When Disney-MGM Studios opened up in 1989, it wasn’t just a theme park: it was also a brand-new, world-class production center geared towards making Orlando, Florida into “Hollywood East”. By no coincidence down the road, Universal was also erecting their own combination of theme park and production facility… however, today in 2017 the soundstages at Universal Studios Florida are still in use every now and then. Yet, in the now Disney’s Hollywood Studios not a whiff of non-park-focused production occurs… in fact, the entire backlot has been wiped out entirely. So what happened?
Let’s start out by examining the layout of the park from May 1989. Guests would explore two areas: the theme park, and the backlot. The park portion consisted of Hollywood Boulevard, Echo Lake and The Great Movie Ride, with New York Street blocked off from guest access. To the right of the Chinese Theater sat the gates to the Disney-MGM Studios, and from there guests could do one of two facility tour attractions. One was the massive, two-hour long Backstage Studio Tour, consisting of a tram tour and walking tour through the production studio; the other being The Magic of Disney Animation, a tour of the adjacent Walt Disney Feature Animation production wing.
Both facilities were established before the park opened, and helped produce films such as “Ernest Saves Christmas” and “Splash Too”, while at the animation studio they were assigning post-production to “Oliver and Company” and “The Little Mermaid.” Eisner even had films made all around the backlot to show both to guests and as an advertisement to those who may be seeking to film at Disney-MGM Studios. Most notably is “The Lottery”, a short film starring Bette Midler set on the New York Street backlot. Interest was mild at first, but the company hoped that once the theme park opened it would see a surge of activity.
However, Disney made a fatal mistake: they took their voyeuristic concept a bit too far. Much like Universal Studios in Hollywood, Disney wanted guests to be immersed in the world of movie making down to being on the sets themselves. Universal did not allow viewing of the actual production process, whereas Disney sought to capture it. In the soundstages and animation facility they installed “fish bowl” windows, soundproof but visible either way. Guests could literally peer into actual production occurring on a daily basis. In a naescant, naive line of thinking, Disney assumed that this would increase the appetite for production companies. They thought that the production would lend itself to a form of free advertising for the shows and movies.
However, the companies saw an enormous red flag instead: the entire cast and crew had to sign waivers acknowledging tourists watching their every move in the rafters above. Suddenly anything being filmed not only had to be family friendly, but the set had to remain the same as well… not to mention abstaining from any sort of privacy that a locked soundstage might have. Shows and movies previously untethered from the threat of spoilers could blast their secrets right to John MacFarkle from Minnesota!
Disney saw most production hopes tank, along with the backlot as well, which had unforunate issues with the massive tram route blocking most production as well. Guests to Disney-MGM Studios in the opening weekend recalled faux production actually occurring on New York Street to butter the idea up to the eager media. They quickly resorted to utilizing the production for their own means, as “The New Mickey Mouse Club” took residence in the soundstages along with many other Disney Channel shows. The cult hit film “Newsies” used New York Street and some soundstages.
Yet beyond a post-production facility and a short-lived partnership with World Championship Wrestling, Disney-MGM Studios could not find nearly the same success as Hollywood studios did in attracting clients. As the theme park grew, the backlot and production facility started to wilt. Fortunately, the animation studio prospered with the Disney animation renassiance in full-force. Eisner expanded the output of Disney’s animation to one film per year, and Florida was there to help. Beyond assissting in various productions, it also fully produced three WDFA features: “Mulan”, “Lilo and Stitch” and “Brother Bear”.
Meanwhile, the backlot tour bifurcated its walking tour portion into “Backstage Magic”, which eventually got rid of the soundstages altogether. Instead, they were turned into show theaters for “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire — Play It!”, which ironically did happened to shoot numerous episodes of the game show right on property at certain points of its tenure. The fish bowls were removed and shuttered. After the Millionaire attraction ran its course, two of the three soundstages were converted into “Toy Story Midway Mania”, officially becoming show buildings for the attraction.
Meanwhile, the backlot lost almost all of its production. New York Street became a part of the theme park, and Residential Street was removed for the “Lights, Motors, Action” stunt show. All post-production facilities found themselves vacant as the costuming department that the tram drove through only worked directly for the park’s cast members. By the time the tour closed in 2014, it was a hallow shell of its former self: narrated via pre-taped audio, barely over twenty minutes long and mostly a trip to Catastrophe Canyon. Any element of production was merely an artifact of a former time.
Despite having produced “Brother Bear”, the animation facility also found itself in trouble due to the studio’s flagging box office receipts in regards to their animated features. In 2004, following the announcement of the death of traditional animation at Disney, Eisner shut down Walt Disney Feature Animation Florida. As a result, the offices and fish bowls were removed in favor of an attraction that more resembled the animation pavilion at Disney’s California Adventure.
One last grasp was made surprisingly within the theme park itself, as the radio studio behind “Sounds Dangerous” became the hub for “Radio Disney” in the mid-to-late 2000s, but was vacated sometime around 2010.
Seven years later and both animation and production facilities have been completely removed from the park as it heads in a new direction. In the former animation studio resides the “Star Wars Launch Bay” exhibit, and soon the land in which the backlot once sat will become the home to a Star Wars-themed land and Toy Story Land in the near future. Along with it comes the ultimate slight against the park’s once noble intentions: a name change that removes the term “Studios”.
It’s only natural that this would have occurred even without the mistakes Disney made. We can create films with our phones and cameras at affordable rates, with editing software available on any device. DVDs and the internet have brought the magic of special effects and movie making straight to our homes via featurettes. No longer is an infatuation with filmmaking a bedrock of tourist traffic, and Disney’s Hollywood Studios is better off without mining that angle. Exploring the golden age of Hollywood and being immersed in the world of the movies is a perfect formula for the future of the park going forward. As for filming them, well, that’s a wrap!
Traveling Salesman is a Columnist for the Boardwalk Times.
