ABC's Shame

ABC had a burgeoning soap opera empire on its hands with General Hospital, One Life to Live and All My Children. One would think that they'd treat their back catalog of episodes carefully.

However, the network apparently thought that saving money in a foolish way was a better option. Instead of preserving their tapes, ABC erased and reused them. Up until 1978. The first ten years of One Life to Live's existence has literally disappeared.

Luckily, ABC is now owned by The Walt Disney Company, which has shown more care in preserving its history.

The Muppet Magazine

In 1983, the Muppets began a magazine of their very own. Published quarterly, the magazine featured elaborate pictorials lampooning the latest 1980's trends.

Spoof targets included films, pop stars and music videos. The magazine sought to be better than the regular kid-themed magazines of the time. It succeeded quite well, running much longer than similar magazines of the time- a six year run.

Marvel's Captain America

In 1940, the United States was on the sidelines of World War II. While it was obvious that it would not be able to stay out of the war, the country had not yet been attacked and there were several people who wanted Roosevelt to stay out of "policing" the world. There were many who saw that Adolf Hitler would not be satisfied by just taking over Europe. He planned to continue his westward march. Into this uncertainty came Captain America, defender of the constitution and of the United States.

Originally named Super America, Cap's name was changed so that he could stand out from the crowd. From his very first cover, it was obvious that his creators felt strongly that the United States should enter World War II against Germany and Hitler.

After the war, Timely Comics (the precursor to Marvel Comics) found Cap's adventures to be a hard sell. He was discontinued in the 1950's, only to be revived in 1964 by the renamed Marvel Comics under the expert pen of the Generalissimo himself, Stan Lee. Cap has stayed in print ever since.

If you happen to find a mint condition Captain America number one hiding out in an attic or basement somewhere, you're in luck. At a recent auction, the title fetched $340,000.

Disney Divisions: Hollywood Records

In 1988, Touchstone Pictures released Beaches, a massive hit starring Bette Midler, who also produced a hit soundtrack. Touchstone Pictures licensed the soundtrack out and saw the profits mostly flow out to the record company. That attracted the attention of Disney's then-CEO who saw the potential profits for the company if the Touchstone soundtracks were brought in house.

Enter Hollywood Records, which would release all of Touchstone and Hollywood Pictures' soundtracks. In order to give the label something to release between films, the company purchased the back catalog for the famed band Queen and began cultivating talent. One of its first bands was The Party a tween band of Mickey Mouse Club members.

The band didn't find much success, though the label could more than make up for its misses through exploiting the Queen catalog and releasing hit soundtracks, like the one for Sister Act.

The label currently releases tween pop, mostly featuring Disney Channel celebrities.

"May the Fourth" Week: The Cartoons of Star Wars

In the 1980's, George Lucas sought to expand his empire. The huge profits coming in from films and merchandising gave him unparalleled opportunities. ABC eagerly took advantage of the opportunity to greenlight two series based on the world of Star Wars. Star Wars: Droids and Star Wars: Ewoks.

Star Wars: Droids took place in the timeframe before Star Wars: A New Hope. R2D2 and C3PO were still just floating around, unowned and moving from master to master. The show featured their hijinks as they tried to stay functional and help their new masters.

Star Wars: Ewoks featured the lovable Ewoks in the years before Star Wars: Return of the Jedi. Unlike the Ewoks in the film, these Ewoks spoke regular English and were less prone to the violence depicted in Return of the Jedi. 

The shows were never given stable time slots, which contributed to their low ratings. Lucasfilm insisted on high quality animation, which meant that the shows were more expensive than others. ABC decided to cancel the Droids after just one season and the Ewoks after two.

"May the Fourth" Week: The Forgotten Star Wars Holiday Special

We've featured the Star Wars Holiday Special here at RetlawYensid.com before. It was the regrettable variety show produced by CBS without the assistance of George Lucas. George had signed an agreement with CBS prior  to the production in exchange for extra cash he used for special effects shots. When the movie was successful, CBS chose to exercise its option, getting minimal support from Lucasfilm and none from George Lucas. The broadcast was a notorious disaster, getting high ratings, but critical scorn. It never aired again and has never been released on home video.

However, how does the company treat the characters introduced in the special? Despite ignoring the special itself, the official Lucasfilm Star Wars "Bible", used internally, acknowledges the characters and situations from the special. The most embraced segment of the special was the Boba Fett cartoon.

This cartoon is the only part of the special that has been seen in official presentations. Its storyline has also been referred to in other official publications. 

Other characters, while never seen outside bootlegged copies of the special, are referred to internally as official characters, like Chewbacca's son Lumpy:

And Mos Eisley Cantina's spunky barmaid Ackmena, played by the legendary Beatrice Arthur:

The central holiday being celebrated by Chewbacca's family- "Life Day", has been humorously referenced by the official website StarWars.Com and is starting to be celebrated every November 17th by fans of the movies. Could this thawing of the special's icy reception mean that a home video release of the only major Star Wars production to never see the light of day on any home format might be in the offing?

