Show Notes

This week. Mike and EB take on a story that goes well beyond roller coasters: Paramount Skydance’s $110 billion deal for Warner Bros. Discovery. They skip the finance talk and ask what matters to theme park fans. Will anyone finally build a Star Trek land? Will Ferengis and Klingons return to the midway? What happens to Universal’s Harry Potter rights at Epic Universe? They also cover Warner’s park history, from Looney Tunes at Six Flags to Warner Bros. Movie World and Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi, then go through the IP list. It includes Wayne’s World as a 90s land, a Godfather restaurant, and a Wizard of Oz boat ride. Mike also explains how the Six Flags “Over North Ohio” clip took off on social media.

In Quick Hits, Disney is reworking its parking plazas with digital price signs, which gets Mike and EB talking about surge pricing, “gamification,” service fees, and tip screens in gift shops. There’s a rumored Rise of the Resistance refurbishment, plus a question about how long the sequel trilogy story will last. A guest at Epcot’s Food & Wine Festival dives off the Gran Fiesta Tour boat. Joe Rohde is on his book tour and says Lightning Lane is like skipping to the car chase in a movie.

The back half opens with the Coaster Radio mailbag, including a commemorative brick at Six Flags Great America’s 50th anniversary walkway that reads “Eat a Cricket, Half Price Ticket” for Fright Fest. Then two more entries arrive in the Halloween contest, where listeners interview a scare actor and get them to say the show’s name. Ben’s audio from Hersheypark Dark Nights features a man carrying a severed head and a Pennsylvania legend. Caleb’s video from Six Flags Great Adventure stars Jelly Boy the Clown, a sword swallower. EB shares his three-question trick for landing an interview.

Finally, Mike and EB settle what separates a great haunt from a bad one, using local haunts, haunted hayrides, and Universal as reference points. The topics are detailed sets, great actors versus bored ones, inventive special effects, too much darkness, conga lines versus pulsing groups, IP that lives up to its name, and storylines that make sense. It ends with Bunny Man Bridge and goblins sliding into Mike’s studio mid-recording.