1985 8:30 on CBS: THE WUZZLES

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

In 1985, Disney was desperate to get back in to the Television Animation business. A series of underperforming animated movies since the death of Walt Disney in 1966 had left the once powerful House Of Mouse a slowly rotting corpse of a company being picked apart by corporate scavengers.

Then came Michael Eisner who said "Screw that, we're DISNEY!" and with that they pumped new money, new talent and, unfortunately, new 1980's greed-fueled corporate policies in to what had once been a tight-knit "Family" corporation of sorts.

Regardless of the greed-fueled motivations, though, Michael Eisner got the company back up and running for a whole new generation of kids, starting with Saturday Mornings in 1985 because Saturday Morning cartoons were cheap, easy to make, and could be turned out FAST to get the Disney name back in to homes that weren't tuning in to the Disney Sunday Night Movie every week out of habit for family-friendly viewing.

The first cartoon that was made ready was "The Wuzzles", with a concept that was created by Michael Eisner himself for his new Disney Television Animation Studio to create. Because Michael was such a good 80's businessman, he had the toy rights sold to Hasbro before they even had a storyline, full name, concept sketch or really anything beyond "It's a show about mixed-up animals, like part giraffe and part elephant". It had the Disney name behind it, so they bought it and BOOM! An 80's classic was born!

The Wuzzles only lasted one season (13 episodes), making it the shortest lived Disney Television Animated show ever, but the following year ABC bought the reruns of that first season as a part of an experiment which we will discuss next week when I tell you all about Disney's Adventures of The Gummi Bears :)

Comments

[kaitydid33087.livejournal.com]

My sister was really into the Wuzzles. I was a bit behind it, so of course I didn't get into it. But I liked the Hippo character.

[kingodin.livejournal.com]

I loved The Wuzzles when it was on Toon Disney (how I miss thee), sort of influenced my novels with hybrid animal characters.

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

I think that 1980's Saturday morning cartoons are more responsible for the current popularity of Anthropomorphic, Fursuit and "Furry" obsessions than pretty much anything else :)

[harmonybear.livejournal.com]

I don't remember watching it on TV (Then again, Australia didn't have the Disney Channel at the time) but I did watch it on VHS. Over and over and over and over and .....

Wuzzles and Fluppy Dogs need more fans.

[queeberquabbler.livejournal.com]

Loved this show, but loved Gummi Bears more :) I have both on DVD though--well, VHS transferred to DVD, not an official one or anything, but hey, it still counts, and I still love to watch them :)

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

Bootleg Video and DVD are the backbone of any pop-culture movement :)

[aurora77]

I really did like this one. It was so goofy and cheerful that I couldn't NOT like it.

[janusfiles.livejournal.com]

As I recall, Disney used the mixed-up animals concept again in a few episodes of Kim Possible.