Sunday, August 05, 2007

THE ORIGINAL, BLACK & WHITE "DISNEYLAND" SHOW

So far as I'm able to tell, the very best kids show ever on TV was the prime-time "Disneyland" show which aired for four years starting in ...Er, I'm not going to tell you when it aired because you'll think I'm Methuselah for having been old enough to have seen it.

This show is not to be confused with the inferior "Wonderful World of Color" which succeeded it. That show was full of sappy live action mini-movies about things like the indian boy and his eagle or the handicapped girl who won the Olympics. Yuck! The show I'm talking about is the earlier, full-strength, glorious, politically incorrect, gutsy, heroic, imaginative, black and white show..."Disneyland!"



The show was so popular that the streets were almost empty when it came on. The time slots opposite the Disney show were known as the "graveyard" slots because virtually every TV was tuned into Disney. I still remember the thrill when the show came on and the mysterious, Camelot-in-the-mist title card (topmost, above) came on. Walt was a great presenter. It was fun to look over his shoulder at the glimpses of artists working at desks full of funny drawings and under giant models of things like Mars rockets.



I loved the Fantasyland shows which featured Donald Duck cartoons and features like "Alice in Wonderland." I think Disney must have chosen the cartoons himself, taking particular care to pick the ones little boys would want to see.

You'd think that a movie like Alice, which was shown in two parts, would suffer from being shown in black and white. Actually, it didn't. I refer the reader to Marshall McLuhan's theories about B&W TV requiring more effort from the viewer and therefore being more involving. I don't know if that's true, but if it's not then something similar must have been in play. After seeing full animation on the Disney show we kids learned to disdain the anemic, limited animation cartoons that played on Saturday Morning.


I believe that "Davy Crockett" played on TV before it played in the movies. Imagine that, a show of that quality premiering on TV! The marketing people must have thought Disney was nuts! Why would people pay to see a film on the screen that they'd already seen for free on TV? Ah, but they'd seen it in B&W on TV and the film was in technicolor! Disney knew how to use TV as a teaser for his movies.

Davy Crockett is a remarkable film. My kids didn't think much of it so maybe the film's time has passed, but it had every element in it that kids of the B&W TV era wanted to see: a driving, catchy theme, an appealing kid role model, heroism, adventure, an amazing you-are-there style of story telling, and a pervasive sincerity.

This (above) could have been me. I had to have the whole Davy Crockett suit, gun and powder horn. Believe it or not, toy stores and book stores were actually full of toys kids wanted to buy in those days and I and every other kid were more than willing to throw tantrums to get what we wanted.


Disney's "Zorro" was it's own show but I have a dim memory that makes me feel it may have had a starter episode on the Disney show. Of course I and all my friends had to have the sword, hat, gloves and mask. No kid ever missed an episode of Zorro.


Did "Treasure Island" also debut on the Disney show? That's where I saw it first. Of course I had to have the Jim Hawkins flintlock pistol and a plastic cutlass or two. Like every kid I had a whole arsenal of plastic weapons. Death to New-Agers who denied things like this to kids in subsequent years!


I loved the three part "Man in Space" series. Kids of that period LOVED outer space and I was no exception. I loved Von Braun's style of speaking and I hung on every word of the story. I remember thinking how much fun it must be to work at a studio that had space projects and funny cartoons going on at the same time. It seemed that everything that kids of that era really liked was going on under the roof of that studio.



"Mars and Beyond" left me speechless. I and the other kids gathered in the school yard the next day almost too awed to speak. When we finally were able to talk we tried to shout each other down with remembrances.


Disney didn't condescend to kids about space. He made it seem very dangerous and mysterious. He took it for granted that man was by nature a heroic creature, who couldn't be happy unless he was exploring the unknown.


This amazing show went on for four years then it morphed into a new thing, "The Wonderful World of Color." I don't understand why Walt agreed to this. Very few people had color sets in those early days and the idea of debuting films in B&W on TV, then showing them in theaters for money, was a terrific income-generator. Animation historian Milt Gray says that ABC took the opportunity to lean on Disney to make shows they could easily do me-too versions of. The imaginative stuff was too hard to imitate. Anyway, the decline in quality was drastic.



If Disney had never existed we'd still have cartoons but I don't think the word "imagination" would have been linked to animation the way it used to be. Even today when non-artists find out that I work in animation, some will say "Animation!? Really? You must have a lot of imagination!" That's the lingering influence of Walt and the Disneyland show.


