Mickey Mouse (film series)
Mickey Mouse (originally Mickey Mouse Sound Cartoons) is a character-based series of 130 animated short films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. The films, which introduced Disney's most famous cartoon character, were released on a regular basis from 1928 ("Plane Crazy") to 1953 with four additional shorts released between 1983 and 2013. The series is notable for its innovation with sound synchronization and character animation, and also introduced well-known characters such as Minnie Mouse, Pluto, and Goofy.
The Mickey Mouse Club
Although the show remained popular, ABC decided to cancel the show after its fourth season, as Disney and the ABC network could not come to terms for renewal. The cancellation in September 1959 was attributable to several factors: the Disney studios did not realize high-profit margins from merchandise sales, the sponsors were uninterested in educational programming for children, and many commercials were needed in order to pay for the show. After canceling "The Mickey Mouse Club", ABC also refused to let Disney air the show on another network. Walt Disney filed a lawsuit against ABC, and won the damages in a settlement; however, he had to agree that both the "Mickey Mouse Club" and "Zorro" could not be aired on any major network. This left "Walt Disney Presents" (initially titled "Disneyland", later retitled the "Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color" when it moved to NBC) as the only Disney series left on prime time until 1972 when "The Mouse Factory" went on the air. The prohibition against major U.S. broadcast network play of the original "Mickey Mouse Club" (or any later version) became moot when Disney acquired ABC in 1996, but no plans have been announced for an ABC airing of any version of "The Mickey Mouse Club" produced between 1955 and 1996 or for a new network series.