The Post Group at the Disney-MGM Studios

An Employee’s Perspective

The Post Group at the Disney-MGM Studios (TPG Orlando) was a premier post-production facility located at the former Disney-MGM Studios theme park and opened in 1988.

Please introduce yourself and tell how you came to work at The Post Group at the Disney-MGM Studios.

I am Kathy Beyers and in 1988 I was employed as a video duplication operator/assistant colorist at Orlando film lab Allied Film and Video. The lab had been processing film dailies for the show Superboy, produced in Central Florida, which afterwards we visually inspected on our Rank Cintel telecine, a device used to record the filmed images onto videotape. We then delivered the processed film to The Disney-MGM Studios for video transfer and editing, so I was aware of The Post Group (TPG) and sent them a resume.  In December I was called by Ivan Bernstein, the TPG general manager, and asked to come in for an interview for an assistant colorist/assistant editor position. I was thrilled when they told me I had gotten the position, and I started working there in January of 1989.

Talk a little bit about The Post Group Orlando in the early days at the Disney-MGM Studios.

When I started in 1989, The Post Group had just moved from their temporary home in the bungalow office space across the street to their official facility in the Roy O. Disney Production Center. Andy Delle, the design engineer from The Post Group LA in Hollywood, was still onsite, and when I went in for my interview there were floor tiles pulled up as they were still installing cables for the equipment.

The Post Group in Orlando was a big facility: there were two audio mixing rooms, a Foley stage for creating sound effects, 5 edit bays, a film-to-tape transfer suite with a Rank Cintel telecine and a DaVinci color corrector, and a graphics room featuring a DFX graphics system. We had a central machine room with state-of-the-art touch screen routers, many types of tape machines, a laserdisc recorder and a new state-of-the-art CMX-6000 editing system. We also had a dailies screening room, an engineering room, and later an AVID edit suite. Part of my job, after assisting with transferring the Superboy film dailies to videotape, was to record each reel onto laserdiscs for use with the CMX-6000, an early random-access editing system using multiple laserdisc players for playing back the footage. This allowed instant access to the material (no fast forwarding or rewinding) so the editing could be done in a non-linear fashion.

The first few months of 1989 was an extremely busy time – we were doing publicity reels and commercials for the theme parks as well as editing segments for the Studios Grand Opening Special and The Making of the Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park TV special. The Grand Opening Special premiered on April 30, 1989, and the official opening date of the Disney-MGM Studios theme park was May 1. The Studios also did production and post-production on season 1 of Superboy (starring John Haymes Newton), and the All-New Mickey Mouse Club, which premiered on April 24, 1989 on The Disney Channel. The Animation Studios were working on feature film scenes for new Disney animated movies such as Beauty and the Beast and Mulan. The construction crews were putting the finishing touches on the theme park, and I remember going on a “sneak peek” of The Great Movie Ride in the (replica) Chinese Theater, which was a big thrill. There was a lot of excitement in the air; we all worked very long hours putting the final touches on everything.

The Post Group also did post-production on several films (among them Passenger 57 starring Wesley Snipes) as well as location work for the Miss America Pageant, The Children’s Miracle Network, and various golf tournaments. We spent many years doing the annual Walt Disney World Christmas Parade. Later we worked on several game shows including Star Search, Wheel of Fortune, and the revival of Let’s Make a Deal with Dick Clark. We worked closely with James Best (the actor who played Sheriff Rosco P Coltrane from the Dukes of Hazzard) transferring his film projects to videotape when his film school was near Orlando. Dolly Parton, Bob Hope, Steve Martin, Martin Short, Henry Winkler, Siskel and Ebert, and even Tim Burton were all in-house for various reasons (Tim Burton toured our facility while he was filming Edward Scissorhands in nearby Lakeland).

In the final weeks before the grand opening all the Disney executives were on site. I remember walking past Michael Eisner and Frank Wells on my way to lunch one day, and Michael smiled and said hello. Once Jeffrey Katzenberg was on a phone call in Edit Bay 1 and they were calling him on the intercom (but he could not hear it from inside the bay) so I called my supervisor to come and personally tell him he was needed.

