The Amity Inversion - Jaws at Universal - The Lowdown on the Plus-up - A Theme Park Podcast

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 2 (00:29):
You're gonna need a bigger boat.
Hello and welcome to theLowdown on the Plus Up, a
podcast where we look ateveryone's favorite theme park
attractions, lands, textures andnovelties.
We talk in over about andthrough our week's topic and
then, with literally no concernfor practicality, safety or
economic viability, we come upwith ways to make them better.

(00:51):
My name is Kelly McCubbin,columnist for the theme park
website Boardwalk Times, andwith me, as always, is Peter
Overstreet University, professorof animation and film history
in Northern California.

Speaker 3 (01:07):
So, pete, what are we talking about today?
Well, today we're getting closeto July 4th on the time that
we're recording this and youknow what that means.
It's time to go to Amity Island.
Yes, there be sharks.
There be sharks indeed, and sotoday we're going to be
discussing the variousiterations of universal studios.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
jaws attraction that's right, and and we, uh, I
believe, just passed the 50thanniversary of the release of
that film.
Oh yeah, 50 years.

Speaker 3 (01:35):
I cannot believe it.
You know it's pretty good jaws.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
Oh yeah, that movie's amazing it is.

Speaker 3 (01:43):
A lot of people still consider it to be one of
Spielberg's best yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
I mean, it's certainly up there.
It's an amazingly tightly puttogether, thrilling, terrifying
movie.
Might have been a little unfairto the shark world, but it
works.

Speaker 3 (02:01):
Yeah, I mean it has some of the best editing.
It has some of the best editing.
It has some of the best actingyeah.
It has one of the greatest moviemonologues of all time in it.
Yes, and it is also a testamentto Spielberg as a young
director, in my opinion, becausehe faced so much adversity, oh
yeah, some of which wasaccidental, some of which was

(02:23):
his own making, because out ofsheer youthful bravado, yeah.
However, that being said, hestill managed to pull it off.
I mean, it's like his creativebrain was just going going,
going so hard in order to get tothe finish line and even though
they shot over like poorMartha's Vineyard was expecting

(02:44):
to be there for a very shortperiod of time they wound up
being there for like six months,oof, or something like that and
he finally got there, managedto get Richard Dreyfuss and
Robert Shaw not to kill eachother.
Yeah, you know, he got theshark finally working and then
it wouldn't work.
Yeah, he overcame so manyobstacles and in doing so, he

(03:06):
actually made some of thegreatest moments in film.
In my opinion, as far asframing of a shot, the scariest
scene in that whole film for mehas nothing to do with the
mechanical shark.
Yeah, it's the scene which—which is good, because the
mechanical shark didn't make itvery far in that film no, I mean
the great moment where spoileralert, he, you know, eats Quint.

(03:27):
Yeah, right there in front ofyou.
It's like, okay, this is the bigpayoff moment.
I think it's suitable becausethat's the one time you finally
get to see what this thing cando to you.
Yeah, like, oh my God, like allthose questions Like geez, just
get up, get up.
It's like he can't get up.
He's just kicking the nose,he's trying geez, why is he?

(03:48):
Oh my god, is like he's tryingeverything he can.
Like this shark killer istrying desperately to outdo this
shark in any possible way andhe's trying everything that you
are going is going through yourbrain of like, do it, do it, do
this, do this, do this.
It's like he's doing it, yeahand he's still getting bit in
half and he gets dragged off.
I think it's actually brilliantthat that's the only time you
really get to see a big chomp ofthat shark.

(04:09):
But the scene that scares thehell out of me every time it
gives me a chill is when the twodips are out there on one side
of the island in the middle ofthe night and they're hunting
with one of their guys' holidayroasts on a chain.
Yeah, the shark bites it andgoes for it.
Yeah, and so, bruce, the sharkstarts dragging out, thubba-da,

(04:31):
thubba-da, thubba-da, thubba-da.
Hey, he's taking it, he'staking it, he's taking it.
And then the whole end of thepier snaps off because the shark
is so powerful.
And then the two guys are inthe water and Charlie is pulled
way out to sea and he startsdesperately swimming back.
You see the pier, the piece ofthe pier that's been floating
away.
It starts to creak and it turnsaround and it starts coming

(04:55):
towards him and when you think,wait, remember how long that
chain was that means that sharkis right behind Charlie.
Charlie, take my word for it,take my word for it.
Don't look back.
Swim, charlie.
Charlie, take my word for it,take my word for it.
Don't look back.
Swim, Charlie.
Swim, you know.
get out of the water, Get yourfeet out of the water and I'm
getting chills now talking aboutit because that scene has such
a mark on me, yeah, and thenfinally the shark gets off or

(05:16):
the chain breaks or whatever,yeah, and the pier just lands on
the water.
The two guys just oh God andone of them just goes.
Can we go home now it's likeyeah, my sentiment, exactly,
dude.

Speaker 2 (05:29):
Well, and speaking of Bruce the shark, yes, the shark
in the movie Jaws does have atheme park connection.
That is not what we're talkingabout today, but it's worth
investigating.
We've talked about it before.

Speaker 3 (05:41):
Absolutely, and it actually goes all the way back
to 1953, during the productionof a motion picture called
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
Yeah, that's right.
They had created a sequencethat involves a giant squid
another monster of the depthsattacking the Nautilus.
Yeah, and there was theinfamous sunset squid sequence.

(06:01):
That just didn't work Right.
And two gentlemen stepped upinto the forefront.
One was a designer, his namewas Harper Goff Mm-hmm, and he
redesigned the whole scene.
He says well, first off, you'refilming it in this kind of
muddy, romantic lighting Likethis is for a kissing scene.
This is not for an actionsequence, yeah.
And second of all, the designof your squid it's so heavy and

(06:22):
it's not working for you.
Let's set it during a stormsequence, and that would be
great.
And they called upon amechanical genius who was very
adept at making animals,including stuff for the Jungle.

Speaker 2 (06:34):
Cruise.
He was going to make stuff forthe Jungle Cruise the next year.

Speaker 3 (06:38):
Yeah, like this proved it for Walt to do it, and
his name was Bob Maddy.
Bob Maddy.

Speaker 2 (06:44):
Yeah, bob Maddy himself.
So Bob Maddy and we talk aboutthis in our Jungle Cruise, the
early years episode.
But Maddy built all of theearly mechanical animals for the
Jungle Cruise and then later inhis career got hired to make
Bruce the shark for Jaws.

Speaker 3 (06:59):
Sadly Bruce didn't work, so well, no, because, yeah
, I mean, if you look at thetechnical specs, somebody did
this great 3D printable model,yeah, that you could download
and you can 3D print it and itis functional, yeah, of Bob
Maddy's puppet, of Bruce, yeah.
And you look at how complicatedit is, yeah, and you realize

(07:23):
you're going to put this in theocean, yeah, and you go.
Well, of course it is yeah.
And then you realize you'regoing to put this in the ocean,
yeah, and you go, well, ofcourse it broke.
You know, like, I mean, it wasa valiant effort and when it
actually worked, it was great.
Yeah, that's the thing.
When it actually worked, it wasgreat.

Speaker 2 (07:36):
Well, and this is interesting, so, tying this kind
of into the later Jawsattraction at Universal Studios
Florida.
Yeah, later Jaws attraction atUniversal Studios Florida.
Yeah, I saw some interviews andwe'll get deeper into this
shortly.
Sure, I saw some interviewswith the company that made the
original attraction.
So, you know, people think, oh,I went to Universal Studios

(07:57):
Florida up until you know what,2011 or something.
I rode the original Jaws.
You did not.
11 or something.
I wrote the original Jaws, youdid not.
You only you wrote the originalJaws.
If you went to Universal StudiosFlorida between June and
September of 1990 and happenedto be there a day that it worked

(08:20):
, oh jeez, because after that itwas gutted and rebuilt oh, and
rebuilt, and there's a lot ofrecriminations.
We'll get into this.
But I read an interview withsomeone that was from the
company that built the originalversion of the attraction and
they asked him if they hadtalked to Bob Maddy about

(08:42):
building the sharks and he saidexactly what you were just
saying.
He said, no, you don't want todo that, because the shark for
the movie just has to staytogether for a few seconds at a
time.
Yeah, and the sharks in thetheme parks have to stay
together over and over and overagain for years.

Speaker 3 (09:02):
Yeah, the tram has to come by like every 10 to 15
minutes and it has to go offonce again.
Go off once again.

Speaker 2 (09:08):
Yeah, so let's talk about it.
So we've got two fairlydisparate versions of this
attraction.
We've got the one that was theearliest version, which was put
in in the 70s, which was part ofthe tram ride in Universal
Studios, hollywood.
Right, why don't we start with?

Speaker 3 (09:25):
that Okay.
So just to kind of get deep onthis for just a moment here
boat-based attractions have beenaround for a very long time.
I don't even want to go intosafaris or fishing excursions.
I'm talking about artificiallycontrived confrontations with

(09:47):
wildlife.
And it actually goes as farback to the Roman Colosseum,
yeah, where they would actuallyflood the Colosseum with water.

Speaker 2 (09:58):
Oh, that's right.

Speaker 3 (09:59):
They would.
I mean, they would remove allthe animals out of the pens
underneath and get all thegladiators out and they would
line it.
I forget what they lined.
I think they lined it with liketar-soaked or pitch-soaked
canvas or something and theywould fill it with water and it
was 10 to 15 feet worth of waterand sometimes they would put
live animals in the water toparticipate, and sometimes it

(10:22):
was spectacles of sea battles.
That was just a you know bigspectacle for the emperor.
This is actually in Gladiator 2.
They do recreate this.
You're the guy that sawGladiator 2.
The one guy?
Yeah, no, I only saw the oneclip on YouTube.
I mean, this is the height ofRoman excess in the Colosseum,

(10:42):
yeah, but they would put sharksand then sometimes, you know,
and they would have gladiatorsget eaten by these starving
sharks, and sometimes they wouldtake them out on boats and so
you could actually feed thesharks for some extra money.
That the royals and the gentryof Rome could go out and check
out these sharks and feel macho.
It's a little bit like how somebig game hunters go up to a

(11:04):
cage and shoot a tiger.

