TaleSpin

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.[4]

Initially, Disney simply commissioned Magon and Zaslove with creating a thirty-minute animated program for them, with no requirements as to what the show should be about. Nearing the deadline for a pitch without having come up with anything, Magon hit upon the idea of making the story about Baloo, one of the central characters of Disney's The Jungle Book, which had recently been theatrically rereleased. The show Tales of the Gold Monkey was an inspiration according to creator/supervising producer, Jymn Magon. Similar to the main character in that show, they decided to have Baloo work for an air cargo delivery service, a concept, also, occasionally featured on Disney's successful DuckTales.[5] In order to add dramatic tension, they decided to maintain the impressionable son / bad father dynamic which had driven part of the plot of The Jungle Book, replacing the human Mowgli with the anthropomorphic bear Kit. Inspired by Cheers — then one of the most popular programs on television — Magon and Zaslove created the character Rebecca (voiced by actress Sally Struthers), basing her on the character Rebecca Howe and giving her that character's arc of being an intelligent and headstrong yet inexperienced manager put in charge of a fledgling business. Deciding to make the show a period piece, the pair lastly decided to make one of the show's primary locations a neutral zone inspired by Rick Blaine's bar in Casablanca, where they inserted the character of Louie in place of Rick. The decision to add Shere Khan to the cast was not made until later in the show's development.[6] Magon and Zaslove also took inspiration from Hayao Miyazaki's 1989 manga Hikōtei Jidai, about a pigheaded man who flies a seaplane and fights air pirates. Two years after TaleSpin premiered, Miyazaki released an anime adaptation called Porco Rosso, which Zaslove felt took cues from TaleSpin.[7] Phil Harris, who voiced Baloo for the film, was initially hired to reprise the role; at age 85, however, Harris had lost some of his comic timing and had to be chauffeured from his home in Palm Springs for each recording session. His work was discarded and Ed Gilbert took over the role for the rest of the series.[8]

Famed Uncle Scrooge comic writer and artist Don Rosa wrote episode 6, "It Came from Beneath the Sea Duck", and episode 9, "I Only Have Ice for You".

The series was animated by Walt Disney Animation (Japan) Inc., Hanho Heung-Up Co., Ltd., Jade Animation, Tama Productions, Walt Disney Animation (France) S.A., Sunwoo Entertainment, and Wang Film Productions.[9]

Gilbert would continue to voice Baloo in other Disney Projects, Commercials, Promos, miscellaneous until his death.

Harris died of a heart attack on August 11, 1995, five years after TaleSpin premiered. Three years later in August 1998, Gilbert got sick from his illness and stayed home for nine months and never recovered, Gilbert died from lung cancer on May 8, 1999 Nine years after TaleSpin premiered.

After a preview of TaleSpin aired on The Disney Channel from May 5 to July 15, 1990,[10][11] the series began its syndicated run in September of the same year. The original concept was embodied in the pilot episode and introductory television movie Plunder & Lightning which was the sole nominee for an Emmy Award for Outstanding Animated Program (For Programming More Than One Hour) in 1991.[12][13][14][15] After its premiere on September 7, 1990,[16] Plunder & Lightning was 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 programming block The Disney Afternoon. TaleSpin ended on its 65th episode which aired on August 8, 1991. However, reruns continued to be shown on The Disney Afternoon until September 1994. 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.[17] Later, the show was aired on Toon Disney, where it was first aired from April 1998 until January 2006 (with a hiatus between 2001 and 2002) and later from January 2007 until May 2008. Throughout its broadcast history, the series has been subjected to numerous edits.[18]

Eight VHS cassettes containing 15 episodes of the series were released in the United States.

Eleven VHS cassettes containing 21 episodes of the series were released in the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.

Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment has released the complete series on DVD; three volumes have been released in Region 1 featuring all 65 episodes of the series. The first volume was released on August 29, 2006 (containing episodes 1–27) and the second on November 13, 2007 (containing episodes 28–54).[23][24] Volume 2 includes the controversial episode "Last Horizons", which never re-aired on broadcast syndication although it did re-air on The Disney Channel and Toon Disney. On June 25, 2013, the third and final volume was released on DVD via the Disney Movie Club Exclusives.[25][26] TaleSpin: Volume 3 is also for sale on DisneyStore.com.[27][28]

TaleSpin: Volume 3 received a wide retail DVD release on January 13, 2015,[29][30] and has been seen as a Wal-Mart Exclusive in Canada since October 12, 2014.[31] and in the United States since October 14, 2014,[32]

The series has been released into several volumes in different countries, each containing only 4 episodes each.

In Germany, A series of 3-disc sets started with Collection 1 released on December 5, 2012, in Region 2, PAL format. The sets contain the episodes in the same order as the US releases, as well as a Fastplay feature and 6 language tracks: English, Danish, German, Italian, Norwegian and Swedish, but no subtitles have been added. the first collection has only 17 episodes. A Second Collection, containing 16 episodes, was released on March 7. A Third Collection, containing 17 episodes, was released on May 29.

However, a few episodes have been removed from the original list. The 1st collection does not include "From Here To Machinery" and "Vowel Play". The 2nd set excludes "A Touch of Glass", while the 3rd set misses out "Jumping the Guns". There is no confirmation on whether these episodes will be released, along with the final 11 episodes of the series.

The sets from Germany have also been released in the United Kingdom. The First Collection came out on February 11, 2013. The Second Collection was released on May 20, 2013. The Third Collection was released on October 22, 2018

The sets from Germany and the United Kingdom have also been released in Australia. The First Collection came out on August 17, 2012. The Second Collection was released on March 15, 2013. The Third Collection was released on October 11, 2013.

In India, TaleSpin was dubbed in Hindi and Telugu for TV broadcast in the 90s along with DuckTales. In 2012, 63 Hindi dubbed episodes out of the total 65 episodes were released by Disney India on 21 DVD volumes in PAL format.[33] These discs support DVD Region 2, Region 4 and Region 5. However due to limited number of copies, they quickly went out of stock. Each DVD contained only 3 episodes.

The entire series is currently available for purchase in standard definition on Prime Video and the iTunes Store in the United States.

As of November 12, 2019, the series is available to stream on Disney+, with the exception of the episodes "Last Horizons" and "Flying Dupes".[34]