Just two years ago, all was right in the Magic Kingdom. Sure, the pandemic panic had shut down its parks but Disney had its movies and television networks to keep its profits warm. Its new streaming service — Disney+ — was a newly opened gold mine for the world’s largest media company. Its stock traded at $177 a share in August 2021.
In the middle of all this Disney evil, my church sent our young adults on a group trip to Disney World! That was the straw that broke the camels back. I changed churches where I hear biblical preaching and a strong stance against the evil around us. An added plus, I met my fiancé! We are both 71! Yippee I oh!!
Rob Olson Elder, what a GREAT story! And Don Surber hit it out of the park with this taut and compelling summation of How The Devil Got Into Disney.
"UPDATED, July 31: Longtime ESPN NBA announcer Mark Jackson has joined the ranks of on-air talent laid off ... Jackson’s broadcast partner (and former coach) Jeff Van Gundy was among the 20-odd boldfaced names let go ..."
I resent these people being described as talent. They have none. ZERO.
What is never mentioned any more, since the trend started in the 1960s (good bye, Mel Allen!) and became orthodox broadcasting doctrine by the end of the century, 23 year ago, is that when the professional announcers were dumped and replaced by ignorant, illiterate ex-jocks, that was it.
No more eloquent, succinct Keith Jacksons. Hello, belching / butt-and-ball scratching behavior and, of course, horrible telecasts / boorish and boilerplate "commentary" ("They made adjustments!").
It is now possible to turn the sound on to a game (any game, any sport, even golf, the last holdout) and within ONE SECOND, hear a nauseating cliche ("We talked about...!").
Oh, boo hoo. ESPN "on-air talent" --- among the most useless people in America --- got laid off --- and it will never occur to them that one huge reason why this has happened to them is Disney's grotesque kowtowing to the LGLMNOP zealots (possibly 2% of the entire country).
I hope that they all bought Disney stock at $177/share.
Useful Idiots, Jettisoned: Jeff Van Gundy; Jalen Rose; Keyshawn Johnson; Max Kellerman; Suzy Kolber; Chris Chelios; Matt Hasselbeck; Steve Young; Rob Ninkovich; Neil Everett; Ashley Brewer; Joon Lee; LaPhonso Ellis; Todd McShay; Jordan Cornette; Jason Fitz; David Pollack.
Disney’s situation is further complicated after Covid slowed the pace and increased production costs, they are now unable to meet new content expectations because of the writer’s strike and the harsh realities of Bidenomics. In this new environment, flops are far more consequential to the bottom line, but they keep on generating new scripts in the boardroom instead of with real talent. The person who pieced together the last four Star Wars theatre flops is still there.
Actually all of Hollywood is infected by the woke virus. In the last few years, Hollywood had demanded that writer's rooms be populated with minorities. All the white men who wrote the best TV shows and movies can't get work - and the Writer's Guild is OK with that.
This explains all the flops. The same mind virus is rehashing the same plots but this time the scripts are written by people whose only qualification is their skin color or sexual deviance.
Hollywood, and more recently, professional sports, are owned by China. The root cause is China destroying our social fabric. Most of us are puzzled as to how such a small LGBT demographic can have so much power and influence. We are inundated with this crap daily. They don't have any power. They are simply the ramrod used by the enemy to rip our society and culture to pieces. China is the enemy.
What China is forcing down our throats is not allowed in their country.
It is the crowning achievement of the "Long Walk Through the Institutions", though, ironically, this element had nothing to do with the Frankfurt School, but with old-fashioned fascism -- the unholy marriage of capitalism and state power. China is the most successful fascist state in history.
Good luck with that remake of Blazing Saddles!!! Kathy Griffin cast as the incoming new sheriff, and relacing Gene Wilder (an impossibility) will be The Famous White House Lesbian (lecuring the regime-media stenographers).
Ron DeSantis was one of the most effective and powerful red state governors in almost forever. Fighting back against and exposing the tyrannical push by the Left’s insanity in boardrooms and classrooms, he shed a blinding light on their evil machinations that alerted millions around the country to what was taking place they might otherwise not have been aware of.