One "Life Day" tradition- the wearing of a red robe- had a practical reason for its existence. CBS and Lucasfilm's agreement stated that the network would have to pay to use any costumes or props from Lucasfilm. This is why they introduced new characters into the show. CBS wanted to cut costs, so for some scenes featuring Chewbacca, they only rented the head. Using the cheap robe saved thousands of dollars.

"May the Fourth" Week: Star Wars and Atari

Lucasfilm Ltd. was always a tech oriented company. Even though many of the early special effects in the Star Wars films were relatively low-tech, the company was always eager to utilize the latest technology and in the late 1970's/early 1980's, the latest technology was the Atari. Not willing to just release low quality games, Lucasfilm insisted that games based on the movies weren't just thrown together. It could have authorized more games of lesser quality. Instead it only released four titles- 

Star Wars: Jedi Arena

Star Wars: The Arcade Game

Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

Return of the Jedi: Death Star Battle

A fifth title based on the Ewoks was created, but not released due to the collapse of Atari. While these cartridges were released by Parker Brothers, the company eventually brought video game production in house through LucasArts Software, which produced a variety of titles, many based on original concepts.

Disney Legend #22: Carl Barks

Carl Barks was born in Oregon in 1901. His father was a farmer who would move from farm to farm and job to job, a lifestyle that Mr. Barks would undertake himself early in life. It was this lifestyle that would inform Mr. Banks' future work with Walt Disney Productions.

Mr. Barks began working as an inbetweener at Disney in 1935. His knack for coming up with story ideas and gags got him transferred to the story department, working closely with the staff who wrote for Donald Duck. Sinus problems made him leave Disney to relocate to the Southern California desert where he hoped to operate a chicken farm. He decided to make extra money doing freelance work, which led to him working on Disney comics.

Mr. Barks' history with Donald Duck led to his getting assigned to draw "The Duck". It was this assignment that led to the golden age of Disney Comics. Carl Barks' most famous creation was Uncle Scrooge, who proved to be an enduring character. 

Mr. Barks' work was originally uncredited, but once DuckTales, which was heavily based on his work, had taken off, the Walt Disney Company began to celebrate Mr. Barks and his characters. In 1991, Carl Barks was honored as a Disney Legend, his work having entertained generations of children. Mr. Barks spent his final years attending Disney conventions where he was able to meet and greet his fans. He passed away in 2000 at the age of 99.

Amazing Fantasy, Amazing Spider-Man

The first appearance of Spider-Man was in August of 1962 in Marvel's Amazing Fantasy comic book. Lucky readers only had to plunk down 12 cents to buy the comic book. Could they have realized that this hero would become super? 

In any case, if one of those readers carefully stored their comic book away all those years ago and happened upon it now, it would be worth $41,000 today.

UNOCO Anaheim

As a result of Walt Disney's agreement with Jack Wrather, the company was forbidden from using the Disney or DISNEYLAND names on any hotel properties in Southern California. The company tried to buy these rights back, but Mr. Wrather continually resisted. Knowing that the company would need to change its operational strategy in Anaheim, the company began buying up hotel and motel properties that it had no current plans for, but would need to operate until it knew what it was going to do. So it created UNOCO Anaheim.

UNOCO Anaheim was the corporate division that operated hotel & motels that it couldn't put the Disney name on, as well as gift shops in Anaheim hotels that sold Disney merchandise to tourists.

Among the many businesses operated by UNOCO Anaheim were the Heidi Motel, a gas station at the corner of West Street and Katella Avenue, and "Mickey's Corner" at the DISNEYLAND Hotel.

In 1988, Jack Wrather's widow finally sold off The Wrather Corporation to Disney, which effectively ended UNOCO Anaheim, clearing the way for DISNEYLAND to begin its massive expansion, adding Downtown Disney, Disney California Adventure and Disney's Grand Californian Hotel.

A Friend of DISNEYLAND: Jack Wrather

When Walt Disney was looking for someone to take over construction and ownership of the DISNEYLAND Hotel, he was rejected by all of the major hotel chains and most of his friends. Except for one- Jack Wrather. 

Jack Wrather was a Hollywood producer who made numerous investments in various businesses. His various enterprises included the Muzak Company:

The Lassie and Lone Ranger television shows:

The Erector set:

Sgt. Preston of the Yukon:

And of course, the Happiest Hotel on Earth:

Mr. Wrather took a risk on his friend's success. When just about everyone else thought that DISNEYLAND would fail, he trusted that it would succeed. Years later, the big hotel chains that laughed at Walt Disney were desperate to build hotels around his Magic Kingdom, but the choice location still belonged to Jack Wrather because he believed in DISNEYLAND long before anyone else did.

