UNLOCKED! The Case of Progress: The Harrison Comparison Compares the Carousel of Progress

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[00:00:27] Willkommen Comparisonist to another archival expedition through the behavioral anomalies

[00:01:00] and physical presence of Harrison Ford. I'm Langston Ryder. This is when you usually start. NextPod investor, cultural futurist, and as of a few Thursdays ago, fully relaminated at the cellular level. And I'm joined as always by my co-host. This is Hal, Dr. Halcyon M. Price. Dr. Price to the administrators.

[00:01:29] And to all of the custodians whom I know by name. That's right. I'm that kind of guy, but I'm known as the guy with the Raiders poster. Yeah. And I'm new co-host Deckard Cain. Hmm. We've, we've invited another co-host. Yeah. Deckard is joining us once again. He is part of our outreach program through our Reddit.

[00:01:54] Um, uh, how we actually, we have, before we get into it, uh, we have some mail, some listener, some listener feedback if you'd like to. Oh, oh. Okay. I thought we were going to introduce how we're not doing a full episode this week, but all right. Uh, yeah. Well, that's already established in mythology. I mean, the, you know, the, I mean, I'm assuming a regular listener. Okay. Well, okay.

[00:02:24] Regular listeners, Supreme resort. Uh, they've decided to take the month of June off and they got us to come in here. They've talked about us and we are, we are a very real podcast as you know, but, but it's also our month off. It's yeah. We didn't want to choice for that. Oh, well, I mean, they, I guess they, they just felt like we would be able to, to support whatever they were doing.

[00:02:46] Uh, I believe they are thinking of talking about hotels in Burbank next. I don't know. I, they seem to be taking some directions that, um, uh, so yes, we were, we planned on taking this month off as well and releasing episodes from behind our paywall. Uh, what we didn't expect is that we wouldn't be able to access our own Patreon.

[00:03:14] Uh, so I'm, I'm still, I'm still working on it. Um, that defunct, uh, that defunct, I mean, it seemed clever at the time. Um, I mean, when, if it comes down to it, because I am a tech billionaire who, you know, is brilliant according to many articles. Yeah. But I mean, I could just purchase Patreon, but making our email address for Patreon, um,

[00:03:41] Patreon at, uh, patreon.harrison.net. Uh, they, I mean, they, that injunction, um, kind of closed off our access. Right. Well, this, uh, this episode that we wanted to release, um, this featured, um, Dr. Wendy, uh, Hui Kyung Chun. I still can't pronounce that correctly. I'm so sorry. It's okay, doctor. It's fine.

[00:04:10] I don't, as a practice, I don't like to pronounce foreign names correctly or names of women correctly. That's just, it's just kind of, kind of my thing. Uh, she is of course from Simon Fraser university, author of discriminating data. Uh, in this episode, uh, we go into a four hour detour.

[00:04:32] Uh, I tried to argue with her that Blade Runner 2049 is basically a case study for, uh, HBR. I don't remember what that was, but our notes say that I got into that. Uh, I, yes, I also don't recall. I believe I, I, I might've dozed off during this election. I think we were all on ketamine during that episode, if I remember correctly. Well, for longevity. Yes.

[00:04:59] I, my most recent blood boy has suggested that ketamine would help with that. Um, it, we, it turns into a discourse. And that was your friend, um, who likes electric cars? Well, he introduced me to the pool of blood boys that I tap into to reverse the aging process, of course. Um, uh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

[00:05:27] New, new, new, new hosts need to, uh, ring the chime before they. No, this is good. I, I, I, this is a point of, of, of contention. I enjoy the disruption. That's, you know, that's, that's what I, I. But just signal your, your willingness to speak up and, um, we will allow you the moment, uh, when the time is appropriate. So we talked about replicants as both labor and consumer identity under algorithmic governance, which is of course, subject I'm very interested in.

[00:05:56] Uh, and Dr. Chen guided the conversation towards questions of race, sexuality, and choice within systems designed to make a mistake intimacy for input. But that's why I don't remember that. Cause I just felt like that was ridiculous. But, but which, which episode are we, uh, are substituting in since we can't run that one? Well, the Dollywood reporter is a podcast that is also on the next pod network. And if you would like to be a cherished partner, yes.

[00:06:25] Of the next pod network, of course, um, we'll have more information about that in the ad read. Um, I do have a listener mail from, uh, this is from Marlene S in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Uh, she says, Hey, HC crew, just wanted to say your post Eastwood framework finally gave me the language to explain why my dad, to my dad, why Harrison Ford stoicism is emotionally

[00:06:54] literate. And Eastwood's is just emotional absenteeism. Um, and she's also included a picture of her Pomeranian, Indiana bones, who she says clever Ford's exact 1985 squints, which I say, I do have to agree. Uh, we also have more pictures. We have, uh, Tessa L has attached a picture of her Guinea pig named Deckard.

[00:07:21] If you see here, it looks very much, very much like Harrison Ford. Um, this is, this is a picture. Not a replicant at all. I'm, I'm sure. No, no. Well, I mean, that's, that's not going to be, and this is from Dylan from an unknown location. He sent a picture of his, uh, I'm sorry. This is a picture of his car. We've lost. And he says that it looks like Harrison Ford.

[00:07:46] As a, uh, fairly belittled co-host, I, uh, I, I don't know how to handle this sort of situation. Um, new co-host. Should we just get into that episode? Yeah. Please remind me of your name so I don't sound like a complete jerk. Um, Deckard Cain. Oh, Deckard Cain. Oh, well, clearly. Yes. From, from, from the blades and the running. Um, okay. Uh, well, hey. And Diablo.

[00:08:16] And, oh. Oh, you, oh. Yeah, we should just, uh, get into the, uh. Yeah, let's, let's get into the episode. Um, you know what? Uh, the, uh, the ad read is actually fairly, uh, this one has some slurs I, I would prefer not to read. Um, Langston normally wants me to read these and, uh, you know what? I'm, I'm probably, uh, not going to do that. All right.

[00:08:46] Uh, on to the episode, uh, from the Dollywood reporter. One of our, our, our preferred friends on the network. Uh, please enjoy. Sister podcast. Yes. Please enjoy. And, um, yes. Until next week. Uh, thank you for listening to the Harrison Comparison. Let's get the show rolling.

[00:09:27] Howdy, folks. And welcome to another episode of the Dollywood reporter. The only podcast that goes through your favorite park. Dollywood. Land by land. Coaster by coaster. Theater by theater. To help you plan your best day in the Smokies. I'm Randy May. Your guide on this journey. And with me, as always, are my cousins and yours. Andy May. Hello. Welcome to the Dollywood reporter. All the news you want to use. Crystal May light. It's just me. Hey, everybody.

[00:09:58] And Joel Manby from corporate. Um, not from corporate anymore. Part of my contract. Welcome to the family, Joel Manby. Uh, all right. How y'all doing tonight? Yeah, great. Doing just fine. Thank you. I was watching a riveting episode of The Wheel. It's a fortune wheel. And I thought that the answer was not what the answer was. But I had a good time.

[00:10:27] Thank you for asking. All right. Great, great, great to hear. Great to hear, Andy. So, I'm so pleased to hear all your happy voices tonight. And Joel's here, too. Woo! Hey. We got a great show tonight for you folks. So, pull down your lap bars. Hold on to your hats. Because we are not responsible for items lost on this ride. No, sir, but first, Andy May, do we have any mail?

[00:10:54] Yes, we have mail in the satchel of correspondences. Today's correspondence is from Walter Lardick. And he wants to know, why is the Food and Flower Festival coming this May? And why was it canceled? And how for last year? All right. Well, I'm taking it that you're talking about the Food and Flower Festival.

