The Evolution of The Tower of Terror

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since 1994 the hollywood tower hotel at disney's hollywood studios has been luring guests into another dimension taking them on a one-way trip aboard an elevator directly to the twilight zone the tower looming ominously over the park sunset boulevard is actually home to one of disney's most famous thrill attractions the twilight zone tower of terror which offers a 13-story plunge directly downward at faster than free-fall speed and since its opening back in the mid-90s the ride's combination of unique thrills detailed theming and excellent sense of storytelling has helped to establish it as one of the park's flagship attractions and one of the best experiences that imagineering has ever created but the creation of this particular thrill ride and the work that went into developing its core concept is actually a much bigger story one that inadvertently shows how the park grew throughout its first couple of years and how what started out as a simple expansion to the then fledgling mgm studios would eventually lead to them creating a ride that completely shifted the paradigm with thrill attractions for disney to a degree that in many ways is still unmatched to this day so with this video we'll be exploring the evolution behind the tower of terror both conceptually stylistically and mechanically as all three aspects were changed significantly in the years leading up to its debut but before we go there let's set the scene a little bit and take the story back to its beginning when disney first opened mgm studios in 1989 [Music] back when the park was originally unveiled one of the most surprising things about it was its sheer lack of attractions as quite literally on opening day there were only two actual rides there with the studio backlot tour and great movie ride and that was it for the entire park within the first couple of years though they began to slowly expand its offerings now adding various performances opening new rides and generally beefing up the park with just more stuff to do making it feel like a much more complete experience by around 1991 but as the park grew it also became more popular and with attendance numbers continuing to rise as they moved into the 1990s disney decided they needed to expand mgm studios by now adding a whole new land not only would this help to boost interest further seeing as how the expansion would also be home to some kind of new attraction but it would also help to grow out the park's relatively small footprint improving overall capacity there as well so plants began for a new section of the park called sunset boulevard now interestingly while this was technically the beginning of sunset boulevard as an expansion of the park it wasn't actually the first time the concept had popped up as a matter of fact the idea for a second street that ran adjacent to the park's hollywood boulevard was first considered back in the late 1980s when concept art for the park's entrance was first being created as you can see in this piece by disney artist colin campbell another street is visible over to the right of the original boulevard a little offshoot that's connected to it near the front of the park over by the crossroads of the world area for whatever reason though as development progressed on hollywood boulevard the whole design was eventually simplified and just ended up as a straight pathway towards the great movie ride leaving out the original 2nd street entirely and because of that when they later constructed the boulevard over at the park in early 1989 the space off to the right was left empty presumably with the idea that they could use it for future projects which was exactly what happened a few years later and the side street idea was brought back now with them planning to use the concept is the basis for their new expansion so with that work began or technically resumed on the project around the latter half of 1991. even in some of the earliest stages of development the prevailing theme for this new land was always something called sunset boulevard which like many of the other themed lands around the park would be based on a real location in los angeles of course now just as a more fictionalized and idyllic version of it and given this new street's proximity to hollywood boulevard it seemed like the perfect fit since they can now reuse design elements from the original boulevard here giving the two streets a similar look but still with their own unique aspects take the street cars for example which were actually something that was cut from hollywood boulevard prior to opening but managed to reappear in the concept art for this new street later on now giving an old idea some new life with all these factors combined the new project really started to take shape leaving them with some very defined ideas of what sunset boulevard would look and feel like after only a few months of planning however there was one element of this new expansion that wasn't so easy to flesh out and that was the land's main attraction at this particular point in its history the leading concept for the ride was something called hotel mel which like sunset boulevard itself originates back to before the park was opened really this whole concept was initially born out of a desire for disney to work with comedy director mel brooks and get him to produce his future films with disney over at the new studio they were building in florida and as part of that process a team of imagineers led by mcnair wilson began to meet with brooks and discussed having him help develop a new attraction for the park one of the