A Reverse History - Part 3

For the second post in our series, I'll be focused on the 3rd park to open at Walt Disney World.  Originally, it was an actual working movie and production studio.  While live-action filmmaking has ceased at the park, the animation is still in full swing!  I'm talking, of course, about Disney's Hollywood Studios, formerly known as Disney-MGM Studios.

In my research, one of the things I found most interesting about the Studios park project was the fact that the whole idea centered around one attraction - The Great Movie Ride.  Originally, this ride was designed for Epcot, but in 1985, then-CEO Michael Eisner suggested that the ride was so great that it should be surrounded by its own theme park, and thus the idea for Disney-MGM Studios came to being.

Looking at the original map from 1989, you can see that the park itself was quite small in comparison to the other two parks open at the time.  The Chinese Theatre in the center, a direct replica of Graumann's, was and is the housing of The Great Movie Ride.  The Production Center, the Backlot, and the Backlot Annex were all parts of the working studio, and were only accessible through a Backlot Tour.

One really neat thing that still exists (although future construction has made is hard to see) is the upside down Hidden Mickey that makes up the grand plaza.

1991 saw the first real changes to the Park, with the opening of the Backlot Annex and New York Street.  This opening included the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular, Jim Henson's Muppet-Vision 3D, and the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids Movie Set Adventure, which are still present, as well as Superstar Television (where randomly selected audience members were the stars - I got to be on Gilligan's Island one time before the show closed!), The Monster Sound Show, and Star Tours (which just underwent redesign).

You can also see The Magic of Disney Animation exhibit is now open, as well as labels on all the Soundstages.  Residential Street was part of the Backlot Tour for many years, and I remember when they tore it down.  It was quite sad to see the front Blanche Deveraux's house get taken away :-(.

Skipping ahead a little bit, this is the 1996 edition of the Disney-MGM Studios map.  I wanted to find the 1994 map (if anyone knows where one is online, please link it in the comments below!)  1994 was an important year for the park, as it was the first major expansion of the park with Sunset Boulevard.  The major draws of this section of the park were the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror and Beauty and the Beast-Live on Stage!.  The Backlot Tour was still going on with the Soundstages and Residential Street.

(An interesting sidenote - Sunset Boulevard took over the Hidden Mickey's right ear.  His left ear, Echo Lake, is still present in the park today!)

The 1998 edition is the first map (that I have seen) that features the current style of artwork.  You can still see the Hidden Mickey, but they took the Soundstages off the map - those were a surprise for the Backlot Tour.

2002 brought the "100 Years of Magic" Celebration to Walt Disney World, and indeed all of the Disney properties worldwide.  With this event came many additions to all of the parks.  At Disney-MGM Studios, these included that enormous Sorcerer's Hat in front of The Great Movie Ride.  By this time, the Rock 'n' Roller Coaster had become a fixture of Sunset Boulevard (opening in 1999), and Fantasmic! had taken its place as Disney-MGM Studios must-see nightly entertainment (beginning in late 1998)

The biggest item of note in the 2003 map is that despite the fact that the 100 Years of Magic celebration was over, the sorcerer's hat remained - by that point, it had become more of a symbol than Earffel Tower that had served as the park's landmark since its opening.

In 2007, the Walt Disney World President announced that Disney-MGM Studios would be rebranded, dropping the MGM name.  (This was a long time coming - there were a series of lawsuits tainting the park's name since it had opened.)  Effective at the beginning of 2008, the park would now be called Disney's Hollywood Studios, and has remained that way to this day.

Aside from the rebranding, the additions of the Pixar Place section of the park, as well as "Lights, Motors, Action!" which originated at Walt Disney Studios Park in Paris, the park pretty much adopted the vision it holds even today.  When "Lights, Motors, Action!" was being built in 2006, it took over most of what was left of the backlot, shortening the Backlot Tour significantly.  The main draw of the tour, Catastrophe Canyon, still remains, but for how long, no one really knows.

In 2009 (and evident on the 2011 edition of the map, above), "The American Idol Experience" opened in the old Superstar Television building.  After "Doug, Live!" closed in 2001, and another show had a brief stint in the theater in 2002, it remained vacant.  Announced in 2008, the Idol Experience actually features contestants on stage, similar to the building's beginnings.

In the latest map edition, you can see the newest renovation to the park, in which Star Tours was redesigned as a 3D adventure, and includes the prequel trilogy of Star Wars films.

"The Studios" (as they're often called by WDW frequenters) have a 20+ year history.  This park is always exciting to visit, because the exhibits and attractions constantly change to keep up with the output of Walt Disney Pictures and their subsidiaries.  It's always fun to see which film you can get a backstage glimpse of!