Photo by Tony “WisebearAZ” Moore, 2001

Welcome to the Hollywood Pictures Backlot, as it was in 2001. Everything looks brand new because Disney’s California Adventure just opened earlier this year.

A pair of brass-colored elephants high atop columns flank a sign telling you this isn’t a street in Hollywood; it’s a studio backlot that only looks like a street until you look closer.

Photo by Tony “WisebearAZ” Moore, 2001

Hollywood Blvd.

Hollywood Blvd. looks like a simple asphalt street with a dashed yellow line down the center. There are no streetcar tracks. Most of the architecture is from around the 1930s, the Golden Age of Hollywood, but many of the signs and window displays egregiously contradict that period. If this Hollywood Blvd. is supposed to represent a particular period in the 20th century, it has failed.

Photo by Tony “WisebearAZ” Moore, 2001

ABC Soap Opera Bistro

To your right, the first building is the ABC Soap Opera Bistro, inspired by the 1937 Streamline Moderne-style Vine Street building that became the West Coast studios of the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) in the 1940s, first for radio and then for television.

Inside, you can have breakfast, lunch, or dinner in rooms that look like the settings of your favorite ABC daytime dramas, also know as soap operas.

Photo by Tony “WisebearAZ” Moore, 2001

Chance to Shine

You’re in luck. Three women are putting on a street show in the middle of Hollywood Blvd. Each is a background performer from a different Hollywood movie production — a Western with saloon scenes, a Carmen Miranda musical, and a sci-fi flick with silver-clad space aliens. Their terrific act is called Chance to Shine. Through song, improv, and audience interaction, they demonstrate the talent that they hope will propel them to stardom some day.

Photo by Tony “WisebearAZ” Moore, 2001

Store signs without stores

Nearby, a building features puns. Signs read “Gone With the Chin,” the “Plastic Surgery Center” of “Dr. Nipantuck,” whose is slogan is “We Never Tell,” and “The Souvenir Itch.” The names are based on two classic movies, Gone With the Wind (1939) and The Seven Year Itch (1955). The façade itself resembles a real drug store built in 1933 at the intersection of Hollywood Blvd. and Cahuenga Blvd.

Photo by Tony “WisebearAZ” Moore, 2001

Industrial atmosphere

As you turn the corner, it becomes obvious that this is nothing more than a false façade. It hides the side queue of Muppet*Vision 3D. Back here, things look downright industrial. That’s on purpose. After all, movie studios are essentially factories where movie are made.

Photo by Tony “WisebearAZ” Moore, 2001

Jim Henson’s Muppet*Vision 3D

Photo by Tony “WisebearAZ” Moore, 2001

Parking spaces and loadding zone in front of Muppet*Vision 3D

Unlike its Florida counterpart, this Muppet*Vision 3D doesn’t have a charming Miss Piggy fountain in front. It’s a faux industrial building with a faux parking lot. But inside, the theater auditorium matches the elegance of the Florida version.

Photo by Tony “WisebearAZ” Moore, 2001

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire – Play It! and Rizzo’s Prop & Pawn Shop

You can’t win a million dollars at Who Wants to Be a Millionaire – Play It!, but you can win a million points — redeemable for some valuable trips.

Rizzo’s Prop & Pawn Shop serves as the souvenir shop for guests exiting from Muppet*Vision 3D. A rat might feel at home around this backlot. There are all sorts of nooks and crannies, often filled with retired movie equipment and props.

Photo by Tony “WisebearAZ” Moore, 2001

Superstar Limo façade

The big ride — the only ride — back here is Superstar Limo. Some guests really like this ride. But not many.

Photo by Tony “WisebearAZ” Moore, 2001

Disneyland Mark V Monorail zipping behind the Superstar Limo façade

The exterior of Superstar Limo is a playful collection of Los Angeles landmarks. It might be the best part of the ride. Then again, this façade is completely out-of-place in a setting that’s supposed to make you feel as if you’re at a movie production lot. It looks more like something you’d find at a theme park built on a reduced budget — which is exactly what this is.

