1 00:00:04,440 --> 00:00:12,280 Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there, 2 00:00:12,280 --> 00:00:15,920 Speaker 1: and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. 3 00:00:15,920 --> 00:00:18,400 Speaker 1: I'm an executive producer with iHeartRadio. 4 00:00:18,440 --> 00:00:19,360 Speaker 2: And how the tech are you? 5 00:00:20,000 --> 00:00:24,600 Speaker 1: So later this month, I'm going to be celebrating a birthday. 6 00:00:25,040 --> 00:00:27,680 Speaker 1: Well I say I'm celebrating, but really I'll just be 7 00:00:27,720 --> 00:00:29,560 Speaker 1: taking a few days off to go to a quiet 8 00:00:29,600 --> 00:00:33,720 Speaker 1: cabin in the North Georgia Mountains and not do anything. Anyway, 9 00:00:34,000 --> 00:00:36,559 Speaker 1: it got me to thinking about stuff I used to 10 00:00:36,680 --> 00:00:39,839 Speaker 1: want back when I was a kid, you know, the 11 00:00:39,920 --> 00:00:42,120 Speaker 1: kind of things that I was hoping for for birthdays 12 00:00:42,200 --> 00:00:45,239 Speaker 1: and holidays. And back in those days, well, a lot 13 00:00:45,240 --> 00:00:47,600 Speaker 1: of the stuff the kids wanted didn't exactly fall into 14 00:00:47,600 --> 00:00:51,479 Speaker 1: the category of tech. I mean, you had your Cabbage 15 00:00:51,479 --> 00:00:54,040 Speaker 1: Patch kids, they were created not too far from where 16 00:00:54,040 --> 00:00:57,240 Speaker 1: I grew up. Actually, you had your Gi Joe figures. 17 00:00:57,720 --> 00:01:01,240 Speaker 1: Barbie was of course a big deal. And later on 18 00:01:01,320 --> 00:01:04,520 Speaker 1: we get to slightly more techy stuff like the Transformers. 19 00:01:04,959 --> 00:01:06,920 Speaker 1: By the way, I always felt that those toys were 20 00:01:07,000 --> 00:01:09,840 Speaker 1: incredibly creative. You know, you had designers who had to 21 00:01:09,880 --> 00:01:13,840 Speaker 1: start with a mundane form factor like a truck, and 22 00:01:13,840 --> 00:01:16,600 Speaker 1: then figure out how would they design joints and hinges 23 00:01:16,640 --> 00:01:19,319 Speaker 1: and stuff so that a kid could turn that truck 24 00:01:19,400 --> 00:01:22,800 Speaker 1: into a robot. Also quick rant before I finally get 25 00:01:22,840 --> 00:01:24,959 Speaker 1: to the point of this episode. I don't care for 26 00:01:25,000 --> 00:01:28,319 Speaker 1: the Michael Bay Transformer films at all for lots of reasons, 27 00:01:28,800 --> 00:01:30,760 Speaker 1: but one of the big ones is that during the 28 00:01:30,800 --> 00:01:35,880 Speaker 1: transformation scenes, nothing makes visual sense on screen. It all 29 00:01:35,959 --> 00:01:39,360 Speaker 1: just becomes like CGI angles flashing in front of your 30 00:01:39,360 --> 00:01:42,800 Speaker 1: face until a car is suddenly a robot or vice versa. 31 00:01:43,560 --> 00:01:45,679 Speaker 1: But you know, the toys had to move in specific 32 00:01:45,720 --> 00:01:48,520 Speaker 1: ways for the transformations to work. It had to make 33 00:01:48,600 --> 00:01:51,840 Speaker 1: sense because the designers were working in the real world, 34 00:01:52,120 --> 00:01:53,920 Speaker 1: and I thought there was kind of a cop out 35 00:01:54,080 --> 00:01:56,760 Speaker 1: to just have this flashy CGI come up on screen 36 00:01:56,800 --> 00:01:59,760 Speaker 1: with no apparent logic showing how a robot went from 37 00:01:59,760 --> 00:02:03,080 Speaker 1: one form to another. I know those toy designers were 38 00:02:03,120 --> 00:02:08,120 Speaker 1: really creative, all right. Ran over anyway. When I was 39 00:02:08,200 --> 00:02:11,880 Speaker 1: ten years old the holiday season when I was ten, 40 00:02:11,960 --> 00:02:14,200 Speaker 1: a toy came out that if I had been just 41 00:02:14,240 --> 00:02:17,079 Speaker 1: a couple of years younger, I probably really would. 42 00:02:16,919 --> 00:02:17,760 Speaker 2: Have wanted one. 43 00:02:17,840 --> 00:02:20,480 Speaker 1: I thought it was cool, but I was a bit 44 00:02:20,520 --> 00:02:23,799 Speaker 1: too old for the toy, and it was a toy 45 00:02:23,840 --> 00:02:27,200 Speaker 1: that harkened back the animatronics at Disney theme parks, and 46 00:02:27,240 --> 00:02:29,840 Speaker 1: that was already a big Disney World fanatic at this point. 47 00:02:30,280 --> 00:02:31,519 Speaker 2: And it looked like a Teddy Bear. 48 00:02:31,760 --> 00:02:34,280 Speaker 1: But this one could talk, and it could sing, and 49 00:02:34,320 --> 00:02:37,839 Speaker 1: the mouth would move when it talked and sung, and 50 00:02:37,960 --> 00:02:42,000 Speaker 1: it could also blink at Its name was Teddy Ruxbin. 51 00:02:42,520 --> 00:02:45,720 Speaker 1: Now I would later learn that one this was not 52 00:02:46,040 --> 00:02:49,200 Speaker 1: actually a Teddy Bear. I mean, it was, let's all 53 00:02:49,200 --> 00:02:53,040 Speaker 1: be real. But in the lore of Teddy Ruxban, Teddy 54 00:02:53,360 --> 00:02:56,480 Speaker 1: is not a bear at all. He's an illyop. And 55 00:02:56,520 --> 00:02:59,480 Speaker 1: you might say, well, what's an illiop? Well, apparently it's 56 00:02:59,480 --> 00:03:01,720 Speaker 1: a critter that looks a lot like Teddy Bear. Didn't 57 00:03:01,760 --> 00:03:03,880 Speaker 1: start off that way, but that's what they are now, 58 00:03:04,240 --> 00:03:06,080 Speaker 1: and it sounds a bit silly to me. But then 59 00:03:06,360 --> 00:03:09,560 Speaker 1: the creator of Teddy Ruxman built a sort of mythology 60 00:03:09,919 --> 00:03:13,560 Speaker 1: around the character and the world that this character, you know, 61 00:03:13,760 --> 00:03:16,679 Speaker 1: lived in, and I think it's pretty admirable. Actually, it's 62 00:03:16,760 --> 00:03:20,680 Speaker 1: really impressive how extensive that mythology goes. 63 00:03:22,360 --> 00:03:22,600 Speaker 2: Two. 64 00:03:22,880 --> 00:03:25,480 Speaker 1: I learned that this creator, a guy named Ken Force, 65 00:03:25,840 --> 00:03:30,040 Speaker 1: had previously worked as an imagineer at Disneyland. He in fact, 66 00:03:30,120 --> 00:03:32,400 Speaker 1: worked on one of my favorite rides of all time, 67 00:03:32,880 --> 00:03:37,600 Speaker 1: Disney's Haunted Mansion. To immortalize him. There's a word scramble 68 00:03:37,680 --> 00:03:40,280 Speaker 1: of his name that appears on a tombstone in the 69 00:03:40,360 --> 00:03:44,240 Speaker 1: cemetery scene in the Disneyland Haunted Mansion ride. So if 70 00:03:44,280 --> 00:03:47,160 Speaker 1: you have eagle eyes and you spotted tombstone that reads 71 00:03:47,840 --> 00:03:51,480 Speaker 1: NA key sorf any k e E s O r F, 72 00:03:52,160 --> 00:03:55,120 Speaker 1: that's actually supposed to be an anagram of Ken Force, 73 00:03:55,360 --> 00:03:57,960 Speaker 1: even though the word scramble gave him one too many 74 00:03:58,080 --> 00:04:01,720 Speaker 1: ease and left out one of the s's. So today 75 00:04:02,280 --> 00:04:04,880 Speaker 1: I thought I would talk about Force, his work as 76 00:04:04,920 --> 00:04:08,320 Speaker 1: an imagineer and beyond and the creation of Teddy Ruxbin, 77 00:04:08,920 --> 00:04:13,760 Speaker 1: which really was an iconic toy in the mid nineteen eighties. 78 00:04:14,480 --> 00:04:20,800 Speaker 1: This is a crazy story like it spans multiple decades, 79 00:04:21,279 --> 00:04:24,280 Speaker 1: all the pieces that would ultimately come together in the 80 00:04:24,279 --> 00:04:27,000 Speaker 1: form of Teddy Ruxsman. But before I dive into it, 81 00:04:27,360 --> 00:04:31,640 Speaker 1: I need to call out an incredibly thorough docu series 82 00:04:32,080 --> 00:04:35,599 Speaker 1: that is available on YouTube, and by thorough, that's putting 83 00:04:35,680 --> 00:04:40,080 Speaker 1: it mildly. It's by Billy Tuma and it's a nine 84 00:04:40,400 --> 00:04:43,640 Speaker 1: part video series on the life and work of kin 85 00:04:43,800 --> 00:04:47,360 Speaker 1: FORC and the shortest episode in this nine part series 86 00:04:47,440 --> 00:04:50,480 Speaker 1: is forty five minutes long. The longest one is an 87 00:04:50,520 --> 00:04:53,880 Speaker 1: hour and twenty two minutes long. So I think you 88 00:04:53,920 --> 00:04:57,720 Speaker 1: could call this work an exhaustive treatment of Force's life 89 00:04:57,880 --> 00:05:01,800 Speaker 1: and work. The docu series is called Ken Forc. That's 90 00:05:01,960 --> 00:05:05,440 Speaker 1: f O r s SE Come dream with me tonight. 91 00:05:05,920 --> 00:05:08,960 Speaker 1: So if you want to learn more about Forc after 92 00:05:08,960 --> 00:05:13,520 Speaker 1: this episode, I highly recommend you check out this docu series. 93 00:05:13,600 --> 00:05:18,039 Speaker 1: Like I said, it is thorough. Also, it is very 94 00:05:18,080 --> 00:05:23,000 Speaker 1: clearly made by people who deeply, deeply love the lore 95 00:05:23,320 --> 00:05:28,159 Speaker 1: of Teddy Ruxsbin, as in like the fictional story that 96 00:05:28,720 --> 00:05:30,640 Speaker 1: Teddy ruxspin inhabits. 97 00:05:31,560 --> 00:05:32,799 Speaker 2: Tuma clearly put. 98 00:05:32,600 --> 00:05:35,880 Speaker 1: A ton of work into the series. He deserves more views. 99 00:05:35,920 --> 00:05:38,240 Speaker 1: I mean a lot of these episodes have right around 100 00:05:38,279 --> 00:05:41,440 Speaker 1: one thousand views, and y'all, I mean this is like 101 00:05:41,600 --> 00:05:46,200 Speaker 1: professional grade level work. It deserves to be seen by 102 00:05:46,240 --> 00:05:50,000 Speaker 1: a wider audience. I get that, like the Teddy Ruxsbin 103 00:05:50,760 --> 00:05:57,720 Speaker 1: community is relatively niche, but it's a fascinating work on 104 00:05:57,760 --> 00:06:01,920 Speaker 1: its own, just detailing how this per person became who 105 00:06:02,000 --> 00:06:05,880 Speaker 1: he was. Because unfortunately, Ken Forcy passed away back in 106 00:06:05,920 --> 00:06:09,640 Speaker 1: twenty fourteen, But how he became the man he was, 107 00:06:09,800 --> 00:06:13,400 Speaker 1: and how he ended up bringing Teddy Ruxman to life. 108 00:06:13,640 --> 00:06:16,560 Speaker 1: So Ken Forcy was a creative kid. He grew up 109 00:06:16,600 --> 00:06:19,760 Speaker 1: in California. He wanted to pursue a career in art. 110 00:06:20,279 --> 00:06:24,400 Speaker 1: He graduated high school and rather than going on to college, 111 00:06:24,440 --> 00:06:28,440 Speaker 1: he sought employment. He was a very practical kid. He 112 00:06:28,560 --> 00:06:31,200 Speaker 1: landed a gig working in the mail room for this 113 00:06:31,320 --> 00:06:35,800 Speaker 1: little company called Walt Disney Animation Studios. The company was 114 00:06:35,839 --> 00:06:38,400 Speaker 1: already incredibly famous at this point. It had already put 115 00:06:38,440 --> 00:06:41,160 Speaker 1: out numerous feature length animated films by the time that 116 00:06:41,360 --> 00:06:43,960 Speaker 1: Ken joined, and of course he was in the mail room, 117 00:06:44,360 --> 00:06:47,560 Speaker 1: so not really on the animation side of things. However, 118 00:06:48,080 --> 00:06:51,080 Speaker 1: in a stroke of fortune for Ken, at least, the 119 00:06:51,160 --> 00:06:54,240 Speaker 1: animation studios were in a bit of a jam. Production 120 00:06:54,600 --> 00:06:58,120 Speaker 1: was running over schedule on the film Sleeping Beauty, and 121 00:06:58,160 --> 00:07:00,680 Speaker 1: the company needed to bring on more artists to help 122 00:07:00,839 --> 00:07:04,680 Speaker 1: speed things up. So Force interviewed and he took an 123 00:07:04,720 --> 00:07:08,680 Speaker 1: animation test to prove that he had the artistic chops 124 00:07:08,760 --> 00:07:12,239 Speaker 1: to work for the most famous animation studio in the world, 125 00:07:12,760 --> 00:07:15,520 Speaker 1: and he passed, so he was hired on That's pretty 126 00:07:15,560 --> 00:07:19,160 Speaker 1: darn impressive because you know, Force was not a professional artist. 127 00:07:19,200 --> 00:07:22,280 Speaker 1: He was fresh out of high school. He's just a 128 00:07:22,360 --> 00:07:24,920 Speaker 1: very gifted student and a gifted artist, and so he 129 00:07:25,040 --> 00:07:28,360 Speaker 1: was put to work and his job was to serve 130 00:07:28,400 --> 00:07:31,760 Speaker 1: as an in between her. So these are animators who 131 00:07:31,760 --> 00:07:34,520 Speaker 1: are in charge of drawing the frames of animation that 132 00:07:34,600 --> 00:07:39,080 Speaker 1: fall between the start and the end of like a 133 00:07:39,120 --> 00:07:43,400 Speaker 1: short animated sequence. So you'll have a primary artist who's 134 00:07:43,440 --> 00:07:46,080 Speaker 1: really designed, you know, in charge of the look and 135 00:07:46,120 --> 00:07:49,960 Speaker 1: the feel of a specific character often and they will 136 00:07:50,040 --> 00:07:54,280 Speaker 1: draw the character in two different poses or situations, one 137 00:07:54,360 --> 00:07:56,000 Speaker 1: being at the start of the sequence, of one being 138 00:07:56,000 --> 00:07:58,880 Speaker 1: at the end. So let's say that you want to 139 00:07:58,880 --> 00:08:01,520 Speaker 1: animate a sequence in which a character sees that a 140 00:08:01,600 --> 00:08:03,920 Speaker 1: glass is about to fall off a table, and so 141 00:08:04,000 --> 00:08:06,760 Speaker 1: they dive to catch the glass before it can hit 142 00:08:06,800 --> 00:08:09,520 Speaker 1: the ground, and they safely catch it in their hands 143 00:08:09,680 --> 00:08:13,120 Speaker 1: and they land flat on the floor, and that's your sequence. Well, 144 00:08:13,120 --> 00:08:15,760 Speaker 1: the animator who's in charge of the character will probably 145 00:08:15,840 --> 00:08:19,600 Speaker 1: just draw one frame of the character seeing that the 146 00:08:19,640 --> 00:08:21,960 Speaker 1: glass is about to fall, and then draw the final 147 00:08:22,000 --> 00:08:26,440 Speaker 1: frame of the character on the ground safely holding the glass, 148 00:08:26,680 --> 00:08:29,160 Speaker 1: and it's down to the end between ers to draw 149 00:08:29,200 --> 00:08:32,480 Speaker 1: all the frames that come in between those two so 150 00:08:32,520 --> 00:08:36,280 Speaker 1: that you have an actual animated sequence. And that's what 151 00:08:36,679 --> 00:08:39,079 Speaker 1: Force worked as he worked as an in between her 152 00:08:39,120 --> 00:08:42,840 Speaker 1: on Sleeping Beauty. Most in between ers produced between thirty 153 00:08:42,880 --> 00:08:45,840 Speaker 1: to fifty drawings per day. Thirty was kind of what 154 00:08:45,880 --> 00:08:49,600 Speaker 1: you're shooting for. Now, keep in mind that film plays 155 00:08:49,640 --> 00:08:52,120 Speaker 1: back at twenty four frames per second, so if you're 156 00:08:52,120 --> 00:08:55,880 Speaker 1: doing one animated frame at a time and you're doing 157 00:08:55,880 --> 00:08:59,480 Speaker 1: the twenty four frames per second, then you're really talking 158 00:08:59,520 --> 00:09:02,920 Speaker 1: about per using maybe one to two seconds of animation 159 00:09:03,080 --> 00:09:06,839 Speaker 1: each day. So it was a very huge amount of work. 160 00:09:06,840 --> 00:09:09,160 Speaker 1: And remember that's for one character in a sequence. That's 161 00:09:09,240 --> 00:09:11,200 Speaker 1: not for everything else there, And it was just one 162 00:09:11,320 --> 00:09:14,840 Speaker 1: step that was needed in the process of creating an 163 00:09:14,840 --> 00:09:19,880 Speaker 1: animated film. But Ken reportedly really enjoyed working for Disney. 