Back in April of 1983, Disney decided to launch the first television channel to carry their name, The Disney Chan🐎nel. Originally airing shows and TV movies targeted for the whole family to enjoy, it wasn't until 1997 that the channel became what it is today.
Changing their lineup of programming to aim specifically for younger children to preteens and teens, Disney Channel finally gained popularity and became a serious competitor to the other kid-centered channels, Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon. This is when Disney Channel started producing the teen sitcoms that would make them so successful, starting with shows like Flash Forward in 1997 and The Famous Jett Jackson in 1998.
Their first original show to really hit it big came in June 2000 with Even Stevens, which also catapulted lead actor Shia LaBeouf's career. This show was closely followed by the similarly fondly remembered Lizzie McGuire, which also made lead actress Hilary Duff their first major teen star since the days of The Mickey Mouse Club.
Disney Channel continued to make a name for itself in children's television, producing more hit teen sitcoms, cartoons and Original Movies that many young adults remember fondly today. Some of these shows experienced very long and healthy lifespans, including That's So Raven (their first show to cross the 100 episode barrier) and Phineas and Ferb (more than 200!).
Many, many other shows, however, did not. Many shows were cancelled after only a couple of seasons, including some fairly popular shows. Today, we're going to be taking a look at 20 shows that were cancelled for some particularly strange and interesting reasons. Get ready to be infuria♒ted.
20 🌃 The 65-Episode Rule
Based on the popular feature film of the same name, Lilo & Stitch: The Series continued the adventures of everyone's favorite Hawaiian child and alien experiment as they search for the oth🅷er 625 experiments who have conveniently all landed on Hawaii. They do their best to reform Stitch's "cousins" and help them find the one place they truly belon🌊g.
The series ended in 2006 after only 65 episodes.
That number doesn't seem significant until you start looking at Disney Channel's history of original programs and find that many early shows ended at or near that exact same number of episodes. Since 1998, Disney Channel has implemented a controversial and unofficial rule to end all shows at the 65 episode mark. The aim was to limit production costs so they could continue to make more shows while keeping costs low. This rule is no longer enforced, but Disney will still cancel most s𓄧hows after their fourth season.
19 🎀 iBeat The ꦉJonas Brothers
Back in 2008, Disney Channel aired what turned out to be an incredibly popular Original Movie: Camp Rock, starring Demi Lovato and the Jonas Brothers. To capitalize on the popularity of these young musicians, it was only natural that Disney Channel would want to produce a show around them. So in 2009, the sitcom Jonas premiered. The show starred the Jonas Brothers (of course) as fictionalized versions of themselves trying to balance their bandꦦ with living a normal life.
The trouble for Jonas started as soon as it premiered on Saturday night. Disney hoped the Brothers would be able to dethrone Nickelodeon's iCarly for the top spot. When Jonas was unable to keep up, it made a sudden move to Sunday, confusing viewers. Making matters worse, Disney made an ill-advised move in setting and name for the second season, called Jonas L.A.. Eventually, Disney pulled the plug on the show.
18 ♉ 🍃 Mission Failed
One of Disney Channel's first shows, The Famous Jett Jackson, was an early success and an influential forerunner to the 💟types of shows that would come to dominate the channel. The show starred the titular character Jett Jackson, a teenage boy who plays a secret agent on the . Episodes would split between Jackson's spy show and his efforts to live a normal life in his hometown.
The Famous Jett Jackson was a very entertaining show and was even well-liked by critics. It did very well in the ratings department as well. However, this was still Disney Channel's early years, so after 65 episodes and a Disney Channel Original Movie, the series ended in June 2001. Fans cou♔ld still catch reruns of the show every night... at 12:30am. In June 2004, the show was pulled completely from Disney's programming, only airing briefly again on ABC Family and Disney XD.
17 The Tru🧸th Is Ouꦦt There
Back in 1999, Disney wanted to cash in on X-Files' popularity. They produced So Weird, a kid-friendly version of the hit sci-fi horror show.ꦉꦏ The show followed teenage Fiona Phillips as she went on tour with her rock star mom. While on tour, she encountered paranormal occurrences, including alien invasions, Bigfoot, and vampires.
A darker Disney show featuring sci-fi horror and a should have a lꦺot of fans, so why don't more people know about this show? Once again, the show was axed after 65 episodes, but that might not be the only reason why it ended. Lead actress Cara DeLizia left the show after the second season to pursue other, non-Disney projects, bringing an abrupt end to her character's story arc.
Once So Weird ended in 2001, reruns kept getting pushed back💝 further into the night until it was removed in 2003. It has never been aired since.