During the actual opening ceremony, we were all still editing various projects, and people who were able to attend the party were coming by to tell us about all the exciting things (and people) that were outside. Some of the celebrities scheduled to attend were Dick Van Dyke, The Pointer Sisters, Harry Anderson, George Burns, Carol Burnett and many more!

What other shows and projects was The Post Group involved with during this time?  

After Superboy’s production ended with us (production for season 2 moved to Universal), I became one of the assistant editors on the All-New Mickey Mouse Club (which later included superstar talents Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Keri Russell and Ryan Gosling). It was an exciting time when Annette Funicello and Don Grady, two of the original 1950’s series cast members, appeared on our show. Annette toured our facility and was very gracious. We continued to do many publicity-related projects for Disney marketing as well as commercial work for third-party clients. Famed director John Landis (National Lampoon’s Animal House) was hired to do the commercial for the new attraction Catastrophe Canyon, which was part of the theme park Studio tour, and I remember him reviewing footage in the machine room.  

There were also a few other TV shows: Adventures in Wonderland, Thunder in Paradise (starring Hulk Hogan), Hi Honey I’m Home, and Sing Me a Story with Belle. We did production and post on The Muppets at Walt Disney World with the Henson company, and some of us auditioned to be “Muppets” in an open casting call held at Loch Haven Park in Orlando. The studio also hosted the production of the mini-series From the Earth to the Moon by producers Ron Howard, Brian Grazer and Tom Hanks. The Post Group unfortunately had limited involvement as the show’s post-production was done elsewhere, but there was a lot of activity on the soundstages.  

During the summers, Disney also had the Star Today program – in which visiting celebrities made appearances in the theme park and did a satellite tour to answer remote questions from entertainment hosts at various television stations around the country.  Among the celebrities that participated were Ed McMahon, Eddie Albert, Dennis Weaver, Douglas Fairbanks Jr, Greg Evigan (from the tv show BJ and the Bear) and Donny Osmond. I had the honor of standing next to Eddie Albert as the satellite uplink station operator in the machine room explained how they sent the feed out. He seemed genuinely interested in the process, and was very nice and talked with us a bit. I also remember Ed McMahon coming in for his interview: his voice was very distinctive, and it echoed through the hallway as he conversed with his team. In 1991 Steve Martin was in-house for a publicity interview for the (then) new film Father of the Bride; the interview was taking place in Edit Bay Two and as he waited in the machine room he was very gracious to the tape operators working around him. I remember walking past him several times while changing the tapes on the VTR assigned to our edit bay. Dolly Parton and Henry Winkler also came through the machine room on tours. One morning, as I approached the entrance to the facility, Douglas Fairbanks Jr held the door open for me: he was very gallant. It seemed for a time like we really could be Hollywood East. 

What was your proudest moment while employed there? 

I was very proud of our work on The All-New Mickey Mouse Club. The show was in production approximately 6 months of the year, during the busy summer months, and ran for 7 seasons (over 200 episodes).  The soundstages (as well as two of our edit bays and both audio rooms) were on the tour corridor, which meant the outside walls had glass windows so theme park guests on the Studio tour could watch the show being put together from the darkened hallway (InMotion magazine, pg 36). Although we didn’t go to the soundstage very often, the cast regularly came to our facility for various audio sessions: once Mouseketeer Jennifer (McGill), wearing roller skates, was rolling back and forth down the little rise in the hallway that led to the tour corridor. Some of the older kids used to come to the edit bays and watch us edit. They always asked good questions and seemed interested in the technical aspects of the show’s assembly. A few of the Mouseketeers, among them Tony Lucca and Dale Godboldo, wrote the rap song that in later seasons played over the show’s closing credits, and I remember them excitedly talking about it in the edit bay.

Can you talk about what ultimately happened to The Post Group at the Disney-MGM Studios? Why is it no longer there? 

