Inside the Magic

Inside the Magic is a podcast relating to anything and everything from The Walt Disney Company. Based in Orlando, Florida, the show is hosted by Ricky Brigante, a Winter Garden, Florida resident. The show is released weekly on Sundays, and consists of news, reviews, feedback, and contests related to all Disney Parks and beyond.
History
The program began on April 13, 2005. When it began, Inside the Magic was only the second Disney podcast (official or not) on the Internet and the first to be recorded out of Orlando.
For the first 3 shows, Inside the Magic was released on Wednesdays. However, the schedule of its host quickly mandated the shift of the show's schedule to Sundays instead. The first Sunday show came out on May 1, 2005. A new show has been released every Sunday since then.
The first contest took place on Episode #12 and the answer and winner was revealed on Episode #13.
A major shift in the flow of Inside the Magic occurred in show #17. For whatever reason, this show marked the beginning of the new sound of this podcast. Up until this point, Ricky Brigante had used a much less enthusiastic voice in his hosting. The style and delivery have remained the same ever since.
Skipper Ben, a former Disney World cast member who worked at Muppet Vision 3D and the Jungle Cruise, started as co-host of Inside the Magic in show #18 (August 7, 2005). He hosts the weekly Crusin' Around the World segment which he talks about his views on current Disney news, stories about his trips to the parks(including his Disney wedding), his career as a cast member, listener voted on Top 3 countdowns and question and answer segments.
Inside the Magic headed to Disneyland in Anaheim, California for the first time for shows #21 and #22. This was the first time that a single episode of Inside the Magic topped an hour in length.
Show #37 brought the very first Inside the Magic video podcasts (or vidcasts), which depicted some Christmas-time scenes at Epcot.
Show #39 debuted the yearly "'EAR' In Review" with Paul Barrie of the Window To The Magic Podcast. These shows talk about the year that the Walt Disney Company has had and what to look forward to in the next year. Show #91, Show #143 Show #195, and show #247 have been the "'EAR' In Review" for 2006, 2007 2008, and 2009 respectfully.
The above-mentioned Expedition Everest ride videos were released with show #41 and were the first videos of this new attraction to hit the Internet. They spread wildly across Disney and roller-coaster fan web sites.
Show #54 featured the return of Paul Barrie to the Inside The Magic podcast to discuss the recent change in Mission:Space from having just one experience to having two experiences in the orange(intense) and green(less intense) training.
Shows #54-9 Ricky talked about his experiences creating a Monsters, Inc. based dark ride for the Walt Disney ImagiNations competition.
Show #65 Paul Barrie returned once again to discuss the changes in the Pirates of the Caribbean which changed for both Disneyland and Magic Kingdom.
Show #67 had the long anticipated interview with the creator of Virtual Toad, Spencer Cook. Virtual Toad was a project to recreate the long-lost Magic Kingdom attraction Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.
Starting with show #69, Inside the Magic created an "Enhanced Podcast" for users of iTunes and iPod. They were put together by Tasel, one of the listeners, and the shows were released Monday (a day after the regular shows.) They are no longer produced on any regular basis as it is a tedious process for a weekly hour and a half show.
Starting with show #76 the "Enhanced Podcast" includes the video podcast.
Show #82 brought a special Halloween treat for Inside The Magic when Ricky interviewed Kat Cressida who voiced the new black widow bride at Disneyland's Haunted Mansion as well Jessie the yodeling cowgirl in various video games.
Show #88 brought Inside The Magic to Mousefest. For the first time ever ITM was live from the Magic Kingdom just outside the Haunted Mansion. Many fans of the show gathered for a ride on the Haunted Mansion then a special live Disney news week. Ricky and fans took part talking about the news from around the world. After the show the group headed off for Ricky's favorite food (Disney World Chicken Strips) at the Columbia Harbour House.
Show #94 brought the announcement of a new DVD line for Inside The Magic called ITM DVD. The first DVD was the Wonders of Life. This DVD takes you on a walking tour of the Wonders of Life pavilion, stopping at its most popular and cherished attractions including Body Wars, Cranium Command, and Goofy About Health. Ricky filmed the whole DVD himself and is one of the only fan made DVDs of the wonders of life since it has now closed. It seemed that Ricky enjoyed putting the DVD together has during the Cranium Command show of the DVD Ricky can be heard quietly laughing at certain parts of the show. Ricky also stops at many parts of the whole pavilion showing certain parts of it from the inside and out.
Show #100 was a historic milestone for the podcast, and Ricky, the host, created a "ride" through the previous 99 shows featuring Skipper Ben, Mark and Paul Barrie.
Show #114 was a milestone show as Ricky was only featured for a few minutes of the show due to winning the Disneyland Dream Job contest where he worked at Disneyland as a Haunted Mansion butler. Skipper Ben hosted his first and so-far only edition of Inside The Magic.
Show #115 had a round table discussion between Ricky and various other Dream Job contest winners about their experience as a temporary cast members at the Disneyland resort. The experiences of Ricky and Dream Job contest winners became the next subject of the second ITM DVD. The DVD was a short released DVD to raise fund for a reunion of the Dream Job contest winners later in 2007.
