Awesome 1993 News Segment on What to Expect at the "New" Paramount's Kings Island

[BoddaH1994]

This certainly brings back memories.

[The Interpreter]

If only VIACOM had not bought Paramount....

Still, rescuing Kings Island from Carl Lindner was a very, very good thing.

[BoddaH1994]

Yeah, so sad. Paramount seemed like it really wanted to make a go of it. A few short years later Viacom bought Paramount, and Viacom did not.

[Captain Nemo]

My favorite line from the video in regards to keeping the original characters and nostalgic charm from the then Media guy, "It's really important to know that the old Kings Island is still here, were just enhancing the product and expanding to the park. Everything you know and love about the park is still here"

I still wish we had Hannah Barbara!

Cedar Fair came in and it was very apparent they wanted everything changed. More than was needed.

[BoddaH1994]

My favorite line from the video in regards to keeping the original characters and nostalgic charm from the then Media guy, "It's really important to know that the old Kings Island is still here, were just enhancing the product and expanding to the park. Everything you know and love about the park is still here"

I still wish we had Hannah Barbara!

Cedar Fair came in and it was very apparent they wanted everything changed. More than was needed.

Hannah Barbara? Really?

I get why some older folks are nostalgic about HB, but I remember riding the rides when I ask a kid and had no idea who most of the characters were... and you're younger than I am!!

[Captain Nemo]

You must of had no TV or a lot of blackouts in your area to not have heard of the Flintstones or Jetsons!

[JTW]

I'm really glad I watched that. It brought back a lot of memories.

[PREMiERdrum]

Le sigh... Back when WCMH was a well-funded, well run news operation.

[shark6495]

Maybe its the nostalgia (I was born in 85 so my memories of the park in the 90s is seen in a different light) but the original Paramount days made the park feel like Disney. The theming of the different areas may have been lacking or not consistent but it was awesome to walk down International BLVD and see a Borg or a Vulcan, then turn the corner and get a picture with Scooby Doo or Fred Flintstone. The giant cartoon statues that lead into Hannah Barbara Land will always be in my mind.

Paramount brought (IMO) a national feel to KI. From standing in line and seeing movie props for Top Gun, The Paramount Store, and Days of Thunder, to seeing the awesome first impression of Outer Limits (The light effect). Even when attempting to build the Crypt it was still a top level attempt. How different would the coaster/park situations be if Viacom had put in as much effort into their park division as Paramount originally wanted to.

[Existential]

Good ol' Doug Adair and Gail Hogan, with a fresh faced Cabot Rea on the side.

Ol' Cabot bonked his head pretty good on the OTSR of Top Gun.

[purdude86]

Maybe its the nostalgia (I was born in 85 so my memories of the park in the 90s is seen in a different light) but the original Paramount days made the park feel like Disney. The theming of the different areas may have been lacking or not consistent but it was awesome to walk down International BLVD and see a Borg or a Vulcan, then turn the corner and get a picture with Scooby Doo or Fred Flintstone. The giant cartoon statues that lead into Hannah Barbara Land will always be in my mind.

Paramount brought (IMO) a national feel to KI. From standing in line and seeing movie props for Top Gun, The Paramount Store, and Days of Thunder, to seeing the awesome first impression of Outer Limits (The light effect). Even when attempting to build the Crypt it was still a top level attempt. How different would the coaster/park situations be if Viacom had put in as much effort into their park division as Paramount originally wanted to.

I felt the same as a kid. It was great seeing the meticulous theming of everything there when it first was bought by Paramount. All of the rides when they first opened were great too with lots of attention to detail. I never really expected to see stuff like Tomb Raider and Italian Job there with their extensive theming. Though in later years they did let a lot of it slide. Was disappointed when Cedar Fair first bought it and gutted the theming. But these last few years they have really enhanced the park and made it great again and above where it was at the latter days of Paramount for sure.

[Joshua]

You must of had no TV or a lot of blackouts in your area to not have heard of the Flintstones or Jetsons!

Yes, yes, in deed. Also consider that there was a time, in the early 90s, when these character were on several stations, including USA Network (Cartoon Express, anyone remember that?), TNT, Cartoon Network, and TBS. Plus, The Flintstones had two live action movies, on top of a few made for TV movies around that era. Scooby Doo has been consistent in the media in multiple animated series, made for video movies, and, ugh, those unfortunate live action films. The most recent series, Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated, which just ended its run not too long ago, is his best series since the original, in my opinion. While not as prevalent, The Jetsons had a movie in the early 90s and has been consistently on television, with re-runs of the both the original series and its 1980s revival.

