The Brady Bunch is coming back to Kings Island.
Why the discomfort? Let's keep in mind that I watched waaaaay too many episodes of The Brady Bunch when I was a kid. One of my proudest moments as a child came when my mom got assigned as a substitute to teach Maureen McCormick's high school English class. (I demanded she recount every detail, again and again, for days after.) As an emerging theme park fan, the Kings Island episode was a must-watch for me, too. I could not get enough of the Bradys.
Of course, by the late 70s, I'd overdosed on the Bradys like a drunk swimming in a pool of Mad Dog 20/20, and would have been happy never to see or hear from them again. And I didn't, until my lovely daughter "discovered" the Bradys while watching cable TV on a sleepover at a friends' house. She just happened to mention this little fact to my parents, who this past Christmas dutifully presented Natalie with the DVD boxed set of every damned Brady Bunch episode ever made. Thanks, Mom and Dad. Thanks a lot.
I cannot escape the Bradys.
And, if you visit Kings Island this weekend, you won't either. Actors Barry Williams (Greg), Susan Olson (Cindy) and Mike Lookinland (Bobby) will perform in a Brady Bunch reunion show in the park on Sunday, August 31.
(FWIW: Interesting additional theme park tie-in. Robert Reed, the actor who played father Mike Brady, lived in Pasadena until his death, in a home just a couple blocks away from... the original Busch Gardens.)
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Every morning at 6, Natalie (then 2) wanted to get up and watch it. Needless to say, I was thrilled the day the moving van showed up at our new place, and we had other videos to choose from again.
I do chuckle to myself imagining some near-sighted grandma in a video store, finding a copy of The Aristocrats and saying to herself, "Look, it's a new version of that Disney movie about the cats. And it's got Bob Saget in it! He was so nice on Full House. I'll get this for little Suzy."
I grew up in Chicago and before 'Great America' and the long lost (indoor) 'Old Chicago' parks opened their gates my family made a couple of trips to Kings Island during the 1970s.
I was thrilled when the Brady episode made it to the small screen.
But here's another interesting "theme-park-fan-boy-geek-trivia-thing" about that episode: Didn't the family travel to the park because Mike's (Robert Reed) architect firm was supposed to present the design of a new park attraction (or maybe hotel)? As I recall the "foil" in the episode was the kids had purchased a poster of Scooby Doo and had placed it in a cardboard tube that was identical to the one holding the blueprints. Mike gets to the pitch and unveils the poster. The show climaxes with the kids racing through the park ... and ... they search ... and find ...
...geez I watch too much TV
And, funny enough, we went to the Grand Canyon last summer and Hawaii this summer. Fits in with the other Brady vacation episodes.
Why would you bring your maid with you to an amusement park? That's just odd...
Even though I watched more than my share of the Bradys during my childhood, I can’t specifically recall that episode.
I must apologize for going slightly off-topic. My strongest memories of a TV show promotion for KI was on a Saturday morning cartoon show that featured the “Banana Splits”. They were some sort of costumed characters who played in a band and were sometimes filmed having fun at Kings Island. I mostly recall images of them riding the Racer together (with that silly music of theirs in the background). Made me wish I could go to Kings Island, but I never got there until we took own kids in 2001 (they were teens at the time).
Wow… the stuff that sticks in your head from your childhood.
Anyway, I’m just glad to see KI getting a B&M hyper. Thanks for giving us the scoop on that earlier this season. Gives us reason to maybe return again next Summer.
Ah...the 70's. How I miss them...
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