Universal Studios Florida’s “Jaws” attraction sails off into the sunset

Jim Hill

13 years ago

It’s time to say “Good-bye” to ” … the mistake on the lake.”

That’s what the skippers who worked on “Jaws” used to affectionately call
this Universal Studios Florida attraction. Which will be closing later today to
supposedly make way for a brand-new Harry Potter “land” for this theme park.

But before they drain Amity Island’s 5-million gallon lagoon
and then send all seven of the sharks which used to appear in this tough-to-maintain
show to that big boneyard in the sky, I thought that it might be fun to take a
quick look back at the history of USF’s “Jaws” attraction. Which – believe it
or not – owes its very existence to former Disney CEO Michael Eisner.

Strange but true, folks. But back in November of 1979, when MCA
Inc. brought the initial 300-acre chunk of what would eventually become a 423-
acre parcel southwest of Orlando, this company intended on using that land ” … for
possible development of a movie oriented attraction patterned after the
Universal Studio Tour (in Hollywood).”

“How closely patterned?,” you ask. So closely patterned that
– according to the original site plan for what was then known as Universal City
Florida – Guests were to have spent the bulk of the time that they visited this
movie-oriented recreation complex aboard a Glamour Tram. Where they would have then
rolled past recreations of some of the more popular stops of the Universal
Studios Hollywood tram. Mainly “Jaws,” “King Kong” and “Earthquake -The Big
One.”

But as the projected construction cost of this Central
Florida entertainment complex climbed from $100 million to $170 million, MCA
Inc.’s chairman Lew Wasserman began turning to other studio heads, looking for
possible financial partners when it came to the Universal City Florida project.
Which is why – on July 29, 1981 — MCA officials presented their plans for
their proposed Orlando studio tour attraction to Paramount executives.

And who was president and chief operating officer of
Paramount Pictures back in 1981? Michael Eisner.

Michael Eisner & Bob Hope lead the first family of Disney-MGM Studios theme park down
Hollywood Boulevard on May 1, 1989 — the opening day for WDW’s third gated attraction.
Copyright Disney Enterprises, Inc. All rights reserved

Now to this day, Michael Eisner insists that he was never at
this Universal City Florida informational presentation. But other people who
took part in this two-hour-long meeting (which was held in the Jack Webb Bungalow
on the Universal Studios Hollywood lot) remember things differently. As Peter Kingston (who was then an MCA
development executive) recalled in an April 1989 interview with the Los Angeles
Times:

“Michael Eisner was very definitely there. That’s the
only time I’ve ever met the man. He asked very intelligent questions. I was
very impressed by his grasp of the subject and equally his interest in the
subject. “

Okay. So let’s now jump ahead to April of 1985. Where Eisner
– as the newly installed Chairman and CEO of The Walt Disney Company –
announces the Mouse’s intentions to build a third gated attraction for its Walt
Disney World Resort complex. Which will be a working movie studio that offers
behind-the-scenes tours.

To say that MCA officials were upset when they heard this
news was an understatement. But what particularly galled the people who
designed the original version of Universal City Florida was when – after the
Imagineers finally unveiled their plans for what was originally known as the
Disney-MGM Studio Tour – 65 – 70% of the elements for WDW’s third theme park seem
to have been lifted directly from the 1981 site plan for MCA’s Central Florida project.

So what was Universal supposed to do in a situation like this?
Well, for a few months there, MCA officials waffled back and forth. They couldn’t
decide whether Universal should try and sue Disney or just abandon their plans for Central Florida
entirely. Try and find some other buyer to take that $13 million piece of
property that MCA Inc. owned out by Interstate 4 and the Florida Turnpike off the company’s
hands.

But in the end, MCA officials decided to push ahead with
this project. Which was why – in December of 1986 – the company announced that it
would be partnering with Cineplex Odeon Corp. to build a studio tour attraction
in Central Florida.

