The Anticlimactic Anniversary Of Disney’s Hollywood Studios (Nobody Cared) - Goodbye To Mama Melrose
Disney's Hollywood Studios Anniversary
Transcript
0:02
Welcome everyone. Adam the Woo here as
0:02
the recording of his Thursday, May
0:05
1st,
0:06
2025, also known as the 36th anniversary
0:11
of my former favorite theme park ever.
0:16
Disney MGM Studios opened on this day in
0:19
1989. Hard to believe it's been a year
0:21
since the 35th. And those ceremonies
0:25
they have for today. Will they be doing
0:27
anything in the park today? Probably
0:28
not. There will probably not be one
0:30
shred of merchandise or anything
0:33
even alluding to the fact that it is the
0:37
anniversary of MGM Studios. Now, if you
0:40
go to Hollywood Studios now, still a
0:42
great place, but just a shell of what it
0:45
once
0:46
was. Love Hollywood, love the vibe of
0:49
Hollywood, the lore of old Hollywood.
0:53
And MGM was the first place that I
0:55
experienced that before even going and
0:58
visiting. SoCal or even
1:00
moving to California. So, it holds a
1:03
special place in my heart. There still
1:05
are still some remnants of the original
1:06
MGM, which I will show a little bit of
1:08
when I get in there, but I'm just going
1:11
to pop in, meet up with a friend who
1:13
also has a love of
1:17
MGM. That's That's
1:19
warm. That's really warm. I'm inviting
1:22
you to join me. Let's have a Walt Disney
1:26
World day.
1:29
Join me, shall you? I4 westbound looking
1:32
pretty smooth at this
1:34
hour. About 10:00 a.m. right now. Mickey
1:37
Power Pole, how you
1:41
doing? And I say former favorite theme
1:43
park because as much as I still enjoy
1:45
Hollywood Studios, it is not the top
1:48
pinnacle of my list anymore since they
1:50
got rid of so many things at the
1:51
studios.
1:57
Streets of America. That was kind of the
1:57
nail in the coffin, the icing on the
1:59
cake when they got rid of Streets of
2:01
America and Great Movie Ride. Well,
2:02
Streets of America first. And then when
2:04
Great Movie Ride went away, that's when
2:07
I decided I can't even call this MGM
2:09
Studios anymore. And that's when I
2:11
mentally made the switch to calling it
2:13
Hollywood Studios. Try to keep it old
2:16
school today and show some stuff that
2:17
was open in ' 89. But truth be told, not
2:21
really a whole heck of a lot, if
2:23
anything that's left, except structures.
2:25
Long before the Skyliner was even an
2:33
inkling in WDW's
2:33
eye, this place existed. Oh, what a
2:37
wonderful place it was and still is, but
2:40
was. We'll not be covering a lot of
2:42
opening day attractions and or
2:44
restaurants and things. I parked in 308.
2:47
I'm just going to walk it in. In fact,
2:50
I'm thinking there might not be any open
2:52
day attractions left. Star Tours open
2:55
later in ' 89. Towards the end of the
2:58
year in '89.
3:02
Yeah, I don't know if there is Hollywood
3:05
Tower that came that came later. Even
3:08
Indiana Jones was not opening day as far
3:12
as I can recollect. Also should be noted
3:14
that this is a good to go day. No
3:16
reservations needed. Not that you really
3:19
even need reservations here anymore at
3:21
WDW. They're they're pretty much always
3:23
open across the board. Always green for
3:26
all four parks 99.9% of the time. But
3:29
today's a good to go day. No reason to
3:31
open the My Disney Experience app and
3:34
make a reservation on an anniversary of
3:37
a theme park at Disney. What the heck?
3:39
In fact, 9 days from this moment, one of
3:44
my favorite restaurants that I always
3:45
eat at, Mama Melrose, which is not an
3:48
opening day, but opened a couple years
3:50
after. I think it opened in
3:53
'91ish, it's closing forever. So, I have
3:56
booked a reservation for Malro. Even
3:59
those reservations were wide open for
4:01
the whole lunch bracket from like 12 to
4:04
4:00. They were all open. I had no
4:07
trouble getting a reservation for Mama
4:09
Melrose. And the thing closes in a
4:12
little more than a week,
4:14
forever. There's a lot of good MGM stuff
4:17
in there. So, definitely want to
4:18
showcase that in great detail. It'll
4:20
it'll most likely be my last time in
4:21
there before it closes. Let's step back
4:23
into some
4:25
nostalgia. Showcase some things that
4:29
obviously were not here in ' 89. Also
4:32
should mention I did not was not here on
4:35
the opening in '89. First time I ever
4:38
arrived here was in 1991. My family and
4:41
I moved here in '91. So the park had
4:44
been open 2 years. That's when I really
4:47
started getting into going into the
4:48
parks a lot. Now we would come down here
4:50
once a year on
4:52
vacation once every two years. And that
4:55
kind of created and developed my love of
4:58
the Disney theme parks at a young age.
