Disney's Hollywood Studios
Disney's Hollywood Studios is a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, near Orlando. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Parks and Products division. Based on a concept by Marty Sklar, Randy Bright, Michael Eisner, the park opened on May 1, 1989, as the Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park, was the third of four theme parks built at Walt Disney World. Spanning 135 acres, the park is dedicated to the imagined worlds from film, television and theatre, drawing inspiration from the Golden Age of Hollywood. Disney's Hollywood Studios was developed as both a theme park inspired by show business and an operating production studio, with active film and television production services, an animation facility branch, a functioning backlot. Construction on the combined park and studio began in 1987, but was accelerated when the construction of the similarly-themed Universal Studios Florida began a few miles away. To increase public interest and the variety of film representation within the park, Disney entered into a licensing agreement with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, where from the park's original name was derived.
The park's production facilities were removed throughout the 2000s, many of the park's soundstages were retrofitted for newer attractions and guest use. The park's current name took effect in 2008, with the removal of the MGM-branding throughout the park. In the 2010s, the park began to distance itself from the original studio backlot intention and entered a new direction of immersive theming and attraction development inspired by Hollywood stories; the park's icon was the Earffel Tower from the park's opening until 2001 when the Sorcerer's Hat—a stylized version of the magical hat from Fantasia—was erected in the park's central hub. It served as the park's icon until its removal in January 2015. In 2017, the park hosted 10.72 million guests, ranking it the fifth most-visited theme park in North America and the ninth most-visited theme park in the world. The World you have entered was created by The Walt Disney Company and is dedicated to Hollywood—not a place on a map, but a state of mind that exists wherever people dream and wonder and imagine, a place where illusion and reality are fused by technological magic.
We welcome you to a Hollywood. A team of Walt Disney Imagineers led by Marty Sklar and Randy Bright had been given an assignment to create two new pavilions for Epcot's Future World section; the brainstorming sessions led to Wonders of Great Movie Ride pavilions. The latter was to look like a soundstage backdrop, with a movie theater-style entrance in the middle and would have sat between the Land and Journey Into Imagination pavilions; when newly appointed CEO Michael Eisner saw the plans for the pavilion, he requested that, instead of placing the ride in an existing park, it should be the anchor for a new park themed with Hollywood and show business. In 1985, Disney and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer entered into a licensing contract that gave Disney worldwide rights to use the MGM brand and logo for what would become Disney-MGM Studios, which included working production facilities for films and television shows, a backlot, a satellite animation studio for Walt Disney Feature Animation, which began operation prior to the park's debut.
In 1988, MGM/UA responded by filing a lawsuit that claimed Disney violated the agreement by operating a working movie and television studio at the resort. On May 1, 1989, the theme park opened adjacent to the production facilities, with MGM's only affiliation being the original licensing agreement that allowed Disney to use MGM's name and lion logo in marketing, separate contracts that allowed specific MGM content to be used in The Great Movie Ride. On opening day, the only two operating attractions were the Studio Backlot Tour and The Great Movie Ride. Disney filed a countersuit, claiming that MGM/UA and MGM Grand, Inc. had conspired to violate Disney's worldwide rights to the MGM name in the theme park business and that MGM/UA would harm Disney's reputation by building its own theme park at the MGM Grand hotel and casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. On October 23, 1992, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Curtis B. Rappe ruled that Disney had the right to continue using the Disney-MGM Studios name on film product produced at the Florida facility, that MGM Grand had the right to build a Las Vegas theme park using the MGM name and logo as long as it did not share the same studio backlot theme as Disney's property.
The 33-acre MGM Grand Adventures Theme Park opened in 1993 at the Las Vegas site and closed permanently in 2000. Disney was contractually prohibited from using the Disney-MGM Studios name in certain marketing contexts. In the 1990s, as the park's popularity and attendance grew, the park saw its first expansion in 1994, with the addition of Sunset Boulevard and The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror attraction; the backlot's New York streets were opened to guest access to relieve traffic and renamed as Streets of America. During that same decade, Walt Disney Feature Animation's on-site satellite studio assisted in the production of Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King, with Mulan and Lilo & Stitch being completed at the park's studio. In 2001, the Sorcerer's Hat—a stylized version of the magical hat from Fantasia—was erected in front of the park's Chinese Theater and began to serve as the park's icon from onwards, displacing the Earffel Tower in that role. In 2004, Disney shuttered the Florida animation unit.
