Originally Posted By mstaft -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 0 What do you guys think? As a posted on my blog this morning, the results are clearly mixed. Is he a hero- as seen in greenlighting Splash Mountain and Indiana Jones- or a foe of the parks, viewed as dumbing down Disneyland with character infusions and allowing California Adventure to come to fruitition as it did? www.insightsandsounds.blogspot.com
Originally Posted By Witches of Morva ORGOCH: Never mind whether er not he's a friend ta the parks! A better question is whether er not he's a friend er foe ta the whole dang WORLD!! I say he's big ol' THREAT, myself! Lock him up 'n throw away the key!! Put him underground with the rest a the demons down there!
Originally Posted By mawnck Foe. He greenlighted Pressler. (Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in the joke above are not necessarily those of the poster, who's kind of neutral on the whole thing.)
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo Friend. Without Eisner, there may not have been any more Disney parks, let alone DLP, DAK, or TDS. He turned around dining and hotels, making them much more interesting, and really did green light far more good than bad!
Originally Posted By Dabob2 Why the need to categorize? Why the need to choose between A and B, good or bad, friend or foe, hero or villain? Why so binary? Why can't we say his legacy was mixed - this was good, not was not so good, this was bad? IMO, he was around a long time and made his share of both good and bad decisions. That may not be as satisfying an answer viscerally - just more accurate.
Originally Posted By Mickeyfan1 I must agree with Dabob2 and davewasbaloo. Michael Eisner was a major shot in the arm for the entire company in his early years. The team of Eisner and Wells could not be beat. Had they not come on board I honestly don't think there would be a Walt Disney Company today, and who knows who control the theme parks would be under. In my opinion Eisner and Wells saved the company when they came on board. However things really changed when Wells was killed in the unfortunate helicoptor crash in 1994. Michael and Frank reminded me of Walt and Roy. Like Walt, Michael would come up with these wonderful ideas, and like Roy, Frank would figure out a way to reel him back in at times or find the necessary ways to make the dream come true. As mentinoed earlier thanks to Eisner we saw such growth at Walt Disney World and then working with Roy Jr. the rebirth of Disney animation. After Wells' death the team was broken and Eisner just could not let go of things. The departure of Katzenberg was also a blow to the company I feel. It's two bad Michael and Jeffery could not work better together. Personally I think they would have made a great team. I think the real downfall came with Paul Pressler. I was working at Disneyland at the time and Pressler truly wanted to turn Disneyland into a giant Disney Store that had a few attractions around them I feel. That is when all the,what I call, speciality non-Disney items started to leave. By this I mean the "California" made items we carried in the Emporium, the Men's and Women's counter which carried some very unique gift items, and the Doll counter which was on of Mrs. Disney's favorite places to stop by when she came into the Park. I still consider it a highlight of working at Disneyland when I got to help Mrs. Disney at the Doll Conter one day. What a nice lady. Anyway this is also when things started closing down and the Park in general begain to fall apart. Cynthia Harris was not much better, but thankfully Matt Ouimet came on board and Disneyland was returned to it's pristine look for the 50th Anniversary. Sadly Matt has now left. When Michael finally "retired" I think it was time, but I honestly we need to look at his legacy with mixed emotions. He did many good things for the company and Disneyland. Let's not cut his legacy too short. Again, my opinion only.