164 00:09:19,920 --> 00:09:22,920 Speaker 1: I mean, you know, he was interested in art. He 165 00:09:23,200 --> 00:09:27,680 Speaker 1: was working for the most famous animation company in the world. 166 00:09:28,320 --> 00:09:31,720 Speaker 1: Clearly he was in the right spot at the right time. However, 167 00:09:32,760 --> 00:09:36,800 Speaker 1: once Sleeping Beauty was in the can, having gone well 168 00:09:36,840 --> 00:09:40,959 Speaker 1: over budget and over time, Disney no longer really needed 169 00:09:41,400 --> 00:09:45,280 Speaker 1: this inflated workforce of artists. They had more people than 170 00:09:45,559 --> 00:09:48,320 Speaker 1: were required to do the rest of the work they had, 171 00:09:48,880 --> 00:09:51,880 Speaker 1: so Ken and several other in betweeners found themselves out 172 00:09:51,880 --> 00:09:55,760 Speaker 1: of a job. He would then study under the mentorship 173 00:09:55,920 --> 00:10:00,480 Speaker 1: of a special effects technician named Ellis Berman. So if 174 00:10:00,520 --> 00:10:03,840 Speaker 1: you're a fan of classic Universal monster movies, kind of 175 00:10:03,880 --> 00:10:08,480 Speaker 1: like the second wave of classic Universal Monster movies, you've 176 00:10:08,520 --> 00:10:12,000 Speaker 1: probably seen some stuff that Berman worked on. So he's 177 00:10:12,080 --> 00:10:17,720 Speaker 1: like a practical effects technician. So now Ken Forest was 178 00:10:17,800 --> 00:10:21,840 Speaker 1: moving from creating two dimensional drawings for animation to working 179 00:10:21,920 --> 00:10:26,480 Speaker 1: with three dimensional materials and to create things like costumes 180 00:10:26,520 --> 00:10:30,080 Speaker 1: and props, and Forest learned lots of different skills in 181 00:10:30,120 --> 00:10:34,760 Speaker 1: this process. He learned about sculpting, and he learned about carpentry, 182 00:10:34,840 --> 00:10:38,840 Speaker 1: and he learned about how to work with electrical circuits, 183 00:10:39,400 --> 00:10:41,280 Speaker 1: and he worked with a lot of materials he had 184 00:10:41,320 --> 00:10:44,560 Speaker 1: never worked with before, like plaster and rubber and fur 185 00:10:44,960 --> 00:10:49,400 Speaker 1: and even makeup. So his skill set expanded, but he 186 00:10:49,600 --> 00:10:53,199 Speaker 1: was having trouble finding like steady work. There were a 187 00:10:53,240 --> 00:10:56,800 Speaker 1: few promising projects, including a possible film adaptation of Lord 188 00:10:56,840 --> 00:11:00,720 Speaker 1: of the Rings, which involved Forrest j Ackerman. People who 189 00:11:00,760 --> 00:11:04,120 Speaker 1: are deep in the fandom culture know who Ackerman is 190 00:11:04,760 --> 00:11:08,840 Speaker 1: or was, but yeah, he was possibly going to work 191 00:11:08,840 --> 00:11:10,640 Speaker 1: on this Lord of the Rings project. In fact, he 192 00:11:10,679 --> 00:11:15,480 Speaker 1: had been tapped to sculpt some models that would be 193 00:11:15,600 --> 00:11:20,160 Speaker 1: part of the pitch to Tolkien. But while Tolkien was 194 00:11:20,200 --> 00:11:24,520 Speaker 1: impressed with the effects work the models and stuff, he 195 00:11:24,640 --> 00:11:28,120 Speaker 1: hated the story treatment that was generated for the Lord 196 00:11:28,160 --> 00:11:31,480 Speaker 1: of the Rings film, so he nixed it. It didn't 197 00:11:31,559 --> 00:11:35,280 Speaker 1: go anywhere. So in nineteen fifty nine, Ken enlisted in 198 00:11:35,480 --> 00:11:38,640 Speaker 1: the US Army, and he was in his early twenties 199 00:11:38,679 --> 00:11:41,280 Speaker 1: at this point, so still a very young man, and 200 00:11:41,360 --> 00:11:44,680 Speaker 1: he served until nineteen sixty two and then received an 201 00:11:44,720 --> 00:11:45,719 Speaker 1: honorable discharge. 202 00:11:45,720 --> 00:11:48,000 Speaker 2: Reportedly, he was. 203 00:11:49,400 --> 00:11:51,800 Speaker 1: Very much not in favor of guns. It's kind of 204 00:11:51,800 --> 00:11:54,440 Speaker 1: interesting that he went into the army voluntarily this way, 205 00:11:54,880 --> 00:11:59,440 Speaker 1: but yeah, he won an award for marksmanship, but he 206 00:11:59,520 --> 00:12:04,280 Speaker 1: did not like guns. He was mostly active in doing 207 00:12:04,360 --> 00:12:09,560 Speaker 1: things like working on entertainment and stuff for troops, so 208 00:12:09,640 --> 00:12:13,679 Speaker 1: he was still kind of pursuing his artistic interests wherever 209 00:12:13,760 --> 00:12:17,640 Speaker 1: he could within the army. After his service, Forcy would 210 00:12:17,720 --> 00:12:21,800 Speaker 1: join a company called Universal Products and lead a product 211 00:12:21,840 --> 00:12:26,200 Speaker 1: line called Artistry in Dimension and Forese was using his 212 00:12:26,360 --> 00:12:29,560 Speaker 1: expertise and creating three dimensional objects out of stuff like 213 00:12:29,760 --> 00:12:34,959 Speaker 1: fiberglass to make historic replicas, so you know, like stuff's 214 00:12:35,000 --> 00:12:38,560 Speaker 1: like suits of armor, that kind of thing. So let's 215 00:12:38,600 --> 00:12:43,559 Speaker 1: say that your new money and you want your stately 216 00:12:43,640 --> 00:12:46,920 Speaker 1: home to have some stuff that looks like antiques, but 217 00:12:46,960 --> 00:12:48,240 Speaker 1: you don't want to have to go through the trouble 218 00:12:48,240 --> 00:12:51,080 Speaker 1: of actually securing real antiques. You would go to a 219 00:12:51,080 --> 00:12:54,640 Speaker 1: company like Universal Products. I'm sure you've been to stores 220 00:12:54,679 --> 00:12:57,240 Speaker 1: where you've looked around you're like, oh, this looks like 221 00:12:57,280 --> 00:13:00,600 Speaker 1: an antique globe, or this looks like an antique shield 222 00:13:00,640 --> 00:13:02,360 Speaker 1: that you would hang on the wall, and in fact 223 00:13:02,400 --> 00:13:04,920 Speaker 1: it's made out of something else entirely. Well, that's the 224 00:13:04,960 --> 00:13:08,280 Speaker 1: kind of thing for C was making. So it would 225 00:13:08,400 --> 00:13:11,040 Speaker 1: be stuff for things like set dressing, but also you know, 226 00:13:11,120 --> 00:13:15,880 Speaker 1: just consumer products. However, Forc was restless and he wasn't 227 00:13:16,640 --> 00:13:21,800 Speaker 1: super happy with just working in the Universal Products company. 228 00:13:22,280 --> 00:13:25,840 Speaker 1: So when he saw a job opening that was again 229 00:13:25,880 --> 00:13:27,959 Speaker 1: at the Walt Disney Company, he jumped at it. Now 230 00:13:28,000 --> 00:13:30,880 Speaker 1: this time it would not be in the animation department. 231 00:13:31,280 --> 00:13:36,320 Speaker 1: Instead it was in WED Enterprises or WED Enterprises. In 232 00:13:36,360 --> 00:13:40,520 Speaker 1: this case, WED is not your typical acronym. It's actually 233 00:13:40,600 --> 00:13:45,439 Speaker 1: Walt Disney's initials Walt Elias Disney. And this would be 234 00:13:45,920 --> 00:13:49,439 Speaker 1: the imagineering department. This was the group of people who 235 00:13:49,440 --> 00:13:54,120 Speaker 1: would be in charge of creating the materials and the 236 00:13:55,240 --> 00:13:59,520 Speaker 1: props and the characters that would be seen in attractions 237 00:13:59,600 --> 00:14:03,640 Speaker 1: at Disneysney parks, because those were just really becoming a thing. 238 00:14:03,760 --> 00:14:06,240 Speaker 1: Like Disneyland had opened in nineteen fifty five, so it 239 00:14:06,280 --> 00:14:09,680 Speaker 1: had been open a few years earlier, but now Walt 240 00:14:09,720 --> 00:14:14,400 Speaker 1: Disney was really exploring the possibility of creating animated like 241 00:14:14,559 --> 00:14:17,800 Speaker 1: shows that would exist in the real world, this idea 242 00:14:17,840 --> 00:14:21,760 Speaker 1: of bringing the audience into animation and having animation all 243 00:14:21,800 --> 00:14:25,000 Speaker 1: around the audience. So Force landed a job there and 244 00:14:25,040 --> 00:14:27,120 Speaker 1: he got to work on attraction that would be a 245 00:14:27,160 --> 00:14:31,080 Speaker 1: real game changer for Disney, which we'll talk about as 246 00:14:31,160 --> 00:14:33,280 Speaker 1: we come back from this quick break. 247 00:14:42,440 --> 00:14:43,280 Speaker 2: Okay, we're back. 248 00:14:43,360 --> 00:14:48,760 Speaker 1: So Ken Force gets a job at WD Enterprises and 249 00:14:48,840 --> 00:14:53,720 Speaker 1: he's working as an imagineer, and his first gig is 250 00:14:53,760 --> 00:14:58,640 Speaker 1: to work on the Enchanted Peaky Room. If you've never 251 00:14:58,680 --> 00:15:00,800 Speaker 1: been to Disneyland or disney World or any place where 252 00:15:00,840 --> 00:15:03,480 Speaker 1: they have the Channan Tiki Rum, I don't know if 253 00:15:03,480 --> 00:15:05,240 Speaker 1: it's in the other parks, but I know it's in 254 00:15:05,280 --> 00:15:09,480 Speaker 1: those two. Well, that it's a sit down theatrical experience 255 00:15:09,520 --> 00:15:13,920 Speaker 1: where these various tropical birds sing songs and tell jokes 256 00:15:13,920 --> 00:15:18,920 Speaker 1: to you. And it's an audio animatronic show, and one 257 00:15:18,920 --> 00:15:21,360 Speaker 1: of the more famous ones because it was the first 258 00:15:21,360 --> 00:15:24,560 Speaker 1: big one, and I've done episodes on audio animatronics in 259 00:15:24,600 --> 00:15:26,840 Speaker 1: the past. So the story goes that Walt Disney was 260 00:15:26,880 --> 00:15:29,560 Speaker 1: on a holiday trip with his wife and they encountered 261 00:15:29,600 --> 00:15:31,880 Speaker 1: a shop that had a little clockwork bird in it, 262 00:15:32,280 --> 00:15:35,080 Speaker 1: and it sparked Disney's imagination and he wanted to create 263 00:15:35,120 --> 00:15:37,880 Speaker 1: an attraction. Originally, he wanted it to be a restaurant 264 00:15:38,200 --> 00:15:42,400 Speaker 1: that would have mechanical creatures in it, specifically mechanical tropical birds, 265 00:15:42,920 --> 00:15:47,200 Speaker 1: and they would follow a programmed routine and it would 266 00:15:47,280 --> 00:15:52,400 Speaker 1: bring together elements of puppetry, storytelling, animation, clockwork mechanisms, and 267 00:15:52,960 --> 00:15:56,880 Speaker 1: ultimately pneumatic systems. Over time, it would morph from a 268 00:15:56,920 --> 00:16:02,320 Speaker 1: restaurant concept to a sit down theatrical tra Now, the 269 00:16:02,360 --> 00:16:07,160 Speaker 1: early system for the Tiki Room was both ingenious and 270 00:16:07,200 --> 00:16:10,640 Speaker 1: by today's standards, very primitive. So to match the movement 271 00:16:10,800 --> 00:16:13,040 Speaker 1: of birds beaks with the soundtrack, like how do you 272 00:16:13,080 --> 00:16:15,960 Speaker 1: get it so that the birds appear to actually be 273 00:16:16,120 --> 00:16:18,800 Speaker 1: singing the words and They're not just opening and closing 274 00:16:18,800 --> 00:16:22,080 Speaker 1: their beaks randomly and you just hope that it lines 275 00:16:22,160 --> 00:16:24,880 Speaker 1: up with the music. Well, the imagineers created a system 276 00:16:25,000 --> 00:16:28,040 Speaker 1: in which audio they had the audio of the show 277 00:16:28,200 --> 00:16:32,240 Speaker 1: stored on magnetic tape, would then also cause these metal 278 00:16:32,320 --> 00:16:36,400 Speaker 1: reeds to vibrate, and these vibrating metal reads would close 279 00:16:36,440 --> 00:16:40,320 Speaker 1: a circuit that would control a pneumatic valve and that 280 00:16:40,360 --> 00:16:44,480 Speaker 1: would allow air to pass through tubes going to the 281 00:16:44,600 --> 00:16:48,640 Speaker 1: various birds in this attraction, and when they did, that 282 00:16:48,680 --> 00:16:53,640 Speaker 1: would power the mechanical system inside the bird, so that 283 00:16:53,720 --> 00:16:58,000 Speaker 1: would open its beak and when the valve would shut off, 284 00:16:58,920 --> 00:17:01,920 Speaker 1: the air would ventil the beak would close, it would 285 00:17:01,920 --> 00:17:04,520 Speaker 1: go back to its resting position, which was closed. So 286 00:17:04,760 --> 00:17:06,919 Speaker 1: by opening and closing this valve, you could cause the 287 00:17:06,920 --> 00:17:10,159 Speaker 1: bird to open and close its beak, and those opening 288 00:17:10,280 --> 00:17:15,719 Speaker 1: enclosings were in time with this metallic read vibrating, and 289 00:17:15,800 --> 00:17:20,840 Speaker 1: that again was driven by the audio on the magnetic tape. 290 00:17:21,200 --> 00:17:24,200 Speaker 1: As for what Foresty was doing, well that's not entirely clear. 291 00:17:24,240 --> 00:17:26,600 Speaker 1: He wasn't an engineer, He wasn't one of the ones 292 00:17:26,680 --> 00:17:31,080 Speaker 1: designing the actual engineering system. Most likely he was working 293 00:17:31,080 --> 00:17:34,000 Speaker 1: in the model shop. He was helping, you know, get 294 00:17:34,040 --> 00:17:37,800 Speaker 1: the birds show ready, you know, doing things like installing 295 00:17:37,880 --> 00:17:41,320 Speaker 1: feathers and that kind of stuff, painting that that sort 296 00:17:41,320 --> 00:17:44,760 Speaker 1: of thing. He wasn't a lead on the project, right, 297 00:17:44,800 --> 00:17:47,560 Speaker 1: He had just come in and started and was working 298 00:17:47,600 --> 00:17:49,760 Speaker 1: at a lower level, but he was part of a 299 00:17:49,840 --> 00:17:51,120 Speaker 1: larger team. 300 00:17:51,400 --> 00:17:52,199 Speaker 2: While Foresty was. 301 00:17:52,200 --> 00:17:55,920 Speaker 1: Working with Wed, he also had the opportunity to develop 302 00:17:55,960 --> 00:17:59,840 Speaker 1: a puppet show outside of Disney, and it was intended 303 00:17:59,880 --> 00:18:04,560 Speaker 1: to be a children's show, one that matched fantastical elements 304 00:18:04,960 --> 00:18:07,600 Speaker 1: with tales of empathy and compassion. 