Seducing him into becoming a candidate for the 2024 presidential election removed him from that powerful bully pulpit, which I believe to have been the entire motive behind it. His campaign has been nothing short of a disaster and, well, as the Bible says, “ pride cometh before fall”, and fall is exactly what the powers that be very much wanted to happen to him. In short he was duped by his own hubris. Sad because the country needed him more as “Free Florida’s Fighter” than running against Trump.
He should drop out, return to Florida and resume the battle with a new vengeance, a little more humble but a lot wiser. And support Trump loudly against the wicked plots of the Left machine.
And Let Disney die by a thousand self-inflicted cuts.
You are 100% correct in your Assessment and Guidance. The only prob for Ron is that Trump may never see him in the same way again. Keeping in mind that I live in Canada so I don’t have an ‘on the ground’ feel for the subtleties of American politics, it appears to me that the smartest thing for Ron and Casey to do is announce come Monday Morning that its over, they’re out and say something like they’re sorry to their Floridian base they flew too close to the sun and fell back to earth, smarter people but wiser now. I think Ron was smart enough not to insult T or belittle his policies right?
08-12-23: Believe it or not, the first ten years of the show are very intelligent and humorous. I ignored the show for its first five years, disgusted that a cartoon series was TV's biggest hit, and only found out to the contrary after 1994 when I abandoned my glorious wall Street career (sarcasm) . After about 2003, it became Fox's "answer" to Saturday Night Live, which died in the 1990s. Somehow, both shows have stayed on the air since then (no doubt, as a Hollywood-in-laws jobs program).
Four words sum up Disney's problem: GO WOKE; GO BROKE.
As far as Disantis going anywhere, keep him in plain sight. He wouldn't have time to turn the very violent tutti fruity crowd around, so keep him where he is.
Disney products are pretty dead to me. Their cruise ships are way more expensive than other comparable cruise lines. I have never understood why people stand in line sweltering at Disney World. One of my favorite places was the Blue Bayou restaurant in Disneyland when I lived in Clownifornia but now I won’t spend a dime on it or the theme park. Last time I went Tom Sawyer’s island was all redone to a Pirate of the Caribbean theme. Guess Injun Joe had to go.
The whole thing is a mess that probably can’t be saved. Kinda like Bud Light.
People should have paid attention to how little Disney cares about anything years ago when an alligator ate a little boy who was just wandering around. The only thing Disney did was place signs around to BEWARE OF ALLIGATORS. A lot of good that did the parents.
I kinda have a different opinion on that. It is very difficult to keep alligators out of a body of water and it is entirely possible the gator walked into the lake where the tragedy happened . They did remove all the alligators that were in the lake and they also regularly patrol the lake.
Unfortunately the parents either weren’t told or didn’t follow the lake rule down here: the rule is if you see a body of water figure there is at least one or more alligators in it.
It has been a long time since this incident happened, and so my memory is not great about it. I do seem to recall that Disney was seriously criticized for not putting warnings in place. I don't know about you, but if I had children and saw a warning sign like that, I'd stay elsewhere. Disney, after all, is a "For Profit" business and MUST have known the risks.
I remember when I first read the story, I was like WTF...? I was just numb. I didn't laugh; I didn't cry. My heart went out to the parents, but I just couldn't imagine how I would have felt.
ESPN pioneered poaching college football teams to add more “households” metric to certain conferences, rather than actual viewers. This destroyed the sport, ended hundred year rivalries, and created the horrible monstrosity we see today. WVU and Arizona State. Conference game? Now they’re talking Cal and Stanford to the ATLANTIC Coast Conference?
It was also TV money that caused the arm’s race that is paying college coaches millions of dollars, which has trickled down to student athletes and turned it all to semi-pro.
I think it is hilariously pathetic when the college conference re-alignments go haywire as they have causing teams to jet from one coast to another to play a game. It doesn't seem very "green" when you think about and actually looks very hypocritical when colleges and universities are suppose to be socially conscience.
Don, you have the wrong politician to save the Bud lite studios and theme parks... it’s not DeSantis but rather Joe Biden. Let him do for Disney what he has done for America and Ukraine.
Hey, kitty, that poll was way too easy. And snarkily beautiful.
