Help to Get a Vault Disney/Disney Family Channel on Television

[trekkie1701E]

"It is not myself I am thinking about, but it is the affect of what might
happen to whatever is left that bothers me" -- Walt Disney
The "new" Disney Channel is ignoring the very principles they were founded
under and is spitting on the Disney name as a whole.
The following comment is from a once proud Disney Channel viewer who has
signed the official petition. They sum up our case perfectly:
"I live in an area where the Disney Channel is a premium channel. After
subscribing for nearly ten years, we un-subscribed in the fall of 1998 ...
Fall [of] 1998 was when I started college, so I had grown up with the Disney
Channel but had lost interest with the changing program. Without me at
home, my parents nixed the channel. Through the 'old' Disney Channel, I was
introduced to wonderful old movies. It was on Disney that I first saw a lot
of the Disney classics as well as Hollywood classics like the musicals of
Rogers and Hammerstein. It used to be programming that my parents and I
could watch together when I was younger. Now the only group your channel
plays to is the 12 and under crowd. Shame on you! Disney is about family
and once this channel was for family, now it's a commercial filled
un-watchable channel for Disney fans. I might as well watch Nickelodeon or
MTV and I don't have to pay extra."
If certain areas in this company ignore their principles, they stop the
Disney name from flourishing. Not just as a company. But also as a man. A
pioneer. Walt Disney, to be precise. Whose philosophy in the Disney
Company was always to entice people to visit all of their masterpieces by
providing nothing but "High quality family entertainment." The company he
built currently preaches about family, yet at the same time ignores the very
aspects and principles of family entertainment upon which they were built.
When the Disney Channel began to ignore these ideals, they helped to stop
the Disney name from flourishing. Not just as a company. And Flourishing
into what it was destined to be.
But also as a man. And What he was always meant to be.
Please, we implore you: start up a Vault Disney or Disney Family Channel;
and put family programming there. What is the harm of mixing in classic
Disney films and TV shows, for current and future generations to enjoy, with
great non-Disney family fare? After all, "this" is where Disney came from;
"this" is where Disney was more of a magical legacy than a generic brand
name, such as Nickelodeon or MTV.
I remember watching Bonanza on the Hallmark Channel one night, and I got
kind of teary eyed during the commercial breaks when they showed previews of
what westerns and original all-American movies were coming up. I remember
thinking to myself "This is how the Disney Channel used to be; these are the
values upon which it was built." The only difference is that Disney
included cartoons and other children's programming during weekday mornings
and afternoons.
But the Hallmark Channel is what the Disney Channel once was; and what the
Disney Channel was always meant to be.
And It's sad.
Back in the good days of the channel (1980's-early 90's), the station was
widely flourishing; maybe not as much as today with the 16 and under crowd,
but it was doing just fine. It would have been fine if you added a few more
kiddy shows to make the channel more popular with the young crowd, but
instead you converted the entire daytime lineup to a preteens dreamland. At
least the Disney Channel had Vault Disney; that us until last year, when you
totally did away with it. Why wouldn't today's generation like Old Yeller,
Davy Crockett or Heidi? This is where Disney came from; films like these
are true family classics; and they deserve to be showcased on the Disney
Channel! I grew up during the 1980's, and I loved programs like Old Yeller,
Heidi, Rodger's and Hammerstein's Cinderella, Pollyanna, Davy Crockett, the
Parent Trap, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Swiss Family Robinson, the Shaggy
Dog, the Apple Dumpling Gang, Mary Poppins, classic Disney animated films,
etc when I first saw them in the 1980’s. Many children today who end up
watching the older classics on DVD actually do like them. Very much, in
fact. Problem is, though, their parents are the ones who want the discs in
the first place, and thus these kids wouldn‘t even see these movies if it
weren‘t for mommy and daddy. By deciding not to air the old films and
television specials, “you’re” not giving them more of a chance. A chance
with a younger generation; one that deserves to know the history. The
legacy. The very building blocks of this great company: its morals, its
principals, its values, and, most importantly, the part they have played in
America and her proud history. They deserve to know who Walt Disney was;
for he is not only one of the greatest showman who ever lived, but was
undoubtedly one of the greatest Americans. He was certainly one of the most
beloved. And they deserve to know what he stood for.
And we deserve to tell them.