Disney's One Saturday Morning

***Disney's One Saturday Morning*** was a Saturday morning cartoon block produced by Disney for ABC that ran from September 13, 1997, through June 24, 2012, with its most popular and well-known shows being *Doug*, *Recess*, and *Pepper Ann*.

## History

In February 1997, Peter Hastings left Warner Bros. Animation in a heated dispute over the direction of two strongest Warner Bros. cartoons he had written for, *Animaniacs* and *Pinky and the Brain*, and joined Disney. Hastings was tasked with overhauling ABC's Saturday morning lineup in order to compete against Fox Kids and Kids' WB. He pitched the idea that Saturday is different from every other day and to represent weekdays as buildings. He also proposed the use of virtual set technology; although he knew little about it at the time and the technology used was just starting development, Disney and ABC liked the idea. He hired Prudence Fenton as consultant manager and co-executive producer. Together, they sampled virtual set technology at the 1997 NAB Show and chose technology developed by Accom and ELSET. Rutherford Bench Productions, which had previously worked with Disney, hired Pacific Ocean Post (now POP Sound) to produce the virtual set. The building was initially a drawing of Grand Central Terminal with a roller coaster added, but evolved into a towering mechanical 1. Even the interior has similarities such as a central high raised room with two wings on left and right sides and another on the south side.

On September 13, 1997, *One Saturday Morning* was first broadcast as a two-hour block as part of the ABC Saturday Morning lineup. It was originally scheduled for a September 6 debut, but due to ABC and all the other networks airing Princess Diana's funeral instead of children's programming that day, it was pushed back a week later. It featured two parts: three hours of regularly scheduled cartoons and a two-hour hosted flagship show that included features, comedy, and the virtual world Hastings had proposed, along with full episodes of *Doug* (which had been acquired from Nickelodeon), *Recess* and *Pepper Ann*, all of which were interspersed through the block. In Canada, the Baton Broadcast System (BBS), and later CTV (which absorbed BBS into itself in 1998, after Baton Broadcasting succeed in their goal of taking over CTV), aired *One Saturday Morning*.

On September 6, 1999, a spin-off, *Disney's One Too*, premiered on UPN affiliates (or, in some cases, syndication) every weekday in the morning or afternoon (the station could choose when to air the weekday component) and Sunday mornings, replacing *The Disney Afternoon*.

*One Saturday Morning* aired its final broadcast on September 7, 2002 (by this time, the host segments and interstitials had been dropped in 2000 due to declining ratings). It was replaced with ABC Kids on September 14, 2002, and it's relaunched on September 2, 2005.

## Shows featured on One Saturday Morning

### Disney shows

* *101 Dalmatians: The Series* (1997-1999)
* *Doug* (1997-2006)
* *Pepper Ann* (1997-2006)
* *Recess* (1997-2002, 2005-2007)
* *Jungle Cubs* (1997-1998)
* *The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh* reruns (1997-2002, 2005)
* *Hercules: The Animated Series* (1998-1999)
* *Mickey Mouse Works* (1999-2000)
* *Sabrina: The Animated Series* (1999-2001) (The series was produced during the time when Disney owned its animation studio- DIC Entertainment [now as WildBrain])
* *The Weekenders* (2000-2002, 2005-2008)
* *Fillmore!* (2005-2012)
* *Teacher's Pet* (2000-2002, 2005-2007)
* *Buzz Lightyear of Star Command* (2000-2001)
* *House of Mouse* (2001-2009)
* *Lloyd in Space* (2001-2002, 2005-2010)
* *The Rocksticles* (2001-2012)
* *Lizzie McGuire* reruns (2001-2002, 2005-2009)
* *Kim Possible* reruns (2005-2012)
* *Even Stevens* reruns (2001-2002, 2005-2009)
* *Teamo Supremo* (2002, 2005-2009)
* *The Proud Family* reruns (2002; aired on August 31, and September 7, before the block became ABC Kids, 2005-2012)