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Sixty Five if you’re not alive Author: Gregory Isaac PubDate: 01/02/05 The Walt Disney Company, who hasn’t heard of it? Between the various forms of media (including, but not limited to, movies, radio, and television) it’s hard for anyone to avoid them, no matter how hard they may try. Yet, there is so much about them that few people know. When Michael Eisner became CEO of the Walt Disney Company, he instituted a policy commonly called “the 65 episode rule,” which limits all Disney shows to 65 episodes or less. This concept has greatly affected the quantity and quality of television programs over the last 20 years. It’s amazing how few people have noticed it. Over 80 years ago, Walt Disney and his brother, Roy O. Disney, founded the Disney Company. The two jointly ran the company; Walt as the creative head, and Roy was the business leader. That is until Walt died on Dec 15, 1966. Roy O. continued at the company as Chief executive until his own death on Dec 20, 1971. In 1980, Ron Miller (the husband of Diane Disney Miller, Walt’s daughter) became President of Disney. Four years later Roy E. Disney (Roy O. Disney’s son), and Stanley Gold (A very close associate of Roy E. Disney), spearheaded a movement which brought in new management. Michael Eisner became Chairman and CEO, and Frank Wells became President. At this time, the Disney Company was in trouble. Saul Steinberg had just made a hostile takeover attempt, the major shareholders were in an uproar, and company was losing money. Eisner and Wells saw the problems of the company and took action to correct it (“SaveDisney”). The Disney Channel was launched in 1983. Roy E. Disney became head of the Animation Department in 1984, and in 1985 the TV Animation Division was launched. Between the creative genius of Eisner and the financial genius of Wells (much like the initial setup under Walt and Roy O.) the 65 episode rule was born. The idea was simple, to create a bunch of quality shows, in numbers large enough to rerun and then move on to the next show, thus creating a library of shows for the ailing Disney channel at minimal cost. The company simply couldn’t afford to spend resources on two or three shows when they needed enough for a network. This plan was simple, and it worked. The company recovered from its previous mismanagement and the stock price would rise 3000% over the next six years (“SaveDisney”). Tragically, on Easter Sunday 1994, Frank Wells died in a Helicopter crash. At this point Eisner seized full control of the company, and the problems began. Three months later, Jeffrey Katzenberg left the company after a clash with Eisner. (Katzenberg then founded DreamWorks, the studio which produced Shrek and Shark Tale). In 1995, Eisner hired Michael Ovitz (who was a close friend) as President of the company. Just 18 months later Ovitz was fired with severance package worth $100 million. Eisner’s blunders would continue. On November 30th 2003, Roy O. Disney resigned from the board of the Walt Disney Company and started a campaign against Michael Eisner. This is centered around the website SaveDisney.com. He was joined by Stanley Gold the next day. Due to the efforts of the SaveDisney Campaign Eisner received a 43% “No Confidence” vote from the shareholders (Note, the bylaws of the company count all votes not cast as “yes” votes. A majority of votes actually cast were against Eisner.) This resulted in Eisner losing his title as Chairman and his September 9th announcement that he will resign when his contract expires in 2006. Roy Disney and Gold are not satisfied with this, and continue to push for change (“SaveDisney”). For the past 20 years the 65 episode rule has been lurking in the shadows picking off shows one by one. In the 80s in served its purpose of promoting quality, but once the company recovered it no longer had a place in the company. In 1994 the company created a show called Gargoyles, by 1996 the show had run it’s 63 episode long course and the series was ended. This angered fans who vocally complained. Eisner decided to extend the show and made 13 more episodes before deciding that it was “to risky” to make more. The emphasis shifted from making shows that people liked, to making a whole bunch of shows of which the audience was bound to like a few (“Save Kim”). They made a lot of shows. The pattern becomes quite obvious when one looks at the episode runs of various Disney shows. Gummi Bears was 65 episodes long, Ducktales was 93, Rescue Rangers was 66, The Little Mermaid was 33, Tale Spin was 65, Darkwing Duck was 91, Bonkers was 64, Gargoyles was 76, Mighty Ducks was 18, Hercules was 66, Recess was 66, Pepper Ann was 65, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command was 62, The Legend of Tarzan was 41, The Weekenders was 66, Teacher's Pet was 48, The Proud Family was 52, and Fillmore! was 27 episodes. With the exception of Ducktails, Darkwing Duck, and Gargoyles, all Disney series have ended before or at 65 (or 66) episodes. Ducktails and Darkwing Duck both ended in the early 1990’s (when Wells was still alive) where they were extended beyond the 65 episode cap because Management still believed that it is a good thing to make shows that people like (“Save Kim”). Unfortunately with Well’s death and the exodus of talent that followed, that wisdom was lost. It’s all quite a shame. Disney spends a lot of money to develop each show, and when they get a hit, they quickly discard it. Eisner still runs the company like it is 1984; the problem is that the world has changed and 1984 philosophies don’t work any more. Two more very popular shows are about to fall victim to this philosophy. One is Lilo and Stitch: the series, based around the main characters of the last major 2D animated feature from the Walt Disney Company that made a profit, Lilo and Stitch. This franchise has a very large fan base, large enough in fact for the Disney Company to make both a “cheapquel” (direct-to-video, cheap, sequel) and a Second Theatrical movie scheduled