5:02
So about once a year, once every two
5:04
years up until ' 91, you know, from the
5:06
early 80s until ' 91. I was here pretty
5:09
often, you know, once a year. But then
5:11
after that in '91, started coming here
5:13
on a very regular basis. And MGM
5:16
Studios, now Hollywood Studios, was my
5:19
favorite place. It was the first place
5:21
that I had ever seen a tram tour. I had
5:24
never been to Hollywood. Never been to
5:25
the real LA. Didn't know what a tram
5:27
tour on a back lot was. That's when they
5:29
had all the all the facads. They had the
5:32
Earnest Saves Christmas House, the
5:33
Golden Girls house, the Bulldog Cafe
5:36
from Rocketeer. All that was torn down
5:39
for the car stunt show years later. And
5:43
that was the first time I'd ever seen
5:44
that. It was the first time I got a
5:45
behind the curtain peak at how movies
5:48
were made. I was obsessed with this
5:51
place. In fact, there is a good portion
5:54
of why I moved to the real Hollywood
5:56
because I fell in love with this place
5:58
first and started to really research and
6:02
have a fondness for SoCal and Hollywood
6:06
Boulevard and the greater Hollywood Los
6:08
Angeles area because of this place and
6:11
movies. And in a roundabout way, part of
6:15
the reason I fell in love with this
6:18
weird film making that I do, which I
6:20
guess you could call it that, picking up
6:21
a camera and filming something, even
6:23
though my stuff is definitely not, you
6:26
know, I'm not Kubric or Hitchcock by any
6:29
means, but this place
6:32
developed my enjoyment of picking up a
6:35
camera and filming stuff, which is what
6:37
I'm now doing for a
6:39
living. So, thank thank you, MGM
6:41
Studios. Thank you. Right after walking
6:43
in, there's two or three gift shops here
6:45
along their Hollywood Boulevard. I'm
6:48
noticing there is no anniversary
6:49
merchandise. In fact, over here they do
6:51
have this, which still has the Earful
6:53
Tower on which no longer exists. So, I
6:55
guess you could call that kind of a
6:57
throwback to the old school merch. And
6:59
this kind of reminds me, this coffee bug
7:01
reminds me a little bit of the uh the
7:04
old MGM Studios shirt. They just change
7:06
it to to Hollywood Studios. This back
7:08
This right here has the EF tower on it.
7:09
Goodness. This right here is a little uh
7:11
we're going to be losing Muppets soon.
7:13
We still have uh we still have Gertie
7:14
the dinosaur which I just showed.
7:16
There's a coffee mug of that. And
7:18
there's also this little tumbler of
7:20
Gertie as well. Shop still kind of has
7:22
that old MGM vibe as well. In fact,
7:25
there is a weatherworn sunbleleached
7:28
even though it is way in the corner.
7:29
Maybe you want to call it like heat lamp
7:31
light bleached out Casablanca poster
7:34
that's still over here which probably
7:36
was 89ish. But when you peruse around,
7:40
there is some pretty cool Hollywood
7:42
Studios merch. But I even checked on the
7:44
pins. There are no pins specifically for
7:46
today for the anniversary whatsoever. I
7:49
guess they didn't really celebrate the
7:50
36th anniversary. But there are a couple
7:52
cool t-shirts, which I might at some
7:54
point maybe buy one of the shirts, but
7:56
uh yeah, there's there's there's no
7:58
there's no anniversary merch at all
7:59
whatsoever. Not one shred of anything
8:01
alluding to the anniversary that I found
8:03
so far on Hollywood Boulevard. And maybe
8:05
as I get deeper into the park, they'll
8:06
have something, but nothing in the pen
8:09
trading store, nothing in the gift shops
8:11
along Hollywood Boulevard. There's a
8:13
couple on either side as you're walking
8:14
towards the Chinese Theater. But as the
8:16
day goes on, I'll see see what I can
8:18
find and see if anyone acknowledges it
8:20
whatsoever. I'm going to guess no with
8:22
the exception of one buddy who's showing
8:24
up. You're going to be here in a little
8:25
bit. Hop in Sid Quenga is right across
8:27
from the crossroads of the world. It's
8:29
used as a photo pass place now, but it
8:31
has all these old autographs still in
8:33
here. park first originally. Actually,
8:35
they've taken a lot of the autographs
8:36
down, but they used to have a lot of
8:37
autographs and signatures. Like, here's
8:39
one here. And they would sell these and
8:41
then when it switched over from the
8:42
selling store and they turned into the
8:44
photo pass place, they just left a lot
8:46
of the stuff in here. But I've noticed a
8:48
lot of stuff is gone over the years and
8:49
rechanged. Used to be a signed Willy
8:51
Wonka poster. Old school Willy Wonka
8:53
poster right here that has been removed.
