Whether we wish to acknowledge it or not, we’ve all loved Disney at some point in our lives. What started out as an animation industry has become a series of theme parks, movies, television shows, and even a streaming platform. I can’t even go five seconds without stepping on an old Disney-themed toy of mine or catching a glimpse of an advertisement for a new Disney movie.

For me, the most prominent part of Disney has always been Disney Channel, Disney’s television network that airs a variety of television programs and original movies. I grew up watching the shows and movies that premiered on Disney Channel and I still go back and rewatch some of my favorites.

However, Disney Channel has definitely evolved in terms of its content, casting, and presentation of different stories. If you were to compare what is often called “Old Disney” with the “New Disney” of today, you would find several differences, as Disney tries to adapt its content for the new generation of Disney fanatics.

So let’s take a trip down Disney Channel lane and take a closer look at how far Disney Channel has come from its beginnings to now.
(Note: This timeline will only be focusing on Disney Channel television shows and not any Disney Channel Original Movies which were also aired on Disney Channel. That’s an article for another time.)

Early Beginnings (1983 – 1999)

In 1983, Disney Channel began with its first television series Good Morning, Mickey! which was centered around established Disney characters like Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. It was essentially a series of short episodes that featured different funny scenarios. I feel like this was the perfect starting point for Disney Channel because it basically just used Disney characters that were already popular and created various storylines around them. These days, Disney Channel has little to no connection with the original Disney characters so you’d never even think the network was related.

Other shows that premiered when Disney Channel was just starting out were Donald Duck Presents, Dumbo’s Circus, and Adventures in Wonderland. All of these shows were somehow related to other previously established Disney stories. The channel was just starting out so the majority of shows also happened to be animated before they thought of enlisting actors to create live-action content.

Overall, I think this era of Disney Channel did its best to keep things simple and true to Disney. The modern technologies of today were not available to creators in that time period, so they did what they could and provided Disney Channel with a memorable start for those who remember it.

Disney Takes Off (2000 – 2005)

The 2000s marked a period of change for Disney Channel as it began to move away from animation towards sitcoms with actual people. The first of many Disney family sitcoms was Even Stevens, a show centered around a family in California and its two polar-opposite sibling protagonists. I haven’t actually watched this show, but I have heard so much praise for it that it’s definitely high on my Disney watch list. I might even forget about my own sibling rivalry with my younger brother if I watch the Stevens instead.

Some more notable shows of this era include Lizzie McGuire, Kim Possible, That’s So Raven, Phil of the Future, and The Suite Life of Zack & Cody.

These shows are some of the most iconic and well-known shows Disney Channel has created for obvious reasons. First, they all revolve around such strong main characters, played by great actors. We all wanted to be friends with Lizzie (Hilary Duff) from Lizzie McGuire, get into trouble with Zack and Cody (Cole and Dylan Sprouse) from The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, or fight crime with Kim Possible (Christy Carlson Romano). 

Then there’s the fact that each of these shows had something unique about it. That’s So Raven and Phil of the Future were supernatural shows where the main character of the former, Raven, was psychic and the latter focused on a family from the future who gets stranded in the past. In The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, the protagonists lived in a hotel and in Kim Possible (the animated series), teenagers protected the world from evil.

Compelling character and plot combinations made these shows as popular and iconic as they are today.

The Era Of Disney’s Future Pop Stars (2006 – 2010)

Some of our greatest musical artists and actors started their careers with Disney Channel. The best example of this is probably Miley Cyrus and Hannah Montana. Hannah Montana is one of Disney Channel’s most celebrated shows and Hannah/Miley one of its greatest characters. Kids everywhere thought of Hannah as an idol and her story really paved the way for similar “famous person lives a double life” storylines. I’m personally not a big fan of Miley Cyrus or Miley Stewart’s character from the show, but the show itself is still one of my favorites.

When we talk about the other shows that premiered in this era of Disney Channel, we’re really talking about what I consider to be “the meat of Disney Channel.” Shows like Wizards of Waverly Place, The Suite Life on Deck, Phineas and Ferb, Sonny with a Chance, Good Luck Charlie, and Shake It Up set the bar high for Disney Channel content and the actors associated with it. We got to see personalities like Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato, The Sprouse Twins, Bridget Mendler, Zendaya, and Bella Thorne as teenagers dealing with teenage problems in their own unique ways with their fair share of obstacles.

The animated Phineas and Ferb taught us some great life lessons on what to do and what not to do over the summer and I can safely say that it’s my favorite animated series, with surprisingly good music, that never gets old.

For some more honorable mentions, I personally like The Suite Life on Deck (a spinoff of The Suite Life of Zack & Cody) much more than the original. Maybe it’s because the characters are on a cruise this time around or because they’re older and I can relate more to them. Good Luck Charlie has such a great cast and the family dynamic is hilarious. The fact that the cast includes such young child actors makes it even more impressive.

As for Wizards of Waverly Place, I think I’m going to need an entirely different article just to explain how much I love this show. It has wizards, it has magic, it has a crazy family, it has a best friend with a weird fashion sense, and it has Selena Gomez. No further explanation needed.

