For the Disney Channel in other countries, see Disney Channel around the world.

The 1980s

The Disney Channel's first broadcasting day aired on April 18, 1983. At this time, Disney Channel was a premium channel and only aired 18 hours a day. The program that kicked off the channel's first day on the air was an episode of the 1950s-era Mickey Mouse Club. The first produced Disney Channel Series shown on the network included Good Morning, Mickey!, Donald Duck Presents, Contraption, Dumbo's Circus, You and Me Kid, EPCOT Magazine and Welcome to Pooh Corner. The original late night schedule featured reruns of the classic The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet; more of them are included in Disney Channel Original Series. Disney Channel received a special citation from the United States president Ronald Reagan in 1984. From the inception, Disney Channel only aired from 7 a.m. to 1 a.m. In December 1986, Disney Channel started airing 24 hours. During the early years, Disney Channel aired several foreign animated series and movies including Asterix, The Raccoons, and Paddington Bear. The Australian western, Five Mile Creek, was shown during this time period also.

During the 1980s, the channel debuted a few programs that later became part of the cultural lexicon of sorts. Early on, in 1984, the musically-oriented sitcom Kids Incorporated became a hit, about a pre-teen (and later teen-to-young adult) gang of friends who formed a pop group, mixing their everyday situations with variety-show and music video style performances. During its nine year run, the series spawned many future stars in both music and acting, the most notable being Martika (who went by her real name of Marta Marrero in the show's first season), eventual Party of Five co-stars Scott Wolf and Jennifer Love Hewitt (billed as Love Hewitt) and Fergie (credited as Stacy Ferguson).

In early 1989, The Disney Channel revived one of the empire's early TV staples with The All-New Mickey Mouse Club, which was an immediate hit and proved the basic Disney variety show formula could still work, unlike in the short-lived 1970s revival. The latest version contained many of the classic elements, from "theme days" to mouseketeer jackets (albeit updated), but the scripted and musical segments were hip. MMC was just as blessed with a stellar young cast, launching more careers of today's big stars than the shows previously mentioned; Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Ryan Gosling and Justin Timberlake, JC Chasez are just a few of the many "mice that soared".

The 1990s

By 1995, Disney Channel was seen in more than 8 million homes across the United States.

In 1997, Disney Channel took on a revamped look and dropped the word "The" in the network's name (However, promos often referred to the channel as simply "Disney" and the logo often omitted the "Channel" in the network's name also), and split the network into three programming blocks: Playhouse Disney, comprising of shows aimed at preschoolers; Vault Disney, featuring classic Disney material such as Zorro, The Mickey Mouse Club, the Disney anthology television series, older television specials and features such as The Love Bug; and the most distinct one, running from afternoon to late evening, called Zoog Disney. A new channel logo (which featured a 1930s-era Mickey Mouse on a black Mickey ear-shaped TV), was introduced at this time. They began to carry break interruptions (not advertising commercials, but promos for network programming).