5 Abandoned Remnants of the Old MGM Studios
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- čas přidán 27. 05. 2024
- Take a peek behind the curtain, take a look behind the... camera... Take a gander through the... I dunno, the viewfinder? I'll work on it. Ever wonder what's left over from Hollywood Studios' early days as MGM Studios? Wonder no longer.
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Video Credits ▶
MGM Studios Tram Tour, RetroWDW, • Disney-MGM Studios Bac...
MGM Studios Opening Day, RetroWDW, • Disney-MGM Studios The...
New York Street 2005, WDW Channel, • Disney Studios New Yor...
Slinky Dog Dash, LMGVids, • [2021] Slinky Dog Dash...
Muppet Studios Walls, PlutoParkingTV, • Disney-MGM Studios-Bac...
Rocketeer Showcase, Dennis Smith, • The Rocketeer display ...
Sources ▶
Disney's Hollywood Studios Cameraman Sculpture, SizzleMap, • Disney's Hollywood Stu... - Zábava
Oh the joy of hearing “Hello I’m Michael Eisner” and wondering if he’s about to create a top tier attraction.. or send the company into massive dept
It’s a 50/50
His execution was bad but his intentions initially weren't..look at how much people now love Disneyland Paris/ Euro Disney. How much thought they put into that park alone. People just didn't show up and it impacted the future of the other parks after.
Why not both?
I always think of the intros he would do for The Wonderful World Of Disney. To me it always meant movie time.
Or both at the same time
DHS definitely needs more Muppets, we were robbed of Muppets Studios.
It’s also I feel like spiked in popularity online recently in the 2020’s with all of the videos out about them from movies to specific characters to topics, there’s a lot more love I feel like than back in the day also more respect. And back in the day as in the 2000’s to 2010’s I feel like. At least online.
@@SRKStar I completely agree, Muppets are extremely popular at the moment with Gen Z and Millenials and soon (already for the millenials) they'll be growing up with jobs and children and wallets
*cries in california adventure*
Muppets are a dead/legacy property.
I can tell that it was Eisner who was pretty big on wanting Kermit and the gang to become officially part of the Disney family even back then, while now they're finally owned by Disney under Iger and constantly feel slept on and neglected when compared to Star Wars and Marvel Studios.
It is nice to know that people can still be able to watch The Muppet Show on Disney+ now, but I do think that The Muppets themselves definitely deserve better.
Now that the Great Movie Ride is gone we really need the Muppets Great Movie Ride. That way we could still experience a version of the classic ride.
I see your point!
Would be loads better than the runaway railway or whatever it’s called now
DHS Cast Member here! In the backstage areas kinda between Galaxy's Edge and Toy Story Land/Pixar Place there are still remnants of the old Streets of America facades. They've definitely seen better days but they're still there. Obviously all of that stuff is out of guest view and I had no idea until I had to go back there for something but yeah.
My heart is so happy that they're still there
Can you take a vid and upload it?
@@KnarlyKnux I would love to but it's against the company policy to film backstage areas. I'd get in serious trouble if I did.
You can see some from Muppetvision exit area also!!
I wish some of the old parts of the ride still exist tbh, or maybe move them somewhere else if they ever revive it tbh, so yeah
Disney should give some love to the Muppets. Since they just replaced the seats, I would guess that Muppet Vision is sticking around - as it should. They should turn Mama Melrose's into character dining: reopen that huge Muppet Store: and turn Star Tours into a Muppet ride - Pigs in Space would be an easy and comical overlay.