8:55
Now, there's a Winnie the Pooh one. But
8:56
take a look at this. You got the
8:57
Universal Monsters on Walt Disney World
9:00
property. Isn't that very interesting?
9:01
Universal property. Hitchcock would be
9:05
proud. See, they just have like anything
9:07
old Hollywood, they would just have in
9:09
here. But take a look at this. Annette
9:11
Funachello and Frankie Avalon signed
9:14
this right up here. The old beach party.
9:16
Now, they just announced that they are
9:17
going to be putting the new Little
9:20
Mermaid stage show back in here. There
9:22
used to be the Little Mermaid stage
9:23
show. Now, they're changing it a little
9:24
bit. They're putting in the new version.
9:27
It's confirmed. I thought maybe it
9:28
wasn't going to happen because for a few
9:31
years it was just uh it was it was
9:33
announced it was going to happen and
9:34
then no further announcements that it
9:35
was confirmed. But now they got the
9:37
little movable hedges out front and uh
9:40
they've taken this down to put the to re
9:42
give a little TLC to the characters that
9:44
were up there and
9:47
soon soon it'll happen. Breeze new life
9:50
to this area back in here. I don't know
9:52
what the future holds for this section,
9:54
but right now it's uh you can see it's
9:56
just kind of a a stagnant area. There is
9:59
some stuff happening over there, but
10:00
once Mermaid starts to rear its head
10:02
back in here again, maybe that will be
10:04
the kind of kickstart, the kick in the
10:07
pants this area needs. Now, I like
10:09
again, I don't know what the future is,
10:10
but in my mind, I really wish I do like
10:13
Mickey and Mini Runaway Railway, but I
10:15
wish it had gone in an area like that. I
10:18
wish it had gone somewhere else other
10:19
than Great Movie Ride. Personally, for
10:21
me, in my own opinion, getting rid of
10:23
the Great Movie Ride was one of the
10:25
biggest mistakes that the Disney parks
10:27
ever made. What a classic. Wish it could
10:29
have stuck around. Don't know why it
10:31
left, but it's been a race from
10:34
existence. And I'm eternally going to be
10:36
sad about that. As I sit here, one of
10:39
probably three people that I know that
10:41
cherish this place as much as I do is
10:45
arriving wearing an appropriate t-shirt.
10:47
It is an appropriate t-shirt. Michael
10:49
Eisner. There it is. Lurking in the
10:51
shadows. I can't even see Eisner, which
10:53
is just how the Disney corporation wants
10:55
it to be now currently.
10:59
Adam, everybody, Adam's back from LA.
11:01
It's the world of Micah. It's me. Hello.
11:03
Welcome back. I have an Eisner shirt. I
11:05
worked at D23 one year. Yours is also I
11:08
thought about wearing mine, but then I
11:09
and then I started to think I bet
11:11
Micah's going to wear his. I thought you
11:12
were going to wear yours, and I didn't
11:13
want to be And I have another MGM shirt,
11:15
and I think we both have the same one.
11:17
And it's your Eiser shirt's different
11:20
than mine. I should have worn my Eiser
11:21
shirt now. I almost wore my uh Movie
11:23
Ride shirt, but I was just talking about
11:25
how Great Movie Ride was the nail in the
11:27
coffin for this place. And the biggest
11:30
mistake that Walt Disney World getting
11:32
rid of something has ever made. Yeah.
