Trivia / The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror

• California Doubling:
  • For the Florida and Paris versions as the Tower is themed to be located smack dab in the middle of Hollywood, California. Was somewhat justified with the California version. These versions are nonetheless all placed in Hollywood themed lands, with Florida's being the flagship anchor attraction of Sunset Boulevard, while Paris's version is in the Production Courtyard.
  • Tokyo's Tower is set in New York City.
• Life Imitates Art: Invoked in the Florida attraction as the exterior is equipped with lightning rods on the roof not only for safety but also to add to its theming.
• The Merch: The gift shops have extensive amounts of Twilight Zone collectibles like movies, books, DVDs and action figures of the series' icons, including the Gremlin from "Nightmare at 20,000ft."
• Serendipity Writes the Plot: The U.S. versions of the tower are specifically 199 feet tall (and not 200 or more) due to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations that buildings at least 200 feet tall must have red beacons on their tops as anti-crash aids for airplane pilots, as such beacons would look out of place on buildings meant to be designed like 1930s hotels.
• The Other Darrin: When the original version of the ride was built in Florida, the park Imagineers felt that for it to feel like an authentic Twilight Zone experience, they needed Rod Serling as the narrator, even though he'd passed away in 1975. So they got a sound-alike, Mark Silverman, who was selected through a blind audition that was held with cooperation from Serling's widow. This was combined with digitally edited footage of Serling's appearance in "It's a Good Life", which was synchronized with Silverman's voice while the background is digitally replaced to make it look like an authentic Serling narration.^note The original background was Serling standing in front of a map of the United States, saying, "Tonight's story on The Twilight Zone is somewhat unique and calls for a different kind of introduction. This, as you may recognize, is a map of the United States, and there's a little town there called Peaksville..." The altered background is of the maintenance elevator you're riding, with Silverman speaking over Serling up until "map", at which point we cut to all new footage while Silverman continues speaking
• Throw It In!: At the Florida version, the "lost and found," which is where guests see their photos after the ride, was originally the break area when the attraction was being built. One of the items in the back is a jar of pickled sausages. That was actually the lunch for one of the imagineers, who forgot about it and the next day, the decorators assumed it was part of the setting and so sealed it to the table.
• Uncredited Role: Justified due to the logistics of theme park attractions, but the pre-show video was directed by Joe Dante. Seen here in this video.
• What Could Have Been
  • When the original ride was first being conceived, developers knew they wanted a horror-themed attraction to appeal to older, mature crowds. Many movie tie-ins were considered including popular Slasher Movies of the time such as A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Try to imagine any one of those franchises working in a Disney Theme Park^note Though ironically, Disney now owns the rights to the Alien and Predator franchises, among other horror films, with their purchase of Creator/20thCenturyFox in 2019.
  • Originally, Mel Brooks of all people was heavily involved in the early stages of the ride as it was planned to be a comedic horror-themed tour through an abandoned hotel called "Hotel Mel" with Brooks providing a narration. Brooks' classic film, Young Frankenstein (1974) was also considered for a theme.
  • A tour through a haunted venue narrated by Vincent Price was also pitched. Price later ended up being the original voice of the Phantom in Phantom Manor.
  • Early in the attraction's development, there was consideration of making it an actual hotel that people could stay at. Naturally, having the constant screams of guests on a thrill ride went against the idea of a hotel being a place for rest and relaxation, so it was scrapped.
  • There had been plans in Paris for a version of the ride known as Geyser Mountain where the elevator drop ride would be set in a gold mine. It would've essentially been Big Thunder Mountain Railroad but with the Tower of Terror's infrastructure rather than a runaway train.
  • Originally, Paris was supposed to get their Tower of Terror before California's did. In fact, they were so anticipating that their Tower would come first that they already had a vacant plot of land in the middle of the park laid out for it, and an isolated coffee shop with the archway for the future main entrance already built. But when California Adventure underperformed and desperately needed an attraction to bring in crowds, Disney had to fast-track the plans for Paris's Tower of Terror and plopped it in California. Had California Adventure performed with the attendance numbers Disney had originally forecasted for the park, the Disneyland Resort would've revived the Geyser Mountain version of the ride and put that in Frontierland at Disneyland Park.
  • Pitch artwork for a cancelled reboot film from 2015 posted on the Innteresting Newsletter show a time travel take on the material where the haunted elevator leads to different points of history ranging from prehistory to the 1930s and the future, suggesting the Fifth Dimension is time and the victims of the elevator incident were scattered across history.
  • Initial concepts for the Tower would have made it a lot taller, but international aviation-safety standards mandate that structures 200 feet tall or higher have to sport a flashing red warning light at their tips. As such a light would've conflicted with the Tower's dilapidated theming, the finished ride stands at 199 feet, 11 inches.
  • Tokyo Disney Sea's version of the ride was originally going to be a clone of the US version...until the Imagineers discovered that The Twilight Zone isn't well-known in Japan, leading to the entirely original storyline of an eccentric explorer's hotel being made instead.

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