Everybody gangsta till Eisner says, *"Hullo, I'm Michael Eisner".* A fun fact about Tatooine, it was filmed in Tunisia! George Lucas chose Tunisia because he was attracted to the country’s architecture! The Lars homestead’s white domes were located in the town of Nefta, built low into the desert floor to stay cool. A room in a cave network in Matama stood in for some of the interiors of Luke’s childhood home. The adaptations to survive the harsh desert of Tatooine were real innovations used for thousands of years across Northern Africa. Lucas returned to Tunisia again for The Phantom Menace. Anakin Skywalker’s home, a cool stone building with stairs carved into its facade, was filmed in Ong Jemel. This time, there was a greater reliance on built sets, though they still drew from architectural styles used by the Tunisians. Attack of the Clones was also filmed there, while the sequel trilogy made use of places like Bolivia's Salar de Uyuni salt flat to stand in for Krait (The Last Jedi) and the UAE's portion of the Rub' al Khali desert became Jakku (The Force Awakens).
Tatooine is meant to be a barren desert planet, but in real-life Tunisia the weather was more temperamental. On the second day of the shoot, a freak rainstorm ruined the day’s filming, tightening an already limited schedule of 11 days in the country. The problems only grew from there. Anthony Daniels could hardly move in his suit, those stiff movements are about as good as he could manage. The controls that operated R2-D2 were better at picking up Tunisian radio signals, necessitating that the droid be pulled along the desert floor on skis by a wire. Things only got worse from there. Blistering heat during the day turned to unforgiving cold at night. The crew operated on very little sleep and many sickened with dysentery as the shoot dragged on past the planned 11 days. A massive sandstorm destroyed the Jawas’ sandcrawler, which then had to be rebuilt in just one day. That same sandcrawler almost started a very real war when Muammar Gaddafi accused the Tunisians of preparing to stage an invasion, with the sandcrawler mistaken as a real military vehicle. They quickly moved away from the Libyan border.
I loved MGM.
It was worth it just for Star Tours, Indy Jones, Muppets, Tower of Terror, and of course the great movie ride!!
Could spend all day just riding over and over and over
There was a law suit re the Tower of Terror. A woman who had bad abdominal adhesions (fibrous scar tissue - I have some myself ) from surgery, would ride it because of the drop and sudden stop, which loosened some adhesions. So, she would join the 'singles' line and ride it again and again, sometimes all day. The park tried to ban her from riding and she sued them as there was no limit mentioned on the ticket. The park relented and she had free rein to carry on.
I loved that ride.
EDIT: I found this. 'In 2009, Disney was sued by Denise Mooty, a lady who rode the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror over 50 times a day. Every day. Mooty suffered from abdominal adhesions, and claimed that the frequent drops on the ride at Disney's Hollywood Studios helped to ease the pain.' It says she was banned for abusing workers, but she denied that.
add aerosmith and thats my MGM. honestly this and Epcot are prob my favourites, though i love me some dinoland and dinosaurs as well. haunted mansion is my MK go-to, but more old Disney i dont like barely any of their new endeavors as of late.
One more for the books: some of the street signs on Sunset Boulevard still bear the original “seal” of the park - with the Earful Tower in its unredacted. The trash cans have that modified one, but you can still find a few of the good old ones here and there.
#5 has a special place in my heart, since my parents first met at Endor Vendors
That’s pretty amazing
Man Hollywood Studios has come a LONG way. I love what it is today, but I really do miss the great movie ride.
Same
First visited MGM in July of 1989. I was already very much into movies, and the park had such an influence on me that I went to college for film production and moved to Orlando. Sadly, much of any real production ceased right around or just after I finished school and entered the workforce, and in the years since I’ve realized how naive I was as a kid and teen, believing in MGM as being crafted into the new “East Coast Hollywood”. It was always a theme park first and a studio second, or even third. Still, in the 2000’s and early 2010’s I worked with many people in Orlando in the television industry who were former staffers at MGM. They have the fondest memories of its earliest days, working on shows like The New Mickey Mouse Club, back when some of the cast who became celebrities today were on it, parts of big animated films like Beauty and the Beast, and films like Parenthood and Passenger 57. I’ve lived in Orlando now for 26 years, and unfortunately my career has totally died as I’ve been unable to part with my dream here. But I still think back on that glorious summer of 1989, when MGM was brand new and all was right with the world.
x
100% agree that the Muppets studio was such a loss for Hollywood Studios.
