Posted on 02/10/2006 8:41:38 AM PST by presidio9
Legendary sportscaster Al Michaels wanted to break his contract with Walt Disney Co.'s ABC and ESPN to go to NBC. He didn't know he would be traded for Oswald the Lucky Rabbit.
Disney executives had released Mr. Michaels from his contract, but they also extracted a series of business concessions from their rival, General Electric Co. One was the return of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, a cartoon character created by Walt Disney in 1927 that was a precursor to Mickey Mouse. The rights to Oswald belonged to Universal Studios and Disney had always coveted this piece of its history. NBC acquired Universal two years ago.
Mr. Disney produced 26 "Oswald" cartoons that were distributed by Universal, according to Disney. On a trip to New York to sign a new deal with the studio for "Oswald," he noticed a clause in his contract that gave Universal the rights to the character. Feeling devastated about this, on his return to Hollywood he knew he needed to create a new character that he would own outright. Enter Mickey Mouse, who bears more than a passing resemblance to Oswald.
"The circle has been completed: Walt Disney must be smiling up there somewhere," says Disney Archives Director David Smith. "Walt always considered losing Oswald as one of the low points of his career."
Disney got more than just a rabbit in the deal. NBC agreed to promote ESPN's "Monday Night Football" during its own Sunday night game, putting the network in the uncomfortable position of hyping a rival network. NBC agreed to sell ESPN the Friday rights, and rebroadcast rights, to golf's biennial Ryder Cup through 2014. NBC keeps the live weekend coverage. ESPN is paying NBC about $12 million for those rights, a person familiar with the deal said. Neither NBC or ESPN
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Iger will hear from the masses...
Funny and historical. I've never even heard of Oswald.
a simple change in the ears with some shorter feet and you have mickey.
its the same face
Exactly, Disney certainly got the historically more important figure in the swap.
I beg to differ. Al Michaels looks NOTHING like Mickey Mouse. :-)
Wow. How does that make Al feel?
That's an interesting cartoon character. I've never seen it. Was Oswald supposed to be African as like the Little Black Sambo character?
Disney got screwed on this deal. They should have traded for Oswald and a bottle of ink to be named later.
Who got the better deal?
Al Michaels is too good for ABC anyway. He can find employment at Fox Sports, as the #1 play-by-play (Sorry Joe Buck, but Michaels will run circles around you)
I think he was realated to Steamboat Itchy.
good one
In case anyone didn't know, Al's a GOPer and a good guy.
No, Oswald was drawn in the age of black and white cartoons, and black was the color of animals. Think of Felix the Cat.
Not surprising, since he was a silent cartoon. Walt's real achievement wasn't creating Mickey, it was figuring out how to do sync sound on a cartoon (for which most credit should go not to Walt but to his Kansas City chum Ub Iwerks).
And not only was Mintz stealing Oswald, he had also secretly poached a large number of Walt's animators, including Harman and Ising (who would eventually end up at MGM and give Hanna and Barbera their starts). Meanwhile, at Universal, Oswald would eventually end up in the hands of their resident genius, Walter Lantz. Oswald's last appearance was a cameo in 1952, although his regular series had ended in 1938. Lantz would eventually create Woody Woodpecker.
The whole story of how Charles Mintz basically stole Oswald is a key moment in Disney history, not only forcing Walt to create Mickey, but also setting him on the course of becoming his own studio so that he wouldn't be in such a position again.
It's good to see that Al Michaels will still be in the broadcast booth during primetime.
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