TaleSpin - Background

Background

After a preview of The Disney Afternoon that aired on the Disney Channel in early May 1990, the series began its syndicated run in September of the same year. The original concept was embodied in the introductory television movie Plunder and Lightning which it won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming More Than One Hour) in 1991 and was later re-edited into four half-hour episodes for reruns. The show was often seen either on its own as a half-hour show, or as part of the two-hour syndicated series The Disney Afternoon. TaleSpin ended on its 65th episode which ran in 1991. However, reruns continued to be shown on The Disney Afternoon until September 1994. Afterwards, it was moved into Disney Channel. On October 2, 1995, TaleSpin began reruns on the Disney Channel as part of a two-hour programming block called "Block Party" which aired on weekdays in the late-afternoon/early-evening and which also included Darkwing Duck, DuckTales, and Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers. Later, the show was moved into Toon Disney, where was first aired from April 1998 until January 2006 (with an hiatus between 2001 and 2002 due to the September 11 attacks), and later from January 2007 until May 2008.

Several of the characters are loosely based on characters from Disney's animated film version of The Jungle Book: in particular Baloo, the hot-shot pilot hero of the series; Louie, the owner of Baloo's favorite bar; and Shere Khan, a business tycoon who appears in many episodes. However, Mowgli, Bagheera, Kaa, and Colonel Hathi are notably absent (Although some of Shere Khan's soldier panthers do resemble Bagheera, and villain Thadeos E. Klang does bear a striking resemblance to Kaa). Kit Cloudkicker seems to be a stand-in for Mowgli of The Jungle Book, since Baloo calls him by the same nicknames as Mowgli, like "Little Britches" and "Baby Bear" with the former calling the latter "Papa Bear" in return. Shere Khan's soldiers are black panthers, resembling Bagheera. Despite its strong likeness to and re-use of several characters from the film, Talespin has never been intended to be a "spin-off" or a parody of The Jungle Book.

Also, many of the series concepts seem to be based on the 1982 ABC series Tales of the Gold Monkey, including the main concept of a cocky flying boat cargo pilot and his rocky relationship with his girlfriend (although in TaleSpin, Rebecca Cunningham is merely Baloo's boss), his scatterbrained mechanic sidekick, the era and designs of the aircraft and costumes, the Pacific Islands setting, the secondary character relationships, even the visual appearance of the lagoon. Also, the protagonists of both series fly planes named for waterfowl (Cutter's Goose and Sea Duck) and are regular denizens of similar taverns. In "Tales of the Gold Monkey" it's a bar called 'The Gold Monkey' and run by a man named Louie. In "TaleSpin" it's called 'Louie's' and run by a golden-colored ape (orangutan) of the same name.

There is also a more than passing resemblance to Hayao Miyazaki's film Porco Rosso about a pigheaded man who flies a seaplane and fights air pirates, which the creators of Talespin explain by the influence the previous Miyazaki's films had on them, and the possibility of Miyazaki watching Talespin at some point. While the film was released in 1992 (two years after TaleSpin had already aired) Porco Rosso is based on Miyazaki's manga, Hikōtei Jidai which was first published in 1989.

The series was largely developed by writers Jymn Magon and Mark Zaslove, who were also the supervising producers on the series as well as story editors. There were four production teams, each one headed by a producer/director: Robert Taylor, Larry Latham, Jamie Mitchell, and Ed Ghertner.