earliest ideas to come out of this collaboration involved a ride based on 1974's young frankenstein which would have included a recreation of the film's castle as its facade and would also be set in a small bavarian village that doubled as its queue but this idea was never really solid or even further developed because not long after coming up with it they shifted their focus onto what would become the hotel mel concept at first the attraction was planned to be presented as an abandoned and possibly haunted old hollywood hotel that mel brooks was now directing a movie in and with the same kind of behind the scenes tone that the park's backlot tour had you'd move through the building to see a series of humorous horror-inspired vignettes but it was during planning for this original version of the attraction that they came up with an idea that would completely change what the project would end up being and that was to make the hotel's elevator at some point leave it shaft and unexpectedly move down a hallway while you were on it which using the same trackless ride vehicle technology that was already created for stuff like the great movie ride would actually be possible and this would also lead to the next big elevator-based idea and that was to make it drop as well which would be accomplished by using another pre-existing ride system this time created by intamin with their first generation free fall technology something that had first been developed back in the early 80s and it's since been used at a couple different theme parks by that point of course now with disney's version of it the ride system would be hidden inside the hotel facade prompting them to now make a slightly redesigned version of it with a taller main tower and more space at the bottom for its run out track so with that the attraction at the end of sunset boulevard officially became a drop ride although at this point one that was still themed is mel brooks's haunted hotel however this whole idea would later be put on hold sometime around 1990 after both mel brooks and mcnair wilson had left the project but it wouldn't stay like that for long as disney would eventually find a new theme for the tower and that was to base it off the 1960s tv show the twilight zone created and hosted by rod serling the twilight zone was an anthology television series that ran on cbs from 1959 to 1964 where each episode consisted of a different short story most of which would have themes of mystery fantasy or science fiction and would be explained by the characters of that story entering into this ethereal twilight zone a collection of question marks no logic no reason no explanation just a prolonged nightmare in which fear loneliness and the unexplainable walk hand in hand through the shadows while relatively popular during its original five season run on cbs the show wouldn't pick up its cult following until the 1980s while in syndication and even though it hadn't had a new episode in over 25 years at this point the twilight zone name still managed to remain relevant largely because of both a recent reboot series that ran from 1985 to 89 and a standalone movie that came out before that in 1983 so not only was the twilight zone still a well-known property for disney to use but it also offered the same tone that they were looking for since most episodes brushed up against the supernatural and even sometimes horror it managed to capture the more mature feeling they wanted the ride to have seeing as how it would now be an outright thrill attraction generally speaking the twilight zone's strange atmosphere just felt appropriately eerie for the drop ride plus considering the fact that the show was an anthology series they weren't necessarily tied to following any one storyline from it as whatever they ended up choosing for the drop ride's backstory they could just present the experience as a lost episode of the show and this was part of the reason that the original hotel theme for the attraction still managed to stick around even as they moved further away from the mel brooks idea that spawned it so over the next few months the remaining imagineers got to work on developing this new concept and also incorporating some of the older ideas they had as well and we can actually get a pretty good idea of what they had in mind at this point based on a stylized rendering that was created around the same time now in all fairness this is definitely more of a conceptual thing than it is an actual set of blueprints but it still shows a lot of what they had planned for the twilight zone version of the attraction early on the whole experience starts with entering into the hotel itself where you first get to spend some time in its lobby before making your way up a set of stairs and winding up in a room with a big tv presumably to watch some kind of pre-show that would set up the upcoming ride experience more on that later after that though you'd then move further through the hotel eventually coming to another set of stairs this time leading down into the building's boiler room where you'd then find a creaky old maintenance elevator and climb aboard it now interestingly both the boiler room and the maintenance elevator concepts were actually ideas carried over from the old hotel mel project just slightly repurposed to fit better here and so is the next part of the ride too where after rising upwards the elevator would stop at one of the floors and open up to reveal a creepy abandoned hallway where you'd see some kind of ghostly effect however instead of leaving the shaft now as was originally planned that part was saved for the next scene where after a quick drop to get you