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Studio Backlot Tour closing for refurbishment in September
- Thread starter wdwmagic
- Start date
erasure fan1
Well-Known Member
The tour was pretty cool back in the day but as others have said, Ive taken my last ride. Just for the heck of it, my father in-law and I went on a few years ago while we waited for the others to get out of the B&TB show. The only thing I could say when we got done was, "WOW, I cant believe how far this has fallen." The highlight for me was, at the time, (they may still have it) they had the darth vader costume from empire on display, AWESOME! If you have done the original, the current version is almost useless.
Kevin_W
Well-Known Member
This ride has a special place in my heart because I got to be the boat captain (that gets 10,000 gallons of water dumped on him) during the opening sequence on my honeymoon in 1996. I was pretty disappointed that they don't have the audience participation anymore when I visited last year.
Since1976
Well-Known Member
The cynical side of me sees the Backlot Tour as some sort of twisted experiment. As in "How much of an attraction can we keep taking away until people stop riding it?"
There may come a point where all the tram does is go out to a peaceful scene of a truck in a canyon before heading back to the gift shop -- er, museum.
There may come a point where all the tram does is go out to a peaceful scene of a truck in a canyon before heading back to the gift shop -- er, museum.
theguitarman
Member
Ya know, you might be on to something! It's hard. As a Disney fan who used to love the ride, it's nearly impossible for me to walk by it and not go on. But in doing that, I am silently saying "I accept these terrible changes". What's the solution???
lebeau
Well-Known Member
I didn't realize that had been taken away too. Wow, that's just sad.
JimboJones123
Well-Known Member
See, there is only three rides with height restrictions as well.
6 total.
Compared to DCA, this is barely ONE LAND of the park.
They need to double the rides to 12. Kill a stunt show -- or two.
RSoxNo1
Well-Known Member
Yeah, of the many complaints about DCA, the attraction lineup isn't one of them. If DHS had an attraction lineup that matched DCA it would have a higher attendance than Epcot.
AEfx
Well-Known Member
And make sure you put the emphasis on "nominally" there.
We can whip out the tired old list again, but it's always interesting to me to know how many people were actually fooled by the tour from the beginning.
MGM was *never* a "real working studio". It was illusion, it was myth, it was just a way to cheaply rip-off Universal Hollywood, to be honest (I mean, Backlot Tour? Hello! LOL).
For a couple of years there were a scant few productions that used a bit here and there, as well as the New Mickey Mouse Club, but it never was really intended to be and never was a "working" studio, which means 100's of people go to work there every day to make films.
It made no sense to begin with - I mean, who's going to sit a real movie production in the middle of a theme park complex. Not to mention, you'd have to bring in your own crew, transport them, feed them, house them - it's not like Central Florida has tons of film loaders, grips, and other below the line jobs. It would likely cost more to shoot there than anywhere else.
So yeah, a couple of dodgy TV shows and a couple of early Disney Channel things were filmed there, the latter just really as an excuse to use it for SOMETHING, but it never really was a "real working studio" - especially all the crap on the backlot tour. Although some of the props are real (although I don't believe they have any "Hero" models, but secondary ones made for production), and one or two of the old removed facade/exteriors was used (Golden Girls house was used for a few establishing shots in the final season), the rest was just built to impress tourists.
Those "hot sets" you used to go through - oh please, LOL, I used to love how they'd tell you "this courtroom is going to be in a major TV show this fall!" "Who's in it? What's it called? What network?" were questions they could never answer. The most egregious was the "amazing music video!" being filmed just as you happened to tram on by. They had a "director" out there, a crew, cameras, etc. - all actors.
You'd drive by, they'd do a little "look we are working!" show, and then as you passed they'd reset the whole thing (you could look behind you and see). And you wonder why they could never tell you what artist was filming a video. For these reasons, I'm all for dismantling the thing totally - it was never real to begin with, the illusion - even for those that had it - is gone now, and the rudimentary things they show about special effects and such are so outdated and, more importantly, aren't anything that anyone with a television doesn't know about in 2011 (OMG, you mean they film in front of a green/blue screen and it magically puts a background behind them?? OMGoosies, that's sorcery!)
TP2000
Well-Known Member
The complaints about DCA circa the Spring of 2001 were often about the attraction lineup. But after a decade of gradual fixing and expansion, in 2011, the complaints about DCA center mainly around the abundance of construction walls. :lol:
And just less than a year from now DCA will have four additional rides to choose from, on top of the already strong roster it enjoys in 2011.
Why they have left DHS to struggle for 20 years with the paltry and short list of "rides" it has is beyond me. As for the studio tour, it was long but still a bit weak 20 years ago. And now it's just embarassing, especially for anyone who has ever enjoyed the 75+ minute GlamourTram tour at Universal Studios Hollywood. That tram tour, of which the DHS version is a very pale copy, is the end-all and be-all of working movie studios tram tours.
I'm not really a Universal fan, but their tram tour in Hollywood is worth the price of admission! The DHS tram tour is worth the price of a churro.
Brenton Price
New Member
It's great to see disney taking care of older attractions and not letting them fall apart like they are prone to doing
lebeau
Well-Known Member
Given a choice, I'd take the churro.
Since1976
Well-Known Member
Those "hot sets" you used to go through - oh please, LOL, I used to love how they'd tell you "this courtroom is going to be in a major TV show this fall!" "Who's in it? What's it called? What network?" were questions they could never answer. The most egregious was the "amazing music video!" being filmed just as you happened to tram on by. They had a "director" out there, a crew, cameras, etc. - all actors.
If they're going to keep the tour around, I wish they would at least still do something like this. It would be all part of the joke, just as the Jungle Cruise hasn't been a serious tour since its very early days. The Indy Stunt show has featured actors pretending to be a second unit film crew all these years, and nobody complains about that, despite the fact it makes no sense.
pumpkin7
Well-Known Member
it was there in august.
RSoxNo1
Well-Known Member
They have added many attractions to DCA since it opened in hopes that these bandaids would solve the problem. It gave the park a decent attraction lineup but obviously didn't "Fix" the park.
As for DHS, that seems to be the approach they're taking now. I think this can be done gradually by clearly defining the lands/areas with logical boundaries.
As for Universal Studios Hollywood - I'm not a fan of the park at all. I haven't been on the Tram Tour since the new version of Kong, but it really doesn't do too much for me. Having said that, it's 10x better than DHS' equivalent.
AEfx
Well-Known Member
I agree, if they are gonna keep it, but I see no reason to keep it honestly. It's a huge waste of space.
With Indy, though that show has it's own issues, I think it's less of an annoyance there because it's all part of the storyline of the show. And a minor part. Whereas the "Backlot Tour" simply is a lie from the beginning - there is no "Backlot" that was ever really used for real, continuous filming (Oh, I'm so sorry I forgot, Bette Midler did that "Lottery" short that was only shown as part of the tour, LOL).
While one could argue similarly about Indy, the point is to see the stunts performed (and it's even in the title of the show) which actually are really happening in front of you, where the Backlot tour actually presents itself as "real", or has at times in the past. I'm not making the distinction very well in the written word, I'll have to come up with a better way to explain it...but it's just, different, LOL. It's more tongue-in-cheek at Indy, the audience is in on the joke - but as you pointed out, the Backlot Tour would be a lot more successful if it took a similar approach.
That said, I think the same thing about the Backlot Tour as I do about WoL - gut it, raze the area, failed attractions are failed attractions, no matter how long they stick around.