DJLinus

I know that in the past the Disney Channel used to be a premium channel, but now it's offered as part of basic cable - at least in my area. Anyway, instead of airing commercials during the breaks in their sitcoms and movies, they just run promos for other Disney stuff. I could understand them doing that if they were still premium, but why not create a little ad revenue now and show commercials? I doubt people are going to be unaware of all of the Disney products out there if they stopped running those promos.

And what the hell is Zoog?

Venusian

totally...if they aren't gonna make money on commercials, just don't have them, they are soooo annoying...then again i havent watched the disny channel in a couple of years so who am i to talk

DJLinus

I don't usually watch it, but "Uncle Buck" was on the other week - there's an underrated movie. Plus I catch the occasional "Growing Pains" episode.

das Monkey

I have the Di$ney channel blocked from my TV. It's a shame since they air Boy Meets World reruns, but tough ... TV is a sacred thing not to be tarnished by Di$ney. It's bad enough I have to watch ABC and ESPN.

das

renaldow

They do show normal commercials, or at least they have in the past (I don't normally watch it.) But I believe it's only during certain hours or certain shows.

clemente

Alright, I admit it, one of my guilty pleasures are the Disney Channel original series. I'm about a decade or so older than there target, but I find it pretty good programming.

But on the topic, they don't show "normal" commercials, only ads for Disney flicks or their own programming.

TruGator

I like disney's own promo commercials better than the normal ones for the other channels. i don't think they're losing too much money by doing this, they do own a place called Disney World...

CreatureX

You people are complaining because they DON'T show commercials? WTF?

I recently discovered a hilarious show on Disney Channel called "Even Stevens"! It reminds me of that old show "Parker Luis Can't Loose". Anyone remember that one? The difference is that "Even Stevens" revolves around both a brother and sister in Jr. High. The writing is smart and the jokes are funny. Check it out if you want some laughs.

According to TVGuide.com, "Even Stevens" airs:

Friday at 7:00 PM
Saturday at 1:00PM
Sunday at 5:00 PM

renaldow

That must have changed then, because they used to. (Obviously I don't watch it often) When we first started getting it as a basic channel last year I watched a couple of movies on it, and there were indeed regular commercials.

freedexter

I've never seen a regular commerical on the Disney channel, and I've had it for a few years. I've often wondered that too.

"Zoog" is a bunch of kid-oriented program hosted by some animated characters. They have "Zoog Weekends", when the cartoons have little shorts during the commerical breaks.

Aaron Amos

I cannot stand the Disney Channel! My siblings watch it all the time!! They watch nothing else!! If I ran that channel from 9pm-6pm daily, I put on more "prime time" programming like adult movies like "The Sixth Sense", "Armeggedon", "Sister Act 1& 2" "The Rock", "Con Air", & Unbreakable"(notice all these are Disney movies!).Becuase they do not I do watch this channel very often,last time I tried to watch "Innerspace" with Dennis Quaid at 10pm one night! I thought of they will show him nude in the streets of S.F(when he go after Meg Ryan when his chracter was drunk the night before!) . They edited it!! If shows like ABC's NYPD Blues can show us butt at 10pm why can't they? Is a butt really that offensive?

Besides I cannot stand live my TV life in a fishbowl and watch only sugary-sappy Disney Stuff! Although I watch in a while "Growing Pains"!

To me this channel is 24/7 kid network with littel or nothing adult Disney related to watch!! Sounds a little like "Nickelodeon" from the 1980's?

clemente

And?????
Thats what the channel is, you're mad because its not what you want it to be? Wow, a whole new level of arrogance on DVD Talk.

LBPound

My goodness...and I thought I was the only "Even Stevens" fan at DVD Talk. Actually Disney has some good movies, although their brainwashing attempts to corrupt little young minds with endless ads for the original movie of the month can get annoying. Some of the behind-the-scenes look at the new Disney movies (which always cross the line from interesting info to self-promotion) are fun.

And then there's the "Boy Meets World" and "Growing Pains" reruns, which rock! Plus there are a number of very good movies that air that are not even Disney property, as mentioned "Uncle Buck" among others. Even some of the Wonderful World of Disney original movies ("Principal Takes a Holiday" and "My Date with the President's Daughter") are pretty cute and funny too.

The most often original Disney programming thing I'll watch is "Even Stevens" or "Lizzie McGuire" (their two most original and witty series). Interesting to note all the references to classic films, especially in "Lizzie McGuire." But then I'm sure tons of 10-year-olds get the references to "The Godfather", "Apocalypse Now", "The Great Escape", etc.

Now those "Kids like you express themselves" spots....

Gizmo

Those 'expressing' spots are getting old...fast. I admit, I watch Disney, and those damn ad's suck.

LBPound

Yeah, right, like you don't care about what sports the Zoog stars like to play!

TruGator

I like even stevens, too, but it seems like they only have about 5 episodes that they keep repeating, so i've seen every episode. anyone else notice this?

LBPound

They've started showing new episodes friday nights again.

Gizmo

Yeah, they often repeat the same episodes over and over...Kinda like Lizzie Mcguire. I wish they would play some of the OLDER BMW episodes, as well as the last 2 seasons of BMW. They seemed to have skipped the whole 'Were married, we live in an apartment...' series.

LBPound

From my experience, all they ever seem to show is the last season of episodes. Ok, not entirely true because I've also seen a good share of the next-to-last season and the one before that. But the oldest episodes--which were among the best--rarely seem on, or are limited to weekend afternoons.

I think with all the repeats of Even Stevens and Lizzie McGuire, I've caught all the episodes. I know they're coming out with new Even Stevens each week now, but not sure if there will be any more Lizzie (they've been doing new episodes since January I think). Anyway, anyone else hear that Robert Carradine (a.k.a. Mr. McGuire) almost died in a car accident. That would have sucked. He was the guy from Revenge of the Nerds.

Gizmo

Oh man, I didn't know about the accident. Anyone have any links to a story about this?

LBPound

I read it on IMDb's daily news briefs a few days ago. Apparently, it happened a few weeks ago but I didn't see anything else of it outside of IMDb. You can check their news archive. He was going 120 mph or so in his racecar and drove right into a concrete wall. Or something like that.

JoeC

Well, to be honest, they're a mixture of Hollywood Pictures/Touchstone releases. That alters where it goes after home video completely. Starz Encore Media group gets the right to show these on premium cable exclusively at first.

Disney may opt to air them when they become a library film, but in the case of all the films you mentioned (save the Sister Act films, which should be on Showtime and TMC, by the by) would be too adult to be shown on a family geared network like Disney.

JoeC...respect your target audience...

sebastianv50

Has anyone ever seen the disney original movie Wish Upon a Star with Katherine Heigle? That's reason enough for me to watch the disney channel.

clemente

All praise the very wise man, he speaks the truth! Admit it, you never miss that movie, I don't.

LBPound

Mmmmm....Katherine Heigl. I like "Wish Upon a Star". Good Disney.... Was it on again recently or something? Did I miss it?

Can't believe that's actually been announced (with an audio commentary for that matter!) on DVD...but I'm not gonna complain.