New Disney Channel VHS Rip (+Welcome!)

Happy Among Us Thursday!

    I guess this is officially my first actual blog post. As such, welcome to my new blog! I plan on posting a number of things here from reviews and essays to spotlight pieces on parts of my collection. Mainly, though, I made it because I wanted a way to provide updates about my YouTube channel, The DVD Hole, and announcements regarding my media preservation efforts (particularly ripping blank VHS tapes).

    For now, here is a new upload I just made to archive.org. It's a VHS recording of The Disney Channel featuring about two hours of programming. The recording is from 1994 according to the writing on the VHS slipcover (though this seems not to be the case judging from the material present), and the programming block (titled "Hot Days, Cool Night") leads me to believe it aired sometime during the summer. There's nothing too crazy present on the tape, but in-between the two recorded movies are some shorter yet fairly interesting offerings.

    The recording opens with an airing of the animated film All Dogs Go To Heaven- an alright movie in my opinion despite being one of Don Bluth's lesser outputs. I've cut it out of the upload due to copyright being copyright, but not that it would've mattered anyways, as practically the first 3rd of the movie is completely worn out and has no picture whatsoever (or sound for the most part). Besides, the more interesting bits of the recording are yet to come.

 

    The movie is followed by a number of promo ads for other Disney Channel programming. In-between these commercials is a very brief "Dateline Disney" segment giving a behind-the-scenes look at Operation Dumbo Drop, Disney's latest live action flick at the time that tells the apparently-true story about a group of soldiers transporting an elephant across Vietnam. I guess this dates the recording to July or August of 1995, as that's around when this film came out. I've never seen Dumbo Drop before, but I'm sure it's about as schmaltzy and marginally accurate as every other "based on a true story" film Disney has made in the past 20 years.

    That said, this making-of segment certainly makes it seem interesting, especially knowing that a large portion of the film features a real live elephant actor named Thai (Ty? Tie? Probably one of those spelling variants), who was apparently taught around 50 different voice commands for the film's making. Scenes were shot entirely in Thailand due to how similar-looking it apparently is to Vietnam, and the more involved scenes not featuring Thai/Ty/Tie instead opted for a detailed elephant animatronic instead. Several actors from the movie are interviewed here, including Doug E. Doug, Danny Glover, and Dennis Leary, who makes a most-tasteful joke about getting pooped on. Expect a separate YouTube upload of this one, as there aren't any at the moment as far as I can tell.


    
About another minute of commercials is followed by Mouseterpiece Theater- another relatively short segment, though much longer than the Dumbo Drop one at a little over 8 minutes long. This anthology series featuring various classic Walt Disney cartoons is hosted by famed journalist George Plimpton, who gives a very dignified opening to the cartoon being presented- in this case, Pluto At the Zoo, in which Pluto tries to swipe a large bone from a ferocious lion. I find it odd that only one cartoon is shown here, as from what I can tell the series was mostly aired in full 30-minute segments featuring several of them.

    Regardless, I'm inclined to call Mouseterpiece Theater the standout find from this VHS, as the series holds the unfortunate honor of having it's own Lost Media Wiki page, indicating that episodes are quite hard to come by nowadays and mostly unavailable for viewing. While all of the shorts featured in the series are certainly available through DVD releases and on Disney+, the same can't be said for Mr. Plimpton's introductory speeches, which unsurprisingly haven't received any video or streaming releases and are extremely scarce on sites like YouTube. I find this sad, as Plimpton's posh accent and dignified method of speech are simultaneously perfectly befitting for a Disney anthology series and yet incredibly amusing as a preface to Mickey Mouse cartoons. Additionally, he is the only man who I've ever heard mention The Great Depression in the context of a Pluto short, which will never not be hilarious to me. 

    Something I find odd is the fact that the Wiki page I linked above claims that the show aired from 1983 (the year The Disney Channel first premiered) until 1990, despite the fact that this tape recording, as mentioned, is from the mid-90s. Another weird thing is that it plays completely unannounced, despite the fact that it's relatively long unlike the Dateline Disney segment. I'm think perhaps the full episodes were only aired in the 80s, after which the network opted to take the individual segments and air them in between commercial breaks. Regardless, expect an upload of this as well, and here's hoping more of Plimpton's masterful monologues are uncovered in the future.

    Following Mouseterpiece Theater is another batch of commercials and another brief 2-minute segment- this one being a "Disney Channel Magazine" promo for Disney's 4th Annual Young Musician Symphony Orchestra, an admittedly cool concept in which Disney brought on a large number of child prodigies to put on a massive orchestral concert hosted by journalist Paula Zahn. This also definitively dates the recording to 1995, as the concert apparently features music from Disney's then-ignored and now-still-ignored animated film Pocahontas (though they got the title character's actual singer from the movie to perform there, which is honestly pretty neat).