The Post Group in LA did not renew their 5-year contract to manage the facility, and the name was officially changed to Disney i.d.e.a.s. (Imagery, Design, Editorial, Art, Sound). We continued to do local work, but also around this time Disney made the decision to use an ad agency in New York to create all their advertising. Eventually, Disney’s local marketing department was downsized (or closed), and most of the Post Group staff left for positions elsewhere.  My job ended in June of 1997. I.d.e.a.s continued in that location for a number of years, but eventually relocated to offices in downtown Orlando. I believe the location at Disney was then used for office space until plans for redevelopment could be finalized. 

Any special events or memories that you want to share about your time at Disney? 

I was very excited to be at The Post Group in Orlando. As a lifelong Florida resident, it was a chance to have Hollywood in our backyard. In August of 1989, a co-worker and I went on vacation to Los Angeles. Management arranged for us to shadow some of the staff at The Post Group-LA in Hollywood and I gained a new perspective of the industry. TPG-LA edited many of the top-level shows produced at the time, such as Star Trek The Next Generation, segments for the annual Academy Awards, and Pee Wee’s Playhouse. They also edited music videos by Prince and many other top artists of the day. At the time I felt their leadership would help our little corner of the world in Orlando do great things.  

I also cherished some of the friendships I made while working there. We all relied on each other to get the shows out on time. After work there were often group movie nights, dinners out, and book clubs. Although we had several general managers, Ivan Bernstein was the standout: he had come from TPG-LA and was very knowledgeable and we always had his support. James Mancini, an editor hired out of New York who had formerly worked on the HBO hit series Max Headroom, kept us on our toes with his wit, and he brought so much fun to the long hours of work. Unfortunately, Jimmy was involved in a fatal car accident on his way to work. We all attended his funeral and later took the discs containing the editing lists from the shows he worked on and planted them underneath a tree in his honor by the front entrance to the building (the Jimmy tree). Jimmy usually wore brightly colored shirts, and so they picked a tree that had nice purple blossoms. For many years we walked by that tree every day.  

What have you done since leaving The Post Group? 

My lifelong dream was to work in the entertainment industry and to live in Los Angeles. I had friends who graciously allowed me to stay with them in LA in the summer of 1997 while I searched for a job. I was hired by The Post Group-LA as an assistant colorist (assisting on a state-of-the-art Spirit Datacine film-to-tape transfer system) and I started working in September.  A former TPG-Orlando co-worker, Rick Girardi, was also there, and as I had interacted with various members of the TPG-LA management on their trips to Florida, working there felt very familiar.  

The next year I returned to Disney i.d.e.a.s, where I was one of the editors on the cable show Petsburgh USA (which ran for two seasons). I was also a secondary editor on a science textbook series produced for Harcourt Brace Jovanovich (a publishing company that had an office near Sea World), editing informational videos that accompanied the textbooks. 

Returning to LA, I worked on the restoration of the classic TV series Cheers for hi-definition digital video mastering, and also worked briefly for a horseracing news channel. But my true passion was working for a production company that specialized in behind-the-scenes footage for feature films. They produced and edited publicity clips and DVD bonus materials for many of Hollywood’s blockbuster films. And, in a very strange coincidence, Tommy from the 1950’s version of The Mickey Mouse Club lived in the neighborhood behind my apartment building. It really is a small world after all! 

Although I did not see many celebrities in my position there, many producers and directors came in to revise their projects. One night as I was leaving the building, John Landis was waiting outside the entrance doors and I opened the door for him. Later in the week I overheard a bit of a conversation between him and his project editor about his time in Florida working on the commercial for Disney. It seems it had been a positive experience.

As of this writing, the soundstages at the now-titled Disney’s Hollywood Studios have been repurposed as theme park rides, and the edit bays at the Roy O Production Center are long gone. The postproduction tour corridor was made over to host an exhibit of Walt Disney’s life. The studio’s cast parking lot was relocated to make way for a roller coaster, which itself is now undergoing a major renovation. A lot of my former co-workers have remained active in the industry and have gone on to do remarkable things, and I am so proud that I got to be a small part of such a big adventure.