Photo by Tony “WisebearAZ” Moore, 2001

Props and chairs

There’s a lot of junk back here. The idea is that these are props ready to be moved into soundstages, or they have been abandoned after movies were completed. It’s also a low-budget way to dress up empty corners at a theme park.

Photo by Tony “WisebearAZ” Moore, 2001

A vehicle from Disneyland’s failed Rocket Rods ride

The Walt Disney Company likes to make movies based on its theme park IP. In 2001, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl is only a couple of years away from completion. Do you remember Rocket Rods — The Movie? Neither does anyone else.

Photo by Tony “WisebearAZ” Moore, 2001

Drinking fountains designed to look temporary

Sometimes the backlot theming works well. These drinking fountains look as if they’re being fed by water canisters hauled in during film production. The reality is that water supply and drainage use proper plumbing. Clever.

Photo by Tony “WisebearAZ” Moore, 2001

Ice Cold Refreshment Drive-in and Hollywood & Dine food court

Are you thirsty for something other than tap water? This drive-in looks like a place to buy refreshing beverages. A closer look reveals there’s an old car, some movie lights, and miscellaneous props in a structure that’s purportedly a set from a film featuring an early drive-in eatery. There’s also outside seating for Hollywood & Dine.

Photo by Tony “WisebearAZ” Moore, 2001

Two of the food counters inside Hollywood & Dine food court

Still thirsty? Hungry too? Not to worry… Head into Hollywood & Dine next door for “great tastes of Hollywood’s best bygone restaurants.” Choose from Don the Beachcomber, Wilshire Bowl, Villa Capri, and Schwab’s Pharmacy.

Photo by Tony “WisebearAZ” Moore, 2001

Hair and makeup trailer

Several trailers are scattered around. You aren’t able to enter them. Do they make you feel that you’re at a real film production facility?

Photo by Tony “WisebearAZ” Moore, 2001

Promoting the live-action 101 Dalmatians movie

Why look! They’re doing makeup for another 101 Dalmatians movie. Who knew that that puppies were played by human children?

Photo by Tony “WisebearAZ” Moore, 2001

Steps in Time at the Hyperion Theater

You’ve now reached the 2,000-seat Hyperion Theater, the crown jewel of the Hollywood Pictures Backlot. The show that’s playing is a song-and-dance musical, Steps in Time, in which a mini-skirted fairy godmother named Vera helps two feuding young brothers by presenting a series of production numbers set to updated arrangements of songs from Disney movies.

If you want to see it, don’t wait. It’s going to close permanently on October 14, 2001. (That wasn’t the original plan.)

Photo by Tony “WisebearAZ” Moore, 2001

Parking lot view

After waiting outside for the doors to open, you might get a great view of the Timon parking lot as you climb the exterior stairs to your seating section.

Photo by Tony “WisebearAZ” Moore, 2001

Grand finale

Are you enjoying the show?

This is actually the second version of Steps in Time. Preview audiences before the official grand opening of Disney’s California Adventure reacted so negatively that the show was quickly reworked. That’s when the storyline with the two brothers and Vera was added.

You’ve spent some time at the Hollywood Pictures Backlot. Now you still have the rest of the park to explore. Head over to Golden State and Paradise Pier.

Disney’s California Adventure has changed dramatically since its grand opening on February 8, 2001. Arguably, the section that’s changed the least is Hollywood Pictures Backlot. Although the name changed to Hollywood Land and all the shows, attractions, and restaurants mentioned in this article are gone, the layout and buildings are still similar.

It’s as if the Disney executives had been holding back major funding, knowing something really big would happen.

Artist Concept Only © 20th Century Studios

Avatar Experience

According to Disney’s D23 on June 12, 2025, “The Hollywood Backlot area of Disney California Adventure is set to get a makeover when the lush world of Pandora from Avatar.“ This answered the question of where the previously announced Avatar section would be squeezed into Disney California Adventure.

It remains to be seen how much of Hollywood Land survives, which existing structures will be repurposed for Avatar, and what will be demolished.

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Updated August 15, 2025