Get ready to for some in-depth looks at your favorite theme parks, on TV.
Disney announced today that it will air "The Happiest Story on Earth: 70 Years of Disneyland" on ABC as a special edition of its newsmagazine show 20/20. The show airs Sunday, September 21 at 8pm Eastern and Pacific, 7pm Central and Mountain.
The special will include a bunch of celebrities talking about the park, but of more interest to theme park fans will be backstage looks at select attractions, including the World of Color control room and the development of the new Walt Disney Audio Animatronic. The show also will present teases for the announced new rides at the resort, including the new Coco and Avatar rides as well as the Avengers Campus expansion. Here is a preview, from ABC's Good Morning America.
Meanwhile, Universal is preparing a three-part series on the making of Epic Universe, "Epic Ride: The Story of Universal Theme Parks." That will debut Monday, September 29 on NBCUniversal's streaming service, Peacock.
The series will present the construction and opening of Epic Universe in context with the development of the Universal parks that came before it, including the downtime-filled opening of Universal Studios Florida in 1990. Expect more celebrity interviews and behind-the-scenes looks at attractions, as well. Watch for our review of that series next week, in advance of its premiere.
I always loved watching these types of specials in the 90's and early 00's, but recently, so many of these "behind the scenes" shows are focused on the celebrities instead of the parks. I know famous people draw more eyeballs to broadcast programming versus Imagineers and designers, but they shouldn't sacrifice the content just so we can indulge already famous people's vanity.
I'm far more hopeful that Universal will keep the focus on Epic, since it is to their benefit to promote the new theme park versus Disney., who really don't have anything truly new to promote with their Disneyland 70th program.
To answer '80sMan, I wouldn't be surprised to see the Disneyland program to be available on Disney+ in the UK (and elsewhere), but for Epic, I don't think Peacock (Universal's streaming app) is available outside North America, so you're probably out of luck unless the BBC or another European broadcaster/streamer picks it up.
Man I loved the old behind the parks stuff Disney Channel would showcase. The Opening of EPCOT Center with Danny Kaye is marvelous.
@Russell, I think you’re right. What’s a little frustrating, is that Peacock used to be available here, but then it just seemed to disappear for some reason. I don’t use torrent sites or anything like that, and it’s too niche of a programme for one of the U.K. channels to air, so I guess I’ll just have to hope that somebody uploads it to YouTube.
This article has been archived and is no longer accepting comments.
Is there any way to watch these in the U.K.?