The backlot's Residential Street was demolished to accommodate the new location for Lights, Action! Extreme Stu
The Great Movie Ride
The Great Movie Ride was a dark ride located at Disney's Hollywood Studios at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida. The attraction employed the use of Audio-Animatronic figures, practical sets, live actors, special effects, projections to recreate iconic scenes from twelve classic films throughout motion picture history; the attraction—which debuted with the park on May 1, 1989—was located inside the park's replica of Grauman's Chinese Theatre, one of Hollywood's most famous movie palaces. The Great Movie Ride was developed by Walt Disney Imagineering as a pavilion for the Future World section of Epcot. Under the direction of Michael Eisner and Marty Sklar, the concept was expanded into a third theme park that included the dark ride as its centerpiece. To represent a broad spectrum of cinema, Disney incorporated films from outside of its own library through its licensing agreement with MGM. Turner Classic Movies began sponsoring the attraction in 2015, with TCM film historian Robert Osborne being introduced as the attraction's host.
The Great Movie Ride closed on August 13, 2017, becoming the last operating attraction from the park's opening day to close. The attraction is slated to be replaced by Minnie's Runaway Railway; the Great Movie Ride directly inspired the creation of Disney's Hollywood Studios. In a Walt Disney Imagineering book, it was revealed that The Great Movie Ride was going to be the main attraction in a show business themed pavilion at Epcot, to be called "Great Moments at the Movies". However, the newly assigned Disney CEO Michael Eisner and WDI president Marty Sklar decided the idea was strong enough to lead an entire new theme park; the idea for the ride was expanded, the Disney-MGM Studios went into official development. The attraction used the likenesses of numerous living and deceased actors to be recreated as audio-animatronics. Plans called for The Great Movie Ride to be the main attraction for the Disney-MGM Studios Europe theme park, scrapped due to the early financial difficulties of the Euro Disneyland Resort.
Years when the resort began turning profits, a show business themed theme park went into development again, the Walt Disney Studios Park opened in 2002 at the Disneyland Resort Paris, although minus The Great Movie Ride. A show called CinéMagique was built in lieu of the ride due to claims by Disney management that the French preferred shows to ride-through attractions. Three separate attempts were made by Walt Disney Imagineering to bring The Great Movie Ride to California. First were plans to incorporate the attraction into the proposed “Disney-MGM Studio Backlot” project, a 40-acre film studio themed retail and entertainment district, planned for downtown Burbank, California during the late 1980s. Several years plans called for the ride to serve as the centerpiece of the proposed Hollywoodland at Disneyland, which would have been added to the park during the planned Disney Decade in the 1990s. Due to budget cuts, Hollywoodland was canceled. Plans called for the ride to be built as part of the Hollywood Pictures Backlot area of the Disney California Adventure Park theme park at the Disneyland Resort.
But budget cuts in the park's original development planning forced the ride's projected cost to be spent on smaller and less expensive attractions. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Disney was interested in purchasing Jim Henson's Muppets. Walt Disney Imagineering developed a Muppet-themed land for Disney-MGM Studios called Muppet Movieland; the land was to feature two main attractions. However, after Henson died, the deal fell apart and Disney cut back on the Muppet-themed area to just Muppet*Vision 3D. On the park's opening day, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Minnie Mouse, Roger Rabbit and other Disney characters placed their signatures and handprints in front of the façade of the Great Movie Ride. Unlike many Disney dark rides that feature separate embarkation and debarkation areas, the Great Movie Ride had only a single combined unloading and loading area; the last people to exit the vehicles passed the next group of guests waiting to board the vehicles. At the time the ride was designed, it was common throughout the theme park industry to have all major rides exit into a store selling merchandise associated with the attraction.