[00:11:24] Yes, coming Miss May to the park? What? Did I just... Did this gentleman and myself have the same first name? I did not catch that. No, you said Walter and Andy. Oh, good. I was worried that perhaps I made that for Fluffle. No, it's no for Fluffles at all. Okay. The Food and Flower Festival is coming this May. It was canceled last year due to COVID.

[00:11:52] I mean, there's this big disease that's been rampaging the country, rampaging the world. And Miss Dolly, she wanted to shut that down. Yeah, we, you know, forget that. We're not bringing piles of people into our park. But it is happening this year, this May through June. The Food and Flower Festival is coming. This May. Is that Andy May, Randy May, or Kristen? I was also...

[00:12:19] Thank you, Joel Manby from corporate. I was also rather confused. Formerly from corporate. I have not been with the company since 2013. I'm here by contract. Welcome to the family. It's good to contact you as well. Joel's been on the show for like five years now. 2013 is when I ended my contract. Well, welcome to the family. Yeah, yeah.

[00:12:48] I mean, but yeah, it's a lot to look forward to. Great time in the parks. Food and Flower Festival coming this May. Yes. Can't wait. Any other mail in that bag of correspondence, Andy May? I have a misplaced it. Would you like me to search for it? I believe it's under this pile of mail. Maybe we just closed up this week. I can look. Okay. Zip it up.

[00:13:18] There it goes. I heard that on another podcast. Well done, Andy May. Thank you. Great job. Great job. Thank you. Great job. Oh, yeah. Always. All right. Well, yes, sir. We have a great show set up for you all. This one's going to be a bit of a departure from the norm. You see, Joel here has always been a bit of a Disneyland fanatic. And he brought on.

[00:13:47] He brought up on last week's show. The news that Disneyland in Florida is going to remove some of the characters from the Song of the South ride. Splash Mountain. Listen, Randy May. You got my attention. All right. Now, I was the CEO of Hershen Family Entertainment, parent company of Dollywood until 2013 when I joined SeaWorld as the CEO of SeaWorld Entertainment. I retired from there in 2018.

[00:14:15] And my dream has always been to be an executive at Disney. And what you said was factually inaccurate. You said Disneyland in Florida. Disneyland is a resort in Anaheim, California. Walt Disney World is in Orlando, Florida. I'm sorry. I get the two confused all the time. Yeah, I haven't been. It's probably the altitude up here. Just don't worry about it. Yeah. Well, thanks for setting us straight on that, Joel.

[00:14:42] So you brought up this Song of the South ride. And, you know, we found out based on what you were saying that, you know, you brought up some interesting points here. You suggested that we got all of the critters from the Song of the South ride from another little ride called Carousel of Progress. Is that right? Okay. Okay.

[00:15:07] The Carousel of Progress was an attraction in a circular theater to celebrate the Bicentennial of the United States. And all of those animatronics were brought over to Splash Mountain, which, yes, was a Song of the South homage. But prior to being the America Sings, again, celebrate America's Bicentennial, it was a show called the Carousel of Progress.

[00:15:35] So wait, the Carousel of Progress wasn't called Splash Mountain? No, they're apparently different things. One, like, one's a log flume ride. They're pretty traditional. And one was a very fast spinning ride. Oh, do you stick to the walls? All right. Oh, like a Gravitron. Gravitron. I remember Gravitron. Okay. A carousel spins around and around.

[00:16:02] They can spin at different speeds. So you're watching it on a horse. So. Tell us how it is, Joel. A carousel, by definition, can spin around and around, right? A carousel like you're thinking of with horses and other carriages and things can spin at different speeds. Well, and sometimes there's benches and other animals. I rode one with the sheep and there was a pig. And I mean, dude, let's.

[00:16:32] Let's not talk about your family reunion. The thing is that the Carousel of Progress, like America Sings, is a carousel, but it spins rather slowly. Not enough that you couldn't, you know, maybe get caught between, you know, things happen. Mr. Manby, I have a question. Yes. If it doesn't spin fast enough, does the gravity stop?

[00:17:02] Well, I think. Why am I doing this shit? I think what. Welcome to the family. What Joel's trying to say is that we've got another little thing to talk about from Disney here. Because, you know, I started looking into this and there's some interesting stuff on this attraction here. And, you know, it started out thinking like this was going to be another one of those Disney bashing shows like episode 236. Remember 236? Oh, yes. Does Disney even have a coaster?

[00:17:32] And they do, as we found out. Oh, I remember that one. I remember that one. Yeah. But, I mean, it's kind of like that show, but we found out some interesting stuff. For instance, this ride is jam-packed with robots and it does not spin so fast that you lose gravity, Andy May. This is not a ride. It's an attraction that happens to spin. And I beg to differ, sir. All right.

[00:18:00] How about we start off talking about this ride? This attraction. Sorry. Thank you. Attraction. By talking about the history of the attraction. Who wants to kick us off? Joel? Andy May? Who's got some... Who did some work on the origins of this attraction here? I have several facts and figures regarding the Edison Square.

[00:18:30] Okay. Okay. Good start. Yep. Yep. Did not happen at Disneyland. California Disneyland. Did not happen. But, go for it. This was in a square. It was going to be on top of the main street in Disneyland. And it was to celebrate General Electric after they had the corporate scandal with so many legal troubles. And some of them went to prison. They did.

[00:19:02] Some did. Fled the country. And, well... Some of them went to prison. They did. Are you a pirate? Are you a Southern? Well, let's just say that this is an approximation that might fall somewhere between the two. That GE, General Electric, paid Walt Disney in the 50s to set up a land within his Disneyland. Indeed. To talk about...

[00:19:31] What? Electricity? Electricity. And it was on Main Street, which is a street full of windows that have ghosts inside of them. And Thomas Edison was one of Walt Disney's boyhood heroes. And he put together a proposal specifically for General Electric.

[00:19:52] And it was going to present the story of the way in which the invention of energy influenced the growth of America, the development as well. And it was the birth and the growth and the development and... So what was the name of this attraction? Yes. It was... Hold on. Hold on. Please. Let me check my brain notes.

[00:20:21] It's Harnessing the Lightning. Harnessing the Lightning was going to be a 40,000-square-foot horseshoe-shaped show building with a lobby and four theaters and a product room where the progress was their most important product. And like several other attractions, you could buy a car. No, I'm sorry. That's not correct.

[00:20:49] And it would be next to the Red Wagon Inn. I think you're referring to Test Track from Epcot. Yes, that's indeed the callback that I was establishing. Can I read up a sign for you from Harnessing the Lightning? The original sign they proposed. Very old-timey. Very interesting. General Electric presents Edison Square, Disneyland, USA. An astonishing dramatization. Harnessing the Lightning.

[00:21:17] A story of yesterday, today, and tomorrow. A feast for eye and ear in four great acts with prologue and epilogue with Mr. Wilbur K. Watt, the incredible electric man, supported by a most amazing cast of 50 marvelous electromechanical personalities that sing, dance, and talk. What is an electromechanical person? Well, they take a person and they put wires on them. I don't think that's true. Oh.

[00:21:44] Kind of like the Jungle Cruise animals, where they can kind of just basically do this. Ooh. For the listener, he's moving his hands up and down. But like a crocodile, I mean, those are only in the Jungle Cruise. And sometimes they can go, here you go. Now he's moving his hand toward the camera and away from the camera. Like he's feeding the elephant on the Jungle Cruise. I believed it. I always painted a picture.