Speaker 2 (11:06):
So not only does the history of boat attractions go
way back, the history of boatattractions with sharks goes way
back.

Speaker 3 (11:14):
That's where I was getting at yes exactly the
contrivance of shark encountersis very very old.
Yeah, and there have been otherboat attractions in the past.
Luna Park and Coney Island havefeatured a few.
We've talked about Tunnels ofLove.
In the past We've talked aboutboat drops.
This isn't quite the same thing, Right Apart from the submarine

(11:36):
ride that I discussed in one ofour previous episodes, where it
actually featured real polarbears, penguins and seals and
Inuits Ugh.
Yeah.
Yeah, sponsored by Westinghouse,but in 1976, so really quickly
they redecorated a back lot areain Universal Studios Hollywood.

(11:58):
They added it onto their tramtour and it was like this big
push in the mid-70s to take thetram tour and it was like this
big push in the mid seventies totake the tram tour from hey,
we're going to take you on thebat lot and you get to see.
Hey, you get to see theMunsters.
Hey, you get to see.
Leave it to Beaver's house, youget to see.
This Isn't that neat.
Yeah, maybe you'll seesomething interesting.

(12:20):
Right, there was enoughproduction going on at the
studio because it was stillright at the tail end of the big
studio system.
There was still that crossover,yeah.
And in the 70s, mid-70s you hadmovies like the Exorcist, the
Godfather, easy Rider, I mean,all of this stuff was really big
at the time.
Yeah, and Star Wars, star Warsand they were not filming in

(12:44):
Hollywood anymore, they were notusing the backlot anymore and
like the only people who werewere television production and
again, there wasn't enough toreally guarantee that you would
see a celebrity.
That was kind of the wholeappeal of the original tram tour
.

Speaker 2 (13:00):
And after the sort of big studio contract system fell
apart, they couldn't ensurethat a celebrity would be there.
Celebrities suddenly had somerights and they could actually
say if you're going to prop meup as someone that's on display,
you're going to have to pay memore.

Speaker 3 (13:17):
But the owners of Universal at the time and the
park suddenly realized well,look, disney's making a ton of
money right now because they'vejust had their.
They're planning a bigbicentennial celebration.
Right, they're getting ready toopen up Disney World.
We better catch up fast, yeah.
So what they did is theyactually set up a tram tour and

(13:38):
say what are some things that wecan add to the tram tour that
will guarantee that they get tosee some sort of movie magic,
even though it may not be anactual movie, right?
So they added the collapsingbridge effect.
This is featured in theIncredible Hulk and the Bionic
man and Knight Rider and theA-Team.

(13:59):
Okay, you know.
It got to a point where, likefans of Universal Studios would
watch these action shows and go,oh, it's Magnum PI, hey,
they're on the collapsing bridgething from Universal, yay, and
they're supposed to be in Hawaii.
And you're like, give me abreak, or they had the rotating
ice tunnel, which I forget whatit was.

Speaker 2 (14:17):
It was from a movie originally, but then it got
repurposed and they said, oh no,this is from Six Million Dollar
man Right repurposed and theysaid, oh no, this is from.

Speaker 3 (14:23):
Six Million Dollar, man Right.
And then what else did they add?
The Parting of the Red Seas.
The Parting of the Red Seas, Ithink they still do.
I don't think they actually dothat anymore, sadly, I think
that is gone.
That was butted up against thesame little lake that was used
in the Creature from the BlackLagoon and Gilligan's Island.
It's the same.
So when you go to Gilligan'sIsland you're in the Black

(14:44):
Lagoon, that's great yeah.
I think it was also used inHogan's Heroes and a whole bunch
of other stuff.
But for those who are listening, who might be a little too
young for this attraction, watchMel Brooks' History of the
World, part 1.
Yeah, and there is a scene inwhich they actually feature the
whole thing as Mel Brooks, asMoses parting the Red.
Sea for Mel Brooks as Comicus,right, you know, but it's still.

(15:09):
It's delightful because youkind of get a look like, okay,
then you would go past anotherlagoon that was kind of meant to
be a New England lagoon.
Yeah, if you're really sharpand you watch early episodes of
Murder, she Wrote.
Yeah, it is actually the littletown that the main character

(15:31):
lives in, cabot's Cove orwhatever it's called, but it is
in fact the orca featured in thefilm floating in the water.
Yeah, and there you had it.

(15:52):
And they would have a fin inthe water just kind of dragged
through, and they went well,that's not enough, yeah.
So then they added ananimatronic man in a boat, yeah,
and then the fin would gotowards the boat and knock the
boat over, and then all of asudden, this red dye would start
bubbling up out of the water ashe's getting eaten and you hear

(16:14):
this, you know getting killed.
And then the shark would comeout of the water right next to
the tram and spray water on you.
And then it became thisevolution, right, and Spielberg
Steven Spielberg himself, itturns out loved to watch this
thing go off, because he wouldhide on the orca as a way to get

(16:38):
away from all the otherexecutives.
He would bring it.
He had a typewriter, he had alittle mini fridge in it, yeah,
and he would just sit whereQuint is, you know, working away
in the harpoon.
He would just sit in the orcaand just type away and just hang
out.
But he would watch theattraction and go, like, you
know there should be morehappening.
So he would make somesuggestions here and there and
they would start listening.

(16:58):
And, for example, theyrevitalized it, yeah, in the
revitalized it in the mid-80s,and it became a lot more
interactive, where you had aperson getting dragged
underwater and then the sharkwould do several different
things.
They would start draggingpontoons.
So it really was like a full-onstoryline, it was like a
diorama that had come to life infront of you, right?

Speaker 2 (17:20):
It took like a minute and a half, but you got a whole
thing, yeah it was a wholestory.

Speaker 3 (17:24):
And finally, the bridge that you're on the pylons
get pulled out.
Right and so it goes dunk.
And so you are leaning towardsthe water a little bit, and then
the shark would come out.
And then, finally, they addedpyrotechnics where, like a gas
main, would explode next to you.

Speaker 2 (17:38):
This was a thing that comes up later, once we get to
Florida.
Yeah, as certain things are notworking, jay Stein, our friend
of the J-Bang, j-bang, j-bang,j-bang Just kept saying well,
there's one thing we know how todo fire.

Speaker 3 (17:56):
And he's just kept adding fire to it.
Yeah, and so, sadly, one day MrSpielberg grabbed his stuff,
got on his bicycle, hisUniversal Studios studio bicycle
, went down to Cabot's Cove andhe had his typewriter and he had
a six-pack of beer or whatever.
He had with him cream soda Idon't know what Steven imbibes
on.
I think he's actually ateetotaler.

(18:17):
But, he got out there and he waslike wait a minute, where's my
boat?
And apparently they haddestroyed it.
It had so much rot that it wasactually quite dangerous for him
to be on it, but he didn't care.
It's like it's my boat, youknow.

Speaker 2 (18:32):
Well, this is the thing with water attractions is
water finds a way.

Speaker 3 (18:35):
Water does find a way , and one of the cool things
about one of the earlierversions of the Jaws attraction
and when you would drive away,when you first drove down into
Cabot's Cove, they would havethe unvandalized version of
Welcome to Amity Island with thegirl on the floatie yeah.
And when you left, you wouldhave the eek help shark yeah.
How about those littlepaint-happy bastards caught and

(18:56):
hung up by their Buster Browns?
You know, you've got that onthere and I always loved it,
because I have had such a lovefor Jaws yeah, since I was a
little kid, in my home, when Iwas growing up in Gilroy, we had
a pool, and for 4th of Julyevery year I still do it.
I always watch Jaws, yeah, andI'm as old as the movie.

(19:19):
Yeah right.
And so, like I am the same ageas that stupid movie, so for me
I've watched Jaws over and overand over again.
I've had CED discs, laserdiscs,vhs, blu-ray, hbo.
I've seen every iteration ofthis because it's one of those
movies I have a real deepconnection with my father my, I

(19:39):
have.
It's one of those movies.
I have a real deep connectionwith my father.
Yeah, like it really to a pointwhen little personal story we
went out deep sea fishing inHawaii one time.
Yeah and um, we were off thecoast of Maui, yeah, and I'm
sitting, you know, we're sittingback and we're on a ship about
the size of the Orca, uh huh,and we're on a ship about the

(20:02):
size of the orca and we'rewatching the flying fish and all
that kind of stuff.
And my dad's sitting next to meand we're talking and we're
looking at.
He's like, wow, and my mom wasoff doing something else, she
was snorkeling or something wewant to.
Well, we're going to go catchsomething, yeah, and I'm about
15, 16.
And then my reel starts going.
And my dad looks over at me andI look at him and I go watch

(20:25):
that reel.
He goes, okay, he goes.
And I start reaching over and Istart grabbing the straps yeah,
like putting it on, uh-huh.
And I start hooking up and mydad's like you're going to have
a quint moment.
And I go, I know, grab a cupand get behind me.
Yeah, you know.
And my dad gets up and he gets.
You know, he's looking aroundand he finds a coffee cup and I

(20:48):
grab a hold of it and I put myfeet in the strips, just like
Quint, and I'm like I'm going tobe Quint, like this is great.
And finally he goes and I'vegot a hold of it, and the
captain's like I'm like Dad, getbehind me.
I unhook the thing.
I'm like so we get to start,and I start talking like Quinn,
I'm 16 years old yelling at thesea captain like going to stop

(21:10):
it already.
Get it out of here.
I'm like fighting this thing.
My dad's dousing the reel withwater.
To keep it from zapping, I hadhooked a huge marlin.
Oh, wow, and I was pulling itand fighting it.
I'm like pull it in.
And I finally stopped and Ilooked at Dan and I go I don't
know Chief, I don't know if he'svery smart or very dumb and we
started laughing.

