DISNEY'S ANIMAL KINGDOM, though the newest park to Walt Disney World, it still has had a few extinct attractions. At the Theater in the Wild, the JOURNEY THROUGH JUNGLE BOOK show opened with the park. It lasted from April of 1998 to April of 1999 when it was replaced by TARZAN ROCKS. As Jungle Book left the park, so did my best friend's job, who performed in the show. He drifted around for a few weeks in other parks until he 'just fell off the schedule'. Tarzan ran from July 1999 until Jan. 21, 2006 when the Phil Collins inspired rock concert gave way to the new NEMO show. One of the most over looked shows was POCAHONTAS AND HER ANIMAL FRIENDS, which lasted until September 27,2008. The only time I saw the show, the 'animal friends' weren't being very coperative. A rabbit was supposed to hop across stage. . . it didn't. In fact I a stage hand's hand nudge it just to get it on the stage.
DISCOVERY RIVERBOATS which was intended to be transportation across the park, ran between Safari Village and Asia. It closed in late 1999 because, acording to some reports, the guests thought it was boring. The original non-parade parade, because Animal Kingdom does not 'do' parades, (just like it is also na-ut-a-zu, ask an Animal Kingdom junkie about that) was the MARCH IF THE ARTIMALS. Who ever designed this extremely artsy, fartsy parade must have been sipping a little something extra in thier tea. It was the most bizarre show / parade 'thing' I have ever seen. Neon colored characters and Salvador Dali-esk floats, left me thinking "Huh". One float had a honey bee that was supposed to be getting 'drunk' off the honey and laughing hysterically. Again I say "Huh ?"
Animal Kingdom was to include an area devoted to MYTHICAL CREATURES. Though it has never fully materialized as of 2009, there are a few remains from the orginal plans. You'll notice a section of the parking lot is named "Unicorn", and there's a silhouette of a dragon in the Animal Kingdom logo and dragonhead statue sits atop one of the ticket booths. In Camp Minnie Mickey, which was built as a temporary fill-in for the space, there is a dragon-shaped stone fountain. For many years a burnt suit of armour was next to a 'dragon's lair' on the banks of the river, visible from the Discovery Riverboats. With the opening of Everest, Animal Kingdom did manage to get at least one mythical creature in there with the Yeti.
Moving outside of the parks Disney had some notable and much missed Extinct Attractions as well. Fort Wilderness Campground used to have a train which lasted for five years. The live steam train transported guests through the campgorunds. Even though the one and only time I rode it as a kid, I don't remember having to pay, my resources say it cost $1.00 for an adult to ride all day. One reasons for it's demise was the expense and diffculty of finding people specially trained to work on steam engines. Another issue was in the soft florida sand, the tracks kept trying to separate. In 1979, management decided to scrap the train idea at the Fort and unfortunately the trains were left to rust. However, there is a happy footnote, in 2004 several members of the CAROLWOOD PACIFIC HISTORICAL SOCIETY took ownership of the old Fort trains in order to rehab them to thier former lives.
DISCOVERY ISLAND, before Walt's day was inhabited by a lady and her pet Sandhill Crane (according to Wikipedia) and before that, in the early 1900's, it was called Raz Island and inhabited by the Raz family. Since it's aquisiton into the corporate world of Disney, the island, named TREASURE ISLAND (April 8, 1974-1978), was supposed to have a pirate's theme. However, the aviary turned into an American Zoological Association accredited zoo four years later called Discovery Island. However, when a few of the caretakers were caught killing some of the local, protected birds like hawks and vutures Disney almost lost thier accreditation. With the opening of Animal Kingdom, all of the critters were relocated to the new park in April 8, 1999 and Discovery island was returned to the hawks and vultures from wince it came. The rented Sea Racer boats circle the islnd daily, but I've been told that the watercraft patrol keeps the public off the island.
RIVER COUNTRY water park (June 20, 1976 - Nov. 1 2001) was located in the Fort Wilderness Campground. Much smaller park than the next generation water park Typhoon Lagoon, I've been told by my resources that it's true demise came because of it's proximity to Bay Lake. It seems that it was a bit too difficult to keep Bay Lake and her critters at 'bay'. After sitting domant since 2001, one of the slides from River Country was given a new life at the Fort Wilderness pool in the end of 2008. The picnic pavillion has also been given new life as a seasonal dining option Mickey's Backyard BBQ.