The Great Movie Ride, did not exit directly into a store and instead allowed guests to directly exit back outside into the park. In 2014, as part of an exclusive programming deal with Disney, Turner Classic Movies agreed to become the sponsor of the attraction; the attraction underwent a refurbishment in 2015, with the addition of a new pre-show and post-show hosted by Robert Osborne, who provided onboard narration to the ride. The changes were unveiled on May 29, 2015. On July 15, 2017, it was announced that the attraction would be closing on August 13, 2017 to make way for Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway; the first sequence of the ride, Footlight Parade, was plagued with engineering and technical problems from the beginning. When the ride was newly opened, the Footlight Parade segment was different than what it became; the entire portion following the neon lighted entrance was fleshed out. All the walls leading up to, beyond the "cake" were painted in art deco style patterns as seen in "By A Waterfall".
Three "diving boards" with three mannequin "dancers" wearing capes were perched on the ri
Cluj-Napoca
Cluj-Napoca known as Cluj, is the fourth most populous city in Romania, the seat of Cluj County in the northwestern part of the country. Geographically, it is equidistant from Bucharest and Belgrade. Located in the Someșul Mic River valley, the city is considered the unofficial capital to the historical province of Transylvania. From 1790 to 1848 and from 1861 to 1867, it was the official capital of the Grand Principality of Transylvania; as of 2011, 324,576 inhabitants lived within the city limits, marking a slight increase from the figure recorded at the 2002 census. The Cluj-Napoca metropolitan area has a population of 411,379 people, while the population of the peri-urban area exceeds 420,000 residents; the new metropolitan government of Cluj-Napoca became operational in December 2008. According to a 2007 estimate provided by the County Population Register Service, the city hosts a visible population of students and other non-residents—an average of over 20,000 people each year during 2004–2007.
The city spreads out from St. Michael's Church in Unirii Square, built in the 14th century and named after the Archangel Michael, the patron saint of Cluj-Napoca; the boundaries of the municipality contain an area of 179.52 square kilometres. Cluj-Napoca experienced a decade of decline during the 1990s, its international reputation suffering from the policies of its mayor at the time, Gheorghe Funar. Today, the city is one of the most important academic, cultural and business centres in Romania. Among other institutions, it hosts the country's largest university, Babeș-Bolyai University, with its botanical garden. Cluj-Napoca held the titles of European Youth Capital in 2015 and European City of Sport in 2018. On the site of the city was a pre-Roman settlement named Napoca. After the AD 106 Roman conquest of the area, the place was known as Municipium Aelium Hadrianum Napoca. Possible etymologies for Napoca or Napuca include the names of some Dacian tribes such as the Naparis or Napaei, the Greek term napos, meaning "timbered valley" or the Indo-European root *snā-p-, "to flow, to swim, damp".
The first written mention of the city's current name – as a Royal Borough – was in 1213 under the Medieval Latin name Castrum Clus. Despite the fact that Clus as a county name was recorded in the 1173 document Thomas comes Clusiensis, it is believed that the county's designation derives from the name of the castrum, which might have existed prior to its first mention in 1213, not vice versa. With respect to the name of this camp, it is accepted as a derivation from the Latin term clausa – clusa, meaning "closed place", "strait", "ravine". Similar senses are attributed to the Slavic term kluč, meaning "a key" and the German Klause – Kluse; the Latin and Slavic names have been attributed to the valley that narrows or closes between hills just to the west of Cluj-Mănăștur. An alternative hypothesis relates the name of the city to its first magistrate, Miklus – Miklós / Kolos; the Hungarian form Kolozsvár, first recorded in 1246 as Kulusuar, underwent various phonetic changes over the years. Its Saxon name Clusenburg/Clusenbvrg appeared in 1348.
