Abandoned - Nickelodeon Studios Florida

in the late 1980s two entertainment goliaths Disney and Universal were both planning to Open studio Backlot inspired theme parks in Central Florida they were pitching Florida as the new Hollywood of the South and when both of these theme parks opened the largest tangible example of that Concept in this case being within Universal Studios Florida was Nickelodeon Studios it was coined as the world's first headquarters for kids and it was part functioning Studio where many of the iconic Nickelodeon shows of the 99s were filmed and part theme park attraction where guests could actually watch the production of those very shows but this was all relatively short-lived and it was all closed down by the mid 2000s it would then continue to sit abandoned for years to come what's up guys my name is Jake and in this special 85th episode of abandoned let's revisit an iconic abandoned theme park attraction I did a video on all the way back in early 2015 and let's take a deeper look into this fascinating story story and find out what has happened since this is Nickelodeon Studios [Music] Florida in the mid1 1980s as it happens both the Walt Disney Company and Universal Studios were both planning new theme parks in Florida Disney World of course was already well established with two existing theme parks championed by their CEO Michael Eisner the plan was to build a large liveaction and animation studio in conjunction with a theme park Universal on the other hand was already working on something very similar they were planning their first theme park outside of Hollywood and just like their competitor later named Disney MGM Studios Universal Studios Florida would feature both an active Production Studio as well as a theme park all of this was being touted as the new Hollywood of the South a cheaper alternative to shooting film and television in California and a way for these companies to make additional money on tours coming to view those very Productions live it was an interesting idea and there was a lot of hype around it as well as a fierce rivalry between Disney and Universal but then there was Nickelodeon a popular and by now well-funded Children's Network that had been producing original programming like rated K for Kids Mr Wizards World pin wheel and the extremely popular double dare but the thing was Nickelodeon had all of these shows being filmed in different locations across North America they had no large Central production facility and that left them fragmented without the ability to scale new productions by the late 1980s Universal Studios Florida was more or less finalized in its overall design even with some initial construction already underway in fact their sound stages in Florida were already nearing completion ultimately Universal pitched Nickelodeon on the idea of joining forces and setting up a production facility but crucially give Universal a serious draw for young younger children as well as a year-round interactive attraction within the production Central area of the park the deal was Inked in 1988 with nickel liian signing on for a multi-year contract allowing them use of a large administration building as well as two dedicated sound stages flanking it they would become stage 18 and Stage 19 with the middle building being called B17 it was clearly a lastminute addition to the park which is why it's not depicted on most concept art as well as the public model it was now going to be placed along a new Street just south of the park jetting off the main thoroughfare on June 7th 1990 Universal Studios Florida had officially opened to the public and with it so did Nickelodeon Studios Florida the studio facade was plastered in a very 9s color scheme but overall playful and colorful very indicative of the Nickelodeon aesthetic the courtyard was also adorned with Nickelodeon themed benches and the Slime geyser which was theatrically unveiled later that year there were also some photo ops and later a few props and a gift shop however when the Park first opened you didn't necessarily feel all too disconnected from where you just arrived as just beyond those photo ops was a weirdly large empty field and then the parking lot which the trees didn't really do a good job at hiding no matter as the real attraction was once you got inside after you queued up under a large green canopy you'd be brought through the studio ascending up an escalator up a large open air Loft which was later painted with character murals you'd be brought down large elevated and glass enclosed walkways over top the stages looking down onto the Productions and having a guide explain to you what you were looking at since Nickelodeon's contract with universal stated that they needed to be in production pretty much every day of the year there would always be something for guests to gaw at the tour would also bring you by control rooms costuming a kitchen and rather intrusively the dressing rooms plus kids would have the chance to participate in game shows and activities as well as audition to be on the actual televised shows that were being taped that day for those who weren't selected well they would at least have the option to be in the live studio audience through the early 1990s the tour would constantly evolve and so would the roster of shows being filmed at the studios Nick Jr filmed Eureka's Castle and gagola Island sketch comedy shows included roundhouse and all that but the most sizable roster of titles came in the form of game shows like figure it out the numerous double Dar VAR iations Nick arcade Nickelodeon guts Global guts what would you do and Legends of the Hidden Temple some other hit shows included launchbox and Keenan and Kell see I said it properly this time yeah well you know it almost took me a decade to properly pronounce it in a video but it's fine if you weren't one of the 7,000 people who screamed at how I pronounced it in my original video then I can't help you anyways those were just some of the more notable shows that were being filmed there and of course there were plenty more really almost every original show Nickelodeon produced produced through the early to mid 1990s was filmed in the Florida studio if you want a more detailed timeline of where and when these actual shows were in production I highly suggest watching Pap arina's video on ni Studios I'll leave a link in