Disney Channel is a 24-hour general entertainment television network in the United States that offers television programming for children through original series and movies as well as third party programming. It is marketed to mostly young children, however in recent years the diversity of viewers has increased. Currently available on basic cable and satellite, Disney Channel is part of Disney-ABC Television Group, a division of The Walt Disney Company. The network is based in Burbank, California,and is a short distance from Disney's headquarters. Disney Channel is slated to begin broadcasting in High-definition starting in early 2008.

History

Beginning

1983 - 1989 Disney Channel's first broadcasting day aired on April 18, 1983. At this time, Disney Channel was a premium channel and only aired 18 hours a day. The program that kicked off the channel's first day on the air was an episode of the 1950s-era Mickey Mouse Club. The first produced Disney Channel original series shown on the network included Good Morning, Mickey!, Donald Duck Presents, Contraption, Dumbo's Circus, You and Me Kid, EPCOT Magazine and Welcome to Pooh Corner. The original late night schedule featured reruns of the classic The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. Disney Channel received a special citation from the United States president Ronald Reagan in 1984. From the inception, Disney Channel only aired from 7 a.m. to 1 a.m. In December 1986, Disney Channel started airing 24 hours. During the early years, Disney Channel aired several foreign animated series and movies including Asterix, The Raccoons, and Paddington Bear. The Australian western, Five Mile Creek, was shown during this time period also.
During the 1980s, the channel debuted a few programs that later became part of the cultural lexicon of sorts. Early on, in 1984, the musically-oriented sitcom Kids Incorporated became a hit, about a pre-teen (and later teen-to-young adult) gang of friends who formed a pop group, mixing their everyday situations with variety-show and music video style performances. During its nine year run, the series spawned many future stars in both music and acting, the most notable being Martika (who went by her real name of Marta Marrero in the early seasons), eventual Party of Five co-stars Scott Wolf and Jennifer Love Hewitt (billed as Love Hewitt) and Fergie (who, of course, was credited as Stacy Ferguson).
1988 November 1988 saw the premiere of the sitcom Good Morning, Miss Bliss, which was originally developed by Brandon Tartikoff for NBC. It starred Hayley Mills as a junior high schoolteacher and her day-to-day escapades with her students and faculty. While the sitcom was not a hit on The Disney Channel, it was cancelled and later retooled for its original network of conception, turning up on the NBC Saturday morning lineup in August 1989 as Saved by the Bell. The show became the most successful Saturday morning sitcom in history, making stars out of its original cast (Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Tiffani-Amber Thiessen among them), and running until 2000 with a "next-generation cast" (as Saved by the Bell: The New Class).
1989 In early 1989, The Disney Channel revived one of the empire's early TV staples with The All-New Mickey Mouse Club, which was an immediate hit and proved the basic Disney variety show formula could still work, unlike in the short-lived 1970s revival. The latest version contained many of the classic elements, from "theme days" to mouseketeer jackets (albeit updated), but the scripted and musical segments were hip and current. The early seasons of MMC (which became the official title by season 7) had an exclusive offering of musical numbers to recent hits, along with original material. The main scripted features included the continuing "show-within-a-show", Emerald Cove. Later, more on-set comedy skits were worked in. The show became a fixture on the late afternoon lineup alongside Kids Incorporated. MMC was just as blessed with a stellar young cast, launching more careers of today's big stars than the shows previously mentioned; Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and Justin Timberlake are just a few of the many "mice that soared".


A new identity
In 1997, Disney Channel took on a revamped look and dropped the "The" in the network's name (However, promos often referred to the channel as simply "Disney" and the logo often omitted the "Channel" in the network's name also), and split the network into three programming blocks: Playhouse Disney, comprising of shows aimed at preschoolers; Vault Disney, featuring classic Disney material such as Zorro, The Mickey Mouse Club, the Disney anthology television series, older television specials and features such as The Love Bug; and the most distinct one, running from afternoon to late evening, called Zoog Disney. A new channel logo (which featured a 1930s-era Mickey Mouse on a black Mickey ear-shaped TV), was introduced at this time. They began to carry break interruptions (not advertising commercials, but promos for network programming).
Of the three blocks introduced in 1997, only Playhouse Disney continues to this day. As part of the network's 2002 re-brand campaign, the "Zoog" brand name was dropped, and Vault Disney was dropped (primarily to contribute to the network's new "hip" image).

