If you were the star of a beloved network sitcom with a huge ensemble in the 20th century, then there was a good chance that you would also have to function as a walking advertisement for something in which the network in question had interests. Does anyone else remember those special episodes of 1990s ABC sitcoms like Family Matters and “Full House” where all the characters went to Disney World? in its fifth and final season at the Cincinnati theme park Kings Island in 1973. Since the ’70s sitcom was produced by Paramount Studios, which was a shareholder in Ohio-based Taft Broadcasting, the company thought it would be a great idea to promote this relatively new tourist destination using one of television’s biggest families.
In the episode in question, titled “The Kids of Cincinnati,” the architect patriarch of the Brady clan, Mike Brady (Robert Reed), tells the family that he is taking them all with him to the amusement park, where he is preparing to submit some sketches to his supervisors. “The Partridge Family” had visited the park a year earlier, but the “Brady Bunch” episode is remembered more fondly. In a video on the Kings Island YouTube channel, Barry Williams, who played older brother Greg, remembers the show’s cast riding the Racer. Apparently Reed didn’t like roller coasters much, and the camera test he requested proved him right:
“They put our camera up in front of us, to face us, and he said, ‘I think you should spin this thing around the track once, because it looks like it’s too high.’ So they said, “Okay,” and they did it. They ran it on empty and it came back without a camera. I guess it was too high.”
Camera lost during roller coaster test at King’s Island
The original series of “The Brady Bunch” only lasted 11 more episodes before being canceled (not counting its various spin-offs), but I’m just spitting here when I say it probably would have been pretty bad if one of ABC’s TV families had been crushed to death. What makes Reed’s opposite reaction even funnier is that the episode ends with Mike suggesting everyone go on the roller coaster, only to cut to the sequence where he is. nowhere to have.
“The Cincinnati Kids” may have been popular for putting Kings Island in the national spotlight, but it’s pretty lackluster as far as sitcom theme park commercials go. The central conflict arises when Mike accidentally loses his sketches before his big date, sending the kids rushing to the park to find them. The problem is resolved fairly quickly (via a passing-the-torch sprint set to the William Tell opening), leaving more time for everyone to have a mini-vacation at Paramount’s expense. Indeed, much of the episode is devoted to the Bradys going on a bunch of rides and talking about how beautiful the place is – and, to the actors’ credit, it actually looks like fun. There aren’t even many jokes about characters on the show going on certain rides; it’s really about watching them have a good time.
What I find most impressive is that the episode was clearly filmed while the park was crowded with people. The settings for most of the episode’s shots are the “Brady Bunch” actors walking around, but I can’t imagine the amount of crowd work to make sure none of the tourists caused filming delays.
Every season of “The Brady Bunch” is currently streaming on Paramount+.