PLEASURE ISLAND opened in May 1, 1989 with a wide variety of shops and night clubs like Mannequins, Motion, Comedy Warehouse, Adventure's Club, Rock and Roll Beach Club, 8Trax among others. Although the physical island is still there, the night clubs closed Sept. 27, 2008. It is believed that the Island began drawing the wrong type of crowds and crime started to rise in and around Downtown Disney. So, Disney pulled the plug and believe it or not things have calmed down. . . Hmmm, eliminate the alcohol and crime fades away, imagine that.
Originally the Disney GOLF RESORT, nestled among the Palm and Magnolia Golf courses opned in 1974 with 151 rooms. In Feb of 1986 it was expanded and renamed THE DISNEY INN. On Feb. 1, 1994 THe United Sates Military aquired a 100 yr lease for the resort, but in 1996 it was purchased outright for $43 million and renamed SHADES OF GREEN. The golf courses are still accessible to guests, but the resort itself is stickly military, which makes for some interesting days with military helicopters coming and going or the Blue Angels doing 'fly-by's' over the Magic Kingdom.
The TREE HOUSES (1975-2002) where eventually retired as a resort due in part to the American Disabilities Act. Logistcally they were a challange to make ADA compliant. For the interim years they served as housing for international college program kids. I was told part of the renovation problem was dealing with the asbestos which was widely used in builings of the 70's and also the fact that they were built in an offical wetlands area. They have since removed the old structures and replaced them with newer villas that were built off site. The footprint for the new villas actually reduced encroachment on the surrounding wetlands by 70 percent for each site. Now they have been incorporated into the Saratoga Springs Vacation Club property.
The DISNEY INSTITUTE as a place was short lived. THey built a mini college style campus on the back side of Downtown Disney. But not too many people wanted to come to Disney and spend hundreds of dollars learning about photography or how play basketball. The short lived project was mostly torn down and Saratoga springs Vacation Club sprung to life. The core buildings, Spa and Restraunts are from the old Institute, but the Villas are all new. Actually, the pool, used to be an ampitheater intended for plays and concerts. . .Oh well. 'The Institute'still exists in the form of buisness development classes and inconjuction with Disney University, however.
As a castmember, there're terms and places that have came and gone as well. Back when we didn't take our 'costumes' home, we had WALK TIME. If you were scheduled till 5:00, your could leave your location at 4:40 so you could change clothes on the clock. In late the 1990's Disney had a change of heart about cast members wearing their costumes into work, and CASTZOOMING was the cutesy name they gave to the process of making us responible for our own clothes. As a result, walk time went away. After all these years of taking your clothes home, Castzooming is a term that only the old timers know about.
During Pocahontas (at the studios), one of Poca's lines was 'Wingapo, that is how we say hello'. So of course we'd always say, "WINGAPO" to each other. Now, people would just think I was weird. At Hunchback Of Notre Dame, we had SNOWBALL the black life size puppet horse. We all talked to him at one point or the other. Several years after the show was gone, I saw Snowball being used as a prop. Of coure I had to go talk to him. People thought I was nuts. During the run of the Muppets shows,there was a breakroom specially built for them and dubed ANIMATION STATION. Wardrobe had a piece of the room and the rest was lined with mirrors and couches. As the muppet shows faded away, the perfomer breakroom turned into a costuming mini warehouse and the costuming room was taken over by either foods or merchandise. We also had a specially made box pargo that we all nicked named to ICE CREAM BOX PARGO. We used is for years after the Muppet shows went away. I beleive it's final demise came when the 'box' part fell off the back. (Yes, Yes we were hard on pargos.)
In the days before Tower of Terror and Fantasmic!, we had the STATUE CAST PARKING LOT, RED LOT and the ORANGE LOT. Statue lot was called that because they stored the Swan and Dolphin statues there while they built the hotels. That parking lot is now . . .Fantasmic!. I'm not sure where the names Red lot and Orange lot came from, but nevermind that, they're both gone. In the old main cast lot sits Rockin' Roller Coaster and in the other parking lot is the new and improved "Fort Knox" style security gate.