By way of an exit here's a reprint (above and below) of a terrific recent article by Milt Gray about his impressions of Disney. Click to enlarge!




18 comments:

Michael Sporn said...

This article brings back too many memories to wallow up here. Thank you for the post; I absolutely agree that this was the best show for kids ever on TV. Thanks also for Milt Gray's article.

Rossco said...

Hi Eddie.

What a great post mate. This show sounds like so much fun, I wish I was around to have seen it.

Here in Australia, when I was a kid, we had Saturday Disney, which featured cartoons like Gummy Bears and Chip and Dale rescue rangers. I feel like I've been ripped off, there was no mention at all of rocket ships to mars, and men wearing animals and holding guns.

For all Walt's shortcomings, he could really tap into the imagination and awe of a child. This seems to be a point missed through the generations of Disney animation.

Thanks for this Eddie it put a smile on my face.

Brilliantpants said...

I think these shows still have lots of appeal! I'm only a 23 old girl, but I remember staying up into the wee hours of the morning (on a school night, no less) to watch "The Disney Vault" show, where they would play super classic gems like Zorro, and Davey Crocket and all such manner of wonderful things. Of course, eventually someone at the Disney Channel realized that they were actually putting on some good programming, so that show was cancelled and replaced with whatever crap they play durring the day.

Also, when I see movies like Treasure Island have been released on dvd, I tend to clap and jump up and down. And sqeal.

Jenny Lerew said...

If I remember correctly, didn't Walt have ALL the episodes of "Disneyland" shot in color aginst the days of future reruns when he anticipated people having color sets?
I think he was thrilled to be on the forefront of color broadcasting before almost anyone else with a regular series. So, pride and showmanship--making the absolute best quality--were his reasons. Making TV better.
And he was smart (yet again) because those segments could be reused later, the better produced they were.

You're right about Disney singlehandedly instilling "animator" as a special job in people's minds...funny that he was so successful that virtually anyone would assume every animator works for Disney--as if there's no other studio! I'll bet it was like that for those other guys in the past, too, during the 30s and 40s.

Anonymous said...

Wonderful post Uncle Eddie. This brings back good memories. I remember when the Disney Channel would actually air things "Disney" and late at night they would have "Vault Disney" and they played the old cartoons and TV shows all through the early morning. That's where I first saw "Steamboat Willie", "The Skeleton Dance" and "The Three Little Pigs". I would get up early in the morning and watch those. I loved Zorro and Davy Crockett. Thanks to the Disney Sing-A-Long tapes, I knew the theme songs to both shows. Also, Alice in Wonderland was always my favorite Disney film. It's easily the most imaginative off those films, with some of the best animation by Ward Kimball. Thanks for reminding us how good Disney used to be. God Bless You, and may death come swiftly to your enemies.

Anonymous said...

Hasdrubal
hamilcar1234@yahoo.com

I didn't know Von Braun went on Disney's show in the 50's. My dad actually worked with him on government projects back then. One morning, a few years before I was born, Dad invited him to our house for breakfast. My older brother distinctly remembers that Von Braun did not like the taste of Fruit Loops cerial.

Randi Gordon said...

My God, Eddie, what a spoiled brat you were!! Were your parents billionaires?? How I yearned for even a single plastic replica of any accoutrements of my childhood heroes and heroines, but the cost was prohibitive, so I made my own where possible. It just wasn't the same, though, not having the "real" fake weapons and accessories, encased in thrilling packages that suggested there was so much more inside than you actually got.

(What I wouldn't have done for my own Honey West outfit, complete with ocelot...well, this is a family blog.)

You know what's interesting about that whole b/w vs. color thing is that I could swear that Wonderful World of Disney was in color. My memory insists it had to be, but my rational mind knows my cheapskate parents didn't buy a color TV until 1979--I remember the exact day it appeared--so maybe Marshall McLuhan was on to something.

I agree, the live-action fare on WWoD was utter dreck. As soon as it was obvious no cartoons would be shown that evening, I felt like there was no point in living, especially since it was too late to go outside and play Top Cat with the neighbor kids by sitting inside garbage cans. My brother flatly refused to be Officer Dibble even once. Maybe I owe him a debt of gratitude for fueling my imagination by being such a creep.

Why, though, were those evening Disney programs so good but The Mickey Mouse Club was so bad? I hated that show when I was five years old, no exaggeration. I took one look at Cubby and thought, "This is the worst piece of crap ever." And I believed at the time that Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse was an excellent show, which speaks volumes.