[00:22:14] And they had the first act. Andy May. Andy May. Yes. Was the world ready for robots at that time? The world's never ready for robots. But even less so then. Because they did not figure out the animatronics. Almost there. The animatronics. There you go.

[00:22:44] And then they said, well, we're going to put that on the back burner. And you would walk through the different stories. The first act was in an American home in 1989. Before electrical plans. When I was running Stone Mountain Park in Georgia.

[00:23:08] We decided that there's no exchange for anything but people. We didn't need robots to tell our stories. We told our stories with people. And Jesus. And I appreciate you for that. And welcome to the family, Andy. All right. Well, so. So. Where it didn't work out. Is that right? Joel. Joel.

[00:23:32] You're very familiar with the Walt Disney and the things that the Walt Disney guy did. I am. That didn't work out. Right? Edison Square did not complete. In 1956, there was an Edison Square sign coming soon. The concept showed the current world of the Carousel of Progress. The current show.

[00:23:57] Act 3 would have been 1958, which was the time of the original release and setting of Carousel of Progress. But it did not occur. And that's interesting. I mean, that's kind of like putting on the map of Dollywood in like 2016. Wildwood Grove. I don't know because I was not employed by the company in 2016. But, but I mean, Wildwood Grove opened up last year. Sorry, 2019 to rave reviews.

[00:24:24] But if you put it on the map a few years early and what if we didn't, what if we didn't build it? Oh, man. I can't imagine a world without it. Think of the revenue we would have lost. So what happened afterward? GE wants to build something great. And Walt says, hang on. They said, we would like to bring this good thing to life. And Walt Disney said, wait just a moment.

[00:24:51] Because I'm going to go to the World's Fair where all the worlds and the Martians came together and they gave all their wares. Are you referencing Men in Black? Ooh. Oh, nope. GE's slogan in the 1960s was progress is our most important product. Sounds like hippies. Bringing good things to things. Mm-hmm.

[00:25:16] And the Edison Square, just so we get more into it, it was, it was roughly, it was going to be where the childcare area is today. And it was set during the same time period as Main Street. And it had architecture based on many different cities. And there was a center with this statue of Thomas Edison. Oh, Joel left. All right. So we're moving on.

[00:25:44] We're moving on to the 1964 World's Fair, aren't we? I mean, that's the idea here. Edison Square didn't happen, right? Oh, no, sir. In my heart, it still exists, even though it never did. Well, that's great. Hold on to your heart. My hats and glasses. Hold on to the memories.

[00:26:06] But in 1964, we opened up an attraction at the World's Fair where GE's Progress Land was essentially considered a continuous commercial that guests paid to watch. How great is that for GE? They wanted an attraction for this endeavor, this World's Fair.

[00:26:32] And they came back and said to Disney, hey, how about you do something here? From what I understand, John Hench, one of the Imagineers at Disney, Imagineers, just one of the cousins at Disney, said that this whole endeavor was inspired by Thornton Wilder's Our Town, which is a great play written. I was in that in ninth grade.

[00:27:02] Ninth grade, I was in that. Oh, all right. I was in that in high school. So there we go. Ninth grade is high school. Were you also Doc Gibbs? No. I was the narrator. Oh, that's a big role. And ninth grade is high school. It's not if it's the third time. Well, I mean, if we're going to parse over an advanced degree, I don't think that we need to get a...

[00:27:28] We might make some of the listeners jealous of our education. Andy May, what role were you in our town when you were in high school? I was the stage manager. Oh, so the narrator as well. All right. Yes. Okay. All right. Well, John Hench said that a lot of what they did was inspired by the play Our Town. And they designed this whole scenario for General Electric.

[00:27:58] They wanted to set the story in multiple eras, showcasing the amazing things that GE did for all of America, starting in the late 1800s through the 1960s, over four segments. Does that go along with what you've seen as well? Yes. Great. What is it like to host a podcast?

[00:28:28] Try to keep the show moving. I think if I was hosting a podcast, I would just let it fly. Maybe add some things in post. Let the editor work on it for an excessive period of time. Maybe add some transformer sound effects that the audience doesn't get until the third part.

[00:29:03] Progress is the sound of a motor. Andy, are you getting a phone call? No, I don't see a good. There's no time code on this. It doesn't work. Oh, well. How does it feel? Welcome to hell. I'm still the one who edits it, even if you host it. That is true, Joel. Let's check in with our friends at the Six Flags show.

[00:29:42] Your attention, please. Hey, everybody. Let's take a break from the action. We are here in the Ears Up Studios soundstage television stage. We've got television here now. Right. Oh, right. It's a new edition. We've got all sorts of equipment. I don't know what it does. But maybe our famous guest can tell me a little bit about it. If we get in line later. Howdy, y'all. See, I've got with me here tonight. You know the voice. You love the voice.

[00:30:11] It's Dolly Parton. That's right. I don't think I really need any introduction. At all, Miss Dolly. Yes. Welcome. It's a pleasure to be here. I brought you like 50 pounds of pie. Wow. Yeah. So two pies. Yes. Two pies. Exactly. Two pies. Nice.

[00:30:33] I just wanted to swing by because I heard y'all were doing kind of a tribute to my theme park, Dollywood. Yes. In a sense. Yeah. Yeah. And I'm just grateful. And I just wanted to say a couple things. First of all, I really hope... I haven't listened to it, of course, because it's still being constructed, baked like the pie, sort of.

[00:31:01] First of all, I hope that nobody did a tedious character voice for the whole thing. It's fine. I mean, you know, I know how improv people are and it's rough to say like, you know, you don't need to do that. And second, I heard there's no boob jokes. And I think that's fantastic. Yes. Because I'm tired of that. We have a great amount of respect for you, Dolly. It's not... It's not... It's the most obvious thing.

[00:31:31] And it's stupid. No, it's lazy humor. It is. It's that. And I know some people on the show are prone to low-hanging fruit, but this is like, this is just dumb. So anyone out there, stop. Yeah. Anyway, I was curious about concierge because I'm looking to set up something similar for Dollywood, which I own because I'm Dolly Barton. Well, clearly, yes. Yes. On the sign. Yeah. Right.

[00:32:02] So I understand that concierge is kind of a Disney-leaning... I mean, it's in the name, Ears. But you... Yeah. Sorry. Y'all do other things, right? Like you do Universal or if I wanted to go to another... Let's say I want to use concierge, but I'm not going to Disney. What are some of my options? Well, yeah. I mean, you're right.

[00:32:28] It's not our main focus, but for some of our, we like to say VIP members, people that travel with us often, we have no problem setting up hotel reservations at other places. We can take care of that for you. Marriott, Hilton, you know, all the big names, you know, especially those around Disneyland and Disney World. That's kind of why we have those agreements set up. I don't think we have anything set up for your cabins, though. Well, you all got to get on that.

[00:32:58] Yeah, right? Yeah. Start working a number of hours. And then do that. And do that. Yes. It's almost like a full-time day. Like a time that you start and then a time that you... Anyway. So, the phone number is 856-R-EARS, right? Correct. For concierge. Yeah. And Disneyland is opening up soon, so people want to probably get on that. Agreed. Yeah.

[00:33:25] They're not selling tickets yet, and they're not accepting most hotel reservations yet, but I mean, that's coming real soon. So, they can dial 856-HOUR and then E-A-R and then just hover over the S. Right. Okay. Just ready.

[00:33:45] Or if you're not using a 90s cordless telephone, you could just hit that S and then hover over the call button, the green call button. Ooh, I like that better. Yes. Yeah. Well, you know, because I'm a busy lady. So, yeah. Yeah. And then you have a website. It's concierge.com. Yeah. Yeah. One. Right. So... You can read our blog. You can send messages to us and we'll... I'll send pie to you.