305 00:18:08,160 --> 00:18:11,040 Speaker 2: So he's thinking about this idea. This is independent. 306 00:18:11,119 --> 00:18:13,239 Speaker 1: This was not unusual at Disney at the time. There 307 00:18:13,240 --> 00:18:16,760 Speaker 1: were a lot of people who were considering themselves more 308 00:18:16,800 --> 00:18:21,119 Speaker 1: like independent contractors rather than Disney employees. It would be 309 00:18:21,160 --> 00:18:23,960 Speaker 1: a little bit before Disney would change into a company 310 00:18:24,000 --> 00:18:26,879 Speaker 1: where you know, you were a Disney employee and you 311 00:18:26,920 --> 00:18:29,920 Speaker 1: weren't just like work for hire who would then find 312 00:18:29,960 --> 00:18:32,840 Speaker 1: themselves out of work once the project was over. So 313 00:18:33,440 --> 00:18:35,640 Speaker 1: a lot of people at the time would pursue other 314 00:18:35,760 --> 00:18:38,320 Speaker 1: work in addition to the work they did for Disney, 315 00:18:38,480 --> 00:18:41,480 Speaker 1: and Force was no different. So he came up with 316 00:18:41,560 --> 00:18:43,919 Speaker 1: this idea and he started to create this kind of 317 00:18:44,320 --> 00:18:47,840 Speaker 1: fantasy world that he wanted to bring to life. And 318 00:18:48,600 --> 00:18:51,199 Speaker 1: you know, maybe he took some inspiration from works like 319 00:18:51,600 --> 00:18:55,520 Speaker 1: Tolkien's Middle Earth series, but he was really wanting to 320 00:18:55,560 --> 00:18:59,119 Speaker 1: gear this toward children and to give a message of 321 00:18:59,200 --> 00:19:03,159 Speaker 1: compassion and empathy for kids. So he really saw it 322 00:19:03,200 --> 00:19:08,320 Speaker 1: as a way of sending positive messages and sending messages 323 00:19:08,520 --> 00:19:11,639 Speaker 1: of things like friendship and support and love and that 324 00:19:11,680 --> 00:19:15,400 Speaker 1: sort of thing. And the main character in his mythology 325 00:19:15,560 --> 00:19:20,120 Speaker 1: was a little critter whose name was Simeon Greep, and 326 00:19:21,040 --> 00:19:24,320 Speaker 1: he would feature a lot of the personality that you 327 00:19:24,320 --> 00:19:28,800 Speaker 1: would later spot in Teddy Ruxsman. He was a very sweet, 328 00:19:28,960 --> 00:19:32,800 Speaker 1: compassionate character who saw the good in people, even if 329 00:19:32,800 --> 00:19:35,919 Speaker 1: they couldn't see it in themselves. There was another character, 330 00:19:36,880 --> 00:19:41,919 Speaker 1: a supporting character, a mushroom like figure nicknamed Fearful, but 331 00:19:42,240 --> 00:19:48,200 Speaker 1: his actual name was Dun Dun Dun Teddy Ruxsmin. See 332 00:19:48,200 --> 00:19:50,679 Speaker 1: Teddy Ruxsman wasn't originally a Teddy Bear at all. He 333 00:19:50,840 --> 00:19:54,200 Speaker 1: was a timid, little fantasy critter that kind of looked 334 00:19:54,240 --> 00:19:57,440 Speaker 1: like a mushroom. Totally makes sense, right, So anyway, the 335 00:19:57,480 --> 00:20:01,280 Speaker 1: Adventures of Simeon Greep was this ambitious, this idea that 336 00:20:01,440 --> 00:20:04,000 Speaker 1: Ken Forcy had, and it was one that was going 337 00:20:04,040 --> 00:20:07,239 Speaker 1: to require a lot of money to actually get it 338 00:20:07,359 --> 00:20:11,040 Speaker 1: to production. Like he wanted to make this fully realized 339 00:20:11,040 --> 00:20:15,840 Speaker 1: puppet show with really cool environments. He didn't want it 340 00:20:15,920 --> 00:20:18,960 Speaker 1: to look like a little puppet theater that a lot 341 00:20:18,960 --> 00:20:21,360 Speaker 1: of the other puppet shows at the time were using. 342 00:20:21,440 --> 00:20:26,040 Speaker 1: He wanted the world of the television program to be 343 00:20:26,160 --> 00:20:29,399 Speaker 1: the puppet theater. The TV itself would serve as the 344 00:20:29,440 --> 00:20:34,000 Speaker 1: borders of this mystical world. So Fores would take on 345 00:20:34,440 --> 00:20:37,000 Speaker 1: various projects in addition to his full time gig at 346 00:20:37,000 --> 00:20:41,159 Speaker 1: Web Enterprises, and continue to develop this idea, all with 347 00:20:41,280 --> 00:20:44,960 Speaker 1: the goal of eventually producing this puppet show. He was 348 00:20:45,000 --> 00:20:48,760 Speaker 1: doing some of the work a little bit reluctantly because 349 00:20:49,080 --> 00:20:51,800 Speaker 1: while he was creative and an inventor, he didn't consider 350 00:20:51,880 --> 00:20:55,040 Speaker 1: himself a writer. So originally he had these ideas, but 351 00:20:55,080 --> 00:20:59,280 Speaker 1: he wanted to hire someone else to actually write the stories. 352 00:20:59,400 --> 00:21:02,640 Speaker 1: Like he wanted to be able to kind of, you know, 353 00:21:03,160 --> 00:21:07,240 Speaker 1: work a story, but have a writer actually put that 354 00:21:07,320 --> 00:21:11,080 Speaker 1: into shape, you know, to frame it properly into actual words. 355 00:21:11,440 --> 00:21:14,000 Speaker 1: The problem was he couldn't find anyone to do that, 356 00:21:14,160 --> 00:21:16,879 Speaker 1: so it was down to him, so he kind of 357 00:21:17,160 --> 00:21:22,879 Speaker 1: became the chronicler of this world of his own creation. Meanwhile, 358 00:21:23,400 --> 00:21:26,520 Speaker 1: back at Disney, Force was put onto projects like the 359 00:21:26,720 --> 00:21:29,280 Speaker 1: It's a Small World ride, which was originally constructed for 360 00:21:29,320 --> 00:21:32,840 Speaker 1: the nineteen sixty four World's Fair, So he assisted in 361 00:21:32,920 --> 00:21:35,760 Speaker 1: painting and probably some sculpting some stuff like that, but 362 00:21:35,800 --> 00:21:38,359 Speaker 1: again he wasn't a lead designer. He was part of 363 00:21:38,400 --> 00:21:41,560 Speaker 1: the team. He also actually traveled with the ride to 364 00:21:41,640 --> 00:21:45,560 Speaker 1: New York in order to help the ride stay operating 365 00:21:45,600 --> 00:21:49,080 Speaker 1: because originally it was a little finicky, so he was 366 00:21:49,080 --> 00:21:51,840 Speaker 1: there to help fix when things broke down. He also 367 00:21:52,040 --> 00:21:55,639 Speaker 1: was in charge of cleaning and repainting figures at the 368 00:21:55,760 --> 00:21:58,560 Speaker 1: end of the day to make sure that it was 369 00:21:58,600 --> 00:22:00,800 Speaker 1: ready for the next day. He'd this for a while 370 00:22:00,880 --> 00:22:03,800 Speaker 1: until it was show ready, really and then left to 371 00:22:03,840 --> 00:22:08,160 Speaker 1: go back home. He also reportedly got very very sick 372 00:22:08,600 --> 00:22:11,440 Speaker 1: of the theme song It's a Small World after All, 373 00:22:11,520 --> 00:22:15,919 Speaker 1: which you know, same Force. He kept working on his 374 00:22:16,200 --> 00:22:19,840 Speaker 1: Simian Greek project, even built out a set piece in 375 00:22:19,920 --> 00:22:23,280 Speaker 1: order to show potential investors the work that he was envisioning. 376 00:22:24,160 --> 00:22:28,320 Speaker 1: He had this villain called Twig, and the villain lived 377 00:22:28,359 --> 00:22:33,520 Speaker 1: in a tower, so he ended up out of pocket, 378 00:22:33,600 --> 00:22:38,320 Speaker 1: essentially paying to create this really large puppet set. It 379 00:22:38,359 --> 00:22:40,560 Speaker 1: had to be big enough for puppeteers to move around 380 00:22:40,600 --> 00:22:44,879 Speaker 1: in freely while still controlling the puppet of the villain, 381 00:22:45,880 --> 00:22:48,880 Speaker 1: and the construction process did not go quite as planned. 382 00:22:49,080 --> 00:22:51,800 Speaker 1: For one thing, there was a bit of a fire 383 00:22:52,640 --> 00:22:56,800 Speaker 1: that caused some costly damages, and it meant that Force 384 00:22:57,400 --> 00:22:59,720 Speaker 1: ultimately kind of ran out of money to work on 385 00:22:59,760 --> 00:23:01,800 Speaker 1: the like. He spent about as much as he was 386 00:23:01,960 --> 00:23:06,439 Speaker 1: willing to spend and hit his limit, and so the 387 00:23:06,480 --> 00:23:10,719 Speaker 1: whole project was figuratively put on the back burner after 388 00:23:11,000 --> 00:23:16,800 Speaker 1: having been literally burned earlier. Force took a larger part 389 00:23:16,880 --> 00:23:21,080 Speaker 1: in working on the Haunted Mansion attraction for Disneyland. That 390 00:23:21,160 --> 00:23:24,280 Speaker 1: attraction has its own fascinating history. We've talked a little 391 00:23:24,320 --> 00:23:26,159 Speaker 1: bit about it on this show in the past. I 392 00:23:26,160 --> 00:23:29,640 Speaker 1: talked about Pepper's Ghost, things like that. It's an attraction 393 00:23:29,720 --> 00:23:33,160 Speaker 1: that changed many times over the course of its development. 394 00:23:33,240 --> 00:23:37,159 Speaker 1: Originally was supposed to be a walkthrough attraction. Force worked 395 00:23:37,160 --> 00:23:40,159 Speaker 1: on sets and characters and designs and effects, so he 396 00:23:40,240 --> 00:23:42,280 Speaker 1: was more involved in this one than he had been 397 00:23:42,280 --> 00:23:45,119 Speaker 1: in the previous ones, and he earned a spot in 398 00:23:45,160 --> 00:23:48,560 Speaker 1: the cemetery scene, along with eight other designers who also 399 00:23:48,680 --> 00:23:52,000 Speaker 1: worked on the ride. So if you see those weird 400 00:23:52,040 --> 00:23:57,520 Speaker 1: tombstones with odd names, those are anagrams or references to 401 00:23:57,840 --> 00:24:01,720 Speaker 1: nine of the designers who worked on the original ride. 402 00:24:01,800 --> 00:24:04,360 Speaker 1: After that, Fores went on to work for an attraction 403 00:24:04,480 --> 00:24:08,680 Speaker 1: for a Florida project with Disney. This is what would 404 00:24:08,760 --> 00:24:12,760 Speaker 1: become Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, and the project 405 00:24:12,800 --> 00:24:16,360 Speaker 1: he worked on was the Country Bear Jamboree, an attraction 406 00:24:16,400 --> 00:24:19,880 Speaker 1: that was so popular that the Disney Company later decided 407 00:24:19,880 --> 00:24:22,520 Speaker 1: to build a version of it in it's California park too, 408 00:24:22,600 --> 00:24:26,200 Speaker 1: so that one actually originated at disney World and then 409 00:24:26,800 --> 00:24:32,480 Speaker 1: was also built in Disneyland. Now, by this time, Walt Disney, 410 00:24:32,520 --> 00:24:37,560 Speaker 1: the man he had passed away, and many people at 411 00:24:37,600 --> 00:24:41,320 Speaker 1: the Walt Disney Company felt that things were changing and 412 00:24:41,440 --> 00:24:44,879 Speaker 1: not necessarily for the better. That new management at the 413 00:24:44,960 --> 00:24:48,040 Speaker 1: company was working in a totally different way from how 414 00:24:48,200 --> 00:24:52,760 Speaker 1: Walt did things, and Forese would not be the only 415 00:24:52,800 --> 00:24:55,000 Speaker 1: person to make this decision, but he decided that he 416 00:24:55,160 --> 00:24:59,240 Speaker 1: was ready to leave and pursue other opportunities, So he 417 00:24:59,400 --> 00:25:06,480 Speaker 1: resigned from the Walt Disney Company and sought out other work. Now. 418 00:25:06,520 --> 00:25:11,320 Speaker 1: One of the opportunities he would pursue was Force's own creation, 419 00:25:11,640 --> 00:25:16,320 Speaker 1: the Siemion Greep project. So Forcy brainstormed ideas for nearly 420 00:25:16,520 --> 00:25:19,720 Speaker 1: forty episodes, something like thirty eight or thirty nine episodes 421 00:25:19,720 --> 00:25:23,879 Speaker 1: of this puppet show. This puppet show still didn't have 422 00:25:23,920 --> 00:25:26,840 Speaker 1: any investors, it didn't have a home, it didn't even 423 00:25:26,880 --> 00:25:31,160 Speaker 1: have puppets. Really, he had a whole world built out 424 00:25:31,200 --> 00:25:36,080 Speaker 1: conceptually with Simeon Greep as the protagonist, who had an 425 00:25:36,119 --> 00:25:39,119 Speaker 1: insect like Buddy named Grubby, and then you had the 426 00:25:39,200 --> 00:25:43,600 Speaker 1: villain in the form of Twig, and then Forcey's ideas 427 00:25:43,640 --> 00:25:46,360 Speaker 1: would see these characters explore a fantasy world that when 428 00:25:46,400 --> 00:25:49,240 Speaker 1: in some ways, like I said, mirror the complexity of 429 00:25:49,280 --> 00:25:54,399 Speaker 1: Tolkien's Middle Earth, but maintained that childlike sensibility. So Middle 430 00:25:54,400 --> 00:25:59,080 Speaker 1: Earth is not really meant for little kids. This work 431 00:25:59,119 --> 00:26:02,520 Speaker 1: that Forcy was thinking of would be, and to call 432 00:26:02,560 --> 00:26:07,000 Speaker 1: it an ambitious undertaking is a huge understatement. But another 433 00:26:07,080 --> 00:26:11,359 Speaker 1: opportunity that he would pursue that would actually earn him 434 00:26:11,400 --> 00:26:16,679 Speaker 1: some money was with the creators Sid and Marty Groft Brothers, 435 00:26:16,720 --> 00:26:22,639 Speaker 1: who made some truly bonkers entertainment, mostly for kids over 436 00:26:22,920 --> 00:26:25,880 Speaker 1: the nineteen seventies, really in the late sixties and into 437 00:26:25,880 --> 00:26:28,920 Speaker 1: the seventies. So I'm talking about stuff like hr puff 438 00:26:28,960 --> 00:26:32,240 Speaker 1: and Stuff, and that's actually a little bit before my time. 439 00:26:32,280 --> 00:26:34,600 Speaker 1: I did not grow up with hr puffin stuff, And 440 00:26:34,640 --> 00:26:37,040 Speaker 1: after watching clips of it, I guess I should be 441 00:26:37,200 --> 00:26:41,000 Speaker 1: glad because I'm I don't know, maybe I wouldn't be terrified. 