In the begining days of the Studios, they filmed the new MICKEY MOUSE CLUB in the soundstages. In the area of the buglalows there was orginally a production only COMMISSARY. It is now just an office. Under the water tower was a Mouskateer class room trailer. I believe the trailer is still there, but who occupies it varies with the wind.
Let us not forget one final thing from years gone by "the E-TICKET RIDES". Back when you had to buy a book of tickets, the E rides were always the first ones used because they were the thrill rides like Space Mountian or the Haunted Mansion. Dating back to the 1950's at Disneyland it carried over to Magic Kingdom until 1982. Today the E- tickets maybe gone, but the term still lives on in pop culture.
And thus ends part three of my history lesson, I now return you to your regulary scheduled blog. :)
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Thursday, September 10, 2009
EXTINCT DISNEY PT 2
As if the concept of having two studio themed amusement parks in one town didn't confuse the guests enough, the park formally known as Disney-MGM Studios changed it's name to Disney Hollywood Studios in 2007. Although MGM never really had any presence in Orlando, Disney barrowed the MGM name so we could use the movies in it's attractions and we briefly had the Tom and Jerry characters at the park. They did a promotional video where Tom 'chased' Jerry across the top of the Animation Courtyard arch, but never really went much further. You know it's going to be an interesting video shot when they schedule folks based on whether or not they're afraid of heights. The big question we always get is "Why?" We were told the contract ran out with MGM, the soundstages were being converted into the Toy Story Mania ride and 'film production has left the building'. . . I mean 'the park.'
When the studios opened there was a BACKSTAGE WALKING TOUR (which closed in 2001) that went through the a tour tunnel over looking the soundstages. It was hard to keep the facilities filled with projects. Maybe it was because they didn't like being watched by tourists, or maybe Florida has always been a bit of a step child when it comes to film and television production. The tour snaked it's way through a mock special effects workshops and ended in a real post production house. HOWEVER, again, people editing thier projects don't like being in a fish bowl, so alot of the time the editing rooms remained empty or closed off to the public. Now the Post Production building is independently run and the production tour tunnel has been turned into ONE MAN'S DREAM museum which opened on October 1,2001 to celebrate Walt's one Hundreth birthday.
Soundstages 2 and 3 housed WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE from 2001 to 2006. The closing of Miilionaire was probably the death neel for the "film industry" at Disney Hollywood Studios. In 2008 the stages were gutted and converted into TOY STORY MANIA ride. By the way, Millionaire was not the first big named game show to be shot in the Disney soundstages. Waaaay back in the begining of the park, a revival of LET'S MAKE A DEAL, was made there as well. Sadly it didn't last too long. I believe it was closed down around 1991ish. (i'.m still looking for the actual dates)
The BACKSTAGE TRAM TOUR has had a similar fate of it's walking tour cousin. Though it's still there, it's a mere shadow of it's former self. It's pretty much a drive through Creative Costuming and stop at catastrophe canyon. Oh yeah, they drive past the 'the award winning Earfel Tower'.(As the tour guide's script says). I've asked the guides "what kind of award did the water tower win ?" No one ever seemed to know. In it's day the tram drove past the soundstages and down residential street, but the home To The Golden Girls House, among others, are all gone now.
RESIDENTIAL STREET, opened in May 1, 1989, gave way to a new stunt show in 2005 called Lights Motors Action. Don't get me wrong, it's a pretty cool show, but it's a bit heart breaking to see the 'studios' loose it's identity like that. If you ever wondered what was behind the house facades on residential street, it was storage. Mostly horticulture and other items that weather wouldn't hurt since there was only half a house there.
A little further up from Lights Motors Action, in a spot that used to be home to Norman the Cow from the City Slickers Movie, is BACKLOT THEATER. Built in 1993, it was originaly meant to be a temporary stage for BEAUTY AND THE BEAST while the old THEATER OF THE STARS (TOTS)was being relocated to make way for Sunset Blvd. Over the years TOTS was home to a number of song and dance shows including DICK TRACY (1990 - 1991), HOLLYWOOD'S PRETTY WOMEN (Sept. 9, 1991 to Nov. 3.1991), and various Star's of the Day Question and Answer sessions. When B&B got their new snazzy home, 'the powers that be' didn't want to tear down a perfectly good building AND we had a new Pocahontas movie coming out.