[00:34:16] I'm Dolly Parton. All right. Hey. All right. Look forward to it. Yeah. So, what's up with this show? Apparently, we thought we were doing something a little special for the holidays. Huh. Yeah. Yeah. Talking about another attraction that maybe we wouldn't have talked about otherwise. So, that's like... Okay. So, it's like when you can't do a versus thing, you do this? Yes. We do kind of do that. We've got it before Halloween. Last year, we did it. Right.

[00:34:46] Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The Six Flags show. And, like, no one listened to that. Yes. If you heard it, you were the person who heard it. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't, and I edited it. So... Right. It's a funny show. So, if you missed it... Oh, yeah. I enjoyed it very much. Yeah. Lots of Jimmy singing. Oh, yes. I'm a fan of that. I'm going to be doing a duet album with him. Oh, excellent. I'm still making music, right? Well, for Jimmy, you'll come out of retirement if you... Oh, in a heartbeat.

[00:35:16] I don't think you did. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Okay, cool. So, that's our ad, right? Yeah. All right. To all who come to this happy place, welcome. To all who come to this happy place... It's Tech Night at Disneyland. Oh, it's Tech Night at Disneyland. It's Tech Night at Disneyland. It's Tech Night at Disneyland.

[00:35:46] It's Tech Night at Disneyland.

[00:36:24] Okay. This is really, really great. You're doing a great job, Randy. It's a lot of fun. I'm glad I signed the contract to be on this podcast in perpetuity, even after I left the company to go work for SeaWorld. And you're doing this for free, too. That's very kind of you. It's a corporate contractual thing. And the commute is awful long. I just real appreciate you being here. Yeah.

[00:36:50] You know, we aligned on the synergies and... Yeah. All right. Well, let's pivot here. Let's stop talking about a thing that existed for only a couple of years and let's... It didn't ever exist. We're talking about the World's Fair... Yeah. You were out... You're bringing good things to life. It's fine. We're done with that. How about we talk about Disneyland?

[00:37:20] Oh. In 1967, July of 1967, the Carousel of Progress was installed in Disneyland in a two-story structure. Who has some interesting facts about this beeswax? So, the two-piece structure, the theater was built in the round and it went... Oh, funny that it's a carousel and it was built in the round. This is magical, guys.

[00:37:51] Thanks, Joel. Thanks, Joel. I'm glad you didn't carry on you. I'm taking a note. So, it was in 4X and the building had a second floor where you would go up and see the City of Progress, which was actually Walt's idea of Epcot. So, exploratory prototype... Experimental prototype community of tomorrow. Thanks, Joel.

[00:38:20] Really glad you're here. We really should have shared the agenda with Joel. Joel's really punching up the energy here. It's fine. Yeah, you'll fix it in post. It'll be fine. It's a regular Joss Whedon. So, what about this model here? I mean, originally it was the Epcot model, but after Walt... Experimental prototype community of tomorrow. After Walt, they renamed it Progress City.

[00:38:49] I've got some facts about the model here. It was in a scale of 1⁄8 inch to the foot. It was 6,900 square feet in size. 115 feet. 69. 60 feet deep. There were 2,500 moving vehicles in the model. 4,500 structures. Finished, furnished, and lit because Walt insisted on it. He loves being lit.

[00:39:21] Yep. And 1,400 streetlights. Randy, I have a question. How did they strike down the people to drive the cars? They moved them electromechanically there, Andy May. It was not... They didn't put actual people in those cars. They just... It was all a model. And all of this happened, but they...

[00:39:47] Apparently, these Imagineers and folks at Disney got a little scared after Walt died. And renamed it Progress City because they didn't want to admit that Walt wanted to build a whole city in Florida. Well, that would be the work of a madman. Building a swamp city? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Here's the thing. Progress City was intentionally... Originally intended to not have any street traffic on the ground level.

[00:40:15] So all cars, trucks, loading, unloading would all be done on the bottom level. Unfortunately, when they went to investigate in Florida, the water table was far too high. So they could not dig. They would have to have built the city at least 30 feet above in the ground. Thank you, Joel. When the horses and the carousel, they'll just dig right into it when they go down. Thank you, Andy May, for your intense analysis. You're welcome. Welcome.

[00:40:43] Well, so when this was installed in Disneyland in 1967, we had a little bit of a different show, but mostly the same show as the attraction was in the World's Fair. There were some changes. There were a few changes. And we'll get into that in just a little bit. Let's finish up the history here. Then we'll talk about the show and its various iterations. How does that sound? That would be great. That sounds like a regular hootenanny.

[00:41:12] Yes, all the nannies. You ever been to a haunted box social? Are you including Fran Drescher's the nanny in all the nannies? Yeah. Oh, yes. She was one of my favorite nannies. Her and that McPhee lady. All right. Well, in the 70s, 1970.

[00:41:41] Walt Disney World opened up. And GE said, you know what? You know who's attending this attraction about our GE appliances? People from California. People from California. Exactly. Locals who don't care about GE quality. GE appliances anymore. Please. They were Maytag people. Left coasters. Well, GE said, you know what we want to do? We want to change up our sponsorship.

[00:42:11] Let's pay two piles of money to move this attraction from the one coast to the other coast. And they wanted to move it out to see a more diverse audience. I assume that there were all sorts of people attending Walt Disney World in the 1970s. And they wanted to move it over there. So in. Did we talk about the Carousel of Progress at Disneyland yet? No, because we're going to talk about that in each of the acts of the things. Great. Right.

[00:42:41] Thanks, Joel. Thanks, Joel. Joel can be former CEO. Former CEO of SeaWorld. Well. I heard. Were you there when all the things happened? I was there as a result of those things happening. And I was there to clean up. And now SeaWorld has an impeccable reputation. Thanks, Joel. Let's stop talking about fish here. Welcome to the family. So I think what was so interesting about the GE stuff that you were talking about, Randy,

[00:43:11] is that GE was paying to create a whole new demographic for their products. It was so interesting to me because now it would be like, I don't know, Dollywood picking up and moving to, I don't know, Arkansas. What? To get a whole new group of people. I mean, it's just, it's insane. That wouldn't happen. I tried to make that happen. While you were here. Beautiful up there. What are you talking about, Joel?

[00:43:38] I tried to make it happen and they insisted, and Dolly specifically insisted to keep it in Tennessee. I wanted to move to Chicago. There was people who wouldn't know a good theme park or a good pie if it hit them in the face. What about the 25 pound pies? Come on, Joel. Oh, well. In September of 1973. How much is each slice? How much does that weigh? Three pounds. Three pounds. In September of 1973. Three.

[00:44:07] What's the weight of an average baby? Baby. Hey, Google. Google, how much does a baby weigh? Hey, Google. What's the average weight of a baby? I'm going to look it up. Eight pounds, four inches.

[00:44:37] So, what about the baby? The average serving of a turkey to an American is 1.5 pounds. It's the turkey legs. I think you're referring to the turkey legs from the Disney theme parks. Turkey legs are 1.5 pounds. The average amount to a Thanksgiving dinner is 1.25 pounds. I can crystal me. I got it. If a question was there ever a speed ramp to get up to the Progress City?

[00:45:06] Yes, there was. After the outro. After the fourth show. Yes, we're encouraged to go up the ramp to see Progress City. Thank you. You're welcome. I went to check on Peepaw. He's almost awake. Thanks, Joel. In September of 1973, Disneyland closed down their Carousel of Progress and moved it over to Walt Disney World.

