The two hour show was broken up into four half-hour segments, each of which contained an animated cartoon. As each season ended, the first cartoon shown in the lineup would typically be dropped, and a new one added to the end. The Disney Afternoon itself had its own opening and wrappers around the cartoon shows shown.
Some of the early cartoon series in The Disney Afternoon came from already in-circulation cartoons, such as Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears (created years earlier). DuckTales and Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers had been a one hour long cartoon block in 1989-1990, until both incorporated into The Disney Afternoon. TaleSpin was the first series presumably created expressly for The Disney Afternoon.
Some of the later additions were inspired by shorter cartoons in the short lived series Raw Toonage[1], which appeared on the ABC network in Fall, 1992 -- see Marsupilami; also He's Bonkers!, which, with storyboard revision, eventually became Bonkers.
The other main source for Disney Afternoon cartoons were series inspired by movies created previously; for a time, a 'two year rule' of sorts became almost reliable, whereby about two years after a Disney summer movie came out, a Disney Afternoon series by the same name was released (example: 'Aladdin', and 'Timon and Pumbaa', from The Lion King.
Beginning with the 1994 season, The Disney Afternoon was, as a named series, shortened to just TDA.
On about September 1, 1997, The Disney Afternoon was terminated as a formally named series. An eighth season, only 90 minutes long, was no longer named The Disney Afternoon or TDA, and was by accounts essentially a simple 90 minute syndicated block of cartoons.
It soon became clear that Disney was moving in a different direction with its half-hour cartoon series; by December 8, 1997 Disney announced the planned launch on April 18, 1998 of Toon Disney, a 24 hour cable cartoon network. By the 1999-2000 television season, the remnants of The Disney Afternoon package became Disney's One Too[1].
Many of the series previously seen on The Disney Afternoon are still shown on Toon Disney today.
| Season | Show 1 | Show 2 | Show 3 | Show 4 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| One (1990-1991) | Disney's Adventures of the Gummi Bears | DuckTales | Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers | TaleSpin |
| Two (1991-1992) | DuckTales | Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers | TaleSpin | Darkwing Duck | Three (1992-1993) | Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers | TaleSpin | Darkwing Duck | Goof Troop |
| Four (1993-1994) | TaleSpin | Darkwing Duck | Goof Troop | Bonkers |
| Five (1994-1995)1 | Darkwing Duck | Goof Troop | Bonkers2 | Aladdin |
| Six (1995-1996) | Goof Troop | Bonkers | Aladdin | Gargoyles3 |
| Seven (1996-1997) | Darkwing Duck | Aladdin | Gargoyles | Quack Pack4 | Eight (1997-1998)5 | DuckTales | Quack Pack6 | 101 Dalmations: the series | none |
| Nine (1998-1999) | 101 Dalmations: the series | Doug | Hercules: the series | none |