......Maybe, because MGM wasn't worth staying in all day. Maybe, if they had been built right, attendance would be even better.
......
When DISNEY- MGM Studios first opened I thought it was built right. (Well, at least more right than it is now. At least it really had a lot of the parts of a real working studio.... Much of which is sorely lacking now). There was a lot more to see IMHO. At that time we felt it was a full day park. They started cutting a big part of the tours even before LMA was added and the backstage residential street with the home from "Earnest save's Christmas" and the facade of the "Golden Girls" home were demolished to make room for the LMA show.
The backstage tour use to have many more parts and back then the studios truly were "working" studios and guests could experience much more of the making of movies and TV shows.
The following info was condensed by me but taken from my 1990 Birmbaum's WDW guide book.
When the Sudios first opened the BackStage tour began with a with a presentation of the history of the Walt Disney Studios on overhead TV monitors in the Queue area.
The line weaved through a gallery of milestones and memories from the early days of Disney Studios.
That part took about 25 minutes to complete.
At that point guests loaded onto the trams.
The trams went by a bunalows housing project where actual work was being done on several TV shows.( Win, Lose or Draw, The New Mickey Mouse Club, etc) Then we through the "greens" dept. where trees, plants, & shubs were kept until they were needed for a set. Then the tram traveled through a tunnel and we saw the Wardrobe dept. The tram then passed through the Camera, props, and lighting dept. Then we got to take a look into the sceanic shop where we could see carpenters working on sets.
The tram then turned onto the Backlot residential street. (where LMA is now ).
After that on to Catastrophe Canyon.
From Catastrophe Canyon the Tram headed for the "streets of NY City'.
On the way to PART 2 of the tour the Tram passed the the trolly and "Dipmobiel " used in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit"
Part 2 of the tour was on foot.
First we followed Roger Rabbit's Big Purple Footprints to the Loony Bin shop and a chance to play with some of the props used in the movie. Our kids loved playing with the boxes that made animal sounds, street sounds, or laughter when opened.
Following the footprints once again we were lead to another queue area where a Goldie Hawn/Rick Moranis video was played to help pass the average 20 minute wait for PART 2.
The first part of the tour is the one wherea guest who was chosen from the audience puts on the yellow raincoat and is filmed sitting at the helm of a "ship" which is in a storm and the guest gets more than 400 gallons of water dumped on him/her.
Then it is on to the prop room where we got to see familiar creatures including members of the cast of
" Captain EO".
Then onto the room with a Giant Bee that was used from " Honey I Shunk The Kids".
3 children were chosen to participate. DS Bob age 9 at the time, DD Cathy ( age 6 at the time ) & DN Steph (age 6 at the time ) were chosen. Bob opted out ( he was shy) so they chose another child
from the audience.
Cathy "rode" on top of the Bee, Steph rode on the Bee's wing and the other child sat in the Director's chair.
The guests are shown how film is shot against a blue screen and then superimposed onto any backround chosen. The kids were filmed and the footage is cut with real scenes from the movie.
Then we continued on to the sound stages with the soundproof catwalks.The guests walk through 3 sound stages where
filming for movies or TV shows may be taking place.
When we went in 1990 they were filming "Wheel Of Fortune".
From that area we were led onto a walkway where a Bette Midler short film was presented on overhead TV monitors. That film was shot entirely at the Disney-MGM studios so we and the other guests could recognize the sets from the NY city part of the backstage tram tour we had just experienced.
In the short movie Midler discovers she has a winning lottery ticket but somehow the ticket falls out of her window onto the apartment building ledge a few stories above the street and she tries to retrive it. ( If I remember correctly she goes on to the window ledge and whenshe trying to get the ticket she somehow falls off the ledge into a shopping a cart.
It was really a cute film.
After the film we were led into a wherehouse where some of the sets and props that were used for the MiMidler film were stored. A hostess then explained some of the special effects that were used to create some of the highlights of that film.
Next in the area known as the the Post Group, We watched a film where George Lucas, C3PO, R2D2 narrated about editing techniques , and Mel Gibson and Pee Wee Herman explained the sound effects
Last stop on the tour was the Walt Disney Theater where clips from recent and soon to be released Disney and Touchstone films were shown.
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In 1990 we saw other attractions that have since closed.
Superstar television...Where roles in famous TV shows were up for grabs.
Members of the aduience were chosen to take part.
The stage had several sets, The camera operatorswould shoot the actors in action. The auience would watch on giant screens but the action would vary because they would blue sreens to merge the live action with historic clips from classic shows.
One was a guestin the seat on the "Today Show" on July 17,1955, the day that
Disneyland first opened.
Another one was a guest who played Ethel Mertz with a scene played from "I LOVE LUCY"where the guests tries to wrap candy from a factory on the canveyor belt and the belt starts going too fast and she can't keep up.
(It was so funny to watch).
There was a scean from "General Hospital".
Several children were chosen to star in the opening song of "Gilligan's Island. etc.
Monster Sound Show......
It was not about monster's but rather how "Foley" sound effets are added to movies and how theyhave to be timed just right.
and of course the Annimation building use to have a 71 member annimation team worked in shifts so we could see them working on current projects.
We saw the 15 oscars that were won by the Disney Animation team.We saw a collection of drawings from Snow White, Fantasia, and other cartoon classics on display.Then we moved into the Disney Animation Theater where we saw an * minute funny flim about the basics of animation.
After that we got we got to walk through a working annimation studio!
First stop story room where annimators delveloped the story lines. ( Remember.. We actually saw men and women working on the storyline not just an empty room with a few artifacts.) We got to see artists working at their desks sketching different characters and bring them to life!
We also got to see the clean-up room, the special effects area and the special camera which was used to bring the cels to life!
FYI:
to produce a 24 minute film the team had to complete 34,650 drawings, add scenes from at least 300 backround paintings before finishing the work with musicale scores and special effects.
The last stop was a presentation of magical moments from the world's best loved animated films which was shown in the Disney Classic theater.
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My conclusion.........
The Studios has added many new rides and attractions but it truly has lost the working studio theme it once had.
Very sad indeed.
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