[00:45:33] The new Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom that opened up in October of 1971. Well, in October 1st, 1971. Thank you. Yes. Yes. Thank you, Joel. And on January 15th, 1975, the Carousel of Progress reopened in Walt Disney World with even more changes. Turned the other way. Well, yes, it did turn the opposite direction, which is... So you went back in time is what happened.

[00:46:02] Yes, you started going counterclockwise. That's a big difference. But it still maintained the same feel of going across multiple dioramas over a few decades each. You know, it's just a treat for the senses. But things have changed over the years.

[00:46:27] How about we take some time and we start talking about the actual show at this point? I mean, it's remained relatively unchanged since it got to Walt Disney World. There have been a few renovations, of course, from 1975 until 1993. And none since then. But let's start talking about how things fared over there.

[00:46:57] We talked about the Great Big Beautiful tomorrow. Well, we haven't talked about that at all yet. But let's start with the basic premise of this attraction. And that's progress. Let's listen to the Arizona cowboy, Rex Allen, introduce the original Carousel of Progress. He was the narrator in the Christmas story. No, he wasn't.

[00:47:25] It's the carousel of progress. Most carousels just go round and round without getting anywhere. But on this one, at every turn, we'll be making progress. And progress is not just moving ahead. It's draining. It's the grandpa from the future. It's a better way of life. That is true. And what does Rex have to say about the carousel and how it defines progress? Let's listen. Progress is the sound of a motor.

[00:47:54] The hum of a turbine. I hear it. The heartbeat of a factory. The sound of a symphony. The roar of a rocket. Oh. Progress is people getting released from drudgery. Gaining more time to enjoy themselves and live richer lives. Oh, yeah.

[00:48:22] As long as man dreams and works and builds, this progress will go on in your life and mine. And how will it go on in your life, sir? Well, it goes on and he... Wait, where did he go? The audio clip stopped. It's fine, Andy May. Andy May, a motor is what makes a car move. Oh. Without horses. Right.

[00:48:53] It's a nice intro to the show. It tells you exactly what to expect. You've got progress. We start out in the early years of our... Well, the mid-years of our country. The 1890s. It's a great introduction to our nation and the beginning of progress. And the beginning of the great company that is GE, General Electric. That's right, Randy. Welcome to the 1890s.

[00:49:23] Now, what's interesting is that over time, we've changed a little bit of the theme, but we still keep up this early, this early before electricity scene. And then the beginning of electricity. And then there's much more electricity. And then we get to the future of electricity. Is that safe to say at this point? Yeah. I think that pretty much talks about each of the four acts. For sure. All right.

[00:49:53] I was going to start us off. Are you ready for me to do that? Oh, well, do you want me to play a little bit of the intro from the current version as we head into... Of course. The 1890s. There's a great day, beautiful tomorrow. Shining at the end of every day. There's a great day. There's a great day. There's a great day. There's a great day. There's a great day. Clearly, you get above the times.

[00:50:20] A man has a dream, and that's the start. He follows his dream to find the heart. And when it becomes a reality, it's a dream come true. You can start talking anytime. Oh, okay. I was singing along, but I didn't want you to hear my singing voice. Now is the time. Now is the place. We're not there yet, Joel. It is the... It is beautiful tomorrow. Thanks, Joel. Just a day away.

[00:50:49] So when we open in the 1890s... It is the best time of your life. You know, that's correct. They say that life doesn't... You know, after a certain point, it doesn't get... It doesn't improve much, but I got to say that my mid-30s are absolutely the best time of my life. Thank you, Joel. Welcome to the family. Crystal May, please.

[00:51:15] Crystal May Light, please tell us about the first scene in The Carousel of Progress. I'm just waiting for Joel to provide some more color commentary on Valentine's Day. Now is the time. There it is. I knew it was coming. Now is the best time of your life. The Sherman Brothers, ladies and gentlemen. We open in the...

[00:51:44] I have a lump of woozle. Oh, man. Winnie the Pooh. The gentleman who knows how to party. He does. A tiger, a bear, and a pig all walk into a room. And how has no one eaten? Does anybody ever think about that? This has nothing to do with the carousel progress. Oh. My bad. Sorry. I just... I went somewhere for a moment. I'm back.

[00:52:12] I've been sipping on Andy May's Yeti over here, and I think I've got a little too far. I was seeing heffalumps and woozles. So we open with Father singing a great big beautiful tomorrow while he's sitting in his chair while Rover is wagging close by sitting on the floor. Robin starts to chirp, and he says that we're going to celebrate Valentine's Day today. The dates around the turn of the century, from what I found online, there are earlier...

[00:52:41] What you remember from your memory. Memory. From my memory banks, is when they were first testing the ride, it was actually a little earlier. But by the time the attraction went to the World's Fair, they were right around 1890, 1898. And I'll talk about a little bit later another World's Fair they were alluding to, which was in the early 1900s. So kind of interesting history there. He mentions...

[00:53:10] Father mentions that there are already high-rises at 20 stories. The movie pictures are flickering onto the big screens. And there are 8,000 cars on our highways already. That's pretty cool. And if you can believe it, a train ride from New York to California will take you seven days. Whoa. All right. I know. Less than a week. Less than a week. And if you can believe it, there's a couple of guys who are up to no good in a county in North Carolina.

[00:53:39] Did they start making trouble in your neighborhood? They did. I got in one little fight. My mom got scared. She sent me with my auntie and uncle. In Bel Air, where most people should live. Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, where they're working on a flying contraption. You know, Orville. Wilbur. Redenbacher? Well, them folks. All right. Yeah, the Fox folks. Yeah. But Father's pretty sure it won't work. It's never going to work. We're never going to fly.

[00:54:06] He talks to us about his cast iron stove, gas lamps, hot water reservoir that only needs three bucket of coals to stay warm. The state of the art icebox holds 50 pounds of ice and Rover keeps the drip pan from messing up floors, which is nice. Is it at this point that the poltergeist came? Oh, that scared me when I saw that. You know, they don't have technology in that time, but they did have a helpful poltergeist to open up items and move them around as on cue.

[00:54:35] You know, the things move on their own. Yeah. But that's part of the audio animatronics. Polty the poltergeist. That's part of the next sequence. Polty the poltergeist. Polty the friendly poltergeist. Only insiders know about it. I had pulled audio from that. Oh, gotcha. That must have been in one of your CEO seminars. That is correct.

[00:55:03] So the last thing he really talks about before we meet Mother is he talks about having a pump in the sink, but you have to have a bucket of water close by to prime it. And he alludes to the fact that not too long ago they used to have to carry in buckets of water to drink. I thought that was really interesting. And then as Mother comes into view, he lets her know about a fellow named Edison. Hmm. Heard of it? Thomas Edison.

[00:55:31] Did you know that they were going to build an attraction called Edison Square or just above Main Street, USA, where they have the Walter Elias Disney window, which is haunted by Walter Disney's father. Andy? Yeah. Mother was going to talk. He's talking to Mother about the snap electric lights that are coming, and she was excited not to have any more kerosene or gas.

[00:56:01] Sounds like a fire hazard to me. Well. Right? And then she alludes to, well, she talks about her newfangled washing machine that allows her to do laundry in five hours and not two days. Hmm. Well, that's an improvement. Provided by General Electric. Provided by General Electric. And father lets her know that now she has a bunch of free time.

[00:56:24] And she says to do canning and clean the oven, which should be self-cleaning, but not yet. Hmm. Hmm. Not yet, you say. Hmm. So she does excuse herself and says she needs to go get the laundry off the line because it's getting ready to rain. And father says, that isn't true. There's not going to be any rain because my lumbago is not acting up. And, of course, thunderbolts and lightning.

