“There's always somebody saying, ‘Wait a minute, that's not correct,’” Ken Whittingham shared about taking audiences back to 1969 at Disneyland in the Season 2 finale of The Wonder Years. Ken not only directed this very special episode but also serves as a co-executive producer on the series. When it was decided that the family would be traveling to “The Happiest Place on Earth” (the episode’s title), Ken knew that it wouldn’t be enough to film in the park and say it was 1969. Everything seen on screen would need to be authentic. “I think the audience that watches the show will pay attention to things like the E-tickets, what it was really like back then.”
Ken Whittingham took the stage of The Main Street Opera House on Friday, August 11th, for a special Cast Member premiere screening, followed by a Q&A moderated by Princeton Parker, Associate Manager Content Programming & Synergy for Disney Parks, Experiences and Products. “It took months to really plan this thing to do it right,” Ken confessed. “I really worried about one scene in particular. We had a very limited amount of time to shoot a scene, so we literally had to shoot one half of the scene on Saturday and the other half on Sunday. And we had to make sure that the weather was right.”
“There were torrential downpours actually while we were shooting this episode,” recalled Kean Almryde, Manager of Integrated Production and Partnership Marketing at Disney Parks & Resorts. “I kid you not, as soon as they said ‘Cut’ on some of these scenes, buckets [of rain].” But Kean’s job wasn’t to control the weather, it was to make sure everything shown in the park would’ve accurately reflected what was present in 1969. “Churros weren't here until 1985,” he joked about one of the most popular Disneyland snacks that couldn’t be featured in the episode. “If you look at the scene with the Jungle Cruise, for example, all of the scenes that you can see are scenes that existed back then, because the Jungle Cruise has gone through an update recently, so we had to make sure that we weren't showing those scenes. If you look at the costumes and the characters that we featured on Main Street, you'll see the Big Bad Wolf, who was a character that was here back in 1969. You'll see the penguins [from Mary Poppins], which were here in 1969.”
(ABC/John Fleenor)
As the costume designer for the entire second season of The Wonder Years, Barbara Chennault is well-versed in the styles of the late-1960s. Set in Montgomery, Alabama, this episode not only allowed her to explore the West Coast styles of the era through the extras that obscure modern-day Guests from the camera, but she also got to dive into Disney history. “We recreated the costume for Mickey and took it back to 1969,” Barbara shared. “I didn't think I would be in awe of Mickey the way I was in the process because we sourced the fabric for Mickey's look and recreated it, had fittings with Mickey, and pulled it off. And I felt the magic of being around Mickey. I was really excited. Mickey's an icon, and I just felt that iconic magic that Mickey gives.” Barbara also got to recreate mouse ears for Dean to wear that match the hats sold in 1969, and also had the challenge of recreating a costume for a Cast Member at The Matterhorn.
In a scene where Kim and Bruce ride The Matterhorn, viewers may notice the ticket books in Bruce’s pocket. “The tickets were a whole thing where every year they change the color,” confessed production designer Aiyanna Trotter, who had the unenviable task of recreating the iconic E-Ticket that would permit these two characters access to the first tubular steel rollercoaster in the world. “There are different color packets. There's one for adults and one for kids.” After scouring online photos and videos, Aiyanna and props master Tammy Patton turned to eBay, purchasing multiple used ticket books in an effort to recreate them authentically for the episode. “I got to reconstruct them, put them together. Our graphic designers recreated them. And pretty soon across our whole office, we had all these tickets, and then they're putting them together, stapling them, and making packets all by hand.” Other examples included balloons, which look much different today than they did in 1969. “All of it was really fun, but a lot of hard work, especially for the props department.”
(ABC/John Fleenor)
“It takes a lot of coordination and time to make sure that we can work around the fact that we're a theme park,” added Chris “Shep” Sheppard, Vice President of Special Events and Broadcast Production for Disneyland. This screening and Q&A were aimed at an audience of Cast Members, and Shep was beaming over the way they represented the park. “I really love the pride that we take as Cast Members to where if you could see a skipper, or someone taking a picture, or the fact that we want the period piece to look like it did back then because we're so sticklers on detail. That was all done, and that's with the time and the effort of everybody working together.” Shep also related to Dean’s story in the episode, a boy who watches The Wonderful World of Disney every weekend and dreams of visiting the park for the first time. “I was like 13, and I saved money from cutting lawns, and I did almost the exact same thing,” Shep reflected on his upbringing in San Diego and his efforts to make his own dream of visiting Disneyland come true. Not only did he get there, but he knew upon his first visit that it was where he was meant to be.
When you see “The Happiest Place on Earth,” most of the hard work to make Disneyland look as it did in 1969 is practical. Period costumes, recreated ticket books, balloons, and popcorn buckets, and even the outfit Mickey Mouse wears had to be made by hand. But there is one digital bit of trickery in play. “We had to shoot this post-holiday, pre Disney100 overlay,” Kean Almryde recalled about the January shoot. “Unfortunately, they hadn't fully taken the snow caps off the castle. So the post-production team had to go in and digitally recreate what that castle looks like.”
(ABC/John Fleenor)
“It was a real pleasure to work with Disney Synergy and the archives, which helped us so much,” Aiyanna Trotter concluded. “I hope that the audience takes away what an incredible season it's been and how heartwarming it is and interesting and fun, and that they want to see a Season 3.”
Season 2 of The Wonder Years concludes on Wednesday, August 16th, with a double-episode finale starting at 9/8c on ABC. The Disneyland episode, titled “The Happiest Place on Earth,” airs at 9:30/8:30c. All previous Season 2 episodes of The Wonder Years are currently available to stream on Hulu. The complete second season will stream on Disney+ beginning Thursday, August 17th.