FROM ORLANDO SENTINEL:
Disney is pulling the plug on the Osborne family lights -- at least for this Christmas.
It's razing the Disney-MGM Studios movie set of phony houses where the Osborne Family Spectacle of Lights has burned every holiday season since 1995 and will replace it with an arena for a new stunt show.
But patriarch Jennings Osborne, who moved his family's 2 million lights to Orlando from Little Rock, Ark., after his neighbors complained, said the popular display isn't going away for good.
"We're going to take a year off," he said Monday from the offices of his Little Rock drug-testing company.
When the display returns in 2004, he said, "we're moving to New York Street," the backlot set near Jim Henson's Muppet-Vision 3-D.
Disney added 3 million lights to Osborne's original display when it moved it from Little Rock, and "we're just going to add a million" when it moves to New York Street, he said.
"We're just going to cover everything down there," he said. "We're excited about it."
Disney spokesman Gary Buchanan on Monday wouldn't confirm plans to relocate the display but said, "We continue to work with Jennings on the future of the Osborne Family Spectacle of Lights."
"We're glad to hear he's still thinking big,"Buchanan said.
Disney-MGM closed the 760-foot residential street set after the park closed on June 29, he said.
Part of the studio's backstage tour, the tree-lined street featured eight facades, empty shells designed to look like sturdy houses on camera. One of the facades was used on the TV show The Golden Girls, while another appeared on Empty Nest.
Closing the street hasn't affected other parts of the studio tour, such as the Catastrophe Canyon special effects show, Buchanan said.
Rumors circulating in recent weeks on the Internet have the park replacing the residential street with a car-stunt show similar to one at Walt Disney Studios Park in Paris.
Buchanan wouldn't discuss the rumors, but said the proposed show, which is scheduled to open in 2005, would be "an E-ticket stunt-show attraction." Under Disney's old lettered ticketing program, an E-ticket designated a top ride.
Whatever the park's plans, they apparently don't conflict with Disney-MGM's existing stunt show, the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular, which features fights and chases based on Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Buchanan said the park has no plans to change the Indiana Jones show.
Disney is pulling the plug on the Osborne family lights -- at least for this Christmas.
It's razing the Disney-MGM Studios movie set of phony houses where the Osborne Family Spectacle of Lights has burned every holiday season since 1995 and will replace it with an arena for a new stunt show.
But patriarch Jennings Osborne, who moved his family's 2 million lights to Orlando from Little Rock, Ark., after his neighbors complained, said the popular display isn't going away for good.
"We're going to take a year off," he said Monday from the offices of his Little Rock drug-testing company.
When the display returns in 2004, he said, "we're moving to New York Street," the backlot set near Jim Henson's Muppet-Vision 3-D.
Disney added 3 million lights to Osborne's original display when it moved it from Little Rock, and "we're just going to add a million" when it moves to New York Street, he said.
"We're just going to cover everything down there," he said. "We're excited about it."
Disney spokesman Gary Buchanan on Monday wouldn't confirm plans to relocate the display but said, "We continue to work with Jennings on the future of the Osborne Family Spectacle of Lights."
"We're glad to hear he's still thinking big,"Buchanan said.
Disney-MGM closed the 760-foot residential street set after the park closed on June 29, he said.
Part of the studio's backstage tour, the tree-lined street featured eight facades, empty shells designed to look like sturdy houses on camera. One of the facades was used on the TV show The Golden Girls, while another appeared on Empty Nest.
Closing the street hasn't affected other parts of the studio tour, such as the Catastrophe Canyon special effects show, Buchanan said.
Rumors circulating in recent weeks on the Internet have the park replacing the residential street with a car-stunt show similar to one at Walt Disney Studios Park in Paris.
Buchanan wouldn't discuss the rumors, but said the proposed show, which is scheduled to open in 2005, would be "an E-ticket stunt-show attraction." Under Disney's old lettered ticketing program, an E-ticket designated a top ride.
Whatever the park's plans, they apparently don't conflict with Disney-MGM's existing stunt show, the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular, which features fights and chases based on Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Buchanan said the park has no plans to change the Indiana Jones show.
