I
am very proud to present this week my all-time favorite amusement park special.
Yes,
ever.
Discovery
Channel started making these amusement park specials in the mid- to late-1990s,
with each one upping the last in production values (and that certainly is not
an exaggeration). Beginning in 1996 or so, these specials were very spotty in
the beginning and looked like closed-circuit TV documentaries. The Discovery
team eventually hit their stride in the 1999-2002 time period, which is far and
away the “golden period” for these types of specials. But before 1999, we see
the first specials, the ones that tread the new ground, like “Wild Rides,” or
“Top Ten Coasters,” or “Billion Dollar Fun,” or “Funhouse.” These were the
channel’s first attempt to explain the weird and wonderful science and art of
the amusement park.
And
in 1998, right as Discovery Channel was getting the hang of making these
specials, there came a landmark catch-all show that perfectly summed up the complex thinking and exuberant enthusiasm
written into the DNA of our favorite thrill places. This show was called Amusement Parks: The Pursuit of Fun.
The
format of the show is brilliant. After exploring the excitement people have for
amusement parks, and why people continue to visit in record numbers year after
year, the show states that there are four major elements that make up a great
park. The rest of the run time is given to exploring these four elements, with
each section given its own explanation and tie-in with an existing amusement
park, which gets the equivalent of a sort of mini-episode. The show features
the very best of the old and new: Cedar Point, Kennywood, Knoebels, Busch Gardens,
and Universal Orlando, each given its own segment tied into the show’s greater
themes. It’s a tour-de-force of amusement park enthusiasm. It’s so hard for me
to explain how perfect this 45 minutes is. All the major aspects of amusement
parks are covered in a very limited time. Extended time is given to our
favorite parks, almost like mini-specials. The whole thing is wrapped up in a
very easy-to-follow package, and follows an exciting umbrella theme. And the amount of information presented here is
mind-boggling. I would ask you, as an experiment, after you’ve seen the show in
full, to just rewind to a random part of the show. Familiarize yourself with
where you are, then skip ahead, say 30-45 seconds. Then just look at the time
you skipped and realize how much
information is packed into that 30 seconds. This is literally a show that
forces you to watch every second! I wonder if the Discovery Channel team didn’t
know how many more of these specials were to be made, and packed as much information
into this one as possible. It certainly gives that impression. We see in-depth
looks at Cedar Point’s coasters and midways, Kennywood’s groves and old-school
rides, Knoebels’s carousels, coasters, and haunted house, Busch Gardens
Williamsburg’s landscaping, and Universal’s new high-tech attractions. All in
45 minutes! It’s in some ways the Snow
White or Toy Story for the
Discovery Channel specials: a thesis statement and blueprint for all others to
follow. And you won’t find an amusement park special better to emulate, that’s
for sure.
The Pursuit of Fun perfectly
sums up the reasons why we visit amusement parks year in, year out, and how the
parks draw us in and entice us for more. Amusement parks are ostensively a place
for us to enjoy ourselves, and to have fun with friends and family. The
amusement park is designed to place us in situations for us to have “optimum
fun.” Rides are built and designed with the question of “how can this be the
most fun” in mind. These rides are placed apart at just the right distance so
they are far enough away from other rides that we don’t get overwhelmed, but
not far enough away to force us to walk a long distance, tiring us out. In
between, there has strategically been placed areas for our comfort: benches,
restaurants, shows, shops, fountains, boats. It’s all to provide the “optimum
fun” for each guest. The choices have been laid out and given, it is now up to
us to determine our own path to optimum fun.
And
once we are out of the gentle walkways and onto the metal machines, how is our experience
transformed? It is a great way to let off steam, first of all, and provide a
momentary escape from the drudgeries of adult life. They’re certainly an
adrenaline rush that cannot commonly be found in our day-to-day lives. But, as
the show tells us, these rides also help us push our own boundaries, past what
we felt we could experience before. Remember your first ride on a
hyper-coaster? Or your first ride on a coaster with inversions? How did that
ride feel? Every truly new ride we experience pushes our boundaries just a bit
further. They meet our need to constantly be challenged, and to push ourselves into
new territory. And best of all, we share this experience communally, with
dozens of other screaming passengers on board. For amusement parks are, above
all, a communal experience.
And
how do these parks entice us to visit, and to ride? Walt’s weenie theory
personally encapsulates this. For amusement parks, roller coasters act as a
flashing neon sign, billboards towering over the horizon, advertising the fun
to be had within, enticing us through the gates. They promise us bigger and
better high-tech fun every year.
And
why do we keep visiting, once we’ve spent a day? The main reason is certainly
because we had so much fun we’d like to do it again. It also could be for
nostalgia purposes, to experience the same rides we did back in the day with
our kids. But the parks also entice us back with innovation. Whether bigger or
better rides appear on the horizon every year, or there is a new technology
available, parks invest in creativity and authenticity to bring us new and
unique rides for our riding pleasure. These new technologies allow the parks to
offer new and exotic rides every year to push our curiosity and entice us back.
