In the years since Michael Eisner concluded his tenure as CEO and chairman of the Walt Disney Company, his appreciation amongst fans of the brand and casual followers of the company has grown in estimation and importance. This isn’t just nostalgia either, it’s looking back at the sum of what he accomplished and his complete transformation of a studio that was, at the time, more a mom-and-pop operation than a global juggernaut.
Now, Eisner has granted a rare longform interview with Emmy-winning journalist Graham Besinger. The conversation veers from his childhood and family life growing up to his managerial style (yes, he’s still defending his micro-management style) to working with folks like Rupert Murdoch, Barry Diller and Harvey Weinstein (whom Eisner described as “a pig”). You can also learn the decision Steven Spielberg made to lessen the budget on “Raiders of the Lost Ark” that became an iconic facet of the franchise.
Highlights from this episode of “In Depth with Graham Besinger” are suggestions that Jimmy Kimmel, whom Eisner publicly supported, should go after both political parties equally (“You can certainly be critical and have an edge but you should be that way with everybody”) as well as the exec’s dealings with Steve Jobs, former owner of Pixar. “He was clearly one of the most creative people ever in understanding simplicity and marketing and enough technology to be, in the best way, dangerous. He did not really know about Pixar,” Eisner opines.
Eisner also weighed in on the current state of the company and said that he was the one who suggested Bob Iger take over for him. “He was not the board’s first choice in the beginning,” he said.
Last week, Besinger released a clip with Eisner of the pair on the Disney lot. Eisner talked about the architects he brought to the company during his tenure, which the New York Times at the time described as an architectural movement called “Disney Deco.” The flagship building, known as Team Disney Burbank, was built by Eisner-favorite Michael Graves and is known known as the Michael Eisner Building. Watch it below.
Eisner’s legacy is a complicated one, full of high highs and nearly subterranean lows. He was ultimately ousted by Roy E. Disney, Walt’s nephew, amidst a campaign known as “Save Disney.” But when he was brought into the company in 1984, with Frank Wells, it was following a greenmail attempt by corporate raiders that would have effectively demolished the Disney company, with various divisions sold for scraps. Eisner and Wells not only unified the company but they brought back its floundering animation unit, beefed up its theme parks (including the borderline disastrous decision to open a park outside of Paris) and invested in new avenues like home video, which had yet to truly be explored.
It was a wild, heady time, and this interview beautifully looks back at who Eisner is as a leader and what his accomplishments have been both at the company and beyond (be warned – there is a lot of soccer talk).
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