Disney was banned from our home way back in 1995 when they released the animated film, “Pocahontas”. The theme song, “Colors of the Wind”, was a big hit on pop music radio and it had a nice melody. But the words were thoroughly politically correct, anti-white and anti-American. Most people didn’t bother to listen to its message. We did, and acted accordingly. The ban is still in place.
I prefer Chris Christie in the previously mentioned role of Eastwood's remake "Jersey Whale". Can't believe, understand, or comprehend the Woke Pandemic sweeping our nation. This is not an accident. Disney, Bud Light, and now Harry's Razor, among others, pushing what can only be called toxic to prosperous and productive nation. Love that phrase because of its beneficial consequences for a peoples. Why in the hell are Biden and the other WOKE WESTERN LEADERS willing to fund and promote a senseless, pointless war to the last Ukranian soldier? There is firm opposition to Russian President Vladimir Putin because Putin sees this WOKE CRAP, as I do. as the antithesis of a healthy prosperous nation. I don't give a damn for Disney's financial plight other than for the people affected by this WOKE CRAP. If Fess Parker (Disney's star of Daniel Boone) were to watch that God awful Disney film "Barbie", and saw Ken depicted as, well a F***ing twerp, as for the America we know, would not exist. By 2023 Americans wouldn't have crossed the Appalachians and we'd be drinking the King's tea and paying his unfair taxes. Wait a minute, aren't' we now back at that point in time somehow. TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION? You bet we are. FYI Didn't see Barbie. Went to first movie in years to see Sound of Freedom. And sat through Barbie trailer. Geees WTF I'd trade entire Biden administration for Putin and his people in a heartbeat. Yes, I love USA, just one way to save it maybe?
Unfortunately, you can't convert a Disney theme park into apartments, like embattled office building owners are doing with their downtown properties. I suspect Disney is going to follow Bud Light's owners down the rat hole. If it survives, it'll be a mere shadow of its former self. Virtue-signaling management strikes again, destroying the lives of tens of thousands of employees.
About Disney, I stopped caring some 60 years ago. But I read this for the good word smithing. Even so, I'm still yawning over Disney and all their products.
Aug 11, 2023·edited Aug 11, 2023Liked by Don Surber
Chapek was bad news but he was overseeing the company direction and releasing the films greenlighted by Iger who had been president of Disney since 1999.
Think of Disney's president of entertainment content bragging on a Zoom call that her two pre-teen kids are transgender and calling for 50% of Disney content to be queer/trans or racial minorities. She didn't climb the ladder under Chapek and her views are not considered unusual by her fellow Disney execs.
The only change in Disney under Iger is that he'll sell off pieces. He won't restore Walt's legacy.
In the middle of all this Disney evil, my church sent our young adults on a group trip to Disney World! That was the straw that broke the camels back. I changed churches where I hear biblical preaching and a strong stance against the evil around us. An added plus, I met my fiancé! We are both 71! Yippee I oh!!
Mr. and Mrs. Elder...perfect :) Best wishes to you both!
Thank you!
Mazel Tov…
New Love is always a Welcome and Beautiful Thing
Yes it is!
Cue the music: Sound track from 1956's High Society! Hearts and Flowers to you both.
We need to watch the movie! Thanks.
Heaven sent.
Yes indeed!!
Don't be afraid of the blue pill. Hah. All good wishes.
😅
Congrats. May I suggest watching Dumbo on your honeymoon? Never mind. Don't ruin a good thing.
😎. Thanks!!
Congrats!!
Thank you tj!
Cool beans 🫘
Rob Olson Elder, what a GREAT story! And Don Surber hit it out of the park with this taut and compelling summation of How The Devil Got Into Disney.
"UPDATED, July 31: Longtime ESPN NBA announcer Mark Jackson has joined the ranks of on-air talent laid off ... Jackson’s broadcast partner (and former coach) Jeff Van Gundy was among the 20-odd boldfaced names let go ..."
I resent these people being described as talent. They have none. ZERO.
What is never mentioned any more, since the trend started in the 1960s (good bye, Mel Allen!) and became orthodox broadcasting doctrine by the end of the century, 23 year ago, is that when the professional announcers were dumped and replaced by ignorant, illiterate ex-jocks, that was it.
