no more wonderful world for eisner

According to a Yahoo News (via IMDB, of course) article posted about three hours ago (from my writing this), Michael Eisner just severed all ties with Disney. Now, without knowing too much about what was actually going on, I was one of those people who was glad to see him resign as CEO of Disney. I also haven't watched "The Wonderful World of Disney" for about five years, but I do remember the first time I'd heard of Eisner was when he did the intro bit for the new version that came out probably about ten years ago.

"Hi, I'm Michael Eisner. Welcome to the wonderful world [pause] of Disney." If you've watched "The Wonderful World of Disney" enough times, you can probably hear him say it in your head. I spent four or five years watching almost every Sunday night, so everytime I hear anything about Eisner, this phrase pops up. There was just something about the way he said it, all clipped and formal, that I found irritating and repetitive--but I heard it so much it was almost a part of my Sunday night. Then I went to college, and ABC moved Wonderful World to Saturdays, sometimes replacing it with the usual Saturday night movie, and I didn't really think about it too much anymore. I'd seen all the Disney movies I wanted to see in the theaters, none of my favorite late 90s sitcom actors were contracted to do any more made-for-Disney/ABC tv movies anymore, and I had basic cable in my dorm room.

I'm still bitter about the way he handled negotiations with Pixar, but I suppose if he's been there for 21 years, he probably had something to do with the initial relationship in the first place.