5 fun facts about Kings Island: From 'Brady Bunch' avoiding harm to Coney Island roots

Kings Island opens for its 53rd season Saturday, April 20. That’s when The Beast comes out of hibernation and Orion blasts off again.

If you have young ones in your party who want to check out the new Camp Snoopy, you’ll have to wait a little longer for that to open later this spring.

When it opens, the expansion of the park’s Planet Snoopy children’s area will include a new family coaster, Snoopy’s Soap Box Racers. Three “Peanuts”-themed rides are also getting new names: Race for Your Life Charlie Brown will become Charlie Brown’s Rushing River Log Ride. Flying Ace Aerial Chase will be called Woodstock’s Air Rail. And Woodstock Gliders will be Franklin’s Flyers.

Did you know the Charlie Brown log ride actually started out at Cincinnati’s original Coney Island in 1968?

When that amusement park closed in 1971, many of its rides were transported up to Mason to Kings Island. The Log Flume has also been known as Kings Mills Log Flume and the Wild Thornberrys River Adventure.

Kings Island also had another flume ride, Kenton’s Cove Keelboat Canal, located in Rivertown from 1973 to 2000.

Want to know more about former rides? Check out: Top 10 retired Kings Island rides we miss the most.

And now, here are five more things you might not know about the history of Kings Island.

Editor’s note: This story updates an article from April 13, 2023.

1. Kings Island was built to showcase Hanna-Barbera cartoon characters

Kings Island began as a way for Cincinnati’s Taft Broadcasting, Inc., to show off its Hanna-Barbera cartoon characters, such as Fred Flintstone and Scooby-Doo, the same way Disneyland features Mickey Mouse.

Roy Disney suggested that Taft officials check out Coney Island in their own backyard. So, Taft purchased Coney Island in 1969, then in 1971 announced its closure and that a new park, Kings Island, would open in Warren County the following year.

Kings Island’s original children’s area was the Happy Land of Hanna-Barbera, which offered kid-friendly rides, such as the Scooby-Doo roller coaster, and a chance to meet Yogi Bear and others. Those characters have been replaced by Snoopy and the “Peanuts” gang these days.

Read about the indoor boat ride that featured dozens of cartoon characters and a catchy song: Yabba dabba doo: Hanna-Barbera used to be owned by this Cincinnati company.

2. Coney Island rides were relocated to Kings Island

Most of Coney Island’s rides were relocated to Kings Island’s aptly named Old Coney area. The rides included Grand Carousel, Skyride, Log Flume, Dodgem bumper cars, Turnpike, Galaxi (as Bavarian Beetle), Cuddle Up, Scrambler, Monster, Rotor, Tumble Bug, Kikki Kangaroo and Motor Mouse.

One Coney favorite did not make the move up I-71. The popular wooden roller coaster the Shooting Star was instead dismantled when Kings Island officials opted to create a new ride, The Racer, as the featured attraction at the new park.

Check out which Kings Island rides from 1972 are still around: Kings Island still has 11 original rides, attractions.

3. Blue ice cream was a promo for ‘The Smurfs’

Kings Island’s signature blue soft-serve ice cream was a promotion for “The Smurfs,” when the blue characters from the popular ’80s cartoon show took over the Enchanted Voyage attraction in 1984. The Hanna-Barbera characters from the boat ride were replaced by scenes of the Smurfs in their mushroom houses, hiding from the evil Gargamel.

The blueberry-flavored ice cream has outlasted the Smurfs and become a park tradition.

But it almost wasn’t that way. To find out what happened when Smurf’s Enchanted Voyage was made over as the Phantom Theater in 1992, check out: What’s the origin story of Kings Island’s blue ice cream? Everything to know.

4. Kings Island was the first amusement park to serve pizza

Kings Island was the first amusement park anywhere to serve pizza. It’s true. According to Evan Ponstingle in his book “Kings Island: A Ride through Time,” during that first 1972 season Gregg Pancero and his father, Jack, sold pizza at La Fiera Pizzeria on International Street, using sauce, dough and toppings provided by their family friend, Buddy LaRosa.

Hamburgers and hot dogs were common amusement park fare, but no one else sold pizza back then. It became the park’s top seller and other places followed the trend. That first pizza joint later became an official LaRosa’s franchise.

Read more about the history of Kings Island here: Retrospective: Kings Island opened over 50 years ago. Take a look back in time.

5. ‘The Brady Bunch’ kids narrowly avoided harm at Kings Island

This one is kind of scary. The Kings Island website blog reported a behind-the-scenes tale of a potentially fatal accident when “The Brady Bunch” television series filmed an episode at Kings Island in 1973.

For a scene on The Racer roller coaster, a camera was temporarily mounted to the front of the car, facing backward for a reaction shot. Actor Robert Reed, who played dad Mike Brady, didn’t like the look of the attachment and insisted the crew run the train empty one time as a test. It was a good thing, because when the train returned, they found the camera mount had become dislodged and had flown back into the seats – right where the cast members would have been sitting.

The actors playing the family were apprehensive about doing the scene after that, and Reed and Susan Olsen (Cindy Brady) refused to ride the coaster when they filmed it. The episode is classic television and helped promote Kings Island beyond Cincinnati.

Read more about “The Brady Bunch” cast filming at Kings Island: From the archives: When ‘The Brady Bunch’ filmed at Kings Island.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Kings Island hosted 'The Brady Bunch,' made pizza history: 5 fun facts