442 00:26:41,000 --> 00:26:43,400 Speaker 1: It's hard to think about how I would feel from 443 00:26:43,440 --> 00:26:48,600 Speaker 1: a modern lens, but it is so weird, Like it's 444 00:26:48,680 --> 00:26:51,000 Speaker 1: amazing to me that they were able to get that, 445 00:26:51,880 --> 00:26:54,960 Speaker 1: you know, on the air, and it's not bad, it's 446 00:26:55,000 --> 00:26:57,840 Speaker 1: just weird. And you know, if you were to pitch 447 00:26:57,880 --> 00:27:00,680 Speaker 1: an idea like hr r puff and Stuff or hr 448 00:27:00,720 --> 00:27:04,960 Speaker 1: puff and Stuff today to anyone, it would be a 449 00:27:05,000 --> 00:27:08,600 Speaker 1: really tough sell, unless you were pitching it as like 450 00:27:09,240 --> 00:27:12,440 Speaker 1: some sort of late night stoner comedy for adult swim 451 00:27:12,560 --> 00:27:13,080 Speaker 1: or something. 452 00:27:13,960 --> 00:27:14,360 Speaker 2: Anyway. 453 00:27:14,400 --> 00:27:17,960 Speaker 1: Other stuff that sit In Marty Kroft produced includes Land 454 00:27:18,000 --> 00:27:21,200 Speaker 1: of the Lost, which I absolutely loved when I. 455 00:27:21,160 --> 00:27:21,600 Speaker 2: Was a kid. 456 00:27:21,600 --> 00:27:25,240 Speaker 1: I watched the heck out of that show. Also Electra 457 00:27:25,320 --> 00:27:28,320 Speaker 1: Woman and Dinah Girl, which got a cheeky reboot as 458 00:27:28,359 --> 00:27:31,119 Speaker 1: kind of a web series many years later. Back in 459 00:27:31,480 --> 00:27:35,160 Speaker 1: twenty sixteen, I think maybe twenty fourteen, somewhere around there. 460 00:27:35,480 --> 00:27:39,640 Speaker 1: I remember that had Grace Helbig and Hannah Hart, two 461 00:27:39,680 --> 00:27:43,800 Speaker 1: people known for their work on YouTube playing the main characters. 462 00:27:45,040 --> 00:27:47,800 Speaker 1: And Force worked on at least three different sit in 463 00:27:47,880 --> 00:27:50,760 Speaker 1: Marty Croft series. So he worked on Land of the Lost, 464 00:27:51,160 --> 00:27:54,320 Speaker 1: he worked on a show called Far Out Space Nuts, 465 00:27:54,960 --> 00:27:58,359 Speaker 1: and he worked on The Lost Saucer, which is another 466 00:27:58,520 --> 00:27:59,920 Speaker 1: like science fiction e show. 467 00:28:00,560 --> 00:28:03,600 Speaker 2: The Craft method was about as different from. 468 00:28:03,720 --> 00:28:07,240 Speaker 1: WD as you could get. You know, it was no Disney. 469 00:28:07,440 --> 00:28:10,400 Speaker 1: The teams that fores had access to. They had very 470 00:28:10,400 --> 00:28:14,320 Speaker 1: limited resources, So FORC and his team had to work 471 00:28:14,359 --> 00:28:16,440 Speaker 1: with whatever they had at hand in order to make 472 00:28:16,600 --> 00:28:18,800 Speaker 1: the stuff they needed to make, and they typically had 473 00:28:18,960 --> 00:28:20,520 Speaker 1: very very short deadlines. 474 00:28:20,880 --> 00:28:22,880 Speaker 2: However, those kind. 475 00:28:22,680 --> 00:28:27,440 Speaker 1: Of challenges really gave FORC and others on his team 476 00:28:29,160 --> 00:28:34,639 Speaker 1: the inspiration to create effective solutions while meeting deadlines. Like 477 00:28:34,680 --> 00:28:37,320 Speaker 1: I often think that when you have a wide open 478 00:28:37,400 --> 00:28:41,120 Speaker 1: sandbox where anything is possible, it can actually be harder 479 00:28:41,200 --> 00:28:44,320 Speaker 1: to create stuff in that environment. Sometimes then it would 480 00:28:44,360 --> 00:28:47,800 Speaker 1: be if you had lots of restrictions, because then you're thinking, well, 481 00:28:47,800 --> 00:28:50,240 Speaker 1: how can I work within these restrictions to do whatever 482 00:28:50,280 --> 00:28:53,200 Speaker 1: I need to do? And you can get some really 483 00:28:53,240 --> 00:28:55,720 Speaker 1: creative solutions. That's kind of what happened with Sid and 484 00:28:55,800 --> 00:28:58,280 Speaker 1: Marti Kraft. It's not always the case, but that's typically 485 00:28:58,360 --> 00:29:01,640 Speaker 1: how I find it. If the world is my oyster, 486 00:29:01,880 --> 00:29:05,440 Speaker 1: it's much harder for me to really narrow down on 487 00:29:05,560 --> 00:29:08,480 Speaker 1: getting stuff done. But if I've got some restrictions in place, 488 00:29:08,920 --> 00:29:13,080 Speaker 1: it suddenly becomes easier to ide eight, at least for me, 489 00:29:13,560 --> 00:29:16,880 Speaker 1: and I suspect FORC found the same thing to be true. Now, 490 00:29:16,880 --> 00:29:19,240 Speaker 1: in the mid nineteen seventies, the Crofts got the chance 491 00:29:19,320 --> 00:29:23,520 Speaker 1: to make their own theme park and indoor theme park 492 00:29:23,960 --> 00:29:28,320 Speaker 1: based in my hometown of Atlanta, Georgia. So when we 493 00:29:28,400 --> 00:29:32,840 Speaker 1: come back, we're gonna talk about this theme park that 494 00:29:33,200 --> 00:29:36,880 Speaker 1: would make a very brief splash and then fade away 495 00:29:37,400 --> 00:29:41,400 Speaker 1: and how FORC was part of it. But first let's 496 00:29:41,440 --> 00:29:42,560 Speaker 1: take another quick. 497 00:29:42,400 --> 00:29:52,640 Speaker 2: Break, all right. 498 00:29:52,680 --> 00:29:56,440 Speaker 1: So we're in Atlanta, Georgia. It's the mid nineteen seventies. 499 00:29:56,880 --> 00:30:03,760 Speaker 1: Things are groovy. I'm a bibe and at the Omni Center, 500 00:30:04,360 --> 00:30:07,120 Speaker 1: they said in Martykroft got the opportunity to make an 501 00:30:07,160 --> 00:30:10,720 Speaker 1: indoor theme park. So today the Omni is home to 502 00:30:10,840 --> 00:30:14,320 Speaker 1: the news network CNN. That's where CNN's headquarters are it's 503 00:30:14,320 --> 00:30:17,600 Speaker 1: at the Omni. But in the nineteen seventies it was 504 00:30:17,640 --> 00:30:21,520 Speaker 1: the home, very briefly, of a very weird theme park. 505 00:30:21,560 --> 00:30:24,000 Speaker 1: Now I'm not quite old enough to remember this park, 506 00:30:24,000 --> 00:30:26,040 Speaker 1: because it didn't last long enough for me to really 507 00:30:26,080 --> 00:30:30,200 Speaker 1: go as any sort of kid capable of forming memories. 508 00:30:31,360 --> 00:30:35,480 Speaker 1: I do remember that the way to the theme park 509 00:30:35,600 --> 00:30:40,120 Speaker 1: was an eight story tall freestanding escalator. I mean, this 510 00:30:40,280 --> 00:30:43,600 Speaker 1: escalator is beyond huge. You take a look at and 511 00:30:43,640 --> 00:30:46,520 Speaker 1: you're like, there's no reason anything needs to be that big. 512 00:30:46,920 --> 00:30:48,800 Speaker 1: But I would go to the Omni as a kid, 513 00:30:49,200 --> 00:30:52,240 Speaker 1: you know, because science fiction conventions were held in the Omni, 514 00:30:52,280 --> 00:30:54,560 Speaker 1: and my dad, being a science fiction author, would often attend. 515 00:30:54,920 --> 00:30:55,800 Speaker 2: And I would always. 516 00:30:55,600 --> 00:30:59,320 Speaker 1: Wonder, where does that escalator even go to? Well, back 517 00:30:59,360 --> 00:31:02,520 Speaker 1: in the day, it went to the top level of 518 00:31:02,560 --> 00:31:05,240 Speaker 1: a five story indoor theme park, and then you would 519 00:31:05,240 --> 00:31:10,240 Speaker 1: work your way down, floor by floor through the park. Anyway, 520 00:31:10,400 --> 00:31:14,040 Speaker 1: The park actually just opened and closed in nineteen seventy six. 521 00:31:14,120 --> 00:31:17,120 Speaker 1: Within five months it was open and then closed. It 522 00:31:17,160 --> 00:31:21,520 Speaker 1: was a spectacular failure. Now this wasn't because the attractions 523 00:31:21,520 --> 00:31:26,400 Speaker 1: weren't imaginative or creative. They were and four c was 524 00:31:26,440 --> 00:31:29,200 Speaker 1: a big part of that, having brought his expertise from 525 00:31:29,640 --> 00:31:33,040 Speaker 1: Web Enterprises to work on rides and sets and characters 526 00:31:33,080 --> 00:31:37,120 Speaker 1: for the new theme park. But it was poorly attended 527 00:31:37,200 --> 00:31:40,400 Speaker 1: and it was very expensive to run, and the money 528 00:31:40,440 --> 00:31:45,760 Speaker 1: ran out, and the Crofts tried to get the creditors 529 00:31:45,800 --> 00:31:49,120 Speaker 1: to hold off on demanding their money back so that 530 00:31:49,240 --> 00:31:52,880 Speaker 1: they could get a good footing, because they believed that 531 00:31:52,920 --> 00:31:56,720 Speaker 1: if they could get through the winter and into you 532 00:31:57,120 --> 00:32:00,640 Speaker 1: nineteen seventy seven, that they could turn the around. But 533 00:32:00,680 --> 00:32:03,000 Speaker 1: they weren't given that chance, and so the whole park 534 00:32:03,280 --> 00:32:08,080 Speaker 1: had to be shut down. Force received word from a 535 00:32:08,160 --> 00:32:11,680 Speaker 1: former colleague from way back in the Universal Products days 536 00:32:12,320 --> 00:32:16,640 Speaker 1: about a company that was producing a technology called micro phonographs. 537 00:32:17,200 --> 00:32:21,720 Speaker 1: So this company was called Microsonics originally, and the technology 538 00:32:21,840 --> 00:32:23,200 Speaker 1: was this small device. 539 00:32:23,360 --> 00:32:25,200 Speaker 2: It was like a small enough. 540 00:32:25,040 --> 00:32:29,640 Speaker 1: To be handheld. It looks like a little cassette player almost, 541 00:32:29,920 --> 00:32:33,960 Speaker 1: but instead of blaining cassettes, it actually played micro phonograph discs. 542 00:32:34,280 --> 00:32:37,880 Speaker 1: These discs were mounted on plastic plates and they would 543 00:32:37,880 --> 00:32:40,440 Speaker 1: actually be stationary inside the device. You would put the 544 00:32:40,480 --> 00:32:44,320 Speaker 1: plate inside the device and the stylus would be the 545 00:32:44,360 --> 00:32:47,240 Speaker 1: part that would move, so instead of the disc rotating 546 00:32:47,480 --> 00:32:50,320 Speaker 1: and the stylust just travels down the groove. The stylus 547 00:32:50,400 --> 00:32:53,120 Speaker 1: would rotate and go down the groove that way, and 548 00:32:53,200 --> 00:32:57,480 Speaker 1: the disc would stay, you know, stationary. It's kind of crazy, 549 00:32:58,280 --> 00:33:02,400 Speaker 1: but this whole technology spawned and another company called micro Sound, 550 00:33:02,600 --> 00:33:05,280 Speaker 1: and this is one that can foresee, was interested in. 551 00:33:05,640 --> 00:33:09,440 Speaker 1: So Microsound marketed this technology as a way to bring 552 00:33:10,040 --> 00:33:13,880 Speaker 1: sound to storybooks, among other things. So you would buy 553 00:33:14,120 --> 00:33:16,240 Speaker 1: a book and it would come with one of these 554 00:33:16,280 --> 00:33:19,040 Speaker 1: sound plates, and you would have this device. 555 00:33:19,440 --> 00:33:20,040 Speaker 2: You would put the. 556 00:33:20,000 --> 00:33:23,080 Speaker 1: Soundplate in the device and it would play little bits 557 00:33:23,120 --> 00:33:26,240 Speaker 1: that would you know, be incorporated into the book. Maybe 558 00:33:26,280 --> 00:33:27,960 Speaker 1: you would have a section of the book where you 559 00:33:27,960 --> 00:33:30,440 Speaker 1: were told to push play and it would play some 560 00:33:30,560 --> 00:33:34,160 Speaker 1: audio that was you know, related to the book, or 561 00:33:34,200 --> 00:33:36,640 Speaker 1: maybe it would actually read out part of the story. 562 00:33:37,080 --> 00:33:39,800 Speaker 1: The disc plates could only hold about a minute's worth 563 00:33:39,840 --> 00:33:43,600 Speaker 1: of sound each, but this would be fine for a 564 00:33:43,680 --> 00:33:46,440 Speaker 1: children's book. You might have a few to cover the 565 00:33:46,600 --> 00:33:48,640 Speaker 1: entirety of the book, but you know, the kids could 566 00:33:48,720 --> 00:33:51,040 Speaker 1: actually read along as they listened to the audio in 567 00:33:51,080 --> 00:33:54,760 Speaker 1: this little separate device. And four c's buddy thought that 568 00:33:54,840 --> 00:33:59,440 Speaker 1: the Simon Greep project might work well as a series 569 00:33:59,480 --> 00:34:01,720 Speaker 1: of books. He wasn't able to get it done as 570 00:34:01,760 --> 00:34:06,200 Speaker 1: a puppet show, but maybe he could make children's books 571 00:34:06,360 --> 00:34:11,360 Speaker 1: and incorporate this micro sound technology. Well, by this stage, 572 00:34:11,600 --> 00:34:14,280 Speaker 1: Foresty had decided to do some name swapping. He decided 573 00:34:14,320 --> 00:34:18,040 Speaker 1: Simeon Greek was not a good name for his protagonist, 574 00:34:18,520 --> 00:34:22,279 Speaker 1: and so he ended up taking the name of a 575 00:34:22,280 --> 00:34:26,120 Speaker 1: different character, that mushroom like character whose real name was 576 00:34:26,120 --> 00:34:31,000 Speaker 1: Teddy Ruxspin, but he was called Fearful. Well, forest was like, 577 00:34:31,040 --> 00:34:33,000 Speaker 1: teddy Ruxpin's a better name. I'm going to make that 578 00:34:33,080 --> 00:34:36,760 Speaker 1: the name of my protagonist, and so Simeon Greep became 579 00:34:37,000 --> 00:34:39,840 Speaker 1: teddy Ruxspin. He still wasn't a teddy Bear. He was 580 00:34:39,880 --> 00:34:43,000 Speaker 1: a little furry critter, but he didn't look particularly like 581 00:34:43,040 --> 00:34:47,279 Speaker 1: a teddy bear. So the character design remained pretty much 582 00:34:47,280 --> 00:34:50,160 Speaker 1: the same. It's just the name had changed. But there 583 00:34:50,160 --> 00:34:53,359 Speaker 1: were some business sheananigans going on in the background. Had 584 00:34:53,400 --> 00:34:55,960 Speaker 1: nothing to do with forc Foresy was a stand up guy, 585 00:34:56,840 --> 00:35:01,040 Speaker 1: but the business sheenanigans meant that an another company that 586 00:35:01,120 --> 00:35:05,239 Speaker 1: was using the exact same micro phonograph technology was able 587 00:35:05,280 --> 00:35:09,520 Speaker 1: to land a lucrative deal with Fisher Price and Microsound, 588 00:35:09,920 --> 00:35:14,440 Speaker 1: a competing company really had nowhere to go, so that 589 00:35:14,600 --> 00:35:17,520 Speaker 1: didn't end up going anywhere. However, in the process, Fores 590 00:35:17,719 --> 00:35:20,160 Speaker 1: learned a lot about the publishing world and children's books, 591 00:35:20,160 --> 00:35:23,840 Speaker 1: which would come in handy later on. That's foreshadowing forc 592 00:35:24,080 --> 00:35:26,600 Speaker 1: next joined up with a couple of creatives to form 593 00:35:26,640 --> 00:35:30,880 Speaker 1: a company called Brown Squirrel Productions, which set out to 594 00:35:30,920 --> 00:35:34,360 Speaker 1: try and get funding to produce several different projects, among 595 00:35:34,440 --> 00:35:38,759 Speaker 1: them Force's long imagined puppet series, The Adventures Now of 596 00:35:38,880 --> 00:35:43,080 Speaker 1: Teddy Ruxman. They worked up some more designs, they were 597 00:35:43,160 --> 00:35:45,400 Speaker 1: fined some characters, They even built out some of the 598 00:35:45,440 --> 00:35:47,759 Speaker 1: stuff they would need to produce the show and pitch 599 00:35:47,800 --> 00:35:50,520 Speaker 1: it to the networks, but again they came up driver 600 00:35:50,520 --> 00:35:53,000 Speaker 1: for funding. They went to Quaker Roads and tried to 601 00:35:53,000 --> 00:35:56,560 Speaker 1: get some money from them. Quaker Roats had previously bankrolled 602 00:35:56,600 --> 00:36:01,279 Speaker 1: the film Willy Wonkan, the chocolate factory. Quaker Roads was 603 00:36:01,320 --> 00:36:05,680 Speaker 1: not interested, and so they didn't really have anyone who 604 00:36:05,719 --> 00:36:09,160 Speaker 1: was willing to fund production so that they could shoot 605 00:36:09,160 --> 00:36:11,760 Speaker 1: a pilot. So they decided to do it themselves. Would y'all, 606 00:36:12,680 --> 00:36:16,000 Speaker 1: just so you know, don't do that. It almost never 607 00:36:16,040 --> 00:36:20,680 Speaker 1: works out anyway. They get together in nineteen seventy nine 608 00:36:21,120 --> 00:36:23,960 Speaker 1: to shoot the pilot for the Adventures of Teddy Ruckspin. 