(21:30):
And the captain's like what iswrong with you guys?
What are you talking about?
And my dad just goes jaws andhe goes, oh bitchin' he suddenly
got it and it was like this ismy Jaws moment.
I pulled it and all of a suddenit went slap and I hit the
floor.
I'm glad I was wearing the vestbecause I was hooked to the
chair, Because it really yankedme forward.
I really would have hurt myselfand we lost it.

(21:54):
But then we saw this massivemarlin come out of the water and
then swam past us doing thesame thing, Like wow, wow, wow,
wow.
And it was this great momentand so, like, those memories of
this movie mean a lot.
So when I was a kid, we would goto Universal Studios a lot,
Right, and like I think Iactually went to Universal
Studios more than I ever went toDisneyland, oh wow, as a kid,

(22:15):
yeah, as much as I loveDisneyland, Sure, I love
Disneyland, Sure.
And Jaws was always the thing Ilooked forward to, and when it
wouldn't work I would be so mad.
But one day it was broken, yeah, but the tram broke down and
they let us out and we got towalk around it, oh, neat.

(22:35):
And then I got to look and thewater was still because it
wasn't being operated Right.
So you could see the tracks,you could see how everything
worked and it was like that'scool.
Yeah.
Like that was this great little.
Ok, that's a behind-the-scenesthing that I never would have
noticed because of the way thatthe angle is when you're sitting
in the tram Right and I couldsee the shark underwater and
that was neat that is super neat.

Speaker 2 (22:56):
Yeah, yeah, and the tram tours.
In the 70s and early 80s theywere a lot more laissez-faire of
a thing than they are now.

Speaker 3 (23:05):
Yes, they very much are.
They would even drive past someof the prop houses.
After the Jaws about a coupleof stops later, I think after
the flood in Mexico attractionand a couple other things, you
would go past this kind of opengazebo thing.
It was like an open-sidedshelter to protect some of the
bigger props.
And right there was Maddie'sshark oh, wow, falling apart.

(23:29):
Yeah, rusty as hell, but it hassince been restored.
Yeah, but there was that timeand they go.
Ladies and gentlemen, that isthe real Bruce from the movie
Jaws.
Wow, and my dad's like wow,that's really cool, that's
really cool Like slow the tramdown.
We want to look at that.
That's really awesome.

Speaker 2 (23:46):
Well, and you know there's two.
There was both in Californiaand Florida.
There's two really iconicthings in this theme park
related to Jaws that weren't theactual attraction, and that was
those hanging sharks.
Yes, initially the one inHollywood was built off the
exact same mold that Bruce'sskin was built off of.

(24:08):
Yes, for some reason, laterthey replaced it with a more
generic shark.
I've never been able to figureout why, but they did.
But initially, for many years,it was actually a mold of Bruce.

Speaker 3 (24:21):
And it looked great.
Yeah, I love that thing.
And if you were there duringthe mid-80s, when Conan was
around by the way, download ourConan episode they would also
set up a talking kit car.

Speaker 2 (24:35):
Yes, I remember that.

Speaker 1 (24:36):
A Knight Rider, so you know.
Hi there, why are you?

Speaker 3 (24:38):
sitting in my chair.
I'm going to break wind.
No, please don't do that.
Michael wouldn't like that, youknow.
But then we get pictures withthe shark, yeah, so every time,
dad, let's go take a picturewith the shark, okay.

Speaker 2 (24:50):
Can I just say as a quick aside, I've gotten a
flurry of comments about theConan episode recently, you know
from our friend Danica, whosuggested the Frontier Village
episode.
Yes, she sent some images fromBakshi's models for fire and ice
.
Oh, which was cool, like thestuff he was drawing off of Yay.

Speaker 3 (25:14):
Cool.

Speaker 2 (25:15):
And then suggested that we listen to the commentary
on Lord of the Rings to hearBakshi talk about it.

Speaker 3 (25:21):
Well, you know, Ralph Bakshi's a marvel.

Speaker 2 (25:27):
And then I ran into another person recently on
Mastodon.
I think it was reached out andgave me a long timeline of the
He-Man and the Conan toy story.
Like really involved.
It's way more complicated.

Speaker 3 (25:45):
Like it would be a whole episode on its own.
Yeah, but I really appreciatehearing from folks.

Speaker 2 (25:48):
Yeah, thank you so much.

Speaker 3 (25:49):
This is the type of stuff that we love on this show
is getting this type of hey, youknow, and thank you so much for
sharing that folks, we don'tget insulted by this at all.
It's like no more knowledge,like, oh, this is cool, so
please keep it coming.

Speaker 2 (26:02):
Yeah, I got this stuff about the toys just like
two days ago and and I was likethank you, this is really useful
.
Yeah, I really appreciate thisstuff.
It's so cool.
Um, anyway, I didn't want toget sidetracked that was awesome
because the Lowdown on the PlusUp is a BoardWalkTimes podcast.

(26:31):
At BoardWalkTimesnet you'llfind some of the most
well-considered and insightfulwriting about the Walt Disney
Company, disney history and theuniverse of theme parks,
available anywhere.
Come join us atBoardWalkTimesnet.

Speaker 3 (26:57):
In order to get to Conan, you had to go past the
shark, yes, and you had to walkpast a medieval tower kind of
set that was used in El Cid atone point.
Yeah, that's right.
And all of that wouldeventually get torn out to be
turned into like a plaza inorder to get into the Terminator
attraction, now the Simpsons,now the Minions, whatever God

(27:18):
only knows what they've putthere.
But for a time I have very fondmemories of that little plaza
with the shark.
It was all on pontoons and therewas water spouts all over the
place.
It was great, yeah me too, andthey still.

Speaker 2 (27:32):
I don't believe they still have a hanging shark in
Hollywood, but I do believe thatthey kept one in Florida
somewhere.
Even though they've gotten ridof the entire Amity Island area,
mm-hmm, I believe they stillhave the shark hanging somewhere
.

Speaker 3 (27:46):
Yeah, I actually saw some.
I guess they found some actorsto dress up as Hooper and Quint.
Oh, that's great.
And so they hang out by theshark for the 50th anniversary.
Hooper drives the boat chief,you know.

Speaker 2 (27:59):
Well, this, so this is interesting, like let's,
let's move forward a little bityes, and and jump to florida,
because this is where things getweird is when, once we start
talking about the jawsattraction in florida, which is
a whole crazier beast, oh yeah,so you know, we we've talked
before about how at least Ithink we have about how how, you

(28:20):
know, mid-80s, michael Eisnertakes over Disney.
Well, he takes over in theearly 80s, takes over Disney,
starts pushing all these bigthings and one of the things
that he does is decides to buildthe Disney MGM Studios.
This drives Universal and JayStein particularly crazy this.

Speaker 3 (28:40):
I would actually make an argument and Kelly and I
have had this conversationmultiple times that this is a
moment in theme park historythat actually changes the whole
game.
Oh, it does.
This one moment really changesthe whole game.

Speaker 2 (28:55):
This is why, right now, disney is staring down the
barrel of losing dominancy inthis industry.
Yep, it was because of this onedecision, and it's complicated.
Eisner was consulted aboutUniversal's new theme park that
was going into Florida, oh boy,and then later came up with his

(29:18):
Disney MGM idea.
I think he was with Paramountat the time, yeah, and they were
asking, basically, if youwanted to partner with them,
they should have gotten RobertEvans instead.

Speaker 3 (29:28):
Yeah, there's another Godfather attraction over here.
What?
A.
Chinatown drive-thru, and ifyou don't remember anything of
it, that's okay.
It's Chinatown, forget about it.

Speaker 2 (29:42):
Nevertheless and I wrote about this recently in an
article, so look it up onBoardwalk Times.

Speaker 3 (29:50):
I'm starting to feel like we're a 1970s Marvel comic.
We need to have little asteriskthings, little caps at the
bottom where Stan would put it.
Now, what he's talking abouthappened in Avengers number 143,
true believers, excelsior.

Speaker 2 (30:05):
Excelsior.
Anyway, go ahead.
Anyway, this caused the peopleand the Universal guys.
They're a mob, they werevicious, cutthroat movie guys.
Oh yeah, and they decided theywere going to take Disney guys.
Oh yeah, and they decided theywere going to take Disney out.
Oh yeah, and so they startbuilding their theme park.

(30:25):
It takes longer than theyexpect.
They don't get it open until1990.
Yep, it is a disaster.
At the opening they talk aboutDisneyland's Black Sunday, the
opening day where it was so bad.
Universal had Black 1990.
Like, the whole year was bad.

Speaker 3 (30:47):
The Jaws attraction was literally a dude in a
wetsuit holding up a blow-upshark going.

Speaker 2 (30:53):
Ah, and then he had to hum the song yeah.

Speaker 3 (30:57):
With a tuba, some dude with a tuba Running behind
him.

Speaker 2 (31:05):
Tuba guy fell.
Keep going, so they.
But at this point in 1990, jawsis still in the public
consciousness.
You know, jaws, they've keptmaking sequels.
They've done moderately well.

Speaker 3 (31:22):
Yeah, we are now at Jaws 4, the Revenge at this
point, aren't we?
Yeah, I think so, with MichaelCaine's blue hair.

Speaker 2 (31:32):
Yeah, what was the great Michael Caine line?
Someone asked him if he likedthe movie being in Jaws 4, and
he said no, but I like mymother's house that I bought
with the money from it.

Speaker 3 (31:45):
They had me get out there, out on a lake that was so
full of blue food colouring itturned me out blue, that's
alright.
I made a lot of money.
I don't even know why I washere.
I had no grudge against theshark.
The shark had a grudge againstMrs Brody, but they never even
met, not even at the son's barmitzvah.