The Romanian name of the city used to be spelled alternately as Cluj or Cluș, the latter being the case in Mihai Eminescu's Poesis. In 1974, the communist authorities added "-Napoca" to the city's name as a nationalist gesture, emphasising its pre-Roman roots; the full name is used outside of official contexts. In Yiddish it is known as קלאזין or קלויזענבורג; the nickname "treasure city" was acquired in the late 16th century, refers to the wealth amassed by residents, including in the precious metals trade. The phrase is kincses város in Hungarian, given in Romanian as orașul comoară; the Roman Empire conquered Dacia in AD 101 and 106, during the rule of Trajan, the Roman settlement Napoca, established thereafter, is first recorded on a milestone discovered in 1758 in the vicinity of the city. Trajan's successor Hadrian granted Napoca the status of municipium as municipium Aelium Hadrianum Napocenses. In the 2nd century AD, the city gained the status of a colonia as Colonia Aurelia Napoca. Napoca became thus the seat of a procurator.
The colonia was evacuated in 274 by the Romans. There are no references to urban settlement on the site for the better part of a millennium thereafter. At the beginning of the Middle Ages, two groups of buildings existed on the current site of the city: the wooden fortress at Cluj-Mănăștur and the civilian settlement developed around the current Piața Muzeului in the city centre. Although the precise date of the conquest of Transylvania by the Hungarians is not known, the earliest Hungarian artifacts found in the region are dated to the first half of the 10th century. In any case, after that time, the city became part of the Kingdom of Hungary. King Stephen I made the city the seat of the castle county of Kolozs, King Saint Ladislaus I of Hungary founded the abbey of Cluj-Mănăștur, destroyed during the Tatar invasions in 12
Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves
Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves is a 1997 direct-to-video third sequel to Honey, I Shrunk the Kids and Honey, I Blew Up the Kid. It is the last installment in the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids trilogy; the directorial debut of cinematographer Dean Cundey and released through Walt Disney Home Video, it tells the story of inventor Wayne Szalinski as he accidentally shrinks himself, his wife and sister-in-law with his electromagnetic shrink ray. Rick Moranis returns to portray Wayne Szalinski, he is the only returning cast member from the previous films. His wife, Diane, is portrayed by Eve Gordon, their youngest son, now a preteen, is played by Bug Hall. Amy and Nick have living their adult lives, it includes Wayne's extended family, including his brother and sister-in-law, Patti. Unlike the first film, where the kids had to get their parents' attention, it's vice versa. Only a few months after the film was released, the Disney Channel picked up a show based on the Szalinskis' troubles: Honey, I Shrunk the Kids: The TV Show.
It starred Peter Scolari as Wayne. This was the last incarnation of the franchise; as of 2019, Honey, We Shrunk. Eight years after the events of the previous film, ten-year-old Adam just wants to be a normal boy and go to baseball camp. However, his interest in sports seems alien to Wayne and Diane, as Amy and Nick, who are living away from home, were a thespian and genius, respectively. Wayne has started his own lab, Szalinski Labs, with his brother and they receive tickets to witness a shuttle landing, but Diane interrupts Wayne's message, reminding him that he needs to watch Adam and his cousins and Mitch, while she and Patti go on vacation, she reminds him to get rid of the Tiki Man that she sees as an eyesore, though he considers it a good luck charm. After Diane and Patti leave and Gordon have activities planned that bore the kids. Wayne sends them to the store, but reveals to Gordon that it is a ruse to get rid of them long enough so that he can use his shrinking machine in order to shrink the Tiki Man without Diane's knowledge, without the risk of unintentionally shrinking the kids.
However, after carelessly not turning it off after they succeed and Gordon are shrunk when a billiard ball left on it falls onto the activating button, just as they are in front of it searching for the Tiki Man. Meanwhile, Patti realizes she forgot to leave Mitch's medicine for his potassium deficiency, they head back. Hoping to catch Wayne and Gordon by surprise, they sneak up to the attic only to be shrunk when another billiard ball falls onto the activating button. Shortly after, the kids return home, after hearing Wayne's message about the launch, assume they are alone for the evening, Jenny makes plans to have her friends come over. Upstairs, the adults make use of a fishing rod to lower themselves down into Adam's room. To attempt to get to the floor, they use his Hot Wheels race track, but they overshoot their target and fall down the laundry chute ending up in a clean load, delivered back upstairs by Adam and Mitch, they tumble out of the laundry basket when it is overturned, discover Adam and Mitch reading a Sports Illustrated Kids magazine, revealing to Wayne that Adam's interest is not in science as he hoped.
