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By Michael - April 4th, 2010 Way back when, it was the tradition for every new Disney theme park – or even major attraction! – to get a big opening special. Euro Disneyland was no exception; it got its ballyhooed stateside debut when The Grand Opening of Euro Disney aired on CBS on April 11th, 1992.
This particular special is not one of the better offerings even in the often-rocky post-Walt television canon; perhaps as some odd harbinger of Euro Disney’s woes, it’s stilted and odd and kind of uncomfortable. It’s hosted, for some reason, by Don Johnson and Melanie Griffith, who despite being married at the time don’t seem to like each other very much. They’re not natural hosts, either, and Griffith’s seeming attempts to emulate a first-generation audio-animatronic makes one actually miss Kelly Ripa.
The special is so uninteresting, in fact, that we at Progress City never really revisited it as kids, despite playing our recordings of other contemporary parades and specials to the point of absurdity.
One interesting bit, though, comes towards the end of the special when Johnson and Griffith describe the attractions that are slated to soon debut at Euro Disney. These are the famous lost attractions designed for Fantasyland – a ride based on The Little Mermaid and the animatronic show based on Beauty and the Beast. Despite being designed and announced for the park, they were never built (although a computer-generated simulation of the Mermaid attraction was created for that film’s “Platinum” DVD release). Ariel and her friends have yet to make it to Paris; dark rides based on her adventures is currently under construction in California and Orlando.
The other big project mentioned in the Grand Opening is the Disney-MGM Studios Europe, then intended to open in 1995. This would be Disney CEO Michael Eisner’s attempt to build a second version of this concept after the Disney-MGM Studios opened in Orlando in 1989. Eisner was determined to make this park idea a global franchise; his other efforts would include the Disney-MGM Studios Backlot intended for Burbank and the Disney-MGM Studios Tokyo that he tried to push on the Oriental Land Company as Tokyo Disney Resort’s second gate.
None of those concepts would see the light of day, but a pared down version of the Studios concept would debut in Paris at the Walt Disney Studios park in 2002.
Take a look at the future that was, presented by the effervescent Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson!
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By Michael - April 4th, 2010  Robin Hood noooo! Hide your shame! Tonight, on a very special Disneyland After Dark…
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By Michael - April 4th, 2010 Veteran Progress City readers might remember a story I wrote in January, listing producer/writer/director Joss Whedon as the person I’d most like to see Disney hire for future creative endeavors.
Keep that in mind.
So this evening I’ve been trying to get my “archives” in some semblance of order, and I was filing away some issues of Disney News from the 1970s. On the back cover of the Winter 1974/75 issue, there was an ad for the then-upcoming Walt Disney Productions release Island at the Top of the World.
 Ad for Island at the Top of the WorldMany of you might be aware that this 1974 release, now mostly forgotten, has had an influence far beyond its failure at the box office. Most obvious is the film’s Hyperion airship, which has remained an iconic element at Imagineering ever since. It was a central visual element of the fabled but unbuilt Discovery Bay expansion at Disneyland, which was to have an advanced E-ticket attraction based on the film.
 Rendering of the proposed “Discovery Bay” expansion for Disneyland in the 1970s While Discovery Bay has not emerged in a Disney park (to date), the Hyperion did make it to Disneyland Paris as part of that park’s retro-futuristic Discoveryland.
 Poster for Videopolis & Cafe Hyperion, Disneyland Paris So, we have a flop of a movie that introduced some visual themes that live in the minds of Disney fans even today. So what? Well, my eyes scanned the list of credits, and…
No kidding.
Now, this isn’t Joss Whedon. This is his grandfather, John Whedon. The elder Whedon’s credits not only include another Disney film, 1974’s The Bears and I, but also the Kilroy miniseries for Disney’s anthology television show. This isn’t the first time John Whedon has surprised me by popping up in an unexpected place – he appeared one day in the credits of an Andy Griffith Show episode I was watching. Between that and The Dick Van Dyke Show, it looks like the Whedon family has managed to work on some of my favorite TV shows for fifty years.
It would be unfair at this point to leave out Joss’s dad, Tom Whedon, who fills in the generational gap nicely by working on some of the most prominent shows in the 70s and 80s. Again, some of my favorite shows from when I was a kid are there – he wrote and produced several episodes of Benson and, to bring it all back home to Disney, produced several seasons of The Golden Girls.
It’s a small world, after all.
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By Michael - April 3rd, 2010 1978 was a different time. Barely emerged from the Age of Aspic, America slowly began to look for more engaging foodstuffs. No longer content to chase down their flank steak and poached asparagus with a couple of old fashioneds and a kind word to the waitress, Americans wanted something more – they wanted dessert.
Thankfully, the forward-thinking visionaries at Walt Disney World were prepared. Tucked away in the secluded confines of the Golf Resort Hotel, the chefs at the Trophy Room restaurant had the answer – something from the very fringes of food science, French-Fried Ice Cream.
 French-Fried Ice Cream at the Golf Resort, from the Fall 1978 Disney NewsI love so much about this article. The sheer breathless prose about this exotic new substance is enough to get anyone excited, even well past the era when – if we’re to believe the chefs cited in the article – there were only two other restaurants serving this inconceivable concoction.
That’s not to say that the Trophy Room was slinging out any old fried ice cream. I have to say, the idea of serving it on a peach half is kind of genius. And it’s hard to resist anything that comes in a glass goblet with vanilla sauce and a sprig of mint. And, apparently, a garland of daisies.
So the next time you’re time-traveling be sure and drop by the Golf Resort – just don’t try and pry the mystery behind French-Fried Ice Cream from the chefs. Only through advanced science could this have occurred – who says that EPCOT was never realized?
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By Michael - April 2nd, 2010 Ah, the Disney travel planning video.
Disney’s been sending out these little gems for years now, first on VHS videotape and now on the much more compact DVD disc. The videos themselves have changed a lot over the years; nowadays, more often than not, they center on whatever the promotion-of-the-moment is. There’s typically a very annoying host or hosts who are attempting to convince you how off-the-chain it is to go to Walt Disney World. There is focus-grouped video showing actors of every conceivable race and life situation frolicking in canted-angle, fish-eye-lensed bliss.
Occasionally – just occasionally! – they mention the parks. They rarely mention the resorts. And they never, ever mention Horizons.
Things were different in 1993, when Disney and Delta teamed up to bring us this amazing travel planner video for Walt Disney World. All your old favorites are there, including a golden-era EPCOT Center.
What’s funny is that when this video came out, I remember Beacon Joe and I ridiculing it because they chose to have guests provide on-camera testimonial about the parks, attractions, and resorts. I thought at the time that it was an obviously far more cheesy approach than the good old days of omniscient narrators, but in those pre-internet days it was as close to the classic in-room videos as we could get.
Now, of course, it’s almost charming how unpolished most of the people are. They’re not actors – fake “guest” testimonials would start appearing in later years – and they’re kind of goofy and real just like anyone you’d approach in the park and ask to be filmed.
So enjoy this little time capsule of Walt Disney World before everything changed in 1994. Pick your favorite guest commentator, and post in the comments below!
Continue reading Now THAT’S Propaganda!
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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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