The Lowdown on the Plus-up - A Theme Park Podcast
Kelly McCubbin and Peter Overstreet take on all aspects of theme parks - Disneyland, Walt Disney World, Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure, Six Flags - discussing them in historical context and then finding ways, to quote Walt Disney, to "plus them up!"
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Episodes
22 episodes
Fire and Baby Oil - Conan: A Sword and Sorcery Spectacular
Step back into the age of sword and sorcery as we unravel the untold story of Universal Studios' most dangerous and innovative attraction: the Conan the Barbarian Sword and Sorcery Spectacular. This legendary stunt show wasn't just entertainmen...
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Season 1
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Episode 20
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1:55:47
The Rocket Belt Saga Part Two - Biddy, Biddy, Murder!
Join us for part two of the strangest story we've told thus far.The 1990s launch with a particularly charming story about jet packs, The Rocketeer. But then Kinnie Gibson, Brad Barker, Larry Stanley and Bill Suitor return to pick up a story...
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Season 1
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Episode 19
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1:02:57
The Rocket Belt Saga Part 1 - Twenty-One Seconds
What if I told you that the man who flew above Disneyland's Tomorrowland in the 1960s wasn't on wires, but strapped to actual jet engines? The remarkable true story of the rocket belt at Disney parks is more fascinating—and bizarre—than you mig...
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Season 1
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Episode 18
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1:08:59
Adventure Thru Mini-Space - A Minisode
A quick note between talking about the Prince of Darkness and the Darkness of the Future!Full episode coming very soon.
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2:53
Transylvanian Tumbleweeds 2!
In part two of Transylvanian Tumbleweeds we explore the legacy of Dracula-themed attractions, particularly focusing on the Castle Dracula experience at Universal Studios. We discuss the concept of the "JayBang" introduced by Jay Stein and the c...
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Season 1
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Episode 17
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53:58
Transylvanian Tumbleweeds: Undead Sagebrush of the Old Country - Count Dracula in the Theme Parks
In part one of our exploration of the Transylvanian tyrant turned tourist trap, we break down some of Dracula's origins. Don't worry, this is not going to be that same old "Dracula is based on Vlad the Impaler" lecture that you've already heard...
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Season 1
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Episode 16
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56:57
Tropic Standard Time with Ken Bruce - The Enchanted Tiki Room
Ken Bruce spent 16 years researching and writing about the most important piece of theme park pop art ever made: Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room. The resulting book not only tells the history of that attraction, but serves to show how its sto...
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Season 1
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Episode 15
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1:13:01
Plywood Hurts if You Hit it Hard Enough - Mr. Toad's Wild Ride
An opening day attraction in both Disneyland and Walt Disney World, Mr. Toad is surprising fan favorite given that it plays like an outtake of a film that not that many people have seen and ends in punishment.We love it.Join us for an e...
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Season 1
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Episode 14
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1:31:51
Embracing the Snowflake - Adventure Thru Inner Space
It's one of the quirkiest theme park attractions of all time. Disneyland, for the first time ever, took on pure science fiction and hit it out of the park. It was like riding through an episode of "Outer Limits" or "Twilight Zone" (and was nota...
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Season 1
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Episode 13
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1:40:13
Minnie-sode: An Evermore Update - Master Blaster Rules Realm Town!
Another amuse-bouche one between the big shows.Let us know if you like these.And review us on your podcast platform of choice, please. We'd really appreciate it.
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Season 1
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Episode 12
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9:18
You Will Believe a Goat Can Fly - Frontier Village
It was a small park in rural San Jose with off-the-shelf rides and entertainment liberally lifted from Disneyland; so why is it so beloved? Is there another regional theme park in the country that has yearly reunions four DECADES after it close...
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Season 1
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Episode 12
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1:30:50
Retro-Nostalgia Ain’t What It Used to Be - The Main Street Electrical Parade
It exists in a nexus between three time periods: the future, the retro-future and the nostalgic past. The Main Street Electrical Parade is the most famous Disney parks parade for a good reason, it somehow synthesizes everything that is containe...
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Season 1
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Episode 11
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1:37:22
Folks Here's a Story 'Bout Minnie the Watcher - Fleischer Land
If you take a left turn around 1929, you end up here: where the jazz band triumphed over the orchestra, where sexy usurped formal, where a very different theme park empire began, and died.Welcome to Fleischer Land. Keep an eye out for...
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Season 1
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Episode 10
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1:39:05
They Died with their Boots On - The History and Future of the Disney Shooting Galleries
When we pick up a fake gun and shoot it at a fantastical electric target, what are we trying to become? What do we think Frontierland is? Who is Paul MacGlashan and how did the guy that designed Disney's shooting galleries help win WWII? <...
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Season 1
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Episode 9
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1:33:18
The Ballad of Bumping Biff - Back to the Future: The Ride
Fire up your Flux Capacitors, people, because we're heading back, back, back in time!We're traveling to the early-20th Century to visit some houses that ought not spin the way they do, the '60s to visit that same Not-Really-A-World's-Fair t...
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Season 1
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Episode 8
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1:40:50
The Starcruiser Evermore - The Pleasures and Pitfalls of Theme Park Interactivity
We go out on a limb this episode by philosophizing about the uses and abuses of guest interactivity within theme parks and other forms of live entertainment. We get real philosophical and voices get kind of contemplatively husky (or Kelly is st...
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Season 1
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Episode 7
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1:24:41
The Racing Monkeys of Leisure - Bob Gurr's Autopia
A puzzling anomaly today - we dive for hours on packed highways to a place where we pay money to simulate driving on packed highways - the Richfield Autopia attraction was once a vision of an America poised on the brink of progress and possibil...
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Season 1
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Episode 6
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1:40:56
Rude Mechanicals - Jungle Cruise: The Early Years
It's been in the parks so long that it seems simply part of Disneyland's fabric, which it is.The Jungle Cruise is almost synonymous with the idea of "theme park." But it struggled with its identity for a very long time before becoming that ...
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Season 1
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Episode 5
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1:39:46
Calamity Boag - The Golden Horseshoe Saloon
After Sleeping Beauty Castle, there may be no more important icon of the first few decades of Disneyland than The Golden Horseshoe Saloon.Wally Boag, Betty Taylor and Fulton Burley held court, every day, in Frontierland's grandest meetin' p...
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Season 1
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Episode 4
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1:24:13
Towers of Tomorrow - The Disneyland Hotel
Once the most modern of resorts, the story of The Disneyland Hotel goes from the Governor's mansion in 1930s Texas to an engineering miracle in 1815 Cairo... At least that's how we tell it.Trust us, this is a strange ride.
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Season 1
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Episode 3
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1:28:40
We're All Goons Here - Sleeping Beauty Castle
The icon of all theme park icons, Sleeping Beauty Castle. While it's the smallest of the Disney parks' castles, it has the richest, and strangest, history.Watch out, in this episode you will learn how something you probably thought was ...
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Season 1
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Episode 2
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1:30:09
