Disney Channel's "Out of this World" Weekend

Friday, July 25th through Sunday the 27th will be "Out of this World" as the DISNEY CHANNEL features a weekend filled with SciFi themed programming.  The Disney Channel's "Out of this World" promo will be showcase the premiere of PHINEAS & FERB: STAR WARS and also feature a lineup of shows that feature scripts revolving around aliens, outer space and science fiction inspired topics.  You know I am going to be popping a big bowl of popcorn and watching these shows throughout that weekend with my kids!

PHINEAS & FERB: STAR WARS will be on Saturday, July 26, 2014 at 9pm and is a one hour television special that is a comedic mashup of the Disney Channels popular animated television show, Phineas and Ferb, with the Star Wars universe.  The story involves Phineas and Ferb living just one moisture farm over from a guy named Luke Skywalker on the planet Tatooine.  When R2-D2 and the Death Star plans inadvertently fall into THEIR landspeeder comedic adventures ensue.  Meanwhile chaos erupts on the Death Star when Perry the Rebelpus is trapped in carbonite while trying to stop Darthenshmirtz from using his new "Sith-inator."

Disney Channel will also be airing an episode of THE NEW YODA CHRONICLES during its "Out of this World" Weekend.  The NEW YODA CHRONICLES is in the middle of a new 5 episode arc in which it has already shown episodes 1 & 2 in May and June respectively.  I'm not sure if episode 3 is going to air during this weekend but based on the gap between the last 2 episodes it would fit.  There hasn't been a lot of info about the NEW YODA CHRONICLES tie in to the "Out of this World" promo - it is called "New" because the previous story arc ran on Cartoon Network and these "new" episodes which feature an imaginative and amusing combination of Star Wars characters and scenarios with LEGO building blocks - other than it is included in the trailer that the Disney Channel is currently airing to promote the event.  Hopefully they will show a brand new episode ... and wouldn't it be great if they showed the whole story arc up to now with all three episode during this themed weekend event.  That combined with PHINEAS & FERB: STAR WARS would be spectacular!

Here's a trailer for THE NEW YODA CHRONICLES: Episode 2 "Race for the Holocrons" which aired in the Disney Channel & DisneyXD (DisneyXD is aimed at tweens, teens & young adults and is considered a competitor with Cartoon Network - one of the reasons Disney pulled Yoda Chronicles and Star Wars: Clone Wars from that cable channel). 

As a long-time Star Wars fan, I have to say it is really nice that Disney has embraced the traditional trilogy and is pretty much ignoring the prequel movies since it took over the license.  You'll notice that the Phineas & Ferb special and The New Yoda Chronicles (plus the upcoming Star Wars: Rebels animated television series are all tied to the original Star Wars movies versus the prequels.  In fact from Disney's new Star Wars projects and marketing for the upcoming movie Episode VII you'd almost forget the Prequel movies ever existed.  Hopefully that is a strategy that will continue!

In addition to the Star Wars programming for Disney Channel's "Out of this World" Weekend, the network will also be showing a number of episodes of their own original series with scripts tied to this theme.

According to the Disney Channel the "Out of this World" lineup will also include:

Jessie “Spaced Out” 
Ravi’s birthday present from his parents is a trip to outer space with the rest of the Ross kids and Jessie. Their trip takes an unexpected turn when Ravi ends up not going.
Guest starring John Rubinstein as Ivan

Dog With A Blog “Pod People from Pasadena”
Avery learns she’s been selected to create a float for her town’s parade and is excited to spend some quality time with her father to build it. Meanwhile, Chloe watches a sci-fi movie that leads her to believe her family is being taken over by aliens and that the parade float they are constructing is really a spaceship.

Liv and Maddie “Space-Werewolf-A-Rooney”
To prove to the skeptics that she is meant to star in “Space Warewolves,” Liv agrees to do all her own stunts, not realizing exactly how complicated they are.
Guest starring Garry Marshall as Vic Defazerelli and Mimi Drew as Whitney

I Didn’t Do It “Earth Boys are Icky”
Delia is convinced boys on earth are too ordinary for her and creates a strange device, partly developed by NASA, to communicate with outer space and attract an extraterrestrial boyfriend. Meanwhile, Logan finds himself in an even weirder relationship when he discovers his new girlfriend Danica is the vice principal’s daughter.
Guest starring Savannah Lathem as Danica

 Austin & Ally “Eggs & Extraterrestrials”

When Dez, Trish and Austin convince Ally to attend the annual Zaliens Convention that’s being held in Miami, Trish and Dez happen to stumble upon real Zaliens and the foursome must devise a plan to survive.