But I also miss the back lot tour. I got to ride it during my very first Disney visit in 2000 and I LOVED it. It’s my People Mover, and I miss it.
“The Great Muppet Movie Ride”?? Brilliant!!
Jim Henson even talked about it in a documentary about The Muppets and how it would be about making movies, but everything would be wrong! 😎
Loved MGM during the Osborne family Christmas. That was amazing.
I miss The Great Movie Ride so much 😔 of all of the rides and attractions that have come and gone in Orlando, that one might be the one I miss the most
I loved the MGM studios. My 1st visit to Florida and we went on the backlot tour, and saw how lilo and Stitch was drawn and animated. I absolutely fell in love Stich is my fave character 😍
The Great Muppets Movie Ride would have been so perfect. I wish that was made.
Its my favorite park. Went there a few times in the 90s and again in 97 on our honeymoon, had a blast. Early June in Orlando, weather was great, tickets weren't insane. And maybe four times since?
I hope they never get rid of Muppet Vision 3D. Losing that means losing Jim Henson’s last film.
Eventually they are gonna get rid of it
I recently found a map for MGM from 1997 in a box of random WDW trip memories, and it was fascinating trying to match up what was there then vs. now. I loved MGM as a kid and was OBSESSED with the backlot tour and Great Movie Ride (along with the muppets of course!). It’s amazing you can still find little tidbits of the old days leftover.
I loved this video. My first job at WDW was a tour guide at The Backstage Studio Tram Tour. I did that job for 7 months before moving to the MK to open the Surprise Celebration Parade and Spectromagic as a dancer/character performer. I can still recite that tour script. I have a lot of emotions walking through that arch and seeing my beloved tour building and the Animation Building. “Off to your right hand side is the symbol of the Disney MGM Studios, the Earful Tower. It’s stands an incredible 13 stories high and has a hat size of 342 and 3/8”
Another remnant you can see if as you enter Toy Story Land, on the backside of building that houses the Walt Disney Story, you’ll see it says The Roy O Disney Production Center.
I love Disney but only watch it via other people's videos. I haven't been since 1990 😭. But did go to the MGM studios. I remember they had an "I love Lucy" show.
Disney MGM was my favorite park back in the day
My wife and I were in the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular show while on our honeymoon in ‘96. I remember a lot of things highlighted in this video.
One of my favorite remnants is the “Sid Cahuenga’s One-of-a-Kind” bungalow. I suspect that a vast majority have no idea that when it opened in ‘89, it sold authentic movie props, celebrity autographs, and Hollywood memorabilia. I remember seeing the actual striped coat that Dick Van Dyke wore in Mary Poppins for sale in the shop. It was a really fun place until they changed it into a photo pass center in 2013.
we went that very first summer of 1989- such a great park! I really miss all the behind the scenes stuff- presentations of the sound effects, blue screens, etc. where you could get right up out of the audience and be a part of it. so much fun
Spot on with this take! A lot of vids seem to reminisce longingly about yesteryear at this park and others. I love to reminisce too, but it’s much better today. And still only worth a half day before heading over to Epcot for drinks, dinner, and Living With The Land. *chefs kiss*
You never cease to astound me, Holmes! I attempt never to be hyperbolic, but this is a masterpiece!
And, yes, we must have Muppet Vision 3K!
I appreciate the love for Muppet Vision 3D. It never gets the credit it deserves and I truly hope it's there forever.
I was in Anaheim the other day and the Haunted Mansion queue is totally scorched earth. You can just see glimpses of yellow earthmoving equipment back there. THERE WILL BE NO REMNANTS. Sigh.
Some has been saved and much respectful references will abound. Fear not foolish mortals...
when i was little my favorites were the backlot tour, the great movie ride, muppets 3D, and then tower of terror (im an 04 girl but 2006-2008 was my jam)
edit: and the honey i shrunk the kids set and the meet and greets in that area. i wish they had those characters still. i hate myself for being scared of monsters inc when i was little 😭
The world needs a parkeology/offhand Disney collab
I’m such a Muppets Vision 3D Stan and am honored to be seen and acknowledged!!!