there the doors would open again and the elevator would now travel out into this surreal fifth dimension segment and this was actually a new idea that was created by imagineer kevin rafferty to now use the old moving elevator concept as a way to transition you from the hotel part of the ride into the drop portion not only taking you there physically but also suggesting that you are now moving into a more supernatural space as illustrated by some elements of the show's opening sequence making an appearance here giving off the impression that you are now in the twilight zone and anything could happen to the elevator at this point after that though the rest of the ride is pretty straightforward another big lift that takes you all the way to the top of the tower moves us over into the drop shaft and then the big 13 story fall although it is noteworthy to mention that at this point they were still planning on using the first generation free fall ride system which you can see down here by the way the vehicle ends up on his back and is then turned upright which is fascinating because the next big change that would actually come for the tower was creating a new ride system for it while it was true that the original free fall technology would have worked for what they wanted to do with it here the effect wasn't thought to be necessarily convincing mainly because of the way the track would curve out towards the bottom the imagineers just thought that if an elevator were to actually free fall in real life it would go straight down and hit the ground and not smoothly round itself out like that so in searching for that kind of effect they teamed up with the otis elevator company who actually specialized in designing and manufacturing real elevators hoping to try and get a sense of what imagineering could possibly do using otis pre-existing technology for the ride eventually discovering through testing at their facilities that it would be possible to make an elevator car free fall but that the drop just wouldn't be fast enough on its own especially for a vehicle of the size they wanted and this is where they got the idea to actually make the cars be pulled downward instead of just using gravity which would make the sensation a lot more noticeable and provide a unique experience that none of the other gravity based drop rides could offer so with that in mind disney engineers got to work on fabricating the elevator cars now pairing them with the same trackless ride vehicle technology they had been planning to use since the idea's beginning only now utilizing a more sophisticated version of it creating what they called autonomous guided vehicles or agvs for short which could essentially go in any direction they wanted by following a small eighth of an inch wire that was embedded in the ground but as far as the writers could tell would seem to move completely on their own again adding to that surreal nature of the fifth dimension scene and now that they had a better idea of what vehicles they'd be using and what the new ride system would look like they then started to seriously consider what the attraction's facade would be at this point it was a given that the building would be some kind of hotel that much had been known ever since sunset boulevard was first conceptualized and even as the building's shape and structure was changed over time the idea of it being a hotel had stayed only just changing what its architectural influence would be so naturally now that they had some more definite ideas of what the ride's blueprints were going to look like they designed a new version of the tower around them this time pulling a lot of influence from the same neo-mediterranean style that was popular back in the 1930s giving the tower stuff like its distinct red tiled roof highly decorated stucco walls and later its unique orange color as well which was actually selected for the specific purpose of making sure the tower wouldn't stick out in the background of epcot's morocco pavilion since the back of the building would be visible from inside that park but even still all these different design elements managed to blend in nicely with each other as well as the various golden age recreations of los angeles storefronts that would now align the rest of sunset boulevard however imagineering architect coulter winn still felt that the building needed some kind of reason for its dilapidated state beyond just being abandoned and initially he had the idea to make it look like the building was hit by an earthquake but this was eventually switched out with it instead being struck by lightning an idea that was actually born out of the attraction's new storyline which was currently being finalized by michael sprout who as the project's lead writer had been trying to figure out a way to combine all these separate story elements together the building the drop ride the twilight zone none of which necessarily had anything to do with each other but would now all come together under this new plot which basically goes as follows the hollywood tower hotel was actually once a real place frequented by movie stars and various celebrities but was eventually abandoned after an unexplained event took place back in 1939 when lightning struck the building and five people aboard an elevator mysteriously disappeared leaving you now years later to explore the empty hotel and find out what exactly had happened there so with this being decided on as the attraction's final storyline work was subsequently underway by show designer david durand who contributed sketches and concept art of all the rides different scenes everything from reimagined versions of older