Disney TV

4. Promoting the Films/Promoting the Parks: Hybrid Stories

61 In analyzing the development of what he terms “the logistics of perception,” Virilio notes how our various technologies of seeing, especially film, have changed our sense of connection— to places, people, and even the self. We now live in a realm, he suggests, of constant presence, where all things seem linked, even if only virtually, and we struggle to cope with this connectedness . For some it is a disconcerting experience, particularly as it attacks our desire for privacy and independence, but for others it is liberating. For Disney, especially the Disney of the It’s a Small World ride at the New York World’s Fair and later at the theme parks, that “factitious topology” with its implicit closeness of peoples and cultures has been central to both its business methods and its broad vision. For its business strategy has always been to presume and exploit connections, while its productions have repeatedly celebrated relationships, ties within and between cultures. This approach informs the shaping of another key anthology episode type—that which exploits other shows or presentations, drawing on another topology, that of the media, in demonstrating a pointedly intertextual character. Such shows furthered the larger corporate strategy for self-promotion that has been a hallmark of Disney. Yet they also allowed the studio to take a broader view of various subjects and, on a more C h a p t e r 4 Promoting the Films/Promoting the Parks HY B R I D ST O R I E S This technological development [the cinema] has carried us into a realm of factitious topology in which all the surfaces of the globe are directly present to one another. Paul Virilio, War and Cinema 62 pragmatic level, to help flesh out two other thematic categories, especially during the ABC years. With the narrative flexibility of this approach, the series easily ranged across the Adventureland and Fantasyland themes to better balance its offerings. One primary motivating factor in Disney’s move into television was the ability to use the new medium to promote the studio’s products. We might recall the studio’s 1950 and 1951 television specials, which allowed it to celebrate the release of its newest animated features, Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan. Bill Cotter suggests that Walt and Roy Disney approached these specials as “little more than thinly disguised commercials” (5). Given the positive response to these shows and their perceived impact on the studio’s releases, we should expect that in preparing Disneyland, they would have drawn on this experience and tried to build in such a marketing element. Reacting to what he sees as an unusual amount of Disneyland’s air time dedicated to “direct studio promotion,” William Boddy agrees with Cotter, offering that the studio may have turned to television “as much for exploitation and promotion as for programming” (147). Yet we should note that such self-promotion was, even before television , consistent with company strategy, one that would eventually extend to broadcast television, cable, theme parks, radio, etc., and that followed from a corporate vision of a thoroughly mediated and interconnected world. Janet Wasko has described Disney’s strategy for such selfpromotion as “synergy,” a process of establishing central brands, products, or services and then “promoting their activities across a growing number of outlets.” She suggests that Disney’s development of this strategy “represents the quintessential example of synergy in the media/entertainment industry ” (71). Certainly the company acknowledges this strategy, recognizes its great advantages, particularly in the contemporary cross-cultural and multimedia environment, and consciously follows it as a working policy. As one Disney executive offers, “It’s a unique attribute of the Disney company, the abiliChapter 4 63 ty to create synergy between divisions, whether it’s interactive games, Buena Vista television, or the Disney Channel. We all work together and we do it on a year-round basis and we do it aggressively. The success of these ongoing roles makes everything in the company work better” (Wasko 71–72). Of course this model, for all of its success, is no recent development. We have noted how successful Disney was at merchandising its animated films and licensing its characters to advertise other companies’ products—in newspapers, magazines , radio, etc.—from the earliest days of Mickey Mouse. By the time the anthology show appeared, the company was one of the most adept in the country at promoting itself and...