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About LinkBacks“Howdy folks! Welcome to the one and only, original Country Bear Jamboree, featuring a bit of Americana—our musical heritage of the past.”
(This is a major update to Yesterland's Country Bear Jamboree entry.)
Please discuss it here.
“Howdy folks! Welcome to the one and only, original Country Bear Jamboree, featuring a bit of Americana—our musical heritage of the past.”
(This is a major update to Yesterland's Country Bear Jamboree entry.)
Please discuss it here.
Werner Weiss
Curator of Yesterland, featuring discontinued Disneyland attractions
I love the scan of the 72-73 Disneyland guide! I had forgotten Country Bears and others were E-tickets (the monorail?!).
Is the rest of the guide to be found somewhere on yesterland.com (or somewhere else)?
Thanks for the excellent article, Werner!
Having only one theatre created more full & lively houses at WDW. Also, those audiences probably had a few more country music fans than Anaheim's two theatres did. Has L.A. had a country music station in the last 15 years?
Last edited by jcruise86; 04-20-2012 at 07:09 AM.
It's not on Yesterland or anywhere else that I'm aware of.Originally Posted by skoolpsyk
Werner Weiss
Curator of Yesterland, featuring discontinued Disneyland attractions
I’m not from the south, I don’t speak with a country accent, but I did love the Country Bears, having grown up with them in the park. There were so many characters to like, it was like going to a family reunion. I especially liked the Summer Camp version and the Christmas version, they used to string christmas lights on the moose antlers.
CB had great atmosphere, from the pre-show area to everything in the land, they used to have Rufus snoring in a cave before they moved him to Splash Mountain, and the Hungry Bear Restaurant obviously seamlessly went with the theme.
The only bad part was waiting for the show to start, this might have been when they reduced capacity down to just one theatre.
The ride that replaced CB is the cheapest version of Pooh you experience at any Disney theme park! The ride in WDW has a better arrangement of scenes and I will happily wait 30-45 minutes to ride, the one in Tokyo uses a cool trackless system and is even better. Disneyland’s Pooh ride hurts the Pooh franchise, IMHO, as the ride just wasn’t built as well as the others. I have seen the castmembers on Pooh in Disneyland acting . . . rough, disinterested? Like the castmembers in DCA used to do, perhaps because they’re working a sub-standard ride/park.
CB could have been improved upon, by adding snippets of new country songs, or even mainstream songs sung in a country voice. The biggest Disney disappointment I’ve had is when I learned that there might have been a Country Bears Halloween Show at some point . . . By adding new shows, such as a Valentine Show for February maybe, or an Independence Day Show, or a Thanksgiving Show, they could have created more of a following.
Did they tear out Star Tours because Star Wars is getting ‘dated’?? No, they updated the facilities they had.
I think that Pooh was added in the Paul Pressler era as a money saving move as the Pooh ride is probably easier to maintain.
---------- Post added 04-20-2012 at 04:31 PM ----------
I think this was an excuse used by management to kill a maintenance heavy ride that maybe didn't suit their personal tastes, when was the last time that the Carthay Theatre was standing in L.A.? 15, 30 years ago? ;-)
Having only one theatre created more full & lively houses at WDW. Also, those audiences probably had a few more country music fans than Anaheim's two theatres did. Has L.A. had a country music station in the last 15 years?
A lot of the stuff in Disneyland, especially Frontierland, is dated. Because the critters in Splash Mountain speak in a country drawl (at least I think some of them do??) I think having country themed music was something different, even more so at Disneyland. There have been cross-over country music hits, like Garth Brooks, that went 'mainstream' . . . I'm not a country music fan by any stretch of the imagination, I don't own any country songs, but ocassionally I like to hear one on the radio as it is something different. Do you have to be a country fan to like 'Ghost Riders in the Sky'?
Last edited by chesirecat; 04-20-2012 at 08:29 AM.
What happened to all the bears? the animatronics? Thats what I like to know. Did they show up some where else?
One of the Buff, Max, Melvin (mounted animal heads) can be seen in the Pooh ride as it was left there as a rather creepy/lazy reminder of what was once there. Supposedly the Big Al fig was used in the construction of the first Oogie Boogie in HMH, but obviously since then he's been replaced with a Garner Holt AA. Some of the broken/old AAs are stored underneath the scenes in the Haunted Mansion in MK as they were shipped out there after the show closed in Disneyland to be used as replacement parts for the continental US's only CBJ.
http://www.imagineeringdisney.com/bl...-bear-jamboree
Last edited by chesirecat; 04-20-2012 at 10:07 AM.
Wow, I wouldn't have guessed the CBJ was an E ticket. I mean, it's one of MY favorites, but I didn't think it had ever been that highly thought of by the management!
The Pooh ride in WDW may be better than the one in Anaheim, but it has nowhere near the artistry of the late Mr. Toad's Wild Ride!
Timely post, it was recently announced this week that Disney will be making a live action/CG Mr. Toad movie. The second time that a ride replaced by Pooh was turned into a feature film . . . hopefully this one will be more successful than the CBJ film.
Go Country 105.1 in L.A. since 2006 .... Before that it was KZLA for about 25 years .... In fact more country music is sold in Los Angeles than anywhere else.
Having only one theatre created more full & lively houses at WDW. Also, those audiences probably had a few more country music fans than Anaheim's two theatres did. Has L.A. had a country music station in the last 15 years?
I'm not a country music fan, but yes, there are most certainly country/western radio stations in L.A.
A quick check finds GoCountry 105 FM and K-Frog 95.1.
Personally, I loved the Bear Country Jamboree. It was hilarious, the bluegrass numbers were fun, and it had a rich, well-imagined atmosphere to lampoon the country genre. The Pooh ride that replaced it is dreadful - the kind of boring kiddie ride that Disney-haters must imagine all Disney rides to be.
I miss the CBJ too, but I disagree that the Pooh ride is dreadful - just aimed at a different demographic. My youngest son (in kindergarten) loves the ride and always asks to get "stuck in the honey" every time we go on it. Not every ride is going to make everyone happy. Of course, he also loves the Matterhorn!
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