Changes

Although the murder angle of the story was eventually dropped, Imagineers liked the idea of guests trying to solve a mystery within the haunted hotel. Disney decided that to enhance the attraction, it needed some kind of movie tie-in. Imagineers eventually agreed on the idea of theming the attraction after the Twilight Zone. The initial concept of the attraction, called for various cast members, who would dress up like various employees of the hotel. Each employee would seem a little unstable, (such as a bell boy who walked through the line asking if guests wanted to check any luggage). Other enhancements to the queue, including a old man who would "come to life" and interact with guests, and a audio Animatronic elevator repair man were eventually discarded. Disney decided that the cast members would slow down the line too much, and park Operations was hesitant to assign more cast members to the attraction then was absolutely necessary.

After deciding on the basic concept of the attraction, Imagineers began working on the plot. In order to tie in the attraction with the rest of the studios, it was decided that guests would be filming a "lost episode" of the Twilight Zone. Although Rod Serling, the host of the Twilight Zone had passed away in 1975, Disney Imagineer's still wanted to include him in the attraction. To do this, Mark Silverman recorded an impersonation of Rod, which was synced with the introduction of a 1961 episode titled "It's a Good Life". The background image was then replaced with images of the Tower of Terror, thus giving the attraction an "authentic" Twilight Zone introduction.