the description below clearly though the early years at the studios were an exciting time the opening telecast for example was a big event in of itself and throughout America commercials would air on TV compelling children to come visit and go behind the scenes at Nickelodeon the studio would also be heavily marketed in other forms mainly in the programs themselves often showing off the studios interacting with guests holding special events and announcing its filming location at the end of each show one particularly notable one was the 1992 Time Capsule barrier a special broadcast was filmed just for the ceremony as kids pulled together a collection of Pop Culture items that were relevant of the time not to be opened until 2042 mik Mali hosted the ceremony and himself made predictions stating that kids of the future will always be able to visit this location and the world's first headquarters for kids which would really turn out to be wishful thinking regardless Nickelodeon at the time was extremely popular and the studios were a big draw for Universal's guests as a whole especially since Universal was a bit of a letdown on opening day it didn't have a vast number of attractions Nickolodeon was a central part of the universal experience especially for those who actually wanted to see behind the scenes of TV production the Park's Tram Tour would also drive right through the courtyard as well as take guests beyond the pathways and behind the main stages But as time passed Nickelodeon was starting to feel the long-term effects on how shooting in Florida would actually work it turns out people don't really want to have to relocate to Central Florida now yes production labor was often cheaper and Nickelodean wasn't forced by law to hire Union staff but on the other hand there was also a significant less capable talent pool as for the talent themselves well many strongly objected to actually moving to Florida so most would just fly across the country for filming it began to get complicated especially as directors brought their shows off site and filmed them elsewhere there were also just logistical headaches on the core design of the studios long term it was beginning to become a challenge to have theme park guests constantly flowing through active and inactive made to look active because they were contractually made to production space staff and talent were always being observed making this a less than ideal place to work this is a problem that Universal Studios Florida was facing as a whole as was Disney MGM Studios theme park rides NeverEnding guests and even the weather with a NeverEnding rain on the metal sound stages were a constant annoyance Disney was starting to plan and even build new attractions completely divorced from any backstage themeing Universal was also expanding in a big way turning this single theme park into a whole Resort complete with new infrastructure hotels vast Landscaping a retail and Entertainment District and a completely new theme park that would ultimately become Islands of Adventure this was a big nearly three billion doll step for the entire Resort and it also meant that the original Universal Studios park would see some updates by the mid to late '90s it was following in Disney's footsteps building brand new attractions based on IP instead of back lot theming it was a new direction for the park and saw the elimination of the studio tram tour the fact of the matter was Universal Studios Florida wasn't seeing the number of high-profile film and television like they were in California because there was nothing interesting being filmed on site guests weren't all that interested in the Backlot tours Nickelodeon Studios was becoming the only way to see a real production but even there original programming was beginning to dry up more producers and directors advocated for moving their Productions to California notably Keenan and Kell and all that for the entirety of 1986 there were no live audience game shows being filmed on site and the Studio's fate was becoming more and more apparent by the following year in 1997 Nickelodeon purchased the Earl Carol theater along Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles they renamed it to Nickelodeon on Sunset and began transferring some of their Productions over to that facility meanwhile Nickelodeon laid off around 10% of their full-time Workforce in Florida while some of those liveaction Productions were moving to California animation was now becoming a larger part of the Network's overall roster and that was all being produced over on the west coast the Florida Studio didn't even have a facility capable of producing animated television by the late '90s Universal Studios Florida was operating at a net loss utilizing their Studio space less and less but they couldn't really do anything about it other than essentially sublease their space to third parties since they were contractually locked into the facility until at least 2005 Universal certainly wanted them to stay as the attraction for the studio was still pretty popular despite the park wide shift in theming by the early 2000s production within the two stages would become less frequent with even more employees laid off this was also following the lackluster opening of Universal's new theme park Islands of Adventure and that paired with the tourism downturn of 2001 well Universal was in a bad place overall Nick Studios Florida was hemorrhaging money and providing little value overall to the greater Network fewer Productions also made the tour attraction a lot less interesting and left it feeling a bit tired and even dated things were getting so desperate that Nickelodeon began auctioning off thousands of old props now this wasn't to say Nickelodeon didn't have a place in theme parks because it obviously did with the opening of a Jimmy Neutron simulator ride as well as a water play area at the universal Park in Hollywood it was just the Studios in Florida that was quickly Bec becoming a redundant facility in the network which meant there was just no sense in investing money in it for it to be an up-to-date attraction I think everyone knew by this point there was no long-term future for the studio and they were simply running it out of obligation until their contract expired and that was coming up soon through the early 2000s there were really no updates made to the experience