Sometimes I pick stuff that isn’t British television. There,
I said it! I have to admit that I am a big fan of the Walt Disney studio but
let me clarify. I am primarily a fan the era of when Walt ran the company. Now
I am not someone who believes Walt was a perfect person. He was an engaging
creative man. He was not a racist nor did he have the largest porn collection
in the world. I say that because I have heard people say that which is simply
not true. There is a lot of misinformation out there but I am not going to get
into it; that’s not what this article is about. People will believe whatever
they want to believe. Apart from really liking the animated features and shorts
that were released while he was in charge of the studio, I also have a keen
fascination with the theme parks. In particular, the original Disneyland and
Walt Disney World. It’s not that I think these places are “magical” or anything
weird like that, I like how they were built, designed and how they are
operated. I also am intrigued by the way that the parks continually change and
evolve. For example, rides are removed or buildings are torn down to make way
for new things. On the surface, Disneyland may look basically the same now as
it did in 1962 (the year of the program I watched) but on closer inspection
there are a lot of changes. That’s why I enjoy watching older programs about
Disneyland. It is its own time capsule of how the park existed when Walt was
running it.
Disneyland After Dark TX: April 15, 1962

Although Disneyland After Dark is exactly what it says it is, I have to admit when I first saw this many years ago, I was a little disappointed though I should have expected it. My crazy imagination had me thinking that perhaps this was an episode that showed us cool things that happened in the park overnight to get it ready for operation the next day. It could show us people touching up paint on buildings or showing someone repairing a costume or even an Audio Animatronic. That wasn’t the episode and I should have known better. Disneyland After Dark really is about how the park comes alive when the sun goes down. To prove this, all sorts of “stars” come out to get things going.
This might be the first episode of this series where I
really felt that the series perhaps over spun what happens at the park. Luckily
for us, it was a few years before Mary Poppins came out or the episode would
have been hosted by Julie Andrews and not Walt Disney. I guess my point is that back when the series
Disneyland started, these episodes were presented with no frills. It was all
very factual and from the mouth of Walt Disney himself. Walt had a way of just
doing some plain Midwest speaking to not only get the point across but making
you want to hear more. Some of his narration could be monotone documentary
style but it worked. He didn’t talk down to anyone. I can imagine kids would
have watched the shows and not realize that they were watching an hour-long ad.
It was informative and the episodes still stand up. I write all of this with
the full knowledge that he had writers write his stuff. My Julie Andrews
comment is not really against Julie Andrews but more of how we have to have
spin when talking about the history of Disneyland. For example, as seen the
special in Disneyland: Secrets, Stories & Magic. It’s all very over the top
and overly produced. What is funny is that as much as I complain about this
style, it really did start with these Disneyland anthology episodes. It
evolved. Not in a good way but it is an evolution.


It was nice to see Louis Armstrong in this episode
performing some great music. He sang and played that wonderful trumpet the only
way he knew how on the Mark Twain Riverboat. I was annoyed at first as when I
was watching the scene there were no black people in the audience. The only
black people in that scene were playing the music or serving the drinks. It was sending me a weird message but I know I
was thinking too hard about it. There were black people in the audience but
they were in the background.


