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Save Disney Shows: Past, Present and Future
Save Disney Shows was founded and run by several members of the Save Kim Possible movement. Members who realized that Disney's unspoken and unofficial 65 episode "rule" was not only going to affect Kim Possible, but other Disney Channel shows such as Lilo & Stitch, American Dragon Jake Long and Phil of the Future. These members took the initiative to create Save Disney Shows, a central organization to provide Disney related contact information and the resources necessary to run campaigns for any Disney Channel show.
For the first several years of the Save Disney Shows movement, a period roughly from 2004-2007, Save Disney Shows was at its peak. It had several active campaigns, a bustling forum and even some media attention. Then in 2005 Save Disney Shows had its arguably biggest success to date, announcement that Kim Possible was renewed for a fourth season, credited largely in part due to a massive grassroots fan movement like Save Disney Shows and Save Kim Possible. February 2007 season 4 premiered. And by September 2007 the season (and series) finale "Graduation" aired.
It wouldn't be fair for us to not admit that Save Disney Shows was founded by and largely supported by those involved in the Save Kim Possible movement. And while there has been a movement to get a season 5, a large part of the fans were satisfied with the "Graduation" season 4 series finale, and moved on. As a result we lost a lot of traffic and support. Since 2007 the Save Disney Shows organization, web site, and related campaigns, have been primarily developed and financed by two people. Once the biggest supporters of the Save Kim Possible movement left our organization, Save Disney Shows lost a lot of support and donations needed just to keep the web site, organization and related domains online.
While we have seen moderate activity in some of our campaigns since 2007 including Save Lilo & Stitch, Save WITCH and more recently Renew Shake it Up, a lot of our older campaigns like Save Phil of the Future and Save American Dragon Jake Long, and various parts of the Save Disney Shows web site became out of date and stale. We really felt it was time for some updating and clean-up. And that is what you are seeing develop before you.
As of September 2013, Save Disney Shows is under new ownership. Who are we? Well we are not people ignorant of Save Disney Shows' past success, on a mission to create a newer, better version of Save Disney Shows. We've seen that before and it failed. We've been involved with Save Disney Shows and its past owners since the beginning. We've been involved with Save Disney Shows, Save Lilo & Stitch and Save Kim Possible. We've been involved with both the campaigns and the development of the web sites. We know the mission. We know what we're fighting for. None of that changes. We are a group of the people who saw the original vision of Save Disney Shows, that Disney's "rule" would affect a lot more than just Kim Possible. We saw the potential and power of an organization like Save Disney Shows, and over 10 years later we continue to see that potential and power. That is why we volunteered to take over as owner.
The future of Save Disney Shows is still being decided and developed. Most of the Disney contact information will still be there, though some of the information is out of date (we can use everyone's assistance in helping us update it). There will still be an email program, though in the near future it will be going through a major overhaul. Some parts of the site that have become out of date, like the flyers page and media contact page, will likely be discontinued for the time being, but could be updated and revamped time permitting in the future. The Save Disney Shows forum has been discontinued. A new forum could be started in the future if we get volunteer(s) who want to be an admin. We fully support a new forum, though it would most likely be hosted outside Save Disney Shows web site this time, on something like proboards.com. We have also discontinued Save Disney Shows involvement in the email and paper petition program. Please let us know if you wish to volunteer and take charge of the former Save Disney Shows email and paper petition program. You would be in charge of this program and responsible for all aspects (including financial) of the program including: Collection of all email signatures, printing and mailing to Disney. The FixDisney email list and Save Disney Shows newsletter, which was highly intergraded into the past campaigns has also been discontinued. But again, this also can be revived if we get volunteers who have good insight into Disney related news and have the time to manage the mailing list and post updates. We will continue to post important news related to the Save Disney Shows web site and organization, updates regarding our current campaigns and Disney related news that affects our current campaigns on the web site. We will also continue to have special email/mail/phone Disney events related to specific campaigns, and post those event dates on our web site.
