DuckTales
The cartoon premiered worldwide between 18–20 September 1987 (the time and date varying between markets), with a television movie special entitled ""The Treasure of the Golden Suns"", which was later split up into a five-part serial in future reruns. The first season, aired between 1987–88, consisted of 65 episodes, the "magic number" requirement needed for a show to have a weekday syndication (five days a week for thirteen weeks). Disney then commissioned three more seasons – the second season (aired between 1988–89) consisted of two television specials entitled "Time Is Money" and "Super DuckTales", with future reruns splitting them into two five-part serials; the third season (aired between 1989–90) consisted of 18 episodes, with it forming an hour-long syndicated block alongside ""; and the fourth season (aired during late 1990) consisted of seven episodes (including three unaired episode meant for the previous season), which was used to form a two-hour long syndicated block called "The Disney Afternoon", consisting of "DuckTales" and three other half-hour cartoons.
Fox Kids
In 1988, Disney purchased independent television station KHJ-TV in Los Angeles, changing its call letters to KCAL-TV the next year. The station's new owners wanted "DuckTales" to be shown on KCAL, effectively taking the local television rights to the animated series away from Fox-owned KTTV. Furious at the breach of contract, Diller pulled "DuckTales" from all of Fox's other owned-and-operated stations WNYW, WFLD, WTTG, KRIV, KDAF and WFXT in the fall of 1989. Diller also encouraged the network's affiliates to do the same, though most did not initially. As Disney went forward in developing "The Disney Afternoon," Fox (whose schedule at the time was limited to prime time programming on Saturday and Sunday nights) began the process of launching its own children's programming lineup.