(32:07):
Wait, were the Brodies Jewish?
I don't know.
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (32:11):
Made a funny joke Maybe, but one of the big
opening.
Oh, how did you find a tubaversion of the Jaws theme?

Speaker 3 (32:32):
Because I'm awesome, you know, fair, fair, that's the
sound of the guy with theblow-up shark.
So we're back to 1990 here To1990.
So we're trying to 1990 here.

Speaker 2 (32:45):
So we're trying Jaws 3, people zero.
You know they're trying to getstuff open.
They're trying to get theKongfrontation open, the big
expanded King Kong version thing.
They're trying to get Back tothe Future open.
And, more than anything,they're trying to get this Jaws
thing open, because it is notjust a ride, it is an entire
land.
Yeah, they have built Amity andit's going wrong.

(33:06):
Things are not working.
They have hired this companycalled Ride and Show.
Okay, ride and Show have done anumber of other interesting
things, but they seem like,before and after this, a
completely competent company.
They seemed like they knew whatthey were doing.
They seemed like such nice guys, such nice people.

(33:28):
They got confrontation, theyhad problems with it, but they
got it fixed.
There was all sorts of things,but when it came to Jaws, things
went wrong.
Now, before we jump into theactual attraction, one of the
interesting things that they didwith this area of the park and

(33:51):
I don't know anywhere elsethat's ever tried anything like
this it's really interestingnarratively what they did.
They said okay, this area,which is the Amity area, is
really Amity Island and all ofthe people that you saw in the

(34:11):
movie Jaws were based on us.
But we're upset about the waythey portrayed us.

Speaker 3 (34:20):
I kind of like that actually.
Yeah, it's fascinating.

Speaker 2 (34:23):
So like they're still trying to like prove that
there's no shark problem Inspite of the fact that you go on
the ride, the actual mayor,like I, don't actually wear.

Speaker 3 (34:33):
You know, suits with little anchors all over them.

Speaker 2 (34:36):
In spite of the fact that you go on the ride with a
skipper who has a grenadelauncher.

Speaker 3 (34:42):
I'm just saying you know it is New England.

Speaker 2 (34:45):
Quint is still alive and the story is that they
exaggerated in the movie and hedid not get completely eaten by
the shark, he was just chewed ona little.

Speaker 3 (34:57):
They took the princess bride route.
He's mostly dead, mostly dead.

Speaker 2 (35:03):
And I think this is fascinating.
I think it's a reallyinteresting way to play this.
It is To say, like we're notbased on the movie, the movie's
based on us.

Speaker 3 (35:12):
That's kind of that's gutsy.
Yeah, I kind of like that.

Speaker 2 (35:16):
And so in 1990, they're getting ready to open
Things are not going great.
There's a point where someonecomes out to one of the people
who's been working on the rideand he's like weeks before
opening and he's like, has theboat ever made it completely

(35:38):
around with everything working?
And the guy running it's sayingno, no, it never has.
So they're racing into andwe'll get into sort of some of
the issues where things wentsouth.
Sure, but I want to just talkabout this original ride a
little bit.
Okay, because it's sointeresting and it was so

(35:59):
short-lived.
A little bit because it's sointeresting and it was so
short-lived.
So basically similar sort ofthing.
They are going to take the Amityboat tours.
I think later it becomesCaptain Jake's boat tours when
they redo it.
Jake has a backstory.
But they go on the trip,shortly into it they see the
wreckage of a different tourboat.

(36:20):
So this is concerning, right,they see a shark around that
boat.
The skipper tries to kill theshark but doesn't.
But there's explosions, becauseUniversal loves their
explosions J-Bang, j-bang.
And then they try and escape,and this scene is in both
versions.
They try and escape from theshark by driving into the

(36:44):
boathouse.

Speaker 3 (36:45):
Right, right, right the boathouse.

Speaker 2 (36:48):
Yeah, so the boathouse is a pretty cool scene
in both versions.
Yeah, it's very dark.
You know they're being toldfrom the radio you need to go
somewhere safe.
So they go in the boathousethey hear thumping, thumping,
thumping and then they realizethe shark's in the boathouse
with them, oh God, and they haveto get out.
Pretty terrifying because youknow you've been out in the

(37:10):
Florida sun the whole time andnow it's pitch dark, right.

Speaker 3 (37:14):
So really, really, I know Samuel L Jackson going.
We got to get away from thismonkey.

Speaker 2 (37:21):
Different and go, we got to get away from this monkey
Different movie.
So then we come to the bigproblem with the ride.
This is what is known as scenefour.

Speaker 3 (37:32):
How long did scene four last?

Speaker 2 (37:34):
Well, until they closed the ride entirely and
rebuilt it.

Speaker 3 (37:42):
Because they had ignored this particular problem
until it swam up and bit them.

Speaker 2 (37:46):
So one thing that's important to keep in mind is
that these boats are not on atrack, oh God.
They are large pontoon boatsand there is a channel, so they
can't quite get out of thechannel, but otherwise they're
free-floating.
Oh no, the skipper is actuallydriving.
Scene four the shark comescharging at the pontoon boat,

(38:16):
leaps up, grabs the frontpontoon in his mouth and shakes
the boat back and forth and thepontoon deflates.
What Right?
Okay, this is something that wewould have trouble doing now.

(38:36):
Oh yeah, In 1990, they reallyhad trouble with it.
Oh, I want to real quick givesome credit to this great book
that I've read before but Ilooked at again for this.
It's called Adventures in Amity, tales from the Jaws Ride, and

(38:58):
it's by a guy named DustinMcNeil.
Okay, I mean, the entire book'sjust about this ride, wow, and
it's a fun read.
But there's a quote I'm goingto read from this guy, alan J
Arena, and he was the head ofengineering at the company Ride
and Show Right, and so he'stalking about scene four.

(39:19):
He says the engineering on thatwas complex.
Basically, we had a shark onone track intercepting a moving
boat on another track, allhappening in water and by tracks
.
What they mean is there was akind of gear mechanism that you
slotted into for this effect tohappen.
Those two moving things, myheart just sank a little.
Oh, I know right, thinking aboutthe engineering on that one,

(39:40):
those two moving things.

Speaker 3 (39:40):
My heart just sank a little.
Oh, I know right.
Thinking about the engineeringon that one.

Speaker 2 (39:41):
Those two moving things would have to lock onto
one another in order to achievethe desired effect, oh my God.
Yet we also had to design it ina way so that the ride could
recover and move on if the sharkfailed to hook up, which
happened all the time.
We later came to realize thatthe shark bites boat effect
worked best with the moreaggressive ride operators.

(40:03):
We simply assumed that theoperators, the skippers, would
throw the throttle wide openuntil the shark appeared and
then back off the throttle Right.
This too often was not the case, was not the case.
Many of the operators would, inanticipation of the shark, ease

(40:24):
off the throttle too early,which meant the boat would
arrive in its designated spottoo late.
When that happened, the sharkwould fail to lock onto the boat
and the gimmick wouldn't work.
We eventually suggested toUniversal that we switch to an
autopilot system, but theydidn't want to do that.
They wanted to leave control ofthe boats to the ride operator.
So the scene became very hit ormiss.
If you rode Jaws and had a moreaggressive ride operator, you

(40:46):
got the full effect of thatscene.
If you had a less aggressiveride operator, the boat slowed
down, never connected with theshark and the scene didn't work,
oh my God.

Speaker 3 (40:56):
And I read some it sounds like it's an amazing
concept.

Speaker 2 (41:01):
Yeah, and it did work , sometimes Right, and people
read some— it sounds like it'san amazing concept, yeah, and it
did work, sometimes Right, andpeople said that when it worked,
it was unbelievably great.
Okay, because you have a coupleof things going on.
First off, you've got the sharkinteracting with your boat and
actually seeming like it hastaken control, mm-hmm, and the
front pontoon is punctured bythe teeth, and so you think
you're about to go into thewater because you've lost your

(41:23):
inflation there.
Right, but it just didn't workvery well.
Oh my God, this was not theonly thing that didn't work, but
this was the main thing thatdidn't work.

Speaker 3 (41:32):
This is a pretty big deal.

Speaker 2 (41:33):
Yes, and I was listening to an interview with
this guy, rick Bastrop.

Speaker 3 (41:39):
Do you know this guy?

Speaker 2 (41:40):
at all.
I've heard the name.

Speaker 3 (41:41):
Tell me who Rick Bastrop is.

Speaker 2 (41:42):
So Rick Bastrop may be the coolest guy that ever
lived.
He runs an organization.
He's still around.
He's in his mid-70s.
He runs an organization calledR&R Designs, with him and his
partner Richard Farren, and theymet while they were both
working at the Disneyland Hoteldoing security.

Speaker 3 (42:05):
Which, by the way, if you want to learn more, please
go listen to that episode.
It's actually interesting.
Okay, plug aside.

Speaker 2 (42:14):
So R&R Designs.
I've struggled to find outexactly in what way they were
involved with Ride and Show, butthey were involved in this and
Bastrop was there while this wasgoing on.
Okay, oh, let me tell you aboutRick Bastrop, please, please.
Here's some of the things hedid Neptune's Kingdom at the
Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.
Oh, the Pirate Mini Golf at theBeach Boardwalk, that new

(42:36):
Haunted House thing that's there, which is actually pretty cool.
It is actually, yes, he did theYosemite Sam attraction at Six
Flags Over Texas, which tookover the Spelunkers cave that
used to be there.
Nice, quick aside, the YosemiteSam attraction is now gone and
it was replaced with a revampedSpelunkers cave.
So that's kind of okay.
But someone pointed this outrecently.

(42:58):
But someone pointed this outrecently there are no dark ride
representations of WarnerBrothers cartoon characters in
the United States.
Huh, doesn't that seem weird?
It does seem weird.
There are some in Abu.

Speaker 3 (43:11):
Dhabi, oh yes, oh yeah.
And Dubai, yeah, Yep.
There's a great Scooby-Doo rideactually in Dubai.

