I Remember JFK

« Baseball Cards | Main | 45 Inserts »

Add to Google

Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color

Walt Disney's Wonderful World of ColorSunday nights were the must-see-TV of the 60's. Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom, Sullivan, Bonanza, and of course, Disney were its residents.

The Disney show started out as Disneyland on ABC in 1954. It was a hit, its biggest coup of that decade being the Davey Crockett series over three nights. Coonskin caps were the immediate rage in the wake of the hugely successful presentation.

In 1961, Disney hopped networks. It had nothing to do with ratings or cancellation. Instead, it jumped to NBC because the network was widely telecast in color. The show was rechristened Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color.

I count myself as fortunate to remember Walt Disney himself introducing the night's episodes in a folksy, downhome manner. No wonder kids loved him. I felt like he was my grandpa.

Walt died in 1966, and the intro scenes were dropped. Good move. Nobody could hold a candle to the man himself.

The show opened to a musical accompaniment that I can still recall, in large part. And it looked so good on our brand new color TV.

The show featured movies (cut into one-hour chunks), nature-based-films, and various shorts in the Disney vault. The ultimate was when they would show cartoons. Man, I would get into a state of ecstasy when Sunday afternoon commercials would announce a toon on Disney that night. They would also announce next week's show at the end of the episode, so sometimes the anticipation would last an entire week.

Dad would always act like we would have to switch the channel in such a case, but he never did. I think the old Norwegian had a sense of humor buried deep in his psyche.

Sunday nights no longer hold the same mystique over me, or the rest of the world. In fact, the various cable channels continue to make inroads on the Big Three networks (actually four, including Fox) so that the very concept of who's number one is different now than it used to be.

But in the 60's, Sunday night was the biggest show on television. And Walt Disney ruled it.

Recommend I Remember JFK to your friends!

Get emailed notifications of new articles!


NOTE: I will not sell any email addresses I receive, and will not send any unsolicited emails, either. If you sign up for new article notifications, that is ALL you will receive, and you can cancel at any time. You have my word.
--Ron Enderland

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.baldguyweb.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/97

Comments (7)

Rhea:

I remember Ed Sullivan and Disney the best. Remember black & white TV?

scott:

Back to Mutual's "Wild Kingdom". Runor had it that assistant "Jim"
had a lit flare he held in back of the smaller creatures while filming,
so they would have 100% action sequences on a tight schedule. No waiting in the swamp for hours like Disneys docs for movement. Just get the flame under the animal, film quick, and cut to a policy advertisement for term
life.....AMerica, what a country!

Jeff:

I also grew up watching the 1960's and 1970's version of The Wonderful World of Disney! I was always so excited when they had the nature programs -- maybe it was about a bobcat or otters swimming or wolves. Interestingly, there was a very practical reason for these 'animal' programs. Everytime Walt Disney created a full movie cartoon, the Disney company would near bankruptcy. While on vacation in Alaska in the 50's, Walt discovered that by filming animals and adding a narrative track, the costs were almost nil. The animals never charged him a dime and to top it off, everyone LOVED the films!!! Desperation is, of course, the mother of invention! M---I--C,---K---E---Y, M---O---U---S----E !!!!!

Philip:

I remember watching the proud bird from shanghai episode 474 season number 20 and first aired on December 16,1973.

It was a live motion picture of a chinese ringneck pheasant that overcame all odds.

It is not available anywhere. Could it be that Walt disney will never record this episode on DVD?

What a bummer I would like to see it again.


Any suggestios please email me.


Thank you,

Phil

Don Herring:

I grew up watching The Wonderfull World of Disney on Sunday nights back in the 50's & 60's. I loved the nature shows because of the narrator. Does anyone know his name?

Rivers End:

A regular Sunday night staple in our hosehold! I wonder what Walt would be thinking today about his empire? RIP Walt!

Davy Crocket was replayed when I was in sub-primary. I was a huge fan! I put a big wooden create on my wagon and would try to push it along like Davy and his men did in the canal. I recall Toby Tyler at that time, too and was kind of sweet on the girl in the circus. I remember one Goofy cartoon in particular where they were showing how to drive, or rather, how not to drive with Goofy flaunting all the rules. I recall Tomasina the Cat as well. Though I did find it hard to believe the gorgeous woman was a witch. Some Disney shows looked boring at first but if you held in there, you got hooked. Ah, I remember the Scarecrow. My brother and I were nuts over him. Don’t forget Disney movies. Bambie, Cinderella, Snow White, etc!

Yeah, I found Walt to be a likable guy, too. Loved any cartoons. Not enough of them. I can’t help but think Walt would object to much of the crass disregard of all things except profit and merchandizing. But I think he would like Disney World, minus $15 hot dog and $20 burgers. I have never been to D World but I hear of the prices, via several sources including the Simpsons, of course. Anyone know if prices have gotten any higher?

Hey kids, this is another reason why the 60s was better cause we were not quite a greedy. Most lakes, beaches and other such places were free till 67 in Maine. Parking was free for a while intown. Ya had to be there.

Post a comment

Like the site? Buy Ron a cup of coffee! Note to those who would use my images
You may use any images you find on my site on your own personal site. COPY the images to your own server, PLEASE. If you link directly, you will likely get a logo encouraging others to visit I Remember JFK instead of the graphic that you expected. In return, I request that you include a link back to I Remember JFK. Fair enough?

Add to Google
Visit I remember JFK's Forum!
7 users currently visiting I Remember JFK
Get Emailed Updates of New Articles!
NOTE: I will not sell any email addresses I receive, and will not send any unsolicited emails, either. If you sign up for new article notifications, that is ALL you will receive, and you can cancel at any time. You have my word. --Ron Enderland, webmaster

My Policy on Advertisements

You will never see a Flash ad, a popup ad, or a banner ad at I Remember JFK. What you will see are unobtrusive, friendly text ads. If you get popups here, the problem is that you have adware or spyware on Microsoft Windows. I recomment you download and install Ubuntu Linux and enjoy safe, adware-free surfing. Barring that, install Spybot and Ad-Aware to kill the bugs.

With that, if you have ad-disabling software such as AdBlock Plus, I respectfully request that you make an allowance for my website in its settings. You have my personal guarantee that there is no intrusive advertising here.

Ron Enderland, webmaster

This page contains a single entry from the blog posted on February 6, 2007 12:07 AM.

The previous post in this blog was Baseball Cards.

The next post in this blog is 45 Inserts.

Many more can be found on the main index page or by looking through the archives.