The Mickey Mouse Show (2001 anthology series)

The Mickey Mouse Show is a cartoon anthology series that premiered on November 11, 2001, on Disney Channel. Each episode would include three classic Disney theatrical shorts starring Mickey Mouse. The show was narrated by Bill Murray (not to be confused with the film actor), who would give the audience short facts about the history of the cartoons as filler material between each short. Animation historian Jerry Beck served as a consultant and Barry Mills served as writer and producer. A total of 45 episodes were produced, consisting of a total of 135 shorts.

Significance
Prior to the premiere of The Mickey Mouse Show, most television airings of theatrical Mickey Mouse cartoons bore burlap reissue titles from the late 40's for television use on ABC. This is due to the films having their original titles replaced when reissued to theatres. As a result, Disney decided to replace the original Celebrity Pictures, Columbia, and United Artists theatrical title cards with their own. For The Mickey Mouse Show, efforts were made to present these films as close to their original theatrical form as possible: some of the cartoons shown were copies that actually had their original theatrical titles intact, while others needed to have their original titles simulated through the process of digital video editing.

The show focused mostly on the 1928 to 1935 Mickey Mouse shorts that were originally filmed in black-and-white. For all episodes, the first two shorts were from this era. Sometimes the third cartoon would be a color cartoon from 1935 to 1953, but on many occasions an entire episode would entirely be made of black-and-white cartoons. While selecting the color entries that would air, the only ones that were initially selected were those that were in the Disney vaults with their original titles. The only color cartoons to have their original titles recreated were those shown in the last episode of Season 3, and all episodes of Season 4.

In season 1, an original copy of Mickey Mouse's The Band Concert (1935) with its original titles was shown for the first time on TV. The black and white short Haunted House (1929) was kept from being shown in earlier seasons because it required extra attention to recreate the opening as close to the original as possible. The original opening involved the title's letters flying right out of the screen after the original Celebrity title card faded out to pitch black.

The 1933 short Puppy Love, which did not open with the standard Mickey Mouse theme music, but had a rendition of When You're In Love, had its original soundtrack restored for the program. Similarly, a version of The Nifty Nineties (1941) was prepared with the opening titles restored, but the show was cancelled before it could be included in any episodes.

Controversy
Two episodes from Season 1 were initially skipped, and did not make their TV debut until reruns. The reason was because the two episodes had cartoons that the executives at Disney Channel would not pass for unedited airings. Episode #10 was originally supposed to have Mickey's Man Friday from 1935. This particular cartoon involved Mickey making friends with an African American stereotype character named "Friday". Episode #11 had the short Happy Birthdaze, in which Mickey murders his Navy buddy Danny in a scene that is usually cut from TV broadcasts (except primetime airings of ABC). When Episode #10 finally aired, The Mail Pilot replaced Mickey's Man Friday, while Episode #11 aired with no changes made, and Happy Birthdaze was shown uncut.

A later episode featured an unedited version of The Chain Gang (1930), a cartoon in which Mickey plays a prison convict who escapes after a dance sequence, and returns after a funny escape scene. This particular cartoon is rarely shown outside of any scheduled airings of The Mickey Mouse Show.