Thus the SPIRIT OF POCAHONTAS show was born June 23, 1995, but sadly, it closed on Feb. 24 1996, after a very short run. Casting issues. Staging issues. Staffing issues. They all played a part in it's demise. The intent was to have a totaly native american cast and crew. It ended up being maybe half the cast and a couple of the crew. For a few of the cast, it was in thier contract to either wear thier hair long or keep it in mohawks. If you know anything about 'The Disney Look', it was like an act of congress to get that passed Greta Groom (I'll introduce you to her in another blog).
Hot on Poca's heels was a new show DISNEY'S HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME: A MUSICAL ADVENTURE. (June 21,1996 to Sept 28, 2002)Since everything else in that theater had an extremely short life span, Hunchback spent most of it's life in fear of being closed. At the third year anniversary, we realized that maybe we might just be okay for a while. I personally always felt like we were the step child to B & B. Lasting for seven years, it seemed to take on a life of it's own. The movie was Ehh. . .it was okay. Disney, (as Disney usually does) took liberties with the story that didn't sit well with die hard Victor Hugo fans, but the show itself had a huge following.
After Quasimodo rang his last cathederal bell, the stage sat empty for a while. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles invaded the space briefly as did other character sets using the old greenroom. Starwars weekends used the green room as Starwars Central for two years. Meanwhile, the Spectical of Lights (Christmas lights) crew claimed squatters right's to the stage area for storage. In Dec. 2007 the guts of the building were demolished and a full fledged 'new special events venue' was born for things like Night of Joy, Grad night, conventions, ect.
Next door to Hunckback was an odd stage. From the front, the two stages seemed to be on level ground. From back stage, however, the Muppets theater was a flight of stairs higher than the Backlot theater. This elevation difference, we believe, is what contributed to Hunchback's demise because all of the rain water drained down under the Backlot Theater and eventually rotted out the stage's supports. According to my tech sources the support posts under the stage were beginning to look like swiss cheese.
Working costuming at MUPPETS ON LOCATION: THE DAYS OF SWINE AND ROSES (Sept. 16 1991 and 1994)meant lugging costumes up a flight of stairs every morning and (I hate to admit it) throwing bags of dirty costumes off of the flight of stairs at the end of the day. We worked smarter, not harder, or at least that's what we told management. Since then, the stage has been host to numerous character sets over the years, now it's Buzz and Woody's home when they visit Al's Toy Barn.
Muppets costuming was also home to several of the music groups like the TUBAFOURS and The HOLLYWOOD HITMEN(closed April 7, 2001). During one of the "Oh my God the economy is tanking, must get rid of things' moments, we lost all of our musical groups to layoffs. A few years later they brought music back to the park with Mulch, Sweat and Shears rock band.
THe Studios went through numerous parades over the years. DINOSAUR (1992)(tv show version)was more of a street party complete with Dino whores. . .I mean scantily clad Dino girl cheerleaders, ALADDIN'S ROYAL CARAVAN, (Dec. 21, 1992 - Aug. 27, 1995) The spitting camels are now spitting once again by the Aladdin's Magic Carpet Ride at the Kingdom, TOY STORY (1996 - 1997)To Infinfity, the International Space Station and Beyond, HERCULES (June, 27, 1997 to 1998)Hero to Zero, I mean Zero to Hero, MULAN (1998 - 2001) I miss seeing the Perchuran horses everyday, DISNEY STAR AND MOTOR CARS (october 1, 2001- march 8, 2008) Which I hear is coming to Disneyland Paris and last but definately not least, BLOCK PARTY BASH (March 9. 2008) . . .Uhm, never seen, know nothing about it.
SUPER STAR TELEVISION,(1989 to 1999)(Ahh, my home for many years), took guests from the audience and put them in scenes with famous co-stars. Using split screen, green screens, unique costumes and some old fashion imagination, guests were able try their hand at acting with the Golden Girls, Three stooges, David Letterman, Lucille Ball and several others. I'm not sure why it closed other than possible lack of interest/knowledge it existed due to limited advertising.