609 00:36:24,560 --> 00:36:28,080 Speaker 1: The puppets they made were really sophisticated. They were operated 610 00:36:28,080 --> 00:36:30,920 Speaker 1: by controls mounted on bars far beneath the puppets. So 611 00:36:31,280 --> 00:36:34,600 Speaker 1: like the bars fed cables down through them, and by 612 00:36:34,680 --> 00:36:37,800 Speaker 1: pulling on cables you could manipulate parts of the puppet. 613 00:36:38,239 --> 00:36:40,880 Speaker 1: So it's like a marionette, but in reverse right. A 614 00:36:40,920 --> 00:36:44,240 Speaker 1: marionette is suspended by strings and by pulling the strings 615 00:36:44,239 --> 00:36:47,000 Speaker 1: you can make the puppet move. In this case, the 616 00:36:47,040 --> 00:36:51,160 Speaker 1: puppet is mounted on essentially a pole, and various cables 617 00:36:51,200 --> 00:36:53,560 Speaker 1: are fed down through the pole, and the cables attached 618 00:36:53,600 --> 00:36:56,520 Speaker 1: to different features in the puppet, So pulling on the 619 00:36:56,520 --> 00:36:58,520 Speaker 1: cables you can do things like make the puppet blink 620 00:36:58,640 --> 00:37:01,600 Speaker 1: or make its mouth move. That's sort of stuff. But 621 00:37:01,920 --> 00:37:05,480 Speaker 1: like so many other attempts with this particular story the 622 00:37:05,480 --> 00:37:10,280 Speaker 1: Adventures of Teddy Ruxman, their efforts were in vain. They 623 00:37:11,080 --> 00:37:15,960 Speaker 1: produced a pilot and they showed it around, They sent 624 00:37:16,040 --> 00:37:18,719 Speaker 1: it to the networks, they sent it to brand new 625 00:37:18,760 --> 00:37:24,240 Speaker 1: cable companies like HBO and No One Bit and because 626 00:37:24,280 --> 00:37:27,000 Speaker 1: they had self funded the project and even had to 627 00:37:27,080 --> 00:37:30,960 Speaker 1: lean on you establishing credit to pay for some of it. 628 00:37:31,800 --> 00:37:34,440 Speaker 1: They were left footing the bill and so their partnership 629 00:37:34,520 --> 00:37:39,040 Speaker 1: ultimately dissolved and for C packed up his puppets. They 630 00:37:39,080 --> 00:37:41,520 Speaker 1: then went on to work in effects and production as 631 00:37:41,560 --> 00:37:44,520 Speaker 1: sort of a freelancer. He contributed his talents to some 632 00:37:44,600 --> 00:37:48,160 Speaker 1: big budget Las Vegas shows, including one that had a 633 00:37:48,239 --> 00:37:52,200 Speaker 1: forty foot long model of the Titanic that would sync 634 00:37:52,320 --> 00:37:55,520 Speaker 1: on command. He also did more work with sitt In 635 00:37:55,600 --> 00:37:59,439 Speaker 1: marty Croft. He worked on a project called Pizza Productions. 636 00:37:59,800 --> 00:38:03,719 Speaker 1: It was meant to be a way for pizza companies 637 00:38:03,719 --> 00:38:06,239 Speaker 1: that wanted to compete with like Chuck E. Cheese and 638 00:38:06,280 --> 00:38:10,920 Speaker 1: Showbiz Pizza to go and get animatronic figures that could 639 00:38:11,440 --> 00:38:13,640 Speaker 1: entertain in their restaurants. 640 00:38:14,640 --> 00:38:15,359 Speaker 2: So this was a. 641 00:38:15,280 --> 00:38:18,799 Speaker 1: Big thing in the eighties and the early to mid 642 00:38:18,800 --> 00:38:22,800 Speaker 1: eighties were these pizza places that had these animatronic shows 643 00:38:22,880 --> 00:38:23,239 Speaker 1: in them. 644 00:38:23,600 --> 00:38:24,640 Speaker 2: Showed His Pizza and Chuck E. 645 00:38:24,719 --> 00:38:26,239 Speaker 1: Cheese were the two that were best down and of 646 00:38:26,280 --> 00:38:29,600 Speaker 1: course Chuck E Cheese is still a thing, but yeah, 647 00:38:29,680 --> 00:38:33,080 Speaker 1: Sidy Marty Kroft tried to compete with Pizza Productions, looking 648 00:38:33,160 --> 00:38:35,760 Speaker 1: more to be like, you know, we'll create the product, 649 00:38:35,880 --> 00:38:38,520 Speaker 1: you just pay us and we'll install it in your place. 650 00:38:39,360 --> 00:38:43,160 Speaker 1: It didn't really work out, though, by the time that 651 00:38:43,600 --> 00:38:45,839 Speaker 1: you know, they were really ready to push it, that 652 00:38:46,000 --> 00:38:49,200 Speaker 1: trend was already kind of on the decline, and so 653 00:38:50,440 --> 00:38:54,840 Speaker 1: he for he did work on animatronics. He helped design 654 00:38:54,920 --> 00:38:58,759 Speaker 1: characters for the pizza production stuff, but it just didn't 655 00:38:59,320 --> 00:39:02,600 Speaker 1: go anywhere. But around the time he was working on this, 656 00:39:02,680 --> 00:39:07,920 Speaker 1: he was starting to think about making animatronics portable. At 657 00:39:07,920 --> 00:39:12,040 Speaker 1: this stage, all animatronic figures were bolted to stages and stuff. 658 00:39:12,400 --> 00:39:16,160 Speaker 1: You couldn't move them around, So he was thinking, what 659 00:39:16,239 --> 00:39:21,160 Speaker 1: if you could incorporate animatronics into something that could freely 660 00:39:21,280 --> 00:39:24,280 Speaker 1: move about his space. Now, initially he was not intending 661 00:39:24,280 --> 00:39:27,279 Speaker 1: this to be a toy. Instead, fos was thinking about 662 00:39:27,400 --> 00:39:31,279 Speaker 1: fully costumed characters at places like theme parks. Like if 663 00:39:31,320 --> 00:39:35,000 Speaker 1: you go to disney World or Disneyland and you see 664 00:39:35,000 --> 00:39:38,600 Speaker 1: like Tigger, you know, Tiggers covered in head to toe, right, 665 00:39:38,680 --> 00:39:42,400 Speaker 1: it's it's a costume that it fully envelops the performer inside. 666 00:39:43,080 --> 00:39:46,640 Speaker 1: And they these performers are very expressive, but they are 667 00:39:46,719 --> 00:39:49,360 Speaker 1: limited by the costumes. 668 00:39:49,440 --> 00:39:49,600 Speaker 2: Right. 669 00:39:49,600 --> 00:39:52,960 Speaker 1: The costumes can't do everything that someone could do if 670 00:39:52,960 --> 00:39:55,120 Speaker 1: they were just appearing as a face character. You know, 671 00:39:55,160 --> 00:39:58,160 Speaker 1: they can't speak. Some of them could do things like 672 00:39:58,400 --> 00:40:02,000 Speaker 1: open and close their eyes and open and close their mouths, 673 00:40:02,000 --> 00:40:05,520 Speaker 1: but they couldn't actually talk. So forest He started to 674 00:40:05,560 --> 00:40:07,960 Speaker 1: think about an approach that would allow performers to use 675 00:40:08,000 --> 00:40:12,560 Speaker 1: pre programmed sequences built into a system that could be 676 00:40:12,840 --> 00:40:16,080 Speaker 1: housed inside a costume that would let them do all 677 00:40:16,080 --> 00:40:20,560 Speaker 1: sorts of performances. So the performer would still be inside 678 00:40:20,560 --> 00:40:24,440 Speaker 1: the costume and still move the body, but a program 679 00:40:24,920 --> 00:40:29,000 Speaker 1: would control mechanisms in the head and maybe also include 680 00:40:29,200 --> 00:40:32,480 Speaker 1: a speaker built into the costume to project audio and 681 00:40:32,560 --> 00:40:35,880 Speaker 1: create a more robust performance that could go anywhere and 682 00:40:35,960 --> 00:40:39,360 Speaker 1: not just be secured to a stage. So ken Foresty 683 00:40:39,440 --> 00:40:42,840 Speaker 1: met another engineer named William Munn who was developing robots 684 00:40:42,840 --> 00:40:46,000 Speaker 1: for film and TV productions, and together they started to 685 00:40:46,000 --> 00:40:49,960 Speaker 1: work on this kind of idea, you know, simplifying animatronics 686 00:40:50,040 --> 00:40:53,160 Speaker 1: a little, because one, you're going to have a human 687 00:40:53,160 --> 00:40:55,919 Speaker 1: being in this costume, and two, by simplifying you keep 688 00:40:55,960 --> 00:41:00,600 Speaker 1: complexity and cost down at a manageable level. So then 689 00:41:01,040 --> 00:41:06,319 Speaker 1: ken Foresty creates a company called Alchemy two. Meanwhile, his 690 00:41:06,520 --> 00:41:10,040 Speaker 1: old employer two times over, the Walt Disney Company, is 691 00:41:10,040 --> 00:41:12,920 Speaker 1: getting ready to launch the Disney Channel, which is going 692 00:41:12,960 --> 00:41:16,560 Speaker 1: to have various programming on it sixteen hours a day. 693 00:41:17,239 --> 00:41:21,360 Speaker 1: So fores petitions to be the builder of costumes for 694 00:41:21,440 --> 00:41:25,840 Speaker 1: a live action Winnie the Pooh series, and he says 695 00:41:26,000 --> 00:41:30,480 Speaker 1: he'll make sophisticated animatronic costumes that will have more expression 696 00:41:31,120 --> 00:41:34,239 Speaker 1: in them than just a static costume that you might 697 00:41:34,239 --> 00:41:36,759 Speaker 1: see in the parks. So he offers to create a 698 00:41:36,800 --> 00:41:39,680 Speaker 1: Winnie the Pooh costume to kind of show his technology 699 00:41:39,719 --> 00:41:43,160 Speaker 1: to the Disney Channel, and the Disney Channel at that 700 00:41:43,160 --> 00:41:45,400 Speaker 1: point was pretty skeptical that he would be able to 701 00:41:45,400 --> 00:41:47,400 Speaker 1: pull this off, especially since at the time he was 702 00:41:47,400 --> 00:41:50,400 Speaker 1: a one man operation. And then he says, if you 703 00:41:50,560 --> 00:41:53,000 Speaker 1: like it, you can agree to pay me for it 704 00:41:53,080 --> 00:41:56,520 Speaker 1: and to hire me on to create all the other characters. 705 00:41:57,040 --> 00:42:01,880 Speaker 1: So they move forward and then force hires on several people, 706 00:42:01,960 --> 00:42:04,320 Speaker 1: some of whom he had worked with in the past 707 00:42:04,560 --> 00:42:08,800 Speaker 1: is Imagineers, and they developed the prototype for the Winnie 708 00:42:08,840 --> 00:42:12,759 Speaker 1: the Pooh costume. The Disney Channel executives love it. They 709 00:42:12,800 --> 00:42:15,640 Speaker 1: see it, They're like, wow, this really is what we need. 710 00:42:16,280 --> 00:42:19,640 Speaker 1: And so Alchemy too lands a contract and gets to 711 00:42:19,719 --> 00:42:23,200 Speaker 1: work in Earnest on the various characters from the Winnie 712 00:42:23,200 --> 00:42:28,520 Speaker 1: the Pooh live action series, so you know, Typically these 713 00:42:28,960 --> 00:42:32,640 Speaker 1: character heads had something like a bicycle helmet to serve 714 00:42:32,680 --> 00:42:35,919 Speaker 1: as the foundation, and then mounted to this helmet would 715 00:42:35,960 --> 00:42:39,600 Speaker 1: be this sort of aluminum frame, and the aluminum frame 716 00:42:39,600 --> 00:42:43,520 Speaker 1: would hold the various servos and other components needed to 717 00:42:43,880 --> 00:42:49,400 Speaker 1: move different facial features. At Forest also used instructions stored 718 00:42:49,440 --> 00:42:53,279 Speaker 1: on magnetic tape and sent wirelessly to micro controllers in 719 00:42:53,360 --> 00:42:57,279 Speaker 1: the helmets, which would allow the operations to be in 720 00:42:57,400 --> 00:43:01,719 Speaker 1: sync with audio. So the audio would be saved on 721 00:43:02,960 --> 00:43:07,640 Speaker 1: several tracks of magnetic tape. The instructions to the helmets 722 00:43:08,120 --> 00:43:11,319 Speaker 1: would be saved on a separate track in sync with 723 00:43:11,480 --> 00:43:15,080 Speaker 1: the audio. So this meant all that puppeteering for the 724 00:43:15,120 --> 00:43:17,920 Speaker 1: mouths would be automatic. The character heads were kind of 725 00:43:17,920 --> 00:43:21,320 Speaker 1: a more sophisticated version of the old audio animatronic idea 726 00:43:21,880 --> 00:43:25,359 Speaker 1: that powered the Tiki Room decades earlier. There were no 727 00:43:25,400 --> 00:43:28,560 Speaker 1: pneumatics or anything like that, but again, it was marrying 728 00:43:28,840 --> 00:43:33,760 Speaker 1: audio with the operating instructions. It's just that Fource's version 729 00:43:33,960 --> 00:43:36,560 Speaker 1: was a little more complicated than making a metal read 730 00:43:36,760 --> 00:43:42,840 Speaker 1: vibrate to complete a circuit. The performers also had additional 731 00:43:42,880 --> 00:43:46,319 Speaker 1: controls for the head. Typically they would have a series 732 00:43:46,360 --> 00:43:48,120 Speaker 1: of switches mounted on gloves. 733 00:43:48,719 --> 00:43:48,880 Speaker 2: You know. 734 00:43:48,920 --> 00:43:52,080 Speaker 1: The hands for these characters were these big mitten like things, 735 00:43:52,120 --> 00:43:57,239 Speaker 1: so the performers could use their hands inside these mittens 736 00:43:57,760 --> 00:44:00,560 Speaker 1: to operate little switches that were mounted on the palms 737 00:44:00,560 --> 00:44:05,240 Speaker 1: of their hands on gloves inside the character, and pushing 738 00:44:05,280 --> 00:44:08,480 Speaker 1: a switch would create a specific movement like maybe blinking 739 00:44:08,520 --> 00:44:11,880 Speaker 1: an eye or moving ears or something along those lines. 