Northern Lights: The DCOM they Don't Want you to see! Featuring Allison McClain Merrill

Disney Channel has made over 100 Original Movies — Halloweentown, High School Musical, Descendants. But there's one they pretend never happened. The very first one.

Northern Lights premiered on August 23rd, 1997. It stars Academy Award winner Diane Keaton. It was executive produced by Meg Ryan. And Disney wants you to forget it exists. It's not on Disney+. It's not on YouTube. It's practically lost media.

So I had to find out why. I tracked down a pop culture historian who'd actually seen it. I dug through the Disney Encyclopedia. I cross-referenced old TV schedules. I found a VHS tape from 1997. And what I discovered is a story about branding, rebranding, and how a channel accidentally created its first DCOM before it even knew what a DCOM was.

Check Out Allison McClain Merrill:

https://www.instagram.com/pastfootforward/

https://www.allisonmcclainmerrill.com/

And Here is her review of Northern Lights:https://pastfootforward.com/2022/08/26/northern-lights-1997/

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