Originally Posted By TomSawyer The History Channel series "Modern Marvels" had a two hour episode last night about WDW. It was a pretty recent show, definitely filmed in the last year. I only watched an hour of it, but what was there was pretty interesting. There was a lot of footage of early Disneyland, including some color footage of Tomorrowland with the Phantom Boat lagoon that I'd never seen before. There was also some footage of the construction of MK and footage in the utilidors, as well as some footage of opening day and part of Roy's opening day speech. They focused on a couple of attractions, including the monorail and Soarin. They interviewed Bob Gurr for a few parts of the show. The imagineer who figured out the ride mechanism for Soarin' showed the erector set model he made of it. Gurr talked about the monorail, of course, and a few other things. They also had a segment about the fireworks show at EPCOT. The second hour seems to have more about DAK and MGM. There were some errors in the show - they kept saying that Walt bought the property in Florida to build a massive theme park, and some of the archival footage they showed didn't match what they were talking about - but only things that Disney geeks like us would notice. (They talked about the construction of Disneyland while showing the monorail tracks being built there, for example.) But the footage was worth seeing and it was interesting to see a show about WDW from an engineering/design perspective. I just looked and the show is available on DVD from the History Channel <a href="http://store.aetv.com/html/product/index.jhtml?id=74566" target="_blank">http://store.aetv.com/html/pro duct/index.jhtml?id=74566</a>
Originally Posted By sherrytodd I watched the whole thing last night. It was very good and really went into the details of how some specific rides and attractions were designed and how they work. The second hour focused on MGM Studios and DAK. At MGM is focused on ToT, Rockin' and the stunt car show. It showed how the launch systme worked on Rockin' and what I thought was pretty interesting was how the stunt cars are designed. At DAK it showed how the Tree of Life was designed and built, the Safaris, Countdown to Extinction and also showed Lucky. It ended with some information on how Expedition Everest is designed and built. I thought it was one of the best shows on WDW that I've seen.
Originally Posted By mickey_ring The construction of the Tree of Life was great to watch. Ain't it cool how the trunk is part of an offshore oil rig? The segment on the Kilimanjaro Safari was interesting too. According to the narration, KS with real animals is the realization of Walt's original idea for the Jungle Cruise. That info will end up in LP's Trivia and Games section someday.
Originally Posted By sherrytodd I thought that the section on Expedition Everest was neat how it is constructed in three sections that can't connect; the static mountain, the dynamic roller coaster and the Yeti.
Originally Posted By Labuda Thanks for the link, Tom - just ordered the DVD based on the great info y'all have posted here so far.
Originally Posted By Disneymom443 I'm hoping that they will play it again. All my extra $$$ goes to your WDW trip.
Originally Posted By LadyandtheTramp ^^^I'm hoping too, but a quick visit to the History Channel website doesn't list any more repeats for this show - only ads for purchase of the DVD. Darn - fell asleep last night just about when they were going into detail on MGM.
Originally Posted By Disneymom443 That's about 41 weeks away, I'll be on my way to WDW. I guess I'd miss that one too. ( If they played it on Christmas)
Originally Posted By Kennesaw Tom I just ordered a copy. I know I will get good use out of it and just about every member of my family enjoys Disney as well.
Originally Posted By sherrytodd Per the Comcast Cable Guide, this episode will be repeated again on March 23rd.
Originally Posted By mickeyfreak13 For those of who did not catch it is well worth the time and effort. I caught it from 11:00 pm - 1:00 am. Well worth the lost sleep....hmm I geuss I am a Disney geek. ;-)
Originally Posted By mrichmondj I thought this was one of the better Disney "documentaries" I've seen. I DVR'd it a couple of months ago -- I just wish the cable company would catch up with Tivo and let me burn these shows to DVD from my cable box. :-(
Originally Posted By indysoarin19 If you listen to the Inside the Magic podcast, Ricky was saying it was on again soon. His link (I think, not sure) is bartlett-sloane.net/tv
Originally Posted By ssWEDguy >> Per the Comcast Cable Guide, this episode will be repeated again on March 23rd. << What time on March 23rd? Thanks.
Originally Posted By Labuda Actually, that's the link RIcky uses, but the tv listings are actually doen by someone else.
Originally Posted By sherrytodd >>>> Per the Comcast Cable Guide, this episode will be repeated again on March 23rd. << What time on March 23rd? Thanks.<< Well in Colorado it was scheduled from 6am-8am and again at 12n-2pm.