740 00:44:12,200 --> 00:44:14,520 Speaker 1: So they would just have to remember which switches controlled 741 00:44:14,560 --> 00:44:17,799 Speaker 1: specific motions and make that part of their performance. So 742 00:44:17,800 --> 00:44:20,719 Speaker 1: some of the puppeteering was done by the performers themselves, 743 00:44:20,960 --> 00:44:24,120 Speaker 1: some of the puppeteering was done through this pre programmed 744 00:44:24,160 --> 00:44:29,000 Speaker 1: audio track. Four c's Alchemy two started to do some 745 00:44:29,080 --> 00:44:33,960 Speaker 1: pretty decent business. They built animatronics for family destinations including 746 00:44:34,000 --> 00:44:36,720 Speaker 1: like restaurants and mall installations and more. 747 00:44:37,239 --> 00:44:40,399 Speaker 2: Because again this was a bit of a trend at this. 748 00:44:40,440 --> 00:44:43,680 Speaker 1: Point in the in the eighties, like everyone was interested 749 00:44:43,719 --> 00:44:47,880 Speaker 1: in getting these animatronics, some of which were more impressive 750 00:44:47,880 --> 00:44:52,560 Speaker 1: than others, some of which were terrifying and and kind 751 00:44:52,560 --> 00:44:56,160 Speaker 1: of the subject of of a wonderful YouTube video. So 752 00:44:56,640 --> 00:44:58,839 Speaker 1: I would say that five Nights of Freddy's wouldn't even 753 00:44:58,880 --> 00:45:04,560 Speaker 1: be a series without this era of creativity. Let's say 754 00:45:04,800 --> 00:45:08,080 Speaker 1: that's the kind way of putting it. Forest's team also 755 00:45:08,160 --> 00:45:10,400 Speaker 1: worked on effects that were in a couple of movies, 756 00:45:11,000 --> 00:45:14,279 Speaker 1: and Forese got to mentor his coworkers and found great 757 00:45:14,400 --> 00:45:21,000 Speaker 1: joy in finding people and encouraging them and growing their talents. 758 00:45:21,040 --> 00:45:25,399 Speaker 1: Everyone in the docuseries who talks about Ken Foresy makes 759 00:45:25,400 --> 00:45:28,680 Speaker 1: it very clear that they loved him and his style 760 00:45:28,719 --> 00:45:33,040 Speaker 1: of leadership. They said he was very modest and quiet, 761 00:45:33,640 --> 00:45:38,040 Speaker 1: but very encouraging, and that he believed in his colleagues 762 00:45:38,280 --> 00:45:40,680 Speaker 1: and that, you know, it was just a it feels 763 00:45:40,760 --> 00:45:44,279 Speaker 1: like it was just a really wholesome work environment. That's 764 00:45:44,280 --> 00:45:47,000 Speaker 1: the best word I can use for it. He also 765 00:45:47,160 --> 00:45:51,320 Speaker 1: kept coming up with ideas for various products, not just animatronics, 766 00:45:51,400 --> 00:45:55,240 Speaker 1: and that included toys. So he kept a sketchbook where 767 00:45:55,280 --> 00:45:56,879 Speaker 1: he would come up with an idea and he would 768 00:45:56,880 --> 00:46:00,600 Speaker 1: sketch it out, and then often his team would take 769 00:46:00,640 --> 00:46:02,800 Speaker 1: ideas from that sketchbook and try to figure out a 770 00:46:02,840 --> 00:46:05,319 Speaker 1: way to actually make them into a real thing, like 771 00:46:05,360 --> 00:46:09,720 Speaker 1: a prototype. One idea was based off the technology Alchemy 772 00:46:09,719 --> 00:46:14,520 Speaker 1: Too developed for those free roaming animatronic costumes, so Force 773 00:46:14,760 --> 00:46:18,080 Speaker 1: wanted to create a toy that would essentially miniaturize the 774 00:46:18,120 --> 00:46:21,719 Speaker 1: technology that was used for those costumes down to a 775 00:46:21,760 --> 00:46:24,759 Speaker 1: plush animal form factor. This would give the toy the 776 00:46:24,800 --> 00:46:29,080 Speaker 1: ability to move its facial features, and when paired with 777 00:46:29,160 --> 00:46:33,880 Speaker 1: a cassette tape that would have both audio and operational 778 00:46:33,880 --> 00:46:38,240 Speaker 1: commands recorded to it, it could give this plush animal 779 00:46:38,560 --> 00:46:42,759 Speaker 1: the ability to apparently speak and sing. The mouth would 780 00:46:42,840 --> 00:46:47,000 Speaker 1: move in conjunction with the words. It would be like 781 00:46:47,040 --> 00:46:51,000 Speaker 1: you would have your own personal animatronic figure. And so 782 00:46:51,200 --> 00:46:56,640 Speaker 1: the very very long journey of the ideation of Teddy 783 00:46:56,719 --> 00:47:01,799 Speaker 1: Rexman to the actual creation of the toy started to 784 00:47:01,960 --> 00:47:06,319 Speaker 1: come together into something that kids of the eighties would recognize. 785 00:47:06,800 --> 00:47:10,719 Speaker 1: But we're not there yet, because this story really is 786 00:47:11,440 --> 00:47:16,439 Speaker 1: full of twists and turns. So we're gonna take one 787 00:47:16,440 --> 00:47:19,680 Speaker 1: more quick break. When we come back, we're gonna talk 788 00:47:19,760 --> 00:47:24,480 Speaker 1: a little bit more about what went into the creation 789 00:47:24,800 --> 00:47:29,759 Speaker 1: of Teddy Ruxxban the toy, and that character's impact on 790 00:47:30,280 --> 00:47:33,480 Speaker 1: the nineteen eighties. But first, let's take this break to 791 00:47:33,520 --> 00:47:47,360 Speaker 1: think our sponsors. All right, So, ken Voresy is looking 792 00:47:47,360 --> 00:47:51,440 Speaker 1: at the possibility of creating a plush animal character that 793 00:47:51,680 --> 00:47:55,960 Speaker 1: is able to use this sort of animatronic approach and 794 00:47:56,080 --> 00:47:59,759 Speaker 1: to use cassette tapes to have the instructions on how 795 00:47:59,800 --> 00:48:02,840 Speaker 1: to to you know, move the mouth at the right moment. 796 00:48:03,480 --> 00:48:06,480 Speaker 1: Like that's the genesis of the idea. Now, initially he 797 00:48:06,600 --> 00:48:11,160 Speaker 1: was thinking about creating licensed characters, like, not not licensed 798 00:48:11,200 --> 00:48:14,360 Speaker 1: characters from him, but to license characters from other companies 799 00:48:15,200 --> 00:48:20,960 Speaker 1: and to secure retail deals with big outlets like Sears 800 00:48:21,040 --> 00:48:23,319 Speaker 1: at the time. So the idea was that, all right, 801 00:48:23,560 --> 00:48:26,720 Speaker 1: I'm going to try and license, say, Winnie the Pooh 802 00:48:26,920 --> 00:48:29,759 Speaker 1: from the Walt Disney Company, and I'm going to try 803 00:48:29,800 --> 00:48:33,520 Speaker 1: and secure a deal with Sears to agree to a 804 00:48:33,560 --> 00:48:36,200 Speaker 1: certain number of units, and that will give me the 805 00:48:36,200 --> 00:48:39,160 Speaker 1: money to pay the licensing fee, to develop the technology 806 00:48:39,640 --> 00:48:42,759 Speaker 1: and to create the product that ultimately will then be 807 00:48:42,840 --> 00:48:45,960 Speaker 1: sold in Seers. Everyone will be happy and we'll all 808 00:48:46,000 --> 00:48:49,920 Speaker 1: become millionaires. So as initial write up of this idea 809 00:48:50,080 --> 00:48:53,439 Speaker 1: mentions Walt Disney by name, like the Disney Company by name, 810 00:48:54,000 --> 00:48:57,800 Speaker 1: and that the Winnie the Pooh property would be ideal 811 00:48:57,840 --> 00:49:00,640 Speaker 1: for this because you could create a whole series of books, 812 00:49:00,840 --> 00:49:04,040 Speaker 1: read along books for little kids, and Winnie the Pooh 813 00:49:04,080 --> 00:49:06,480 Speaker 1: could read stories to the little kids. You have the 814 00:49:06,520 --> 00:49:08,799 Speaker 1: cassette tapes, got the story on it. Whennie the Pooh 815 00:49:08,840 --> 00:49:11,200 Speaker 1: reads it, the kid can follow along with the book. 816 00:49:11,560 --> 00:49:18,160 Speaker 1: Amazing idea, except Disney wasn't interested. The whole toy was 817 00:49:18,200 --> 00:49:21,360 Speaker 1: going to need to be battery powered. Obviously you couldn't 818 00:49:21,400 --> 00:49:23,759 Speaker 1: have like big cables going to it or anything. You 819 00:49:23,800 --> 00:49:27,719 Speaker 1: aren't going to have industrial batteries at your disposal. So 820 00:49:28,239 --> 00:49:30,040 Speaker 1: a lot of money was going to be needed to 821 00:49:30,160 --> 00:49:33,160 Speaker 1: actually fund the development of this. The idea was sound, 822 00:49:33,520 --> 00:49:37,000 Speaker 1: but to actually produce it was going to take some cash. 823 00:49:37,200 --> 00:49:39,800 Speaker 1: And since Disney was like, no, I'm not interested, it 824 00:49:40,560 --> 00:49:43,640 Speaker 1: really meant there was nowhere to go from there. So 825 00:49:43,760 --> 00:49:45,839 Speaker 1: then for Si and his team try to figure out 826 00:49:45,880 --> 00:49:51,000 Speaker 1: ways to, you know, perhaps go a different route, because 827 00:49:51,000 --> 00:49:52,799 Speaker 1: if Disney wasn't going to be interested, they had to 828 00:49:52,800 --> 00:49:57,040 Speaker 1: find somewhere else to get the money. They In the meantime, 829 00:49:57,080 --> 00:50:00,640 Speaker 1: they were still working on this technology, ways to make 830 00:50:00,680 --> 00:50:03,319 Speaker 1: it as lightweight as possible, because obviously you don't want 831 00:50:03,360 --> 00:50:07,640 Speaker 1: your plush toy towaigh twenty pounds, and if it's going 832 00:50:07,719 --> 00:50:09,600 Speaker 1: to have a tape deck in it, that's going to 833 00:50:09,640 --> 00:50:10,600 Speaker 1: add a lot to the weight. 834 00:50:10,880 --> 00:50:11,439 Speaker 2: Just from that. 835 00:50:11,760 --> 00:50:13,799 Speaker 1: So you wanted to have lightweight materials. 836 00:50:13,960 --> 00:50:14,840 Speaker 2: You also didn't. 837 00:50:14,640 --> 00:50:18,960 Speaker 1: Want to have mechanical systems that would, you know, be dangerous. 838 00:50:19,000 --> 00:50:23,000 Speaker 1: He didn't want a kid to stick their finger in 839 00:50:23,000 --> 00:50:25,359 Speaker 1: Winnie the Pooh's mouth and Winnie the Pooh ends up 840 00:50:25,480 --> 00:50:27,520 Speaker 1: mauling the kid and chewing the finger off. 841 00:50:27,560 --> 00:50:28,600 Speaker 2: That would be a bad thing. 842 00:50:29,800 --> 00:50:33,919 Speaker 1: Technically, Disney would probably frown on that. So their team 843 00:50:33,960 --> 00:50:36,719 Speaker 1: was still working on the technology over at Alchemy too. 844 00:50:37,120 --> 00:50:41,479 Speaker 1: But as I said, the Disney deal didn't move forward force. 845 00:50:41,520 --> 00:50:44,320 Speaker 1: He decided to go with a Teddy Bear form factor 846 00:50:44,400 --> 00:50:47,640 Speaker 1: at that point. He still did not move to Teddy 847 00:50:47,719 --> 00:50:52,399 Speaker 1: Ruxsman yet. Teddy Ruxsman was a separate idea. It did 848 00:50:52,440 --> 00:50:54,960 Speaker 1: not cross over here. But he was thinking about a 849 00:50:55,000 --> 00:50:58,680 Speaker 1: Teddy Bear form factor because the teddy Bear is obviously 850 00:50:58,760 --> 00:51:03,040 Speaker 1: a familiar and belo loved staple in children's toys. Right, 851 00:51:03,160 --> 00:51:06,240 Speaker 1: everyone knows what a teddy Bear is. And so Alchemy 852 00:51:06,280 --> 00:51:11,400 Speaker 1: two ended up buying a Teddy Bear, gutting it, replacing 853 00:51:11,400 --> 00:51:14,880 Speaker 1: it with mechanical parts, like the insides with mechanical parts, 854 00:51:15,280 --> 00:51:21,400 Speaker 1: and they called this monstrosity Joey Bear. This was just 855 00:51:21,400 --> 00:51:23,879 Speaker 1: sort of a work of proof of concept kind of thing. 856 00:51:24,280 --> 00:51:27,600 Speaker 1: So Joey Bear would have the mechanics and the tape 857 00:51:27,640 --> 00:51:30,600 Speaker 1: deck built into it, so you have a tape deck 858 00:51:30,640 --> 00:51:31,960 Speaker 1: as part of the toys. 859 00:51:32,000 --> 00:51:32,600 Speaker 2: In it's back. 860 00:51:33,200 --> 00:51:36,520 Speaker 1: You'd place a tape in push play, and then that 861 00:51:36,560 --> 00:51:39,800 Speaker 1: would drive the animations that you would see. 862 00:51:41,840 --> 00:51:43,520 Speaker 2: And they had. 863 00:51:43,360 --> 00:51:45,480 Speaker 1: A bunch of different ideas for what kind of stories 864 00:51:45,520 --> 00:51:47,920 Speaker 1: the bear could tell, like Goldilocks and the Three Bears 865 00:51:47,960 --> 00:51:51,080 Speaker 1: was an obvious one. And it would also have a 866 00:51:51,120 --> 00:51:53,960 Speaker 1: speaker on the inside, so Joey Bear when he spoke, 867 00:51:54,000 --> 00:51:56,680 Speaker 1: you could actually hear him tell the story and see 868 00:51:56,680 --> 00:51:59,000 Speaker 1: his little mouth move and move his eyes and all 869 00:51:59,000 --> 00:52:04,120 Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. One of Vorsi's colleagues, however, questioned 870 00:52:04,640 --> 00:52:09,080 Speaker 1: the concept of Joeybear. He argued that without something special 871 00:52:09,760 --> 00:52:13,360 Speaker 1: about the bear itself, without some sort of personality hook, 872 00:52:13,800 --> 00:52:16,560 Speaker 1: without something to set it apart from just being a 873 00:52:16,600 --> 00:52:20,200 Speaker 1: teddy bear, there wouldn't be enough there for kids to 874 00:52:20,239 --> 00:52:22,920 Speaker 1: really care about it. I mean, yes, it would appear 875 00:52:22,960 --> 00:52:26,000 Speaker 1: to be able to sing and talk, which is huge, 876 00:52:26,800 --> 00:52:30,960 Speaker 1: but if there's no other personality there, then it might 877 00:52:31,000 --> 00:52:33,920 Speaker 1: be too generic and it might not be enough to 878 00:52:34,400 --> 00:52:38,440 Speaker 1: capture kids attention. And if you know, whatever they were 879 00:52:38,440 --> 00:52:40,440 Speaker 1: going to sell this thing for it was going to 880 00:52:40,480 --> 00:52:43,799 Speaker 1: be a lot more than your typical teddy Bear. So 881 00:52:44,000 --> 00:52:48,920 Speaker 1: the toy needed to have something in its personality and 882 00:52:49,360 --> 00:52:54,319 Speaker 1: approach that would really appeal to kids. And if it's 883 00:52:54,360 --> 00:52:56,239 Speaker 1: just a teddy Bear, well there are a lot of 884 00:52:56,239 --> 00:52:58,000 Speaker 1: other Teddy Bears out there that aren't going to cost 885 00:52:58,040 --> 00:53:03,040 Speaker 1: fifty dollars or more. So Force was kind of, you know, 886 00:53:03,080 --> 00:53:04,640 Speaker 1: the wind was taken out of his sales a bit, 887 00:53:04,680 --> 00:53:09,799 Speaker 1: but he also felt that the criticism was correct, and 888 00:53:09,840 --> 00:53:13,640 Speaker 1: that's when his world's collided and he chose to bring 889 00:53:13,680 --> 00:53:17,560 Speaker 1: into alignment this project to make an animatronic toy for 890 00:53:17,680 --> 00:53:22,600 Speaker 1: children with his decades old concept of the Adventures of 891 00:53:22,640 --> 00:53:25,320 Speaker 1: Teddy Ruxpin, the thing that was supposed to be a 892 00:53:25,360 --> 00:53:27,520 Speaker 1: puppet show and then was going to be a series 893 00:53:27,560 --> 00:53:31,080 Speaker 1: of children's books. So he changed the design of the 894 00:53:31,160 --> 00:53:35,560 Speaker 1: character Teddy Ruxpin from just being this furry little fantasy 895 00:53:35,600 --> 00:53:39,200 Speaker 1: creature into one that looked a lot more like a 896 00:53:39,239 --> 00:53:43,960 Speaker 1: Teddy bear. And this is why Illiops Illiops being the 897 00:53:44,000 --> 00:53:47,400 Speaker 1: species that Teddy Ruxpin is, that's why they look like 898 00:53:47,440 --> 00:53:50,200 Speaker 1: teddy bears. It was a practical decision that had little 899 00:53:50,239 --> 00:53:53,120 Speaker 1: to do with the name Teddy Ruxpin. It's so interesting 900 00:53:53,120 --> 00:53:57,520 Speaker 1: to me that Teddy Ruxbin was independently arrived at from 901 00:53:57,560 --> 00:54:00,680 Speaker 1: it being a Teddy bear like creature. So for the 902 00:54:00,719 --> 00:54:06,280 Speaker 1: first time, Force actually had a decent shot of getting 903 00:54:06,320 --> 00:54:10,000 Speaker 1: this vision, this idea of this character and this fantasy 904 00:54:10,160 --> 00:54:15,320 Speaker 1: world into an actual thing that other people could enjoy, 905 00:54:15,640 --> 00:54:18,200 Speaker 1: not just the people he worked with or the people 906 00:54:18,200 --> 00:54:22,120 Speaker 1: in his family, but the world at large. So over 907 00:54:22,160 --> 00:54:24,640 Speaker 1: the years, Forc had gone from this concept of this 908 00:54:24,680 --> 00:54:28,440 Speaker 1: puppet show with nearly forty episodes to there was a 909 00:54:28,480 --> 00:54:31,680 Speaker 1: time where he was pushing it as a ninety minute special. 