In 1980, Ron Miller was elected President of Walt Disney Productions and in 1983, became the Chief Executive Officer of Walt Disney Productions. On September 7, 1984 he was forced to tender his resignation even though he was Walt Disney’s son-in-law.
Miller, who had married Walt’s daughter Diane, had been with the Disney Studios since the mid-1950s and had directed some of Walt Disney’s lead-ins for the popular weekly television program as well as co-producing some of the studio’s film hits.
When Michael Eisner and Frank Wells came to the Walt Disney Company in 1984, they were regarded as saviors who rescued the company from Miller, who was characterized as a dumb football jock who had brought the once-powerful film company to the brink of destruction.
However, Miller was responsible for the creation of The Disney Channel, funded Disney’s first Broadway show ( Total Abandon with Richard Dreyfuss in 1983), gave a young Tim Burton an opportunity to experiment, acquired the rights and put into development Roger Rabbit against the wishes and advice of other Disney executives, and initiated Disney’s first attempts in computer animation, among other accomplishments. Certainly, these early efforts laid the foundation for later successes for the Disney Company.
Miller was also responsible for starting a separate film label, Touchstone, to handle subject matter that might not have been appropriate for the more family-oriented brand of Walt Disney Pictures. The story of the creation of Touchstone is just one of the examples of Miller’s struggles to keep the Disney Company a pioneer in the entertainment industry.
“We believe that, fairly or unfairly, we were stereotyped as to the kind of film we would consider for production and so there were a lot of very good scripts that we never had the opportunity to see. Kramer Vs. Kramer, On Golden Pond, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Ordinary People, Wargames and of course, E.T. and several other award winning films,” said Miller in a 1984 interview. “We would have been prevented from doing those films under the Disney banner for a variety of reasons, including language, intensity, adult situations and violence. Yet, they are all excellent films of very high quality. We believe that will definitely change with Touchstone and we will attract a broader range of production and creative talent for future filmmaking efforts.”
Some claim that the origins of Touchstone Pictures can be traced to the release of The Black Hole in 1979, a science fiction film that received a PG (rather than the traditional Disney G) rating. Over the next few years, other Disney PG films including Tron, Never Cry Wolf and Trenchcoat sparked controversy over the subject matter and approach to the subject matter.
“To the average movie-goer, the name Disney has special meaning, imagery and identification,” explained Miller. “The Walt Disney name is probably the most definitive and, at the same time, the most highly favorable of any of the motion picture companies with respect to unsurpassed family oriented entertainment of the highest quality. However, the strength of the Disney association with fine family entertainment can have a pronounced adverse effect on our ability to broaden our marketing and production horizons. I believe that some very fine Disney films in recent years, with more adult themes, have faltered at the box office because of it. For example, films like Night Crossing, Tex and Tron. Also, as I have said previously, Touchstone will allow us to maintain the inherent strength of the Disney tradition without tampering with the legacy.”
The controversy that swirled around the content and approach of those films helped spark the creation of Touchstone Pictures.
“After a review of thousands of possible names, we selected Touchstone because it represents a criterion for determining quality or genuiness of a thing,” said Miller. One title considered for the new company was “Hyperion Pictures,” named after the location of the Disney Studio in the 1930s before the move to Burbank.
Touchstone’s first release was Splash in 1984 and was a huge hit for the studio. However, the film included very brief nudity, mild adult language, and situations that would have been completely inappropriate in a Disney Pictures release.
“People think we have been in the doldrums for ages and ages. We were making pictures that people thought were corny and old-fashioned, like the Love Bug movies. But they were very profitable and that’s the name of the game—We were actually afraid to move ahead, afraid of introducing things into a Disney picture that might be frowned upon by certain members of society. But society changes—I’ve received a handful of letters saying that I did the wrong thing (making Splash), that I’m putting Disney in the gutter—I don’t want to forget Disney values—in fact we can’t forget it. If we had made Splash a year from now, I would say that Splash would be considered a Disney film—Touchstone means films that will be very sensitive, very hard and very dramatic. The perfect example is Country with Jessica Lange and Sam Shepard. It’s a powerful film, and I think it is fantastic,” stated Miller.
When pressed about whether this meant that Disney would create an R-rated film, Miller responded, “We will never intentionally set out to make an R-rated motion picture. Of course, we don’t determine the ratings of our pictures. It’s done by an independent board. However, it is conceivable that some future Touchstone films might warrant such a rating. Our decision on potential ‘R’ content will be governed by the appropriateness of such content to the plot and storyline and the tastefulness of its presentation. The use of such elements in a Touchstone film must be fully integrated into and flow meaningfully from the basic plot structure, rather than be exploitive in nature.”
One reason for Miller to create a separate film brand was his memory of watching the film To Kill a Mockingbird with Walt Disney and at the end of the film Walt sighing that he wished the Disney Studio could make a film like that but it wouldn’t fit with the type of films audiences expected of Disney.
“I worked closely with Walt on 10 motion pictures and I feel I knew him as well or better than most people did. While we know that Walt loved creating entertainment for the whole family, he was first and foremost a very good businessman. He always thought of Walt Disney Productions as a major movie studio operation. We don’t think he would have wanted us to give up that role in the industry,” emphasized Miller. “We don’t see the change we contemplate as being destructive to quality and good entertainment values from Disney. As I said earlier, all business must adapt to their changing markets. Touchstone represents a subtle change in our posture in the film industry, not a revolutionary one.”
Finally, Miller summarized, “There is certainly no reason for the public to think Touchstone represents any kind of change in the entertainment environments of our theme parks, or in any other Disney enterprise. We are no different from any other corporation with diversified interests that include the movie industry. We believe we have a right to be taken seriously by the movie-going public, and to do that we must challenge ourselves to be competitive with the best the industry has to offer in film entertainment. We have a need to expand our market and no studio can survive in today’s environment without being willing to change and take careful risks.”
Six months after making these statements, Ron Miller was out of a job. Within the next few years, Touchstone released such films as Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Ruthless People, The Color of Money, Adventures in Babysitting, Three Men and a Baby, Good Morning, Vietnam, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
