MovieChat Forums > John Silver's Return to Treasure Island (1986) Discussion > To what extent was Disney involved in th...

To what extent was Disney involved in the making of this?

posted 15 years ago by BogartDeniroScorsese
3 replies | jump to latest

Here in America, the series was aired on the Disney Channel, and eventually released on home video through Disney (where it was titled "Disney's Return To Treasure Island"). Yet, the new UK DVD release doesn't have Disney's name on it anywhere, not do the old PAL video's appear to have any Disney connection. Since the series is a British made series, I'm wondering if Disney heard that a British company was making it, and decided to buy the rights to air it in America, the same way Masterpiece Theater buys a lot of British programs, or if someone at the Disney company came up with the idea, and the Disney company actually fronted some (or all) of the money for it to be made. Does anyone know?

[–] crusoe89 15 years ago

Hi,

I wondered about this too as, being a Brit, 'Disney' was never associated with the programme in advertising or series credits when it aired, or on the new DVDs. However, I just discovered an update on the Wikipedia entry for 'Return To Treasure Island' that says:

"Disney Channel contracted the UK ITV broadcaster HTV Wales to actually produce the series, and it was shot in Wales, Spain and Jamaica. It was written by John Goldsmith, and directed by Piers Haggard and Alex Kirby."

Here's the link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Return_to_Treasure_Island

[–] tomlogan_76 15 years ago

The series was made by HTV, an ITV regional network station which covered Wales and the west of England.

Disney were co-production partners - ie they put some money into the production in exchange for the rights to show it on the Disney Channel.

I was involved with the Audio Post Production on the show, which is where i got this info from.

[–] spewky 15 years ago

Thanks for the info Tom. I absolutely loved this show when I first watched it. I remember at the time, I couldn't fathom these were actors as everyone seemed so fit for the part- almost like they really were the character they were playing- most importantly Keelhaul.

Today I watch this show as a writer/director and I'm even more impressed at the quality of writing. This really is one of the greatest shows ever made for television.