THe ABC THEATER stage sat dormant for a several years. The show DOUG started in 1999 was there briefly, but he, Patty Mayonaise, Skeeter and Pork Chop soon moved back to Nickelodeon. The cluttered up storage area in the back was given a new coat of paint and turned into a meet and greet area for Mike and Sulley from Monsters Inc. until Jan. 2008 when they were moved to the Streets of America. ABC THEATER was also used for special events like ESPN Weekends, Super Soap and Starwars Weekends. Its many years of neglect finally came to an end when, in 2009, Fox's AMERICAN IDOL Opened up shop. So the 'poor little stage that could' is now alive and kicking again.
Next door the MONSTER SOUND SHOW started May, 1989, where actors Martin Short and chevy Chase introduced guest to the world of sound effects. On July 1, 1997 the format changed and it became the ABC SOUND STUDIO. Along with the name change came a new animated film clip. SOUNDS DANGEROUS with Drew Carey later replaced the second reincarnation on April 22, 1999.
Across the park, at home of the Voyage of the Little Mermaid was the original Muppet Show called HERE COMES THE MUPPETS(May 25 1990 until Sept 2, 1991). Many people believe Jim Henson's ghost haunts the Mermaid stage because he passed away while the Muppet show resided there. Across the Animation Courtyard used to be the SOUNDSTAGE RESTAURANT. A quick service pizza and burgers place, it was closed to make way for Henson's BEAR AND THE BIG BLUE HOUSE-LIVE ON STAGE in June 7,1999. For the first month or two, our "break room" was the old steel food service counters and the now closed Cat Walk Bar that was over head. They finally decided that Bear or some variation there of was going to be there for a while and did a huge renovation to create a real break room. The far side of the stage still has food service counters and is pretty much untouched from the restaurant days.
Then there is a list of, as I call them 'honorable mention' shows. The small, short run, limited set creations that were never intented to be long term commitments. R.L. STINE'S GOOSEBUMPS started in Sept. 1998 and lasted until Dec of that same year. ACE VENTURA PET DETECTIVE arrived in late 1995 and was gone a few months later. SCREENTEST was an itty bitty 'show?', 'experience?', maybe a little of both located in one of the stores near the front of the park. A Streetmosphere performer would pick people and auditon them. It lasted a few years. I'm not really sure why that one died. TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES emerged from thier specially made Turtle Van on New York Street on June 30,1990. They did a brief martial arts routine them signed autographs on the loading dock. If I remember right, they later moved to other locations aroud the park for their sets until 1996 when the Turtles went back to thier sewers for good.
And finally, I bid a fond Rest In Peace to the ANIMATORS. The very real animation studios was shuttered soon after the release of the Mulan movie as yet another cost cutting measure. What used to be an animation tour is now just a character meet and greet area. THe rest of the building is more corporate offices. Fancy corporate offices, but just offices none the less.
Of all the parks, I think the Studios has seen the most change. Now with Disney buying Marvel Comics, I know we haven't seen the last of it.
When the studios opened there was a BACKSTAGE WALKING TOUR (which closed in 2001) that went through the a tour tunnel over looking the soundstages. It was hard to keep the facilities filled with projects. Maybe it was because they didn't like being watched by tourists, or maybe Florida has always been a bit of a step child when it comes to film and television production. The tour snaked it's way through a mock special effects workshops and ended in a real post production house. HOWEVER, again, people editing thier projects don't like being in a fish bowl, so alot of the time the editing rooms remained empty or closed off to the public. Now the Post Production building is independently run and the production tour tunnel has been turned into ONE MAN'S DREAM museum which opened on October 1,2001 to celebrate Walt's one Hundreth birthday.
Soundstages 2 and 3 housed WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE from 2001 to 2006. The closing of Miilionaire was probably the death neel for the "film industry" at Disney Hollywood Studios. In 2008 the stages were gutted and converted into TOY STORY MANIA ride. By the way, Millionaire was not the first big named game show to be shot in the Disney soundstages. Waaaay back in the begining of the park, a revival of LET'S MAKE A DEAL, was made there as well. Sadly it didn't last too long. I believe it was closed down around 1991ish. (i'.m still looking for the actual dates)
The BACKSTAGE TRAM TOUR has had a similar fate of it's walking tour cousin. Though it's still there, it's a mere shadow of it's former self. It's pretty much a drive through Creative Costuming and stop at catastrophe canyon. Oh yeah, they drive past the 'the award winning Earfel Tower'.(As the tour guide's script says). I've asked the guides "what kind of award did the water tower win ?" No one ever seemed to know. In it's day the tram drove past the soundstages and down residential street, but the home To The Golden Girls House, among others, are all gone now.