Some of the other HB characters have diminished into obscurity, lost in generational disconnects, unfortunately. Many of them, such as Captain Caveman and the original Johnny Quest, were barely running in syndication when I was a kid in the mid-late 80s, early 90s. Luckily, even back then, I was never one to exclusively embrace only the pulp culture of my generation, but what came before, no matter how long before (I'm currently attending an art school, studying film, and in my survey course, I was one of the few who had no trouble getting into silent films, whereas many of the 18, 19, and 20 year olds were walking out, often right after the opening titles. I guess they expected to watch Michael Bay movies in film school...). So even now, I find myself sometimes holding my fist in the air, as if it were a club, and shouting "Captain Caveman!" at the top of my lungs, only for people to be like "wha?"

I very much miss seeing these characters at the park, but I also love The Peanuts, and feel the same bit of sadness when I see people, either at the park or on this forum, bemoan their very existence that I feel when I see people who are oblivious to the aforementioned commander of neanderthals. Sigh.

[BoddaH1994]

Obviously I knew who the Flintstones, Jetsons, and Scooby Doo were, but a lot of the "other" characters weren't in my television lineup.

[Existential]

[Sonofbeast2.0]

My personal opinion I hope the park/CF drops Snoopy and and the gang, when their contract is up. i would like to see them change it up. I feel as though, CF will continue to use Snoopy and the gang for the foreseeable future...

Another opinion of mine, I never was a big fan of the Charlie Brown, shows.

[Vortex]

My personal opinion I hope the park/CF drops Snoopy and and the gang, when their contract is up. i would like to see them change it up. I feel as though, CF will continue to use Snoopy and the gang for the foreseeable future...

Another opinion of mine, I never was a big fan of the Charlie Brown, shows.

What other cartoon would Cedar Fair get? Six Flags has Warner Bros. and we'll Disney has its own. Don't think Cedar Fair would like Nick back.

[The Interpreter]

Cedar Fair couldn't afford what VIACOM would like to charge it.

Things change, but it's apt to be quite some time before VIACOM recovers from the shock of seeing what Dick Kinzel's company paid CBS.

[jzarley]

Good ol' Doug Adair and Gail Hogan, with a fresh faced Cabot Rea on the side.

Ol' Cabot bonked his head pretty good on the OTSR of Top Gun.

I feel really old in that I'm pretty sure I remember when that piece first aired :-) (Doug Adair, but no Mona Scott at that point...it must have been after the "unpleasantness" which occurred between them...)

It's too bad that we never got to see what Paramount Studio's vision for the parks was going to be...I think things may have been very different if it wasn't for the Viacom acquisition in 1994. (Although, given the consolidation in the media landscape in the intervening years, it's unlikely Paramount Communications would have remained an independent entity for long anyway...who knows who else could have bought them, which could have meant even worse things for the parks...)

The one thing I do remember about the early Paramount years was the quality of the retail merchandise (I still have both a "Paramount's Kings Island" and "Paramount's Carowinds" tee shirts that I sleep in, even though they're 20 years old :-)). Viacom/Paramount was planning the launch of a chain of "studio stores" (remember when those were big back in the mid-90s?), and used the retail outlets in the parks to try things out as a precursor to the launch of the retail division. (If I remember correctly, Viacom actually did open one of the concept studio stores on the Magnificent Mile in Chicago, but I'm pretty sure it never expanded beyond that...) As the years went on, the aesthetics and the quality of the retail merchandise continued to go down hill...and (IMHO) is pretty awful under Cedar Fair (not just for KI, but all the CF parks in my opinion...) I might be open to the argument that it's now an age thing with me (maybe I'm not as enamored by theme park souvenirs in my mid-40s as I was in my mid-20s), except for the fact that I always still find myself dropping a lot of cash on tee shirts, hats, mugs, etc. every time I visit a Disney or Universal park :-)

[jcgoble3]

Being a '90s kid myself (born in '87 but was too young to retain memories of the '80s), I knew the Flintstones and Jetsons primarily through children's books and later comic books. I know I still have a stack of Flintstones/Jetsons comic books around here somewhere. I actually do not recall ever seeing them on TV, but the books and comics were enough for me to recognize them at PKI in the '90s.

