ILLUSTRATION BY MARTHA RICH 50 SEPT | OCT 2009 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE By Robert Strauss Mixing up-to-the-minute marketing techniques, tried-and-true entertainment formulas, and engaging young stars and stories, Disney Channels Worldwide President Richard Ross C’83 is helping ensure that the company remains supreme in the kid-entertainment universe. her popular Disney Channel IN cable television show, Hannah Montana (if you live anywhere in the vicinity of a nine-year-old girl, you have surely seen it), Miley Cyrus plays a teenager with two identities— one as a famous rock star and the other as the daughter of a single fa- ther just trying to make it through what passes on TV for a normal life. Miley Stewart (Cyrus’s regular-girl identity) and her wacky older brother Jackson live in a Malibu beach house with their widowed father, played by Cyrus’s real-life father Billy Ray Cyrus, previously best known for his 1990s-era country music hit “Achy Breaky Heart.” The show’s comedy is a cheerful mix of teen misunderstandings and I Love Lucy slapstick revolving around Miley’s halfhearted efforts to keep her identities separate, with plenty of time left over for “Hannah” to perform her latest hit. CHANNELER THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE SEPT | OCT 2009 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE SEPT | OCT 2009 51 51 Since premiering on the Disney “That guy Ross” is Richard Ross C’83, entertainment phenomenon. Disney has Channel in March 2006, the series has president of Disney Channels Worldwide immediate name recognition for parents become a consistent top-rated show (a since April 2004, and an executive with and children, and the Disney Channel is new episode was the most watched cable the company since 1996. In his current both its primary source of program- show in primetime for the week ending role, Ross oversees 94 channels avail- ming and main arm of promotion. The July 5). It’s also spawned hit albums, able in 163 countries in 32 languages, relationship between the two functions sold-out live shows and a concert film, a along with their associated websites, is seamless. successful theatrical film release this as well as Radio Disney, which is avail- Commercial breaks are mostly ads for past spring, and an avalanche of brand- able on 50 stations, satellite radio, its own upcoming TV series and original ed merchandise—everything from dolls iTunes, and mobile phones. movies, as well as Disney theatrical-film to dried fruit. One of those channels, Playhouse releases, music, theme park visits, and Hannah Montana is just the latest Disney, caters to the traditional audience other spin-off products and merchandise. example of the Walt Disney Company’s of very young children, introducing the The stars frequently appear in on-air pro- uncanny ability over much of the past mos, public service announcements, and century—from the dawn of sound film to a variety of between-show interview seg- the Internet age—to anticipate what kids “To get such a ments designed to give viewers an “inside and teenagers will watch and get enthused look” and promote a sense of community, by. Having set the standard in theatrical as if the casts of the various shows and the movies and broadcast television, the com- run as Disney, audience are one big family. This idea is pany has in recent years worked its magic reinforced by the Disney Channel website, in the burgeoning cable-TV universe, and now the where fans can watch more promotions, packaging enduring formulas in up-to- see video clips and TV episodes, partici- the-minute wrapping, and supplying a Disney Channel, pate in surveys and contests, play games, steady stream of new faces to replace download photos and screensavers, and inevitably aging favorites. has had, that guy send emails that stream on the screen. For readers of a certain age, the show’s To heighten the close-knit atmosphere twinning device may recall the 1961 Ross must be doing even further, the Disney Channel also movie The Parent Trap, starring Hayley does occasional “mashups” of shows, in Mills (or its 1998 remake with a pre-tab- something right.” which various casts spill into each oth- loid Lindsay Lohan) in the dual role of er’s universes. In one that premiered sisters separated as infants and raised preschool set to the familiar cast of over the summer Miley and her friends by their divorced parents, unaware of Disney characters in shows like Mickey from Hannah Montana find themselves each other’s existence until they meet at Mouse Clubhouse and offering newer on a cruise ship, the S.S. Tipton, the set- summer camp, switch identities to get a animated fare like Little Einsteins (four ting for a series called Suite Life on taste of each