5 Abandoned Remnants of the Old MGM Studios

Take a peek behind the curtain, take a look behind the... camera... Take a gander through the... I dunno, the viewfinder? I'll work on it. Ever wonder what's left over from Hollywood Studios' early days as MGM Studios? Wonder no longer.

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[blackbears]

Oh the joy of hearing “Hello I’m Michael Eisner” and wondering if he’s about to create a top tier attraction.. or send the company into massive dept

[williamcrossley]

Now that the Great Movie Ride is gone we really need the Muppets Great Movie Ride. That way we could still experience a version of the classic ride.

[johnn]

DHS definitely needs more Muppets, we were robbed of Muppets Studios.

[elementalturnip]

DHS Cast Member here! In the backstage areas kinda between Galaxy's Edge and Toy Story Land/Pixar Place there are still remnants of the old Streets of America facades. They've definitely seen better days but they're still there. Obviously all of that stuff is out of guest view and I had no idea until I had to go back there for something but yeah.

[turcj]

Disney should give some love to the Muppets. Since they just replaced the seats, I would guess that Muppet Vision is sticking around - as it should. They should turn Mama Melrose's into character dining: reopen that huge Muppet Store: and turn Star Tours into a Muppet ride - Pigs in Space would be an easy and comical overlay.

[buildingthemagic]

One more for the books: some of the street signs on Sunset Boulevard still bear the original “seal” of the park - with the Earful Tower in its unredacted. The trash cans have that modified one, but you can still find a few of the good old ones here and there.

[BahamaVader]

Man Hollywood Studios has come a LONG way. I love what it is today, but I really do miss the great movie ride.

[KYLO_JEN]

One of the remnants I enjoy the most is the end of Muppet Vision when they blast through the wall of the theater and it shows what MGM looked like at the time they filmed the bit.

[Double-R-Nothing]

#5 has a special place in my heart, since my parents first met at Endor Vendors

[cgimovieman]

First visited MGM in July of 1989. I was already very much into movies, and the park had such an influence on me that I went to college for film production and moved to Orlando. Sadly, much of any real production ceased right around or just after I finished school and entered the workforce, and in the years since I’ve realized how naive I was as a kid and teen, believing in MGM as being crafted into the new “East Coast Hollywood”. It was always a theme park first and a studio second, or even third. Still, in the 2000’s and early 2010’s I worked with many people in Orlando in the television industry who were former staffers at MGM. They have the fondest memories of its earliest days, working on shows like The New Mickey Mouse Club, back when some of the cast who became celebrities today were on it, parts of big animated films like Beauty and the Beast, and films like Parenthood and Passenger 57. I’ve lived in Orlando now for 26 years, and unfortunately my career has totally died as I’ve been unable to part with my dream here. But I still think back on that glorious summer of 1989, when MGM was brand new and all was right with the world.

[weston]

I miss The Great Movie Ride so much 😔 of all of the rides and attractions that have come and gone in Orlando, that one might be the one I miss the most

[wdwnutjm]

we went that very first summer of 1989- such a great park! I really miss all the behind the scenes stuff- presentations of the sound effects, blue screens, etc. where you could get right up out of the audience and be a part of it. so much fun

[andrewspruell]

I loved the New York Street....all of the shop windows and the vintage items....as a collector of antiques it was great...wish I could have gotten some of them.

[brianplord]

I think it's very sad that these parks have moved away from the educational/entertainment hybrid model they used to follow. I remember loving the back lot tour as a kid, as well as strolling down those movie set streets. Same at EPCOT Center. The educational stuff at EPCOT really rounded out the park and gave it its character. Everything has become so 'BIGGER, FASTER, MOVE MOVE MOVE!', in your face. 'RIDES RIDES RIDES'. 'Look here, look there!'. WDW used to have a calming charm to it that's long gone.

[MicheleKlinger]

I recently found a map for MGM from 1997 in a box of random WDW trip memories, and it was fascinating trying to match up what was there then vs. now. I loved MGM as a kid and was OBSESSED with the backlot tour and Great Movie Ride (along with the muppets of course!). It’s amazing you can still find little tidbits of the old days leftover.

[Iamthegame]

i miss old mgm, glad i saw it as a kid but wish i could see it as an adult. remember more of it and appreciate it more

[AverytheCubanAmerican]

Everybody gangsta till Eisner says, *"Hullo, I'm Michael Eisner".* A fun fact about Tatooine, it was filmed in Tunisia! George Lucas chose Tunisia because he was attracted to the country’s architecture! The Lars homestead’s white domes were located in the town of Nefta, built low into the desert floor to stay cool. A room in a cave network in Matama stood in for some of the interiors of Luke’s childhood home. The adaptations to survive the harsh desert of Tatooine were real innovations used for thousands of years across Northern Africa. Lucas returned to Tunisia again for The Phantom Menace. Anakin Skywalker’s home, a cool stone building with stairs carved into its facade, was filmed in Ong Jemel. This time, there was a greater reliance on built sets, though they still drew from architectural styles used by the Tunisians. Attack of the Clones was also filmed there, while the sequel trilogy made use of places like Bolivia's Salar de Uyuni salt flat to stand in for Krait (The Last Jedi) and the UAE's portion of the Rub' al Khali desert became Jakku (The Force Awakens).

Tatooine is meant to be a barren desert planet, but in real-life Tunisia the weather was more temperamental. On the second day of the shoot, a freak rainstorm ruined the day’s filming, tightening an already limited schedule of 11 days in the country. The problems only grew from there. Anthony Daniels could hardly move in his suit, those stiff movements are about as good as he could manage. The controls that operated R2-D2 were better at picking up Tunisian radio signals, necessitating that the droid be pulled along the desert floor on skis by a wire. Things only got worse from there. Blistering heat during the day turned to unforgiving cold at night. The crew operated on very little sleep and many sickened with dysentery as the shoot dragged on past the planned 11 days. A massive sandstorm destroyed the Jawas’ sandcrawler, which then had to be rebuilt in just one day. That same sandcrawler almost started a very real war when Muammar Gaddafi accused the Tunisians of preparing to stage an invasion, with the sandcrawler mistaken as a real military vehicle. They quickly moved away from the Libyan border.

[jubipants]

100% agree that the Muppets studio was such a loss for Hollywood Studios.

But I also miss the back lot tour. I got to ride it during my very first Disney visit in 2000 and I LOVED it. It’s my People Mover, and I miss it.

[vonfluffinstuff]

I loved the MGM studios. My 1st visit to Florida and we went on the backlot tour, and saw how lilo and Stitch was drawn and animated. I absolutely fell in love Stich is my fave character 😍

[XpediousF]

I loved MGM.
It was worth it just for Star Tours, Indy Jones, Muppets, Tower of Terror, and of course the great movie ride!!
Could spend all day just riding over and over and over