[BB1]

Good ole HB Statues at the enterance, vivid memories those are. I miss those days. Riding the Ghoster Coaster, going through the Tom Cat Taxi...oh the memory...

[Dieseltech20]

Hanna Barbara? While I love Scooby Doo and The Flintstones, the rest never really appealed to me. I was always a Looney Tunes and Tom & Jerry fan.

Being nearly 40 I fondly remember spending Sat mornings in front of the TV. Except for the times they would play that horribly cheesy, wrestling junk.

[Jr for Birdy]

Except for the times they would play that horribly cheesy, wrestling junk.

Blasphemy! Jr...who's Mother allowed him to go to bed early, set my alarm to watch midnight WWF every Saturday, then back to bed to get to Church on time. On a side note, I once met Cabot filming at a skatepark that I was a member of, he could not skateboard and insisted on dropping in on the halfpipe, we all kind of closed our eyes as he face planted, the guy has some guts. This was late 80's-early 90's?

[stashua123]

I maybe a 2000's baby but I always watched Hanna Barbera on Bommerang. Yabadabadoo! This topic also reminded me of this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxiC46YuQSI

[myklhicks]

WHOA! That movie magic at the beginning... I couldn't even pay attention to the rest of the video because I was too busy pondering on how they did that!

[kingsislandfan1972]

Paramount was the best owner of Kings Island.

Edited May 6, 2014 by kingsislandfan1972

[lopan]

That kid reminds me of my daughter, she always goes "can we do it again daddy" after every ride too :-)

[disco2000]

As others have mentioned and shared their recollections, I too really liked the park under the early years of Paramount (before the Viacom, CBS, etc. acquisitions). Being a movie lover, it never got old walking through the Top Gun line, and Face/Off, Italian Job, Days of Thunder, Tomb Raider and Drop Zone were great names for those rides. The stuff they showed in Paramount Theatre was awesome, and the Paramount Story garden area place was neat to walk through. I know at least for me, their acquisition paid off - I saw a lot more movies during that time frame.

I know some were not fans of the "commercialization" of the park and rides, but to me, since I enjoyed movies, having the theming of the ride being movie related was great - much better than the non-theme rides prior. Were they Disney caliber, no, but the right amount of theming for this type of park. I enjoyed seeing the movie posters, the movie characters walking around, and of course the movie set exhibits they brought in. I enjoyed the Titanic exhibit at Kings Island better than one's I have visited elsewhere. I did always wonder though being such a large season pass park, if all the Star Trek characters walking around didn't have the same appeal as it would in a destination park, but I guess to those that only visited the park once or twice, that would be great to see.

Bottom line is this. We live in a society where it is so easy to complain about every little thing. I am far from perfect and complain about stuff as well (rarely enough to elevate it to PR or guest relations) and am trying to do better in just being accepting that change happens, for if it didn't, the fate of the park would eventually turn to being out of business. As much as people hate change, the reality is, if an amusement park stayed the same and never made additions or changes, folks would eventually stop visiting.

My advice for folks over say 30 years old, re-live in your mind thinking about the "good ole days" and feeling nostalgic when you see a video from the Paramount days. In some ways, I think life was simpler then - forums and Facebook for people to post criticism or point out negative things didn't exist. For example, I know line jumping and other things people point out happening now was happening then too, but I just didn't let it bother me or ruin my day.

My advice for folks say under 30 years old or so, simply enjoy the park, savor the moments you share with friends and family, and just create great, long-lasting positive memories. One day, these years will be looked back by you as the "good ole days", so make them memorable in a good way! The joy is you will have the ability to create entirely new memories as you get married, have children, and share the park with them and reminisce about what the park was like when you were their age. Try not to get caught up in all the negative stuff folks say about the park either on this forum or on the Facebook page. I know there are times that I consider taking a break from the forum just so that all the line-jumping and Fast Lane haters comments don't enter my mind when I am at the park. Personally I am not a Fast Lane fan and I feel like if I used it, I would be missing out on some of the things that made the park great to me growing up. Some of my best experiences at the park have been when I didn't ride a single ride, and other great experiences have been standing in the long lines with friends and just really getting to talk, or meeting new friends by virtue of simply standing in line and starting a conversation.

Done with my Jerry Maquire moment (oops wrong movie studio)....carry on..