Playhouse Disney Live (US Live Show Tour, 2000 and 2001)
Jul 8, 2023 0:21:57 GMT
via mobile
pinkhippo likes this
Post by logosfan2005 on Jul 8, 2023 0:21:57 GMT
I haven’t seen much talk about this so I thought I’d make a thread about it.
For those who don’t know, Playhouse Disney Live was a live show that promoted Playhouse Disney, the preschool programming block on Disney Channel. It toured across the United States nationwide. There were two tours: The initial tour in 2000, then a second tour in 2001 that updated the show to reflect Playhouse Disney’s new branding and shows that hadn’t been present in the 2000 show. But more on that later.
Something very important: Playhouse Disney Live is NOT to be confused with Playhouse Disney - Live on Stage! (later renamed to Disney Junior - Live on Stage! after Playhouse Disney’s rebranding to Disney Junior in 2011), which was a show attraction that ran at various Disney theme parks from the early 2000s (the first one opened at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Fall 2001) up to as late as the late 2010s. The show at the parks updated many times throughout the years, but otherwise footage of it is very widespread and isn’t considered lost. It is also not to be confused with Playhouse Disney Live on Tour!, a similar show from Feld Entertainment that ran from 2007 to 2010. Due to the similar names between the three shows, it may be difficult finding information on Playhouse Disney Live. Here’s everything I’ve gathered so far, though.
The 2000 tour took place from March 31 to June 4, 2000.
Here’s the commercial for it: youtu.be/wnxld7_dlXA
All four original Playhouse Disney shows were present in some way: Peanut, Butter, and Jelly puppets performed on a stage resembling their houseboat, and Olie and Zowie were represented by mascot costumes. Bear was also there, and it appears an exact replica of the real Bear costume was used. Finally, Tony James and Vivian Bayubay McLaughlin, whom played Tony and Vivian respectively on Out of the Box, were also at the tour.
Two additional notes are that the tour also featured a book donation center known as the “Rolie Polie Olie Book Round-Up”, where you could donate a new or used kids’ book that would then be sent to a local charity, and that the event was sponsored by Suburban Cable, a cable company that was acquired by Comcast in January 2000 and was then shuttered that May, coincidentally during this tour.
And that’s all the info I found on the 2000 tour. Now onto the 2001 tour.
2001 was a big year for Playhouse Disney. First, The Book of Pooh debuted in January. Then, the block received a rebrand in April, with new graphics and a new announcer, Allyce Beasley (voice of Ms. Grotke on Recess), replacing Randy Thomas.
That Fall, a huge promotional push was made for the block. A soundtrack album featuring songs from the shows was released, Stanley premiered, Playhouse Disney - Live on Stage! opened at Disney World, and another nationwide tour was done with some major updates.
The 2001 tour took place from September 7 to November 11, 2001.
Here are two commercials for it. The first appears to be an earlier version and reuses footage from the 2000 tour, while the second commercial shows new footage reflecting the additions and changes made to the 2001 tour:
youtu.be/g0RjQV4QZHo
youtu.be/mY-9fNFTBGo
There were many differences compared to the 2000 tour. For one, the stage set was completely redone, resembling Playhouse Disney’s new branding. The PB&J Otter puppets (albeit without the houseboat stage), Bear costume, and Tony and Vivian remained unchanged, while the Olie and Zowie mascot costumes were replaced with puppets instead.
The Book of Pooh was represented by a puppet of Pooh, although it looked different than the one used in the show. New addition Stanley was also present in puppet form. Lastly, the book donation center returned but was rethemed to The Book of Pooh (which makes sense because The Book of Pooh had a literacy-based curriculum). It was now called “Pooh’s Hunny Pot Book Drop”, but otherwise functioned the same as the previous year.
Here is the website for the 2001 tour. Unfortunately, most of the images aren’t viewable and it’s difficult to navigate as a result.
web.archive.org/web/20010830022241/http://disney.go.com/disneychannel/playhouse/live/index.html
On a final note, it seems that the main location that these shows were held were in malls across the country.
As for how well preserved the shows are… from what I can tell, they appear to be lost. There’s a few pictures of varying quality, but footage of the full show (or even anything outside of what is seen in the commercials) has not resurfaced. Interestingly, YouTube comments suggest that there used to exist a video with the full show available to watch (it’s unclear whether this was of the 2000 or 2001 version), but got deleted for one reason or another long ago and was never reuploaded.
And that’s all the information I have on Playhouse Disney Live. I tried to describe everything the best I could. Admittedly, I was afraid to make this thread for a rather silly reason, that being that the show might not actually be lost and that I just didn’t look hard enough, but I decided it was better to let go of those fears and post this instead of potentially having this interesting piece of Disney Channel history be forgotten.
