Totally Fun Company
Peter Alexander mixes business with pleasure to create amusement park attractions

By Jim Riley
Tribune Staff Writer
Clearwater

Stepping around the toy Batmobiles and Bat-skiboats and movie paraphernalia on desks and counters and coffee tables in his offices, Peter Alexander points to a large, framed photographs lining the walls of the Totally Fun Company.

"There's the Penguin freezing a guy". Alexander says, smiling proudly at scenes from the Batman-themed stunt show his company produces for an amusement park. "Here's Catwoman fighting and evil henchman."

Alexander, company founder and president, darts to another photo.

"At this moment in the show the Batmobile has just crashed into the Penguin's Arctic Enterprises and blown it up, " he explains.

"These Batmen are also great motorcyclists, and what they can do is do wheelies and blow up bad guys and so on and so forth, which is cool."

Alexander is 46, and he's still having fun.

With a background at Universal Studios, where he helped create rides such as "King Kong Kongfrontation" and "Back to the Future", Alexander struck out on his own and started a company based in a small downtown Clearwater office.

While employees elsewhere only wish they could work for a totally fun company, Alexander has adopted it as his firm's name, as well as it's attitude.

Alexander got his start in California, where during his college days in the late 1960's he designed graphics for a Los Angeles news show. He later wrote scripts for IMAX theater adventure films, then landed a job with Walt Disney Co.

His task was to brief the Disney executive committee on construction progress at Disney's theme parks, Alexander said. To do that, he had to hang around with engineers and artists, the "old guys who were like Walt's henchmen," and asked how they did everything.

"It was like the world's greatest education," Alexander said.

But while Disney was a pretty nice place to work, it wasn't totally fun all the time.

"We would get into some very loud arguments about what a talking pineapple would say, "Alexander recalled.

Coming Attractions

Leaving Disney, he moved to Universal Studios about the time it was planning its Orlando theme park. He worked as a vice president for attraction development and as executive producer and co-creator for several shows and attractions.

He shares credit for rides including the King Kong encounter, "E.T. Adventure" and "Back to the Future."

The original concept for Universal Studios Florida was patterned closely after the Universal Studios park in California, which evolved from a studio tour.

But to draw visitors more into the experience - and compete on Disney's level - the stunt shows needed pyrotechnics and the rides needed to be bigger, Alexander said.

"King Kong in L.A. was a tram drive-through, I said, Guys, that's not going to be good enough," Alexander said.

Joining the push to get Universal Studios Florida to think big was Steven Spielberg, a creative consultant to the park whom Alexander hadn't seen for years - since they attended college together.

Universal executives agreed, with one result being an elaborate re-creation of the Roosevelt Island Tramway where a giant, mechanical Kong shakes up visitors in a gondola.

As executive producer for various attractions and shows, Alexander said, he was "the creative guy," working with eight producers and dozens of coordinators and directors ona staff that hit 250 at its peak.

There was one big problem, however.

"We didn't get it done on time, and yet it opened anyway," Alexander said. "The first day it didn't work half as well as we'd hoped."

The day was June 7, 1990, the Hollywood stars where out in force and 10 of the rides at the $630 million park worked flawlessly, But three high-profile attractions - "Jaws", "Kongfrontation" and "Earthquake" - performed sporadically at best.

When rides malfunctioned and visitors complained, Universal Studios Florida was savaged in the press. It was a shock to Alexander, who said the Los Angeles media was more forgiving when things went wrong at the original Universal Studios.

"I think that was the most frustrating period of my time (at Universal) - that six months until we got it all fixed," he said.

Redemption came in the form of the "Back to the Future" ride, which Alexander said he also helped create.

"They learned their lesson, and they didn't open it except for previews until it was absolutely 100 percent, " he said. "That one really turned the park around."

Flying solo

Alexander left Universal and started the Totally Fun Company in 1991, first producing kids' shows for Nickelodeon, then becoming the primary producer of live stunt shows for the Six Flags amusement parks around the nation.

Time Warner Entertainment Co., which owns Six Flags Theme Parks Inc., also owns the rights to numerous movies. So Six Flags bases live shows on Time Warner's movies much as Universal Studios based rides on it's movies.

Totally Fun will operate 13 productions in 1994, including the "Batman Live Stunt Show," "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves Stunt Show", "Dennis the Menace Screen Test Show", "Police Academy Goes to the Beach", and "Warner Music Rock Revue."

Six Flags hired Totally Fun because of Alexander's work with Hollywood-style shows at Universal, said Six Flags spokeswoman Eileen Harrell. "He was really well-known asnd one of the best producers in the business."

The pattern with most of his work is to start with a movie framework and draw in the audience.

What we're really doing is making them three-dimensional and audience-interactive", Alexander said.

In the "Police Academy" stunt show, for example, and audience member is plucked from his or her seat to become a cadet. Other visitors are splashed with a stuntman rides and all terrain vehicle into a pool.

The "Back to the Future" ride at Universal is one of Alexander's favorites because its wraparound video screen and tilting floor - much like a flight simulator - pulls the visitor into the experience so completely.

He also has looked into "virtual reality", which some industry observers predict will become the next wave in amusement parks.

Early versions of virtual reality, available at some video arcades, allow visitors to put on a mask and glove and become immersed in a computer-generated environment.

"I'm making up ideas based on that, but I'm going to use other mediums", Alexander said.

"The whole thing is to immerse people in an environment that is three dimensional and bring movie storytelling off the screen", he said, so participants can make choices that control the story plot.

He won't say what rides he's planning, but I'm going to use other mediums", Alexander said.

"The whole thing is to immerse people in an environment that is three-dimensional and bring movie storytelling off the screen", he said, so participants can make choices that control the story plot.

He won't say what rides he's planning, but they may resemble his "Back to the Future" attraction, which uses video images rather than computer-generated graphics.

Building rides again- big ones- in a sense would bring things full circle for Alexander.

When Totally Fun signed on with Six Flags, the workload was too much and Alexander had to drop his association with Nickelodeon. Today, the Clearwater company could handle all that and more, Alexander said. "Now we're all organized properly.

The Totally Fun staff hits about 300 during summer stage productions, including actors and crew members needed to put on the shows. After September, the staff shrinks back to its core 16 members, and brainstorming begins on new ideas.

"We're fortunate that we're able to organize this in a very sane fashion so everyone has a good time", Alexander said. "Because it should be totally fun."

Peter Alexander is the man behind "Warner Rock", Totally Fun Company's most recent creation. The show opens this month at Six Flags Over Texas in Dallas