No more eloquent, succinct Keith Jacksons. Hello, belching / butt-and-ball scratching behavior and, of course, horrible telecasts / boorish and boilerplate "commentary" ("They made adjustments!").
It is now possible to turn the sound on to a game (any game, any sport, even golf, the last holdout) and within ONE SECOND, hear a nauseating cliche ("We talked about...!").
Oh, boo hoo. ESPN "on-air talent" --- among the most useless people in America --- got laid off --- and it will never occur to them that one huge reason why this has happened to them is Disney's grotesque kowtowing to the LGLMNOP zealots (possibly 2% of the entire country).
I hope that they all bought Disney stock at $177/share.
Useful Idiots, Jettisoned: Jeff Van Gundy; Jalen Rose; Keyshawn Johnson; Max Kellerman; Suzy Kolber; Chris Chelios; Matt Hasselbeck; Steve Young; Rob Ninkovich; Neil Everett; Ashley Brewer; Joon Lee; LaPhonso Ellis; Todd McShay; Jordan Cornette; Jason Fitz; David Pollack.
GONE! THANK YOU RON DE SANTIS!
Thank you sir!! Happy weekend!
Disney’s situation is further complicated after Covid slowed the pace and increased production costs, they are now unable to meet new content expectations because of the writer’s strike and the harsh realities of Bidenomics. In this new environment, flops are far more consequential to the bottom line, but they keep on generating new scripts in the boardroom instead of with real talent. The person who pieced together the last four Star Wars theatre flops is still there.
Actually all of Hollywood is infected by the woke virus. In the last few years, Hollywood had demanded that writer's rooms be populated with minorities. All the white men who wrote the best TV shows and movies can't get work - and the Writer's Guild is OK with that.
This explains all the flops. The same mind virus is rehashing the same plots but this time the scripts are written by people whose only qualification is their skin color or sexual deviance.
Hollywood, and more recently, professional sports, are owned by China. The root cause is China destroying our social fabric. Most of us are puzzled as to how such a small LGBT demographic can have so much power and influence. We are inundated with this crap daily. They don't have any power. They are simply the ramrod used by the enemy to rip our society and culture to pieces. China is the enemy.
What China is forcing down our throats is not allowed in their country.
Them TURN OFF your TV
We quit watching TV in 2004, just internet since.
I have.
Ditto
Tellingly, Disney has to change characters in its movies to CCP-approved narratives to show them there.
It is the crowning achievement of the "Long Walk Through the Institutions", though, ironically, this element had nothing to do with the Frankfurt School, but with old-fashioned fascism -- the unholy marriage of capitalism and state power. China is the most successful fascist state in history.
Hollywood is hiding in broad daylight that it is our modern day version of Sodom & Gomorrah.
Can you imagine Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner writing today?
Good luck with that remake of Blazing Saddles!!! Kathy Griffin cast as the incoming new sheriff, and relacing Gene Wilder (an impossibility) will be The Famous White House Lesbian (lecuring the regime-media stenographers).
STOP IT! It's very inappropriate for me to laugh so loudly.
Ron DeSantis was one of the most effective and powerful red state governors in almost forever. Fighting back against and exposing the tyrannical push by the Left’s insanity in boardrooms and classrooms, he shed a blinding light on their evil machinations that alerted millions around the country to what was taking place they might otherwise not have been aware of.
Seducing him into becoming a candidate for the 2024 presidential election removed him from that powerful bully pulpit, which I believe to have been the entire motive behind it. His campaign has been nothing short of a disaster and, well, as the Bible says, “ pride cometh before fall”, and fall is exactly what the powers that be very much wanted to happen to him. In short he was duped by his own hubris. Sad because the country needed him more as “Free Florida’s Fighter” than running against Trump.
He should drop out, return to Florida and resume the battle with a new vengeance, a little more humble but a lot wiser. And support Trump loudly against the wicked plots of the Left machine.
And Let Disney die by a thousand self-inflicted cuts.
