A Hippie in the House of Mouse (Jim Henson at Disney, 1980)
- Thread starter Geekhis Khan
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I'd so pay to see either of those. But no, even Disney under Henson isn't going there. Totally ripe for Robot Chicken though.
I'll eventually get to Discovery Island.
Basically the same. The Butterfly strikes in 1983 after all the OTL groundwork is laid.
There was another attempt to adapt Awdry's stories for TV on the BBC in 1953, and this was The Sad Story of Henry (which was the first episode of The Railway Series). According to the tvtropes.org site, to put it mildly, it was a trainwreck, featuring, amongst other things, superimposed rain (since the story was about Henry refusing to come out because he didn't want to ruin his paintwork), live narration from a script, and a model railway (the Hornby 00 model railway, as a matter of fact) that had the models move jerkily (the operator apparently forgot to set some points) and Henry derailed, on the air. Then, as if that weren't bad enough, a human hand was seen putting him back onto the rails--on camera. Oh, and the topping on the sundae--Reverend Awdry and the Marriott family were watching while this was going on. The resulting press coverage was so bad (which superseded the trial of serial killer John Christie) that the rest of the planned episodes were canceled, and that's why there wasn't another attempt until the Thomas the Tank Engine series which was way more successful...
A literal train wreck for sure! That would certainly explain why Rev. Awdry was so resistant to Alcott at first.
The fact that Thomas doesn't air on PBS makes me wonder what PBS will be like. Any scrapped shows for the early 80's?
Okay, not really, but you get the idea.
Okay, not really, but you get the idea.
That feels like something out of a youtube video a 7-year old would make, only even worse and with no excuses for how bad it was.
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I always forget Ringo Starr was on Shining Time Station... when I was growing up it was George Carlin.
Shining Time Station, at least as we know it, is likely butterflied here since Thomas came to the US on his own 6 years earlier (Britt created STS as a way to bring T&F to the US). There may be Thomas spin-offs, though.
I'm surprised that as much of a train guy that Walt Disney was, he didn't show interest in the stories.
This exactly. They were popular in England but hadn't really broken into the States until the late '80s with STS. Walt Disney would have loved the stories (wholesome "work hard and get along" teamwork stories staring anthropomorphic trains?!? Are you kidding?!? It's like Walt-crack!) and IMO and would have sought to acquire the rights I'm sure.
I'm sure Henson would want that, the bigger issue is Economics. The Monorail is ludicrously expensive per mile, like millions of dollars a mile by some estimates (there's a Disney Dan or Yesterworld video about it on Youtube I saw a while back). That said, circling further around the lakes to connect future hotels may be an option.
Hopefully, George Carlin will still narrate when Ringo leaves, right?
RE: Walt the train geek not finding out about the stories...
I do wonder about that, after all he found Mary Poppins!!!! Wasn't that as much obscure as Thomas? Beyond my knowledge base because I was reading every Landmark book I could get my hands on from the ages of 7 on....
I do wonder about that, after all he found Mary Poppins!!!! Wasn't that as much obscure as Thomas? Beyond my knowledge base because I was reading every Landmark book I could get my hands on from the ages of 7 on....
I honestly don't know. Maybe he found them and didn't like them, or tried to get the rights and failed. I'm only speculating here. Anyone know for sure?
As to who comes after Ringo, TBD, but I really liked George Carlin there myself.
PS: in this timeline psychologists will talk about the "Thomas Effect" about why so many American toddlers in the '80s started pronouncing certain words with a Liverpudlian accent, much as we talk about the "Peppa Effect" today.
I, for one, welcome the resurgence of the Mid-Atlantic accent in the United States.
Jack Lindquist II: Pranks and Parties
Chapter 19: Good Times on Set: Pranks and Parties!
Excerpt from In the Service of the Mouse: A Memoir, by Jack Lindquist
One of the least appreciated skills of our fantastic Disney creative team is the subtle art of the prank. With so many creative types running around the studios, parks, and workshops, many of whom are by nature high-energy and in need of an occasional distraction, such things are to be expected or even welcomed. Usually these pranks are small and simple: a satirical cartoon, an office filled with balloons, dressing up an audio-animatronic figure in something silly, rearranging merchandise into Hidden Mickeys. But sometimes these pranks are so big that they become legend, like the time the Animators distributed Pocket Protectors to all of the Imagineers. Sometimes the pranks are so big that they even make headlines. An Imagineer who went to Caltech, and who shall remain nameless, pulled off the famous “Mickey Hack” at MIT. Other times, the pranks even change the course of Disney history.