11:34
Well, in the last 10 years, 20 years, I
11:37
agree with that. Yeah, it was there's no
11:39
need for that. You could have put Mickey
11:41
somewhere else easily. on the other side
11:43
of this this archway has changed a
11:45
little bit, but there are some carvings
11:46
and things that's still on it. But if
11:48
you go on the other side of this
11:49
archway, there was plenty of photos
11:52
promoting the parks with Eisner. Plenty
11:56
of characters, Ninja Turtles, dinosaurs,
12:00
Beauty and the Beast. What were some of
12:01
the other characters that were in some
12:03
of those original promos? I remember the
12:05
Dick Tracy, Little Mermaid, Rocketeer,
12:07
maybe. Uh, I don't think they ever fit
12:09
into those no promo stuff. No, it's
12:12
weird. There is some Rocketeer stuff
12:14
around the park, too. There's a lot of
12:15
Roger Rabbit stuff, lot of Easter eggs
12:18
of Roger Rabbit. And there's a couple,
12:20
even a little quick service place that
12:23
has a little Rocketeer nod with some
12:25
Rocketeer, little merchandise, not
12:27
merchandise, but props that are kind of
12:29
hidden around that a lot of people don't
12:31
realize that are early in gym in Gym
12:32
Studios does. You can call this close to
12:35
an opening day attraction cuz this was
12:38
December of 89. December of 90. Of 90.
12:41
Okay. But it definitely was not opening
12:43
day. But it gets a it gets a a hard pass
12:46
as an opening day attraction cuz it's
12:48
about the only thing that's still open
12:50
that was close to an opening. Is there
12:52
any opening day attractions here
12:53
anymore? Indiana Jones. That was an
12:55
opening day. Indiana Jones wasn't No, it
12:58
was like later in the year. Wow. I think
13:00
we should look that up. We should fact
13:02
check that. Hello. about a half hour
13:04
till we're going to go to Mama Melrose.
13:06
So, I got to peruse around some of the
13:08
handprints over here in front of the
13:09
recreated Chinese Theater, just like the
13:11
one on Hollywood Boulevard. The
13:12
handprints are from 89 to 92, but
13:14
there's a couple that go even before nuh
13:17
90 before 89 opening day, like Michael
13:20
Landon here, Little House on the
13:22
Prairie. His is pre-opening day. He did
13:24
his handprints 1988, end of 1988, which
13:28
is kind of interesting to see the
13:30
handprints. Like, here's a 91. Here's a
13:32
99. So, that one kind of goes way past.
13:35
Here's a opening year as well. This was
13:37
actually on the 10th of May, 1989, right
13:40
over here. And then you have Eddie
13:42
Albert, which is 1990. Here you got Rick
13:44
Morannis, which is 89. Oh, this is
13:47
interesting. This is yesterday, 36 years
13:50
ago. This would have been April 30th of
13:53
89. Yeah. So, he signed that. Yeah.
13:55
Beforehand. This is when they had them
13:56
all on that footage of you can see them
13:58
driving down Hollywood on the star cap
14:00
on those cars. Muppet Vision didn't open
14:03
until I think 91. Not not an opening
14:05
year attraction, Muppet Vision, but
14:08
that'll be going away. It's going to be
14:09
going away in the very very near future.
14:12
Made it over into Mama Mel. This might
14:15
be my last time eating at Mama Melrose.
14:17
I love this place. Closes in like eight
14:19
or nine days and I will be out of the
14:21
country before the closing date. This is
14:24
definitely old school MGM Studios era.
14:28
Old school. All right, making our way
14:30
in. You're at mama's favorite table.
14:33
Mama's favorite table. This one. Is
14:35
there a plaque or anything? Well, it's
14:38
because she wants to keep an eye on
14:40
what's going on here. And you can see
14:42
them making you get to see them making
14:44
our food. Other happy stuff. All right.
14:46
Mama's favorite table. I like that.
14:47
Thanks for giving us the good seat.
