Saturday Disney

Saturday Disney

Saturday Disney title card used from 12 May 2012 onwards
Genre Children's show
Presented by Nathan Morgan
Candice Dixon
Teigan Nash
Country of origin Australia
Original language(s) English
No. of seasons 26
No. of episodes 1,293 (as of 2 May 2015)
Production
Location(s) Brisbane, Queensland (1990–1999)
Sydney, New South Wales (1999–present)
Running time 180 minutes per episode (incl. commercials)
Production company(s) Buena Vista Television (1990-2000s)
Broadcast
Original channel Seven Network (1990–present)
7Two (2012–present)
Picture format 576i (SDTV)
Audio format Stereo
Original run 20 January 1990 – present
Chronology
Preceded by Seven's Super Saturday
External links
Website

Saturday Disney is a children's program hosted by Nathan Morgan, Candice Dixon and Teigan Nash which has aired on the Seven Network in Australia for over 25 years, with the first episode going to air on 20 January 1990. Although, according to the hosts during the 800th episode of the show, they revealed the show premiered in March 1990, causing confusion of the actual premiere date. Up until 2008, on most occasions for the remainder of the morning Disney shows would continue to air on Seven after Saturday Disney. As of 31 March 2012, Saturday Disney airs on 7TWO.

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 celebrated 20 years on air in 2010.

Hosts

 Original   Replacement   Current 

Role Name First Show Last Show
Brunette
Female		 Sofie Formica 20 January 1990 October 1992
Lisa Barry October 1992 October 1997
Melanie Symons October 1997 26 October 2002
Shae Brewster 26 October 2002 27 July 2013
Teigan Nash 27 July 2013
Blonde
Female		 Jeniene Mapp 20 January 1990 October 1996
Shelley Craft October 1996 6 July 2002
Sara Groen[A] 6 July 2002 28 January 2006
Sally Stanton 21 January 2006 7 May 2011
Candice Dixon 7 May 2011
Male James Sherry 20 January 1990 29 January 1994
Marc Buhaj 5 February 1994 27 February 1999
Tim McDonald 6 March 1999 29 January 2000
Daniel Widdowson 5 February 2000 27 January 2007
Jack Yabsley 20 January 2007 26 February 2011
Nathan Morgan 26 February 2011
  • A ^ Sara Groen is the first and technically only female host not to have the same hair colour as the host she was replacing (Shelley). This was due to Melanie (who had originally joined the show as the 'brunette female host') having blonde hair by this time and the roles were switched, as Sara had dark hair. Therefore, after Melanie's departure and from November 2002 - January 2006 for the first time in the shows history there was no 'blonde female host' as both Sara and Shae had dark hair.
Notes
  • Saturday Disney has had three hosts at any one time always consisting of two females and one male.
  • The only exception of having more than three hosts on air at one time is whenever a co-host is leaving and their replacement is introduced on screen either a number of weeks beforehand, or during the final episode of the co-host who is leaving.
  • Shae Brewster was the longest serving host in the history of the show. She hosted the show for three months short of eleven years.
  • Only twice in the history of Saturday Disney have two hosts left the show in the same year. Shelley Craft and Melanie Symons left in 2002 (replaced by Sara Groen and Shae Brewster respectively), and Jack Yabsley and Sally Stanton left in 2011 (replaced by Nathan Morgan and Candice Dixon respectively).
  • From November to December 2011, Sally Stanton was the field producer of Saturday Disney.
Appearances by hosts after leaving the show
  • When Lisa Barry left the show in October 1997, she took two photos with her which were shown on camera, featuring previous hosts Jeniene Mapp and James Sherry.
  • On the 600th episode on 17 November 2001 previous hosts Lisa Barry and Marc Buhaj were shown during old footage showing Shelley and Melanie's first appearances.
  • Both Shelley Craft and Melanie Symons returned to the show a number of times since their departures. Shelley returned (with the use of old footage from throughout Mel's time on the show) on Melanie's final show, and again the week after to talk about her new hosting role on Perfect Match; both these appearances were in October 2002. Shelley returned one last time via satellite on 29 October 2005 to chat about her time on the show and wish the guys a happy 800th episode.
  • Melanie returned in early 2003 (with the use of old footage from stories filmed the previous year) for a number of weeks, and once again on 2 August 2003 to talk about her new show, Australia's Best Backyards. Melanie was shown again on 21 February 2004 when Patrick Thompson from Ground Force visited the show to announce Daniel was joining Ground Force also. Melanie was shown on screen along with old Ground Force footage.
  • Sara Groen also made an appearance on the show a year after leaving (also with the use of old footage) on Daniel's final show on 27 January 2007 during the footage of Daniel's favourite moments throughout his 7 years on Saturday Disney.
  • On the 999th episode on 29 August 2009 footage was aired of every host who has ever been on the show over the past 19 years.
  • Jack Yabsley also made an appearance on the show ten weeks after leaving (also with the use of old footage) on Sally's final show on 7 May 2011 during the footage of her time on Saturday Disney.

