Just found this:
"Sept. 24, 1961
Premier of "Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color," full-hour Sunday series of color TV programs ranging from nature stories to animated cartoons, from tales of adventure to famous classics and musical extravaganzas. (This program, more than any other, sparked the increasing sales of color receivers, and the eventual take-off of color television)."
From
http://novia.net/~ereitan/rca-nbc_firsts.html
And there is a whole lot of info here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walt_Disney_anthology_television_series
1954 -- Show was called
Disneyland
"Disney embraced television wholeheartedly, and
Disneyland became the first successful TV production created by a movie studio."
1958 -- "In the fall of 1958, the series was re-titled
Walt Disney Presents and moved to Friday nights, but by 1960, it switched to Sunday nights, where it would remain for twenty-one years.
1961 -- "The series moved to NBC in September 1961 to take advantage of that network's ability to broadcast in color. . . . In a display of foresight, Disney had filmed many of the earlier shows in color, so they were able to be repeated on NBC. To emphasize the new color feature, the series was re-dubbed
Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color and retained that moniker until 1969. The first NBC episode even dealt with the principles of color, as explained by a new character named Ludwig Von Drake (voiced by Paul Frees), a bumbling professor and uncle of Donald Duck. Von Drake was the first Disney character created specifically for television."
1969 --
Wonderful World of Color was RETITLED -- "The series,
retitled The Wonderful World of Disney in September 1969, continued to get solid ratings, often in the Top 20, until the mid-1970s."
That will be all for your lesson today. Class will resume tomorrow promptly at 9:00.