14:49
Honestly, it's kind of weird to think
14:51
that this might be my last harrah here
14:54
at Mama Melrose. You think it'll be your
14:56
uh your last time here? It might be. It
14:58
might end up being right. Yeah, cuz I'm
14:59
I'm uh also leaving the state of
15:02
Florida, too. We're both leaving before
15:04
the end of the uh the closing of this. Y
15:06
we've eaten here 917 times uh since the
15:11
opening. Since we've been coming to the
15:13
park since the opening. That is some
15:15
quick service. Before I could even take
15:17
a sip of the minestronei, the the
15:20
spaghetti and meatballs have showed up
15:22
right there. It almost looks like Eisner
15:25
is about to chow down on some of those
15:27
delicious meatballs right there. Look at
15:28
that. You know, he ate in here at least
15:30
once. Oh yeah, right there. Eisner. Look
15:32
at he's just like going to town on the
15:35
on the meatballs. Got Lou Farigno over
15:37
here. The Incredible Hulk. His thing is
15:39
interesting is Lou's handprints are not
15:41
in front of the Chinese theater even
15:42
though there's a photo of him getting
15:44
his handprints done which is kind of
15:46
kind of interesting
15:48
right there stars. Here's John Aston
15:52
driving in front of Sid Kahenas which I
15:54
was at earlier. Here's Sandy Duncan. Be
15:56
the last time I probably see this Sandy
15:58
Duncan photo is the the only photo I've
16:02
ever seen in the park current day of
16:06
Eisner right there with Carrie Fischer,
16:08
Mark Hamill, 3PO, the Ewoks, and George
16:13
Lucas right there. Take a look at this,
16:15
Micah, because this will be the last
16:17
time Eisner's face will be in you'll see
16:20
Eisner's face in this park. You're
16:22
right. It's the only photo I've ever
16:23
seen of him on property. Karinda, here
16:24
it is. One last look at Mama
16:27
Melrose. My last uh my last pop in and
16:30
my last spaghetti and meatballs from
16:32
Mama Melrose. I think Pizza Rizzos is
16:35
closing around the same time as Muppet
16:37
Vision, which I think closes yet another
16:39
month for Muppet Vision. So, a little
16:41
time on that.
16:54
All right, we are now in the Indiana
16:55
Jones stunt
16:57
spectacular opening year. Not opening
17:00
day, but opening year 8. So many times
17:03
when I say action, I need you to laugh,
17:05
but not just a little giggle. I need a
17:08
big goofy belly laugh. Really keep it
17:11
going. Don't stop until I yell cut. And
17:14
I want you to try to be that one laugh
17:17
that I hear above everybody else. Here
17:19
we go. Action.
17:44
and cut. All right, that was amazing.
17:44
I'm pretty sure there's a hyena
17:46
somewhere over there. And then there's
17:48
that guy right there. Come on, stand up
17:51
all by yourself. Ready,
18:02
go. Salacious. This is weird.
18:02
You're completely
18:04
omitting the fire truck explosion scene.
18:12
We're just skipping the whole thing when
18:12
the truck comes around and catches on
18:14
fire.
18:28
All right, going to start heading out
18:28
now. One thing that was interesting
18:30
about Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular, a
18:33
lot of stuff wasn't working at the
18:34
beginning when Indie falls down off the
18:35
rope before the spikes come up and all
18:38
that. The fire effect out of the ground
18:42
wasn't working. And then at the very
18:44
end, well, halfway through when the
18:46
truck catches on fire, that whole scene,
18:48
they they just skip that whole scene,
18:51
which was kind of strange, right? Yeah.
18:52
It seems like over the years they've
18:54
they've edited and changed things. It's
18:56
not It's not as good as it once was. No,
18:58
it's still all right,
19:00
but not as good as it once was. Yeah,
19:02
the finale with the explosions was kind
19:04
of lackluster this time. They didn't
19:06
have the the when the flames are on the
19:08
ground, those weren't there either.
19:11
But nonetheless, we still celebrated the
19:14
36th anniversary of the this park. We
19:17
might have been the only ones. I don't
19:19
even know if anyone else knew that today
19:21
was the anniversary. None of the cast
19:22
members that we talked to. None of them
19:24
knew. The none of the shows we saw or
19:28
cast members we saw stated it. There was
19:32
no signage. There was no merchandise.
19:34
There was no
19:39
acknowledgement. But we knew in our
19:39
hearts. We knew. We knew. So, a year
19:41
ago, it was the 35th, we were over in
19:43
the Beauty and the Beast Theater
19:45
watching the 35th anniversary of the
19:47
Muppets there. And then 6 years ago, we
19:51
watched a parade. Oh, man. The parade.
19:54
The indie fight. And they had the indie
19:57
fight, which was cool. And when that
19:58
happened, me and you were both like,
20:01
"Yes." And then they also was the first
20:03
time we saw the uniforms
20:07
or the outfits that the cast members in
20:09
Galaxy's Edge were going to wear. That's
20:11
right. That was pretty cool.
20:14
Nonetheless,
20:15
happy birthday. Happy anniversary.
20:19
Disney MGM Studios. I don't call it that
20:21
anymore, but I'll call it that today.
20:22
Yeah, it's it's expected on a day like
20:25
today. Yeah. The Hollywood that never
20:27
was and always will
20:29
be the vlog. It's over for you.