Format

The main feature of Saturday Disney includes five programs which are Disney Channel Original Series or Disney XD Original Series in the course of a three-hour episode. From 1990 to 2012, Saturday Disney ran for two hours and featured only three programs. The programs shown are a mixture of animated cartoons and live action comedies, which have been more frequent since 2007. There are three hosts of Saturday Disney, who live in the 'Disney House' and introduce the programs and perform other activities including cooking, craft, science segments, interviews and special appearances by famous guests. Occasionally, the show is shot entirely on location, where the hosts explore certain cities or places such as Disneyland for the episode's entirety.

The next main feature are feature stories including the hosts which are usually interviews or stories. Another type of the stories are skits or miniature series with the hosts acting characters, which rarely air. Some of the most famous series from the past are Hazard Man (1990s), The Transfreezers (2000–2001) and Tell Tale Trio (2002–2004), and A Page in Time (2006), a drama series about three children returning to 1850s. Its sequel, Return to the Hill (2007) proved just as successful. More recent series include So You Think You Can Be Australia's Next Top Biggest Master Survivor on Danger Island (2009), a six-part reality series, a play on the American reality show Survivor, Race Around the Island (2010), which was the sequel to the 'reality show', and the Secret Agents (2010–2011). In some stories, the hosts adapt certain characters.

Double Dog Dares are featured in every episode, where each host takes turns (one each week) to complete ridiculous or challenging tasks which may result in eating unusual food punishments. Minute Madness is a recurring segment in which two of the hosts compete in a one-minute challenge, with the final result judged by the third host. A "Question of the Week" is also posted weekly on the official website, which asks viewers questions about themselves, introduced to learn more about the viewers.

Each week there is also a chosen Letter of the Week, which could be letters, drawings, photos or art sent in by viewers. Winners usually receive many prizes.

Timeslot

The program's time slot since the shows inception in 1990 until mid-2009 was always every Saturday from 7:00 am until 9:00 am unless there were interruptions by sporting or news events.

For a time in the mid 1990s and early 2000s the show ran for an extra half hour until 9:30 am usually to air The New Adventures of Winnie The Pooh

On 4 July 2009, the show moved to the earlier time-slot of 6:30 am to 8:30 am. They lost many of their viewers doing this, so the show returned to the normal time of 7:00 am to 9:00 am on 31 October 2009. Between March and September 2009, Seven HD usually replayed the morning showing of Saturday Disney between midday and 1:30 pm.

It was announced on 8 February 2010, that beginning 13 February 2010, the show would be moved to the 9:00 am to 11:00 am time-slot, to make way for Weekend Sunrise.[1] From 2010 to early 2012, Saturday Disney would occasionally be temporarily moved to 7TWO when interrupted for the screening of that day's episode.

It was announced on 17 March 2012, that beginning 31 March 2012, the show would be moved to 7TWO and returned 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.

As of 12 May 2012, Saturday Disney aired for three hours with a timeslot of 7:00 am to 10:00 am.

As of 1 September 2012, Saturday Disney airs for three hours with a new timeslot of 6:00 am to 7:00 am on Seven Network then from 7:00 am to 9:00 am on 7Two. Two more Disney shows air after the end of Saturday Disney on 7Two

Awards

On 18 March 2012, Saturday Disney was announced as a nominee for the 2012 Most Outstanding Children's Program Logie Award. The ceremony took place on 15 April 2012, and the award was presented by former Saturday Disney host Shelley Craft with Sam Moran. The nominee package featured the show's former theme music with footage from episode 1099, which originally aired 13 August 2011. ABC3's My Place won the award.[2]

Year Award Category Nominee(s) Result Ref.
2012 Logie Award Most Outstanding Children's Program Saturday Disney Nominated [3]

Programming

Current

Former

See also

External links

References

  1. ↑ Knox, David. "Bumped: Saturday Disney". TV Tonight. Retrieved 2015-04-04.
  2. ↑ Knox, David (2012-04-15). "2012 Logie Awards: winners". TV Tonight. Retrieved 2015-04-04.
  3. ↑ Knox, David. "Logie Awards 2012: nominations". TV Tonight. Retrieved 2015-04-04.