You are 100% correct in your Assessment and Guidance. The only prob for Ron is that Trump may never see him in the same way again. Keeping in mind that I live in Canada so I don’t have an ‘on the ground’ feel for the subtleties of American politics, it appears to me that the smartest thing for Ron and Casey to do is announce come Monday Morning that its over, they’re out and say something like they’re sorry to their Floridian base they flew too close to the sun and fell back to earth, smarter people but wiser now. I think Ron was smart enough not to insult T or belittle his policies right?
And, most importantly, his constituents seem to love him (for the reasons Don mentioned). Money can't buy that!
Disney has truly become a clown show.
The Disney board should hire Bob and Bob from Office Space to turn things around after their Bob and Bob have bombed.
Cometh the hour, cometh the Bob. https://simpsons.fandom.com/wiki/Robert_Terwilliger
Thx. Never watch The Simpson so never heard of the Bob.
08-12-23: Believe it or not, the first ten years of the show are very intelligent and humorous. I ignored the show for its first five years, disgusted that a cartoon series was TV's biggest hit, and only found out to the contrary after 1994 when I abandoned my glorious wall Street career (sarcasm) . After about 2003, it became Fox's "answer" to Saturday Night Live, which died in the 1990s. Somehow, both shows have stayed on the air since then (no doubt, as a Hollywood-in-laws jobs program).
What a magnificent resource!
Clown Show Bobs!
Four words sum up Disney's problem: GO WOKE; GO BROKE.
As far as Disantis going anywhere, keep him in plain sight. He wouldn't have time to turn the very violent tutti fruity crowd around, so keep him where he is.
Disney products are pretty dead to me. Their cruise ships are way more expensive than other comparable cruise lines. I have never understood why people stand in line sweltering at Disney World. One of my favorite places was the Blue Bayou restaurant in Disneyland when I lived in Clownifornia but now I won’t spend a dime on it or the theme park. Last time I went Tom Sawyer’s island was all redone to a Pirate of the Caribbean theme. Guess Injun Joe had to go.
The whole thing is a mess that probably can’t be saved. Kinda like Bud Light.
Too bad.
People should have paid attention to how little Disney cares about anything years ago when an alligator ate a little boy who was just wandering around. The only thing Disney did was place signs around to BEWARE OF ALLIGATORS. A lot of good that did the parents.
I kinda have a different opinion on that. It is very difficult to keep alligators out of a body of water and it is entirely possible the gator walked into the lake where the tragedy happened . They did remove all the alligators that were in the lake and they also regularly patrol the lake.
Unfortunately the parents either weren’t told or didn’t follow the lake rule down here: the rule is if you see a body of water figure there is at least one or more alligators in it.
It has been a long time since this incident happened, and so my memory is not great about it. I do seem to recall that Disney was seriously criticized for not putting warnings in place. I don't know about you, but if I had children and saw a warning sign like that, I'd stay elsewhere. Disney, after all, is a "For Profit" business and MUST have known the risks.
Always.
I forgot about that… can you just imagine. I bet there was a sizesbel under the table payout but nothing is going to bring back the child
I remember when I first read the story, I was like WTF...? I was just numb. I didn't laugh; I didn't cry. My heart went out to the parents, but I just couldn't imagine how I would have felt.
Not really, though. Disney started down this path when it threw its core principles of wholesome family fare overboard.
ESPN pioneered poaching college football teams to add more “households” metric to certain conferences, rather than actual viewers. This destroyed the sport, ended hundred year rivalries, and created the horrible monstrosity we see today. WVU and Arizona State. Conference game? Now they’re talking Cal and Stanford to the ATLANTIC Coast Conference?
It was also TV money that caused the arm’s race that is paying college coaches millions of dollars, which has trickled down to student athletes and turned it all to semi-pro.
I think it is hilariously pathetic when the college conference re-alignments go haywire as they have causing teams to jet from one coast to another to play a game. It doesn't seem very "green" when you think about and actually looks very hypocritical when colleges and universities are suppose to be socially conscience.
When they start bringing in suitcases of money, common sense and common decency disappear.
Do as I say, not as I do. Basically a Dem creed.
The Pac-12 has been abandoned.
How is this possible?
The colleges and universities are now entering the transfer portals.
I just saw that they hired Ollie Luck to come in and save the day.
One of the reasons I stopped watching
If ESPN's recent stock-price plunge / track record were the criteria, they'd be playing UMass every Saturday.
