Weekday cartoon
In 1987, The Walt Disney Company tried its luck at syndication, through its animation production unit Walt Disney Television Animation; "DuckTales" debuted that September, experiencing major success and eventually lasting for 100 episodes. The success of "DuckTales" paved the way for a second series two years later, "Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers". In 1989, the two shows aired together as part of a syndicated daily block called "The Disney Afternoon". In 1991, Disney added another hour to the block; "The Disney Afternoon" ran until August 29, 1997, when it was replaced by an unnamed block on September 1, 1997, until 1999, which was then replaced by "Disney's One Too" (a spinoff of ABC Saturday morning block "Disney's One Saturday Morning") - and "Disney's One Too" had only lasted for four years on UPN and syndication, until it had died in 2003. Since then, there are only a handful of local networks in the United States for ABC that broadcast children's programming. Otherwise, it has been replaced by reality shows, court shows, tabloid television, talk shows, and among other programming which are meant for adults.
Dragon Tales
"Dragon Tales" is based on characters created in 1978 by Laguna Beach, California artist and retired educator Ron Rodecker, Rodecker was recovering from a coronary artery bypass graft when he began sketching dragons as a means of symbolizing forces in life that were too big to control. In 1997, Jim Coane, then a producer at Columbia TriStar Television, founded the artwork and developed it into a television series with several writers. The project was considered something of a risky venture, because it was not based on a well-known franchise like many children's television programs, such as "Arthur" or "Paddington Bear". The series was originally shipped to PBS member stations in 1995 at the suggestion of PBS, but all passed at the time. In October 1995, Jim Coane met Marjorie Kalins, senior VP of programming and production at Children's Television Workshop, and showed her the idea for the series. Kalins, loving the idea, brought the series to Children's Television Workshop, who agreed to a partnership with the Columbia TriStar Television Group. Kalins helped him and Columbia TriStar Television obtain a grant from the Department of Education and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The grant proposal was written by Wesley Eure. As Columbia TriStar was the TV division of two major Hollywood film studios, which in turn are owned by the Sony division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, "Dragon Tales" became one of the few PBS Kids and Sprout programs to be co-produced by a Big Six major American studio's TV subsidiary. The other PBS shows made by a major Hollywood studio were "Bill Nye the Science Guy" (made by Walt Disney Television) and "Curious George" (produced by Universal Television) In 2002, C-T was renamed to Sony Pictures Television, a company that would co-produce the third season of the program.