Can we agree on one thing: the PRESHOW for Muppet Vision 3D was a great attraction in and of itself! True Muppet chaos and humor!!! 🙌❤️😎
I remember MGM when it opened. SO much better than HS is now. We stayed almost all day and loved all of the attractions, including Star Tours with the AT-ATs. We barely stay a few hours now. Miss those good old days. RIP GMR!
I always liked MGM Studios a lot as a kid in the mid-90s. Epcot was my favorite because The Living Seas was just about the coolest thing I'd ever seen, but MGM was a VERY close second, followed by Universal when it opened.
Good old Mikey. That was as close to the imagination and charisma of Walt as we'd ever get again. Always glad that I got to experience MGM Studios as it was supposed to be. Took the tram tour once and they were actually rehearsing on the Mickey Mouse Club set. Saw Britney Spears before she was anyone. Loved going to the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater Restaurant. There are several times we'd go over there from Magic Kingdom just to have dinner. And of course the two best attractions, Muppets and The Great Movie Ride. Muppets got a lot of house in summer because it was a decent length and inside. Wish we'd gotten the Muppets Studio proper. I remember the first time I went on the Great Movie Ride in 1989 and how excited I got to see the Casablanca plane. As a 10 year old who loved Bogart movies, it was a like a holy grail to see that scene played out.
I remember so many of the attractions and areas mentioned in this video; I particularly remember the “forced perspective “ area on the tram tour where it was shown how small model buildings could look large in movies.
I share many of your opinions: Hollywood Studios is my least favorite park and I rarely go there. Muppets 3D forever.
One thing I miss that was not original to the park but felt unique was they used to have a store that specifically sold villain merchandise; I loved that place.
Finally, some MuppetVision 3D love! I’d kill for more Muppets in the parks. I actually once got seated in the very first show of the day for MuppetVision
I love Hollywood studios as it is now, but I feel like we definitely need more to it. Definitely more muppets.
Wow!! Thank you so much for mentioning my CAMERAMAN SCULPTURE video. I’ve been a fan of your channel for so long and you are a great inspiration. I have some more untold Disney stories that I’ve been working on. Would love to collaborate with you if you are up for it. THANKS AGAIN!
Yay SizzleMap!
This is Amazing I never knew anything this stuff I remember hearing about The Muppet show though
Back in the late 80s early 90s MGM was at its peak for nostalgia. Loved visiting my Golden Girls house every tram ride. 😊
I Miss the Old and True Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park
Me too.
I think it's very sad that these parks have moved away from the educational/entertainment hybrid model they used to follow. I remember loving the back lot tour as a kid, as well as strolling down those movie set streets. Same at EPCOT Center. The educational stuff at EPCOT really rounded out the park and gave it its character. Everything has become so 'BIGGER, FASTER, MOVE MOVE MOVE!', in your face. 'RIDES RIDES RIDES'. 'Look here, look there!'. WDW used to have a calming charm to it that's long gone.
Wow this was a fantastic video, it would be sick to see similar concepts about the other parks in both Florida and California. Didn't expect a "top 5" video to be 25 minutes long but it was amazing. Awesome as always, Dallin
i miss old mgm, glad i saw it as a kid but wish i could see it as an adult. remember more of it and appreciate it more
this channel improved my credit score
The tone you hit in these vids is impeccable 11/10
A simple statement of fact!
love the muppetvision 3d area music in the background
Sees video
Ooh I'll watch that later
Sees video is new
I'M WATCHING THAT NOW.
In the mid 90's my first time to WDW as a 6 year old, MGM Studios was overall the coolest park for me. Not even positive why, every attraction was just awesome.
Great video!
