Saturday Disney facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Saturday Disney
Saturday Disney title card used from 31 March 2012 onward
Genre	Children's show
Presented by	List of Presenters
Country of origin	Australia
Original language(s)	English
No. of series	27
No. of episodes	1,366
Production
Production location(s)	Brisbane, Queensland (1990–1999) Sydney, New South Wales (1999–2016)
Running time	120 minutes (1990-2012) 180 minutes (2012–2016) (incl. commercials)
Production company(s)	Buena Vista Television (1990-2000s)
Release
Original network	Seven Network (1990–2016) 7TWO (2012–2016) 7flix (2016)
Picture format	576i (SDTV)
Audio format	Stereo
Original release	27 January 1990 (1990-01-27) – 24 September 2016 (2016-09-24)
Chronology
Preceded by	Seven's Super Saturday

Saturday Disney is a long running Australian children's television program which aired on the Seven Network in Australia for over 26 years, with the first episode going to air on 27 January 1990. The show was a television block which aired on Saturday mornings, consisting mainly of Disney television series dispersed between hosted content. The original presenters were Jeniene Mapp, James Sherry and Sofie Formica, and the final presenters were Nathan Morgan, Candice Dixon and Teigan Nash. Many hosts have gone on to achieve successful careers in Australian television.

Saturday Disney was originally filmed at BTQ-7 from 1990 until 1999 when it moved to Seven's Sydney station, ATN-7.

On 5 September 2009, the show celebrated its 1,000th episode.

Saturday Disney aired its final episode on 24 September 2016.

Hosts

 Original   Replacement   Final 

• Saturday Disney had three hosts at any one time, always consisting of two females and one male.
• The presenters were also credited as 'segment producers', and they wrote and researched their own stories.
• The only exception of having more than three hosts on air at one time was whenever a co-host was leaving and their replacement was introduced on screen, either a number of weeks beforehand, or during the final episode of the co-host who was leaving.
• Shae Brewster was the longest-serving presenter in the history of the show. She hosted the show for three months short of eleven years.

Appearances by hosts after leaving the show

• Both Shelley Craft and Melanie Symons returned to the show as guests after their departures. Craft returned in October 2002 to talk about her new hosting role on Perfect Match and via satellite on 29 October 2005 to chat about her time on the show and wish the guys a happy 800th episode. Symons returned on 2 August 2003 to talk about her new show, Australia's Best Backyards.
• Several hosts have appeared after their departure through old footage. On the 999th episode on 29 August 2009, footage of every previous presenter who had been on the show was aired, looking back at the show's then 19-year history.
• Sally Stanton was interviewed by Teigan Nash on 2 May 2015 at the Cinderella red carpet event. Stanton was reporting for Event TV.
• Melanie Symons, Daniel Widdowson, Shae Brewster, Sally Stanton and Jack Yabsley featured as guests in the final episode which aired 24 September 2016. James Sherry also appeared via a video message.

Format

As a main feature, Saturday Disney originally included three Disney programs dispersed throughout the course of a two-hour episode. From 2012 to 2016, Saturday Disney featured five programs over the course of a three-hour episode. The programs shown regularly rotated around the schedule, and were a mixture of animated cartoons and live action comedies, which were more common after the premiere of Hannah Montana in 2007. There were three hosts of Saturday Disney, who lived in the 'Disney House' and introduced the programs along with performing other activities such as cooking, craft, science segments, interviews and special appearances by guests, usually celebrities, and occasionally live animals. Occasionally, the show was shot entirely on location, where the hosts explored certain cities such as Coffs Harbour or places such as Disneyland for the episode's entirety.

Feature stories produced by and starring the hosts were also included, which were usually articles about places, activities and events, interviews with celebrities or red carpet events. This format has been likened to magazine-style edu-tainment shows. In some stories, the hosts adapted certain characters used as a substitute for themselves presenting the article. Another type of the stories were recurring mini-series with the hosts acting as characters, which air occasionally. Some recurring series from the past included Hazard Man (1990s), The Transfreezers (2000–2001), Tell Tale Trio (2002–2004) and the Secret Agents (2010–2011). A Page in Time (2006), introduced a style of serialised drama, depicting three children returning to 1850s. More recent series such as Danger Island (2009), Race Around the Island (2010) and The Assistant (2014) took on the reality genre, parodying American series Survivor, The Amazing Race, and The Apprentice respectively.

A Double Dog Dare was featured in every episode, where each host took turns (one each week) to complete ridiculous, embarrassing or challenging tasks which may have resulted in eating unusual food punishments upon failure, regularly ingredients mixed in a blender. Ideas for dares and punishments were regularly sent in by viewers. This popular segment was a prominent feature of the show for many years.

Each week there was also a chosen Letter of the Week, which could be letters, drawings, or art sent in by viewers. Winners usually received many prizes, and the artwork was displayed around the set. Throughout the course of the program, emails from viewers were also read out.

Time slot

The program's time slot since the show's inception in 1990 was always every Saturday from 7:00 am until 9:00 am on Seven unless there were interruptions by sporting or news events. Further Disney programming would continue to air after Saturday Disney.

From the mid 1990s to 2001, Saturday Disney aired for an extra half-hour until 9:30am to include cartoons such as The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and The Little Mermaid, or C classified programming such as Crash Zone, Clowning Around, Squiggle Vision and Science Court. However, the extra programme would be listed separately on TV guides and feature minimal hosted content.

On 4 July 2009, the show moved to the earlier time slot of 6:30 am to 8:30 am. However, the show returned to the previous time of 7:00 am to 9:00 am on 31 October 2009.

It was announced on 8 February 2010, that beginning 13 February 2010, the show would be moved to the later time slot of 9:00 am to 11:00 am, to make way for Weekend Sunrise.

It was announced on 17 March 2012 that, beginning 31 March 2012, the show would be moved to 7TWO and return to the original 7:00 am to 9:00 am time slot with a new look and logo, to make way for The Morning Show. On 12 May 2012, the regular length of Saturday Disney was extended to three hours with a time slot of 7:00 am to 10:00 am.

On 1 September 2012, Saturday Disney moved to the new time slot of 6:00 am to 7:00 am on Seven, then from 7:00 am to 9:00 am on 7TWO, the three hours now airing across both channels.

On 19 March 2016, the program's secondary channel changed from 7TWO to 7flix, airing from 6:00 am to 7:00 am on Seven, then from 7:00 am to 9:00 am on 7flix. The program remained in this slot until its final episode.

Programming

1990s

2000s

2010s