RESIDENTIAL STREET, opened in May 1, 1989, gave way to a new stunt show in 2005 called Lights Motors Action. Don't get me wrong, it's a pretty cool show, but it's a bit heart breaking to see the 'studios' loose it's identity like that. If you ever wondered what was behind the house facades on residential street, it was storage. Mostly horticulture and other items that weather wouldn't hurt since there was only half a house there.
A little further up from Lights Motors Action, in a spot that used to be home to Norman the Cow from the City Slickers Movie, is BACKLOT THEATER. Built in 1993, it was originaly meant to be a temporary stage for BEAUTY AND THE BEAST while the old THEATER OF THE STARS (TOTS)was being relocated to make way for Sunset Blvd. Over the years TOTS was home to a number of song and dance shows including DICK TRACY (1990 - 1991), HOLLYWOOD'S PRETTY WOMEN (Sept. 9, 1991 to Nov. 3.1991), and various Star's of the Day Question and Answer sessions. When B&B got their new snazzy home, 'the powers that be' didn't want to tear down a perfectly good building AND we had a new Pocahontas movie coming out.
Thus the SPIRIT OF POCAHONTAS show was born June 23, 1995, but sadly, it closed on Feb. 24 1996, after a very short run. Casting issues. Staging issues. Staffing issues. They all played a part in it's demise. The intent was to have a totaly native american cast and crew. It ended up being maybe half the cast and a couple of the crew. For a few of the cast, it was in thier contract to either wear thier hair long or keep it in mohawks. If you know anything about 'The Disney Look', it was like an act of congress to get that passed Greta Groom (I'll introduce you to her in another blog).
Hot on Poca's heels was a new show DISNEY'S HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME: A MUSICAL ADVENTURE. (June 21,1996 to Sept 28, 2002)Since everything else in that theater had an extremely short life span, Hunchback spent most of it's life in fear of being closed. At the third year anniversary, we realized that maybe we might just be okay for a while. I personally always felt like we were the step child to B & B. Lasting for seven years, it seemed to take on a life of it's own. The movie was Ehh. . .it was okay. Disney, (as Disney usually does) took liberties with the story that didn't sit well with die hard Victor Hugo fans, but the show itself had a huge following.
After Quasimodo rang his last cathederal bell, the stage sat empty for a while. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles invaded the space briefly as did other character sets using the old greenroom. Starwars weekends used the green room as Starwars Central for two years. Meanwhile, the Spectical of Lights (Christmas lights) crew claimed squatters right's to the stage area for storage. In Dec. 2007 the guts of the building were demolished and a full fledged 'new special events venue' was born for things like Night of Joy, Grad night, conventions, ect.
Next door to Hunckback was an odd stage. From the front, the two stages seemed to be on level ground. From back stage, however, the Muppets theater was a flight of stairs higher than the Backlot theater. This elevation difference, we believe, is what contributed to Hunchback's demise because all of the rain water drained down under the Backlot Theater and eventually rotted out the stage's supports. According to my tech sources the support posts under the stage were beginning to look like swiss cheese.
Working costuming at MUPPETS ON LOCATION: THE DAYS OF SWINE AND ROSES (Sept. 16 1991 and 1994)meant lugging costumes up a flight of stairs every morning and (I hate to admit it) throwing bags of dirty costumes off of the flight of stairs at the end of the day. We worked smarter, not harder, or at least that's what we told management. Since then, the stage has been host to numerous character sets over the years, now it's Buzz and Woody's home when they visit Al's Toy Barn.
Muppets costuming was also home to several of the music groups like the TUBAFOURS and The HOLLYWOOD HITMEN(closed April 7, 2001). During one of the "Oh my God the economy is tanking, must get rid of things' moments, we lost all of our musical groups to layoffs. A few years later they brought music back to the park with Mulch, Sweat and Shears rock band.
