Seasoned Disney Vet Shocked to Learn New Things

juan

juan

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
So many of you (like me, though probably not Martin:animwink:) may have wondered a few things about DHS:

Why are the DHS arches located so far into the park?
Why are there 2 guard shacks in the park that seem just out-of-place? (1 near Star Tours, 1 near exit of GMR)
Why is the Animation queue so large?

I mainly pushed these things off as theming or holiday crowd control and nothing more.

I had been to WDW years before Disney/MGM Studios ever opened and went through the park many times a young child. We made week-long trips yearly, but spent most of the time at JII and ImageWorks:D. While my memory of the park back then wasn't super, I still remembered many things - the backstage tour with the huge bee, the animation tour with Robin Williams and Walter Cronkite, taping of shows like "Let's Make a Deal", the Soundstage Restaurant, etc.

I was doing some exploring on the internet trying to find pics of the Catwalk Bar (after reading discussion in this forum) and pics of the Soundstage Restaurant and I came across this: MGM opening map Backstage Studio Tour

I was shocked to find that the backstage tour was 2 hours long. It was only that length for a couple months and was soon split into what I remembered (and before today what I thought was the only form) as the Backstage Studio Tour and the Inside the Magic Soundstage tour.

The arches were the gateway to the "movie studio" side of the park and the long animation queue was actually used for the tram tour which began there.
The security gates were actually the edges of the park, blocking guests from going further (Star Tours wasn't open at park opening).

So those little bits of DHS scenery actually served a purpose in the past and I never knew about it until now.:eek:
 
EpcotServo

EpcotServo

Well-Known Member
Actually the security gates were added recently, they are new and serve as the transition pieces for the Backlot on the left side of the park...

The Backlot Tour was mostly so long because it included the One Man's Dream Building, All the Soundstages and Backstage Pass stuff, AND New York Street was only driven by the trams, no walking around allowed.

And I keep telling you people this stuff about Studios being great...
:lol: :lookaroun
 
juan

juan

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
EpcotServo said:
Actually the security gates were added recently, they are new and serve as the transition pieces for the Backlot on the left side of the park...

The Backlot Tour was mostly so long because it included the One Man's Dream Building, All the Soundstages and Backstage Pass stuff, AND New York Street was only driven by the trams, no walking around allowed.

And I keep telling you people this stuff about Studios being great...
:lol: :lookaroun
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure they've been around for quite a while and you can see the one by the GMR outline in red on the Studio Tour map and if you look closely you can see the one by Star Tours on the main overall map.
 
NASAMan

NASAMan

Member
Okay, this is the layout. You entered the park on Hollywood Boulevard and faced the 'weenie' at the end, the Chinese Theater. This area is all 'public' area. Shops based on real buildings in Hollywood. To the west of the theater was a large archway that was the entrance to the 'studio' The buildings here looked like and were labeled as sound stages. The studio section wrapped around the Chinese and Superstar Video theaters so, to maintain the studio theme, guard shacks indicated the border between public and studio areas. Unfortunately, as the park grew this clear delineation was altered or ignored, so the shacks may seem a little out of place.

The Backlot Tour began in the queue where the animation tour is now. (The animation tour actually goes backwards from the way it began. The first theater you enter was where you saw the final classic animation mashup.) You entered the tram which drove you through the wardrobe and soundstage building, then through the residential street (Golden Girls House, Empty Nest) and on to Catastrophe Canyon (as a working set), then through the Streets of America. You departed the tram for the second part, a walking tour that took you to the water tank, special effects unit, and then you walked down the catwalk above the sound stages where you could watch shows actually filming (the catwalks are still there, but inaccessible to guests). It was a long tour, but when the park opened the biggest rides were the Great Movie Ride and Star Tours so there was plenty of time to do it, and you saw real filming and possibly a star.

One other item that is now missing is the world's largest Hidden Mickey. It was located in front of the Chinese theater: Echo Lake was one ear, the other ear is where the Brown Derby currently sits.
 
kcnole

kcnole

Well-Known Member
The concept of DHS was fantastic when it opened. Unfortunately the concept of Orlando becoming the next Hollywood just never panned out. Certainly, every now and then Universal gets some really little thing to record there, but major things dried up for a number of reasons. After the actual filming left the park (and especially as things started to be more CGI based) the idea of demonstrating actual filming proved to be too difficult and so the park became more of a typical theme park.

