Studio Backlot Tour
Disney's Hollywood Studios · Streets of America
Overview
The Studio Backlot Tour was a tram-and-walking tour on Streets of America that took guests behind the scenes of a working movie studio backlot, passing wardrobe departments, prop warehouses, and vehicle graveyards from real film and TV productions. Its centerpiece was Catastrophe Canyon, a live special-effects sequence where the tram drove into a simulated flash flood, oil-rig explosion, and fire.
ParksLog verdict
The Backlot Tour is the attraction longtime Disney-MGM Studios fans mourn the most — it was the clearest embodiment of the park's original premise as a genuine working studio, and Catastrophe Canyon remains one of the most ambitious effects sequences Disney has retired. Losing it stung, but it made room for two of the park's biggest modern lands.
About this experience
Behind-the-scenes tram tour featuring working sets, props, and Catastrophe Canyon effects sequence.
Best for
- Guests who remember Catastrophe Canyon's flash-flood effect
- Fans of Disney-MGM Studios' original working-studio concept
- Park historians tracking the Streets of America backlot
Tips
- Its former footprint is now split between Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge and Toy Story Land
- It shared its backlot setting with Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show, also lost in the same expansion
Details
History
It opened with the park on May 1, 1989, as Disney-MGM Studios' anchor demonstration of genuine studio operations, later renamed simply the Studio Backlot Tour. It closed in 2014 as Disney began clearing Streets of America to make way for Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge and Toy Story Land.
Fun facts
- Catastrophe Canyon combined a simulated explosion, fire effects, and roughly 70,000 gallons of water per show