Speaker 2 (43:19):
And so he did the update of the cave train on the
boardwalk.
Wow, he did the MGM boatadventure, that boat ride that
was behind the MGM Grand.

Speaker 3 (43:30):
I rode that.
Yeah, that was actually verybizarre.

Speaker 2 (43:33):
So here's a really cool thing If you rode that, you
rode one of the original 1990Jaws boats.
That's where they went whenthey shut it down and rebuilt it
.

Speaker 3 (43:44):
That's why everything felt a little thrift story.
Yeah, anyway, he's so.
He's Just a quick side.
Yeah, for that attraction.
Part of the boat ride, like Iguess you went.
I can't remember if it wasApocalypse Now or Rambo.

Speaker 2 (44:00):
They couldn't get the rights for Apocalypse Now, but
that was what they intended tobe.

Speaker 3 (44:04):
Right, but they did the whole thing.
It was like, oh, we're going tohave this action sequence and
they have the helicopter.
But the helicopter was builthalf scale and it's like 10 feet
away from the boat.
You're like why, at this pointI literally spent the whole ride
just kind of bemusedly watchingit, the way that most parents

(44:25):
watch their child doing arecital.
You're just kind of like, okay,let's see what you did.
That's not a slam against ourfriend that we're discussing
here, yeah.

Speaker 2 (44:37):
Rick Bastrop.

Speaker 3 (44:37):
Yeah, but it is obviously because of a lack of
any sort of space.
Yeah, yeah, but it was.
I was amused.
I was like, okay, let's checkthis out Okay.

Speaker 2 (44:49):
But so he worked on the ride and his take on what
happened and the reason thatthings didn't go wrong.
They also had problems with theclosing of the ride.
The end of the ride didn'tquite work either.
They had some problems withsome of the underwater equipment
and his take was, as we gotcloser and closer to opening

(45:13):
Universal just which was MCA atthat point they kept bringing in
more and more people.
So what started out as two orthree people making decisions
was like 20 and there was notesting time before they opened.
It was like a couple of weeksand that was it, and universal

(45:34):
kept wanting changes.
One of the changes that theywanted, which he he blamed a lot
of this on, was that it was aclear water ride and Universal
suddenly at the last minute,decided they wanted the water
dark so you couldn't see thebottom.
So what they did was theyunleashed a whole bunch of
particulate clay into the water,which of course gummed up

(45:58):
everything.
Oh no.
So this is what Rick Bastropsaid.
The problem was and this iskind of a thing you hear from
different people at Ride andShow as well the other thing I
wanted to say about Rick Bastrophe always dresses as a cowboy
still, and he plays guitar inboth a country-western band and

(46:20):
in an Anaheim surf rock band.

Speaker 3 (46:23):
Oh dude, I like this guy already.
Right, he's the coolest guy inthe world.
Right, he is Rick.
If you ever want to getinterviewed on this show, please
give us a call.
Yeah, like I really want tomeet you.
You sound really cool.

Speaker 2 (46:35):
And I feel bad.
He wrote a book that came outthis year and I ordered it
recently, but I haven't gottenit yet.
Okay, I'm really interested.
Tune in.
Stay tuned we may actuallyscore a celebrity on the show,
and Bastrop claims that theinterior boathouse part of the
ride was his idea.
He said that that was himsaying we need one more scene

(46:58):
that's different from everythingelse, with the sharks Right,
and that is a scene that lastedthrough both versions of the
ride.
Mm-hmm, but so the ride failed.

Speaker 3 (47:12):
This is the 1990 version you were speaking about.

Speaker 2 (47:14):
This is the 1990, about three or four months long
running.

Speaker 3 (47:21):
The executives came in.
You know what we need Insteadof water.
How about we make it all sand?

Speaker 2 (47:26):
Sand, sand shark.
Sometimes they get the crampsreal bad, wow.
And I've got one other quickstory about scene four, yes,
which is from this woman, lisaMarie Gabrielle.
She was the first woman skipper, originally, and first they

(47:50):
only had it for like four months, but originally they only
wanted male skippers and she,very rightfully so, raised holy
hell and got a job as a skipper.
Very rightfully so, raised holyhell and got a job as a skipper
, yeah.
So someone asked her like wereyou there the day they shut it
down?
Did you remember that?
And she was like yeah,unfortunately, okay From her.

(48:15):
Not only was I the first femaleskipper on Jaws, I was also the
skipper who caused the damagethat permanently closed the
version of the ride.
Oh no, the incident involved theshark that we were talking
about in scene four.
Right, my boat was just leavingthe boathouse and I was
attempting to move into positionto latch up with the shark.
What I didn't realize was thatmy boat had snapped off an

(48:38):
underwater latch and coasted toofar forward.
Oh no, as a result, we came toa stop on top of the animation
unit oh God, somehow it's stillengaged which caused the scene
to play out with the boatresting on top of the shark's
head.
Oh dude, the hydraulics weretrying to push the shark out of

(48:59):
the water but couldn't becausethere was a boat in the way.
Oh dude, the hydraulics weretrying to push the shark out of
the water but couldn't becausethere was a boat in the way.
Oh no, our ride vehicle startsshaking in a strange way and
suddenly there are nuts andbolts everywhere.
Oh jeez, I knew right awaysomething had gone horribly
wrong.
We eventually pull into theunload dock and I tell the young
man working there you need tocall the supervisor.
I just killed the shark.

(49:19):
And he looks at me and laughsOf course you killed the shark.
You're supposed to kill theshark.
You're the hero.
He got all of the guestscheering for me, oh no.
I looked at him and I said no,no, I mean, I really killed the
shark.
The ride is no longeroperational, oh God.
And then a little tag to that,and that was when they closed it

(49:42):
.
They were like we're done, wecan't fix this anymore.
Oh jeez, and this was anotherthing that I believe Rick
Bastrop maybe said, which wasthe moment that you made the
skippers responsible for theeffect working.
You've already screwed up Likeyou can't do that.
You're right, theirresponsibility is safety of the

(50:04):
people in the boat and theirspiel, right so?
But someone asked her like didyou ever go back to the second
version of the ride?
And she said I did.
I went back later with myboyfriend, who is now my husband
.
We went to ride Jaws and cometo find out they reopened the
attraction and named one of theboats after me.
It said my name right on thefront.

(50:25):
I asked the attendant do youknow why they named the boat
Lisa Marie?
She told me I heard it wassomeone who used to work on the
ride but got killed.

(50:46):
A little wishful thinking therefrom the executive branch at
Universal Studios Florida.
And the last thing I want tosay about the 1990 version of
the ride, because this soundsreally cool, the way it ends.
It ends very differently thanthe revamped version.
The way it ends is the skipperfires a grenade into the shark's
mouth, the shark goes under thewater, there's an explosion and

(51:10):
bloody bits of shark shoot intothe air.
Oh man, so you know.
They fire off an explosion.
They've got these like coloredbits of foam.
They shoot into the air and getcaught in a net and brought
back down.
Oh my God, the later version.
And that seemed to work okay,but the bloody bits of foam
would get dyed by the chlorine.

(51:31):
Yeah, so they shut it down.
They were like we give up, wecan't fix this.
Uh-huh, they shut it down until1993.

Speaker 3 (51:41):
Wow, yeah, that's how long.
That's a long time forsomething to be down like that.

Speaker 2 (51:46):
They completely redid it.
New ride vehicles on a tracknow, okay, new sharks.
The sharks now could gosomething like 14 miles an hour,
which doesn't seem like much,but evidently the force that it
took to push an underwater giantshark 14 miles an hour was

(52:06):
equal to the force that it takesto get a Boeing 737 in the air.
Whoa, there was so much forcebehind the sharks that they
couldn't turn at all becausethey'd just break, right yeah.

Speaker 3 (52:24):
Up down, that's all you get.

Speaker 2 (52:26):
Yeah, and the 1990s sharks could turn, but they
weren't going as fast, Right?
And they also the 1990s sharkswhen they attacked, their eyes
would go white.

Speaker 3 (52:37):
Mm, which is cool.
Mm, eyes would go white, whichis cool.
And those big eyes, they rollover white.
And then you hear thathigh-pitched screaming and
pounding.

Speaker 2 (53:00):
This month at Boardwalk Times we're writing a
lot about Muppet Vision, whatthe loss of it means to the
parks and to us as fans.
We're also discussing Doctorwho on Disney+.
Have we reached the end of thepartnership?
Will the show live on?
Come check it all out atBoardWalkTimesnet.
So the 1993 ride.

(53:33):
Scene four is now.
The shark comes up on the portside of the ship.
The skipper fires a grenade atit, right Misses it hits the gas
dock.

Speaker 3 (53:46):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (53:47):
Boom, there's your Big fire.
Okay, j-bay.
And then the ending of it,scene five, is they take it from
Jaws 2.

Speaker 3 (53:58):
Oh, with him biting electrical cords.

Speaker 2 (54:00):
He bites an electrical cord, okay, that's
fair and he sparks off Nice andyou know it ends with.
If you watch any of theride-throughs of this thing,
you'll always see at the end theskipper going call off the
Marines, we're coming home.
Everyone cheers Jeez.
But yeah, the 1993 version thatwas redone by this guy, adam

(54:24):
Biesark, and he's a guy that'sstill pretty active.
He did the Shanghai version ofPirates of the Caribbean, the
one that goes underwater.
Yeah, he did T2 3D that show.
Oh yeah.
He did Jurassic Park the ride.

Speaker 3 (54:40):
And a little trivia fact About 14 years ago I
actually interviewed to work forhim.
Seriously, yes, like hiscompany, like for Bizarre
Creativity.
Yeah, I went over there for aninterview to be a concept artist
.
They were not looking foranybody, but they were very,

(55:02):
very nice.
Adam himself was actuallyreally, really cool.
I've heard that Really nice guyLove my portfolio, love what I
was doing.
He says we're going to add youto our list.
Basically, when we needsomebody, we'll call you.
And they called me Wow, but Iwas already working for somebody
at the time so I didn'tactually wind up working for him
.
Wow, but it was.
He was really cool.

