The 1980s were a great time for television. Pick a network and pretty much across all genres, you’ll find a television show that is well-regarded and iconic, even today, roughly 40 years later. But there are also shows that people don’t really talk about anymore – this is especially true for Disney shows. The Disney Channel first launched in 1983, and with it came several great programs from the House of Mouse, both for the Disney Channel and for other networks. However, many have since been largely forgotten, which is a real shame because they were great.
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Covering a wide range of entertainment, including a group of kids running their own rock band to an animated delight based on a candy, 1980s Disney shows are simply unmatched, and these are five of the best that really deserve way more love.
5) Mousercise
The ‘80s were a time when home exercise and fitness really started to become a thing, and Disney brought that trend to kids with Mousercise. One of the first shows on The Disney Channel — it literally debuted with the channel’s launch on April 18, 1983 — Mousercise was a spin-off of sorts from Disney’s 1982 album of the same name. It ended up running for 13 years and was so successful at the time, it also got its own video series, which some schools even incorporated into their classroom for fitness education.
Mousercise featured Kellyn Passchaert along with Mickey Mouse and other Disney characters exercising with a group of kids. The series also featured a segment about health and safety with Steve Stark. Despite being very popular during its time on air, Mousercise has largely been forgotten and has fallen into the realm of lost media, with very few original episodes available online — usually uploaded to YouTube after being found on home video.
4) The Wuzzles
Now, if you’re an ‘80s kid, you might be a little confused as to why The Wuzzles are on this list because you might remember The Wuzzles airing first on CBS and, later, on ABC. That memory would be correct; however, The Wuzzles was absolutely a Disney show. Produced by Walt Disney Pictures Television Animation Group, it aired just one season of 13 episodes on CBS from September 14 to December 7, 1985, before being canceled. The series followed a group of short, round, colorful animal characters that were a mix of two different animal species — think Bumblelion and Butterbear. There wasn’t any especially interesting plot; the show really was just centered around some really cute characters that kids would love, though they had a couple of Saturday morning cartoon bad guys, too, like the frog and lizard combo Flizard.
The Wuzzles is largely forgotten because, while it was cute, it just wasn’t successful. Disney’s other animated series from the same time, Adventures of the Gummi Bears, was a much bigger hit, but while The Wuzzles sort of faded away, they did help kickstart Disney’s television renaissance.
3) Good Morning, Miss Bliss
While pretty much everyone knows Saved by the Bell, most people don’t realize it actually started out as something else. Airing for just one season between November 30, 1988, and March 18, 1989, Good Morning, Miss Bliss was a teen sitcom for the Disney Channel. The series starred Hayley Mills as the titular Miss Bliss and followed her life and students at John F. Kennedy Junior High in Indianapolis, Indiana. And who were those students? Zack Morris (Mark-Paul Gosselaar), Lisa Turtle (Lark Voorhies), Screech Powers (Dustin Diamond), and others. The series also featured Dennis Haskins as principal Richard Belding.
If you knew about Good Morning, Miss Bliss but thought it was an NBC series, you’d be forgiven for that. The original pilot aired on NBC and featured a very different cast and characters (including a young Matt Shakman as Georgie Winslow) before heading to the Disney Channel, marking the first series produced by a Big Three network for cable. The series lasted just one season before being retooled as Saved by the Bell for NBC (complete with relocating the series to California and adding some new characters), which is how most people know it. Good Morning, Miss Bliss was eventually integrated into Saved by the Bell as part of a syndication package, and its episodes were given a cold open introduction that explained they were from an earlier time.
2) Adventures of the Gummi Bears
While The Wuzzles didn’t last, Adventures of the Gummi Bears did. The series, which debuted in 1985 on NBC, ended up running for six total seasons (four on NBC, 1 on ABC, and then one in syndication as part of The Disney Afternoon). The series would eventually end up on the Disney Channel, as well. Loosely inspired by actual gummy bear candy, the series follows a family of mystical beings — the Gummi Bears — living in a medieval-style society where they frequently work alongside the humans to take on various issues and challenges. The series also had an extremely catchy and memorable theme song, which might be more remembered than the series itself.
What makes Adventures of the Gummi Bears so great is that it was a major shift in animated television, featuring a significant budget and major artistic improvement in terms of television animation. It also marked a breakaway from some of the more familiar companies that dominated cartoons, like Hanna-Barbera. It was also just very different from what Disney was doing at the time – and, fun fact, the Gummi Bears ended up so popular that they were even featured as characters in Disney theme parks.
1) Kids Incorporated
While most people think of The Mickey Mouse Club as being the program that launched a lot of notable careers, before that show gave us Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, and many more, there was Kids Incorporated. Debuting in 1983 and running for nine seasons on The Disney Channel, Kids Incorporated followed a group of kids who performed and ran their own rock band called Kids Incorporated. The series dealt with the kids facing a range of issues, including peer pressure, first crushes, child abuse, and more, all against a backdrop of performing as a group at The P*lace.
The series launched the careers of several notable performers, including Stacy “Fergie” Ferguson, Jennifer Love Hewitt, and even Mario Lopez, who would go on to be one of the stars of Saved by the Bell. While the series isn’t as remembered as The Mickey Mouse Club is, it is still a great Disney gem that had quite an impact on a whole generation of viewers.
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