In 1973, Movie Studio Paramount owned the amusement park Kings Island outside of Cincinnati and produced the wildly popular TV Show The Brady Bunch. Executives thought what would happen if you combined the two?
In the episode “The Cincinnati Kids,” Mike has to present some plans for an addition to King’s Island, an amusement park in Cincinnati. He invites the whole family along. A mix-up occurs when Mike is left with a Yogi Bear poster while Jan takes Mike’s plans, which she then loses on one of the many rides in the park.
The script called for a shot where the cast was to be filmed riding a rollercoaster. During the shoot, the camera mounted at the front of the coaster looked unstable to Robert Reed, the actor who played dad Mike Brady. He insisted that producers first make a test run of the roller coaster car ensure the cast’s safety. Reed’s intuition proved to be right on. The camera flew off its mount and back into the seating area. Had it gone untested, the flying camera would have seriously harmed or possibly killed the cast members had they been seated in the car.
Several members of the cast revised the amusement park in 2013, to celebrate King’s Islands 40th Anniversary. While the remember this as one of their favorite episodes, this was almost the one that could have spelled the demise for the famous TV family.
Here is a mash up version of the episode, via the MTV/VH-1 show Pop Up Video:
— Various Sources