Show #125 had two segments converge as Mark Pearce's Inside Disney History and Announcer Jay's Behind Disney Magic combined to tackle the Spectro Magic parade. After that the two segments would merge into Backstage Pass which would become a staple segment for ITM.
Show #126 is the official debut of Mark and Jay's Backstage Pass entitled "The Power of Stun!" looking at DinoLand section through the form of a game show.
Show #127.5 was a special edition of Inside The Magic released on September 13, 2007 as the Magic Kingdom's Haunted Mansion re-opened from its refurbishment. It was a binaural ride through of the new mansion including the stretching room.
Show #130 was a special show released on Tuesday October 2, 2007 to mark the twenty-fifth anniversary of Epcot. It featured the special Illuminations presentation that has only been done for the twenty-fifth anniversary.
Show #140 Inside The Magic returned to Mousefest. This time around the fans joined Ricky at Turtle Talk With Crush for Ricky's first viewing of the attraction.
Show #145 featured the first-ever rope dropped for the rechristened Disney Hollywood Studios as well as Skipper Ben introducing the listeners to cast member terminology.
Shows #152-4 featured interview segments with the top 10 Disney Chief Magic Official (or CMO for short) candidates. All but one had equal time on the show throughout the three weeks as the one who did not did not get in contact with Ricky to take part in equal time.
Show #159 featured an interview with the three CMO candidates outside of the Beach Club Resort.
Show #159b was another special show released on Tuesday April 22, 2008 in honor of the tenth anniversary of Disney's Animal Kingdom. It featured interviews with Joe Rhode and Dr. Jane Goodall.
Show #163 featured the grand opening of Toy Story Mania in Disney Hollywood Studios.
Shows #164 & #169 Jay and Mark do a two part Backstage Pass dedicated to Indiana Jones entitled Kingdom of the Crystal Palace.
Show #193 featured the third Inside The Magic Mousefest meet at the Rivers of America. Ricky had a trivia contest based around Frontierland and Liberty Square before going on board to tour around Tom Sawyer Island on the Mark Twain Riverboat. After that Ricky talked about the new Kim Possible World Showcase Adventure in Epcot and a tour he took for the American Idol Experience.
Show #262 in honor of Inside the Magic's 5th Anniversary, took viewers to ITM-Con, a free-for-all virtual convention hosted by Ricky.
More information
This podcast is best known around the Internet for its coverage of Disney's E-Ticket attraction, Expedition Everest. Inside the Magic released the first videos onto the world wide web of the long-anticipated Disney's Animal Kingdom attraction.
Inside the Magic has been ranked as high as #1 on the iTunes Podcast Directory's Family category. It was also briefly featured as "Fan Favorite" on the main iTunes Podcast Directory section.
Spin-Offs
The Daily Dose of Disney Podcast began when Inside the Magic host Ricky Brigante decided that a daily Disney podcast was needed to complement the weekly release of Inside the Magic. This podcast ended on Friday, March 31, 2006 when it became too time-consuming.
Brigante and a Matt Roseboom launched Orlando Attractions Magazine in the Fall of 2007, a bi-monthly print publication dedicated to news and reviews of not only the Disney theme parks, but all other Florida-based attractions including Universal Studios Florida and SeaWorld. In early 2010 Brigante sold his portion of the magazine to Roseboom.
In October 2008, Brigante introduced "ParkTunes.com" which celebrates music played in the Disney theme parks. A few complaints about the site much of the information is erroneous and only links to compensated iTunes or Amazon sites whether the songs are played in the parks or not, however it is one of the few ways to legally find ambient music that is played through the parks.
Backstage Pass
After show #125's converging of Mark Pearce's Inside Disney History and Announcer Jay's Behind Disney Magic for a segment based around SpectroMagic, the two segments permanently merged into one segment called Backstage Pass. From Show #126 until #151 the segment was weekly and since show #156, it has been monthly on the last show of the month.
Show #126 featured "The Power of Stun!" looking at DinoLand section through the form of a game show.
Show #127 featured information on the Epcot attraction Soarin'.
Show #129 brought the infamous show based on Disney's fireworks in which Jay became Tinkerbell during Wishes.
Shows #147 & 148 is the first ever two-part Backstage Pass based around the Walt Disney World Railroad. It was done in the style of a radio drama straight out of the 1930s.
Shows #164 & #169 Jay and Mark do a two part Backstage Pass dedicated to Indiana Jones entitled Kingdom of the Crystal Palace and featured a villain from Backstage Pass's past.
Show #195 was the first time Backstage Pass was released as separate podcast.
Awards
In July 2006, Inside the Magic was nominated for two Podcast Awards in the categories of 'Best Produced' and 'Entertainment'. It lost to MuggleCast in the 'Entertainment' category and to The Signal in the 'Best Produced' category.
In July 2007, Inside the Magic was nominated again for 'Best Produced' category, but lost again to Firefly Talk.
Inside the Magic was nominated for its fourth and fifth awards in November 2009, but didn't win any.

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