Don, you have the wrong politician to save the Bud lite studios and theme parks... it’s not DeSantis but rather Joe Biden. Let him do for Disney what he has done for America and Ukraine.
Purrfect!!!!
Hey, kitty, that poll was way too easy. And snarkily beautiful.
Disney was banned from our home way back in 1995 when they released the animated film, “Pocahontas”. The theme song, “Colors of the Wind”, was a big hit on pop music radio and it had a nice melody. But the words were thoroughly politically correct, anti-white and anti-American. Most people didn’t bother to listen to its message. We did, and acted accordingly. The ban is still in place.
I still have some Park Hopper tickets left from that era (in those days, they never expired). Haven't been back since and don't plan to go again.
Walking through the Disney entrance gates would feel like entering a drag show in a seedy part of town - or New York City.
Everything Disney has touched is failing. It seems that is the objective of ultra leftist organizations. Destroy, destroy, destroy.
I like the smell of SNARK early in the morning.
I prefer Chris Christie in the previously mentioned role of Eastwood's remake "Jersey Whale". Can't believe, understand, or comprehend the Woke Pandemic sweeping our nation. This is not an accident. Disney, Bud Light, and now Harry's Razor, among others, pushing what can only be called toxic to prosperous and productive nation. Love that phrase because of its beneficial consequences for a peoples. Why in the hell are Biden and the other WOKE WESTERN LEADERS willing to fund and promote a senseless, pointless war to the last Ukranian soldier? There is firm opposition to Russian President Vladimir Putin because Putin sees this WOKE CRAP, as I do. as the antithesis of a healthy prosperous nation. I don't give a damn for Disney's financial plight other than for the people affected by this WOKE CRAP. If Fess Parker (Disney's star of Daniel Boone) were to watch that God awful Disney film "Barbie", and saw Ken depicted as, well a F***ing twerp, as for the America we know, would not exist. By 2023 Americans wouldn't have crossed the Appalachians and we'd be drinking the King's tea and paying his unfair taxes. Wait a minute, aren't' we now back at that point in time somehow. TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION? You bet we are. FYI Didn't see Barbie. Went to first movie in years to see Sound of Freedom. And sat through Barbie trailer. Geees WTF I'd trade entire Biden administration for Putin and his people in a heartbeat. Yes, I love USA, just one way to save it maybe?
Unfortunately, you can't convert a Disney theme park into apartments, like embattled office building owners are doing with their downtown properties. I suspect Disney is going to follow Bud Light's owners down the rat hole. If it survives, it'll be a mere shadow of its former self. Virtue-signaling management strikes again, destroying the lives of tens of thousands of employees.
That's ok - FL has a bustling economy. Tons of employers are begging for workers in FL.
Post-Disney workers should be just fine, and better to be out of a toxic working environment.
If they leave their own toxic attitudes behind in the Magic Kingdom.
The same has been said of Californians who move to Texas.
About Disney, I stopped caring some 60 years ago. But I read this for the good word smithing. Even so, I'm still yawning over Disney and all their products.
You and millions of others. Great marketing, Disney! Keep up the good work. Your stockholders will love you for it.
Yep!! They'll love the value of their stock when Disney is in receivership.
The poll: Y'all are a bunch of mean bitter bastards. I like that about y'all.
Ancient maps legend: there be snarks here! You're welcome.
Chapek was bad news but he was overseeing the company direction and releasing the films greenlighted by Iger who had been president of Disney since 1999.
Think of Disney's president of entertainment content bragging on a Zoom call that her two pre-teen kids are transgender and calling for 50% of Disney content to be queer/trans or racial minorities. She didn't climb the ladder under Chapek and her views are not considered unusual by her fellow Disney execs.
The only change in Disney under Iger is that he'll sell off pieces. He won't restore Walt's legacy.
C'mon, Don. Poll is too easy today. Mailing it in? Seriously, excellent post. Perfect job for Ron.
Chris Christie's the right choice for a "woke" Dumbo: he's fat and stupid.
He’s fat and stupid! 😂😂😂😂👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
Dr Cat gave us a break after the last few days.
Thanks, Don. I burst out laughing when I read the second poll choice. Great way to start the morning!