[00:56:54] Very, very frightening. Hello! Thank you, Joel. Joel knew that was coming. It's like the poetic knowledge of queen music. We will rock you. At the end of our thunderbolts and lightning, we hear from James in the other room who is getting caught looking at a Holmes-type stereo. He's looking at porn. Hey, what now? What?

[00:57:25] It is not porn. He is looking at the star of the 1906 World Fair Little Egypt. Oh. And what is she dancing? The hoochie-coochie. Hoochie-coochie. Oh, my goodness. I know. Leave it to a young boy to find the 1906 star of the World Fair. But did you guys know that a Holmes-style stereoscope is actually a precursor to our viewfinders we had when we were kids?

[00:57:53] It's two pictures taken from two slightly different angles. And when they overlap each other, when your eyes overlap them, it actually makes them 3D. So I thought it was really cool that something so old, 1890s, would have impact now. I mean, I had a viewfinder when I was a kid, so I thought that was really cool.

[00:58:15] And as Dad, Father, tells James to put that away before his mother gets home, we start to hear Father talking about a talking machine. But when he says put that away, he's referring to the viewfinder, right? Not anything else that he might... Oh. I was watching the hoochie-coochie. Yep, moving on. It was the stereoscope. It was the stereoscope. Okay. The Wash Day Marvel.

[00:58:45] The Wash Day Marvel, that's right. Let's get this podcast clean. In the Wash Day Marvel that only takes five hours and not two days. So now Father starts talking about the new talking machine they have. And we see Grandma, who is listening to Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow, as her pet parrot advises us that she listens to that on a loop all day long. Hmm.

[00:59:11] Just like some of us do other songs when we're trying to forget what Andy said about the hoochie-coochie. Our troublesome parrot. Yes, troublesome parrot. The parrot starts to let us know that the loop is almost over. Let us know! Thanks, Joel. Now, is this the family from Song of the South?

[00:59:36] Well, I think, as Joel alluded earlier, this family has nothing to do with Song of the South, and we've been horribly misled. Yeah, I ruined that bit real early. I don't know what you're talking about. I can't even say that's the dog off the porch of Pirates of the Caribbean. I got my first COVID shot today. I'm not going to make promises. Oh, Joel, that's very nice to know. Welcome, family.

[01:00:05] I'm not going to make any promises about what I say on this episode. Yeah, you shouldn't, Joel. You're a corporate man. Not anymore. I retired from Hershen Family Entertainment in 2013, and then I retired from SeaWorld in 2018, and I got my first COVID shot today. Welcome to the family. 2021. I just wanted to have a complete timeline. Thank you, Crystal May. You're so welcome. Welcome.

[01:00:37] So, as we get back to Father, Patricia is getting ready to go to the Valentine's Day dance on her horseless trolley, and when her father reminds her about her curfew, he is headed out on a trolley of his own to get a sarsaparilla. Oh, wait. I mean a root beer, because that's what he drinks now. So, that's what they call him. What is the difference between a sarsaparilla and a root beer? Progress. That's what? That's right.

[01:01:07] Speaking of progress. I believe that they are both forms of roots, and I don't know what root beer is based on. Yeah, when I did research on that, it was just a different collection of spices and root vegetables that they used to flavor the soda, and now we call it root beer, not sarsaparilla anymore. There you go. Better marketing. I'll have a root beer. I'll have a root beer hold the roots. Am I right?

[01:01:38] So, are you saying then that the root beer is a combination of flavors from various roots, whereas the sarsaparilla was a specific root? Exactly. And herbs and spices, kind of like that Kentucky guy that we don't talk about. Who? Exactly. Progress. All right. So, now we're in the 1920s. It's the 4th of July.

[01:02:06] It's got to be 1927 because Father talks about Charles Lindbergh flying across the Atlantic. But we see a spider web of electrical cords everywhere. We've come a long way from the previous decade where they had no such electricity, and in this case, we just put one outlet in the house and we just run everything everywhere. It's great. Still works. Right? It still works. It still works. One fire hazard to another. Yeah.

[01:02:36] Yeah, exactly. You just put the fire extinguisher right next to it. And run it on electricity. Along with your refrigerator, oven, and vacuum cleaner. That'll probably blow fuses. It might. Yes. I'll pause there in case I put the audio from that in because I'll remind myself that I didn't pull that audio. Even though we've sung that in previous episodes. Boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop, boop.

[01:03:07] But yes, there's a lot of electricity in this house now. Everybody's very excited. The electric porch light allows the wife to sew outside at night. Or embroider outside at night. The electric radio allows news and entertainment from all over the country. Indoor plumbing is enjoyed by Uncle Orville or in the original iteration, Cousin Orville.

[01:03:36] Everybody knows our Cousin Orville. No privacy is all around this place. Exactly. He invented air cooling with a block of ice and a fan. He's a great... Voice by mail blank. Yes. Do we want to talk about voices now or do we want to talk about them later? Later. Thanks, Joel. Thanks, Joel. It's a great little picture of the 1920s where Mother is making costumes for the 4th of July celebration.

[01:04:06] Daughter is dressed as the Statue of Liberty. She's very embarrassed. She doesn't want her boyfriend to see her like this. Everybody else is very patriotic. Even Uncle Orville has a little hat and an Uncle Sam outfit hanging on a hook. Why wouldn't her boyfriend be proud of his missus, his lady, representing the symbol of patriotism in our country? Indeed. Lady Liberty. Lady Liberty.

[01:04:36] Yes. Yes. She's representing Lady Liberty. Statue of Liberty. Statue of Liberty. Yes. She is a person version of the statue. Thank you. Thank you, Joel and Andy May. Yes, there are good times to be had watching this scene as Mother is outside. In the original version, Mother was still doing laundry.

[01:05:04] And she kept up with her yes, dear sort of mentality throughout the whole situation. But we've upgraded. We've moved beyond that. She's no longer just doing laundry. She is embroidering under a porch light with electricity. It's pretty great. Thanks to Progress. Right. Thanks to Progress. Now, the original dog in this scene was named Buster. And Buster became Queenie.

[01:05:33] Queenie was much better. Because Buster frequently interrupted the audience or interrupted the narrative. He interrupted John. I'm sorry? Interrupted John. The audience wasn't. They were just enjoying the show, I think is George's point. That's a good point. Yes. Buster interrupted John while he was talking. And John occasionally had to say, quiet. These people might want to buy some quality GE products.

[01:06:03] Corporate synergy. They bring good things to life. And eventually Buster became Queenie. And Queenie was much better behaved until 1993 when Queenie was named Rover. And Rover generally stayed quiet unless Rover was interrupting Sarah, the wife, when Rover would pop in and growl. And John was forced to say, Rover, don't interrupt while Sarah's interrupting.

[01:06:33] And we kept the narrative moving in such a fashion. Now, the music between all of these scenes, I should mention, they're different takes on the same song. There's a great big beautiful tomorrow and the current version. We'll talk about some other versions later in a few minutes. But each version is based on the time period in which it was set. Now is the best time of your life. And it starts. You know what?

[01:07:03] That's true. It is the best time of my life. I currently have a gout. And my doctor says that a man my age should not be having such medical anomalies. Thank you, Andy May. Thank you. But yes. I believe that should be gout chat. It's a different podcast, Joel. Oh, yes.

[01:07:32] Each of the songs has been changed to a different rendition. And it changes as you go through the transition between different theaters, which we're going to do now as we enter into the late 1920s.

[01:07:48] And that brings us to Act 3. Here we go. The original concept for Edison Square.

