleSpin | Darkwing Duck | Goof Troop | Bonkers |
| Season 5 (1994-1995) |
Darkwing Duck | Goof Troop | The Shnookums & Meat Funny Cartoon Show / Bonkers / Gargoyles | Aladdin |
| Season 6 (1995-1996) |
Goof Troop | Bonkers | Aladdin | Gargoyles / Timon & Pumbaa |
| Season 7 (1996-1997) |
Darkwing Duck | Gargoyles | Aladdin | Timon & Pumbaa / Quack Pack / Mighty Ducks |
DuckTales 1987 cameos[]
In addition to Launchpad McQuack being a main character in Darkwing Duck, Donald Duck and Huey, Dewey, and Louie being main characters in Quack Pack, Fenton Crackshell making guest appearances in Darkwing Duck, and Ludwig Von Drake making guest appearances in Bonkers and Quack Pack, DuckTales also enjoyed several minor nods in the subsequent Disney Afternoon series, being the show that launched the block.
| Image | Show | Notes |
|---|---|---|
|
Darkwing Duck | Beagle Boys, Magica De Spell and Flintheart Glomgold make cameo appearances at a F.O.W.L. gathering in the episode "In Like Blunt". |
|
Scrooge McDuck appears at a Duckburg billboard, in the episode "Tiff of the Titans". | |
|
Goof Troop | Beagle look-a-likes appear in a flashback scene set in the 1920s, in the episode "The Ungoofables". |
|
Bonkers | A Beagle Boy appears in a police line-up of suspects, in the episode "The 29th Page". |
|
Aladdin | The Genie turns into Scrooge McDuck, in the episode "The Day the Bird Stood Still". |
|
Quack Pack | While training his dogs, Donald Duck uses an attack dummy modeled as a Beagle Boy, in the episode "Nosy Neighbors". |
Raw Toonage[]
In the fall of 1992, the short lived (12 episodes) animated package series Raw Toonage aired. Despite premiering during the heydays of The Disney Afternoon, the series never aired as part of it, but rather on network TV, as a part of CBS' Saturday morning cartoons line up. It featured three series of short films, He's Bonkers!, starring Bonkers, Marsupilami, and anthology series Totaly Tasteless Videos.
Despite never being a part of the Disney Afternoon lineup, the show included many guest appearances of TDA characters, due to the fact that most episodes featured a hosting sequence starring a Disney character breaking the fourth wall and talking directly to the viewer. Many of these hosts were taken from the DTA shows, including Don Karnage from TaleSpin, Gosalyn Mallard from Darkwing Duck, and Ludwig Von Drake in his Bonkers incarnation, while others featured characters from He's Bonkers! and Marsupilami.
The third episode was hosted by Scrooge McDuck (voiced by Alan Young), demonstrating his new Money Bin security system, and the eight episode was hosted by Launchpad McQuack (voiced by Terry McGovern) giving lessons on how to fly an airplane. Additionally, the fifth episode was hosted by He's Bonkers! supporting character Jitters A. Dog, doing stunts on DTA shows DuckTales, Chip'n'Dale: Rescue Rangers, and TaleSpin, as well as contemporary Disney cartoon The Little Mermaid.
Notably, although never featured in any episode, Webby Vanderquack appears throughout the Raw Toonage opening.
DuckTales 2017 connections[]
The 2017 DuckTales reboot has featured several references and callbacks to the DTA shows, with some notable examples being:
- The in-universe series "Darkwing Duck" referring to the DTA show and character of the same name, as well as the city of Saint Canard. Although initially a mere show-within-the-show, the character Darkwing Duck begins to emerge into an actual hero as Launchpad encourage the actor Drake Mallard (sharing his name with the DTA-Darkwing's civilian identity) to start fighting crime. Meanwhile, fading actor Jim Starling starts his transaction into Negaduck, the main villain of DTA-Darkwing. Steelbeak, another of Darkwing's recurring enemies, also appears at the end of the season 2 finale as an agent of F.O.W.L. as he was in the original series; and the Season 3 episode "Let's Get Dangerous" revolving around the show's characters as well.
- The Great Ones, referring to the characters of Adventures of the Gummi Bears, and the castle of Dunwyn, originally the setting of the show.
- Chip and Dale and the Rescue Rangers appearing in "Double-O-Duck in You Only Crash Twice!"
- The city of Cape Suzette, which was the setting of TaleSpin, and the Sky Pirate Don Karnage, who first appeared as the main TaleSpin villain alongside his Iron Vulture, and Kit Cloudkicker and Molly Cunningham who will appear in future episodes.
- The city of Spoonerville, which was the setting of Goof Troop, and Powerline – a pop music star in the Goof Troop feature film "A Goofy Movie", and Goofy appearing in "Quack Pack" with pictures of Max, PJ, and Roxanne.
- Bonkers D. Bobcat appearing in "Let's Get Dangerous".
- Duckburg's hockey team, The Mighty Ducks – a callback to the name and setting of Mighty Ducks.
- Quack Pack!, the episode’s title, is a references to the show . While no characters from said show appear, a human bears a uncanny resemblance to Kent Powers.
See also[]
- References in other media, for more references in non DTA shows.
- The Legend of the Chaos God, a comic book crossover of several DTA shows.