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View Full Version : Kudos to Michael Eisner



ODV CM
09-16-2001, 09:48 AM
Seeing as how we are all so unbelievably critical of the job he does(and rightfully so, I think), I wanted to make sure that we didn't just focus on the negative things and ignore the positive stuff he did. Up till now that wasn't a problem, but I wanted to say that I was very impressed on how he handled Tuesday's crisis, and at how quickly he made the decision to close the parks even though you know that he lost tens of millions of dollars because of it. I also thought he was very generous to the guests who were stranded at the hotels(read Adrienne's article from Thursday), and really managed to make this as easy on people as possible. I just wish that he would have scrapped the programming on the Disney channel and started showing those movies for all of us like he did for the hotel guests, but nobody's perfect. All things considered, he did a great job, and my hat's off to you, Mr Eisner.

Ace
09-18-2001, 08:02 PM
I guess so, but look at the whole picture here. He's mericlessly destroying the Dream of Disney for his own dreams, those regarding money. Let's cut all these budgets to save a few bucks! Muahahahahaha!

SimpTwister
09-18-2001, 08:14 PM
Eisner may have done the right thing on 9-11 (assuming that this was in fact his decision), but he's still a loser.

WizKidRyan
09-18-2001, 08:20 PM
I'm not here to side on Eisner Good or Eisner Bad....I'm just going to play devils advocate so to speak...
If it weren't for Eisner, chances are we wouldnt have Splash Mountain, Indiana Jones, Star Tours, and so on.
This man has done some great things for the company. We must not forget that.

Disney Fan Matt
09-18-2001, 08:28 PM
Originally posted by WizKidRyan
I'm not here to side on Eisner Good or Eisner Bad....I'm just going to play devils advocate so to speak...
If it weren't for Eisner, chances are we wouldnt have Splash Mountain, Indiana Jones, Star Tours, and so on.
This man has done some great things for the company. We must not forget that.
Wait! All three of those rides were already there when Eisner started!
There are other rides to thank him for- not at Disneyland, but those three were all before his time!!

JRob2k1
09-18-2001, 08:41 PM
Eisner became CEO somewhere around the early eighties. (anyone with exact year?) So, you do the math....he greenlighted those projects.

Didnt Eisner's son actually pick out Splash Mountain. They were at WDI's model shop and Eisner's son was walking around and really became fascinated with Tony's SM model. Eisner was impressed and the rest is....history. (I'm Paul Harvey....Good day!;) )

Eisner saved this company, but you cant ride on the past. The real question: Has his time passed as CEO??

...yes?

Kevin Yee
09-18-2001, 09:42 PM
1984 - Eisner becomes CEO
1987 - Star Tours opens
1989 - Splash Mountain opens (one year late)
1995 - Indiana Jones opens

The literature all makes it sound like EO, Tours, and Splash were conceived *after* Michael's arrival. I'm actually less certain about Splash - that one was Tony's idea and may have lingered in development hell for a while.

Tours was something of a quickie project - amazingly - and was done by Michael. I think it was his idea, even.

Indiana was definitely under his reign. Apparently, ideas for it were kicking around in 1987 after Tours opened, and when Paris was being designed.

SimpTwister
09-18-2001, 10:18 PM
OK. I was being a bit harsh.

Eisner has done some great thing for Disney, it's true.

Unfortunately, the last great thing under his reign was IJA, and that was quite a while back.

If they announce something comparable to IJA or Splash for DL proper within the next year, I will formally apologize for calling Eisner a loser!

If they stop the direct-to-video sequels of the classic Disney films and Eisner admits it was all a mistake, I will sing his praises from the highest mountain (or something).

ripplededge
09-18-2001, 11:10 PM
Wasn't that Cynthia Harriss' job not Eisner's to close the park?
Cynthia Harriss (President) is a real nice lady, I met her a few times. Eisner is like the type of guy that would slide head first onto the cement to grab a buck from a toddler that was 2 inches away from it. And then laugh at the kid. Or that is atleast the image that most CM's give him.

Morrigoon
09-19-2001, 12:23 AM
The decision to close covered both resorts as well as the ESPNzones, but not the stores, which leads me to believe it was (gasp!) Paul Pressler's idea (who, though he is the wrong man for the job, is very personable).

