News

• Disneyland re-opening guidelines:

• No indoor queues
• Virtual queue system encouraged
• Thanks to our friend Brady MacDonald over at the OC Register
  

• Magic Kingdom is testing facial recognition for entry.
• WDW park hours for April extended

• We’re starting to hear about Food & Bev and other CMs getting calls back
• I’d be surprised if late summer wasn’t normal-ish
• I’d put the odds of Halloween and Christmas parties at 75% and 90% at this point.

• What’s going on with Walt Disney Imagineering?

And this is important because Disney is surveying the heck out of people with questions like this:

Boda Borg - “questing” - LARPing

Pokemon Go

Teamlab Borderless - art installation?

Meow Wolf - immersive art

Camp

Thanks to Bruce and Becky and Sam and Timothy and everyone else who sent this in.

Listener Questions

From Edy in Manchester:

Hope this finds you as well as we can be in this time that I wish I'd copyrighted the word 'unprecedented.'

My family and I have rebooked our trip to Florida to June 2022 and I was wondering if you or Jim have any idea whether the Guardians of the Galaxy Rollercoaster or the Tron Coaster will be open by then?

The announcement of Ratatouille in October this year despite being more or less ready now doesn't fill me with lots of confidence that they will open the new rides in time for our vacation, especially Cosmic Rewind if there's a chance it'll be a shiny new addition for Epcot's 40th anniversary.

I'm also from Manchester UK and here accordingly is how I describe my meal plan for a day:

Breakfast

Tea break (or elevenses but that's mostly from Lord of the Rings)

Lunch (but at school it would be dinner, because you have a dinner lady not a lunch lady)

Tea

Hope this helps

From Andrew:

Hey Jim and Len!

My grandfather, John, was a high school football coach in Daytona Beach during the late 60s', early 70s'. He got to go to the Magic Kingdom the year it opened.

My grandfather tells the story that one of his trips that year, he was actually got stuck, with all the other guests, inside the Magic Kingdom. He tells that on this day the monorail was offline because I think lightning, there were white caps on the lagoon so the ferriers couldn't go, and the road that goes between the TTC and the Contemporary was flooded in the section of road that dips under the lagoon so trams couldn't go either. I have no idea if you heard this story, but he claims this is the only time it ever happened.

Also, tying this in to the Tower of Terror, he went to MGM studios one night when it was raining and he did the then new attraction, not knowing what it was. He road the Tower of Terror and seriously thought it was a motion simulator. The next day, they came back to the park and heard screaming and realize Tower of Terror was a drop and said, "Holy Cow! I did that?"

Len says: Flooding definitely happened between 1971 and 1975.  
2004 thesis at FSU by William Hightower mentions (p. 38) Army Corp of Engineers study in 1976 of flood hazard analysis for the Reedy Creek Improvement District.

Patents

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE-BASED ROLEPLAYING EXPERIENCES BASED ON USER-SELECTED SCENARIOS

Twilight Zone Tower of Terror

Twilight Zone Tower of Terror

Fourth of Five Installments

Okay. On the last episode of “Disney Dish,” Jim and I talked about how -- when Michael Eisner came through the door at Walt Disney Productions in late September of 1984 -- one of his initial goals was to seriously wrap up production at the Studios. Michael’s goal here was to have Touchstone Studios start producing 10 - 12 films for adults per year and have Walt Disney Studios begin churning out 3 - 4 family films per year.

One of the ways that Disney could ramp up production was by -- of course -- building some new soundstages in Florida at the MGM Studios theme park and begin filming some movies there. But there were other, quicker ways to get new films for adults in Disney’s distribution pipeline. And that was by signing a deal with an already pre-existing production company.

Michael Eisner goes after Mel Brooks’ production company

And as he was initially setting up shop at Disney in late 1984 / early 1985, Eisner had one particular production company in mind. Which was Brookfilms. Mel Brooks had established this production company back in early 1980 because he wanted to expand his creative output beyond broad comedies like “Blazing Saddles” & “Young Frankenstein.”

Eisner was aware of Brookfilms because that production company’s very first serious drama, David Lynch’s “The Elephant Man,” had been released by Paramount Pictures while Michael had been President & CEO of that Studios (Prior to his arrival at Disney, Eisner had been head of Paramount Pictures from 1976 - 1984).

And David Lynch’s “The Elephant Man” had been what people in the Industry call a prestige picture. It may not have done great box office (only $26 million in domestic ticket sales off of a production budget of just $5 million). But it had racked up eight Academy Award nominations, including ones for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Actor.

And Eisner … He wanted Disney (who -- let’s remember -- when Michael came through the door at Disney in September of 1984, of the eight studios that were operating in Hollywood at that time, Disney was dead last. Eighth out of eight) … Eisner wanted Disney to be taken seriously by all of the talent agencies in town so he could then persuade big-name stars & celebrities to start appearing in movies for the Mouse House. And a few Academy Award nominations would go a long way towards making that dream happen.

Worth noting: Eisner really liked working with live geniuses. Which explains the Jim Henson acquisition deal of September of 1989. This is also why Michael wanted Mel on the Disney Lot.

Brooksfilms already under contract with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer & 20th Century Fox

The only problem is … Brooksfilms now already has pre-existing deals with Metro-Goldwyn Mayer and 20th Century Fox. Mel has already promised to deliver a series of movies to both of those studios. Remember David Cronenberg’s “The Fly” back in August of 1986? That was a Brooksfilms production that Mel then released through 20th Century Fox. Which means that Disney now owns that movie.

So Eisner needed an angle, at least when it came to finding a way to get Mel Brooks to come work for Disney Studios. And that angle arrived in the Winter of 1987 / 1988 when Disney shot “Big Business” on the Burbank Lot.

I don’t know how many of you remember this Jim Abrahams comedy (which starred Lily Tomlin & Bette Midler. Who played two sets of identical twins who’d been accidentally swapped at birth). But the primary setting for this film farce was the Plaza Hotel in New York City.

Disney tried to get permission to shoot at the actual Plaza Hotel at the edge of Central Park. But because that property was up for sale at that time (Donald Trump would eventually purchase the Plaza in March of 1988 for upwards of $400 million. Some eight years later, Trump would wash his hands of this legendary hotel, reportedly taking a $90 million loss on the property) … The owners of the Plaza Hotel wouldn’t allow Disney to shoot on site at that time.

Eisner wants to reuse “Big Business” set, which is still standing on Disney Lot

Disney’s solution was to build -- at great expense -- a full-sized replica of the lobby of the Plaza Hotel on one of the soundstages on the Disney Lot. But once production of “Big Business” was complete in early 1988, Eisner just couldn’t bring himself to tear down this beautiful (more importantly, expensive to build) standing set.

Which then gave Michael an excuse to call Mel. Eisner asked Brooks to come to lunch on the Disney Lot because he had a problem. After lunch in the executive dining room, Michael walked Mel over to the soundstage from “Big Business” ‘s lobby-of-the-Plaza-Hotel set was still standing. Eisner then turned to Brooks and said “If you had this set available to work with, what would you do with it?”

Looking at this beautiful enormous set, Mel immediately began talking about how he’d use it for a TV show. Some sort of spoof of “Grand Hotel” where crazy guests would continually pour through the revolving door and the staff of the hotel would then be forced to deal with them.

Eisner loved this idea and immediately invited Brooks to produce just such a TV show for Disney. Which is where “The Nutt House” (which aired on NBC from September - October 1989) came from.

And now that Mel had an office on the Disney Lot starting in mid-1988 as Brooksfilm worked on getting “The Nutt House” up out of the ground / in front of the cameras, Eisner then began his effort to recruit Brooks. Get Mel to move his Brooksfilms production company to Disney. Stop moving movies for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer & 20th Century Fox and start pumping out pictures for the Mouse House.

Eisner tries to entice Brooks to sign with Disney by offering him a theme park ride to design

And the beauty of Disney was … Well, when you worked for the Mouse, you weren’t just limited to movies or television. You also had the theme parks.

And because Eisner was now looking to get Brooksfilm to set up shop at Disney, this is what Michael now dangled in front of Mel. How would you like to help the Imagineers design something for the Parks?

Back to Disney-MGM Studios theme park now. Which is a full year out from opening at this point. The Imagineer feel like -- what with the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular -- that this theme park addresses action-adventure films. Likewise with Star Tours, Disney-MGM addresses science-fiction films. And the Magic of Disney Animation -- of course -- addresses animated features.

But there are whole other genres of films that Disney-MGM doesn’t touch on. Not yet, anyway. Two of them being horror movies and mystery films.

The Imagineers initially hoped to address this with a project for Phase II of Disney-MGM. A massive show complex that was to have housed two sit-down attractions, “The Creatures Choice Awards” and “Ghost Writer.”

There’s now actually a lot of info available on “The Creatures Choice Awards”

If you want to learn more about “The Creature Choice Awards” -- which was to have been hosted by an Audio Animatronic version of Eddie Murphy that was supposed to look like Frankenstein’s monster as well as the horror movie hostess, Elvira -- I’d advise you to pick up a copy of Kevin Rafferty’s “Magic Journeys.” Which features select storyboards from the show. Including one that shows Godzilla lumbering through the parking lot at Epcot Center as this kaiju heads for Disney-MGM Studios to pick up his lifetime achievement award.

“Ghost Writer” is maybe the more intriguing of these two shows. It was to have been a tribute to the films noire of the 1940s / 1950s. Done mostly using Pepper Ghost effects as a mystery writer was constantly bothered by the characters from his next book.