910 00:54:31,800 --> 00:54:34,360 Speaker 1: That was when he was trying to get networks or 911 00:54:34,400 --> 00:54:38,480 Speaker 1: even HBO to sign on to it. That version condensed 912 00:54:38,520 --> 00:54:41,840 Speaker 1: a lot of the story elements that had been broken 913 00:54:41,880 --> 00:54:45,200 Speaker 1: out into those forty episode ideas into a single narrative, 914 00:54:45,840 --> 00:54:49,040 Speaker 1: and now he was thinking about adapting the story for 915 00:54:49,160 --> 00:54:52,160 Speaker 1: a series of story books that would have an accompanying 916 00:54:52,280 --> 00:54:55,759 Speaker 1: cassette tape, with each episode lasting about twenty minutes. So 917 00:54:55,760 --> 00:54:57,279 Speaker 1: it's kind of like he was going back to the 918 00:54:57,360 --> 00:55:01,600 Speaker 1: drawing board, back to the format of those early puppet shows, 919 00:55:01,719 --> 00:55:06,280 Speaker 1: versus the ninety minute special he had worked on briefly 920 00:55:06,320 --> 00:55:09,520 Speaker 1: in the late seventies. So in many ways he would 921 00:55:09,560 --> 00:55:13,160 Speaker 1: reapproach the story and divide it back up so that 922 00:55:13,320 --> 00:55:16,680 Speaker 1: you would have these individual adventures that were connected by 923 00:55:17,200 --> 00:55:21,480 Speaker 1: a larger narrative arc, but one where it's much more episodic, right, 924 00:55:21,680 --> 00:55:25,000 Speaker 1: like each episode is its own individual thing, sort of 925 00:55:25,040 --> 00:55:28,600 Speaker 1: the way the puppet Show was meant to be. So 926 00:55:29,719 --> 00:55:33,800 Speaker 1: Force had this huge wealth of lore to draw from 927 00:55:33,840 --> 00:55:37,359 Speaker 1: because he had been developing the story idea for more 928 00:55:37,400 --> 00:55:40,399 Speaker 1: than twenty years at that point, and he still went 929 00:55:40,640 --> 00:55:43,560 Speaker 1: in and fleshed more things out, like he built in 930 00:55:43,680 --> 00:55:47,239 Speaker 1: more details in the world that he had created. But 931 00:55:47,320 --> 00:55:49,360 Speaker 1: the bones had been there for a very long time. 932 00:55:49,760 --> 00:55:52,359 Speaker 1: So by the fall of nineteen eighty four, Alchemy two 933 00:55:52,800 --> 00:55:56,720 Speaker 1: had developed a working prototype of Teddy Ruxsman. It didn't 934 00:55:56,760 --> 00:55:59,080 Speaker 1: look like the final Teddy Rucksman doll that would come 935 00:55:59,120 --> 00:56:04,879 Speaker 1: out the next year, but it was a good working prototype. Now, 936 00:56:04,880 --> 00:56:08,960 Speaker 1: at that time, Alchemy two was hitting a rough patch financially, 937 00:56:09,200 --> 00:56:11,880 Speaker 1: like they were in a cash flow crisis. In fact, 938 00:56:12,360 --> 00:56:14,960 Speaker 1: they were in danger of folding. They had gotten to 939 00:56:15,000 --> 00:56:16,719 Speaker 1: a point where they weren't going to be able to 940 00:56:16,719 --> 00:56:20,879 Speaker 1: make payroll. But four C's team believed in him and 941 00:56:21,320 --> 00:56:23,440 Speaker 1: in the work of Alchemy two, and they agreed to 942 00:56:23,480 --> 00:56:27,719 Speaker 1: continue working. They were taking like essentially half pay so 943 00:56:27,760 --> 00:56:30,520 Speaker 1: that the company could continue to operate, and they wouldn't 944 00:56:30,640 --> 00:56:35,760 Speaker 1: you go without anything, but they rather than leave the company, 945 00:56:36,160 --> 00:56:39,400 Speaker 1: they tried to keep on working while taking less money. 946 00:56:39,880 --> 00:56:42,960 Speaker 1: Hasbro expressed interest, and that could have been a huge, 947 00:56:43,080 --> 00:56:48,080 Speaker 1: huge thing. I mean, Hasbro being an enormous toy company. However, 948 00:56:48,360 --> 00:56:50,200 Speaker 1: Hasbro thought that it was going. 949 00:56:50,080 --> 00:56:52,600 Speaker 2: To take like three years to bring. 950 00:56:52,480 --> 00:56:57,879 Speaker 1: The product to the market, and that would not work 951 00:56:57,920 --> 00:57:00,560 Speaker 1: for Alchemy two. The company wouldn't be able to hold 952 00:57:00,600 --> 00:57:02,880 Speaker 1: out that long. It would have been bankrupt. 953 00:57:02,520 --> 00:57:04,080 Speaker 2: Before three years were up. 954 00:57:04,880 --> 00:57:08,480 Speaker 1: So Forc kind of had to turn down that offer, 955 00:57:08,560 --> 00:57:11,400 Speaker 1: even though that must have been a very difficult decision, 956 00:57:11,520 --> 00:57:15,319 Speaker 1: because like, even though you know you can't make it, 957 00:57:15,320 --> 00:57:18,720 Speaker 1: Hasbro being the company, it's hard to just walk away 958 00:57:18,720 --> 00:57:22,560 Speaker 1: from that. So Forc then starts reaching out to other people, 959 00:57:22,600 --> 00:57:24,480 Speaker 1: just trying to see if you can find sub investor 960 00:57:25,080 --> 00:57:29,200 Speaker 1: who will pour some money into the project and allow 961 00:57:29,240 --> 00:57:30,720 Speaker 1: it to get to a point where it can become 962 00:57:30,760 --> 00:57:33,440 Speaker 1: an actual thing. And he reaches out to a former 963 00:57:33,520 --> 00:57:36,120 Speaker 1: executive who had retired at the ripe old age of 964 00:57:36,200 --> 00:57:40,240 Speaker 1: thirty seven, a guy named Don Kingsborough. By the way, 965 00:57:40,320 --> 00:57:44,720 Speaker 1: Kingsborough still working today in as an executive in the 966 00:57:44,760 --> 00:57:50,320 Speaker 1: tech space. But yeah, he had originally retired at thirty 967 00:57:50,360 --> 00:57:54,160 Speaker 1: seven years old. So who is Kingsborough. Well, in the 968 00:57:54,240 --> 00:57:57,040 Speaker 1: nineteen seventies and the early nineteen eighties, he was the 969 00:57:57,120 --> 00:58:03,400 Speaker 1: president of a little company called Atari, and he stopped 970 00:58:03,400 --> 00:58:05,960 Speaker 1: being president of Atari in nineteen eighty three, you know, 971 00:58:06,280 --> 00:58:08,920 Speaker 1: the same year when video games home video games kind 972 00:58:08,920 --> 00:58:11,040 Speaker 1: of stopped being a thing in the United States. There's 973 00:58:11,080 --> 00:58:15,280 Speaker 1: this big video game crash. But Kingsboro he got out 974 00:58:15,480 --> 00:58:18,480 Speaker 1: and made a lot of money, so he was able 975 00:58:18,480 --> 00:58:22,640 Speaker 1: to retire and kind of sidestep some of the worst 976 00:58:22,840 --> 00:58:26,600 Speaker 1: drama that unfolded in the wake of the video game crash. 977 00:58:27,080 --> 00:58:31,200 Speaker 1: Forese got in touch with him, and Don Kingsborough agreed 978 00:58:31,280 --> 00:58:36,200 Speaker 1: somewhat reluctantly to hear Force's sales pitch. So Kingsborough flies 979 00:58:36,240 --> 00:58:40,520 Speaker 1: back to California and he meets with Force, who hands 980 00:58:40,600 --> 00:58:44,880 Speaker 1: him a prototype and this teddy bear starts to speak 981 00:58:45,320 --> 00:58:50,160 Speaker 1: and sing to Don Kingsborough, and immediately he was enchanted 982 00:58:50,200 --> 00:58:53,160 Speaker 1: by it. So Foresy was hoping that he could get 983 00:58:53,200 --> 00:58:57,240 Speaker 1: Don Kingsborough to invest in the project. Instead, Kingsborough says, no, 984 00:58:57,520 --> 00:58:59,480 Speaker 1: I don't want to give you money. I want to 985 00:58:59,520 --> 00:59:03,440 Speaker 1: actually make this a's according to the docu series I 986 00:59:03,520 --> 00:59:06,040 Speaker 1: was talking about earlier in this episode. So by mid 987 00:59:06,160 --> 00:59:09,919 Speaker 1: February nineteen eighty five, Alchemy two and Kingsboro enter into 988 00:59:09,960 --> 00:59:14,880 Speaker 1: an agreement for the licensing rights to Teddy Ruxsman and AnimagiC, 989 00:59:14,920 --> 00:59:19,360 Speaker 1: which is the technology that Alchemy two had named that 990 00:59:19,480 --> 00:59:24,520 Speaker 1: actually animated Teddy Ruxsman. Kingsboro goes on to contact some 991 00:59:24,840 --> 00:59:29,320 Speaker 1: entrepreneurs to kind of form a partnership, and he demonstrates 992 00:59:29,360 --> 00:59:35,080 Speaker 1: the prototype which consistently wows other business leaders, and they 993 00:59:35,600 --> 00:59:38,320 Speaker 1: form a new company called Worlds of Wonder. So you 994 00:59:38,320 --> 00:59:41,439 Speaker 1: have Alchemy two, which is actually doing the technology side 995 00:59:41,440 --> 00:59:43,960 Speaker 1: of things, the development, and you have Worlds of Wonder 996 00:59:44,160 --> 00:59:46,200 Speaker 1: that's going to be the company that produces the final 997 00:59:46,240 --> 00:59:50,120 Speaker 1: product and sells it. They go out as Worlds of 998 00:59:50,160 --> 00:59:53,880 Speaker 1: Wonder and they seek funding for Teddy Ruxbin and it 999 00:59:53,920 --> 00:59:56,960 Speaker 1: becomes a joint project between Worlds of Wonder at Alchemy two. 1000 00:59:57,800 --> 01:00:01,080 Speaker 1: By the way, the name Worlds of w Under was 1001 01:00:01,120 --> 01:00:05,480 Speaker 1: reportedly reverse engineered because Don Kingsborough had come up with 1002 01:00:05,520 --> 01:00:10,560 Speaker 1: the acronym. First, he wanted the acronym WOW because if 1003 01:00:10,600 --> 01:00:14,800 Speaker 1: it were on a stock listing, people would take notice, 1004 01:00:14,840 --> 01:00:18,200 Speaker 1: like if the stock is called Wow, that might be 1005 01:00:18,400 --> 01:00:23,919 Speaker 1: enough to push the value. So very very salesperson kind 1006 01:00:23,920 --> 01:00:25,880 Speaker 1: of pitched to that, and then. 1007 01:00:25,880 --> 01:00:27,720 Speaker 2: Once he figured out that he wanted. 1008 01:00:27,400 --> 01:00:29,600 Speaker 1: Wow, he had to work backwards to say what does 1009 01:00:29,640 --> 01:00:32,960 Speaker 1: the WOW stand for. That's when they eventually got to 1010 01:00:33,320 --> 01:00:36,200 Speaker 1: Worlds of Wonder. So the Worlds of Wonder version of 1011 01:00:36,240 --> 01:00:39,880 Speaker 1: Teddy Rucksman would build from the foundation of this prototype. 1012 01:00:40,000 --> 01:00:43,120 Speaker 1: They made some changes in order to make it production ready. 1013 01:00:43,200 --> 01:00:45,600 Speaker 1: They wanted it to be as easy to produce, as 1014 01:00:45,760 --> 01:00:48,440 Speaker 1: cheap to produce as possible, so that you have a 1015 01:00:48,480 --> 01:00:50,880 Speaker 1: good profit margin on these things. You know, you've got 1016 01:00:50,880 --> 01:00:53,920 Speaker 1: some expensive components going in there, so you want to 1017 01:00:53,960 --> 01:00:57,160 Speaker 1: try and control costs as best you can. So part 1018 01:00:57,200 --> 01:00:59,960 Speaker 1: of that was sourcing very cheap tape decks that could 1019 01:01:00,120 --> 01:01:03,760 Speaker 1: be used as the tape deck incorporated into a Teddy ruckspin. 1020 01:01:04,480 --> 01:01:07,520 Speaker 1: They used a technology that in the docu series they 1021 01:01:07,600 --> 01:01:12,200 Speaker 1: refer to as being servo like, so no an actual servo, 1022 01:01:12,320 --> 01:01:14,439 Speaker 1: but these would be the little electric motors that would 1023 01:01:14,560 --> 01:01:16,480 Speaker 1: drive the facial movements. 1024 01:01:16,960 --> 01:01:17,680 Speaker 2: In the character. 1025 01:01:17,760 --> 01:01:21,240 Speaker 1: I think originally they had three of these inside the 1026 01:01:21,280 --> 01:01:24,760 Speaker 1: heads of the characters, and then more recent versions have 1027 01:01:24,840 --> 01:01:29,200 Speaker 1: reduced that down to two. Worlds of Wonder got its 1028 01:01:29,240 --> 01:01:32,960 Speaker 1: funding received about fifteen million dollars in investments from the 1029 01:01:33,000 --> 01:01:37,960 Speaker 1: Abercrombie family. Alchemy two was able to keep going because 1030 01:01:37,960 --> 01:01:40,480 Speaker 1: now they had a fresh influx of cash they were 1031 01:01:41,000 --> 01:01:45,400 Speaker 1: developing the technology. It reinvigorated the company and in fact 1032 01:01:45,400 --> 01:01:48,120 Speaker 1: they had to hire people on in order to meet 1033 01:01:48,160 --> 01:01:52,960 Speaker 1: the demand of now being responsible for creating a toy 1034 01:01:52,960 --> 01:01:55,560 Speaker 1: that was going to become an honest to goodness product. 1035 01:01:56,000 --> 01:01:58,240 Speaker 1: They had to bring more help on. So it was 1036 01:01:58,320 --> 01:02:01,880 Speaker 1: the reversal of fortune in the best way. So they 1037 01:02:01,920 --> 01:02:05,080 Speaker 1: start working on fleshing out the world of Teddy Ruxspan. 