Seeing Mitch struggling, Patti realizes that they need to get him his medicine soon, or he could pass out. He ignores his weaknesses and goes downstairs; the adults witness the arrival of Jenny's friends and decide to use a bubble machine in order to get downstairs. Diane and Patti land safely, but Wayne and Gordon fall into a bowl of onion dip and are nearly devoured by the girls. In the kitchen, when Patti and Diane resolve to find a way up the counter in order to find Mitch's medicine and push it into view, they encounter a daddy long-legs with its leg caught in a spider web, Diane talks to it as Patti tries to cut the web with a nail file. Diane realizes her own insecurities about being small as she relates to it, which she had earlier tried to kill, realizes how hard it is to be that size. After it's freed and Diane realize they can cling to its silk as it climbs up onto the counter. Meanwhile and Gordon decide to rewire the stereo to work as a microphone, a group of boys crashes the party, including Jenny's crush, Ricky King.
He takes her into the kitchen, where he steals a kiss from her, but she spurns him for not asking permission first, thus earning Patti's respect. Angered, he returns to his friends and they begin to wreak havoc in the living room. Mitch weakened, enters the kitchen and discovers Patti and Diane on the counter before fainting from his failure to take his medicine, from the shock of seeing his miniature mother and aunt. Adam and Jenny discover him, thinking Adam gets potassium-rich bananas to give to him, he begins to recover, weakly saying he had seen his mother. In the living room, Wayne rewires the stereo so that Gordon can talk and amplify his voice so he can pretend to be the voice of God, he orders the guests to leave, leading Adam and Jenny to realize what had happened to them. In the attic, the kids discuss the benefits of leaving their parents shrunk before deciding they love them more than that, they unshrink them. Patti confides her trust in Jenny for how she stood up to Ricky and
Little Shop of Horrors (film)
Little Shop of Horrors is a 1986 American rock musical comedy horror film directed by Frank Oz. It is a film adaptation of the off-Broadway musical comedy of the same name by composer Alan Menken and writer Howard Ashman about a geeky florist shop worker who finds out his Venus flytrap can speak. Menken and Ashman's Off-Broadway musical was based on the low-budget 1960 film The Little Shop of Horrors, directed by Roger Corman; the 1986 film stars Rick Moranis, Ellen Greene, Vincent Gardenia, Steve Martin, Levi Stubbs as the voice of Audrey II. The film featured special appearances by Jim Belushi, John Candy, Christopher Guest and Bill Murray, it was produced by David Geffen through The Geffen Company and released by Warner Bros. on December 19, 1986. Little Shop of Horrors was filmed on the Albert R. Broccoli 007 Stage at the Pinewood Studios in England, where a "downtown" set, complete with overhead train track, was constructed. Produced on a budget of $25 million, in contrast to the original 1960 film, according to Corman, only cost $30,000, it was well received by critics and audiences alike developing a cult following.
The film's original 23-minute finale, based on the musical's ending, was rewritten and reshot after test audiences did not react positively to it. For years only available as black-and-white workprint footage, the original ending was restored in 2012 by Warner Home Video. In the early 1960s, a three-girl "Greek chorus"—Crystal and Chiffon—introduce the movie, warning the audience that some horror is coming their way. Seymour Krelborn and his colleague, work at Mushnik's Flower Shop in a run-down, rough neighborhood in New York City referred to as "Skid Row", they lament. Struggling from a lack of customers, Mr. Mushnik decides to close the store, but Audrey suggests he may have more success by displaying an unusual plant that Seymour owns. Attracting a customer, Seymour explains he bought the plant, which he dubbed "Audrey II", from a Chinese flower shop during a solar eclipse. Attracting business to Mushnik's shop, the plant soon starts to wither. Seymour accidentally pricks his finger, discovers that Audrey II needs human blood to thrive.
