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[Ozark Outlaw]

I wish the employees that I work with had better attitudes about there jobs. They only seem to feel that  the company is out to do them wrong all the time.  And were in a high pay grade job, so I guess if you make close to minimal wage you are happier.

You bring up a really great point. The girl working at the aquarium performed a lot of mundane assignments, and yet she still had a great attitude about her job, and a terrific amount of enthusiasm. You just simply do not find that in most work places these days.

When you ask for help from other businesses, the employees will often grunt, moan, and whine about assisting a customer even though they are getting paid to do it.

The employees working for the Herschend company are truly great people! 

[History Buff]

I'm not really surprised. CBS is the network that brought us nine years of Touched By An Angel (which I watched religiously... pun intended Wink )

CBS also owns MTV, etc., which by far outweighs your one-hour drama that's been off the air for seven years.  I prefer to give the credit to HFE for keeping some creative control over the direction the show took.  The producers of the show could have easily edited it differently and played it for more drama than they did.  I think they like to keep this in a positive tone to appeal to the Extreme Makeover Home Edition crowd, but since it is still "reality" TV, they also like to give a jab to the bad guy.

I was glad that the only "mention" of Dollywood was a quick shot of Timber Tower; they didn't even mention the park by name. I liked that; SDC deserves the limelight, since without Marvel Cave and SDC, there wouldn't be an HFEC (more than likely).

That, too, was obviously by design.  The illusion is that Dolly owns and runs Dollywood.  They wouldn't want to burst that bubble.  At the same time, they were honest by actually showing a part of it.

A couple of other things that weren't on:  the other aquarium (though it was mentioned that another was out there) and the San Francisco Street Cars.

They could have really shown something negative by putting him in the parking lot!  Yuck.

[betamike]

Folks at the City like to see others grow and blossom.  I saw a lot of myself in Albert while watching this show.   When I started at the Candy Factory I sat down with June one day and told her how worried I was about the changing environment (and this was the early 90's!) and how scared I was that classic attractions that I held near and dear might be torn down to make way for newer rides.  I was primarily worried about Fire in the Hole among others.

She called up Cary Summers (CEO of SDC at the time) and thank God he was out of the office or else I would have had to express my concerns to him right there!  Instead, she had me write a letter and wouldn't you know it that a week later, I got a very nice hand written response from him expressing how he was also concerned about heritage and people like me who had grown up with the park and for me to keep the passion alive through being a citizen at the city.

It made me feel really good that people saw my concerns and help me follow through with them.

[KBCraig]

One other thing to mention about the editing: I would be very surprised if the three or four employees who make it to the final episode were the only ones the CEO spent time with.

[Coaster]

I loved the episode, and even though we all knew the employees who work for HFE are great, the people that have never heard of HFE got to know that they really are the friendliest company. We actually met Albert on Sunday and he was very pleasant, as the show portrayed. Like everyone else, I wish they would've shown more of the park.

SDC held an employee watch party Sunday night and several citizens were talking about it, saying how excited they were. Our server at Molly's Mill told us that she was so surprised that no one was able to recognize him since his picture is everywhere, on all the newsletters and everything.

I was kind of hoping that Joel would tell Albert that they were going to build his roller coaster design as well. 

[bthomas]

As a senior manager with a large coporation I dream of having associates like the ones featured during the show.  At lunch today I spent the entire time talking with other managers about the show and how nice it would be to have that type of attitude if in just a few of our employees.  That type of attitude comes from the top down.  It's good to see that values and morals of its founders are still alive and well in it's employees.  Makes me feel better about the future of this company.

[Ozark Outlaw]

I was kind of hoping that Joel would tell Albert that they were going to build his roller coaster design as well. 

Well, Albert did mention something about a rollercoaster that would incorporate Lake Silver, and as we all know they have cleared off a big area over there where the Waterboggan, and  Splash Harbor used to be.

[Zephon]

Well, I didn't watch the show Sunday night, instead DVRing it to watch later.  Much to my dismay, the show before it ran a half hour long, probably pushed back by some sporting event...NCAA basketball?  So, I had to go to CBS.com tonight to watch it in it's entirety.

General impressions: 
-I thought the show was wonderful, giving viewers a glimpse of the guts of HFEC. 
-I found it interesting to see some of the other operations and what they are all about.  I was initially skeptical when HFEC decided to acquire the Aquariums, but it seems that they are working out well for the company. 
-I think Joel gained some valuable insights on things that might be helpful for employees, particularly the child-care situation. 
-When it showed Joel in the boardroom talking to his executive team, I could not make a positive identification of anyone as being currently closely associated with SDC proper.  I do think that I might have seen Rick Todd, who used to work at the park many years ago, but has long since moved up the corporate ladder and out of the area.  And I think the woman was Jane Cooper, who was introduced to us at an orientation meeting several years ago, and now runs the basic operations of HFEC attractions, but she has never "worked" at any of them.  I would have expected to see Mike Hutcherson, who has a closer association with SDC, having been general manager until just a few years ago, and still resides in the area...but if he was there, I missed him.  Another person on Joel's team who has roots at the park would be Rick Baker, but I'm not sure if I saw him either.  Which leads me to a more general impression of leadership.  I'm very certain that all these people are well qualified and probably pretty nice, but without their "roots" being established at SDC, it's easy to see how some of the "flavor" that used to be SDC has been lost.  On the other hand, the corporation is a lot bigger than SDC now, so I guess it's to be expected.
-I also thought how wonderfully fortunate that the people that Joel got to "work" with just happened to be people with "hardship" stories.  Really now.  Heartwarming stories?  Yes.  Hand-picked?  Had to be.  General representation of the work force?  Not really.  The show painted such a rosy picture of HFEC that I'll bet we get a ton of applications now.  Yes, the company is great to work for, and management does indeed care, but most of the employees are just regular people...not in hardship, not getting rich, but making it okay, and living day to day.  Just like you guys and most of the people in this country.

Last impression...I enjoyed the show immensely.  But I think it was most helpful to Joel, who, not having come up through the ranks of the company, gained invaluable insight into what makes it work.  It seems that some of that insight has already led to good things for employees.  The child-care allotment, for example, and I did notice a harder push toward making people aware of the Share It Forward program during orientation this year.  I hope that even more and better things are in store for us in the near future.

[oldsdcer]

you  can also see the show on HULU.COM

[Zephon]

I was perusing the 1Branson.com forums today and came across a link to this very interesting article which sheds a little more light on the subject. 

http://www.bransondailynews.com/story.php?storyID=15167

[Coaster]

^Thanks for the link Zephon. Albert will definitely be a very popular man this summer.

[KBCraig]

That was great, Zephon. Shared on Facebook.

[haytater]

My favorite part of the show was watching Joel eat the El Charrito Mexican tv dinner in his hotel room. I wonder if he likes the rice because I hate it.

[Coaster]

I thought it was funny how Joel took the tip on the Branson Belle. 

[Ozark Outlaw]

My favorite part of the show was watching Joel eat the El Charrito Mexican tv dinner in his hotel room. I wonder if he likes the rice because I hate it.

Makes me wonder, did he REALLY eat it, or was it just for show?