Rumor Control
When I was growing up in the 1980s, Disney wasn’t very popular with the kids I knew. I don’t mean we didn’t see Disney movies, even if many of them were released under the Touchstone Pictures brand, nor did we not watch Disney on TV since there were quite a few cool TV movies released then under the Disney brand then too. But as for what people think of as Disney with Mickey Mouse, Goofy, Pluto and the rest, I don’t remember them being around at the movies or on TV growing up.
The kids I hung out with were much more into characters from Looney Tunes than Mickey Mouse. In fact, for a time in the 1990s Looney Tunes characters like the Tasmanian Devil and Marvin the Martin were everywhere, on t-shirts, cars and body parts with tattoos. But not so much with the mouse. And I think I know the reason why.
While in the 1980s episodes of Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry running after-school were ubiquitous across the TV dial, during that time period Mickey Mouse was nowhere to be found. The reason was back then all things Disney related were moved from regular TV to the new Disney Channel, and back then the Disney Channel was a premium channel you had to pay extra for like HBO. So if your parents didn’t pay up you’d never see any Mickey Mouse cartoons. I knew of exactly one person back then who had the Disney Channel as a kid, the rest of my friends and family did not.
And because there was a whole generation of kids who grew up without a way to easily see Disney cartoons we never had too much fondness for them or their characters.
Which is why the whole idea of these new streaming services popping up all over with that have their own series you can see no where else frightens me a little.
If you want to see new episodes of Star Trek you can only do that on CBS All Access. If you want to see new episodes of the upcoming Star Wars TV show, and eventually any of the Star Wars movies outside of the theater, you’ll have to do that on Disney streaming.
All of which is fine, except I wonder how this will affect those brands in the future?
Part of the reason I love all things Star Wars was growing up the original trilogy of movies would turn up on broadcast TV from time to time. And even when it eventually moved to cable it wasn’t on the premium channels and was easy to see. I remember watching marathons of Star Wars many a Thanksgiving.
The same goes for Star Trek. I only really started watching that series when Star Trek: Deep Space Nine premiered. And when that show hooked me I went back and watched all of The Next Generation since it aired in syndication and was pretty easy to see.
And since I’m a fan of both Star Wars and Star Trek I’ve spent many hours and more money than I’d like to think about on them, collecting everything from the films to posters to toys and everything in between.
I don’t think I’d be as infatuated with them if the only place to see them would’ve been two outlets that my parents would have had to pay extra to get. I might have bee into Star Wars because of the films, but I’m not sure how into them I would’ve been if it wasn’t as easy as it was to see them after the theater?
Right now it makes perfect financial sense to move Star Trek and Star Wars to these streaming services. They have this incredibly dedicated fan-base who’ll follow those franchises to the ends of the Earth and don’t mind paying $10 a month to do so.
My question is in 20 or 30 years when there’s a generation of kids who grew up knowing about shows that only appeared on streaming they might not have gotten, will they care as much as we do today? I think not, I think they’ll be like my generation and Disney. We’re aware of it but we’re not invested in it.
Ironically, right after my generation came of age Disney began getting its act back together and in the 1990s the Disney Channel became part of basic cable. Even more importantly they started releasing a popular series of movies and syndicated TV shows that really connected with the next generation of kids. To them Disney and Aladdin and Rescue Rangers and The Little Mermaid are their childhood touchstones where Looney Tunes and Transformers and G.I. Joe are part of mine.
It will be interesting to see if in a decade or so places like Paramount who owns Star Trek and Disney Star Wars will look back at what they’re doing now as some great mistake? That instead of tapping into a well of fandom they’ve actually capped that well and have taken short-term gains but setup a long-term collapse.
TV
Nightflyers TV commercial
Daredevil promo
Project Blue Book first look
Star Trek: Discovery season 2 commercial
Comics
Absolute Kingdom Come
DC Entertainment is set to release the seminal Mark Waid/Alex Ross comic mini-series Kingdom Come in one of their gorgeous “Absolute” collected editions. The downside is this runs about $100 retail.
In the not-so-distant future, the DC Universe is spinning inexorably out of control. The new generation of heroes has lost their moral compass, becoming as reckless and violent as the villains they fight. The previous regime of heroes—the Justice League—returns under the most dire of circumstances, which sets up a battle of the old guard against these uncompromising protectors in a conflict that will define what heroism truly is. Collects KINGDOM COME #1–4.
Overlord movie trailer
Aquaman extended look
What To Watch This Week
Sunday
The latest animated Star Wars series Star Wars Resistance premiers this week on Disney HD.
TCM begins gearing up for Halloween and will be airing a whole bunch of movies featuring mummies including The Mummy’s Hand, The Mummy’s Ghost and The Mummy’s Curse Sunday evening.
The Walking Dead returns to AMC for it’s 1,790th season.
Tuesday
The surprisingly underperforming Teen Titans Go! To the Movies is released on digital this week.
TCM will air the 1992 Stephen Hawking documentary A Brief History of Time today.
Wednesday
After “Mummy Sunday” TCM will air a “Christopher Lee Wednesday” with a bunch of horror movies that featured the iconic actor with the likes of The Devil’s Bride, Horror of Dracula, Dracula, Prince of Darkness, Horror Hotel, The Face of Fu Manchu and Rasputin, the Mad Monk.
Friday
Netflix will release its horror series The Haunting of Hill House Friday.
Matt Weiner’s first new series since Mad Men entitled The Romanoffs debuts on Amazon Prime.
First Man about astronaut Neil Armstrong starring Ryan Gosling premieres in theaters this week.
The Reading & Watch List
- Dolphin with an Uzi: The Epic Oral History of Marvel’s BRUTE FORCE
- North America’s nearly forgotten language
- ‘Goblin’ world found orbiting at the edges of the Solar System
- Banks scramble to fix old systems as IT ‘cowboys’ ride into sunset
Cool TV Posters of the Week
Daredevil poster 
Star Trek: Discovery