16 The Magic Washed O🥀ut ও
Disney Channel had some really unique shows back in the 90s, as they were still trying to figure out what kind of shows they wanted to make. Another memorable early show of theirs is The Jersey. The show follows a group of teens who discover a magic football jersey that, when worn, allows them to jump into the bodies of professional athletes. The Jersey was like a sports-themed version of Quantum Leap for kids, and featured many popular at🥃hletes ofꦍ the time, including Dan Lyle, Tony Hawk, and Peyton Manning.
The show was popular, especially with young sports fans, but Disney Channel had already made up their mind to cancel production of the show in 2001, before they'd even started airing the third season. The Jersey never even got to experience a second life in reruns, because as soon as all 64 episodes had aired, Disney pulled it 🌼off the air completely.
15 Slayed
My Babysitter's a Vampire, being essentially a less violent version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer for tweens, was much edgier than the other shows Disney Channel had on offer. As such, it instantly gained a loyal cult following. The show followed psych🤪ic kid Ethan, his spellmaster best friend Benny, and his vampire babysitter Sarah as they tackle supernatural forces and high school life.
Despite the show's loyal fan base, ratings were still low by network standards. After two seasons, studio Fresh TV was struggling to get a second TV movie done. In a last ditch effort to show they could still pull ratings, they announced in April 2014 the pilot movie and the first two seasons would have a marathon on Canadian channel YTV and urged fans to tune in so they could produce a second movie and third season. Unfortunately, it was not enough, and MBAV has stayed dormant since.
14 Shut Down By A Dog With A Blo💦g
Some Disney Channel shows are cancelled before they even begin. One such show was Madison High, a proposed musical sitcom spinoff to the incredibly popular High School Musical Disney Channel Original Movi🧜es. The show was supposed to star Luke Benward and G Hannelius in the lead roles as a romantic couple, very much like T🌠roy and Gabriella from the DCOMs.
A High School Musical show seemed like the next logical step for Disney, so why did they give up on it? It turns out G was already committed to the show Dog with a Blog. One of the shows had to go and, at the time, Disney Channel was trying to produce programming for the whole family to enjoy (not just kids). The Madison High pilot was cancelled and Dog with a Blog ran for three seasons. I don't kno𒁏w why. The dog doesn't even blog that much.
13 😼Earth's Replaceable Heroes 🤡
When Disney bought Marvel Comics back in 2009, fans were cautiously skeptical. Worries were set aside when Disney premiered The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Starring many well known Marvel superheroes such as Captain America and Hulk--as well as less mainstream heroes Black Panther and Ms. Marvel--Earth's Mightiest Heroes seemed to usher in a new era of Marvel animation the likes of which hadn't been seen since t🥂he 90s.
Then the Avengers movie premiered in the summer of 2012, and Disney decided they needed to capitalize on it, despite already having a critically acclaimed Avengers cartoon on their hands. Earth's Mightiest Heroes was cancelled after only two seasons and replaced with Avengers Assemble in 2013, which featured the sa🀅me lineup of characters as the movie. This meant those lesser known heroes had to wait till season three to show up again.
12 💜 No Chance Without Sonny
As was said earlier, the popularity of the Disney Channel Original Movie Camp Rock lead to two shows starring the lead musicians. One was the flop Jonas, and the other was Sonny with a Chance, starring Demi Lovato. The show followed teenage Sonny Munroe (Lovato) who has just become the newest cast member on the live comedy television show, So Random!.
Sonny pulled in millions of viewers during its firs💯t two seasons and was renewed for a third, but the show was suddenly put on pause when Lovato had to seek treatment due to serious personal and psychological issues. When it became clear that Lovato would not be returning to the show, Disney scrambled to rework the third season into a spinoff based on the . Without Lov༒ato, though, Disney saw no reason to continue the show, and ended it after one season.
11 The Forgotten Cousin🐻s
Todd J. Greenwald, the creator of Wizards of Waverly Place, originally had another show he wanted to make starring pop rock duo Aly & AJ called The Odd Cousins. The premise was very much a teenage Odd Couple: one was a bright and sunny cheerleader,ꦚ th💎e other was a grungy emo kid sent to live with her cousin. Wacky sitcom hijinks ensue.
Unfortunately for Greenwald, the sisters weren't available, so he tried to do the show with Vanessa Hudgens and another girl. At the time, Hudgens had just recently auditioned for High School Musical and seemed like a perfect fit. Once that DCOM became a massive hit, though, The Odd Cousins was officially dropped by Disney. Fort💮unately for Greenwald, Disney saw talent in him and as𒁏ked if he could develop a series for their newest star, Selena Gomez, and the rest is history.