It was not long after the Muppets joined the Disney team that one such event occurred. The Muppets crew were certainly no strangers to epic pranks. While filming The Muppet Show in London, the Muppets team replaced all of the working figures on the huge mural in the Elstree commissary with paper cutouts of the Muppets. The Elstree crew loved it so much that the figures stayed up for years. In the early 1980s when the Muppets team first came on board at Disney Studios, the Animation Department artists had a prank lined up for them. One evening a crew of animators snuck into the Muppets Workshop and taped paper Mickey Mouse ears onto all of the Muppets hanging there.
Duly amused for the most part despite the violation of the inner sanctum, the Muppets crew struck back. “They definitely messed with the wrong crew,” Puppeteer David Goelz told me with a laugh after the fact. “We all learned from the Don Sahlin School of Prankdom. Don once hid a squib [prop explosive] in my desk and rigged it to a switch under his. I was sipping my morning coffee and ‘BLAM!’ up goes my paperwork[1].”
Over the weekend, the Ink & Paint Department bore the brunt of their efforts. The Muppets crew covered all the walls and desks of the Ink & Paint Department with taped-up drawings and magazine cutouts of Peru, Incan warriors, Nazca lines, the ancient ruins of Machu Pichu, and drawn or stuffed Llamas. One wall received a temporary chalk fresco of an anthropomorphic llama dressed like an Incan Emperor. The “Inking & Painting” sign above the door was covered with a new sign proclaiming it the “Incan Paint Department”.
It was a worthy prank, the animators felt, and a good sign that the Muppets Crew were in good company. In fact, the animators loved the chalk llama fresco so much that they used actual paint to make it a permanent mural, now dubbed “Inky the Llama”, who became the mascot of the department. Such back-and-forth pranks have continued to this day.
I, of course, felt the need to document all of this madness. My first picture book of Disney Pranks! was published in 1990 and has received updates every few years with each new printing. Page after glorious page of full-color pranks, from shaving cream in the desk-sleeper’s palm to computer mice replaced with stuffed Cinderella mice to Sahlin-style exploding desks (now called “Don’s alarm clock”). There are Animation sequences with the wrong characters (Dopey Babies, Sir Kermit vs. the Horned King!). Various incongruous characters hidden throughout the parks (Princess Piggy waving from a window in Cinderella’s Castle). Your favorite Disney creative artists as victims of practical jokes and desk pranks. Even some of the more family friendly satirical cartoons made it into the book. It remains a good seller to this day.
The flip side to the pranks were, of course, the parties! Disney was famous for having some good company parties (and infamous in the case of 1938’s Walt’s Field Day!). Of all the creative groups at Disney, however, Imagineering led the way. Their Christmas and Halloween parties were and are the stuff of legend. The level of creativity seen in some of the costumes is unbelievable. Jim Henson and the Muppets team also had a reputation for great parties. Elaborate costumes were the name of the game. Masked balls became a pastime. Entirely new Muppets, not all of them in keeping with audience expectations[2], would be crafted just for the events. Jim Henson in particular made it a personal challenge to see how long he could go unnoticed in costume before someone called him out.
Naturally, when these two Shiva-like forces of chaos and creation came together, things reached a new level. There’s a combined staff party every Christmas, usually taking up an entire sound stage, but individual parties persist. Animation, Imagineering, Muppetry, 3D, and the Studios all have their own parties, but over time various groups have been invited to or at least crashed each other’s events. In this atmosphere creativity in costuming became an inter-departmental challenge. Some costumes have included moving parts, electronics, lights, sounds, or just such fabulous layers of fabric that it’s amazing that there’s a human somewhere under it all.
Over the years I’ve occasionally documented some of these costumes and events, though my hopes for a picture book were rejected. Sometimes it’s about privacy, but other times it’s about public image. Even so, nowhere else in the world have I ever seen such a display of raw creativity and joy in one room as I have again and again and again when Disney crew meet to play.
[1] This joke is described in Muppet Guys Talking.
[2] The infamous “Nookie Monster” comes to mind.
