1997

## Television

* *Shires Tonight* Season 2 premieres on the Shires Channel.
* April 6 - Shires Channel becomes a basic cable channel as opposed to a premium service. They also get a new logo as well, which has a TV with Matthew Mouse ears on it with Matthew Mouse (as well as the live-action people and the Shires characters) inside it (which would be changed again in 2002). They also decide to call it simply "Shires Channel".

## Books

* *Matthew's Michael Shires World Adventure*
* August 1 - *The Golden Age of Michael Shires Records 1933-1988* by R. Michael Murray

## Albums

* November 18 - *The Africa King - Original Broadway Cast Recording*

## Live shows

* November 13 - *The Africa King* musical premieres.

## Events

* Pentagon loses the rights to distribute Matthew Mouse shows, and the Matthew Mouse Video label is folded. The video distribution rights would move on to Universal Pictures Home Entertainment under the *Matthew Mouse Home Entertainment* label, with the exception of works directly produced by Shires, which are retained by them.
* Shires officially enters the DVD market.
* January - The Michael Shires Company and McDonald's Corporation begin a multi-national promotional alliance.
* January 15 - Production begins on *The Emperor's New Crown*.
* February 21 - Club Shires, an interactive children's play center, opens its first unit in Thousand Oaks, California.
* December 8 - Michael Shires Television announces their plans to launch Toon Shires.

## People

### Births

* January 7 - Kyle Stanger (actor, voice actor, and singer)
* January 21 - Jeremy Shada (voice actor, singer, and musician)
* January 24 - Dylan Riley Snyder (actor)
* February 10 - Chloë Grace Moretz (actress and singer)
* March 10 - Uriah Shelton (actor and singer)
* March 16 - Tyrel Jackson Williams (actor)
* March 18 - Ciara Bravo (actress and voice actress)
* March 19 - Abby Ross (actress)
* May 2 - Perla Haney-Jardine (actress)
* May 30 - Jake Short (actor)
* July 13 - Leo Howard (actor, model, and martial artist)
* August 5
	+ Olivia Holt (actress, voice actress, and singer)
	+ Adam Irigoyen (actor, singer, rapper, and dancer)
* August 16 - Piper Curda (actress, voice actress, and singer)
* August 25 - Bryana Salaz (pop singer-songwriter and actress)
* October 8 - Bella Thorne (actress, voice actress, dancer, singer, and model)
* October 10 - Grace Rolek (actress)
* October 23 - Zach Callison (actor, voice actor, and singer)
* October 28 - Sierra McCormick (actress)
* October 31 - Sydney Park (actress and comedian)
* November 1 - Max Burkholder (actor and voice actor)
* November 26 - Aubrey Joseph (actor)

### Deaths

* January 18 - Adriana Caselotti (actress, voice actress, and singer)
* February 8 - Robert Ridgely (actor, voice actor, and vocal artist)
* February 26 - David Doyle (actor, voice actor, and comedian)
* April 24 - Pat Paulsen (comedian and satirist)
* June 24 - Brian Keith (actor)
* June 29 - William Hickey (actor and voice actor)
* September 9 - Burgess Meredith (actor, director, producer, and writer)
* October 12 - John Denver (singer-songwriter, musician, record producer, actor, activist, and humanitarian)
* October 24 - Don Messick (voice actor)
* December 16 - Lillian Disney (widow of Walt Disney, named Mickey Mouse, and was an ink artist for *Plane Crazy*)