Seymour takes Audrey II and is interviewed on the radio, Audrey misses the broadcast due to being "hand-cuffed a little" by her sadistic, mean-spirited boyfriend Orin Scrivello. The three girls suggest Audrey dump Orin and get another man to protect her, like Seymour, but Audrey states she doesn't deserve "a nice guy like Seymour". Despite this, Audrey has feelings for Seymour and secretly dreams of running off with him to the suburbs. Audrey II continues to grow and Seymour becomes a local celebrity, but at the cost of his own blood, draining his energy. Seymour soon attempts to ask Audrey out, but she turns him down because she has a date with her boyfriend, revealed to be a dentist. After Seymour closes up shop, Audrey II begins to talk to Seymour, demanding more blood than Seymour can give; the plant proposes that Seymour murder someone in exchange for fame and fortune, as well as the ability to woo Audrey. Seymour refuses, but agrees after witnessing Orin beating Audrey. After Orin finishes with his masochistic patient, Arthur Denton, who requested "a long, root canal", Seymour books an appointment with Orin and arms himself with a revolver.
Orin, who abuses nitrous oxide, puts on a type of venturi mask to receive a constant flow of the gas. Accidentally breaking an intake valve and unable to fix it due to laughing fits, Orin begs Seymour for help removing it, but Seymour does nothing; when Orin asks Seymour what he did to him, Seymour coldly replies "Nothing, it's what you did to her." Orin replies "Her who?... Oh, HER." and dies from asphyxiation. Seymour drags his body back to Audrey II. While dismembering the body to feed to the plant, Seymour is unknowingly witnessed by Mushnik, who flees in fear. After feeding Orin's parts to Audrey II, which has grown to enormous size, Seymour discovers the police investigating Orin's disappearance. Audrey, feeling guilty about wishing Orin would disappear, is comforted by Seymour and the two admit their feelings for each other; that night, Mushnik confronts Seymour about what he saw and holds Seymour at gunpoint, threatening to report him to the police. Mushnik changes his mind, saying that since Seymour was "like a son" to him, he'll allow Seymour to leave town, blackmailing him into giving the plant to Mushnik.
With no choice, Seymour backs him towards the plant, which swallows Mushnik whole. Despite widespread success, Seymour worries about Audrey II's unbridled appetite. Offered money and a contract for a botany TV show, Seymour becomes overwhelmed and decides to escape Skid Row with Audrey using money coming the next day, leaving the plant to starve. After Audrey accepts Seymour's marriage proposal, Audrey II catches Seymour leaving and demands another meal: Seymour agrees, but insists on meat from a butcher. While Seymour is gone, the plant telephones Audrey, coaxes her into the shop, tries to eat her. Seymour, returning in time to save Audrey, escapes the store with her. Explaining that he fed the plant to become successful and win Audrey's heart, Seymour discovers she has always loved him. Approached by an executive named Patrick Martin from a botanical company, Seymour is offered a contract to breed Audre
Honey, I Shrunk the Kids
Honey, I Shrunk the Kids is a 1989 American comic science fiction film. The directorial debut of Joe Johnston and produced by Walt Disney Pictures, it tells the story of an inventor who accidentally shrinks his and his next door neighbor's kids to a quarter of an inch with his electromagnetic shrinking machine and accidentally throws them out with the trash, where they must venture into their backyard to return home while fending off insects and other obstacles. Rick Moranis stars as Wayne Szalinski, the inventor who accidentally shrinks his kids and Nick. Marcia Strassman portrays Diane, to whom he delivers the titular line. Matt Frewer, Kristine Sutherland, Thomas Wilson Brown, Jared Rushton star as Russ, Russ Jr. and Ron Thompson, the Szalinskis' next door neighbors. The film became. An unexpected box office success, it grossed $222 million worldwide, became the highest-grossing live-action Disney film a record it held for five years, it was met with positive reviews from both critics and audiences, who praised the story and innovation.