Even if it was Eisner's idea, we pessimists can console ourselves with the idea that it was the wise decision to make, to protect the company's assets. ;)

hbquikcomjamesl
09-19-2001, 08:00 AM
And we mustn't forget that most of the theatrical releases of the post-Walt, pre-Eisner era weren't much better (in quality, critical response, or at the box office) than the current crop of direct-to-video titles. For every Tron in that era, there were several Million Dollar Ducks.

crusher_appa
09-19-2001, 12:23 PM
You can't forget that Eisner has done great things for the company but my beef with him is all his cash cutting he's doing lately at the expense of the quality of the Rides/Parks. I think he has just got to high and mighty about himself. Really if you look at the performance of the rest of the company you can easily see that Disney is almost completely relying on the parks to do well, and if the parks start to go downhill I can see Disney having MAJOR problems throughout the rest of the company

amynicole22
09-19-2001, 01:56 PM
Pressler done good with this - totally decent. And if ole' Mikey had a hand in it - kudos to him too.

Sometimes stuff like this brings out the best in folks, even those who've been stinkers in the past.

Cadaverous Pallor
09-19-2001, 03:19 PM
Originally posted by Kevin Yee
The literature all makes it sound like EO, Tours, and Splash were conceived *after* Michael's arrival. I'm actually less certain about Splash - that one was Tony's idea and may have lingered in development hell for a while.

Tours was something of a quickie project - amazingly - and was done by Michael. I think it was his idea, even.

Indiana was definitely under his reign. Apparently, ideas for it were kicking around in 1987 after Tours opened, and when Paris was being designed.

I read a book about how Eisner and his buddies saved Disney in the eighties. The attractions you mention were definitely worked on by Eisner personally, but it's really the talent (Lucas, Coppola, etc) that makes the difference. What Eisner did was bring in the right people for the right jobs and let them do their magic - but he also made sure to supervise a lot of what was going on in the various sections of Disney to make sure things were going well.

I believe the answer has already been said by JRob - he did a great job then, but has lost his touch. We need new blood up there to let new ideas flow.

(btw, the book I read was published in '91, when Paris still looked as if it would be a smashing success and everything was going up for Disney. Kind of depressing in retrospect.)

Ace
09-19-2001, 08:31 PM
I'd like to retract my comment about Eisner that I made previously in this thread........If the statement that Al Lutz made in the recent GID report thingy is true, and Eisner has been changed because of the recent tragic events in NYC, it means 3 things:

1) Disneyland is in for some good stuff, which makes me happy.
2) Yet another positive outcome to an incerdibly negative event
3) Al even mentioned the words "golden age"........could this mean more Pirates, Mansion, and Splash Mountain quality rides??? mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.............

and yes, anyone who doesn't like Disneyland is icky. and Walt Disney is a genius.

WizKidRyan
09-20-2001, 05:01 AM
Originally posted by Squinky
and yes, anyone who doesn't like Disneyland is icky. and Walt Disney is a genius.

I like that line :)
I'll have to send it to my friend in Virginia that refuses to visit Disneyland because he's been to DisneyWorld and feels that we have an "inferior" park...If by inferior, he means a park with 2x the number of rides as the Magic Kingdom at WDW, for less money (WDW Resort single day passports are approx $50)

mrfantasmic
09-20-2001, 05:10 PM
A golden Age is coming!!
Everybody prepare to see some new stuff. And support the guy who has one of the most watched and critisized jobs around. He's doing a great job.

SimpTwister
09-20-2001, 06:17 PM
I hope it's true!

If Mikey decides to start building E Tickets again, I'll happily eat humble pie.

Ace
09-20-2001, 08:38 PM
Can you actually step back for a moment and imagine that the last e-ticket was Indiana Jones? If I'm not mistaken, that was over 6 years ago. In this time, Magic Mountain haas opened 2 E-Ticket rides this year! (one is not open yet, but it will be soon). I know that 6 Flags has less spent on cleaning and theming, etc, but I think that Disney has enough money to put in at least one new e-ticket ride every 2 to 3 years. As Walt Disney said, "as long as there is imagination in the world, Disneyland will never be finished." And I don't nessecarily mean an e-ticket like big thunder or space mountain. I think that Pirates and Mansion are just as exciting as those, but Indiana Jones and Splash Mountain are the best. A new Splash or IJA quality ride would really put my faith back into Eisner, for a while...................



"we may never see his like again"
a friend of Walt Disney, after his death. and I think he was as right as any person has ever been before.

The Jazzman
09-21-2001, 11:53 PM
I just have a question about soemthing that confused me a little. In one of the updates on how the parks handled 9-11, it said that stranded guests were offered a special discount rate for those nights, something laround $80 I think it said. But then, in the part about Eisner, in his email he boasted that stranded guests were given accomodations free of charge. So, which was it? Free, or $80? Just curious.