(55:23):
But a student of mine.
Yeah, late, much later, I woundup teaching her.
She didn't know what she wantedto do with her career.
Yeah, and I said well, you knowyou could design theme parks.
And she goes what I go?
You're totally you're, you'remade for this.
Like you, you don't like videogames, but you like designing
environments, right, and youdon't like this, but you do like

(55:44):
doing that.
You're a theme park designer.
Yeah, she goes.
Really I go, yeah.
And I said why don't you?
Here's his email, give him ashout, send him these pieces for
your portfolio.
She goes, okay.

Speaker 2 (55:56):
Oh, you've told me this before.
I didn't realize this was whoit was.

Speaker 3 (55:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (56:08):
And she got an interview and she got like a
summer internship at Bazaar.
So it's like that's awesome.
You know, they called him in towork on it.
They were not fooling aroundwith this redo.
They called him in.
They called a company calledEastport International, who were
a subsea engineering outfit,because this was one of the
things that Universal claimedand it kind of became codified
as sort of legend, but I don'tknow if it's actually true.
They claimed that Ride and Showdidn't really know how to work

(56:31):
underwater.
They were using non-waterproofpieces.
That might be true, it mightnot.
Universal sued them, uh-oh, andit ended up being settled out
of court.
Ride and Show basically said no, no, no, we did know what we
were doing.
You have to have testing timeon stuff like this, and there
was none.
And you're trying to blame usfor a disastrous first year,

(56:53):
yeah, so anyway, they settledout of court, but they called
Esport International, anorganization called Oceaneering
International.

Speaker 3 (56:59):
They used Intamin for the track Wait the donut makers
.
I love Intamins no.
No, different guys.
Okay, because if they know howto make a circle, why wouldn't
they know how to make a track?
I'm just saying Different one,I'm sorry.

Speaker 2 (57:17):
I'm such a jerk.
We love you.

Speaker 3 (57:20):
Oh, thanks, appreciate it.
Thanks for the vote ofconfidence.
Okay, go ahead.

Speaker 2 (57:25):
So Entenmann's, yeah, they did the tracks, regal
Marine Industries did the boats.
Wow, the ride system was iTechEntertainment.
They were just, they wereloaded for bear.

Speaker 3 (57:35):
We're going to make this happen.

Speaker 2 (57:36):
Yeah, they were not going to let this one fail.

Speaker 3 (57:38):
We believe in the shark.

Speaker 2 (57:41):
And continually through the years.
Even with the working versionthere was problems.
They had to change the sharkskin twice a year.

Speaker 3 (57:51):
Makes sense.
They do that with the elephantson Jungle Cruise.

Speaker 2 (57:54):
Right, yeah, it'd get bleached, it would get worn
because of all the pressure onit.
So they're constantly changingthat.
They had a real problem withhydraulic leaks, oof yeah, so
much of a problem that the stateof Florida came after them at
one point for contaminatingstormwater.
Oh, oh, because the hydraulicfluid was just I mean, it was

(58:16):
just flowing.

Speaker 3 (58:17):
Yeah, gallons per million or whatever.
Yeah, it's really oof.

Speaker 2 (58:20):
So, yeah, and so that was like the 93 version opened
and stayed open until wait aminute I getting the exact year
2011.
Wow, okay, yeah, so I mean it'syou know we talked about with
Back to the Future as like thatis one of the fundamental

(58:40):
Universal rides.
Oh, yeah, and I think Jaws isanother.

Speaker 3 (58:45):
Yeah, Jaws is a close second to that, just because of
the involvement of thestoryline, et cetera.
So were there any otheriterations beyond 2011?

Speaker 2 (58:57):
Well, there is a version of this ride still going
.
Oh, really, yeah, it's in Osaka, japan.
Wow, universal Osaka still hasthis ride.
Wow, pretty much in the 1993version.
Whoa, yeah, which is nuts to me.
I'm like really, and I guessit's still very popular.

(59:18):
Yeah, so yeah, still runningMinor cosmetic changes, but
otherwise pretty much the samedeal.
That's cool.
Yeah, wow, I'm just imaginingNow this.
Otherwise pretty much the samedeal.

Speaker 3 (59:27):
That's cool.
Yeah, wow, I'm just imagining.
Now, this isn't my plus up,okay.
Okay, but this came to mind.
We have all these tales fromthese skippers here talking
about how they've broken theride or they're named after.
They get a boat named afterthem, right, named after him,
right.
To keep it in the vernacular ofthe film, I would love to see a

(59:53):
couple of skippers get togetherand they're sitting on a boat
and they're drinking and singing.
You know, show me the way to gohome but home I'm tired and I
want to go to bed.
And as they're talking, one ofthem goes what's that?
Oh that there, that's a tattoo.
I had it removed.
What did it say?
It said Skipper Crew in 1990.
Oh, really Well, you want tosee something really cool.

(01:00:15):
I got that beat.
I totally got that beat.
You see that right there.
That's from one of theelephants over in the Jungle
Cruise.

Speaker 1 (01:00:21):
It's like a Jungle Cruise skipper and a universal
skipper, so like the JungleCruise skipper is Hooper.

Speaker 3 (01:00:26):
They're like Quint is the universal skipper and
they're like comparing scarsthat they got from the rides
that broke down and meanwhileoff to the side, like Chief
Brody, is like a guy who workedlike the safari ride at Marine
World Africa, USA.
He's like he's looking at hisappendix scar going yeah, never
mind.
Yeah, forget it Nothing, everhappened.

Speaker 2 (01:00:45):
You know it's interesting.
You mention that because one ofthe things I noticed in reading
a whole bunch of interviewswith ex-skippers for this ride
and reading a whole bunch ofinterviews of ex-skippers of the
Jungle Cruise is both of thosecommunities are incredibly
tight-knit.
Oh yeah, even now, with theJaws ride in Florida having been

(01:01:08):
gone for, you know, 14 years,it's still like it means
something if you were a skipperon the Jaws ride.
This is important.
This is important and you know,I think it's sort of compounded
by the fact that there was.
It was difficult.
Yeah, you know Jungle Cruiseskippers they need to be funny,

(01:01:28):
yeah, but for the most partthey're pretty safe.
Jaws skippers had a lot morestuff going on.

Speaker 3 (01:01:39):
These kids today at Disneyland.
They bring out everything Radar, sonar, electric toothbrushes,
lidocaine.

Speaker 2 (01:01:44):
I don't know Lidocaine, they shoot't know.

Speaker 3 (01:01:46):
Lidocaine.
They shoot twice at a hippo.
They think they've donesomething.
You got city hands, mrDisneyland.
You're counting money all yourlife.
Hey look, I don't need this.
I don't need this working classhero crap.
I told you I like this movie.
I've got it entirely memorized.

(01:02:07):
Oh, yeah, yeah, no, I could dothe whole movie like verbatim.

Speaker 2 (01:02:11):
It's interesting.
It does seem like one of those.
So this is interesting when youthink about it.
Yeah, like there's foundationalDisney attractions and they
mostly are still there.
Sure, there's a train andthere's the Jungle Cruise.
Sure, you know, a train andthere's the Jungle Cruise.
Sure, you know, even if youalter something like Snow White,
there's still a Snow White ridethere.
Absolutely, universal seemsmuch more willing to just pitch

(01:02:36):
their foundational attractions.
Oh yeah, and I understand thatin this particular case, they
needed the space to build DiagonAlley Right, which they knew
they were going to make adog-joking bucket load of money
on.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
And they have, they have.

Speaker 3 (01:02:53):
And it's beautiful.

Speaker 2 (01:02:54):
Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 3 (01:02:55):
However, it ain't Jaws, it ain't Jaws, it ain't
Jaws man.
Yeah, they got rid of it.
I mean that is a reallyinteresting thing where
Universal they are.
So and I know I'm kind of goingon a limb by saying this
because the language is a littleinflammatory but they are so
cutthroat.
Yes, they are Actually not evenso much cutthroat.

(01:03:15):
I'll change my phrase so thatway I don't get beaten up in an
alleyway.
Yeah, which you could, which Icould very well.
It's more of the fact that theyare a lot more aggressive with
their approach to the creativeprocess.
Yeah, that they are willing tojust say get rid of it, just

(01:03:35):
dump it, we don't care, dump it,move on to something else.
Dump it, we don't care.
Yeah, move on to something Like.
Jaws really still does resonatewith people on a very primal
level.
It does, yeah, as a film and asa ride and just as a concept of
a giant shark that could eatyou.
I mean, I don't know if you.
There are multiple showings allover the place of Jaws where

(01:03:59):
you get in an inner tube.
And you float out in the openwater and they put out a big
projector and they show Jaws andyou are are floating over the
ocean.
Oh, I couldn't do it.
I've done it once.
Yeah, it is unnerving becauseyou start watching and you start
going.
It's at night, you cannot seewhat's in the water below you
and it's like, and you'refreezing.
So you're like, oh, we'rewatching, this is not good and

(01:04:22):
it's kind of a you know, likeit's like.
It's kind of like watching theExorcist in a Catholic church.
You're like I feeluncomfortable doing this, like
this isn't good.
So, yeah, it's interesting.
Weird little story.
Here's a weird little hauntedhouse story my haunting days
yeah, so there was a haunter.

Speaker 2 (01:04:44):
Isn't today still your haunting days?

Speaker 3 (01:04:46):
Well, yeah, well it is.
Now it's revitalized.
But my old haunting days soright around the time when they
opened up the second iterationof Jaws yeah, I was working with
a haunter at a haunted housecalled Gyro's World of Terror
and his name was James Bynum.
He has passed away.
He passed away several yearsago.

