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By Michael - June 20th, 2014 For your Friday night viewing…
It’s been a while since I’ve posted an episode of Walt Disney World Inside Out. I have thus deprived you of the opportunity to see host Scott Heriott belittle World Showcase cast members with awkward racist jokes, and to see Howie Mandel stalk and harass confused guests at the Disney-MGM Studios. But don’t worry, because now I’m here to take care of all that.
Today’s episode comes from September 1994, and takes us around Epcot 94’s World Showcase – kind of – as well as to other locations around Walt Disney World. After stops to annoy people at Star Tours, and a quick drive through the Disney-MGM Studios Backlot Tour, we head to the Magic Kingdom for a look at the Mickey Mania Parade – a parade about which I had strong opinions, which I do not feel the need to go in to at the moment. Look at the footage and try and figure it out for yourself.
Perhaps the most interesting stop is at Ye Olde Discovery Island out in Bay Lake, back when it was still open. Not only do we get a look at the Island’s animal life, but we’re shown around by Kym Murphy. At this point Murphy was the Disney corporate vice president for environmental policy, but he had previously worked with Imagineering on the Living Seas pavilion. He was also a key player in the creation of Port Disney, the spectacular unbuilt theme park complex once planned for Long Beach, California. Murphy is a welcome presence here, as he is actually quick on his feet and funny, and keeps the host in check for once.
Oh, and we visit Innoventions. Because we always visit Innoventions.
So pile on the couch and get your uncomfortable international stereotypes ready – it’s time for Walt Disney World Inside Out!
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By Michael - June 19th, 2014 Sometimes when I post a video, I like to give lots of background and context, and talk about what you’re going to see. But sometimes the videos themselves are so goofybananas that I want to throw you in without any warning as to what’s coming. This is one of those.
On September 20th, 1986, Disney’s Captain EO Grand Opening aired to a rapt nationwide audience. I guess. Maybe not. Hosted by Patrick Duffy and Justine Bateman, it’s a star-studded salute to the then-new attraction Captain EO, which had just opened at Disneyland and Epcot Center. And, to be fair, unlike many of these specials the stars with which it is studded are actual stars. Sure, there are lots of super 1980s-era TV relics, and some incredibly dated “stars” of the era, but they also managed to rope in actors like Sissy Spacek, Anjelica Huston (the Supreme Leader herself), and even Jack Nicholson, who lurks around in the background unmentioned as Huston’s date. At the very least, this is the only Disney attraction opening to boast the presence of Charles Bronson and Yakov Smirnoff.
I actually need to restrain myself from rattling off the list of celebrity “appearances”, I’m so impressed with their scope and randomness. You expect your John Ritters, say, but Esther Williams?? For Captain EO? Alan Thicke, sure, but Elizabeth Montgomery? Why Tommy Chong but not Disney’s very own Cheech™? At least Annette is there to hold up the Disney end of things, and a very young pre-Full House John Stamos is on hand to profess his now-legendary Disneyland love. And, of course, there’s family favorite O.J. Simpson.
There are many other amazing things (I knew I couldn’t be able to refrain from comment). The acting on display between George Lucas and Michael Eisner is superb, as are the “lasers” they’re testing. I can’t imagine what they were thinking. There are at least two appearances of keytars in the musical numbers, which are about as 80s as you get. I still love that Belinda Carlisle, though, and apparently so do the Country Bears?
It all culminates with a sort-of-marching-band-dance-number-meets-parade-thing that takes place simultaneously on Main Street USA and in Tomorrowland, thanks to some highly dubious editing. A fellow who is Not Michael Jackson but who was in A Chorus Line (and who assisted in the choreography of some of Jackson’s videos) does an odd little music number and sings a brief musical tribute to Captain EO’s ragtag band before they appear in person on a magical space cloud. Yes, Hooter – live in person! And Major Domo! And… sigh… “The Geeks”. “The Geeks” gets said a lot in this special, way more than should ever happen in any TV show. Be sure to stick around after the official ribbon cutting for the bizarre reappearance of Not Michael Jackson, who emerges from another dimension to oddly kind of lipsynch a little inspirational tag.
All this insanity is in service of Captain EO, and we do actually get a little bit of behind-the-scenes footage which fans of the film might appreciate. EO marked the first Disney collaboration with George Lucas; while Star Tours had been conceived earlier, Captain EO had been greenlit to get something Lucas-related into the parks as soon as possible, without having to wait for the development cycle of a traditional ride attraction. The film’s development was troubled, since it basically began with the concept of “film Michael Jackson doing something” and went from there. As you probably know, it had an unexpected resurgence after Jackson’s death, when it returned to the parks as the “Captain EO Tribute”.
Incidentally, an unexpected bonus of this special is that it provides a few peeks at the shiny and exciting Disneyland Tomorrowland of this era. From the Skyway to the Astro Jets to that weird Space Mountain speedramp thing, there are several details lurking in the background.
