Why is everyone so critical and anti towards the Backlot Tour? It's probably one of the few links left with the "old" Studios.
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Why no love for the Backlot Tour?
- Thread starter mharrington
- Start date
sweetpee_1993
Well-Known Member
Prob'ly because it's a sad shadow of it's predecessor. Plus, it's not that interesting anymore. There's not-so-much backlot involved.
What Backlot? Most everything is gone and what is left is old and stale. What Studio? There used to be actual animation and live action filming. There used to be a walking tour through WORKING sound stages.
TP2000
Well-Known Member
It was well done.... 20 years ago when George Bush Sr. was in the White House and a Sony Discman CD player was the hippest Christmas present you could get.
It's been scaled back and chipped away at and downsized bit by bit over the last 15 years so much that it's really not a tour of anything now. And they haven't "filmed" anything at DHS since the 1990's. It's not a working studio, it's just a theme park now.
The original Disney-MGM Tram Tour was a copy of the Universal Studios Hollywood Tram Tour that had been thrilling visitors since 1964. Compared to the 75 minute tram tour Universal Hollywood still offers through a working movie studio with lots of updated and new show effects added in recent years, the DHS version of what is left of their tram tour is a rather sad and embarassing little thing limping along in pain.
My hunch why it's been kept around at DHS is simply because it increases park capacity by being able to load a few hundred people at a time on the tram vehicles and drive them around for a bit, thus adding a "ride" to the days experience and soaking up some crowds of paying customers.
It's been scaled back and chipped away at and downsized bit by bit over the last 15 years so much that it's really not a tour of anything now. And they haven't "filmed" anything at DHS since the 1990's. It's not a working studio, it's just a theme park now.
The original Disney-MGM Tram Tour was a copy of the Universal Studios Hollywood Tram Tour that had been thrilling visitors since 1964. Compared to the 75 minute tram tour Universal Hollywood still offers through a working movie studio with lots of updated and new show effects added in recent years, the DHS version of what is left of their tram tour is a rather sad and embarassing little thing limping along in pain.
My hunch why it's been kept around at DHS is simply because it increases park capacity by being able to load a few hundred people at a time on the tram vehicles and drive them around for a bit, thus adding a "ride" to the days experience and soaking up some crowds of paying customers.
sweetpee_1993
Well-Known Member
TP2000 just covered it in it's entirety.
I like to be hopeful that the reason BLT has received nothing for so long is because it's slated to go away entirely to make room for additions or it will receive a really big complete rework. I know, quite optimistic of me. Lol!
I like to be hopeful that the reason BLT has received nothing for so long is because it's slated to go away entirely to make room for additions or it will receive a really big complete rework. I know, quite optimistic of me. Lol!
And yet everyone is criticizing that it's still around.
lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
How good can an attraction be when its beginning is all about hyping a nearly decade old Michael Bay film that was poorly received and is barely remembered?
What Michael Bay film?
yensid67
Well-Known Member
The BLT WAS a decent attraction back in 1998-1999, I remember taking the tour and going down Residential Street and seeing those faniliar "houses" from the sitcoms I loved to watch. BLT was exciting because it told you of how some camera tricks were done, like the church building on the square...from one side it looked like a small country church, but when the tram went around the square and you saw the front, it looked like a big cathedral...ah, movie magic! I think that when then took out Residential Street to make way for Lights, Action, Motor! it was the beginning of the end of the BLT. My personal opinion is either bring back Residential Street(somehow)and give the BLT a MAJOR overhaul and make it an attraction worth seeing or just simply put it out of its misery and close it! I know there has been talk about Pixar getting bigger and maybe WDW will get Radiator Springs area!? DHS does have room to expand so don't be surprised ater the FLE that they don't close the park and refurb it like DCA park of yesteryear! And yes, I would like it to return to a REAL WORKIG studio park, it was exciting just to know that fact!
sweetpee_1993
Well-Known Member
I wouldn't say people criticize that this attraction still exists as much as people question the relevance and/or it's current state. If it's going to still be in operation perhaps it should be updated more regularly to keep the relevance more current. It's not so much a lack of love for the Backlot Tour itself. It's lack of love for those who let it deteriorate from it's former glory and who fail to keep the offerings up to date. This is definitely not the kind of attraction you build then let it be what it is. It's a showcase so it'll need constant updates and additions to maintain it's purpose (or story).
sweetpee_1993
Well-Known Member
Exactly. :lookaroun
unkadug
Follower of "Saget"The Cult
bugsbunny
Well-Known Member
Let me sum it up this way, shouldn't something labeled with backlot actually be one? It should be called the parking lot tour. Oooooh look! Some shrubs and employee parking spaces. Oh, and some junk from movies made 25 years ago that were absolute flops. It seems like the only reason they are here is because nobody would buy them on ebay.
Its a shadow of itself and a time when Studios actuallt tied you into the Hollywood scene. It seems by 1992, Disney simply gave up on the traditions and tie ins. For example, look at the Great Movie Ride and see the hand prints they did over the first 2 or 3 years. They haven't added one since like 1993. The park needs a DCA makeover.
Its a shadow of itself and a time when Studios actuallt tied you into the Hollywood scene. It seems by 1992, Disney simply gave up on the traditions and tie ins. For example, look at the Great Movie Ride and see the hand prints they did over the first 2 or 3 years. They haven't added one since like 1993. The park needs a DCA makeover.
Pumbas Nakasak
Heading for the great escape.
I think its fabulous a great ride on a tram seeing all the intricacy of movie making and actually seeing stars during a live filming plus the chance to see all the latest up to date movie memorabilia.
bugsbunny
Well-Known Member
It certainly was a long time ago. I even remember when you would go se the the Osborne Lights by waking through the backlot that had the Golden Girl's house and Empty Nest.