Originally Posted By Mickeyfan1 I must agree with Dabob2 and davewasbaloo. Michael Eisner was a major shot in the arm for the entire company in his early years. The team of Eisner and Wells could not be beat. Had they not come on board I honestly don't think there would be a Walt Disney Company today, and who knows who control the theme parks would be under. In my opinion Eisner and Wells saved the company when they came on board. However things really changed when Wells was killed in the unfortunate helicoptor crash in 1994. Michael and Frank reminded me of Walt and Roy. Like Walt, Michael would come up with these wonderful ideas, and like Roy, Frank would figure out a way to reel him back in at times or find the necessary ways to make the dream come true. As mentinoed earlier thanks to Eisner we saw such growth at Walt Disney World and then working with Roy Jr. the rebirth of Disney animation. After Wells' death the team was broken and Eisner just could not let go of things. The departure of Katzenberg was also a blow to the company I feel. It's two bad Michael and Jeffery could not work better together. Personally I think they would have made a great team. I think the real downfall came with Paul Pressler. I was working at Disneyland at the time and Pressler truly wanted to turn Disneyland into a giant Disney Store that had a few attractions around them I feel. That is when all the,what I call, speciality non-Disney items started to leave. By this I mean the "California" made items we carried in the Emporium, the Men's and Women's counter which carried some very unique gift items, and the Doll counter which was on of Mrs. Disney's favorite places to stop by when she came into the Park. I still consider it a highlight of working at Disneyland when I got to help Mrs. Disney at the Doll Conter one day. What a nice lady. Anyway this is also when things started closing down and the Park in general begain to fall apart. Cynthia Harris was not much better, but thankfully Matt Ouimet came on board and Disneyland was returned to it's pristine look for the 50th Anniversary. Sadly Matt has now left. When Michael finally "retired" I think it was time, but I honestly think we need to look at his legacy with mixed emotions. He did many good things for the company and Disneyland. Let's not cut his legacy too short. Again, my opinion only.
Originally Posted By Mickeyfan1 Sorry about the duplicate post. I thought I could hit the "stop" button before the first one went up to correct one thing. My apologizes.
Originally Posted By Witches of Morva ORDDU: My sisters and I used to think highly of Michael Eisner--until after Frank Wells' unfortunate death. Then Mr. Eisner's true colors started to show. A good Imagineer friend of ours who used to work with him back in the late 80's and early 90's had plenty of things to say about what a scoundrel he was towards her and others. When Mr. Wells was alive, he kept Mr. Eisner under control. Without that control, a monster was unleashed.
Originally Posted By trekkeruss LOL. Please... Hitler was a monster. Eisner was just some guy who was CEO of a big company. Ask Joe Blow what Eisner did for or "against" Disney and you'll likely get, 'I dunno."
Originally Posted By Goofyernmost Only by people with ADD. Eisner, although seeming a little "possessed" toward the end basically save Disney from a huge takeover attempt. He gave us almost all we see now. Epcot, DHS, DAK, enough hotel rooms to house a small country and lots more. His best stuff did come before Frank died, but, there was some pretty good stuff after. I think the problem was that he later surrounded himself with young people that just didn't get what Disney was all about. There only goal was to climb the ladder and establish their own golden parachute. I think he took a lot of bad advise, but, when you micro-manage a mammoth of that size, you might expect to be a bit overwhelmed, so you kind of have to listen to ideas, good or bad. Like, for example, I'd like to know who advised him that he would look good in a buzz cut. He's got a head the size of one of the foam head characters, the haircut only made it worse. I guess that what I'm saying is that he did, as most do, his best work in the beginning. It's easy to change things when there is a lot to change. Eventually one just runs out of new workable ideas.
Originally Posted By Mr X ***Is he a hero- as seen in greenlighting Splash Mountain and Indiana Jones*** There are definitely those that see those attractions as minuses rather than pluses (not me though, I LOVE splash mountain...indy is okay too).
Originally Posted By Mr X ***He gave us almost all we see now. Epcot, *** I always heard Epcot was "pre-eisner"?
Originally Posted By dshyates EPCOT was the reason they hired Eisner. After the opening of EPCOT Disney was very close to a hostile takeover. Eisner saved the company. Friend. Then after Frank Wells died Mikey got the chance to implement his game plan. But before he implemented his game plan he sold 500 million of his Disney Stock options. After his money was safe, he went with supersaturation marketing. He knew there would be an immediate explosion in profit, but it would be very short term as everybody will quickly tire of the novelty of being able to wipe your tushie with the smiling face of Mickey. He also started greenlighting cheap carnival crap for the parks. And entire new parks in new markets with no attractions. Disney's California Adventure is truly a testiment to the Eisner Era. I believe that the damage done to the Disney Brand reputation by Eisner far outweighs the few good attractions he greenlight. Now Disney is looked at as the greediest, lowest common denominator, entertainment company out there. Given his performance after Frank Wells died, I'm giving all the credit of Eisner's early success to Well's. He should have been given the CEO position. And Eisner should have stayed at Paramount.
Originally Posted By mstaft To me, ultimately, Eisner comes out of it like an ex-wife: beloved, bautiful, and wonderful at first, disdained at best when things go sour! www.insightsandsounds.blogspot.com