[01:08:15] The Act 3 was originally meant to take place in present day. The present day of the release was 1958. But in the World's Fair version was set in 1940s. It's the only act that has no similarities between the concept art for harnessing the lightning or Carousel of Progress. So in the World's Fair version, the first scene has father set in the 1940s with all the gadgets and Pulte the poltergeist doing his magic.

[01:08:44] The next scene, we show grandma and grandpa in the den listening to the radio. The next scene shows mama working on her rumpus room. The next scene shows daughter working out on whatever those things are called. You know, the jiggly waist thing. Joel, Mr. Manby, is the den also where they make their phone calls? Yes. Never interrupt me again. I'm sorry. Welcome to the family.

[01:09:14] The last... Sorry, Joel. The last scene shows the kids watching a brand new television set. The boy in that scene was later used in Space Mountain's Home of the Living. I love Disney so much. I want to be executive at Disney.

[01:09:32] So now at Walt Disney World in 1973, when they moved the Carousel of Progress from Disneyland to Disney World, father was repositioned from New York World's Fair to behind the kitchen table. It was in this version that grandma and grandpa would steal the kids TV while they worked. Well, they still took over the den. It now had their TV set from scene four of the original.

[01:09:59] The second scene took mother working on a rumpus room to their son working on a model airplane, which was based on the original unused concept art. Scene three still had daughter working on the jiggly waist thing. Scene four changed from the kids watching TV to mother working on the rumpus room.

[01:10:20] Scene four changed from the kids.

[01:10:50] Which Polty the Poltergeist pulls out to show us. Now, John doesn't have to dry the dishes after supper anymore. Now, he and Rover, the dog's named Rover, can have longer walks. There's a rat race. They do something called commuting. And they watch TV when it works. And grandma likes to watch boxing. Give my left! You old lug!

[01:11:16] Joel, I was very moved by how impassioned you are about the Walt Disney Company. It must have been very difficult for you to be with the other companies. We're glad to have you aboard. Well, Blackfish was a very painful movie. And I was brought in to try to turn the company's name around when I brought into SeaWorld from Hershen Family Entertainment, where Dollywood was the crown jewel of the theme parks. Oh, sure is.

[01:11:46] Still today. And I'm still contractually obligated to do this podcast since 2003 when I left the company and joined SeaWorld and left in 2018. Glad to have you here. Welcome to the family. Are we ready to move on? From the 1940s into the future. The world of the future. This is scary. The great big beautiful tomorrow. Welcome to the future.

[01:12:14] The great big beautiful tomorrow. How is the time? How is the place? Show. How is the best time of your life? It's true. I went on a walk the other day and it was lovely. The last act is set during Christmas in the 21st century. The future.

[01:12:43] And they're in the living room and the kitchen. With laser discs. Well, it's intimidating. It is. In a fast-paced world of the future, they're in the living room and the kitchen singing. There's a great big beautiful tomorrow together just like we like to sing Dolly songs together on the porch. And John's in the kitchen making Christmas dinner and Sarah's on her computer. She's working nearby.

[01:13:13] And she's connected all the robots that take over the world in their apartment, in their home. And Jim is now no longer a child. That's the son. That's the son. I threw myself off, you see. He's no longer a young adult and not a child. He's not a child anymore.

[01:13:40] And he's showing Meemaw how to play virtual reality games. And Trish and Pap Pap sitting in the living room near the Christmas tree. And Sarah timed the oven to listen to John's voice. And this is the time that you want to do. And Christmas cooking is the time you want to do that. So that's a good move on her part. Oh, yeah. Yes. And household items are now voice activated in the future.

[01:14:11] And after the oven, the oven confirms John's temperature. When he says, set the computer, set the temperature. And then he, because he burned the turkey last year. And the family makes fun of him. And it's humiliating. And he's angry. And he contemplates divorce. We're starting a whole new family that will not chastise him. And that will appreciate the efforts that he does. That was our Christmas.

[01:14:40] He found that chicken. And he found it in the road. And he named it. And he put a hat on it. And he said, here's my chicken. I'm sorry. No, Andy. That was our Christmas. Yes. Well, that serves you right. And Meemaw scores 550 points on the virtual reality future game.

[01:15:04] And because the oven is controlled by the deep state, it turns it up to 550 and 100 degrees. And Pap-Pap talks about the future technology like laser discs and voice control and flip phones and HDTV and magnets and microwaves. And Oral-B electric toothbrushes and laser discs. Oral-B is not part of it.

[01:15:33] Oral-B and Reese's peanut butter cups and the TikTok. And then Meemaw, she beats the game, the futuristic virtual reality game. And she says 975. And then the turkey whimsically turns up to 975. And John is a failure as a provider. And they all chastise him further.

[01:15:59] And they say, you, you, how dare you to put the turkey in the bowels of hell? And we will get the new John. And he gets re- Andy. Yes? Yes. That was our 4th of July when we tried to deep fry the turkey. Remember that? Don't you forget it. And in previous- We eat turkey on the 4th of July. I'll eat you a turkey. And he hit it with his car.

[01:16:29] Yeah, he hit it. It was free. And I gave it a hat. Did you not hear that part of my story? Anyway, in previous versions, they say that the 80s is a great time to be alive. Which, I mean, I was only a child during the 80s. But I do remember it being rather delightful. And they have a flat screen TV, a computer. And they talk about killing the grandparents. I'm sorry, Andy. That was last Easter. They have a place to stay. Yes.

[01:16:59] Their own home. I think you mean one of the versions where mom says that the grandpa and grandpa- They killed the grandparents. No. They said that grandma and grandpa are no longer with us because they're in a retirement home. We took them out of their misery. And then in the current version, the guy who voices Christmas Story is grandpa. Thanks, Joel. And that's the future.

[01:17:48] This is a funky version of the song. It's like a futuristic version. Now is the time. Now is the place. Let's talk about what Joel is singing. Oh, wait. Let's go back to... Oh, that is downright soulful. That is fresh. It's hip and fresh. Yep. That's how it ends.

[01:18:18] And that's how it ends. And that's how it ends. Let's talk about some previous versions here. You know, it's interesting. In the 70s, not only did Disney say, you know what we should put in here? We should put in here some bits about women who want to have jobs. There's an interesting subtext where women, where the daughter of the family is trying to get a job.

[01:18:46] And father says, oh, that's not going to happen. Not in my household. Not going to be that way forever. Whatever. That's quite a regressive value in the family, if you ask me. And it works out very well for her in the end. Or even her mother is an activist by the end of the show. That's right.

[01:19:08] One other interesting aspect during the course of this show is that GE said, you know what we don't want? We don't want to talk about progress and then say buy something from GE now. And so they came up with a new song. They asked the Sherman brothers who wrote the original song to write a different song. And that song has been sung by Joel Mann. I have a lumpawoodle. Now is the time.

[01:19:37] Now is the best time. Now is the best time of your life. Life is a prize. Live every minute. Open your eyes and watch how you wish. Yesterday's memory. Yes. It's a similar theme and they do it across all of the decades. Randy, can you hear that music today? Well, yes, because they orchestrated this across all the decades.

[01:20:05] The same as the original song, which they reinstated back in 1993 when they updated the ride to the 90s. Instead of. It's not a ride. It's an attraction. I was going to make that correction as well. But I was. But if you're walking around Tomorrowland. In Walt Disney World. In Walt Disney World or Disneyland from the 90s until today, you can hear this.

[01:20:39] This was composed by Polty the Poltergeist. Mm-hmm. The futuristic Poltergeist because it's very futuristic. Again, those were audio animatronics. Those were part of the attraction. There's not a Poltergeist. So, are you saying they programmed audio animatronics to play all of the keyboards that are playing this music? No, I'm saying all of the products opening and closing are not a Poltergeist.

