Open Letters: Scheduling change notices much appreciated. Signed, the kids.

To the Mickey Mouses and Donald Ducks over at Disney Channel:

Children, as you know, are a unique subset of the human race. While energetic, very flexible, and full of imagination they are also quite rigid. Particularly when it comes to television. Especially when it comes to a specific television show on a specific channel at a specific time.

Being so rigid at times, the world of these children can go topsy-turvy when, out of the blue, their favorite television program doesn’t happen to come on when it’s supposed to. This, in turn, wreaks havoc with the parents of these said children who need to console their young ones with hugs, kisses, and several lollipops. Of course, this makes the parents angry at the channel that messed up their children’s programming schedule. Eventually, network executives are burned in effigy by thousands of upset parents.

All they have to do to avoid this is give both the kids and parents fair warning that the schedule is going to change. As the perfect example where this should have taken place, I give you the Disney Channel.

For years, Disney Channel offered up its “Playhouse Disney” lineup of pre-school programs starting at 6:00 a.m. each day. The shows during this time varied throughout the years, with the exception of The Wiggles, which maintained a 7:00 start time for a good portion of its run. The current early morning lineup featured JoJo’s Circus, Johnny and the Sprites, The Wiggles and Higglytown Heroes. Interspersed between these programs were little mini-episodes of other shows that would take the place of the cable network’s other advertising (for things like the new Demi Lovato program).

Then, at the beginning of the week, this all changed. Without any warning whatsoever, Disney Channel decided to push the start time for its “Playhouse Disney” block back two hours to 8:00 a.m. Gone were JoJo’s Circus and Johnny and the Sprites — two shows that I could actually watch and enjoy with my kids. The Wiggles, meanwhile, were pushed all the way back to 11:30. By the by, these were brand new Wiggles episodes as well; not the old stuff that they were running for years.

In it’s place were Phineas and Ferb as well as the  network’s other pre-school fare like Handy Manny; however, these shows weren’t packaged in the “Playhouse” style. So, for example, Manny has a “commercial” break in-between its segments so the network can promote its tween offerings like Wizards of Waverly Place. Why three-year-olds would be interested in that over Higglytown Heroes is beyond me. The change in the schedule was so sudden that not even the channel grid on my digital cable box was able to make the necessary corrections quick enough.

This, obviously, left my house in a tizzy. With a pair of nearly three-year-old twins who are avid “Playhouse” fans, the change was noticeable since we normally woke up to Johnny and the Sprites. Now, after being in that routine for months, a quick change of what we watched needed to be made. with so many cable offerings available to children these days it wasn’t difficult to find something else. Still, they were somewhat disappointed (as were their parents) as to the loss of these shows.

The Disney Channel could have avoided all of the confusion and anger by simply letting us know a few weeks in advance that there was going to be a change at “Playhouse Disney” so we could be prepared. Sure, viewers would have probably still left for other outlets, but at least we would have had time to make the decision. Now, what you have on your hands is a bunch of disgruntled parental units who are looking for some heads to bash together.

Next time, Disney Channel, let us know your intentions before you do what you do. Who knows? You may be able to get some sympathy from the viewers. Now, all you’ll get is poo on your doorstep. And, I’m not talking about the cuddly-bear type of Pooh either.

Clacked by Richard Keller
on Jan 07, 2009 @ 17:00 EST5EDT