It was also interesting to see how the park characters in
costumes have changed over the years. In this episode, Mickey’s head is huge
compared to his body and looks odd. Just a few years later, the character
designs evolved enough to be much closer to how they look in the park today.
I watched this episode from the Walt Disney Treasures
Disneyland USA set. This was part of the first wave of DVDs released under this
banner. These were very cool releases. First off, they celebrated the more
obscure Disney programs and films focusing on the era that Walt Disney ran the
company. It was a way to release the theatrical shorts of all of the Disney
main characters from Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, Silly Symphony, etc. We
have Leonard Maltin to thank for these as he did an amazing job of working with
Disney to get these gems released. The packaging was really cool too. They all
came in film style tins. They were very collectable and if you literally did
not get these the day they came out, you ran into a problem of possibly not
getting them at all. The run was that limited. For some reason I did not get
this set when it came out. For years I was kicking myself for not getting this.
I did pick up another title in this wave when it came out, Mickey Mouse in
Color Volume 1. It wasn’t until years later I ended up getting the re-issue of
this release which did not come in the tin. Not that big of a deal, I ended up
having to get a couple titles from that first wave after they disappeared and
none of them have tins either. I do find it odd that the cover of this release
has the famous picture of Walt Disney coming out the back of the Sleeping
Beauty’s Castle but the castle is not all there as it goes upwards into the
title and some of the spires disappear.
One last thing about this episode and the Walt Disney Treasures DVDs. As more and more of these episodes were released, a good effort was made in finding the best source materials and also possibly restoring them. Unfortunately that isn’t the case with this episode. The colors are crushed and it looks like it actually comes from a very poor positive viewing print and not a negative. It doesn’t even have the opening to Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color. There should be a very corny song at the beginning of the episode. If that song did not show up until later in the series run, someone please let me know as it is weird that it was not a part of this episode. Sadly, the Walt Disney Treasures DVDs stopped coming out a few years ago. For years it was a highlight to wait to hear which new titles were being released and then wait with anticipation for the day I would go down to Best Buy and pick out the version that had the tin in the best possible condition. I believe this would always happen every November. I miss those days and I really miss those releases. If you have been reading this blog long enough, you may remember the article I wrote to alert people in helping us save the range.
These episodes are simple and very straight forward. I may sound like at times I may be mocking them but please understand; I fully agreed with what this DVD range was called, to me, these are treasures.
If you like this sort of programming or any other vintage programs from Walt Disney that seem to be stuck in their vault, may I suggest you take a look at http://openvaultdisney.com. From their page they say:
"The aim of this Fan Page is to get people who love classic Disney films and shows to convince the Walt Disney Company to release these shows and films. Specifically for now, our aim is to get Disney to keep releasing the great Walt Disney Treasures line of DVD’s (or at least some kind of replacement to what has not been released yet) they have been releasing for the last decade as well as to continue the release of their classic Disney Afternoon shows and maybe even get them to release titles not released yet."
Seems like a good cause to me! Please got and check them out!
Next week: as a sort of tribute to the late Harry Fowler, I thought I would write about a couple episodes of the 1950s and 1960s comedy The Army Game. I will be watching The Doo-Gooders and The Marshall’s Baton. For me, I will be excited about a rare non-Doctor Who performance from William Hartnell who is one of the series stars!
Do you have feedback, article requests or
want to talk about a program but not want to leave a public comment? Feel free
to drop me an e-mail at FTA13867@gmail.com
Also please subscribe to my From the Archive: British Television Blog Page for updates about new articles.
Also please subscribe to my From the Archive: British Television Blog Page for updates about new articles.
Have a great week!
6 comments:
While I have never been a huge Disney fan, I can certainly appreciate the talent and hard work that went into the productions. That being said, I do have fond memories of watching The Wonderful World of Disney with my family on (I belive) Sunday nights in the 70s.
Ahh, the good old days.
I love Disney films especially the older ones. Some of the newer ones are not quite as good, but every once in awhile a gem like the Lion King comes out despite stealing direct scenes from Kimba the White Lion/Jungle Emperor Lio.
To be honest, I have pretty much given up on new Disney content since about 2000. I really love these old programs. It also holds a wave of nostalgia for me too.
I wrote an article a while back about a Disneyland episode that I will publish someday that goes into more detail why I like these Disneyland episodes. I seem to recall that these epiodes (or some of them) were syndicated in the early 1980s.
From the Wikipedia article...
"Around the same time as the 1980s ABC and NBC incarnations aired, reruns of older Disney episodes, airing under the Wonderful World of Disney banner, were syndicated to local stations in the United States.
Reruns of the shows were a staple of The Disney Channel for several years under the title Walt Disney Presents (which used the same title sequence as the 1980s CBS incarnation), when it was an outlet for vintage Disney cartoons, TV shows and movies, basically serving the same function that the anthology series served in the days before cable."
Exactly. Something tells me I was watching the old Disneyland program in reruns on KMSP ch.9 on Saturdays.
here is a site about Disney animated shorts, creators & rarities : Secrets of productions, unmade Disney, original documents... : http://facebook.com/tresorsdisney
Post a Comment