Additionally, there will be a brand new episode of "Girl Meets World" running during this weekend promo but the only connection I see to the theme based on the script for that episode is the word "World" in the show's title?  All of the Disney Channel episodes mentioned in this post are rated G.

GIRL MEETS WORLD Sequels Popular 90s Sitcom on the Disney Channel

From 1993 – 2000 BOY MEETS WORLD was a fixture of ABC’s TGIF prime time line-up and the show has been popular over the last thirteen years as it has been syndicated for reruns.  The show chronicles the everyday events and life lessons of Cornelius “Cory” Mathews as the character, and the actor who plays him (Ben Savage) grows up from an elementary school aged student to a twenty-something college graduate who marries his high school sweet heart.  I never watched the show while it originally aired, but I have caught the reruns and have to admit that when I come across an episode while channel surfing next thing I know a two hour block of time has flown by and there I am with a smile on my face having enjoyed a good family-friendly sitcom which is something that you don’t see much on television anymore.

When I was growing up family sitcom was a popular format for shows with series like FAMILY TIES, GROWING PAINS, THE COSBY SHOWS, MR BELVEDERE, THE FACTS OF LIFE, THE FACTS OF LIFE, WHO’s THE BOSS and BOY MEETS WORLD.  More recently there has been show’s like HOME IMPROVEMENT and EVERYONE LOVES RAYMOND, and ACCORDING TO JIM that aired in the 2000’s but have all been off the air now for at least 5 years now.  Sitcoms like these brought families together to enjoy a laugh, see that everyone’s families had quirks proving we all aren’t so different from one another, and provided dramatic situations  that often served as teachable moments about societal and personal growth issues.  While MODERN FAMILY and THE MIDDLE may fall into the “family sitcom” category I struggle to come up with a list of show names for current programming that really fits into this niche.

There is a saying you can’t go home again and maybe these shows are just a nostalgic part of my youth, similar to how LEAVE IT TO BEAVER, MY THREE SONS, THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW, THE BRADY BUNCH & HAPPY DAYS might be thought fondly of by my parents.  That being said, I appears Disney has noticed the void in family themed sitcoms and is trying to bring people back home to the Mathews family.  On June 27^th the DISNEY CHANNEL will debut a new sitcom GIRL MEETS WORLD which is a spin-off of the original BOY MEETS WORLD.  Two actors who played primary roles in BOY MEETS WORLD, Ben Savage (Cory Mathews) and Danielle Fishel (Topanga Lawrence) are returning as a married couple in GIRL MEETS WORLD  dealing with raising a tween daughter named Riley (played by Rowan Blanchard).  In the first season of this new series we see that Cory has followed the path of his adversary/mentor/neighbor in BOY MEETS WORLD school teacher Mr. Feeney  and has become a teacher himself.  A teacher who is teaching classes at the middle school that his daughter is about to start attending.  The show will also focus on the relationship of Riley with her “best friend” Maya Hart (played by Sabrina Carpenter) who comes from a different background.  A similar dynamic to the Cory Mathews / Shawn Hunter storylines of the original series where Cory's friend Shawn was the rough kid from the "other side of the tracks".  Check out these trailers from GIRL MEETS WORLD:

You see a lot of similarities from the original series in this new version, Cory following in the footsteps of Mr. Feeney with an emphasis of scenes taking place at school, a new character named Farkle that seems like a rehash of the Minkus character from BOY MEETS WORLD, and a brother to Riley that has a lines that make him seem to be scripted to be like a young Ben Savage from the early years of the original show.  Hopefully the new show will be able to balance out connecting itself to the characteristics that made BOY MEETS WORLD a quality show while still giving GIRL MEETS WORLD its own life and approach to developing its plots and characters.  One thing that is different from the two shows though is definitely the opening theme songs.  GIRL MEETS WORLD follows the trend Disney has of developing its tween/teen actresses into musical performers.  Rowan Blanchard and Sabrina Carpenter perform the show’s opening.  Take a listen…what do you think?

I’m not overwhelmed by the trailers, but they don’t look horrible either. I’m also interested in seeing some of the cameos from past characters such as Minkus (Lee Norris)  and Shawn (Rider Strong) and if they are scripted into the show nicely or just thrown in to cater to the fans of the original show who may be watching with their children or grand children now [notice they also throw in a grandpa/grandma cameo].

Minkus returns

Shawn makes a cameo

So I’ll probably watch a few episodes with my kids and we’ll see what they think.  Maybe I’m just being nostalgic but I’m rooting for GIRL MEETS WORLD to be a hit on the Disney Channel.