ABC eagerly commissioned 25 half-hour episodes of "The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh" for its first season, rather than the standard 13 to 17. Karl Geurs, a self-described Pooh fan, developed the series, which took many months. At the time, Walt Disney Television Animation had only 80 employees and two projects in production. The department did not yet have in-house facilities built, so employees worked out of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences building. Disney put the same high standards of expectation that they had with their feature films. They had hoped to set a new standard of excellence in Saturday morning television, one with "storytelling rich in language and values, as well as delightful well acted characters" that would appeal to audiences of all ages.