apart from a 2004 paint change following some damage after Hurricane Charlie which actually saw the removal of the '90s Nickelodeon IC but this was merely cosmetic and by early 2005 it was obvious Nickelodeon would not renew their contract Nickelodeon Studios Florida closed on April 30th 2005 the studios and attraction had been opened for just under 15 years over the next year the studio facades would slowly lose their branding and theming with the administrative building becoming just a green nameless structure at the dead end of Universal Studios the sound stages lost their advertising ing all references to Nickelodeon were painted over and the Slime geyser was removed Nickelodeon Studios was now an attraction of the past and Universal was looking to reuse some of that real estate as soon as possible in November of 2006 it was announced that stage 18 would be converted to the Sharp Aquos theater and would be hosting the Blue Man Group a live stage show that was pretty popular at the time preparations for this got underway pretty quickly painting stage 18 blue with a massive Blue Man Group mural and moving the secondary Park entrance back turning this Courtyard into public space a long pathway would extend just beside Hard Rock Cafe and the show opened on June 6th 2007 by this point the Nickelodeon Time Capsule from 1992 had also been dug up and relocated to the Nickelodeon sweets Resort over by Disney it would actually remain there until 2016 when the hotel was closed and rebranded to a generic holiday in the location of the Time Capsule thereafter was sort of up in the air though it was confirmed that it had been moved to the Animation Studios over in California now following the opening of Blue Man Group Nickelodeon did actually returned to Universal Studios Florida for a brief period in 2008 utilizing the larger sound stages behind the old Studios for the filming of my family's SC guts once the Show wrapped though it would be the last time Nickelodeon would produce anything from Universal Studios in Florida while stage 18 was now home to this new Blue Man Group show stage 19 and the middle iconic Nickelodeon Administrative Building well they were just left essentially abandoned neither were removed or really altered in any significant way from the outside they just got a very Bland white and blue paint job though curiously the orange railings were actually left as they were not being painted to Blue until 2013 this left almost no visual design cues from the original Nickelodeon days apart from one wall facing away from guests though it too would be painted it over in 2016 but inside well it was a completely different story as early as 2006 people would start finding their way inside the now closed studio and attraction and they would find pretty much everything exactly as it was photos began emerging of large props both from the attraction tour and the actual production sets themselves meanwhile over in the administration offices well they too were left completely untouched back in the '90s when the studio first opened all of these offices were highly themed and continued to evolve as new shows came out by 2012 all of these spaces continued to sit there abandoned and this was notably documented by Adam the woo in the late 1990s the escalator room that spanned two floors was as we know a large open space filled with the bright florid to Sunshine pouring through the Square Windows on the second floor it was decorated with large cut oats and murals of the Wild Thornberry animated show and now nearly a decade since the show had been been taken off the air it sat disused and abandoned no longer an active thoroughfare for thousands of daily guests Nickelodean branding of the era would be found all across doors seating with a distinctive tight face found everywhere else disused and likely outdated production equipment were left in control rooms dust was now collecting on the old dressing rooms and the interior hallways were left exactly as they were the day the studio closed adorned with Florida ceiling artwork from renan s some of the larger and less themed spaces were being rented out or used by Universal for smaller events but presumably the administration space was left completely unused which is likely why it remained stuck in time and it was pretty shocking to see this as everyone thought Nickelodeon from the 9s was now gone forever but in fact behind those walls was a completely different world from a completely different time for a full decade these Interiors of Nickelodeon Studios remained as they were completely abandoned finally in 2015 Universal Studios Production arm announced they would be investing a little over a million dollar into renovating the space to accommodate modern equipment and build out a live and post- production Support Facility and it made sense to do this especially if Universal saw there was enough demand when renting out their other stages including the adjacent stage 19 so work began in 2015 first with ripping not the escalators in the main entrance room and taking down the old murals I remember being allowed inside the former Studio back in December of 2015 capturing this footage from the now freshly painted escalator free room it was now Bland and generic free of any Nickelodeon theme really as was the rest of the structure now completely devoid of any personality the open space was as utilitarian as possible with Live Events and production gear stacked up everywhere from that point on that's how the former Nick Studios would remain un would construct the massive Rip Ride Rocket roller coaster in the summer of 2009 and its load station would tightly squeeze up against stage 18 with the pathway to the Blue Man Group hugging the final few turns of the track by 2012 sharp aost had dropped their sponsorship for the Blue Man Group their logo was of course removed and the facade saw a new paint job it wouldn't be until early 2020 when Universal had shut down the park due to the pandemic Blue Man Group of course shut down with it however upon the park reopening blue man did not join it in fact the show's parent company circus Alay had filed for bankruptcy over the pandemic suspending all shows out of crippling Financial pressure by early 2021 it was announced bloing group would not return stage 18 was painted over in solid blue and CityWalk access to the building was now closed