Campaigns... this is where you are likely to see that biggest changes and this is the biggest area we want to take Save Disney Shows in a different direction going into the future. Campaigns are an essential part of Save Disney Shows. The face of Disney has changed greatly since Save Disney Shows started, not all good in our opinion. But fans of the shows on today are just as important to us as the Kim Possible fans of 10+ years ago. Our goal is to offer fans a portal, a launching pad, to start up campaigns for their favorite shows, past and present. No matter how popular or important we think the show is, we won't judge. We are just here to provide you with the resources and opportunity.
Many of our past campaigns have been discontinued. Any of our past campaigns can be revived though if a leader steps up. Please visit the Save My Show! page for further details on what we need from said "leaders".
Most importantly, please don't hesitate to contact us with any questions or suggestions, or if you wish to volunteer in any way, as we continue the process of redeveloping and bringing new life to Save Disney Shows. We take all feedback very seriously, because Save Disney Shows was created and continues to be developed for you, the fans who care about the past, present and future of Disney!
About our Movement
This text was created many years ago by a former owner of Save Disney Shows (and slightly edited by us). Some of the text can be considered out of date. But as Save Disney Shows continues under this redevelopment process, we felt it was important to include it. To stress that no matter where Save Disney Shows goes in the future, our core mission and goals will always remain the same.
We are a group of fans who believe that the popularity of a T.V. Show should determine how many episodes of a show are made, and when/how often it is shown. That being said this website has two goals:
1. The formal abolishment of Disney's 65 episode rule, and the continued production of new episodes of quality shows such as Kim Possible, Lilo and Stitch, and Phil of the Future.
2. The revitalization of quality Disney shows that are no longer in production, such as (but by no means limited to) Chip and Dale Rescue Rangers and Ducktales. Basicly, we want DVD boxsets and/or a channel that gives them decent airplay.
We have made great strides to accomplishing these goals. Chip and Dale's Rescue Rangers, Ducktales, Gargoyles, Darkwing Duck, and TaleSpin have all receved at least one DVD boxset of 20+ episodes. More Boxsets are expected to follow.
In addition, Kim Possible has received the green light for a fourth season as a direct result of the Save KP movement lead by SDS. The first four episodes aired February 10th 2007 on Disney Channel.
We received confirmation from Chris Sanders, the creator of Lilo & Stitch, that he used many of the posts on Save Lilo and Stitch's Ohana Shout Out to show Disney Japan that fans wanted a better storyline connection between Lilo and Stitch and the Japanese spin-off Stitch! This led to the creation of the Lilo and Stitch reunion episode! Up to that point Lilo was only referenced in the first episode, where Stitch was angry at Lilo for getting a boyfriend and forgetting Stitch. But the fans knew Lilo would not do that, and nobody gets left behind of forgotten! And we expressed our dislike. It was a very "interesting" episode, that may be re-done some when it's translated to English, but ultimately led to a very heartwarming reunion at the end of the episode. A reunion that may not have happened without Save Lilo and Stitch!
The fact that Michael Eisner was removed from his position as CEO of The Walt Disney Company at the end of September 2005 is also an encouraging sign for our movement. Robert A. Iger is the new CEO and hopefully his new team will be much more competent.
Mr. Iger has, since the announcement that he will become the new CEO, started to try and fix the mess left by Eisner. Time will tell if he is up to the challenge or not. We at SaveDisneyShows.org applaud his initiative in these matters, but are concerned that fixing the Disney Channel, Toon Disney, and ABC Family Channel are not among his first priorities. Therefore our job is to make Mr. Iger aware of the problems that need fixing now. If we all work together we can and will continue to change things for the better.
Please join us in our fight. Click here for the New Members orientation page.
You can view a listing of all planned Save Disney Shows sponsored events here, and you can access our colection of postal addresses, phone numbers and fax numbers for the Walt Disney Company here.
If you want to be start a movement for an older show or for any show that doesn't have one, please contact us.
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