2025
D23 Gold Theater
"Magic After Dark" — encore virtual presentation
D23's official monthly virtual series revisited the 2024 panel with new-show previews. First aired May 29, 2025; encored May 31.
On the record
Proof of a living public figure, not a footnote.
Panels, podcasts, interviews and press — gathered in one place. Not an audience to build; an audience that's been asking "whatever happened to Don Dorsey?" for years, finally pointed somewhere.
Interviews, panels & TV.
2024
D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event
"Magic After Dark — The Story of Disney's Nighttime Spectaculars"
Live panel in Anaheim with Don Dorsey, Steven Davison and Jennifer Magill, hosted by Graham Allan with a Jim Cummings introduction — the original Reflections of Earth narrator introducing the show's creator.
2022
WDW News Today (YouTube)
Main Street Electrical Parade 50th Anniversary Interview
On-camera interview about creating the parade's sounds and floats, released on the parade's exact 50th anniversary — June 17, 2022.
2015
The Tiara Talk Show / Tammy Tuckey
Interview with Don Dorsey, Designer & Director of "Fantasmic!" and "Reflections of Earth"
Early Fantasmic! story development, unbuilt Haunted Mansion and Walt Disney projects, MSEP and ROE legacies. March 19, 2015.
Podcasts & recorded interviews.
2020
Progress City Radio Hour — Episode 11
"Town Hall: Don Dorsey"
Career-spanning interview: America on Parade through Reflections of Earth, plus MSEP, the Electrical Water Pageant, Carnival de Lumière, the original IllumiNations, and the solo albums.
2018
Disney Parks Podcast — Show #425
An Interview with Don Dorsey
"Associated with literally hundreds of Disney's entertainment events" — with Reflections of Earth discussed as a $22M millennium spectacle.
2009
Mouse Clubhouse (Scott Wolf)
Career interview, and a follow-up on Reflections of Earth
Two-part sit-down with full transcriptions and archival photos — the styrofoam Earth model, the Abbey Road session with Gavin Greenaway, the Jack Wagner and Bob Jani mentorship, air-launch technology, and the Mickey-ears shells behind the millennium show.
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Tomorrow Society Podcast — Episode 191
Don Dorsey
Part of the show's Imagineer / industry-professional interview index.
National, trade & fan coverage.
2018
Forbes — Christian Sylt
The Secrets Behind the Sparkle of Disney's Parades
May 28, 2018 — on the parade-control systems Don designed, from Mickey Track through DECS.
2018
Forbes — Christian Sylt
How Disney Used a MIDI Keyboard to Ignite the New Millennium
June 17, 2018 — on the MIDI-programmed flame barge behind Reflections of Earth's opening.
2024–25
MouseInfo · Laughing Place · Fantasy Land News · WDW News Today
D23 "Magic After Dark" panel recaps
Detailed recaps of the 2024 panel and its 2025 Gold Theater encore — including the story of Sorcery in the Sky as the first Disney pyro choreographed to music.
2022
WDW News Today
Interview with Don Dorsey and a Complete History of the Main Street Electrical Parade
Published for the parade's 50th anniversary, June 17, 2022.
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Electronic Sound (UK)
"Buried Treasure" — a feature on Bachbusters
Decades after release, still finding new listeners.
1987
Bezark — event production portfolio
Golden Gate Bridge 50th Anniversary
Independent third-party confirmation that the bridge's 50th-anniversary fireworks, light and sound show was created in partnership with Don and Pyro Spectaculars — for the celebration where 300,000 people walked the span.
Where the record already lives.
Ongoing
Orlando Memory (Orange County Library System)
Dorsey Productions, Inc. collection
A genuine archival collection: the Reflections of Earth 10-year reunion (Sept. 30, 2009), the final-performance team gathering (Sept. 30, 2019 — 38 team members, signed "Promise" sheet music), commemorative coin scans, and fireworks manufacturing photos.
Reference
D23.com — official A-to-Z entry
Disney's own reference on Don Dorsey
Part-time synthesist/arranger on America on Parade (1975); arranged and performed the updated MSEP music (1977); guided development of the park's parade-control audio computer system (1980); created and directed WDW nighttime spectaculars from 1983; designed Fantasmic!'s sound effects.
Reference
Intercot — IllumiNations Fact Sheet
The concept, in twenty minutes on a plane
Nineteen torches for nineteen centuries; the globe as the world's first spherical 15,000-LED video screen; the center torch rising 38 feet.
Community
WDWMagic forums
"What ever happened to Don Dorsey?"
A 2021 thread: organic fan demand — "the best of the best… the only man alive that could fix Harmonious" — and a source for his Universal Beijing parade work.
A note on completeness. This page draws on a working media inventory that's still growing — a handful of 1980s print-press leads (Billboard, Radio City coverage, Super Bowl XXXIV halftime reporting) sit behind newspaper and magazine paywalls and aren't listed here yet. Nothing above is invented; everything below the fold is still being chased.