Did Walt consider the primetime shows to be for adults also, but believed the afternoon show could be insipid and bereft of watchability since only kids tuned in? I don't understand.

Anonymous said...

Walt did amazing things in early television. But even he realized that TV was ultimately a bottomless pit. He once aptly described doing things for TV as being like "pounding sand down a rat hole." The later NBC program, Wonderful World of Color, parodied Werner Von Braun in the tepid, unfunny character of Ludwig Von Drake. What the hell was going through Walt's head at that point?

Kali Fontecchio said...

I thought this was a touching post, Eddie, and an insight into your childhood.

I have yet to see those Mars episodes- oh boy!

William said...

I'm glad Ms. Brilliantpants brought that up, I'm not the only one! I too am 23 and watched lots of old Disney back when the Disney Channel was worth a shit.

I've always loved how they raised boys in the optimism of the 50s. You phrased it right- Space was seen as something dark and mysterious, yet to be discovered but it would certainly get discovered, because we are Man and that is simply what we do. This is the same man that when a child, could kill a bear single-handedly like Davy Crockett did(and he did, I saw it on teevee).

Why did we stop telling kids they could do anything when they grew up? Why does naturalism make kids be 'realistic' and solidly unambitious? "Buck Rogers doesn't get a cold, why, you just got a cold last week." I don't even know if kids make guns out of sticks anymore.

Thanks for bringing me back.

Kali Fontecchio said...

Ludwig Von Drake is the worst Disney character ever.

William said...

Whaaaat? How could you say such a thing? This is madness.

Lester Hunt said...

Hey kids! Everything Eddie says in this post is true! The whole enchilada! I know! I was there too! It's hard to communicate how much kids loved that show, how bonkers we went over Davy Crockett, etc., but Eddie has done a darn effective job. The "Mars and Beyond" show was the most mind-stretching thing I ran into until I started reading Nietzsche. BTW, when I re-watched Davy Crockett many years later, when my son was that age, I was amazed that they included the episode of Crockett's life in which he lost his job in Congress because he opposed the confiscatory, genocidal policies of Pres. Jackson, his old commanding officer, toward the Indians. Pretty cool!

Pete Emslie said...

Kali - Ludwig Von Drake was great! As voiced by the wonderfully inventive Paul Frees (sort of the Robin Williams of his time), Von Drake brought a spontaneous madcap style to the show through Frees' gift for adlibbing. Though I really enjoyed the short cartoons that he tied together, it was all that interstitial hosting by the Professor (along with his little pal, Herman the bootle beetle) that really made those shows for me. I hope they'll release a bunch of them altogether on a future Disney Treasures DVD set.

As for the "worst Disney character ever", I'd say that distinction belongs to Michael Eisner...

I.D.R.C. said...

Well now I know you got at least 4-5 years on me. I seem to recall a pic of my older brother in his Zorro suit. He's probably about your age.

When I was a little kid, all I wanted to see was cartoons. Anything Disney with real people in it was boring. They had Zorro and Davy Crockett on in after school reruns, but I never could relate. Cartoons and puppets. Had to have 'em. Some kind of ADD, perhaps.

Eddie Fitzgerald said...

Jenny: I don't know if they were all shot in color. Weren't some of the shows on the Disney Treasures collection Black and white?

Spizz: LOL! I only got the toys because I begged incessantly and cried. A kid has to do that sometimes because adults are too dense to realize what's important.

BTW, Milt Gray corrected some of my information: The B&W Disneyland show ran for seven years but only four of those years are considered "golden." ABC medled with the show starting with the 5th season. For one thing they leaned on Walt to stop showing so many cartoons. Their reasoning was that they couldn't do spin-offs of cartoons that were made so much better than anything ABC could do.

Another correction: "Davy Crockett" premiered on TV but "Treasure Island" first appeared in the theaters.

Andrew Moore said...

Great post, Uncle Eddie! The Disney Channel was new when I was a kid, so I have very fond memories of Davy Crockett and Zorro. Also "Johnny Tremaine and the Sons of Liberty". Good times!

Harry Potter has brought back a bit of that "dress up like your fictional hero" magic, so I'd say that book stores and toy stores are doing okay. Alas, gone are the days when "The Ballad of Davy Crockett" topped the pop music charts!

Eddie Fitzgerald said...

Wow! Thanks Warren! i bookmarked the site!