Excerpt from In the Service of the Mouse: A Memoir, by Jack Lindquist
One of the least appreciated skills of our fantastic Disney creative team is the subtle art of the prank. With so many creative types running around the studios, parks, and workshops, many of whom are by nature high-energy and in need of an occasional distraction, such things are to be expected or even welcomed. Usually these pranks are small and simple: a satirical cartoon, an office filled with balloons, dressing up an audio-animatronic figure in something silly, rearranging merchandise into Hidden Mickeys. But sometimes these pranks are so big that they become legend, like the time the Animators distributed Pocket Protectors to all of the Imagineers. Sometimes the pranks are so big that they even make headlines. An Imagineer who went to Caltech, and who shall remain nameless, pulled off the famous “Mickey Hack” at MIT. Other times, the pranks even change the course of Disney history.
It was not long after the Muppets joined the Disney team that one such event occurred. The Muppets crew were certainly no strangers to epic pranks. While filming The Muppet Show in London, the Muppets team replaced all of the working figures on the huge mural in the Elstree commissary with paper cutouts of the Muppets. The Elstree crew loved it so much that the figures stayed up for years. In the early 1980s when the Muppets team first came on board at Disney Studios, the Animation Department artists had a prank lined up for them. One evening a crew of animators snuck into the Muppets Workshop and taped paper Mickey Mouse ears onto all of the Muppets hanging there.
Duly amused for the most part despite the violation of the inner sanctum, the Muppets crew struck back. “They definitely messed with the wrong crew,” Puppeteer David Goelz told me with a laugh after the fact. “We all learned from the Don Sahlin School of Prankdom. Don once hid a squib [prop explosive] in my desk and rigged it to a switch under his. I was sipping my morning coffee and ‘BLAM!’ up goes my paperwork[1].”
Over the weekend, the Ink & Paint Department bore the brunt of their efforts. The Muppets crew covered all the walls and desks of the Ink & Paint Department with taped-up drawings and magazine cutouts of Peru, Incan warriors, Nazca lines, the ancient ruins of Machu Pichu, and drawn or stuffed Llamas. One wall received a temporary chalk fresco of an anthropomorphic llama dressed like an Incan Emperor. The “Inking & Painting” sign above the door was covered with a new sign proclaiming it the “Incan Paint Department”.
It was a worthy prank, the animators felt, and a good sign that the Muppets Crew were in good company. In fact, the animators loved the chalk llama fresco so much that they used actual paint to make it a permanent mural, now dubbed “Inky the Llama”, who became the mascot of the department. Such back-and-forth pranks have continued to this day.
I, of course, felt the need to document all of this madness. My first picture book of Disney Pranks! was published in 1990 and has received updates every few years with each new printing. Page after glorious page of full-color pranks, from shaving cream in the desk-sleeper’s palm to computer mice replaced with stuffed Cinderella mice to Sahlin-style exploding desks (now called “Don’s alarm clock”). There are Animation sequences with the wrong characters (Dopey Babies, Sir Kermit vs. the Horned King!). Various incongruous characters hidden throughout the parks (Princess Piggy waving from a window in Cinderella’s Castle). Your favorite Disney creative artists as victims of practical jokes and desk pranks. Even some of the more family friendly satirical cartoons made it into the book. It remains a good seller to this day.
The flip side to the pranks were, of course, the parties! Disney was famous for having some good company parties (and infamous in the case of 1938’s Walt’s Field Day!). Of all the creative groups at Disney, however, Imagineering led the way. Their Christmas and Halloween parties were and are the stuff of legend. The level of creativity seen in some of the costumes is unbelievable. Jim Henson and the Muppets team also had a reputation for great parties. Elaborate costumes were the name of the game. Masked balls became a pastime. Entirely new Muppets, not all of them in keeping with audience expectations[2], would be crafted just for the events. Jim Henson in particular made it a personal challenge to see how long he could go unnoticed in costume before someone called him out.
Naturally, when these two Shiva-like forces of chaos and creation came together, things reached a new level. There’s a combined staff party every Christmas, usually taking up an entire sound stage, but individual parties persist. Animation, Imagineering, Muppetry, 3D, and the Studios all have their own parties, but over time various groups have been invited to or at least crashed each other’s events. In this atmosphere creativity in costuming became an inter-departmental challenge. Some costumes have included moving parts, electronics, lights, sounds, or just such fabulous layers of fabric that it’s amazing that there’s a human somewhere under it all.
Over the years I’ve occasionally documented some of these costumes and events, though my hopes for a picture book were rejected. Sometimes it’s about privacy, but other times it’s about public image. Even so, nowhere else in the world have I ever seen such a display of raw creativity and joy in one room as I have again and again and again when Disney crew meet to play.
[1] This joke is described in Muppet Guys Talking.
[2] The infamous “Nookie Monster” comes to mind.
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