As much as the existence of Walt Disney's Disneyland had the ulterior motive of selling the eventual theme park to audiences during its first nine months of existence (the first episode aired on October 27, 1954; Disneyland opened its doors on July 17, 1955 ), the show had a different ulterior motive in the show: Disney needed additional funding to complete the park and was essentially hoping that any network that airs his show will help bring the park to the finish line. The eventual winner was ABC, although it should be noted that this was four decades before a much different and larger version of the Walt Disney Company bought ABC. At the time, Disney signed deal to do 21 hour-long episodes of the anthology series per season for three seasons, though the terms of the deal will eventually change. (The first season alone, which aired before the opening of Disneyland, produced 21 episodes. Future seasons ran between 26 and 30 episodes, and the TV series eventually ended up airing, initially, seven seasons on ABC.)

From the outside in, the idea of ​​"Walt Disney's Disneyland" was quickly established in its opening montage, making it clear that the episodes were divided into one of four groups: Adventureland, Fantasyland, Frontierland, and Tomorrowland. Eventually, those two-word groups will turn into one word each, corresponding to the corresponding land in the Disneyland park. And because television was still so new and so easy to experiment with, and because Disney only had so much money, the first season managed to set the tone for the next 10 or so seasons led by Walt Disney (before his death in 1966 ) while also leveraging the studio's previous work. While the series premiere was aptly titled The Disneyland Story, which was intended to encompass the park while reminding audiences of the many beloved characters that populate Disney stories, future episodes presented condensed versions of Disney films. (Literally, the second episode, broadcast on November 3, 1954, is a shortened version of the 1951 animated film Alice in Wonderland.) The Disneyland Story is, as a premiere, aware that what it's describing is brand new, and giving audiences a peek behind the curtain of how the park was built and how movies are made in general was a bit of a bonus. Even before Disney is unveiled and unveils a giant map of what Disneyland will look like when it opens, we get behind-the-scenes looks at the production of Disney's first blockbuster, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and early live action. reference work for the studio's 1959 classic Sleeping Beauty.

But the meat of the episode is about Disneyland itself. As Disney himself states, “The Disneyland TV show and the Disneyland location are part of the same (thing). In truth, when you watch The Disneyland Story, it becomes clear that the pilot does two things: one, it makes clear what the audience can expect from future episodes; and two, subtly instilled in the idea that the Disneyland theme park itself would offer a similar array of experiences. The episode offers glimpses into what each of Disneyland's four "realms" would have to offer. In Frontier Land, we get an early look at the Davy Crockett miniseries starring Fess Parker, as well as the character's song. In Adventure Land, you get a glimpse of what would be nature documentaries about different parts of the world. In Tomorrow Land, you get a short lecture and appropriate visuals about how man is trying to conquer space in the near future. Before Disney itself dropped a line every passing fan knows all too well — "It all started with a mouse" — and showed clips of Mickey over the 25 years the character appeared in shorts, Fantasyland had sequel to the highly controversial 1946 film Song of the South.