AEfx
Well-Known Member
Reading about the "former glory" is making my eyes roll so far back in my head I don't think they'll ever recover and I'll spend the rest of my life looking at ceilings.
MGM was *never* a "REAL" studio. Ever.
We've gone through this before, people will list this and that that were done there (supposedly) but in truth it never really was any kind of true "working" studio. Yes, they filmed MMC club there, and some long forgotten "Alice" show. And that Hulk Hogan trash that lasted what, a year? Add a couple of commercials and one or two effects shots and there you have the majority of the filming that took place.
It never had a chance as a real working studio, and never was intended to be. Central FL is about as far away from the rest of Hollywood as it can be - there was very little incentive for anyone to decide to go set up shop in a theme park far away from the rest of the filmmaking support system.
Most of what people fondly remember as "real working studio" stuff was a sham, even when the park opened. Remember you used to drive by a "hot new music video set!" on the "backlot" and be told, "Watch for it on MTV!" Yeah, if you turned your head around after you pass, you'd see they were a bunch of actors hired to stand out there and look like a film crew.
Many of the "sets" indoors you would pass they'd say, "Watch for this show someday!" yet, mysteriously, they could never tell you the name or even network.
It doesn't need to be refurbed because the concept is so dated at this point anyway. We live in the post-80's world of "we know how they do everything" from watching so many "making-ofs", add to that the DVD extras revolution, and the simple fact that everything that USED to be interesting about practical filmmaking has been thrown aside by people typing into computers, and it's just useless to even think about. There is no mystery, no "wow!" behind the scenes anymore to build an attraction around.
So that's why the hate towards it. It was fake to begin with (even though it seems to have provided people with lovely, if hazy, memories), it just sits there fooling people into thinking it's actually something revolitionary, and it takes up a lot of space that could be used for some actual attractions, not fake copies of copies pretending to be copies of real.
MGM was *never* a "REAL" studio. Ever.
We've gone through this before, people will list this and that that were done there (supposedly) but in truth it never really was any kind of true "working" studio. Yes, they filmed MMC club there, and some long forgotten "Alice" show. And that Hulk Hogan trash that lasted what, a year? Add a couple of commercials and one or two effects shots and there you have the majority of the filming that took place.
It never had a chance as a real working studio, and never was intended to be. Central FL is about as far away from the rest of Hollywood as it can be - there was very little incentive for anyone to decide to go set up shop in a theme park far away from the rest of the filmmaking support system.
Most of what people fondly remember as "real working studio" stuff was a sham, even when the park opened. Remember you used to drive by a "hot new music video set!" on the "backlot" and be told, "Watch for it on MTV!" Yeah, if you turned your head around after you pass, you'd see they were a bunch of actors hired to stand out there and look like a film crew.
Many of the "sets" indoors you would pass they'd say, "Watch for this show someday!" yet, mysteriously, they could never tell you the name or even network.
It doesn't need to be refurbed because the concept is so dated at this point anyway. We live in the post-80's world of "we know how they do everything" from watching so many "making-ofs", add to that the DVD extras revolution, and the simple fact that everything that USED to be interesting about practical filmmaking has been thrown aside by people typing into computers, and it's just useless to even think about. There is no mystery, no "wow!" behind the scenes anymore to build an attraction around.
So that's why the hate towards it. It was fake to begin with (even though it seems to have provided people with lovely, if hazy, memories), it just sits there fooling people into thinking it's actually something revolitionary, and it takes up a lot of space that could be used for some actual attractions, not fake copies of copies pretending to be copies of real.
T-1MILLION
New Member
Sorry, but you are incorrect. While the studios on location at MGM Studios Florida never produced any massive hits there were dozens of TV shows and movie filming sessions going on throughout the early years and prior to it being a theme park. Although many flopped and were under the Disney name, it was still a WORKING Studio.
Ernest Saves Christmas
Adventure's in Wonderland
Mickey Mouse Club
Teen Win Lose or Draw
Mortal Kombat: Conquest
Out of the Box
Marvin's Room
Tarzan's Epic Adventures
Big Bag
Kermit's Swamp Years
And lots of various filming from production in the Central Florida area as well. I recall House on Haunted Hill being partially filmed at Islands of Adventure for the opening theme park scene as you may know, but when they needed some interior set shooting done the studios at Universal were occupied at the time, so the went and used a stage at Disney. There are tons of post production companies that rent and use spaces on studio lots.
While for the most part, like Universal its a shell of its former self with what they do for tv and film production, it WAS a studio.
In the 1980s Florida was being looked at to be the new filming location for many productions because some things about it are cheaper than filming in Calofornia. After California Florida is still one of the biggest states for filming in the country.
Disney did not spend all that money and time to build soundstages and facilities for a fake studio. If they were just doing what we have now than they would not of needed all the facilities behind the park.
devoy1701
Well-Known Member
that's not true. LaVar Burton got his hand prints since I've been a passholder (which is only about 4 years).
Oh and to add to T-1Million's list, wasn't Stitch animated at MGM as well?
But if they got rid of it, and even if they could replace it with different attractions, wouldn't that only further prove how indecisive the Studios is about its identity? I mean, it's said, at least by David Koenig, that the Studios (indeed, all the non-MK WDW parks) are losing their respective identities and blurring them into that of the Magic Kingdom. And if they got rid of what little remained of its "old" self, the Studios would pretty much be another extension of the Magic Kingdom's fantasy personality. That's one reason why they put in that much-dreaded sorcerer's hat in front of the Chinese Theater. But I digress.