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This might be the funniest thing ever. I’m sure it’ll change soon, but as of 4:45 PM EST, the lead story on CBS’s entertainment news page is:  This is, perhaps, the Platonic ideal of FailPoor Universal. They can’t win for losing. Related Posts...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 forget, this was only Disney’s fifth theme park, and it was kind of a big deal at that time. Disney knew how to throw a party and crank up the hype machine, and that’s just what they did. Luckily, my then-local PM Magazine hosts were on the case, with a special episode covering the opening live from the park itself. After all, it was a working studio! Here’s an optimistic and excited look at a new theme park from WBTV in Charlotte, N.C., with hosts Bob Lacey and Sarah Van Allen. Related Posts... Little Deuce CoupeApropos of nothing, I found this in a Disney merchandise catalogue from 1987. And people wonder why we children of the 80s are so… different. Related Posts...Is there really anything I could say? I mean… sigh. The best part of the commercial? It doesn’t pander. There are no characters, aside from Figment and Mickey, no distortions of the truth – just images of EPCOT. It shows you how exciting EPCOT is, rather than telling you. There’s no cheesy footage of canned audiences pretending to have a good time, just people experiencing the wonders of the park. This commercial is from 1989; I remember it vividly – watching it over, and over, and over… How great was it that EPCOT got its own commercial? Figment, SMRT-1, Horizons, IllumiNations… those were the days. Related Posts...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 of special events; cheaply-put-together extravaganzas would help plug the park and reduce the need for major capitol investment. They would be trendy. They would be exciting. They would be…  W.T.F.Well that’s a darn sight more exciting than Equatorial Africa or Journeys in Space, innit? In October of 1987, EPCOT premiered the gallingly out-of-place Daredevil Circus Spectacular in CommuniCore Plaza. In the shadow of mighty Spaceship Earth, there would now be four-times-daily exhibitions of various sorts of circus-related derring-do. But surely, you say, even Eisner couldn’t have been that daft. Surely the circus, with its tightrope walking and elephant straddling, had no place in Future World? Well that, dear reader, is where you and your stupid, stupid brain are completely wrong. Because, you see, this was a circus of the future…
See! Future! It all begins with story! Sincotrons! Web Women and Archturian Vines! Power Drones! Aquilons! What didn’t this show have? Well, aside from dignity. While this most special of special events only lasted five short months, it marked the first of many assaults on Future World’s sensibilities to come. But there’s a silver lining – it gave Regis a chance to be ringmaster! Here, from the 1987 Very Merry Christmas Parade, is our man Regis hamming it up as ringmaster of “The Greatest Show In Space.” Related Posts... |
 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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