Modern Disney Channel (2011 – 2016)

We have now reached the “Modern Disney Channel” era. This era of Disney Channel is split up into a couple of categories which are as follows: Category #1: “This show was pretty good!” Category #2: “This show existed?” and Category #3: “This show was a modern classic so I’m not even going to compare.”

Category one contains shows that are honestly not bad, but not good enough to be on the top-tier Disney Channel classic list. We have Girl Meets World (the spinoff of the popular ABC series Boy Meets World), Stuck in the Middle, Bunk’d (a spinoff of Jessie), and Liv and Maddie. I enjoyed the representation of a Hispanic family in Stuck in the Middle, the nostalgia of Jessie from Bunk’d, the life lessons and more nostalgia from Girl Meets World, and Dove Cameron’s double role scenarios in Liv and Maddie, but these shows are just a step down in terms of content and characters from the OG Disney Channel modern classics.

Category two has some modern Disney shows that were easily forgotten by most people (unless you’re just obsessed with Disney like me). There’s So Random, Dog with a Blog, I Didn’t Do It, Best Friends Whenever, and Bizaardvark. One exception for me is that I loved I Didn’t Do It, but it didn’t garner much attention and was canceled after only 2 seasons, which was short for Modern Disney. I guess the reason these shows weren’t as successful was mainly because the execution of ideas wasn’t the best. We’re all pretty tired of seeing talking animals, we don’t want another time travel show, and no one is going to watch a series based on Sonny with a Chance without Demi Lovato.

Finally, we have reached category three, the modern classics category. These shows are obviously different from the original classics of the 2000s, but they made themselves a category and a place in Disney Channel and I think they deserve it. This prestigious list of modern classics includes Jessie, A.N.T. Farm, Austin & Ally, Gravity Falls, and K.C. Undercover. Gravity Falls premiered as a successful animated series after a long break without a popular Disney animated show airing. Jessie, A.N.T. Farm, and Austin & Ally gave us some of our favorite characters and K.C. Undercover provided for a little action and adventure. These shows also brought with them a whole new generation of Disney stars like Peyton List, China Anne McClain, Ross Lynch, Laura Marano, and Cameron Boyce and saw the revival of stars like Zendaya and Debby Ryan. 

Wait… This is Still Disney Channel? (2017 – Present)

I don’t really know what to say about our present Disney Channel era, so let’s start with the pros. Two shows, Andi Mack and Raven’s Home (a spinoff of That’s So Raven) are shows that were actually enjoyable as Disney Channel shows in the present era. Andi Mack was especially groundbreaking in terms of the content, as the show touched on topics such as teenage pregnancy, mental health, and the LGBTQ community. Raven’s Home continued the That’s So Raven storyline with reappearances by Raven-Symoné and Anneliese van der Pol. I would say they both maintained the Disney sitcom spirit in their own ways and never got too boring.

As for the rest of our present-day Disney Channel, I’m still a bit confused on what’s going on. For some context, some of the other shows of this era include Sydney to the Max, Bug Juice: My Adventures at Camp, Big City Greens, Coop & Cami Ask the World, Fast Layne, Just Roll with It, and Gabby Duran & the Unsittables.

I haven’t actually watched any of the shows mentioned above, so you could say that it’s unfair of me to judge them. However, I would argue that the fact that a Disney-obsessed teenager hasn’t seen the majority of the programming airing on present-day Disney Channel says it all.

Present-day Disney Channel, for me at least, has lost its charm. The actors are all much younger and the content of the shows also seems to be geared towards much younger audiences. For example, in Gabby Duran & the Unsittables, the main character is a babysitter for a group of aliens disguised as humans and that’s the main plot of the show. In Coop & Cami Ask the World, a group of middle-schoolers make their decisions by asking their fans from an online show that they run. 

And it’s not that these are bad show concepts or that the actors aren’t convincing in their roles, it’s that Disney Channel today just doesn’t feel like Disney Channel. We used to be able to relate to and connect with the characters and stories of Disney, but I don’t know anyone who has had the experience of babysitting aliens or running an online show to decide which crazy stunt to do next. Everyone will always remember “double life” Miley from Hannah Montana or mischievous Alex from Wizards of Waverly Place, but today’s Disney Channel characters just don’t have any sort of personality. Disney Channel seems to be more concerned with creating content that is “cool” and “popular” rather than creating stories and characters that we will actually remember. 

So as we approach the end of this Disney Channel timeline, we see that the greatest difference between “Old Disney Channel” and “New Disney Channel” is that New Disney is giving us mediocre content to garner some laughs and a couple of thousand views, while Old Disney gave us memories that will last a lifetime. 

All we can do now is appreciate the quality Disney Channel content we do get to enjoy, binge-watch our favorites on the increasingly popular Disney+ platform (if we have access to it), and hope that Disney Channel works towards improving their content so future generations too can be exposed to what, for most of us, was our childhood.