This is so tough for me. Hollywood Studios is just a different park that happens to occupy the space MGM Studios held. MGM was my favorite place on the planet. It's such a strange experience to see your childhood favorites get slowly replaced over a few decades. Some of the new attractions are great, but I'll forever miss the golden days of MGM Studios.
This is why in a perfect world there would exist all the space in the world for adding new attractions and nothing from before should ever have to be lost or replaced.
Fun fact I got lost as a small child at mgm and they took me behind honey I shrunk the kids playground and I got to see a lot of parade floats and designs. My dad was so pissed and scared lol.
15 minutes ago? Wow, I'm early! Always happy to see a new Offhand Disney video
So much wasted space…
Why not put a museum in one of those shuttered buildings? They’ve got to have decades’ worth of film memorabilia and old stuff from the parks in storage. It’d raise interest in the park and decrease traffic in the others (at least when it comes to regulars and Disney adults), and it would have to cost a lot less than a more conventional attraction because there’d be less to build. What’d be the overhead? Lighting, air conditioning, and a few cast members to run it? They could even rotate in new exhibits to encourage repeat visits.
I would absolutely love to eat pizza served by Rizzo
Bring back the people mover
I’ve still never ridden, slinky dog dash. I enjoy rollercoasters all right but I feel like I can see it all from the ground.
This is off topic, but I want your thoughts on 20,000 Leagues under the Sea. That is an E ticket ride I would have loved. Sadly, I never rode it, never even knew it existed.
Best content ! Loved this video. I was there in 1989 . They had an Aladdin Parade just like the one in the movie and it felt like you were in the movie
unlikely as Alladin was released in 1992...
When in MGM you forgot to mention riding Rockin Rollercoaster. Definitely the best by a long shot.
The Studio Backlot Tour was the ONLY reason I visited that park 4 times from the early 90s through 2003. Any other attraction I patronized was merely a bonus.
Don’t forget the filming of the Mickey Mouse Club in the 90s! Great video! I love it!
Gonna just leave out the greatest defunct MGM Studios attraction ever!?! What about the Honey I Shrunk The Kids play area!?!
Back when Disney could truly say that they had their own movie franchise to capitalize on rather than having to fill the park with more Star Wars theming than it should really need.
@@nicksorenson940 Honestly, I've preferred Disney own then such, should one part as Disney own like we've seen or been there for years and the other part is all the licence part, like a two part one, one is the Disney Studio one and should stay intact while the other part is all of the franchise movies like Marvel, Star Wars and such, or a whole new park dedicated to all the licensed movies and such as well as all their assets they've bought over the years like ABC, Fox, Blue Sky, Lucasfilms, Marvel and so on all in one in their own park or part of the park while the Disney Studios should stay the same, so yeah
Good job bro
yay! adventures of mark twain mention! the answer to "what were they thinking with this guy" is that the masked satan was based on unfinished drafts of a novel under the mentioned name "the mysterious stranger". in the drafts where the character is called satan he was usually a child and not the actual satan, so i have to assume the masked one from the movie was an amalgm of several different versions of that character.
backlot tour and the great movie ride were the best
I miss the tram
19:04 the name of it really wasn’t said but according to IMDB the movie is called “The Adventures of Mark Twain” (1985)
I’ve been to Disney World twice, in 2005 and 2023 and both times I went to the MGM and DHS, the rockin rollercoaster was down for maintenance…so pissed. Want to ride that.
OFFHAND DISNEY !! YAY I love when you upload bcause then i know that im gonna have a good day !
It is funny, growing up in Florida in the 1980s, never went to the Disney/MGM park but I did go to the park with my kids a few years ago to Disney Hollywood Studios. Also, just last year took them on the WB lot tour in Burbank, CA. Interestingly the park tour here shown of the old MGM studios was like a small version of the huge real backlog tour the WB has out west. They even had a few shows in production on the day we visited (outtakes of an Arrowverse show primarily filmed in Vancouver, and Young Sheldon).