for release in 2005. But the series will still end at 65 episodes, irregardless of its popularity (“Save Disney Shows”). The other show threatened by this rule is called Kim Possible. It’s about a high school cheerleader, Kim Possible, and her “geeky sidekick”/best friend, Ron Stoppable, who fight villains and save the world (Mintzer). The show premiered in September 2002 in the new era after the attack of September 11th 2001. It was a time when children needed a hero, and they got one. The Show is currently in its third season. The last three episodes (numbers 63, 64, and 65) make up a movie titled “So the Drama” which is scheduled to be shown April 8th 2005 (“TV”). Unless something is done soon, this quality show will end, and the 65 episode rule will have claimed another victim. There are people fighting back. Roy Disney’s resignation brought to light many of Eisner’s mistakes and blunders, the 65 episode rule being one of them. On January 14th 2004 an internet community known as Mission Kim Possible (MKP) was founded with the explicit goal of extending Kim Possible beyond the arbitrary 65 episode mark and the elimination of the 65 episode rule for all shows. A shows lifespan should be determined by its ratings. Less than a week later the domain SaveKimPossible.com was registered and a superb website was created. Most recently, that group has expanded it’s goal to preserving and bringing back all quality Disney shows, and for that reason they created a new website, SaveDisneyShows.org (“Mission”). Many people have said that it’s pointless to try to save Kim Possible (or any other Disney show) and they list many reasons. Most are rather selfish; others just seem ignorant. Some of those reasons follow: “A huge company like Walt Disney won't listen to its customers, so why complain? Not enough fans are fighting for Kim. Without enough support, you can't win. It's none of my business. Who am I to tell Disney management how to run their company? The 65 Episode Policy has been around for a long time! It must be the right thing to do, or else Disney management would have changed the policy by now. Mr. Eisner runs the whole company, and you can't stop him. He won't leave in time to be able to save Kim Possible. There isn't enough time to save Kim. It's too late, so why bother. Kim Possible is a bad influence on young girls, and should be cancelled. Kim is too thin, and she wears suggestive clothing. Kids have a short attention span. They will get tired of Kim Possible soon anyway. And they won't miss her either, because other cartoons will attract them just as much. 65 episodes are plenty. That will make enough reruns so the series won't get stale. Old shows on The Disney Channel have to end. You need to make room for the new ones in development. Kim and Ron might fall in love and then the show will suck anyway. The animation for Kim Possible is so bad; the show shouldn't be on at all. The story lines have gotten really boring lately. The writers are running out of good ideas. Let the show die with 65 episodes. Bring back Classic Disney! Cartoons like Mickey Mouse are true Disney Magic! Get rid of all the new shows like Kim Possible! Who cares? Kim Possible is just a cartoon...” (Mission). The Walt Disney Company has to listen to the consumers. If they don’t, then eventually no one will watch anymore and at that point they’ll be begging to listen. They’ve learned that lesson with the dismal performance of ABC Family Channel. As far as numbers are concerned, a dedicated few have greatly affected history before; there’s no reason it can’t happen again. If no one tries to win, all they’ll get is failure. This reason isn’t really a reason at all. It’s an excuse from people who either don’t care about quality or are too scared to try and fight for what they love. The simple fact is that ratings, hence popularity, should determine a shows run. If no one’s watching, then it shouldn’t be on; if everyone’s watching then it better be on. The public knows what they like, and in any business that requires serving the customer, the key is to give them what they want, when they want it. Kim Possible should stay on the air because it is a quality show. If it wasn’t, then no one would watch it, which isn’t the case here. Kim is a good role model, despite the fact that she’s drawn a little too thin, and sometimes sports a bare midriff. Her character and actions prove she’s a good “person” to emulate. It’s just good fun, as shown by its popularity. There aren’t many good, carefree, “family” shows left these days. It has great untapped merchandising potential, and all the existing merchandise has sold well. But perhaps most importantly, there are no quality replacements available, and Kim Possible still has great story potential for countless more episodes in the future. Whether any individual show is good or bad is for each individual to decide on his/her own. But no one has the right to take a way something that many millions of people worldwide love without any sort of justification. When the goal is to please the customers, it’s not wise to discontinue the best selling product. The only reason Disney gets away with it because no one realizes what they’re doing before it is too late. In the spirit of communication the people must learn the truth. The time has come for the people to make their voices heard. The Disney board cannot sit idly by for long. Perhaps in the greater scheme of things the number of episodes a TV show gets isn’t that important, but one thing is clear, there are a significant amount of people who believe it does. 65 episodes just doesn’t cut it, and this mind set must be defeated for nothing less than the good of mankind. Works Cited Mintzer, Rich. The Kim Possible Files. New York: Disney Press, 2003. “Mission_Kim_Possible” Yahoo! Group. 11-21-04. “Save Disney Shows.” 11-21-04. “The SaveDisney Timeline.” 11-21-04. “Save Kim Possible.” 11-21-04. “TV Tome.” 11-21-04. Originally published here on MickeyNews.com |
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