Hello from Malaysia! I'm still on vacation, but since when has that stopped me? | Today, I'll put on my company-man hat and do a little in-house promo. Regular readers probably know that I'm a sucker for industry scuttlebutt — and specifically entertainment industry scuttlebutt — which is why I'm especially excited about a new podcast project that Vulture's been cooking up. | Released under Vox Media's Land of the Giants banner, The Disney Dilemma is poised to ask big questions about the state of the titular conglomerate, which continues to be one of the most important American brands to ever exist. It's co-hosted by a quartet of my brilliant colleagues: Vulture's entertainment-industry columnist Joe Adalian, staff writer Rebecca Alter, film critic Bilge Ebiri, and senior reporter Chris Lee. (Side note: As you'll find in the first episode, Joe also happens to have a great Microphone Voice. Very smooth, like a Ricola.) | The season kicks off today, and to mark the occasion, we have a preview of what's to come in this issue from Vulture's editor in chief, Neil Janowitz. | Enjoying 1.5x Speed? Feel free to send this newsletter to your buds, and click here to read previous editions. And hey, feel free to write me anytime: nicholas.quah@vulture.com. | Want more recommendations from our critics? Subscribe now for unlimited access to Vulture and everything New York. | | | Illustration: Alex Kiesling | | "When I joined Disney, I took over as CFO. And it was a broken company. And I'd never really seen a broken company before." | That's how Gary Wilson, speaking early in the first episode of the new Vulture-Vox Media Podcast Network show Land of the Giants: The Disney Dilemma, characterizes his first impression of the ailing organization after becoming part of Disney CEO Michael Eisner's C-Suite in 1985. The company — the brand, really — had lost its way, creatively and financially, and Eisner and Co had been brought in to change course. | Where that would eventually lead Disney was a historic $19B acquisition of the media company Capital Cities/ABC in 1995. That deal turbocharged its TV production and broadcasting capabilities, laying the groundwork for the massive success of ABC, ESPN, and the Disney Channel. As former Disney TV executive Anne Sweeney describes it in The Disney Dilemma: | This was a seminal moment in the history of media because this is a studio buying a platform. They had broadcast, they had cable, and they had radio. And we've seen what's happened since, you know, the consolidation started, but I think there was a realization of controlling your destiny. | | | But before that could happen, Disney had to regain its focus. In the mid-1980s, the company's chief strategic officer Larry Murphy conducted some market research on the brand. As he notes in the episode, what he heard back provided all the insight they needed: | I've never seen anything like it. "Enthusiastic" is an understatement. People loved Disney. They loved the park experience. They loved the animated films. … It was the most effusive respect and love and appreciation for a brand you could imagine. … Almost every one of them said, in so many words, Disney is magic. … So what really drove the strategy going forward was: Is this magical or not? | | | How exactly Disney recreated that magic, reversed its fortunes, and became a TV juggernaut (owning ESPN helped) is the subject of The Disney Dilemma episode one: "Disney is a TV Company," hosted by our own TV reporter and Buffering columnist Joe Adalian. | You can listen wherever you get your podcasts — and be sure to subscribe so you don't miss any of the six-episode series, which will go on to explore Disney's theme parks (what happens when imagination is replaced with IP?), scuffling animation operation (what were they thinking with Wish?), studio acquisition successes and stumbles (why has Marvel mostly worked and Star Wars mostly not?), and more. Please keep your arms and legs inside at all times, we hope you enjoy the ride. | ➽ Speaking of Top Chef, fans of the genre will probably also enjoy TV Chef Fantasy League, which just joined the Maximum Fun network. As the title suggests, the show recaps reality cooking shows via fantasy sports rules, and it's hosted by comedians Mike Cabellon, Sierra Katow, and Ify Nwadiwe. They covered the recently concluded Top Chef: Wisconsin, and have since shifted to MasterChef: Generations. | ➽ A timely release, given the recent (horrifying) Biden-Trump debate: The Economist has a new six-part series about how the boomer generation messed up American politics. Naturally, it's called Boom! | ➽ Boy am I excited (tentative, cautious, nervous) for Longlegs. | ➽ Hope everybody's coping well with this wild, wild, heatwave that's been wafting across the country. | And that's a wrap for 1.5x Speed! Hope you enjoyed it. We're back next week, but in the meantime… | | | |
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