Was removing the backlot tour a mistake?

[Retroman40]

Thank you... yes, I remember that in the corridor now. I remember the BT helicopter I was just questioning the validity of saying that the show was underrated.

Are we talking about the same thing? I'm referring to the 1983 John Badham movie (starring three of my favorite actors; Roy Schieder, Malcolm McDowell and Warren Oates) or the short lived 1984 TV series? If we're talking the TV series I understand; if we're talking the movie, well not so much and I'll stand by my feelings it never got the love it deserved.

As far as the Delta Jet, I can't remember exactly when it "disappeared" for good. I have a video from the ride taken in 95 and it's there.

 

[Goofyernmost]

Are we talking about the same thing? I'm referring to the 1983 John Badham movie (starring three of my favorite actors; Roy Schieder, Malcolm McDowell and Warren Oates) or the short lived 1984 TV series? If we're talking the TV series I understand; if we're talking the movie, well not so much and I'll stand by my feelings it never got the love it deserved.

As far as the Delta Jet, I can't remember exactly when it "disappeared" for good. I have a video from the ride taken in 95 and it's there.

OK, I kind of stand corrected, because I was talking about the TV series. I cannot make a judgment on the movie because I have never seen it. I will go with your opinion on that one.

I have also been told by Marni where the plane was located and once he said it, the file in my brain opened up and I do now remember it being in the costuming corridor during the tram tour.

 

[marni1971]

OK, I kind of stand corrected, because I was talking about the TV series. I cannot make a judgment on the movie because I have never seen it. I will go with your opinion on that one.
.

The tv series was.... of its time. The movie is a personal childhood favourite of mine

 

[powderehss]

MGM itself has had quite some awful facelifts in my opinion. I only got to ride the Backlot once but it seemed pretty neat for a gimmicky thing. I was more enthralled at seeing the props and costumes on display than anything.
If only I had been born a few years earlier, I probably could've experienced things like the Roger Rabbit play area and seen the Dipmobile!

Not to mention that cool tour I heard they had where you walked over a film set in a glass tunnel and could see commercials being filmed!
I'm especially miffed about the RR stuff being taken out of MGM. (At least they still have some stuff still lingering around, but it's still very subtle)

Not to mention they also got rid of the Honey I Shrunk The Kids play area that me and my sis used to play around in as little kids back in May...! Well I suppose it was kind of dated by now... Thankfully we got to take one last walk around it on our March trip. Sigh. I'll miss the big sniffy dog nose and the big blades of grass and tinker toy structures... Well at least there's It's Tough To Be A Bug at AK and even A Bug's Land over in California Adventure.

 

[Goofyernmost]

MGM itself has had quite some awful facelifts in my opinion. I only got to ride the Backlot once but it seemed pretty neat for a gimmicky thing. I was more enthralled at seeing the props and costumes on display than anything.
If only I had been born a few years earlier, I probably could've experienced things like the Roger Rabbit play area and seen the Dipmobile!

Not to mention that cool tour I heard they had where you walked over a film set in a glass tunnel and could see commercials being filmed!
I'm especially miffed about the RR stuff being taken out of MGM. (At least they still have some stuff still lingering around, but it's still very subtle)

Not to mention they also got rid of the Honey I Shrunk The Kids play area that me and my sis used to play around in as little kids back in May...! Well I suppose it was kind of dated by now... Thankfully we got to take one last walk around it on our March trip. Sigh. I'll miss the big sniffy dog nose and the big blades of grass and tinker toy structures... Well at least there's It's Tough To Be A Bug at AK and even A Bug's Land over in California Adventure.

To be honest, the catwalk observation area (glass tunnel) looked down mostly on empty sets. The New Mickey Mouse Club was filmed there and so was Star Search I believe, among other things. But, unless you were really lucky with your timing mostly you just saw the sets. It was still fun to look at and the interactive stuff after was fun as well.

Not sure that very much, if anything, still remains of RR.

You seem kind of young to be hanging onto the MGM identity. It has been DHS for a long time now.

 

[EOD K9]

I still call it MGM but I've accepted reality.

 

[Brad Bishop]

I think removing the whole Streets of America was a mistake.

I disagree. It was a dead area. Dead to the studios and dead to the guests. There was no filming happening there (only one Bette Midler film was actually shot there). It was just this weird "why is this here" thing.. with nothing to do (unless you think buying popcorn and a drink from a vendor is something to do).

Main Street at the MK is cool. There are shops you can look in, parades, vendors walking the street, entertainers walking the street, etc. It's a very vibrant area. You don't stand on Main Street and wonder, "Why is this here?"

 

[Matt_Black]

It was just this weird "why is this here" thing.. with nothing to do

There was the Gene Kelly Umbrella, with a little button to make it rain!

 

[The Empress Lilly]

It was just this weird "why is this here" thing.. with nothing to do (unless you think buying popcorn and a drink from a vendor is something to do).

Buying a coffee and walking around is very much something to do for me, something I love doing at WDW.

I missed my SoA already.

 

[Adam Snider]

Nope, The attraction became a shell of its former self The fact is DHS stopped being a working studio years ago. Back in the 1990's, filming was happening at DHS for stuff like WCW tapings that included Monday Nitro.

The working production/filming element of the park was something Disney got a rid of around 2003.

