00:00Things aren't easy in the year 2037.
00:03As far as the eye can see, crumbling structures stand as haunting reminders of a forgotten civilization.
00:09But when I'm stuck in a rut, not sure where my life is going, here's what I do.
00:18That's right.
00:20I get jiggy with it.
00:22Well, Disney used a similar tactic in the 80s when it was trying to dance its way to a new audience.
00:28I give you Videopolis, Disneyland's dance club.
00:35A long time ago, in a theme park far, far away,
00:39the empire known as Disney fought to stay relevant.
00:43But Star Wars, a six-foot rodent, and even giant turkey legs weren't enough.
00:47Disney needed a mouse metropolis, or a video, or a...
00:52Videopolis.
00:54Videopolis.
00:55Videopolis.
00:56So what is it called again?
00:59Videopolis was basically dance club at Disneyland.
01:05For, you know, all the cool people that hang out at Disneyland at night.
01:09Yep, a dance club.
01:11For kids.
01:15What kind of trouble could your daughter possibly get into with a free weekend and the keys to your car?
01:23So how did Mickey Mouse end up in da club?
01:26Disney was trying to appeal to an older crowd to move away from their family-friendly image.
01:30Well, what are we waiting for?
01:32I don't know. I have any kind of, like, suspicious activity when adults want to lure, like, teenagers into a, like,
01:37a room with a fog machine and, like, flashing lights.
01:40It's weird.
01:43But in 1984, Disney had fallen on hard times.
01:47So they brought in Michael Eisner,
01:49former CEO of Paramount Pictures, to help revamp the business.
01:53The story goes that Michael Eisner brought his son, Breck, to Disneyland one day,
01:57and he said it was super lame, basically.
02:00Baby Breck was super bored.
02:03But Daddy had a super-duper idea.
02:05Disney's full of all kinds of weird hang-around gimmicks, especially at the park,
02:09and I think Videopolis was a great example of that.
02:12With Eisner's green light, sweaty teens got to boogie down at downtown Disney in record time.
02:18Videopolis opened on June 22nd, 1985.
02:21From development to opening took just about 100 days, which is breakneck speed for Disney.
02:26And it was a fast pass to success.
02:29Videopolis was so popular and eventually saw such acts as Oingo Boingo, The Bangles, New Kids on the Block.
02:37And while teenage fans were screaming with excitement,
02:40the Disney Channel was busy capitalizing on the Videopolis craze.
02:44They ultimately had two TV shows, one called Videopolis and a special called Videopolis Superstars.
02:49It was Soul Train for the Disney Channel,
02:57a.k.a. the No Soul Train.
03:00Yeah, I know what you're thinking.
03:02This sounds like a place I want to go.
03:04Exactly. But Disney wasn't the only place in town to cut a rug.
03:08Disney basically ripped off their idea from Knott's Berry Farm,
03:11their local competitor, who in 1984 had opened an MTV-inspired outdoor club called Studio K.
03:17That was Knott's Berry smart because a dance-off was the least of Disney's problems.
03:22In Orange County, gang violence between teenagers became a huge problem.
03:26And some of these gangs ended up considering both Disneyland and Knott's as part of their turf.
03:32Gang gangs.
03:33Yeah. And we're talking more Bloods Crips than Jets Sharks.
03:37So you had kids that were like, no, my park's Disney and my park's Knott's Berry?
03:42Is that what you're saying?
03:43Unfortunately, that's exactly what we're saying.
03:46Of course they're starting gangs.
03:48They're like, ah, I want to f**k so bad, but I can't.
03:51So let me go fight people from Knott's Berry Farms.
03:56Ultimately, although it happened on a night that Videopolis wasn't operating,
04:00two teens were shot and one of them died in the parking lot of Disneyland.
04:03And it was forever linked in the public consciousness with Videopolis that led to the demise.
04:11Although the incident wasn't entirely to blame,
04:14it had that, the growing shift in music taste,
04:16and the park just couldn't keep up and decided to unplug the screens for good.
04:22Thank God it's gone.
04:23Although for one night in 2020, for 80s night,
04:27they brought Videopolis back to the site where it used to be.
04:32We are happy to report no Gen Xers were harmed in the gathering.
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