Whether anyone else is interested in this search or not, I’ll continue to look for more content and leads on my own terms.
Thanks for reading.
For those who don’t know, Playhouse Disney Live was a live show that promoted Playhouse Disney, the preschool programming block on Disney Channel. It toured across the United States nationwide. There were two tours: The initial tour in 2000, then a second tour in 2001 that updated the show to reflect Playhouse Disney’s new branding and shows that hadn’t been present in the 2000 show. But more on that later.
Something very important: Playhouse Disney Live is NOT to be confused with Playhouse Disney - Live on Stage! (later renamed to Disney Junior - Live on Stage! after Playhouse Disney’s rebranding to Disney Junior in 2011), which was a show attraction that ran at various Disney theme parks from the early 2000s (the first one opened at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Fall 2001) up to as late as the late 2010s. The show at the parks updated many times throughout the years, but otherwise footage of it is very widespread and isn’t considered lost. It is also not to be confused with Playhouse Disney Live on Tour!, a similar show from Feld Entertainment that ran from 2007 to 2010. Due to the similar names between the three shows, it may be difficult finding information on Playhouse Disney Live. Here’s everything I’ve gathered so far, though.
The 2000 tour took place from March 31 to June 4, 2000.
Here’s the commercial for it: youtu.be/wnxld7_dlXA
All four original Playhouse Disney shows were present in some way: Peanut, Butter, and Jelly puppets performed on a stage resembling their houseboat, and Olie and Zowie were represented by mascot costumes. Bear was also there, and it appears an exact replica of the real Bear costume was used. Finally, Tony James and Vivian Bayubay McLaughlin, whom played Tony and Vivian respectively on Out of the Box, were also at the tour.
Two additional notes are that the tour also featured a book donation center known as the “Rolie Polie Olie Book Round-Up”, where you could donate a new or used kids’ book that would then be sent to a local charity, and that the event was sponsored by Suburban Cable, a cable company that was acquired by Comcast in January 2000 and was then shuttered that May, coincidentally during this tour.
And that’s all the info I found on the 2000 tour. Now onto the 2001 tour.
2001 was a big year for Playhouse Disney. First, The Book of Pooh debuted in January. Then, the block received a rebrand in April, with new graphics and a new announcer, Allyce Beasley (voice of Ms. Grotke on Recess), replacing Randy Thomas.
That Fall, a huge promotional push was made for the block. A soundtrack album featuring songs from the shows was released, Stanley premiered, Playhouse Disney - Live on Stage! opened at Disney World, and another nationwide tour was done with some major updates.
The 2001 tour took place from September 7 to November 11, 2001.
Here are two commercials for it. The first appears to be an earlier version and reuses footage from the 2000 tour, while the second commercial shows new footage reflecting the additions and changes made to the 2001 tour:
youtu.be/g0RjQV4QZHo
youtu.be/mY-9fNFTBGo
There were many differences compared to the 2000 tour. For one, the stage set was completely redone, resembling Playhouse Disney’s new branding. The PB&J Otter puppets (albeit without the houseboat stage), Bear costume, and Tony and Vivian remained unchanged, while the Olie and Zowie mascot costumes were replaced with puppets instead.
The Book of Pooh was represented by a puppet of Pooh, although it looked different than the one used in the show. New addition Stanley was also present in puppet form. Lastly, the book donation center returned but was rethemed to The Book of Pooh (which makes sense because The Book of Pooh had a literacy-based curriculum). It was now called “Pooh’s Hunny Pot Book Drop”, but otherwise functioned the same as the previous year.
Here is the website for the 2001 tour. Unfortunately, most of the images aren’t viewable and it’s difficult to navigate as a result.
web.archive.org/web/20010830022241/http://disney.go.com/disneychannel/playhouse/live/index.html
On a final note, it seems that the main location that these shows were held were in malls across the country.
As for how well preserved the shows are… from what I can tell, they appear to be lost. There’s a few pictures of varying quality, but footage of the full show (or even anything outside of what is seen in the commercials) has not resurfaced. Interestingly, YouTube comments suggest that there used to exist a video with the full show available to watch (it’s unclear whether this was of the 2000 or 2001 version), but got deleted for one reason or another long ago and was never reuploaded.
And that’s all the information I have on Playhouse Disney Live. I tried to describe everything the best I could. Admittedly, I was afraid to make this thread for a rather silly reason, that being that the show might not actually be lost and that I just didn’t look hard enough, but I decided it was better to let go of those fears and post this instead of potentially having this interesting piece of Disney Channel history be forgotten.
Whether anyone else is interested in this search or not, I’ll continue to look for more content and leads on my own terms.
Thanks for reading.