other’s lives, and eventually kids and their rocket ship, whose adven- Deck, starring twins Cole and Dylan engineer their parents’ reunion. tures promote art and music apprecia- Sprouse (itself a spinoff from an earlier Going back even further, the essential tion) and Handy Manny, which spot- long-running show where the boys DNA of Disney’s 1950 dreams-come-true lights Latino culture. But where Ross wreaked comic havoc in a posh hotel). classic Cinderella is faintly recognizable has really made his mark is at the flag- Also along for the ride are the cast of in Hannah Montana—though the differ- ship Disney Channel, aimed at a some- The Wizards of Waverly Place, a kind of ences are more telling. No housework, what older demographic of kids aged comic takeoff on Harry Potter that pre- for one thing, and the dream-come-true 6-14. During his tenure, the channel’s miered in 2007, led by teenaged Selena isn’t a royal marriage anymore but per- core audience of “tween” girls (ages Gomez. A video clip running on the sonal empowerment in a life that com- 9-14) has ruled large swathes of pop cul- Disney Channel website in advance of bines worldwide fame with hometown ture, generating top-grossing albums, the show’s July 17 premiere had the friends (the “best of both worlds,” as the movies, and TV shows, while consuming actors enthusing over the opportunity show’s infectious theme song puts it). an astonishing array of associated mer- to spend quality time with each other. “Disney always seems to find the next chandise featuring their favorites. “We all talk about how we’re all family star, the next thing. They have found young Besides the Hannah Montana phe- and how we’re all friends, but you never stars who are almost preternaturally mag- nomenon, Ross has launched the Jonas get to see that,” says Miley in a typical netic to young adolescents or old elemen- Brothers—boy-band heartthrobs Kevin, comment. “So I think it’s cool that we tary schoolers,” says Jonathan Storm, long- Joe, and Nick, with their own concert get to share what we love together.” time TV critic for The Philadelphia Inquirer. movie and Disney Channel TV series— Disney also grooms its stars as assidu- “In TV, because they throw so many wads and, above all, has shepherded the ously as any old-time studio. Also airing of wet paper to the wall, some will stick. megahit franchise High School Musical, this summer was Princess Protection But to get such a run as Disney, and now now at three movies and counting. Program, co-starring Gomez and another the Disney Channel, has had, that guy Ross presides over something that is rising star, Demi Lovato. (The two are Ross must be doing something right.” both a legacy and a modern marketing- BFFs—“best friends forever”—off-screen 52 SEPT | OCT 2009 THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE As president of Disney Channels Worldwide, Ross oversees nearly 100 TV channels available in 162 countries in 32 languages, plus website and radio. as well, according to any number of fan “splashy, eff ervescent musical numbers,” north of Manhattan. Instead, he was an magazines and websites.) Lovato first reminiscent of the old Mickey Rooney- entertainment industry fanatic, at age came to fame in the 2008 Disney Channel Judy Garland putting-on-a-show musicals, 12 asking his parents for a subscrip- movie Camp Rock, which also featured the and allowed that the songs, while not par- tion to Daily Variety rather than Sports Jonas Brothers. She has her own Disney ticularly memorable, were no worse “than Illustrated like his friends. Watching Channel TV series, too, titled Sonny With the faux-rock toodling of Rent.” TV while he did his homework, he paid a Chance. A Wizards of Waverly Place “Disney has hit it right,” says Derek attention to production values in movie premiered over the summer as well, Baine, an analyst for SNL Kagan, an enter- between the canned laughs. and Camp Rock II is scheduled for 2010. tainment research firm. “Ross has man- “He was always in the know about a lot But while Disney may be relentless in aged to find stars who kids relate to and of things in entertainment—more than promoting its products and stars, it’s also vehicles, particularly High School Musical, anyone else,” says Marcia Goldstein C’83, true that much of the Disney Channel’s that resonate with them. And he has found who grew up with Ross in Eastchester programming, particularly under Ross, a way—through merchandising and music and also was a classmate at Penn. “It has won praise for being among the best and sequels—to make the most out of the seemed clear to all of us early on that there is, especially for the hard-to-please stars who are inevitably only around for a that was where he was headed.” market of young teens.