Not trying to sound sarcastic but it seems the park is all over the place. After 2003, what is the park about? Like what kind of theming are they trying to go for?

 

[righttrack]

The real mistake was allowing it to become a shell of its former self.

This was simply a matter of not putting any time, money, or effort into an attraction and removing it because it became so ridiculous, no one would care if it's gone anyway.

A GOOD backlot tour would still work, but it requires maintenance and new ideas to be incorporated over time. Not a "set it and forget it" mindset that current management can't seem to get away from.

Bingo. It could have really been something had they kept things up, but yes, it became a shadow of it's former self because there's no real backlot, only fantasy. I think ultimately that decision, to pull the plug on productions in Orlando was the death knell. The past fifteen years have pretty much been the last gasp.

 

[mergatroid]

[QUOTE="rob0519, post: 7452089, member: 70246"]In my opinion the Stunt Show was the biggest waste of space ever. The walk to get to it was exhaustive and the show itself didn't really impress me, but a lot of people seemed to like it or used it as a time waster, I really don't know.

The Toy Story Land is obviously being used to lure families with small children to the park. There really isn't much there for the younger k
ids and something is needed in the park to lure families away from the over crowded MK. Maybe it won't be mediocre. No way tell for sure until it's finished[/QUOTE]

I actually loved LMA stunt show. As well as the driving being exciting to watch I personally thought it actually kept with the concept of showing you how movies were made. Ok the show wasn't an exact explanation of every stunt performed in real movies but did an entertaining job of showing you the basics just like Indiana Jones does. We'd visit the show each year several times and personally I'm sorry to see it go, it gets a lot of hate on here and I've never really understood why.

 

[Goofyernmost]

[QUOTE="rob0519, post: 7452089, member: 70246"]In my opinion the Stunt Show was the biggest waste of space ever. The walk to get to it was exhaustive and the show itself didn't really impress me, but a lot of people seemed to like it or used it as a time waster, I really don't know.

The Toy Story Land is obviously being used to lure families with small children to the park. There really isn't much there for the younger k
ids and something is needed in the park to lure families away from the over crowded MK. Maybe it won't be mediocre. No way tell for sure until it's finished

I actually loved LMA stunt show. As well as the driving being exciting to watch I personally thought it actually kept with the concept of showing you how movies were made. Ok the show wasn't an exact explanation of every stunt performed in real movies but did an entertaining job of showing you the basics just like Indiana Jones does. We'd visit the show each year several times and personally I'm sorry to see it go, it gets a lot of hate on here and I've never really understood why.

It's probably way below the social status of most of the Disney Guests. That's redneck stuff right there!

 

[Bairstow]

I disagree. It was a dead area. Dead to the studios and dead to the guests. There was no filming happening there (only one Bette Midler film was actually shot there). It was just this weird "why is this here" thing.. with nothing to do (unless you think buying popcorn and a drink from a vendor is something to do).

They filmed a paintball game there.
Once.

 

[mergatroid]

It's probably way below the social status of most of the Disney Guests. That's redneck stuff right there!

And yet it seemed packed out every time I went, maybe it was redkneck day each time I attended, yeehaw

 

[Goofyernmost]

And yet it seemed packed out every time I went, maybe it was redkneck day each time I attended, yeehaw

Let's be truthful here. It is gone partially because it was an extremely expensive show to produce when weighed against the number of people going to it. I enjoyed it as well, but, it wasn't running anywhere near the number of shows that it once did and even though I had gone to it just about every trip I don't remember when the last time was that that grandstand was full. That show had remove stamped all over it from the beginning. They kept it long enough to cost it out, depreciation wise, and now it is history. I thought that to be very predicable from the very beginning.

 

[Captain Hank]

Out of curiosity, what happened to the prop warehouse? And is the costume and design studio still there? That was my favorite part of the tour was to go through the Disney studio.

Not sure what happened to the props, but Creative Costuming moved to a backstage area elsewhere on property.

 

[EOD K9]

I think when MGM (back then) was a working and quasi working studio, the BLT made sense and fit the theme. Now that things are changing, removing it and LMA for new lands makes sense.

 

[parkhopper1213]

Most of the things we loved about Hollywood Studios are now gone. Osborne LIghts and Streets of America, Car Stunt Show, Backlot Tour and the Comedy Warehouse. This new stuff better get built fast cause there's 1/2 a park under construction and they are charging full price.

 

[Goofyernmost]

Most of the things we loved about Hollywood Studios are now gone. Osborne LIghts and Streets of America, Car Stunt Show, Backlot Tour and the Comedy Warehouse. This new stuff better get built fast cause there's 1/2 a park under construction and they are charging full price.

I've seen that mentioned a number of times. When was Comedy Warehouse part of DHS on a regular basis? It was part of Pleasure Island, but, when was it in DHS? Osborne Lights are recent additions as was the Stunt show. Streets of America and the Backlot Tour were part of when it was a studio. BLT stayed, to small degree, relevant because of Catastrophe Canyon, but, Streets of America was just a place for bodies to take up space without the Osborne Lights which were only in November and December. Oh, and the "half" as you say, that is missing had almost nothing in it. Believe me most people over the last 10 or so years, would not be missing it. There is still plenty of things to do. The only real thing missing is CC and the Car Show. The rest was just a grouping of fake facade buildings. They could have put up construction walls and painted pictures of buildings on them and had the same thing in 2d instead of 3d.