Great Old Amusement Parks

I normally can't stand anything PBS, particuraly NPR, but this one caught my eye; Great Old Amusement Parks. It airs locally in Philadelphia on WHYY 12 on Wendsday at 8:00, and is supposed to examine some of the older amusement parks and rides that still exist today, including Kennywood, Rye Playland, and Lake Compounce. It is a PBS program, so it should be airing elsewhere too.

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"If you make it too smooth, it'll be like sitting in your living room."
-Bill Cobb - Designer, Texas Cyclone

Black 7, I saw this show last night. Was kinda interesting seeing all the old and kept up to parks around the United States.

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Six Flags Great America Rules, I finally get to fly this year

Where I am from, Chicago PBS sometimes as shows about Riverview a Great Old Amusment Park that opened in Chicago sometime around the turn of the century and then closed shop in the 1960's. It is interesting to see what kind of rides they had. To see all the old wooden coasters and flats
*** This post was edited by Cs6153 5/15/2003 9:31:52 PM ***

"Great Old Amusement Parks" was shot in 1998 and first aired in '99. It was one of Bill Koch's last TV interviews (he passed away in 2001) and is one of my favorites.

Happily, it re-runs across the nation on PBS affiliates each summer. :)

Paula
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Paula Werne
Holiday World PR
www.holidayworld.com/srm

The Pennsylvania Parks shined in that show big time.

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The Empire will Strike Back....
"What do I know, I only work in an Amusement Park?"
"You are paying to get in. Period."

Rick Sebak (the producer/narrator) has an entire series of videos on old/neat/odd stuff. In addition to the old amusement parks show, he has shows devoted to hot dogs, ice cream, sandwiches, flea markets, etc. His name is permanently programmed onto my ReplayTV; with three PBS affiliates on our cable system, I can barely keep track of when he is on. He is based at WQED in Pittsburgh, which is where I first learned of him, and probably why Penna parks feature so prominently.

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http://www.eecs.umich.edu/~bnoble/

Rick is one of the neatest people I've ever met! The entire time he was here shooting the Holiday World portion of the show, he was grinning from ear to ear. That is one happy guy who loves his job!

Paula
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Paula Werne
Holiday World PR
www.holidayworld.com/srm

I bought the video and enjoyed every minute of it! I especially loved the SCBB segment, since that's a home park of mine. What a great place too... so underappreciated in my view.

I'm SO looking forward to experiencing first hand what everyone has been talking about at Holiday World. How many days until SRM? ;)

Justin "Counting the hours and minutes" Adams

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Never look a gift horse in the mouth, because horses have very bad breath

Justin.....too many...;)

bill, flying out for SRM in about 332 hours....:)
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Contents sold by humor, not volume. Some settling of contents may occur during translation...

That's a great video. There's a lot of great footage/interviews, and it's very informative. Highly recommended.

Rick was out at Kennywood a couple weeks ago. His documentary series all started with "Kennywood Memories" back in the 80's.

Originally when he proposed the idea he was sort-of shrugged off like "you mean that amusement park? Who's gonna watch that?"

Eventually with some persistance he was able to get it made, and it turned in to one of the most watched shows ever produced by WQED. (Besides Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, of course.)

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Come on, fhqwgads!

This actually was a very good show about smaller amusement parks. Any fan of coasters should catch it. I almost missed it here in the Chicago area. It's on again Sunday morning 5-18 at 3:30 am on PBS in Chicagoland. Thanks TiVo!

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CoasterBuzz club member 316 says I just kicked your @$$!

rollergator said:
Justin.....too many...;)
bill, flying out for SRM in about 332 hours....:)
You are definately right about that! Although my SRM trip starts in just 5 days... w00t!
If a person is from Indiana and is a flake, does that make the person a "corn" flake? ba-dum-bum
See you in Indiana!
Justin
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Never look a gift horse in the mouth, because horses have very bad breath

*** This post was edited by Coasterman J 5/18/2003 12:53:37 PM ***

Was KW Memories ever updated? Its great to see it again today because of all the hooplah around the Laser Loop. The hairstyles were funny also.

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2002/2003
KW Crew

There was talk of a "More Kennywood Memories" special... I guess it never materialized, though.

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Come on, fhqwgads!