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/
00:00 – The Mystery of Northern Lights
00:49 – Discovering the First DCOM
02:55 – What Defines a Disney Channel Original Movie
04:26 – Why Under Wraps Was Considered the First DCOM
06:03 – Sharpay’s Fabulous Adventure and Punks
08:43 – The Shift from Premiere Films to DCOMs
10:31 – What a DCOM Was Meant to Be
11:40 – What Northern Lights Is About
13:10 – When the DCOM Formula Took Shape
16:35 – How Disney Perfected the DCOM Recipe
18:38 – Finally Watching Northern Lights
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