off the theater would be used on and off for seasonal events notably the parks's grinchmas events which streams guests into the former stage 18 theater for a grinch themed Christmas ship apart from that it's pretty ironic that once again this area has been left in a limbo abandoned State blank blue Signs Now dot the area and a permanent pathway is now gated off the whole facade and Courtyard area looks more or less the same as it did since 2007 just now with an empty box office booth and no future plans today the same remains true there are no future plans and the whole site is in a bit of a weird area the former Street that led you there which is now adjacent to the Despicable Me attraction is just a dead end with a gate you can look past the gates but the whole area looks desolate and it doesn't seem like there's any immediate plans in the works to put the area in use the buildings however are being used it seems like the most regular tenants are the students at the Dave school for animation and visual effects which has a permanent residency within stage 25 though it's possible there is a more permanent tenant within building 17 that isn't widely publicized but with the closure of Blue Man Group regular public access to the area is no longer possible you can view the structure from the balcony of the Hard Rock restaurant peek at it through the in park Gates and maybe get an up close look during Park events all that's left though is the overall architecture for the studios hidden behind white and blue paint at this point there really isn't much left to see inside and out the only obvious tangible remnants of the area's past are in the bathrooms adjacent to the building as on the floor you'll find the distinctive lime green tile Nickelodeon Studios Florida both in its tangible structure and in concept is now a relic of the past both Universal Studios and Disney's MGM now called Disney's Hollywood Studios have largely dropped the Backlot behind the scenes themeing from what I understand Disney rarely utilizes their back of house production offices and has either demolished or completely replaced all of their sound stages failing them in with IP based attractions Universal followed sued on the attraction side of things but kept all of their sound stages with Nickelodeon proving to be the largest and for a time most successful production company in all of Florida in fact Nickelodeon would continue to be the largest production Network creating content in Florida through its entire run of this dream as the new Hollywood of the South and while Universal does utilize their sound stages for external production use I don't think it's any were close to what they had imagined But as time went on the logistics and cost began to make no sense it wasn't a viable long-term business and enthusiasm rather abruptly shifted away from Florida and onto other profitable Avenues to go down it's clear that the dream Disney and Universal had to bring Hollywood to Florida just was a failure but it really was a big shame to see this happen especially for someone like me who loved Nickelodeon programming growing up I I even have photos of myself standing in Nickelodeon photo ops at Universal one with a Nickelodeon stage looming precariously in the background preparing to close just a few years after I visited and now with nearly 20 years since its closure the remnants of the vibrant and nostalgic past is now nothing more than a seemingly innocuous Bland structure even with the new use given to a portion of the studios it too is now abandoned with little hope for a future and while Nicol Ian does have other attractions and weirdly modern and luxurious Resorts around the world it's undeniable that it's a different network and a different company I think the Studios in Florida was a really unique and really special way for a network to connect with its audience it was a way for the cameras to turn around to the actual viewers and see kids interact with their favorite shows it was just good television and maybe that's coming from someone who has Rose tinted glasses looking back fondly on something I grew up watching but I really do think this was all lightning in a bottle and clearly I'm not the only one thinking that as there's lots of people out there who have massive connections with this place I mean it's why so many people watched my original video despite it being so poorly produced it's also why we see classic items go up for auction and sell for insane prices like this original Time Capsule cover that went up for auction and sold for close to $20,000 same for this toilet paper from 1993 which sold for a little over $220 but regardless of how the physical relic of Nickelodeon in the 9s is now long gone it still exists in the thousands of hours of media produced there and the millions of kids who fondly remember visiting it but as the doors closed for one final time and those iconic once abandoned Interiors finally cleared out I guess at the end of the day both its viewers and the network grew up thanks for watching this video and if you remember watching my original Nickelodeon Studios video back in 2015 well thank you so much for sticking with me and my channel that was an incredibly important video for the channel and because it was so poorly put together back then compared to now at least I figured I should cover this very nostalgic topic again in my own way you know the drill if you want to follow me elsewhere I'm also on Instagram Twitter and if you want to support the channel I have merch and a patreon where you can get exclusive perks like Polaroids your name at the end of each video and early video previews my name is Jake and seriously thank you so much for [Music] [Music] watching n

Channel: Bright Sun Films

Views: 2,247,937

Keywords: disney world, universal studios hollywood, universal studios florida, universal studios orlando, abandoned theme park, nick studios, nickelodeon studios, cancelled, keenen and kel, nickelodeon shows, nickelodeon, nick studios florida, universal theme park, abandoned ride, blue man group, update, 2023, 2024, histroy, documentary, mgm studios, disney hollywood studios, bright sun films, abandoned tv studios, family network, nickeldeon cancelled, 90's shows, Nickelodeon (TV Network)

Id: Y4PD4xvsivw

Length: 25min 3sec (1503 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 15 2023