Howard the Duck

In 1985, George Lucas decided to take a chance on a little known comic book character from Marvel Comics called "Howard the Duck" and produce a big budget film featuring the character who would be represented as a man in a duck suit interacting with a world he was thrust into.

Howard had already caused a few problems for Marvel Comics; Disney felt he looked too much like Donald Duck and Marvel had to alter him somewhat. Lucas would have to be careful with Howard's design and also figure out how to translate the duck to the big screen.

The result was a box office disaster- a film whose mere mention became 1980's shorthand for a disastrous film. In fact, the film almost poisoned the well for any movie that showed a mix of characters from different worlds- like 1988's Who Framed Roger Rabbit, which gained bad early publicity for Disney when movie critics who hadn't seen the film compared it to Howard the Duck. Disney was able to overcome the stigma by releasing a movie that was sweet and believable compared to the crass and ridiculous Howard the Duck

Flash Forward to today. Both Marvel and Lucasfilm are now owned by The Walt Disney Company. Marvel has been releasing hit after hit. Could a successful Howard the Duck film be in the offing? With Marvel making billions out of unknown characters and series, it could happen. When Howard the Duck appeared at the very end of Guardians of the Galaxy, it almost seemed like a certainty.

The Disney Phone Company

When The Walt Disney Company began developing its massive Florida property, it realized that it would need a way to provide telephone service to all of its hotel rooms and businesses. Even though it had scrapped Walt Disney's plans for a real city, the "Vacation Kingdom" of Roy Disney's imagination would still be a city of sorts so the company established Vista-United Telecommunications- Disney's very own phone company.

Vista-United's reach extended westward when the company finally purchased the Disneyland Hotel. Vista-United was tapped to provide in room telephones and even pay phones throughout the DISNEYLAND Property.

As outside companies began to offer the advanced services that Disney required at its resorts, Vista-United became unnecessary and it was sold in 2000.

Marvel's The X-Men

The first X-Men comic was released in 1963 and cost just 12 cents. A mint copy of the comic book sold at auction in 1992 for almost $500,000.

Mickey's Kitchen- At A Mall Near You

In the late 1980's, Disney decided to branch out into other businesses. Following the success of The Disney Store, the company wanted to add to its mall portfolio and a Disney themed restaurant seemed to be a good idea. Mickey's Kitchen opened two test restaurants in Southern California and Illinois. The locations weren't as successful as Disney had anticipated and were closed in the early 90's.

DISNEYLAND Records

After decades of relying on other companies to distribute its films and produce its records, Walt Disney Productions began bringing things in house in the 1950's. Fueled by profits from DISNEYLAND, Roy Disney setup Buena Vista Pictures Distribution to release Disney films and DISNEYLAND Records to create soundtrack albums based on Disney films and television projects. Walt Disney supported the new businesses since they would result in the company being able to keep more of the money it earned from its various projects.

DISNEYLAND Records started up as a way for the company to release soundtracks from the theme park; outside record companies balked at selling anything from an untested enterprise. While its early releases included many records tied to DISNEYLAND, the very first release on the DISNEYLAND Records label was Walt Disney presents A Child's Garden of Verses. The first release not only had nothing to do with DISNEYLAND, but didn't even feature any Disney characters. Future releases would feature Annette Funicello, Disney movie soundtracks and even the fabulous Golden Horseshoe Revue.

Amazing Fantasy, Amazing Spider-Man

The very first appearance of Spider-Man was in the Amazing Fantasy comic book number 15. Sold in August 1962 for just twelve cents, one of these comics in mint condition can sell for up to $280,000 today.

ESPN: The Beginning

ESPN, originally known as the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, started life in 1979, funded by the Getty Oil Company. Starting out with its signature program SportsCenter, ESPN was not initially successful. An emergency investment from Anheuser Busch, which saw the channel as eventually producing a ton of opportunities for beer drinkers to drink its beers, brought the network back from the brink of insolvency. By 1984, the channel was on solid footing and attracted the eye of ABC. However, at the time, cable channels could not be fully owned by a television network, so ABC teamed up with Nabisco (later bought out by Hearst Television) to skirt the rules. ESPN became a part of ABC, which was officially brought into the Disney family in 1995. Current estimates value ESPN alone as being worth more to Disney than the entire purchase cost of ABC. An amazing escalation in value as Disney has built ESPN into the most valuable cable channel and sports brand in the world,

Beauty and the Beast: The Broadway Musical

The first Broadway Musical from Disney was Beauty and the Beast. Based on DISNEYLAND's musical version of the animated classic that played at Videopolis in Fantasyland, it would be the first hugely successful musical based on a DISNEYLAND production. 

The Origin of Kermit the Frog

Jim Henson created Kermit the Frog in 1955. Using one of his mother's old coats, Mr. Henson built a puppet that he originally thought should be a lizard. Originally seen as being just one character out of many, Kermit quickly became the most important Muppet.