Its success spawned two sequels Honey, I Blew Up the Kid in 1992 and the direct-to-video Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves in 1997, which both received mixed critical reception, as well as leading to the creation of a TV show that ran from 1997 to 2000. Scientist and inventor Wayne Szalinski lives in his suburban home at Fresno, California attempting to perfect a ray gun capable of shrinking objects, but it keeps blowing up the apples he uses as test subjects instead, he argues with his wife and worries about their daughter and son, who has inherited Wayne's inventive ingenuity and intelligence. Their next door neighbors, the Thompsons, are getting ready for a fishing trip, but their oldest son, Russ Jr. is less than enthusiastic, as his and Russ' interests clash, resulting in him feeling belittled, he is more interested in meeting Amy than spending the weekend camping. Their younger son, however, is enthusiastic, though his relationship with Russ is strained when he inadvertently sets off a booby trap in the yard.
Wayne instructs Nick to clean the house before leaving for a conference. Nick is assigned to mow the lawn, but he makes a deal to let his friend, Tommy Pervis, do it with the remote-controlled lawnmower, but the latter has to leave and promises to do it later. Ron accidentally hits his baseball through the Szalinskis' attic window, which inadvertently activates the machine and blocks its targeting laser. Caught by Russ Jr. he is made to confess to Amy and Nick, Amy has Nick take Ron to retrieve the ball and pay for the window. They are hit by its beam, thus shrinking them. At his conference, Wayne is laughed at for failing to provide proof of his shrinking machine and leaves in frustration, while back at home Amy and Russ Jr. go to check on Ron and Nick and are shrunk by the ray as well. When Wayne returns home, they try to get his attention, but their voices are too small and he is unable to hear them. Frustrated by his day and the broken window he discovers, he takes it out on the machine, damaging it and nearly crushing the kids with the fragments.
He sweeps the debris into a dust pan and takes them out in a trash bag. They are forced to cross the uncut yard's wilderness to get back to the house. Meanwhile, Diane returns home and she and Wayne make up, but they soon grow concerned about Amy and Nick. While trying to summon their dog, Nick falls into a flower, he and Russ Jr. are carried away by a pollen picking worker bee, are nearly killed by Wayne as he tries to swat it with a baseball bat, causing it to crash land. Wayne realizes that a baseball was what caused the attic window to break since Nick doesn't play sports. Investigating, he realizes. Amy nearly drowns when she is knocked into a pool of mud, but Russ Jr. saves her with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Meanwhile, Wayne arranges a sling to hover over the search for the kids. Next door and Mae are forced to call off their trip because their sons haven't returned yet, they call the police to report them missing. Wayne tells Diane about what happened to the kids, she joins in the search after a short panic attack.
She convinces Wayne to tell Russ and Mae, who are skeptical. Russ angrily leaves his porch light on just in case. Soon, the kids' hunger is saved by one of Nick's oatmeal creme cookies, but their meal is interrupted by an ant scouting it. Ron decides to tame it. Soon they grow attached to "Antie" and try to set him free, but he instead decides to follow Ron like a loyal pet; the kids find a Lego to camp in for the night, after a heartfelt conversation about their feelings for each other, Russ Jr. and Amy kiss. However, they are attacked by a scorpion. Antie comes to rescue Ron, but is fatally stung before the kids unite and wound the scorpion, driving it off; the next morning, Tommy returns to mow the lawn. Nick recognizes the danger and they run, seeking shelter in an earthworm burrow. Quark chances upon them, while riding him into the house, Nick loses his grip and falls into Wayne's bowl of Cheerios. Back in the attic, the kids make Wayne realize that the laser was generating too much heat, causing things to blow up
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American English-language commercial terrestrial television network, a flagship property of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. The network is headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City, with additional major offices near Los Angeles and Philadelphia; the network is one of the Big Three television networks. NBC is sometimes referred to as the "Peacock Network", in reference to its stylized peacock logo, introduced in 1956 to promote the company's innovations in early color broadcasting, it became the network's official emblem in 1979. Founded in 1926 by the Radio Corporation of America, NBC is the oldest major broadcast network in the United States. At that time the parent company of RCA was General Electric. In 1930, GE was forced to sell the companies as a result of antitrust charges. In 1986, control of NBC passed back to General Electric through its $6.4 billion purchase of RCA. Following the acquisition by GE, Bob Wright served as chief executive officer of NBC, remaining in that position until his retirement in 2007, when he was succeeded by Jeff Zucker.