Mind you, the 1986 version of Universal Studios-Florida – just because of what
Disney was doing with its MGM Studio Tour attraction – has to be significantly
different than the 1981 version.

But how would they do that exactly? Bob Ward – as part of
his 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Themed Entertainment Association
— recalled the moment when Universal Studios Florida planning and development
team had their big breakthrough. Given that the Imagineers had decided to “borrow”
one of Universal Studios Hollywood’s main conceits – taking a tram-load of
tourists out on a drive around the backlot – for Disney-MGM Studio Theme Park …

“We asked ourselves:
Why not allow visitors Studio access to explore the backlot on foot rather than
see it from the tram? Which led to the heretical thought: What would happen if
we got rid of the tram?”

Bob Ward in 1987 with the model for Universal Studios Florida theme park.
Copyright Universal Orlando. All rights reserved

And with that one question, Universal Studios Florida took
on a whole new look and feel. Each “land” at USF now had to work both as a visitor-friendly
theme park environment as well as a shootable street set. And as for Jaws, King
Kong and Earthquake – The Big One … Out in Hollywood, these were just two minute-long
vignettes. Whereas in Orlando, this trio were slated to become full-fledged,
stand-alone mega-attractions.

And when it came to the ride version of “Jaws,” the
Universal Studios Florida creative team spared no expense. They brought in
Steven Spielberg – the director of the original 1975 film – to serve as the
creative consultant for this theme park in March of 1987. Who promised that USF wouldn’t just be ” … a reflection of the film(-going) experience … We
will sit you in the bike with E.T. We will have you crashing through the
centuries with Doc Brown.”

And how exactly was this theme park going to recreate an
attack by that 24-foot-long Great White Shark which moviegoers saw in “Jaws” ? What’s
more, how was USF going to move 2500 Guests per hour through this water-based
attraction? To answer that question, MCA Inc. turned to Ride & Show
Engineering Inc., a San Dimas, CA. based themed entertainment company.

And Ride & Show Engineering Inc. – working off of
Universal Creative’s own designs – came up with a pretty compelling show. One
where animatronic sharks – “swimming” at 20 feet per second – would do things
like bite down on the “Jaws” boat’s pontoon and then take that vehicle for a
spin around this attraction’s 7-acre lagoon.

What’s more, this USF was supposed to have ended with a bang. Literally. As the
boat’s skipper first fired a grenade into this robo-shark’s mouth. Then after the Great White dove out of sight under our boat, there was supposed to
have been this slight pause before an underwater explosion would then send fake blood & plastic
shark chunks flying 10 feet up into the air.

USF’s original version of “Jaws” was certainly ambitious. Perhaps
too ambitious. On opening day in June 1990, the 3-ton mechanical sharks that
were hidden all around Amity Island worked only sporadically. Which is more
than could be said for the 37-foot-tall mechanical apes inside of “Kongfrontation“
and/or those faux BART subway trains that were supposed to allow USF visitors
the chance to experience what an 8.3-on-the-Richter-scale “Earthquake” felt
like. Which is why hundreds of angry people made their way to Universal Studios
Florida’s Guest Relations office on this theme park’s Opening Day and then
demanded their money back.

Well, it took three more months of “technical rehearsal”
(during which time USF gave every visitor who bought a ticket to this studio
theme park a second ticket for free. So that these people could then return at
some later date and see Universal Studios Florida when all of its rides, shows
and attractions were working properly), but Universal’s engineers finally debugged
“Kongfrontation” and “Earthquake – The Big One” and got these shows operating
consistently. Whereas “Jaws” closed in the late Summer of 1990 and then didn’t
officially re-open for business ’til early Fall of 1993.