[01:21:08] Because they could have just programmed with MIDI. It's an interface that could make electronic music instruments talk to each other. True. But yes, this song, Change in 1975, stuck around in interesting ways. We saw it for a few decades in Walt Disney World to the point that most of us have probably heard that before we ever heard the original song,

[01:21:36] comma, the current song. When now is the best time of your life was just what we knew as the main song of the attraction. Now's the best time we've ever laughed. Now is the time. My wife. Yep. Now's the best time with my wife. Thank you, Joel.

[01:22:08] I got my first COVID chat today. We're very proud of you, Joel, Mr. Manby. Oh, it is real. Yes, it is real. And Dolly acknowledges that it's real. Also real is the theater that houses 240 seats, six stationary stages, 32 animatronics in the original. No horses. No horses. No horses at all. Or carriages.

[01:22:35] And I did the math and there's six stages. There's 360 degrees in a circle. You divide that by six. And that means that's right. That's 60%. Each scene has 60 degrees. You have an entrance screen as they enter and then four 60 degree screens. And then the sixth is a 60 degree exit screen. Nice. I like it.

[01:23:05] Which used to have a speed ramp. 360 degrees divided by six is 60. That's pretty impressive math. The theme is starting to... Speed ramps are irrelevant. They don't mean anything unless they're coming out of a tomb. That's what I've said. The two Robins in the first scene in Act One are from Mary Poppins. They were created by Imagineer Harriet Burns.

[01:23:32] I did want to point out, too, the boy in Act One who was looking at the stereoscope. He was actually vacuuming and didn't have a voice until he got to California. Originally, he was vacuuming in World's Fair. That's correct. Yes. You know what's more technologically impressive? The hoochie coochie. Let's talk about the cast. Yes. Yes. The cast. The current cast. Gene Shepard. John, the father. Narrator.

[01:24:02] He was the narrator of the Christmas story. Yes. The Christmas story. Not Rex Allen. Also the narrator of the Christmas story. Different. Different. Yeah. Different. Different guy. The thing. Debbie Derryberry is Patricia, the daughter. That's a made up name. Yes, it is. And she also voiced Jimmy Neutron, who was also a made up name.

[01:24:30] But you know what isn't a made up name? It's Steve Gutenberg. Star of stage and screen. And also a cameo where you can hire Mr. Gutenberg to say hello to all of your friends for a reasonable price.

[01:25:02] Get in touch with us, Steve Gutenberg. Do it, please. Uncle Orville, as mentioned earlier, was voiced by Mel Blanc. Mel Blanc. Mel Blanc. The only voice he ever did for Disney. Right. The only voice he ever did for Disney.

[01:25:21] He also voiced Bugs, Daffy, Porky, Tweety, Sylvester, Yosemite, Sam, Foghorn, Leghorn, Marvin the Martian, and a whole bunch of cancelled characters from Warner. Janet Waldo played the grandmother. She also voiced Judy Jetson. And Rex Allen played grandfather. He was the Arizona cowboy. Me, George Jetson.

[01:25:50] Jane, his wife. Do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do, do. His boy, Elroy. Oh, by the way, the end of Spaceship Earth is very similar to the Jetsons. Thanks, Joel. So the reason I joined Hershen Family Entertainment is I was working for an auto company.

[01:26:14] And they called me to fly to Germany for a meeting. And I had like emergency meeting. I'd fly overnight. And they sent me there and they reprimanded me in front of everybody. And I was like, I don't want to live like this. And then I started working for Hershen Family Entertainment. I wrote a book called Love Works because love works. It does.

[01:26:42] Then they made that propaganda film, Blackfin. Have you considered, Mr. Mr. Manby, have you, did you ever consider just embracing it and changing the name of SeaWorld to Blackfish the theme park? I thought about it. Just ride that publicity train all the way to Cashville. And then I realized love works. And so we started loving the dolphins. And we started loving the killer whales.

[01:27:09] And then we decided to ramp up the dolphin show so that we're... Randy, play the music. Randy, play the music. Weird loners would cry at it. There we go. And it worked. Randy, I think it's important to note. Let me just interject. This is Joel Manby. I think it's important to interject that the Carousel of Progress went through several iterations.

[01:27:37] It was originally meant for the 1964-1965 World's Fair. And then it was brought to Walt Disney or to Disneyland just shortly after where you had a view of Progress City, which ultimately became Epcot. And it rotated clockwise. And then it was moved to Walt Disney World in the mid-70s where it rotated counterclockwise.

[01:28:01] And many of the scenes were changed to reflect effectively what we see today with many of the changes we've discussed earlier in this episode. Does that sum it up? Pretty much. Yes. Yes. Thank you. My COVID shot is going all over the place. All right. Well, thank you, everybody. The virus that was spreading through North America in 2020-21. Hopefully, that's it.

[01:28:30] You can also listen to Best Car Banderer and Black Mouth and Scraping the Vault. Oh, Scraping the Vault's a good show. I did change back to the other guy, but I forgot how to do that one. Listen to Scraping the Vault for Cinderella 2. Cinderella 2.

[01:28:54] Listen to Ears Up podcast and Ears Up In-Depth for all sorts of things about Disney things and people that like talking about things. Please join our Patreon to give us money for talking about things. And if you like this, listen to... God bless you. And listen to... Listen to the Supreme Resort. Listen to the Supreme Resort. This is...

[01:29:19] Guess what this normally is if it isn't April Fool's Day or Halloween. Thank you, everybody, for joining us. Please rate us on iTunes. Fresh bake. You continue to give us two short reviews and we will continue to love you until the end of time. Signing off, it's the Dallywood Reporter. What are we? The Dallywood Reporter.

[01:29:48] Dallywood Reporter by contract only. I left the company in 2013 and left SeaWorld in 2018. Good night, everybody. Next week, more coasters.

[01:29:59] Eric, you have writing on your arm.

[01:30:46] Yes, I do. What kind of writing is that? Is that devil writing? Like it put on there with a permanent marker. Did the devil put that on your arm? Well, he's got a cross on it, so he's probably part of the claim. Is it the Jesus devil? I've heard about the Jesus devil. Welcome back to the Jesus devil talk show. This is the show where we do exorcisms, circumcisms, and phlebotomies.

[01:31:16] And you, too, can be a winner here at the Dallywood Reporter. The 13th caller is calling today, and the lines are open, and they're answered by a staff of cousins who are eating pie from the Dallywood Reporter. Do I need to clap? No, you don't. All right.

[01:31:47] We've raised it. Welcome. Is this a show yet? Yeah. You want me to check up on people? Oh, no. Did we wake up? Please let him sleep. I don't know. It's up to you. He's got that look on his face, that look that's like, I kind of want to, but I don't know if it's a good idea.

[01:32:17] Happy Halloween, everybody. My sister listens to this podcast. Not anymore, sucker. Two stars. And it worked. Your sister's still not going to listen to this. Man be out. Man be out.

[01:32:46] I think this is the best episode we've ever had. Definitely. Definitely. We're going to do an after hours. We need an outro. I know. It will be a second. This whole show is an after hours. All right. Thanks, everybody, for attending our first. Hold on. Let me wake up, people. Here.

[01:33:13] Get up close to the microphone, people. I'll just like you like to. I remember. I remember. Everybody in the video. I remember. And we were fighting the Nazis.

[01:33:41] And they'd like to give me an email. You can email. Jason. At. Is up. Podcast. Not damn. Not for me. I think. This is Joel Manby. Do our podcast.

[01:34:10] This is the earth up.