Unfortunately no unifying theme has ever come about and so MGM/DHS has become a muddled mess of attractions that have no real connection. I think the best route to go is the idea I've heard of breaking the park into smaller lands themed to various studios. Have the Pixar Studios, The Lucas Film Studios, etc... and then the Hollywood that never was and you'll be ok.
 
marni1971

marni1971

Park History nut
Premium Member
Actually the security gates were added recently, they are new and serve as the transition pieces for the Backlot on the left side of the park...
Click to expand...
Not quite - they`ve been there a very long time. They had flatscreens added instead of CRTs recently.
 
EpcotServo

EpcotServo

Well-Known Member
marni1971 said:
Not quite - they`ve been there a very long time. They had flatscreens added instead of CRTs recently.
Click to expand...

I demand photographic proof!


Not that I may be right-I just remember VERY vividly those areas being walled off and those being built from the ground up.

EPCOT Explorer said:
*sigh*


Delicate theming, and no one knows it's there.
Click to expand...

Just because YOU didn't know it was there doesn't mean other people don't. I don't like how this forum is so quick to assume everyone in the world can't possibly get everything. It's kind of a bold accusation.
:dazzle: :brick: :lol:
 
EpcotServo

EpcotServo

Well-Known Member
SirGoofy said:
I don't want to speak for Martin, but I've remembered them as long as I've been going to the parks.:shrug:
Click to expand...

Oh, I'm open to the idea.

This is a case of wanting to prove my rememberies wrong-If I'm gonna' be wrong I at least want no doubt left in mind. I want to be rightly wrong.
:lol:
 
EPCOT Explorer

EPCOT Explorer

New Member
kcnole said:
The concept of DHS was fantastic when it opened. Unfortunately the concept of Orlando becoming the next Hollywood just never panned out. Certainly, every now and then Universal gets some really little thing to record there, but major things dried up for a number of reasons. After the actual filming left the park (and especially as things started to be more CGI based) the idea of demonstrating actual filming proved to be too difficult and so the park became more of a typical theme park.

Unfortunately no unifying theme has ever come about and so MGM/DHS has become a muddled mess of attractions that have no real connection. I think the best route to go is the idea I've heard of breaking the park into smaller lands themed to various studios. Have the Pixar Studios, The Lucas Film Studios, etc... and then the Hollywood that never was and you'll be ok.
Click to expand...

:sohappy: EXACTLY my thoughts on the whole MGM/DHS debacle. It's too complex right now...and not in a good way. It needs to be more defined.
 
Maryssa*

Maryssa*

Well-Known Member
The backstage tour started with a walking part first and then went to the trams and the rest, right? I remember waiting in that huuuuuuge line next to Animation and starting out with the boat effect stuff. I remember there being a "break" in between parts at that Roger Rabbit store and then we got on the trams. I was also one of the lucky few kids who got to ride the bee (with my brother), but I don't remember when the heck that was on the tour!
 
Rob562

Rob562

Well-Known Member
Maryssa* said:
The backstage tour started with a walking part first and then went to the trams and the rest, right? I remember waiting in that huuuuuuge line next to Animation and starting out with the boat effect stuff. I remember there being a "break" in between parts at that Roger Rabbit store and then we got on the trams. I was also one of the lucky few kids who got to ride the bee (with my brother), but I don't remember when the heck that was on the tour!
Click to expand...

Depends on when you first visited. In the VERY first version of the tour, it was as NASAMan described... It was one giant tour, starting with the tram, then with a "pitstop" in the middle for restrooms and food if you wanted (thus the existence of the counter service location by the HISTK playground), then you continued with the walking tour, which started with the water tank.

Oh, and the green screen HISTK flying bee scene was one of the stops just after the water tank on the walking tour.


When they opened part of the park up to foot traffic and split the tour into two separate parts, they *suggested* you do the tram first and then the walking tour, but there was nothing stopping people from doing it in "reverse" order. Eventually in the mid-to-late 90's they relocated the tram load point from the Animation courtyard to where it is today, and made the water tank the first part of the tram tour. The remainder of the original walking tour still existed for a few years as "Backstage Pass", but its entrance was more of a temporary thing between Soundstage 1 and the building where the green screen effects were shown. (Diagonally across from the "squirting Coke Bottle" near the tram tour entrance)

-Rob
 
EPCOT Explorer

EPCOT Explorer

New Member
EpcotServo said:
Just because YOU didn't know it was there doesn't mean other people don't. I don't like how this forum is so quick to assume everyone in the world can't possibly get everything. It's kind of a bold accusation.
:dazzle: :brick: :lol:
Click to expand...

Honestly, though, Servo...Where is this written? Told about? Published?! I had never heard of it until you spoke of it, and I've done my share of reading.:shrug:
 

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