So enjoy, and SAY HI TO THE GEEKS FOR ME.
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By Michael - June 18th, 2014 As news about Star Wars Episode VII continues to emerge on a daily basis, let’s turn back the clock once more for some Star Tours shenanigans from 1987. This time we have a video press kit for the then-new Disneyland attraction, hosted by C-3PO himself. It features a canned “news” piece about the ride for broadcast outlets, some great B-roll of the attraction and its queue, and several interviews with key creative personnel. This includes Imagineers Tony Baxter, Tom Fitzgerald, and Dave Feiten; Dennis Muren and Warren Franklin from ILM also appear. And, naturally, there’s an interview with George Lucas – as well as one with C-3PO, which is genius in the silliest way possible. Wonder how many local affiliates broadcast fake interviews with C-3PO on their cheesy morning programs…
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By Michael - June 17th, 2014 Continuing our recent theme of all things Star Tours, here’s the press conference that coincided with the ride’s January 9th, 1987 debut. The event features Dick Nunis, George Lucas, Michael Eisner, Marty Sklar, and Jeffrey Katzenberg, although the good Mr. Katzenberg seems to appear very little in this edited video.
There’s a lot here that is interesting, and retroactively ironic, from the discussion of George’s plans for future Disney attractions and updates to the Star Tours ride films, to Eisner’s desire to sign Lucas to a film deal. All this talk, so long ago, for things that would finally come to pass almost 30 years later. Also amusing is how Eisner kind of gets mad at Marty for giving shout-outs to individual Imagineers; apparently he was afraid that some competitor would buy them off if their identities became public? Someone should have told him that we all knew perfectly well who Tony Baxter was, even way back in 1987!
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By Michael - June 8th, 2014 As we prepare for tonight’s finale of Cosmos (sadness!), what better way to prepare than with another look back at the cutting edge of science education… thirty years ago.
Close-Up On The Planets was a 1982 release by the Walt Disney Educational Media Co., directed by Charles Finance. It was produced during a very exciting era for space-related science; the Space Shuttle was making its first flights, and the two Voyager probes were returning a constant stream of new revelations from the outer solar system. Incidentally, it was also the same year that Epcot Center opened here on Earth, so you might say it was a perfect nexus of time, space, and events to forge a generation of geeks like myself.
What’s interesting about this film is what has changed in the years since and what hasn’t. Much of what is stated about Venus and Mars reflects current knowledge, as well as mysteries that still linger. In the 32 years since this film we’ve only sent two probes to Venus, neither of them landers, and much remains unknown about the planet. On the other hand, we’ve sent an armada of craft to Mars in the last decade, both orbiters and rovers, but answers about whether there was ever life on the red planet remain elusive.
We’ve learned the most, however, about the outer planets. In the years after this film was made, Voyager 2 made flybys of Uranus and Neptune, creating vivid portraits of those systems that went far beyond the tiny, featureless blobs shown here. Jupiter and Saturn have both been intensely studied by their own dedicated orbiters, and even distant Pluto will receive its first ambassador from Earth next year when New Horizons sails past on its way out of the solar system.
What we’ve learned in later years makes the information presented in the film seem charmingly quaint in retrospect. Instead of 15 moons, 67 have since been discovered orbiting Jupiter. Saturn has 62 confirmed satellites – 53 of them named – instead of 23. And Uranus and Neptune, as predicted in this film, were discovered to have large satellite systems of their own, with 27 and 14 known moons respectively. Neptune also harbors faint rings, a fact unconfirmed before Voyager 2’s 1989 visit. Jupiter’s moon Io is no longer the only world aside from Earth known to be geologically active; such activity has since been confirmed on Venus and with the ice volcanoes of Saturn’s moon Enceladus and Neptune’s moon Triton.
Incidentally, Eugene Shoemaker, featured in the film, became a bit of a celebrity in the 1990s for his co-discovery of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, which collided with Jupiter in 1994. Richard Terrile, the Voyager imaging scientist, continues his work at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory today. And special acknowledgement must go to the computing equipment used by Harold Masursky, who had a sweet videodisc player hooked up to his Apple II. I would have been insanely jealous of that back in the day; it’s like having your own personal WorldKey for the solar system! Although I’m not sure why they showed him playing a video of him narrating a video, instead of just him narrating the video, but oh well – if you’ve got the videodisc player, you use the videodisc player!
And speaking of technology, how about those killer 1982-era animations of the planets? Those JPL computer-generated flybys were a constant presence when I was a kid, and if you recall they were shown during the descent portions of the original Spaceship Earth. I tell you, it all tied together…
So now sit back and prepare yourselves… for a CLOSE-UP ON THE PLANETS.
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The Progress City Primer
 From the Progress City archives comes this collection of 33 tall tales and true from Disney history. Available in paperback, hardback, and ebook formats. |
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