The
show’s excellent presentation structure delivers an encompassing amusement park
experience in four major sections, presented as elements to the theme park
experience: first, the hair-raising thrills, second, the wide midways with
savory aromas and classic attractions, third, providing ways for us to cool
down on a hot summer’s day, and fourth, providing a communal experience for us
to share our fun with friends and meet new people. These four elements are an
excellent starting place for those looking to understand the allure of
amusement park fun. One could do worse than to stick to these simple ABCs when
designing rides or entire parks.
The
thrill rides portion is dominated by Cedar Point (Magnum and Raptor) and
Kennywood (Steel Phantom and Thudnerbolt). In it, the show explains how and why
the thrill rides are the main attraction in an amusement park visit, as well as
the history of the thrill rides from the original Expos and World’s Fairs to
Coney Island, then to Disneyland, then to the parks of today. The emphasis, of
course, is not just on thrills but also on innovation. From the invention of
the Ferris Wheel to the Magnum, innovation has always been a major part of the
thrill landscape, a fact many designers somehow forget nowadays.
The
midways of the amusement parks have many purposes. They must be wide and
inviting to keep people moving, but also be high energy, with bright lights, kinesthetic
motion like a good swing ride, and the coasters abutting the midway and roaring
overhead. The midway section is not only packed with the history of Kennywood
and Knoebels, but also the explanations of just how many components can be
packed onto a midway. There are train rides, swing rides, and coasters. There
can be action shows in man-made lagoons, or roving marching bands. Fountains.
Carnival games. Woods and trees. Savory aromas and classic foods and treats.
Flowers. Bells. Fiber Optics and statues. Old rides can provide kinesthetic
amusement, like Kennywood’s Turtle Ride or The Whip. New high-tech thrills can
soar over the midway, like the Skycoaster, providing good people-watching. Or,
the midway can also provide quiet leisure, a place where people can reconvene
after a ride, and where old people can sit on a bench. But the beating heart of
the midway arteries, we are told, is the carousel. Knoebels’s famous brass ring
carousel provides the example. The sound of a carousel organ is an amusement park
staple. People are unconsciously drawn to the carousel, and a park cannot
survive without it. It’s telling that, on some amusement park surveys,
carousels are more closely identified with amusement parks than the roller
coasters.
There
is no better place for Discovery Channel to explain the process of cooling
people off than Busch Gardens Williamsburg. Amusement parks are open during the
hottest times of the year, and they are behooved to allow their guests to cool
themselves off for maximum comfort. How many different ways can you think of to
cool off at a park? You can grab some ice cream. You could dip your hand in a
fountain. There are plenty of rides that get you soaked: log flumes, rapids
rides, shoot the chutes, and inevitably some water squirt-gun action in the
kids area. But did you think of the experiences that get you out of the heat? How
about the Sky Tower? Or the simulators and 3-D movies? There are rides like the
swings, the parachute drop, or the skyway that cool you down. And at Busch
Gardens, the amazing landscaping provides excellent shade, the gigantic
air-conditioned restaurants provide great entertainment, and Escape from
Pompeii provides not only air-conditioning but also a giant splashdown. (Too
bad this show was created before Islands of Adventure opened. Be careful not to
drown this time, kids!)
We
sometimes forget one of the best traits of an amusement park is the opportunity
to have fun with friends and meet new people. And yes, parks do try to
communize the experience as much as possible. After all, it’s a very rare ride
that allows only one passenger per car. A typical coaster usually has more than
a dozen. And with this experience, parks also have certain ways to get people
closer together. The classic example, of course, is the bumper cars. But there
are also fun houses, carnival games, dark rides, and haunted houses. These
experiences create memories real fast, and can introduce you to some new
friends who share in your excitement or sheer terror.
Finally,
as if the show hadn’t explored the amusement park world enough, it ties back to
the original segment of innovation, surviving danger, and pushing our limits of
trauma by diving into Universal Orlando and exploring the techno-rides
available there, from T2 to Jurassic Park, and how they tie in all the elements
that have been explained so far.
I
hope you’ll agree that Amusement Parks:
The Pursuit of Fun is a perfect example of what the blueprint of what a
good amusement park documentary should be. I usually watch this show every
Memorial Day weekend, right as the coaster season begins. I’ve never seen any
show that gets me more pumped to visit the parks than this one. Off to ride!
--ParkScopeJeff (@ParkScopeJeff)
Our Last Ten YouTube Tuesday Features:
**Send Jeff a line at HamGamgee@gmail.com. We appreciate your feedback!
No comments:
Post a Comment