I chose this 1982 CBS special for two reasons: One, I find Danny Kaye extraordinarily entertaining. He’s my favorite part of my favorite holiday film, “White Christmas”. His 60’s vairety show was delightful (I have it on DVD) and “Hans Christian Anderson” is a sheer delight. Oh, and this. Just this:
The other reason I love this special: I love the Disney theme parks. I’ve been to Epcot twice and I have to say it’s my favorite of DIsney’s Orlando parks. (Full disclosure: I’ve never set foot in Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Animal dander makes me wheezy.)
So let’s get to it!
“Good evening ladies and gentlemen! And welcome to a party. In spite of the weather, we want to welcome you…I’m Danny Kaye, and I’m speaking to you live and wet, from Epcot Center.”
This special begins and ends with live segments from Orlando, and yes it is raining. I was at Walt DIsney World once and it rained. My $25.00 poncho worked just fine.
Here’s Danny in sunnier, pre-taped footage, lip-synching to a song. Which brings us to the dream team behind the scenes…”special musical material”, which means songs written expressly for the show, is in the capable hands of Earl Brown, who was the choral director on “The Danny Kaye Show”. The special was produced and directed by Gary Smith and Dwight Hemion, who in their day produced mass quantities of TV variety series and specials. Hemion himself was an 18-time Emmy winner. And the special was written by Buz Kohan, another variety TV legend, most likely remembered as a head writer of “The Carol Burnett Show”.
The grand finale of the opening numner….which leads to a COMMERCIAL BREAK!
Our family had a Disc camera…I think my Mom or Dad won it at the annual union clambake. (Dad was a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, as is my brother. As was my grandfather, a few uncles, etc.) I’m pretty sure they never used the disc camera…too complicated.
“I betcha can’t guess where we went!”
Of note: Both Kodak and Eastern Airlines were major sponsors of the Disney Parks….Kodak may still hold that status
Astronaut Alan Shepard is the first of several guests dropping by to shoot the bull with Danny.
DANNY: Where do you suppose we’re headed? I mean, in the terms of the future of mankind?
ALAN: Well I think if you look backward for a moment and trace the progress of civilization, you’ll see that basically there are only two directions we can go.
DANNY: Oh yeah! Up and down!
Danny’s next chat buddy is a very young (and so very adorable) Drew Barrymore.
DANNY: Do you know who I am?
DREW: Danny Kaye, one of the first comedians and a national treasure.
DANNY: I think I’ll have to buy her a present for that. Now, this is Drew Barrymore, one of the first actresses to meet E.T. personally, and a national delight.
STATION BREAK!
Our opening day visit to Epcot continues with The Land, and country virtuoso Roy Clark is our guide.
“You know when it comes to food, I’m very particular. I mean, I make it a rule never to eat anything that’s still movin’. But that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate food that does move. Like they’ve got here at the animated show called Kitchen Kabaret. It’s sort of a cross between a Las Vegas revue and a produce producer’s production of “A Night Of A Hundred Vegetables.”
(Kitchen Kabaret was retired in 1994.)
I’ll be honest, I really enjoyed The Land on both of my Epcot trips. I’m just nerdy enough to find that stuff interesting.
COMMERCIAL BREAK!
There is absolutely nothing more frustrating than seeing “Blazing Saddles” on network television.
It’s time to hop on the boat and travel from Future World (science, robots, etc.) to World Showcase! I love them both, but World Showcase has the added bonus of foreign country candy. It was my first introduction to Pocky!
Danny welcomes another guest, noted author Alex Haley.
ALEX: Welcome to Equatorical Africa.
DANNY: Well thank you very much. Am I too early?
LEX: About a year, but it’s always nice to see you.
DANNY: I know you’ve been a consultant to World Shwocase since the beginning, so you must have a prettty good notion of what we will all expect to see when the African pavilion opens.
ALEX: Well for one thing, we plan to show the beauty, the drama, the energy, the diversity of this amazing continent.
DANN: Well, who should know better about that than the author of “Roots”?
Unfortunately, the Africa pavilion was not to be. According to Disney Parks fan website allears.net:
…there were problems with this proposed pavilion since day one. One of the problems was, of course, money. When Disney spent almost one billion dollars (yes, I said a Billion) on what was called “Phase One” of EPCOT Center, the only way to go forward with “Phase Two” was would be for Epcot to immediately recoup some its expenses. However, after the park’s initial success, attendance fell off dramatically. Not only that, but if Disney was going to spend millions to try and increase the popularity of EPCOT Center (I’m just going to call it Epcot from now on, OK?), were they going to spend the money on a relatively “boring” educational pavilion like Africa’s, or put it into a big-name 3D movie like “Captain EO?” Exactly.
Before we move forward in the TV special, I want to take note of what “Epcot” and “Epcot Center” are. “Epcot Center” is the theme park, which now goes usually by “Epcot”. But the original Epcot–the REAL Epcot–was a project Walt Disney worked on, side-by-side with his imagineers, artists and staff. It was indeed, an Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow. Not a theme park, but a place where people would live, and eat, and so forth. You probably aren’t going to watch all of this, but it’s a film made to introduce America to “The Florida Project”, which would include a Disneyland-style theme park, and–at the time–plans for Epcot.
When Walt Disney died, the people left to continue the company quietly put aside Epcot. And the theme park Epcot came to life in October of 1982. Throughout this television special there’s lots of nice things said about Walt Disney, but not a peep about his original vision of Epcot.
COMMERCIAL BREAK!
I would not want a Kit Kat if I was stranded on a desert island. You can’t drink salt water, so you’d sit there with dry mouth and chocolate stains on your finger.
“The American Adventure.” One of the absolute finest uses of audio-animatronics. The size and scope of it leaves one in awe.
Marie Osmond is on board to sing a patriotic song.
COMMERCIAL BREAK!
Orville Redenbacker was a guest on “To Tell The Truth”. In those days it look so long to get the episode tapes shuffled around from station to station that by the time we saw it any man woman and child in America could have picked out the real popcorn king.
The final guest of the evening is CBS newscaster Eric Sevareid, who reads aloud portions of his original essay upom the passing of Walt Disney
“He was an original. Not just an American original, but an original, period. He was a happy accident, one of the happiest this century has experienced. …
“What Disney seemed to know was that while there is very little grown-up in every child, there is a lot of child in every grown-up. To a child, this weary world is brand-new, gift-wrapped. Disney tried to keep it that way for adults. …
If you doubt Sevareid’s comment about “a lot of child in every grown-up”, go to Disneyland. See grown ups, and possibly kids here or there, having a joyous time. A dear friend of mine posted on Facebook a photo of him in tears next to a beloved character.
For me, the Disney Parks spark my imagination, and fill me with joy. Here are some of my own Epcot encounters:
And now, if you so desire, the full special:
