Walt Disney Studio Showcase - Backstage at Disney (1983)

The Walt Disney Studio Showcase was one of the original TV series on the newly launched Disney Channel. It was a monthly anthology series that sometimes included behind the scenes sequences or presented obscure films to American audiences as Disney discoveries. Like most of the early Disney Channel content, it went away when the Eisner regime took over the company.

In this super rare documentary, author, researcher, reporter, and publicist John Culhane takes you on a tour of what the Walt Disney Studios was like before the Eisner regime took over. That makes this film a tremendous time capsule of this turbulent time in Walt Disney history. Culhane was an entertainment writer who actually got to interview Walt Disney as a teenager in the 1950's. He later wrote several books on the film industry with a few focusing on Disney. His nickname around the studio was "Snoops" because he was always digging into everything. In his honor, Madame Medusa's henchman was named Mr Snoops. and made to be a caricature of him in The Rescuers. Culhane was also later caricatured as Flying John in the Rhapsody in Blue sequence of Fantasia 2000.

This was a time of transition at the Walt Disney Studios so we get a glimpse at the productions of many of the darker films being produced at that time. On this tour we see how sound effects are added to the live action horror film Something Wicked This Way Comes. Later we return to this film and witness some of the film score being recorded with James Horner. Horner was one of the most prolific film composers of the latter half of the 20th century. His score was actually the second version written and recorded for the film when the original score by Georges Delere was deemed too dark. Ray Bradybury is also seen present in this footage as it was his book and screenplay the film was based on.

We are introduced to a young Tim Burton who's developing the stop motion film Vincent and the live action Disney Channel Halloween special Hansel & Gretel. It would air as the Halloween Studio Showcase episode later that year. These were Burton's very first directorial debuts and for years rarely seen. Hansel & Gretel only aired once it alarmed the studio brass so much. He was forced out of the studio after making a featurette film for the reissue of Pinocchio, Frankenweenie, when it garnered a PG rating for the atmosphere of it. That film later led to Burton directing Peeweee's Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, and Batman.

There's also behind the scenes segments on other films being produced by Walt Disney Productions at the time such as Tron, Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend, Never Cry Wolf, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit. We also get to see some material on the short lived network TV series Zorro & Son and the upcoming animated feature The Black Cauldron. In each of these segments we see interviews with the creative people who were developing these projects. The Roger Rabbit segment, in particular, is fascinating because this was the version of the film that didn't get made. Even though this Roger Rabbit design (voiced by Peewee Herman star Paul Reubens) wasn't the version in the final film, that character design had a cameo in the audience of the Sports Goofy featurette Soccermania.

We also drop by to see how the animatronic dinosaur for Baby: Secret of the Lost Legend was being developed. Originally a Walt Disney Productions film, this became a Touchstone Pictures release when more mature undertones were added hoping to make the film more mainstream. Later, it was edited into a more family friend version that aired on TV under the Wonderful World of Disney banner.

Matte painting is covered with Harrison Ellenshaw. His father was the famous Walt Disney matte painter Peter Ellenshaw who worked on every Walt Disney live action film for decades. Harrison learned at his father's knee and he went on to do the matte paintings on the original Star Wars trilogy himself. He later returned to Disney to work on The Black Hole and other films.

We also get to see some of what the backlot looked like before Eisner demolished it for a parking lot.

In all, this is a remarkable glimpse into the Walt Disney Studio just before things changed forever.

Original airdate June 23, 1983

Posted for historical purposes. This channel is not affiliated with the Walt Disney Company.