    Up next is a segment titled The Disney Channel Salutes the American Teacher- yet another short piece of programming clocking in at roughly just 7 minutes. This miniature documentary, hosted by the man, the myth, the enigma known as Michael Eisner, seems to be one in a mostly-lost series of segments putting the spotlight on particularly hard-working and outstanding teachers across the US. Very little info exists on this series, but according to the D23 website it began in 1989, and was the basis for Disney's American Teacher Awards which were first held in 1990. Say it with me- expect ANOTHER separate YouTube upload.

    Featured in this segment is Ann Greiner, who is shown working closely with special needs students in Atlanta, Georgia. I did a bit of research, and it seems Ann was very dedicated to helping special education kids, having worked in the Atlanta Public School district for over 30 years as well as volunteering with the Special Olympics (which she's seen doing in this dedicated segment). Sadly, she passed away a few years ago at the age of 58, but it's nice to know that she dedicated so much time to something she truly cared about, and even got recognition from Disney in doing so.

    Afterwards, the channel seemingly transitions from "Hot Days" to "Cool Nights" as the programming schedule for the evening is shown off. More promos and a sweepstakes commercial lead into yet another animated movie, Once Upon A Forest- interestingly one by 20th Century Fox, decades before they'd infamously be bought out by Disney themselves. I've never seen this movie beyond the Nostalgia Critic review, and don't really plan on it either, as I like Doug Walker more than I like the environment. Like the other movie which opened things off, I opted to exclude this from the upload due to copyright reasons, though I don't expect any outcry from such a decision. Sadly, this seems to be the last recorded material present on the tape, which ends partway into the movie.

Commercials present include those for Avonlea, The Magical World of Disney, and The Making of Disneyland's Indiana Jones Adventure among others, as well as bumpers and promos for Disney's "Hot Days, Cool Nights" featuring an infectiously catchy theme song ("Hot days, cool nights, Disney Channel makin' it right"). Also, one I found interesting was an ad for the Kodak-sponsored "A Day in the Life of Walt Disney World Sweepstakes", in which 10 Grand Prize winners would win a 5 day trip to Disney World and more Kodak disposable cameras than you can plug your orifices with, as well as having their vacation photos featured in a televised photo gallery on none other than The Disney Channel and even getting their names engraved in a section of the park. 100 First Prize winners would win a far less cushy Disney travel bag filled with candy bars, while a number of Second Prize would win some book I've never heard of. I love these sorts of old sweepstakes, especially thinking about how cool it would've been to actually win one of them at the time, so it's fun to see one being advertised here.

Conclusion

    Ok, first of all, hello header text that hasn't been established until now. Second of all, short as it may be (excluding the movies obviously), there's some surprisingly cool stuff packed into this VHS recording. Despite the most interesting content adding up to less than 20 minutes, it's all still super interesting to me, and I found it to provide a varied and even somewhat enriching experience. I heard Dennis Leary make a joke about elephant crap, listened to George Plimpton talk about Pluto cartoons, and learned about an individual's immaculate contributions to society- that's more than I'll ever get out of an episode of Dumbo's Circus, as hard as it is to admit.

    I'll include another link to the archive.org upload in case you missed it in the beginning. Expect another post sometime soon, probably detailing one or the other or both of the two previous VHS rips I have up on Archive. Those ones are longer and have a higher volume of actual content, so expect even longer rambling than what was present here.

 ...

Well, it's 12:30am now. Happy Fall Guys Friday! ;]
~Tristan

Links

Comments

  1. Hey there, I didn't see any way to contact you, I saw your post on Wiki about Pooh Corner and was wondering if you ever got that episode Pooh Borrows Trouble ripped.

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    1. Hey there! Not sure if you'll see this, sorry for getting back to you sort of late. I believe I have the episode on my pc as a part of the full VHS rip, but I haven't uploaded the full rip yet nor have I done a dedicated upload of the episode. That said, I've been uploading a few random things to my channel lately so maybe I'll get the Pooh episode up as long as I'm doing that!

      On an unrelated note, I should add my email address to my LMW user page. Thanks for giving me the thought to do that, lmao.

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  2. Not sure how often you check other places so thought I should post here. Have you considered your "Poor Eeyore" episode of Welcome to Pooh Corner to be "A House Has Blown Down" (91). Since Eeyore is always troubled, I figure it would be more likely to be said in multiple episodes than a house being blown down in multiple. Thanks for uploading!

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    1. I just attempted to upload Poor Eeyore to youtbe and the copyright check says it is Season 1 Episode 33 (A Very Beautiful Day), so I guess a lot of the names might be wrong lol

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    2. Yeah, I'm not so sure those are completely accurate now lol.

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    3. Especially since the content is about a super windy day and Eeyore's house being blown down. It never seems to become good weather... So no idea.

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