(01:05:09):
Very talented man, very not aneasy man to get along with, but
if you were in with him, youwere in with him.
If you weren't, he was kind ofcantankerous.
He had some stuff going on andmy heart goes out to him, but he
could be very talented.
He was very good at doing bigspectacle attractions for haunts

(01:05:31):
.
Yeah, this is the guy who snuckonto the set of terminator 2 by
faking a security badge with apolaroid camera I like it and
snuck on and got to see themblowing up cyber done.
That's amazing, milpitas.
Just like he worked on theMilpitas Monster as a stagehand.
It was like his drama teacherwas the director of the Milpitas

(01:05:54):
Monster.
It was like James Jimmy, youwant to help me?
Yeah, no problem.
So he went out and helped.
Well, one year when we weredoing Gyro, he got a hair up his
butt and he was going to do aJaws attraction at a haunted
house and the first thing wesaid is where are we going to
get the water?
Yes, and he said, don't worryabout it, we'll make it work.

(01:06:15):
Uh-huh, I think if he actuallyhad the crew size that he needed
, I think he could have actuallypulled it off.
Yeah, but I think his idea wasvery ambitious for the size of
crew that he had and thededication that he had.
Yeah, but the idea was actuallyvery sound, in which it was
going to be a kind of one ofthose like cheesy aquariums

(01:06:39):
where you go through the giantplexi tunnel, sure, and the
shark attacks the plexiglass.

Speaker 2 (01:06:45):
Yeah, like they've got the six flags here, but with
a shark.

Speaker 3 (01:06:49):
Right, and that's what it was going to be.
You were going to be going, youwere dry, but you were quote
underwater and then everythingwould be on strings and floating
and it was like a bad versionof the submarine ride in
Disneyland.
And then our shark would beattacking the tube, yeah, and
then we would spray people withjust a little bit of water, and
so we had to sculpt a shark andman.

(01:07:11):
That gave me a tremendousamount of respect for Bob Maddy.
Yeah, because sculpting thatthing and trying to get it to
work was murder.
Yeah, because we didn't havethe budget of Disneyland or
Universal or Steven Spielbergback in 1973.
Yeah, we had to make them out ofchicken wire, 2x4s and rolling

(01:07:33):
supermarket casters, like it wasthat bad, wow.
And eventually we ran out oftime and so we had to make it.
You were inside an aquarium.
Uh-huh, we couldn't make thetube.
Uh-huh, but we't make the tube,uh-huh, but we did make a
couple of walls, and so you werejust about to get into the
aquarium but he burst throughthe wall of the aquarium and

(01:07:54):
attacked you that way.

Speaker 2 (01:07:56):
So it went from a really cool— Wait, did he just
like kind of whack up againstthe glass or something.

Speaker 3 (01:08:01):
No, he literally came through an office wall at you
and I said—I told him.
I said why don't we get apicture of Chevy Chase somewhere
in here?
So at least we can actually goGo Landshark yeah.
So we actually know that we'remaking a reference to the
Landshark, yeah, and he goes no,no, no, no, no, people will get
it.
They didn't get it.
No, but everybody kept walkingthrough going.

(01:08:22):
Mrs Bargain Barson, bargainPlumber, you know it was
terrible.
So my heart really does go outfor the difficulty of
maintaining the Jaws attractionsin both Hollywood and Florida,
because it's not easy, and myheart goes out to these guys who
kept it going for as long asthey did Well, and one of the

(01:08:44):
things that is often impressiveabout Universal and we're seeing
this in a big way right nowwith Epic Universe is that they
just take big swings.

Speaker 2 (01:08:54):
Yes, they do.
That's how they've alwaysworked.
It's a little bit like when,you know, in Vegas they bring up
a new casino and they put ridesor something in it, like the
Luxor, and it's like you knowyou have not thought this
through at all, but, man, Iappreciate that you're trying.

Speaker 3 (01:09:11):
Yeah, yeah, that's totally it, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:09:18):
And you know, you're seeing this with Epic Universe,
where what we're starting to seeis that it's a beautiful park
with some really amazing stuffand they maybe didn't have the
planning that you know someonelike Disney would have brought
in.
Sure, they didn't think, hey,it rains like twice a day in
Florida, but we don't have anyattractions that run in the rain

(01:09:39):
, so that's a problem.
They didn't think about stufflike that.
But no, I hear it's amazing.
But I just appreciate.
They just were like you knowwhat?
We're going to build amonster's land.
We're going to build a hugemonster's land.
We're going to have thiswindmill burst into flames every
15 minutes.
Yeah, you know, we're going tobuild this crazy ride.

Speaker 3 (01:10:00):
You know it's just rumor.
Is that?
Because, based off of thesuccess of what they're seeing
that the critical success thereis talk of doing a jaws like
ride based off of creature fromthe black lagoon on which you're
on the rita?
Yes, and I went.
If you do that, I'm all in.

(01:10:22):
Yeah, as much as I'm kind ofall in already.
Yeah, the two, the twouniversal monsters I adore are
Frankenstein and the creaturefrom the Black Lagoon.
Yeah, and Creech is one of myfaves.
Yeah, and I would be all overthat.
That would be so great and itmakes a lot of sense.
Yeah, and, frankly, becauseCreech could go above water and

(01:10:44):
below it very easily.
I think that may allow them toavoid some of the effects from
scene four.
He could achieve a scene four alittle bit easier, I think, and
it'd be great if somewhere outthere is like Jorge's Boy's
House, jorge bang, you know, andit's like A big explosion in

(01:11:08):
the black.
Like where do we get theexplosives?
I don't care, but we have tohave the explosives.

Speaker 2 (01:11:14):
It is amazing Like Universal's total backup plan is
always blow something up.
Lots of fire, singe eyebrows,that's the plan?

Speaker 3 (01:11:23):
Oh yeah, I mean, I've actually I've had stuff singed
on me at Universal Studios.
Oh yeah, Did you do thatBackdraft thing?
Geez, oh Backdraft.
I had my shoes melted on theHarry Potter Gringotts
experience.
No, that wasn't Gringotts, itwas the Hogwarts ride.

Speaker 2 (01:11:42):
Oh, the Forbidden Journey.

Speaker 3 (01:11:43):
Yeah, the Forbidden Journey.
They have a dragon that shootsfire at you.
The problem is, it's like myshoes actually caught fire a
little bit, oh God.
And so I'm walking out going.
Why are my feet so hot, yeah,and why am I smelling burning
rubber?
And I looked down at the bottomof my Converse and I went wait
a minute, hang on.
The tread was slightly melted.
I went whoa.
So I bought new shoes atUniversal.

(01:12:05):
I bought flip-flops atUniversal because I couldn't
wear these shoes anymore.
They had melted.

Speaker 2 (01:12:09):
Oh, my God.

Speaker 3 (01:12:10):
It was crazy, so I got official.

Speaker 2 (01:12:13):
Harry Potter flip-flops.
I could just see the planningmeetings for the Dark Universe,
the monsters area, just likewell, okay, we're going to have
a lighthouse, burn it, set it onfire.
Yeah, right, yeah, we werethinking about having Igor walk
around and greet guests.
Set him on fire.

Speaker 3 (01:12:28):
Set him on fire.
J-bang Gotta have a J-Bang,gotta have a J-Bang.
So well, I guess we've come nowwith these tangents, but it
does actually lead us to, yes,the part of our show, the last
part of our show, where weignore all safety, just like
Universal.

(01:12:49):
Economic liability andeconomics and other things like
that and we do a plus-up yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:12:53):
And I did the first one last time, so I'm going to
throw it to you.

Speaker 3 (01:12:55):
Okay the plus-up for me.
You know the nostalgia hound inme would love it if there could
be a return of Jaws at the park, absolutely yeah.
However, I think they'vealready kind of beaten me If the
rumors are true about thiscreature from the Black Lagoon
ride.

(01:13:15):
Yes, I honestly think they'vealready beaten me to my plus up.
Yeah, because that really wouldhave been my plus up.
It's like okay, jaws, it's oneof those things where the
audience has seen it, yeah, theaudience is expecting it, and it
becomes, when it becomes, likean old favorite.
There's no surprises.
So unless you add something toit, yeah, you're really not
going to surprise anybody,unless you accidentally run your

(01:13:38):
boat over the top of the sharkand right exactly um, god, that
story still kind of freaks meout.
It does does a little bit Like Ikind of wanted to be there,
yeah, but also I think it wouldhave terrified me.
I think, yeah, that would havebeen like, should I call home?
Yeah, I think I need new shorts.
Maybe I should get someofficial Harry Potter shorts
when I'm done, but I think thatwould have been actually my plus

(01:14:03):
up and I think that they'vealready kind of beat me to it
because the Creech as acharacter, it has a very, very
similar and honestly, there's alot of similarities between the
creature from the Black Lagoon.
The original film, not Revenge,or the creature walks among us,
but the original creature fromthe Black Lagoon has something

(01:14:23):
very, very similar People out ina boat trying to catch this
thing and realizing that theyare so out of their depth they
have to kill the thing.
Yeah, and they're bothenvironmental stories.
Yeah, Like I don't think youshould be doing that.
I really think like ifeverybody listened to Chief
Brody people, you know ChrissyWatkins would have died no

(01:14:47):
matter what, but sure everybodyelse.
Yeah, it's like it just closeddown the beaches.
Beaches closed.
No swimming by order.
The amity pd.
Let polly do the printing.
Right.
What's the matter with myprinting?
Let polly do the printing, butimagine doing that.
But you're doing creature fromthe black lagoon and so you're
going out to find the lost cityof these creatures, yeah, Like

(01:15:09):
if I were doing this anduniversally you may use this
because I'm never going to do it.
So you do it.
You go on this ride and you'regoing into this lost Incan city
that's half sunken, yeah, Nowyou're.
So you're in the open lagoonand then the interior parts are
inside this sunken place forcreatures to come out all over
the place Male, female, kingcreatures, whatever you want.