“And why did it take so long to get ‘Jaws’ working again?,”
you query. Well, there’s a reason that all of those skippers called this USF
attraction “the mistake of the lake.” According to the lawsuit that MCA Inc.
filed in August of 1990, it was poor workmanship on Ride and Show Engineering
Inc.’s part that made “Jaws” so difficult to operate on a consistent daily basis.
Whereas this San Dimas-based themed entertainment company insisted that
Universal hadn’t given its ride engineers enough time to do proper on-site test
& adjust. Which – given that this robotic sharks moved through the water
with the equivalent thrust of a 747 engine – meant that there were invariably
going to be breakdowns and malfunctions.

And even though Universal Studios Florida & Ride and
Show Engineering Inc. would eventually settle their respective lawsuits
out-of-court, USF was still stuck with a marquee attraction which wasn’t
working properly. What’s more, given that the “Jaws” lagoon was made up of ten thousand
cubic acres of concrete, 7500 tons of steel and nearly 2,000 miles of
electrical wire, this just wasn’t a situation that lent itself to a quick fix.

So in essence, MCA had to write off the $30 million that
they had originally spent on “Jaws” and start from scratch. Which is why they
hired Intamin to build an entirely new boat-and-track ride system for this USF
attraction. As for the charter cruises that took Guests around Amity Island,
those were built by Orlando-based Regal Marine Industries Inc. And as for the
software that controlled the boats, “Jaws” special effects as well as the shark
themselves, that ride system was created by Itec Productions.

Speaking of those sharks … Given that initial reports suggested that one
of the main reasons that the original version of “Jaws” had performed so
inconsistently back in 1990 was because some of the hi-tech gear used to power
these mechanical Great Whites hadn’t been properly waterproofed … Well,
Universal Creative was determined not to make the same mistake twice. Which is
why they then reached out to Oceaneering Technologies Inc., a Maryland company
which built heavy-duty hydraulic machinery for undersea oil rigs.

And using their expertise in underwater technology,
Oceaneering Technologies fashioned 7 robotic Great Whites which perform
consistently – day in and day out – while being submerged in water. Which then
guaranteed that “Jaws” could be operated for 12 hours straight, giving 2500 USF
visitors per hour a six minute-long thrill ride.

And what was the price tag for this “Jaws” redo. An
estimated $40 – 45 million.

Mind you, even with all of this heavy-duty,
guaranteed-not-to-quit equipment that Oceaneering Technologies, Inc. had
provided, “Jaws” was still something of a maintenance nightmare. Not to mention
being prohibitively expensive to operate. Just the natural gas that was needed to
fuel this USF attraction’s fiery finale cost the theme park $2 million annually.

Which is why – after “Jaws” was officially re-opened in the
Summer of 1993 with a gala ceremony that Roy Scheider, Lorraine Gary and Spielberg himself attended – this attraction gradually shifted from being a
year-round ride to becoming something of a seasonal show. In fact, during the
Fall of 2005 when natural gas prices spiked, Universal Studios Florida shut
down “Jaws” entirely – citing the high cost of operating this attraction’s exploding-fuel-dock
sequence as the reason for this closure.

But in February 2006, after natural gas costs once again dipped
(more importantly, after USF’s Guest Relations department had received hundreds
of complaints about what seemed to be the permanent closure of “Jaws”),
Universal Studios Florida reluctantly re-opened this water-based ride. But with
so many of this theme park’s opening day attractions having already been
replaced by rides, shows and attractions there were based on current, more popular TV shows & film franchises … It was only a matter of time before “Jaws” would join “The
Funtastic World of Hanna-Barbera” and “Ghostbusters Spooktacular” at that big
theme park in the sky.

Which is why – when word came down last month that this USF
attraction was being shut down to pave the way for a yet-unnamed new “land” for
this theme park – industry observers weren’t all that surprised. But even so, it’s just kind of sad to think Jake’s
Amity Boat Tours will be sailing off into the sunset forever sometime later today.

So do any of you folks have fond memories of USF’s “Jaws” ? Or – for that
matter — did anyone of you ever get the chance to ride the original version of
this attraction? And – if so – how did the 1990 original compare to the 1993
redo?

Your thoughts?

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