THe Studios went through numerous parades over the years. DINOSAUR (1992)(tv show version)was more of a street party complete with Dino whores. . .I mean scantily clad Dino girl cheerleaders, ALADDIN'S ROYAL CARAVAN, (Dec. 21, 1992 - Aug. 27, 1995) The spitting camels are now spitting once again by the Aladdin's Magic Carpet Ride at the Kingdom, TOY STORY (1996 - 1997)To Infinfity, the International Space Station and Beyond, HERCULES (June, 27, 1997 to 1998)Hero to Zero, I mean Zero to Hero, MULAN (1998 - 2001) I miss seeing the Perchuran horses everyday, DISNEY STAR AND MOTOR CARS (october 1, 2001- march 8, 2008) Which I hear is coming to Disneyland Paris and last but definately not least, BLOCK PARTY BASH (March 9. 2008) . . .Uhm, never seen, know nothing about it.
SUPER STAR TELEVISION,(1989 to 1999)(Ahh, my home for many years), took guests from the audience and put them in scenes with famous co-stars. Using split screen, green screens, unique costumes and some old fashion imagination, guests were able try their hand at acting with the Golden Girls, Three stooges, David Letterman, Lucille Ball and several others. I'm not sure why it closed other than possible lack of interest/knowledge it existed due to limited advertising.
THe ABC THEATER stage sat dormant for a several years. The show DOUG started in 1999 was there briefly, but he, Patty Mayonaise, Skeeter and Pork Chop soon moved back to Nickelodeon. The cluttered up storage area in the back was given a new coat of paint and turned into a meet and greet area for Mike and Sulley from Monsters Inc. until Jan. 2008 when they were moved to the Streets of America. ABC THEATER was also used for special events like ESPN Weekends, Super Soap and Starwars Weekends. Its many years of neglect finally came to an end when, in 2009, Fox's AMERICAN IDOL Opened up shop. So the 'poor little stage that could' is now alive and kicking again.
Next door the MONSTER SOUND SHOW started May, 1989, where actors Martin Short and chevy Chase introduced guest to the world of sound effects. On July 1, 1997 the format changed and it became the ABC SOUND STUDIO. Along with the name change came a new animated film clip. SOUNDS DANGEROUS with Drew Carey later replaced the second reincarnation on April 22, 1999.
Across the park, at home of the Voyage of the Little Mermaid was the original Muppet Show called HERE COMES THE MUPPETS(May 25 1990 until Sept 2, 1991). Many people believe Jim Henson's ghost haunts the Mermaid stage because he passed away while the Muppet show resided there. Across the Animation Courtyard used to be the SOUNDSTAGE RESTAURANT. A quick service pizza and burgers place, it was closed to make way for Henson's BEAR AND THE BIG BLUE HOUSE-LIVE ON STAGE in June 7,1999. For the first month or two, our "break room" was the old steel food service counters and the now closed Cat Walk Bar that was over head. They finally decided that Bear or some variation there of was going to be there for a while and did a huge renovation to create a real break room. The far side of the stage still has food service counters and is pretty much untouched from the restaurant days.
Then there is a list of, as I call them 'honorable mention' shows. The small, short run, limited set creations that were never intented to be long term commitments. R.L. STINE'S GOOSEBUMPS started in Sept. 1998 and lasted until Dec of that same year. ACE VENTURA PET DETECTIVE arrived in late 1995 and was gone a few months later. SCREENTEST was an itty bitty 'show?', 'experience?', maybe a little of both located in one of the stores near the front of the park. A Streetmosphere performer would pick people and auditon them. It lasted a few years. I'm not really sure why that one died. TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES emerged from thier specially made Turtle Van on New York Street on June 30,1990. They did a brief martial arts routine them signed autographs on the loading dock. If I remember right, they later moved to other locations aroud the park for their sets until 1996 when the Turtles went back to thier sewers for good.
And finally, I bid a fond Rest In Peace to the ANIMATORS. The very real animation studios was shuttered soon after the release of the Mulan movie as yet another cost cutting measure. What used to be an animation tour is now just a character meet and greet area. THe rest of the building is more corporate offices. Fancy corporate offices, but just offices none the less.
Of all the parks, I think the Studios has seen the most change. Now with Disney buying Marvel Comics, I know we haven't seen the last of it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