(01:15:31):
Have fun with it.
Yeah, but use some of the samegags where you're like.
Yeah, you remember this fromJaws.
We brought it back a little bit, but it's rethemed wink, wink,
nudge, nudge, yeah.
And then I think that would givethe fans of Jaws that, okay,
see, you know all of us pushingour glasses up.
You know all of us old schoolguys, we used to ride Jaws and

(01:15:52):
it was like that.
Only it was better because itwas a shark and all the kids go.
Yeah, but Creature of the BlackLagoon is really cool, man.
Oh man, wouldn't that be agreat world if kids were
actually going.
Creature of the Black Lagoon isreally cool.

Speaker 1 (01:16:06):
I mean my kid does, but my kid is an exception.

Speaker 3 (01:16:07):
Yeah, you know because she grew up with me
around.
You know, right, right, but yes, absolutely.
So that's my plus-up.
That would have been my plus-up, and Universal already kind of
beat me to it.

Speaker 2 (01:16:19):
Well, I want to kind of tag on to your plus-up, but
first I had an idea.
While you were talking yeah,were talking I was like you know
, one of the things that I loveabout Jaws and it doesn't get
enough credit for that film isjust the intrapersonal
relationships.
Oh yeah, like I could listen tothose three lead actors just
talk and argue for hours and Iwould be perfectly happy.

(01:16:40):
So I think what they should dois make a ride where you just
get driven around by a skipperand he argues with audio,
animatronic Roy Scheider andRichard Dreyfuss With the level
of animatronics that wereunleashed in.
Universal Monsters.

Speaker 3 (01:16:56):
But it's a quint Like wouldn't that be?
You know, just an animatronicquint that's interactive, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:17:01):
You know, here I am body of Mary and me, and just
one and a half of him, becausehe got chewed up a little.
Yeah, just cut a half of himbecause he got chewed up a
little.

Speaker 3 (01:17:06):
Yeah, just a little.
He's mostly dead.

Speaker 2 (01:17:08):
He's all right, he's hanging in there.

Speaker 3 (01:17:10):
Starting a Kickstarter campaign to start
out my boating company.

Speaker 2 (01:17:14):
But I think for my plus up I'm just going to jump
onto yours and add a little.
I'm going to plus up your plusup, Uh-oh.
So now we've been in tracklessvehicles and it's a new
technology.
They do have trackless watervehicles.
They use them in Tokyo, TokyoDisneySea for this, it's called

(01:17:38):
Aquatopia and it's neat.
I mean, obviously, I haven'tbeen there to experience it, but
I've seen film of it.
It's neat.
I haven't been there toexperience it, but I've seen
film of it.
It's neat.
Yeah, so let's have theCreature of the Black Lagoon
ride with autonomous watervehicles so it can change, it
can do different things.

Speaker 3 (01:18:04):
And we now have the control to make scene four work.
That's all we're going to callthe ride scene 4.

Speaker 2 (01:18:08):
Scene 4 and just like you're in with your family in
this one little autonomousvehicle and it goes up, it runs
into Creech and he grabs yourboat and shakes it around.
And we have the technology todo that and make it work now
yeah, that would be great.

Speaker 3 (01:18:28):
Yeah, there was a cover along those lines.
Now I'm just going to go reallycrazy.
Okay, all right.
There was a cover of FamousMonsters of Filmland, yeah, and
it said Jaws versus Ape.
And the reason is is that Ithink the same year that Jaws
came out, so did Dino DeLaurentiis' remake of King Kong.

(01:18:50):
Oh, yeah, and the coveractually was very intriguing.
It was this very strangepainted cover of King Kong and
he's in the water charging atthis giant, great white shark
and I went I want to see thatmovie, king Kong versus Jaws.
I want to see that movie.
Yeah, king Kong versus jaws.
I'm all over that.
Yeah, you know, just see thisgiant monkey beating the crap

(01:19:12):
out of a shark.
Heck, yeah, I'm in it.
And if I mean we talk about,like, the King Kong experience,
we'll have to do that as a BobGurr tribute sometime this
season.
But, uh, you know, this season.
But that's another monstercombo that we can throw in there
, like just when you thought itwas safe to get back in the
water, king Kong, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:19:32):
And isn't there.
There's somewhere in the backof my head that there is a movie
where King Kong fights a shark.
There's like a Toho film orsomething.

Speaker 3 (01:19:43):
I could be wrong about this.
Maybe you're thinking of Zombie2, with the zombie eating the
shark.
In some weird Italian sideuniverse.
Out there we're going to make aride of zombies eating the
sharks.

Speaker 2 (01:20:01):
The two things that I remember from Zombie 2 are that
the zombie picks up a shark andeats it yeah, and that the guy,
the lead actor from TerryNation's Survivors, is in it yes
, and I just thrilled like twopeople in the world and everyone
else is like what is he talkingabout?

(01:20:22):
Don't worry, it was awesome, itwas totally worth it, totally
worth it.
Those two people are worth it.

Speaker 3 (01:20:24):
Well is like what is he talking about?
Don't worry, it was awesome, itwas totally worth it, totally
worth it.
Those two people are worth it.
Well, I mean, here's anotherthing there's actually a fan
theory out there that we couldactually introduce ourselves
into the Billy Friedkin universe, uh-huh.

Speaker 2 (01:20:38):
The Sorcerer universe or the Exorcist universe?
No, the French.

Speaker 3 (01:20:42):
Connection universe, because there's a fan theory
that Chief Brody is actually thesame character that Roy
Scheider plays in the FrenchConnection.
Because he's so sick of thecrime and corruption of New York
City, he changes his name toBrody and he moves out to Amity
Island.
I like it.
So we could actually have ourRoy Scheider animatronic.

(01:21:05):
Yeah, and we could double ourmoney, because then we could
actually have our Roy Scheideranimatronic.
Yeah, and we could double ourmoney, because then we could
have our French Connectionaction ride under the L, you
know, running over little kidsand stuff like that in a car.
It's like Rocket Racers, onlyit's in a 1968 Chevy racers.
Only it's a 1968 Chevy.

Speaker 2 (01:21:26):
You know if I can only have one Roy Scheider
animatronic, though it's the Allthat Jazz ride yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:21:36):
But that's from an era of Universal that probably
should not be spoken of anyfurther.

Speaker 2 (01:21:41):
Did you know that Richard Dreyfuss was originally
cast in that role and he left itbecause he had lost confidence
in the movie?

Speaker 3 (01:21:49):
Wow, really, and so they hired Roy Scheider instead.
Thank God it wasn't Robert Shaw.
Could you imagine, oh God.
Speaking of which, my lastlittle note about the Jaws
experience of interacting withthese characters, the
interpersonal characters likeyou're talking about?
Yes, there is a play writtenoriginally and directed and

(01:22:12):
starring Robert Shaw's son.
Oh, that is about theinteractions between Roy
Scheider, richard Dreyfuss andRobert Shaw, yeah, and the whole
set is the orca, yeah, and thewhole set is the orca, yeah, and
it's the three of them on theset of Jaws talking about, you
know, and how they would arguewith each other and how they
were like worried about theproduction and the shark is, you

(01:22:34):
know, not working and all thatkind of stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:22:36):
Like who's this new kid that's directing us?
He doesn't know what he's doing.

Speaker 3 (01:22:39):
Right and it got like rave reviews in the and now
it's on tour.
I want to go see that.
I desperately want, I want tobe in it.
Yeah, totally Like I want to bein this, like I want to play
Quint, you know, I want to play,there you go.
I want to play Robert Shaw, youknow, so I can get drunk just
before I have to do theIndianapolis speech.
Spielberg has a great day wherehe's like oh, and I always

(01:23:02):
loved that, yeah, and he did itone day and we were done and he
memorized it.
But whatever we do, my lastplus up yes, is that, no matter
what, we have to have JohnMilius write it.
Yes, absolutely we must haveJohn Milius write it.
Yeah, so there you go.

Speaker 2 (01:23:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:23:17):
Well, I think we've exhausted this to the hand.

Speaker 2 (01:23:20):
Exhausted is the term .

Speaker 3 (01:23:27):
So, anyway, please check out our previous episodes.
We'd love to hear if you'veridden the Jaws ride and you
have any anecdotes, photographsor videos, please share it with
us.
We'd love to see it and hearfrom you.
Yeah, and if you're a skipper,please contact us.

Speaker 2 (01:23:39):
Yeah, and if you've been enjoying these shows,
please recommend them to otherpeople.
We'd love to get a couple morepeople on board.

Speaker 3 (01:23:46):
Yep, absolutely Cue the music.
I'm Peter Overstreet.
And I'm Kelly McGovern andyou've been listening to the
Lowdown on the Plus Up.

Speaker 2 (01:24:02):
We hope you've enjoyed this episode of the
Lowdown on the Plus Up.
If you have, please tell yourfriends where you found us, and
if you haven't, we can pretendthis never happened and need not
speak of it again.
For a lot more thoughts ontheme parks and related stuff,
check out my writing forBoardwalk Times at
boardwalktimesnet.
Feel free to reach out to Peteand I at Lowdown on the Plus Up

(01:24:24):
on Blue Sky, Mastodon, instagramand all the other socials, or
you can send us a messagedirectly at comments at
lowdown-plus-upcom.
We really want to hear abouthow you'd plus these attractions
up and read some of your ideason the show.
Our theme music is GoblinTinker, soldier Spy by Kevin

(01:24:46):
MacLeod at incompcompetechcom.
We'll have a new episode outreal soon.
Why?
Because we like you, oh man.
What a day.

Speaker 3 (01:25:25):
What was that?
Where the heck are you Base?
This is Brody, are you allright, chief?
This is Amity 6.
Call off the Marines.
We are coming home.

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The Amity Inversion - Jaws at Universal

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}The Amity Inversion - Jaws at Universal