I visited Disney MGM Studios in 1989, the same year it opened. I was very young but I don’t recall a lot of attractions. I only remember the animation tour and Indiana Jones stunt show.
My first visit to WDW was in 1991 when I was 6. Aside from Figmet nipping my shoulder with his sharp snout while I posed for a photo with Dreamfinder, there’s nothing I remember better than MGM Studios. I can still picture the whole backlot tour, the TMNT stage show, and the Rocketeer flying around the Chinese Theatre before the fireworks. On Hollywood Blvd there was a live action version of the old gameshow What’s My Line where four 1930s Hollywood ‘residents’ would ask yes or no questions of a volunteer and then try to guess their job. A stenographer girl in tortoise shell glasses kept notes on what had been asked, and I can still hear the ‘stylish rich lady’ character shouting “RECAP!” before her turn. I loved it all so much.
I used to love the tram tour! I remember the Golden girls house!
My mother and I were there the 3rd day it was open back in 1989. Took the tour and loved it. The Golden Girls house was there.
“In 1999 a small independent film called Star Wars Episode I The Phantom Menace came out” got me😂😂😂😂
Awesome! Will be there may1 to celebrate 35th 🎬
Aloha Daylin and thank you for this. I really didn't know a thing about this park until watching this. I find it interesting that the Eisner plack is still there. They eliminated all visages of him from DCA.
I like you LOVE the Mupets and their off hand humor. It would have been a blast having a Swedish Chef Restrant.
Well thanks again and enjoy your channel alot
Ok, so small ex-Tattoine Traders CM: right by the queue of the ride theres a room where we store our ice and drinks, and there you can still see a smaaaaaaaaall part of the bunker from the inside and the slant of the walls. Yeah, as said in the video, its still there.
I wished they made a 5th park : with Pixar place - Toy Story land / Star Wars land area / other.
I would kept Disney Hollywood studios ( how it was - with Streets of America )
No two hour tour. The tram tour was perhaps a 30 minute respite from walking in the sun.
There's a hidden mickey in the Endor queue.
10:39 Its Blanch's house from Golden Girls! I remember going on the backlot tour and seeing it. I made me excited being that it was the facade from the actual show. Sad it was torn down years ago and no longer exists.
I was there on a day when they had the back lot tour, the Movies ride, NY Street was closed, Star Tours was under construction but the AT-AT was up, and Little Mermaid was being inked and Roder Rabbit was there too
it was a lot
We had a Micky Birthday calibration that year too
Always love an Offhand video! Keep up the great work dude!
HONORED Offhand Disney - Best Always..!
The Hollywood studios setup is what they should have used as a template for Disneyland/disney world…and I mean the original trilogy as well.
Going to both 2016 Disney Hollywood and Universal makes it SO clear that Disney copied the idea and rushed it out to beat Universal. That NY Ave is so much like Universal.
I wish I had gone when they had the backstage tour and the Golden Girls house. It would have been a treat to see.
I went in 1989. I remember all of it. I remember waiting in line forever!!!
There’s a tribute to the earful tower in the loading area for Slinky Dog Dash! The crayon drawing of the map of the ride has an green army men tower drawn where the earful tower supposedly used to be!
I’m so grateful I got to visit MGM Studios when I was younger. It’s was always my favorite park as I was in love with the idea of Hollywood and moviemaking. The tram tour, lights camera action, and the Sanfransico street/wall were the best
Good lord I hope that statue and plaque NEVER go away.
Disney did use the "Studio Store" to display a model train as well as a special photo pass offering with multiple cameras during the jollywood nights last year.
MORE MUPPETS ALWAYS!!! no questions asked rip Jim Henson
Extra good video.
9:40 Really? You’re not even going to mention the best remnant, the largest hidden Mickey (at the time)? It’s one of the many reasons so many of us hated that “temporary” Sorcerer Hat and the stages. The rooftops are no longer painted, and the tree smile is over grown, but Echo Lake is his ear!!!
Muppet vision 3d... "save the best for last"... YES!!!!