Note: From 2023-2024, DCOMs were renamed "Disney Original Movies", so I'll put "DOM" next to each movie from that era. Also, some movies were released on Disney+ prior to Disney Channel, so I'll put "D+" next to those movies.

So... so many things to say, where to start? In the old days, before I switched my TV reviews to a frames format, I had several different pages for certain types of TV movies. One whole page was for Disney movies, though not necessarily movies that aired on Disney Channel, originally. Eventually, after starting the whole frames thing, I thought I'd get rid of that... I mean, I had separate sections for regular TV movies, genre TV movies (sci-fi & fantasy), Christmas TV movies, and Halloween TV movies. And the Disney movies would be split up among all of those, instead of having its own section. But before I even finished moving reviews, I changed my mind, and decided to start a DCOM section. I decided I'd still have links to reviews of some of these movies in the "Christmas" and "Halloween" sections, but not in the other sections. I did eventually add a section for animated TV movies, and would include some DCOMs there, as well. Though thinking about it now, it really is weird not to have included any DCOMs in the "genre" section. But whatevs.

However, I also need to make it clear that any of those sections may include links to Disney movies that I'm not including in this section. Because not all Disney movies, even those that originally aired on Disney Channel, are necessarily "Disney Channel Original Movies." That term, apparently, started in 1997 (though they're also considered Zoog Disney Movies between August 1998 and September 2002). (At this point in the paragraph, I originally included links to pages about DCOMs on both Wikipedia and Disney's website. Though Disney's section for original movies changed a few times over the years, and at some point that section disappeared entirely. Which is odd and annoying. Though as of my most recent edit to this page in 2017, you can find links to a few of the most recent DCOMs on Disney Channel's All Shows page. This is, obviously, subject to change.) Anyway, different websites may list any movies that originally aired on Disney Channel, even prior to '97, as DCOMs. Some may start the list in 2003, after the "Zoog Disney" branding ended, while other sites include movies that aired both during and after the Zoog era as DCOMs. There also seems to be some confusion as to whether the first "official" DCOM was "Northern Lights" or "Under Wraps," but I'm going to go along with Wikipedia, which says the latter was the first DCOM.

Here's the thing you gotta know about me. Um... I didn't ever have cable or satellite until I went to college, in 1995. Disney Channel has existed since 1983, so of course I was aware of it, but apparently it wasn't basic cable until 1997, which I wasn't aware of. (It didn't seem to me like the kind of thing that would be a premium channel, but what did I know? Then again, my memory is sketchy, so it's possible I did know about the transition at the time, and only now, all these years later, I don't remember knowing. I dunno.) In any event, a lot of movies that used to air on Disney Channel, before I ever got it, were actually old theatrical movies, and so obviously not DCOMs (whether that term existed yet or not). And then there's the fact that, growing up, I saw a lot of movies on The Wonderful World of Disney, a program which had been around since the 50s (long before Disney Channel existed in any form, and even before I was born). That program had aired on various channels (by various names), over the decades, but not any American networks that I got, when I was a kid. So I watched it on CBC. But some of the movies it aired after Disney Channel came into being may well have originated on Disney Channel, whether I knew it or not. But I don't like to think of "Wonderful World of Disney" movies as DCOMs, and I don't think they are, anyway. Because they... came before '97 (except for the ones that aired on ABC's 1997-2005 revival, but even those aren't DCOMs).

I should also mention that there are lots of DCOMs (I mean, really and truly official DCOMs) that I didn't get to see when they first aired, and may not have seen until years later... and at the time, I may not have known they weren't new. So my sense of when things came out is skewed by that, as well as by the simple fact that I have trouble remembering when anything in life happened. The years just blur together, after awhile, y'know? Seriously, I can look at lists of TV movies that I definitely saw when they first aired, and be shocked by seeing the year... like, "What? How can that many years have passed since I first saw that?" And knowing that can make it hard for me to be sure, sometimes, whether my confusion is caused by my poor sense of time or by my simply not having seen things when they were actually new. And... I should say there are still a ton of DCOMs I've never seen at all. Many of them I don't care about, and many of them I would like to see, someday. And many of those I have seen, I'd like to see again, at least to refresh my memory.

And now... I guess I can't think of anything else to say. Hopefully I'm not forgetting anything important, because it would be a shame to miss an opportunity to confuse the issue as much as humanly possible....