 Disney's One Too logo used on-air from 1999 to 2002 | |
| Network | UPN |
|---|---|
| Launched | September 6, 1999; 26 years ago (1999-09-06) |
| Closed | August 31, 2003; 22 years ago (2003-08-31) |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Owner | The Walt Disney Company (programming syndicated byBuena Vista Television) |
| Formerly known as | Disney's One Too (1999–2002) |
| Sister network | ABC Kids |
| Format | Children's programming block |
| Running time | 2 hours |
Disney's Animation Weekdays (originally known asDisney's One Too until 2002) was an American two-hour weekday and Sundaychildren'sprogramming block that aired onUPN from September 6, 1999 to August 31, 2003. Marketed as a spin-off of theDisney's One Saturday Morning block onABC (which is owned byThe Walt Disney Company), it featured animated series fromWalt Disney Television Animation aimed at children between the ages of 6 and 11.
In January 1998,UPN began discussions withThe Walt Disney Company (owner of rival networkABC) to have the company program a daily two-hour children's block for the network, airing on weekdays (during the morning or afternoon hours) and Sunday mornings.[1] Attempts to reach a time-lease agreement deal with Disney were canceled one week after negotiations started due to a dispute between Disney and UPN over how the block would be branded and the amount of E/I programming that Disney would provide for the block; UPN then entered into discussions with then-corporate sisterNickelodeon as both networks were owned byViacom at the time to produce a new block, but never came to fruition and Nickelodeon eventually came to an agreement withCBS andNickelodeon on CBS premiered two years later.[2] That February, UPN entered into an agreement withSaban Entertainment (then a subsidiary ofFox Family Worldwide, which Disney later acquired in 2001 and reunited 18 years later following themerger of21st Century Fox along a library of children's content), which distributed two live-action series recently aired on theUPN Kids block around that time,Sweet Valley High andBreaker High, to broadcast the Sunday-to-Friday block.[2][3][4]
In March 1998, UPN resumed discussions with Disney[5] and the following month, The Walt Disney Company and UPN came to an agreement to provide Disney-produced programs on the network on weekdays (from 7:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m. or 3:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.) and Sunday (from 9:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.).[6] The block was originally announced under the working titleWhomptastic to distinguish it from Disney's recently-launchedOne Saturday Morning block forABC. However, amid the success ofOne Saturday Morning, the UPN block was rebranded prior to launch asDisney's One Too, aiming to capitalize onbrand awareness.[7][8]
The block premiered on September 6, 1999, replacing UPN Kids, which closed the day before on September 5 after four years.[7] Compared to the format ofOne Saturday Morning,One Too varied in that, instead of incorporating hosted segments, short animated segment gags from the series featured in the block (such as DIC'sSabrina: The Animated Series,Doug (revived for Disney) andRecess, all of which, along with a few other series, were originally aired onOne Saturday Morning) were actually shown, often preceding the beginning of each program, and after commercial breaks. The block also featured an alternate opening sequence, using more futuristic buildings and a theme similar to that used onOne Saturday Morning. Many series previously aired onOne Too continued in reruns on two Disney-branded cable TV networks,Toon Disney (now Disney XD) andDisney Channel.
In September 2002, theOne Too branding was discontinued; although the UPN block did not rebrand (with bumpers and promos simply being created for each individual show starting from the previous year). However, theDisney.com website referred to it under the titleDisney's Animation Weekdays as a result of the rebranding of the ABC block fromOne Saturday Morning intoABC Kids.[9][10]
In the final season of UPN's weekday morning block, it adds Digimon anime after leaving Fox Kids.
The block aired for the last time on August 31, 2003, with the time periods given back to UPN's affiliates. This left UPN as the only "big six" broadcast television network without a dedicated children's programming block (and for the rest of its existence through its shutdown on September 15, 2006, nearly all UPN stations would not air any children's programming), as well as joiningPAX-TV (which discontinued itsPax Kids block in 2000) as one of only two major commercial broadcast networks without a children's block. However, PAX, which had recently rebranded toi: Independent Television (nowIon Television) in June 2005, would reverse course in 2006 with the introduction ofQubo (which launched on the same day as UPN's shutdown) but it shut down nearly 15 years later because of Scripps' acquisition. Additionally, some Fox stations that declined to carry4Kids TV passed on that block to an affiliate of UPN,The WB, or anindependent station, in order for the Fox affiliate to air general entertainment programming or local newscasts on Saturday mornings (for example,WFLD inChicago moved 4Kids TV's schedule to the co-owned then-UPN affiliateWPWR, while WFLD aired infomercials).
UPN was not the first "big six" network to remove children's programming:NBC became the first to remove children's series entirely in August 1992, when the network launched a live-action block for teenagers calledTNBC; children's programming returned to NBC in 2002, through a time-lease agreement withDiscovery Kids. In the years since the block was discontinued, all other major broadcast networks, including UPN successorThe CW (sister of the "Big Three" networkCBS), would gradually abandon children's programming by selling their respective children's blocks toLitton Entertainment, who produces primarily unscripted E/I content targeted nominally at teenagers (but having an older demographic overall by ratings), or in the case of Fox, removing children's programming entirely. Fox's sister network,MyNetworkTV, has never supplied children's programming as part of its lineup; both networks leave the responsibility of acquiring E/I programming to the affiliates, primarily through the syndicated blockXploration Station in the case of the former.
| Title | Premiere date | End date | Source(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Disney's Doug1 | September 6, 1999 | October 1, 2000 | |
| Recess12† | September 8, 2002 | ||
| Hercules: The Animated Series | October 31, 1999 | ||
| Pepper Ann12 | February 6, 2000 | September 2, 2001 | |
| Buzz Lightyear of Star Command12† | October 2, 2000 | September 8, 2002 | |
| The Legend of Tarzan2† | September 3, 2001 | ||
| The Weekenders12 | September 9, 2001 |
| Title | Premiere date | End date | Source(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sabrina: The Animated Series12 | September 6, 1999 | September 6, 2002 |
† - Program transitioned to Disney's Animation Weekdays
| Title | Premiere date | End date | Source(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Recess12† | September 9, 2002 | August 31, 2003 | |
| Buzz Lightyear of Star Command12† | |||
| The Legend of Tarzan2† | |||
| Digimon[a]2‡ |
† - Program transitioned from Disney's One Too
‡ - Program transitioned from final schedule of Fox Kids
