Disney's first big TV show had a sneaky ulterior motive


As much as “Walt Disney's Disneyland” had an ulterior motive for selling the supposed theme park to audiences in its first nine months of existence (the first episode aired on October 27, 1954; Disneyland opened on July 17, 1955), the show had another ulterior motive. : Disney needed additional funding to complete the park and basically hoped that whichever network would air his show, will help bring the park to the finish line. The eventual winner was ABC, although it should be noted that this was four decades before a much different and larger version of the Walt Disney Company bought ABC. At that time, Disney signed deal for 21 hour-long episodes of the anthology series per season for three seasons, though the terms of the deal will eventually change. (The first season alone, which aired before the opening of Disneyland, produced 21 episodes. Subsequent seasons ran from 26 to 30 episodes, and the series originally ran for seven seasons on ABC.)

From the outside, the idea of ​​”Walt Disney's Disneyland” was quickly established in its opening montage, which made it clear that the episodes were divided into one of four groups: Adventure Land, Fantasy Land, Frontier Land, and Tomorrow Land. Eventually, these groups of two words would turn into one word, matching the respective Disneyland park land. Both because television was still so new and so easy to experiment with, and because Disney only had so much money, the first season was able to set the tone for the next 10 or so seasons under Walt Disney (before his death in 1966). . also using the studio's past work. Although the series premiere was aptly titled “A Disneyland Story”, meant to show what the park would encompass while reminding audiences of the many beloved characters that populate Disney stories, subsequent episodes featured abbreviated versions of Disney films. (The literal second episode, which aired on 3 November 1954, is a reverse 1951 animated film “Alice in Wonderland”.) A Disneyland Story as a premiere is aware that what it's about is completely new, and that giving audiences a peek behind the curtain of how the park was built and how movies are made in general was a bit of a bonus. Even before Disney is introduced and a giant map of what Disneyland would look like once it opens is revealed, we get behind-the-scenes and early live action footage of the first Disney blockbuster, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. reference work for studio's 1959 classic “Sleeping Beauty.”

But the meat of the episode is about Disneyland itself. As Disney himself states, “The Disneyland TV show and the Disneyland location are part of the same (thing).” In fact, watching “The Disneyland Story” makes it clear that the pilot does two things: one, make it clear what viewers can expect from future episodes; and two, subtly seeding the idea that a Disneyland theme park would offer a similar experience. The episode offers a glimpse of what each of Disneyland's four “lands” would offer. In Frontier Land, we get a preview of the Davy Crockett miniseries starring Fess Parker, as well as a character song. In Adventureland, you can watch what would be the equivalent of nature documentaries about different parts of the world. In Tomorrowland, you get a short lecture and relevant visuals about how man is trying to conquer space in the near future. Before Disney himself uttered a line any passing fan knows all too well — “It all started with a mouse” — and showed clips of Mickey over the 25 years the character had appeared in shorts, Fantasyland offered an extended cut of the film. the highly controversial 1946 film “Song of the South”.


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