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The Disney-MGM Studios and “Hollywood East”, 1989

When the Disney-MGM Studios opened in 1989, there was a great deal of hoopla about how the city of Orlando was now “Hollywood East”. With Universal Studios Orlando opening soundstages a few miles up I-4 from Walt Disney World, there was suddenly an arms race for soundstage space in town, and with plenty of plans […]

Opening The Disney-MGM Studios With PM Magazine, 1989

Back in the 1970s and 80s, there was a syndicated television show called PM Magazine. The evening entertainment and lifestyle show aired in markets across the country, packaging syndicated features with wraparound segments featuring local hosts.

In 1989, the nation’s media descended on Orlando to cover the opening of the Disney-MGM Studios. Lest we […]

Regis And The Daredevil Circus Spectacular, 1987

Michael Eisner didn’t get EPCOT.

He didn’t understand it, he didn’t like it. He wanted to make it more “exciting.”

And so, when he arrived at Walt Disney Productions in 1984, those grand expansion plans for the park were all put away, never to be seen again. Instead, EPCOT would begin to see a series […]

Tea For TRON and TRON For Tea

Walter Cronkite is one of my heroes. Authoritative yet avuncular, his constant reassuring presence during the events of the later 20th century made him the perfect choice to narrate EPCOT’s Spaceship Earth from 1986 to 1994. So if I love Walter Cronkite, and I love TRON, what would I love the most? Why, Walter Cronkite […]