Eisner wasn’t entirely convinced that these two shows (which were to have been housed in a large show complex approximately where Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster now stands today. This was going to be a very expensive proposition. Then factor in that Eddie Murphy was on something of a cold streak at the time, first with “The Golden Child” & then “Harlem Nights.” And the thinking was that maybe building a multi-million dollar attraction around this comedic actor was not a great idea. At this time, anyway.

Which meant that Disney-MGM still didn’t have a horror-themed attraction. Which is when the Imagineers began talking with Mel about maybe doing something with “Young Frankenstein.” Which 20th Century Fox had released to theaters back in December of 1974.

The Imagineers did some drawings of an elaborate complex that would have had a Transylvania Village at the base of Castle Frankenstein (if you’ve seen the proposed footprint for the Universal Classic Monsters Land over at Epic Universe, these two projects have a lot of the same elements). The village was to have acted as the queue, while the attraction itself was to have been housed inside of Castle Frankenstein and the Lab space inside of that show building.

Doing a “Young Frankenstein” ride wasn’t ultimately going to be doable

Mel eventually nixed that idea. Largely because he had written “Young Frankenstein” as a collaboration with Gene Wilder. And those two were now on the outs for some reason (Something about a follow-up to “Young Frankenstein” where Gene Wilder was supposed to have played Dr. Henry Jekyll & Mel Brooks was then supposed to have played Mr. Hyde. Script never came together. Partnership soured). Since Mel would have had to go to Gene and get him to sign off on the theme park rights to “Young Frankenstein,” that was now not going to happen.

It was at this point that things made kind of a hard right turn. Mel was then asked to do his own take on the “Creature Choice Awards.” And since Brooks was a gag man from way back … Well, he didn’t want to do a sit-down awards show. He wanted an attraction where you experience gag after gag after gag. Sort of like the Haunted Mansion, only with Mel Brooks-inspired vignettes.

And Mel was also very specific about wanting a ride -- a space that you traveled through -- which is where Hotel Mel came from. With the idea that you were there for the big Monsters Awards show, which was going to be held in the hotel’s grand ballroom. But before you got to this attraction’s big FX scene at the end (the actual ballroom where the awards ceremony was being staged. Which was supposed to be on the size & the scale of the post-attic graveyard scene in The Haunted Mansion), you first had to travel through the rest of the hotel.

“Hotel Mel” was to have borrowed an idea that had been recently tested at DL’s Haunted Mansion

What would have made this ride different from the rest? Live performers that were interspersed along the ride track, jumping out & surprising guests. First tried in the Endless Hallway back in the Summer of 1985 at Disneyland Park. Cast Member in a suit of armor jumped out at every third car.

Side Note: This is where the live cast members in “The Great Movie Ride” idea came from. Something that the Imagineers were very excited about back in the mid-1980s.

Anyway … What Mel was proposing was very expensive. Then there was the fact that Brooks’ most recent comedies -- “The History of the World: Part I” from June of 1981, “To Be or Not to Be” from December of 1983, and then “Spaceballs” from June of 1987 had all under-performed at the box office / had gotten fairly brutal review from the critics -- the concern at WDI was that maybe Mel had lost his comic touch.

This became painfully clear as the Imagineers dropped by the set of “The Nutt House” in 1988 and saw the very unfunny sitcom that Mel & his team were staging on the old “Big Business” set.

“Big Business” set eventually does make its way to Disney-MGM Studios theme park

It was about this same time that Michael gave up on the idea of pursuing Mel / getting him to move his Brooksfilm production office to the Disney Lot. And as for finding a way to make the most of that Plaza Hotel set … How many of you remember the Soundstage Restaurant at Disney-MGM Studios? Just downstairs from the Catwalk Bar? Where you could eat at that quick service restaurant was in fact the old “Big Business” lobby set (which -- in ensuing years -- got redressed as the Beast’s castle and then the Cave of Wonders from Disney’s “Aladdin”).

Back now to the early days of Disney-MGM … Especially when this theme park had a huge capacity problem. Remember how the budget for Sunset Boulevard had been basically cut in half? And the Imagineers had only $175 million to build a street full of authentic shops & restaurants from the heyday of Hollywood AND some sort of giant thrill ride at the end of Sunset Boulevard (which would then compel people to walk to the end of that street past all of those shops & restaurants and then maybe do a little dining & shopping on their way back to Hollywood Boulevard).

To be blunt, at this point, Michael Eisner was tired of dealing with a living genius (i.e., Mel Brooks). Eisner -- when it came to the Tower of Terror -- was looking to now work with someone who’d be easier to work with. Who’d do a whole lot less talking than Mel Brooks.

Which is when Rod Serling -- the creator of “The Twilight Zone” (who died back in June of 1975) -- comes into the picture.

Sorry. We’re going to need one last installment to wrap up this series. Which will then get into how “Twilight Zone Tower of Terror” then became Disney’s first reprogrammable thrill ride.