Disneyland TV Show Debuts
October 1955, Changing Network Television
Forever
Forever
Walt Disney conquered Hollywood with his Oscar winning feature film Snow White and the Seven Drarfs in 1937 and had established his company as a minor studio that produced mostly animated cartoons. But after a visit with his daughters to a local amusement park in Los Angeles, Walt concieved of a new idea to build a theme park featuring his many cartoon creations -- Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Pluto and even the Three Little Pigs.
Despite all the succcesses, however, Disney Studios was hanging onto its financial solvency by the hair of its chinny-chin-chin, and the studio was taken public in the early 1940's so that new capital could be raised. Walt now had to answer to a Board of Directors, and in 1954 they determined that Walt's idea was unworkable and refused to vote funds to develop the theme park, originally dubbed Disneylandia.
At this same time, the multi-billion dollar motion picture industry was beginning to unravel as the new medium of Television appeared on the scene. Even though they offered only tiny screens and second tier talent, video entertainment was free and was delivered right into the living rooms of viewers. Initially, Hollywood studios closed ranks and refused to do business with the television networks. Contract studio players were forbidden to appear in TV programs, and even the television set itself was rarely shown or mentioned in film productions.
Roy Disney, brother of Walt and the administrative head of the studio, approached ABC-TV about a collaboration. At the time, ABC was a small network with few affiliates, many on UHF who required a special converter to be seen on first generation TV sets. A deal, which must go down as one of the savviest business moves ever made in the entertainment industry, was struck with ABC. In return for cash and stock in Walt Disney’s new theme park, Walt Disney sold himself as the host of a program on ABC titled, Disneyland.
The show was, in fact, an early infomercial for Disneyland and Disney Productions. New movies were previewed and old favorites were re-released. The production cost to Disney was low and the free promotion increased interest and ticket sales for new Disney releases. The biggest hit came with the Davy Crockett series starring Fess Parker, which spawned a merchandising avalanche of coonskin caps, a sequel, and subsequent re-release of the TV series theatrically as a feature film. Having proven the popularity of the Western genre on TV, the other major television networks of the day (NBC and CBS) forged partnerships with the major Hollywood studios to produce Westerns for TV. By 1957, one or more Westerns aired on network TV every night of the week, forever changing the American entertainment landscape.
Disney Studios began its climb to the top of the media universe and went on to become a major force in Television by the end of the Century. The Walt Disney Company bought ABC-TV in 1986.
