Trivia / Walt Disney Presents

• Adored by the Network: When the Wonderful World of Color came to NBC, the show had been promoted five months before its premiere.
• Cash-Cow Franchise: The "Davy Crockett" specials spawned a slew of popular merchandise, most notably a hit record of the Theme Tune Extended, and child-size coonskin hats.
• Channel Hop: Has aired on all three major networks.
• Creator Backlash: Drew Carey really regrets playing the title role in Geppetto, to the point where mocking him for it became a Running Gag on Whose Line Is It Anyway?. Also on The Drew Carey Show, he once brought Seth Adkins, who played Pinocchio, on the set in full costume and he said he didn't want to be around him anymore.
• Executive Meddling:
  • ABC wanted more westerns from Disney during the later 50s, which brought out a lot of "Frontierland" mini-series like Elfego Baca and The Swamp Fox. This was one of the reasons Walt fled to NBC, the other being that NBC had the technology to broadcast in color, while ABC could only broadcast in black and white.
  • While the show was doing good on CBS, Disney didn't let the show go on after the 1982-83 season so there wouldn't be any competition with the new Disney Channel. (They also stopped licensing content that had previously aired on the show to HBO (those airings kept the original, kalidoscopic opening titles/bumpers}. However, there was a period in the 1980s when Disney syndicated reruns to local stations.)
• First Appearance: The first episode of Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color, "An Adventure in Color/Mathmagicland", is also the first appearance of Ludwig Von Drake.
• Harpo Does Something Funny: A lot of Ludwig Von Drake straying off-topic was ad libbed by Paul Frees.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: The total number of episodes released on DVD or Blu-ray seems pretty small when considering how many seasons this show has, and gets even smaller after one learns how many of those discs have gone out of print. Mitigated after Disney started putting select episodes on iTunes, at least in the US, and on Disney+.^note One of the episodes added to iTunes, "The Best Doggone Dog in the World", lacks an option to download, since they only carry it as an extra feature for 101 Dalmatians. Also, on occasion, certain episodes have aired as part of TCM's Treasures from the Disney Vault block.
• Milestone Celebration: "The Fourth Anniversary Show" (technically the third), which had a special show by the Mouseketeers in the second half. Also, "Disneyland 10th Anniversary" (1965), about the first ten years of Disneyland. Some later episodes like "50 Happy Years" (1973), "Mickey's 50" (1978), "A Merry Mickey Celebration" (2003), "The Little Mermaid Live!" (2019), "Beauty and the Beast: A 30th Celebration" (2022), and "Disney's 100th Anniversary Celebration!" (2023) also fit.
• Network to the Rescue: After the show was dropped by NBC due to low ratings, CBS was quick to pick it up in 1981.
• Role Reprise: For the new scenes (such as his interaction with Walt Disney) in the episode "Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom", Bill Thompson reprised his voice role as Professor Owl from the Adventures in Music Duology. This would be the final time he would voice the character as well due to his death in 1971 twelve years later.
• Saved from Development Hell: Disney originally announced The Little Mermaid Live! in 2016, but ended up shelving it until 2019, the year that marked the original movie's 30th anniversary.
• Screwed by the Network: In the 70s, NBC placed the show opposite CBS' 60 Minutes, which took its toll on the ratings.
• Star-Making Role:
  • Or, at least, personal recognition. This series was most people's introduction to Walt as a person rather than just a name above the film title.
  • Fess Parker became forever associated with the role of Davy Crockett.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The producers and director of Cinderella (1997) planned to follow it up with an adaptation of The Wiz. They signed on Paula Abdul to choreograph, and the then-unknown Anika Noni Rose (who'd later star in Disney's The Princess and the Frog) to portray Dorothy Gale. However, rights issues with Universal, the studio that distributed the 1978 movie version of The Wiz, prevented The Wonderful World of Disney from progressing much further with their take. In 2015, the producers finally did release a TV version of The Wiz, but for NBC instead of ABC, and with a different director (Kenny Leon), choreographer (Fatima Robinson), and Dorothy (Shanice Williams). At one point, an adaptation of Fiddler on the Roof was also announced.
  • An insert inside select copies of the Chicago Razzle Dazzle Edition DVD promoted Cinderella and Annie (1999) "Musical Magic Edition" re-releases, scheduled for Spring 2006. Disney inexplicably cancelled these plans, without ever explaining what exactly would've made these discs different from the normal ones.
• Write What You Know: The subject of "Where Do the Stories Come From?".

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