ideas like the abandoned hallway and boiler room to newer stuff like the hotel's lobby which would now take its inspiration from la's biltmore hotel eventually resulting in full storyboards being created for the attraction then scale models of it being built and finally real versions of the show scenes being fabricated over at imagineering's tahunga facility now allowing them to see what the scenes would look like in practice and also work on some of their special effects like the abandoned hallway for example which we first saw back in that early rendering of the attraction's layout for the final version of the scene the effect of making the ghosts appear in the empty hallway would be achieved through projections simply enough but would now also be punctuated by a new effect as well where the entire hallway then disappears into empty space reminiscent of the show's opening which they accomplished by making the walls in that scene out of a thin scrim that the details would be projected onto allowing you to see through the walls and add the lit up stars that would appear behind them when the lights went down a simple but realistic enough effect in practice that helped to continue the ride's twilight zone theming in a strange and disorienting way and while imagineers continued staging and putting the final touches on the ride scenes show producers were wrapping up other elements of the attraction like getting it scored for example which was done by composer richard bellis who created a new soundtrack based on some of the original music from the show along with that the towers pre-show video was also filmed around this same time too over on a sound stage in culver city california that featured a full recreation of the hotel's lobby in its original pristine state because the video directed by joe dante sets up what happened at the hollywood tower on the night it was abandoned back in 1939 of course filmed in black and white since it was meant to be presented as an episode of the twilight zone and as such the video would also somehow be narrated by the show's long dead host rod serling who was brought back for it using a combination of new narration now done by voice actor mark silverman and archival footage taken from the show to give sterling a brief cameo by compositing him over new shots of the elevator which you can see by looking at both clips back to back tonight's story on the twilight zone is somewhat unique and calls for a different kind of introduction this is you may recognize as a map of the united states and there's a little town there called peaksville [Music] tonight's story on the twilight zone is somewhat unique and calls for a different kind of introduction this is you may recognize as a maintenance service elevator still in operation waiting for you once all this was completed though it was finally time to start installing everything into the actual ride itself which had already begun construction a few months earlier in 1993 along with the rest of sunset boulevard after they created the tower's main structure they then installed the big motors that would pull the vehicles up and down followed not too long after by the agvs which were then installed and further tested while they continued adding the rest of the attraction scenes like the fifth dimension the boiler room the pre-show library and the hotel's lobby all of which were then meticulously themed by set dressers even going so far as to furnish the lobby in library scenes with actual antique furniture and collectibles purchased from various auctions around california making it one of the most authentically detailed areas of any disney park so with all that in place the twilight zone tower of terror was completed and officially opened on july 22nd of 1994 immediately becoming the park's most popular attraction and basically a huge success by every measure a reputation that even today still rings true because the tower's combination of a technologically impressive ride system an engaging storyline and seamless integration into a pre-existing ip are what make the whole thing so great as an experience it's firing on all cylinders and still manages to give you more than you'd even expect out of it especially compared to some of the other drop rides from that time period the tower of terror's intricate theme and more importantly excellent execution of it takes it leagues beyond everything else and it just goes to show what can happen when disney really gives an attraction their all the end result is undeniably spectacular on every level even if it isn't your cup of tea per se and it still holds up to a degree that not many other thrill rides still can after this long so here's to hoping that the twilight zone tower of terror continues letting guests drop in for another 20 years because as long as they still can you can always be sure there will be someone looking to fill that next vacancy even if it does happen to b14 the twilight zone [Music] the hollywood tower hotel it opened way back in 1917 and closed 22 short years later why well room service wasn't very good and the sheets were a little
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Channel: Theme Parks Shouldn't Exist
Views: 68,000
Rating: undefined out of 5
Keywords: park, ride, history, park ride history, theme park, disney, world, tower of terror, mgm studios, hollywood studios, hollywood, hollywood tower hotel, tower, of terror, the twilight zone, twilight zone, rod serling, evolution of
Id: otV1rZb3LxE
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 23min 13sec (1393 seconds)
Published: Mon Nov 01 2021
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