Bob Iger came up with the idea for ABC's Disney Family Singalong

BuzzFeed News

The Disney executive chairman and former CEO came up with the idea for Thursday's special after noticing a trend of people leaning on music from their favorite Disney classics while they were in quarantine. “Bob Iger had celebrities and non-celebrities posting Disney songs on their social pages and I think you sort of saw the common thread there was that the Disney songbook has been there for us in good times and bad,” ABC reality chief Robert Mills tells Buzzfeed News. “This was a way that people were really turning to Disney to help provide some solace.” Disney Family Singalong, which featured a surprise Beyoncé cameo, was completed early Thursday morning after much scrambling. “We were working in such a condensed timeframe. Normally we take six to three months to put together a big talent-filled special like this, and the whole idea of doing it in under two weeks was bananas,” says executive producer Katie Mullan. “People had been doing some filming with celebrities from home, but it was still at that stage that it felt a bit like it was a brave new world of production.” ALSO: Watch the best moments from the Disney Family Singalong.