The Zoog Disney Era: 1998-2002

While Disney Channel moved from premium cable to basic cable on January 1997, most of the design elements changed three years later. In 1998, Zoog Disney was introduced to Disney Channel meaning they would have two logos, the "Mickey Mouse Screen" logo, introduced in 1997, and the Zoog Disney logo (which used the "Mickey Mouse Screen" logo design with a spiral inside the screen and the word "ZOOG" in yellow lettering perched in front of the ears of the logo), introduced in 1998. The two logos coexisted from 1998 until 2002, when Zoog Disney was removed and Disney Channel introduced its current logo.
Zoog Disney was aimed at preteens and young teenagers up to the age of 15, and the block featured anthropomorphic characters called "Zoogs", who resembled robots (but the Zoog characters were given human voices). Zoog Disney used their website to connect viewers to their programs, allowing kids to interact with games, limited chat, and the possibility of having their comments and/or screen names appear on television (Shows on this block included Even Stevens, Lizzie McGuire, Smart Guy, The Famous Jett Jackson and So Weird.) By 2000, Disney Channel brought about a visible shift in its demographics, positioning itself as a channel for pre-teens, as opposed to aiming it at all ages.
Also around this time, Disney began running music specials under the banner "In Concert", which showcased pop acts such as 'N Sync, Backstreet Boys, Steps, and B*Witched.
From September 2001 to August 2002, the entire weekend lineup (except for the Vault Disney and Playhouse Disney lineups) was branded as "Zoog Weekendz". The Zoogs original look was one-dimensional, however, the Zoogs were redesigned in 2001, with a more three-dimensional design and mature voices, but were phased out after less than a year.
In 2001, Disney Channel entered into a deal with corporate cousin ABC to air its original programming. Lizzie McGuire and Even Stevens were the only Disney Channel originals on the lineup initially, but ABC now currently airs all of Disney Channel's active original live-action series and select active animated series, as well one live-action series from Toon Disney's Jetix. Power Rangers is currently the only Jetix show that ABC airs (the series originally aired on Fox from 1993 to 2002, one year after Disney bought Fox Family (formerly The Family Channel, now ABC Family) from Fox and Saban Entertainment (now BVS Entertainment) from Fox's parent company News Corporation and partner Haim Saban). However, some ABC affiliates currently refuse to clear Power Rangers due to lack of E/I content. Disney Channel's deal with ABC is limited to the network's Saturday morning lineup and does not include the broadcast of its original movies airing on ABC's Wonderful World of Disney.
From 2000 through 2003, ratings grew higher with such shows as Even Stevens, That's So Raven, Kim Possible, Lizzie McGuire and others. Lizzie McGuire became the network's banner show, and was the highest-rated program on the network. Reruns of Lizzie continued to outrate competing shows, including those from Disney Channel itself. This led to the termination of Vault Disney and all other classic Disney programming in September 2002.
To complement the change, Disney Channel changed their logo in October 2002 (this was partially to celebrate its then-upcoming 20th anniversary). The Zoog Disney identity was also merged with Disney Channel. Some functions of the channel's website contain games, polls and other special features that were found on the former Zoog Disney website, as a result of a merger of that site and DisneyChannel.com in 2003.


Today's Disney Channel: 2002-present
In September 2002, Disney Channel was gradually remodeled once more. First on September 9th, the vintage material aired under the Vault Disney banner was discontinued[1], in favor of same-day repeats of the channel's original programming and off-network series and as a result, primetime movies were also cut to one a night (from two). The channel also ceased producing drama and reality series, shifting focus to live-action comedies and animated series, and Disney Channel usually premieres about two or three new original series a year (typically two animated series and one live-action series). The current logo was implemented a month later.
Most of Disney Channel's current shows have one basic plot, such as The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, whose setting is a hotel, or
While Disney Channel's intended target audience are preschoolers, pre-teens and young adolescents, the channel has gained mega popularity and also has viewers outside the main target audience and has even made teen idols out of some of the channel's stars. Notable examples include Hilary Duff (formerly of Lizzie McGuire), Shia LaBeouf (formerly of Even Stevens), Raven Symone (formerly of That's So Raven), Zac Efron, Vanessa Anne Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale and Corbin Bleu of High School Musical and Miley Cyrus of Hannah Montana, among others. The channel has become well known in recent years for its Disney Channel Original Series, and because of them, Disney Channel is one of the most-watched cable channels in the United States, with some series averaging around three million viewers (which is considered impressive for cable television).
That's So Raven made history as the first Disney Channel Original Series to go past the 65 episode mark, with a total of 100 episodes being broadcast. The Suite Life of Zack and Cody and Kim Possible have also gone past the 65 episode limit and it is rumored that Hannah Montana will go over the limit. This is a result of complaints from fans of Lizzie McGuire and Even Stevens through online message boards and forums opposed to the network stopping production of both series at 65 episodes even though they were extremely popular. The pre-teen programming usually does not heavily feature the "classic" Disney characters such as Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Pluto, and Goofy.