In 2003, French media company Vivendi merged its entertainment assets with GE, forming NBC Universal. Comcast purchased a controlling interest in the company in 2011, acquired General Electric's remaining stake in 2013. Following the Comcast merger, Zucker left NBCUniversal and was replaced as CEO by Comcast executive Steve Burke. NBC has thirteen owned-and-operated stations and nearly 200 affiliates throughout the United States and its territories, some of which are available in Canada and/or Mexico via pay-television providers or in border areas over-the-air. During a period of early broadcast business consolidation, radio manufacturer Radio Corporation of America acquired New York City radio station WEAF from American Telephone & Telegraph. Westinghouse, a shareholder in RCA, had a competing outlet in Newark, New Jersey pioneer station WJZ, which served as the flagship for a loosely structured network; this station was transferred from Westinghouse to RCA in 1923, moved to New York City. WEAF acted as a laboratory for AT&T's manufacturing and supply outlet Western Electric, whose products included transmitters and antennas.
The Bell System, AT&T's telephone utility, was developing technologies to transmit voice- and music-grade audio over short and long distances, using both wireless and wired methods. The 1922 creation of WEAF offered a research-and-development center for those activities. WEAF maintained a regular schedule of radio programs, including some of the first commercially sponsored programs, was an immediate success. In an early example of "chain" or "networking" broadcasting, the station linked with Outlet Company-owned WJAR in Providence, Rhode Island. C. WCAP. New parent RCA saw an advantage in sharing programming, after getting a license for radio station WRC in Washington, D. C. in 1923, attempted to transmit audio between cities via low-quality telegraph lines. AT&T refused outside companies access to its high-quality phone lines; the early effort fared poorly, since the uninsulated telegraph lines were susceptible to atmospheric and other electrical interference. In 1925, AT&T decided that WEAF and its embryonic network were incompatible with the company's primary goal of providing a telephone service.
AT&T offered to sell the station to RCA in a deal that included the right to lease AT&T's phone lines for network transmission. RCA spent $1 million to purchase WEAF and Washington sister station WCAP, shut down the latter station, merged its facilities with surviving station WRC; the division's ownership was split among RCA, its founding corporate parent General Electric and Westinghouse. NBC started broadcasting on November 15, 1926. WEAF and WJZ, the flagships of the two earlier networks, were operated side-by-side for about a year as part of the new NBC. On January 1, 1927, NBC formally divided their respective marketing strategies: the "Red Network" offered commercially sponsored entertainment and music programming. Various histories of NBC suggest the color designations for the two networks came from the color of the pushpins NBC engineers used to designate affiliate stations of WEAF and WJZ, or from the use of double-ended red and blue colored pencils. On April 5, 1927, NBC expanded to the West Coast with the launch of the NBC Orange Network known as the Pacific Coast Network.
This was followed by the debut of the NBC Gold Network known as the Pacific Gold Network, on October 18, 1931. The Orange Network carried Red Network programming, the Gold Network carried programming from the Blue Network; the Orange Network recreated Eastern Red Network programming for West Coast stations at KPO in San Francisco. In 1936, the Orange Network affiliate stations became part of the Red Network, at the same time the Gold Network became part of the Blue Network. In the 1930s, NBC developed a network for shortwave radio stations, called the NBC White Network. In 1927, NBC moved its operations to 711 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, occupying the upper floors of a building de