1038 01:02:05,200 --> 01:02:08,720 Speaker 1: They start working on writing the books, thirteen books for 1039 01:02:08,800 --> 01:02:12,320 Speaker 1: the first six months, which would also require recording the 1040 01:02:12,400 --> 01:02:18,080 Speaker 1: cassette versions recording original music for these these books. Philip 1041 01:02:18,120 --> 01:02:20,560 Speaker 1: Baron gets hired on to become the voice of Teddy 1042 01:02:20,640 --> 01:02:24,280 Speaker 1: Ruxsbin and he would record the audio that was used 1043 01:02:24,280 --> 01:02:27,760 Speaker 1: on cassette tapes. So when you watch those classic commercials, 1044 01:02:27,880 --> 01:02:31,000 Speaker 1: it's Philip Baron's voice you hear on them to program 1045 01:02:31,000 --> 01:02:31,600 Speaker 1: the movements. 1046 01:02:32,120 --> 01:02:33,080 Speaker 2: This was really cool. 1047 01:02:33,120 --> 01:02:35,880 Speaker 1: So you know, you would lay down the audio track, 1048 01:02:36,360 --> 01:02:39,440 Speaker 1: so Philip Baron would go in and record his audio 1049 01:02:40,000 --> 01:02:43,640 Speaker 1: for a Teddy ruxsmin book. This would then be handed 1050 01:02:43,640 --> 01:02:47,120 Speaker 1: over to puppeteers who would take the audio track. They 1051 01:02:47,120 --> 01:02:50,040 Speaker 1: would play it back, and they would use digital controls 1052 01:02:50,160 --> 01:02:52,800 Speaker 1: similar to what you would find on a remote control car. 1053 01:02:53,440 --> 01:02:59,160 Speaker 1: They would use that to send direct commands to a 1054 01:02:59,560 --> 01:03:02,240 Speaker 1: puppet head. It would just be the head. You didn't 1055 01:03:02,280 --> 01:03:04,320 Speaker 1: need the whole body of Teddy Ruckspin, but you have 1056 01:03:04,440 --> 01:03:07,160 Speaker 1: essentially like a Teddy Ruckspin head mounted on a pole 1057 01:03:07,840 --> 01:03:11,800 Speaker 1: with cables going to it, and using this little control panel, 1058 01:03:12,080 --> 01:03:14,120 Speaker 1: you could make the mouth open and closed, and you 1059 01:03:14,160 --> 01:03:16,440 Speaker 1: could do the same with like eyes. And so what 1060 01:03:16,480 --> 01:03:18,920 Speaker 1: they'd do is they'd run the audio track and then 1061 01:03:18,920 --> 01:03:22,680 Speaker 1: the puppeteer would move the digital controls in time with 1062 01:03:22,800 --> 01:03:28,160 Speaker 1: the audio track, and those inputs would be recorded onto 1063 01:03:28,200 --> 01:03:31,400 Speaker 1: the magnetic tape on a separate track. So this is 1064 01:03:31,440 --> 01:03:35,040 Speaker 1: what would be then transferred to the cassettes and it 1065 01:03:35,040 --> 01:03:37,480 Speaker 1: would play back both the audio and the instructions that 1066 01:03:37,480 --> 01:03:42,760 Speaker 1: the puppeteer had made while matching the soundtrack to the 1067 01:03:43,080 --> 01:03:46,880 Speaker 1: character's movements. My sister is a professional puppeteer, so to me, 1068 01:03:46,960 --> 01:03:50,439 Speaker 1: this is just one of those really fascinating elements of 1069 01:03:50,640 --> 01:03:55,880 Speaker 1: the creation of Teddy Ruckspin. So Hasbro had said it 1070 01:03:55,880 --> 01:03:58,440 Speaker 1: would take three years to get Teddy Ruckspin to a 1071 01:03:58,480 --> 01:04:01,360 Speaker 1: point where they could put it on the market. The 1072 01:04:01,520 --> 01:04:04,200 Speaker 1: Alchemy two in Worlds of Wonder did it in less 1073 01:04:04,200 --> 01:04:07,439 Speaker 1: than a year. In fact, in September nineteen eighty five, 1074 01:04:07,480 --> 01:04:10,480 Speaker 1: remember they had signed the agreement in mid February nineteen 1075 01:04:10,480 --> 01:04:14,440 Speaker 1: eighty five. September nineteen eighty five, Worlds of Wonder holds 1076 01:04:14,480 --> 01:04:18,360 Speaker 1: a debut of the Teddy Rouxsbin toy in Central Park 1077 01:04:18,440 --> 01:04:21,400 Speaker 1: in New York City, with Teddy Rouxsbin actually doing some 1078 01:04:21,480 --> 01:04:23,640 Speaker 1: of the presenting. It was very cute. You can actually 1079 01:04:23,720 --> 01:04:27,360 Speaker 1: see this in the docu series. They had a very 1080 01:04:27,360 --> 01:04:30,439 Speaker 1: expensive toy on their hands because when Teddy Rrouxsbin would 1081 01:04:30,480 --> 01:04:34,360 Speaker 1: hit store shelves, it had the price tag of seventy 1082 01:04:34,480 --> 01:04:39,280 Speaker 1: dollars essentially, and each additional book with cassette would cost 1083 01:04:39,320 --> 01:04:42,840 Speaker 1: twenty dollars. You would get one Teddy Ruxspin in the 1084 01:04:42,840 --> 01:04:46,680 Speaker 1: airship with the base toy, but if you wanted more 1085 01:04:46,720 --> 01:04:48,560 Speaker 1: than one, you had to pay twenty bucks a pop, 1086 01:04:49,120 --> 01:04:53,080 Speaker 1: which means, if we adjust for inflation, Teddy Ruxsbin would 1087 01:04:53,080 --> 01:04:56,560 Speaker 1: cost you about two hundred dollars today to buy, and 1088 01:04:56,600 --> 01:05:00,160 Speaker 1: then each book would cost around fifty six dollars to buy, 1089 01:05:00,560 --> 01:05:04,680 Speaker 1: which is pretty darn expensive. And even with that high 1090 01:05:04,680 --> 01:05:08,280 Speaker 1: price tag, Teddy Rucksman became something of a phenomenon. Although 1091 01:05:08,360 --> 01:05:12,640 Speaker 1: only briefly, it was highly in demand. It became the 1092 01:05:12,680 --> 01:05:15,680 Speaker 1: most popular toy for the end of nineteen eighty five 1093 01:05:15,840 --> 01:05:20,120 Speaker 1: and maintained its position for nineteen eighty six. Like, this 1094 01:05:20,280 --> 01:05:24,840 Speaker 1: was a toy that was well marketed. Kids loved the 1095 01:05:24,960 --> 01:05:26,400 Speaker 1: idea of it. 1096 01:05:26,400 --> 01:05:27,360 Speaker 2: It was fascinating. 1097 01:05:27,400 --> 01:05:32,760 Speaker 1: Anyone who was into animatronics would automatically be really charmed 1098 01:05:32,840 --> 01:05:35,280 Speaker 1: by this toy. Like it used to be something that 1099 01:05:35,320 --> 01:05:37,680 Speaker 1: you would only see if you went to a theme 1100 01:05:37,760 --> 01:05:40,320 Speaker 1: park or a place like Chuck E Cheese, and now 1101 01:05:40,360 --> 01:05:43,640 Speaker 1: you could actually own one. It was really cool. A 1102 01:05:43,640 --> 01:05:46,280 Speaker 1: lot of people thought, oh, I could put my uh, 1103 01:05:46,640 --> 01:05:49,760 Speaker 1: you know, Black Sabbath cassette tape in here and have 1104 01:05:50,080 --> 01:05:54,960 Speaker 1: Teddy Ruxsban rocking out. Didn't work because the operational instructions 1105 01:05:55,000 --> 01:05:58,720 Speaker 1: wouldn't be present on Black Sabbath. No one Black Sabbath 1106 01:05:58,720 --> 01:06:02,800 Speaker 1: didn't think to include a track that was just operational 1107 01:06:02,840 --> 01:06:05,200 Speaker 1: instructions for teddy Ruxpan, which is really a shame because 1108 01:06:05,200 --> 01:06:08,000 Speaker 1: that would have been amazing. But no, because that information 1109 01:06:08,080 --> 01:06:11,040 Speaker 1: wasn't there. You could play it like it would work 1110 01:06:11,080 --> 01:06:14,440 Speaker 1: as like a Teddy Bear shaped speaker, but it wouldn't. 1111 01:06:14,800 --> 01:06:18,840 Speaker 1: Teddy Ruxban wouldn't be singing along, so didn't quite get 1112 01:06:18,840 --> 01:06:24,000 Speaker 1: to that level. Now, there was something else that was 1113 01:06:24,040 --> 01:06:27,840 Speaker 1: on the rise that would ultimately steal some of the 1114 01:06:27,880 --> 01:06:31,959 Speaker 1: thunder from Teddy Ruxsman, and that was the Nintendo Entertainment System. 1115 01:06:32,600 --> 01:06:35,880 Speaker 1: The video game crash from nineteen eighty three had really 1116 01:06:35,920 --> 01:06:38,280 Speaker 1: depressed the video game market to a point where a 1117 01:06:38,280 --> 01:06:40,000 Speaker 1: lot of people just figured it was never going to 1118 01:06:40,040 --> 01:06:42,560 Speaker 1: be a thing again, that it was just a fluke. 1119 01:06:43,120 --> 01:06:45,160 Speaker 1: There was something that happened in the late seventies early 1120 01:06:45,200 --> 01:06:49,439 Speaker 1: eighties and would never come back around. Nintendo proved them wrong, right. 1121 01:06:49,560 --> 01:06:53,200 Speaker 1: Nintendo created a product that people actually wanted. But this 1122 01:06:53,280 --> 01:06:56,880 Speaker 1: also meant Teddy ruxbin Star was on the decline, and 1123 01:06:56,920 --> 01:06:59,720 Speaker 1: it had only been out for a little bit more 1124 01:06:59,720 --> 01:07:04,400 Speaker 1: than a year. Worlds of Wonder overextended itself. They had 1125 01:07:05,520 --> 01:07:08,480 Speaker 1: incorrectly predicted there was going to be increased demand for 1126 01:07:08,560 --> 01:07:11,920 Speaker 1: Teddy Ruxsban in nineteen eighty seven, and as a result, 1127 01:07:11,920 --> 01:07:17,640 Speaker 1: they overextended themselves financially, and they ultimately spent too much 1128 01:07:17,760 --> 01:07:22,240 Speaker 1: and didn't generate enough revenue, and by nineteen eighty eight 1129 01:07:22,560 --> 01:07:26,120 Speaker 1: they were going into bankruptcy, and then by nineteen ninety 1130 01:07:26,160 --> 01:07:30,200 Speaker 1: one they ceased to be. Hasbro swooped in and acquired 1131 01:07:30,240 --> 01:07:32,720 Speaker 1: the rights to Ruxman, which is again it's funny because 1132 01:07:32,720 --> 01:07:36,600 Speaker 1: Hasbro had the chance of doing that earlier, but Force 1133 01:07:36,800 --> 01:07:39,200 Speaker 1: wasn't able to take that opportunity, so Hasbro came in 1134 01:07:39,920 --> 01:07:46,240 Speaker 1: got the licensing rights. Around nineteen ninety six, they stopped 1135 01:07:46,240 --> 01:07:50,040 Speaker 1: producing Teddy Ruxsban. There just wasn't enough demand. In nineteen 1136 01:07:50,080 --> 01:07:53,280 Speaker 1: ninety eight, a company called Yes Entertainment secured licensing rights, 1137 01:07:53,280 --> 01:07:57,760 Speaker 1: but only briefly. Something happened that made that fall apart, 1138 01:07:57,960 --> 01:07:59,920 Speaker 1: and I'm sure it might even be covered in the docuse, 1139 01:08:00,360 --> 01:08:02,760 Speaker 1: but I wasn't able to watch all ten hours of 1140 01:08:02,760 --> 01:08:05,440 Speaker 1: it in preparation for this episode, so I don't know yet. 1141 01:08:06,080 --> 01:08:07,400 Speaker 1: I do plan to watch the rest of it, by 1142 01:08:07,440 --> 01:08:10,040 Speaker 1: the way, because it is quite good. Teddy Ruxbin would 1143 01:08:10,040 --> 01:08:13,640 Speaker 1: resurface again in two thousand and five, then it faded 1144 01:08:13,640 --> 01:08:16,760 Speaker 1: away again and now it's back. It came back in 1145 01:08:16,760 --> 01:08:20,320 Speaker 1: twenty seventeen. It's a different toy now. Instead of using 1146 01:08:20,360 --> 01:08:24,080 Speaker 1: cassette tapes, it actually pairs with an app, because of 1147 01:08:24,120 --> 01:08:26,160 Speaker 1: course it does, but that means that, you know, you 1148 01:08:26,880 --> 01:08:30,519 Speaker 1: can use the app to play with the toy and 1149 01:08:30,640 --> 01:08:34,759 Speaker 1: to have it read out stories and you're not limited 1150 01:08:34,800 --> 01:08:37,240 Speaker 1: to whatever happens to be in stock. Right, Because it's 1151 01:08:37,240 --> 01:08:39,600 Speaker 1: an app, it's way easier to get access to the 1152 01:08:39,640 --> 01:08:44,320 Speaker 1: material you want. So yeah, that's the story of Teddy 1153 01:08:44,400 --> 01:08:49,760 Speaker 1: Ruxsman's origins, which again pretty intense, like so much had 1154 01:08:49,760 --> 01:08:52,720 Speaker 1: to come together for that toy to become a thing, 1155 01:08:53,760 --> 01:08:57,280 Speaker 1: and it really was an iconic toy in the mid 1156 01:08:57,360 --> 01:08:58,880 Speaker 1: nineteen eighties. Like I said, if I had just been 1157 01:08:58,920 --> 01:09:02,000 Speaker 1: a little bit younger, I probably would have wanted one myself, 1158 01:09:02,560 --> 01:09:05,479 Speaker 1: but at that stage I was wanting other stuff. I 1159 01:09:05,479 --> 01:09:07,880 Speaker 1: couldn't tell you what I wanted at age ten, I can't. 1160 01:09:08,320 --> 01:09:09,120 Speaker 2: Maybe I don't. 1161 01:09:09,000 --> 01:09:13,240 Speaker 1: Know Ghostbusters stuff. Maybe I don't know, but yeah, it was. 1162 01:09:14,920 --> 01:09:17,480 Speaker 1: It was really one of those that made a huge splash, 1163 01:09:17,640 --> 01:09:21,160 Speaker 1: Like this technology looked like it was next generation stuff 1164 01:09:21,840 --> 01:09:25,080 Speaker 1: when it came out, and when you start to learn 1165 01:09:25,160 --> 01:09:28,920 Speaker 1: the full story about what went into the creation of 1166 01:09:28,920 --> 01:09:33,160 Speaker 1: that toy and the work of ken Force and sort 1167 01:09:33,160 --> 01:09:38,160 Speaker 1: of his very gentle approach toward work and creativity, you 1168 01:09:38,240 --> 01:09:39,720 Speaker 1: get a new appreciation for it. 1169 01:09:40,720 --> 01:09:41,720 Speaker 2: I hope you enjoyed this. 1170 01:09:42,280 --> 01:09:45,080 Speaker 1: I know is a long episode, again a fraction of 1171 01:09:45,120 --> 01:09:48,760 Speaker 1: the length of the docu series, which goes into much, much, 1172 01:09:48,840 --> 01:09:52,679 Speaker 1: much more detail about ken Force's life, his work, and 1173 01:09:53,360 --> 01:09:57,400 Speaker 1: especially the lore of Teddy Ruxxman. There are entire sections 1174 01:09:57,400 --> 01:10:00,920 Speaker 1: that are dedicated just to fleshing out what that's how 1175 01:10:00,960 --> 01:10:04,599 Speaker 1: that story coalesced. I highly recommend checking that out. Again, 1176 01:10:04,640 --> 01:10:08,679 Speaker 1: it's on YouTube and you can find that by doing 1177 01:10:08,720 --> 01:10:13,080 Speaker 1: a quick search about Teddy Ruxman and ken Foresy And yeah, 1178 01:10:13,439 --> 01:10:15,679 Speaker 1: you should check it out if you're at all interested 1179 01:10:15,720 --> 01:10:19,640 Speaker 1: in this topic. That's it for this epic episode. I 1180 01:10:19,680 --> 01:10:22,559 Speaker 1: hope you are all well and I will talk to 1181 01:10:22,560 --> 01:10:33,120 Speaker 1: you again really soon. Tech Stuff is an iHeartRadio production. 1182 01:10:33,439 --> 01:10:38,480 Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, 1183 01:10:38,600 --> 01:10:44,120 Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.