In 1976, disgraced wallstreet investor Eugene Mullvihill opened the infamous Action Park in Vernon New Jersey. It would turn out to be a lawless place full of drunken poorly trained teens, a deadly wave pool, and the world's first, and last, looping waterslide.
If you're reading this, chances are, you know what a podcast is. But, do you know how podcasting got started? What is considered the first podcast? Where did the name come from? And how does Maximum Fun play into all this?
Before a lot of our modern tech was mainstream, homes of the future walkthroughs were there to show us a glimpse into a supposedly better and brighter future. But did these homes of the future, now several decades old, manage to predict how houses are built now? Is there anything practical about building houses out of foam and balloons?
In the 90's, summer family comedy Life with Mikey released in theaters...and was a terrible flop. Despite having a star studded cast like Michael J. Fox, Cyndi Lauper, and Nathan Lane, the movie was panned by movie-goers and critics alike. But why? What lead up to this disaster, and does it really deserve to be forgotten?
Despite being one of the leading chains of theme parks in the united states, Six Flags has sure made some awful business decisions over the years. From running a wax museum, to opening an entertainment venue inside an old power plant (with no rides), it's a wonder that there's still any Six Flags parks left at all.
Studio Ghibli films had a rough start to being distributed in the west, with early dubs that made a lot of changes, the inclusion of pop songs, and cats that aren't supposed to talk, However, in the mid 90's, Disney stepped in, hoping that supporting Ghibli would give them a stronger foothold in Japan. They also hoped that Japanese animation legend Hayao Miyazaki would continue to make them kids movies like Totoro and Kiki's Delivery Service, not gory historical epics like Princes Mononoke, or s...
Note: The decision to rerun this episode was made several days before the unfortunate passing of actor Johnathan Joss. It’s Austin’s week to pick a topic, and they’ve chosen “King of the Hill”, their all-time favorite show. This episode has it all. Bonus: Brand new audio from Austin about the King of the Hill Revival!
What's better than getting food at a nice restaurant? How about getting food inside the rainforest? Or in the stands of a medieval arena? Or how about...a prison?
Dating sims are a often forgotten genre of video game in the west, predominantly because of its lewd origins. However some of the most hard hitting people in the video game industry have worked on dating sims, and it's a genre that deserves more respect!
Host Brenda is back at it again with more spooky scary ghost stories from your favorite amusement parks. What ghosts lurk in America's oldest theme park, and did a little girl really fall to her death from the Simpsons ride at Universal Studios Hollywood? And what famous ghost has been forced to watch Shrek 4D for all eternity?
While Saturday morning cartoons have been around for decades, the concept of the kid's programming block is a fairly recent invention of the 90's. Starting with the Disney Afternoon, channels began carefully curating children's programming into themed blocks, not only to satisfy new government regulations requiring certain hours of educational programming, but to compete with the brand new 24 hour networks like nickelodeon and cartoon network.
Blind boxes are the sensation that has taken over the world. This episode touches on the potential origins of these tiny little collectables, as well as the history of several popular brands; Kid Robot's Dunnys, Sonny Angels, Smiskis, and Labubus!
As Millennials reached teenhood in the early 2000's, it became apparent that there was a serious hole in the market when it came to creating educational content for them. Enter the Children's Workshop and the team behind Nickelodeon, who made a home for teens looking for more serious content on a programming block called "The N" (which just so happened to be the nighttime block for preschool channel "noggin").
We're trying something new this week by bringing you a selection of updates to previous episodes. Have you been dying to know what happened to the floating McDonalds? Or what is the real reason Sonic Sat AM never got a third season? These updates, along with updates about Top Thrill Dragster and Kingda Ka are all here for you enjoyment.
According to Hasbro's website, the board game "Monopoly" was created in 1934 by board game designer Charles Darrow. But what if that information is completely false? What if Monopoly dates back thirty years earlier, and has a secret history that Hasbro and Monopoly's previous rights owner, Parker Brothers, has tried so desperately to erase?
Back when the internet used to be fun, a little virtual pet website started the trend of doing yearly April Fools Day pranks. From introducing new pets to unleashing an incurable disease upon its citizens, Host Brenda tells Austin all about the best pranks throughout Neopian History.
Ten years ago, the Steven Universe episode Jailbreak aired on Cartoon Network revealing that the character of Garnet was actually two lesbians in a trenchcoat (but it's actually more complicated than that). Host Austin shares the story of the making of this monumental episode along with audio clips from an exclusive interview with show creator Rebecca Sugar and Executive producer Ian James-Quartey! Catch the whole interview by becoming a Maximum Fun member and gaining access to an entire library...
It’s not MaxFunDrive without a wild kickoff spectacular! Former real-life VJ and host of MTV's Spring Break 1999, Dave Holmes, takes your favorite MaxFun hosts through some wacky ‘90s- and Spring Break-themed mini games!! Featuring: Dave Holmes, Jeremy Bent, Oscar Montoya, Dimitry Pompée, Tom Lum, Ellen Weatherford, Alex Schmidt, Brenda Snell, Drea Clark, Alonso Duralde, Dan McCoy, Jordan Morris, Manolo Moreno, Ella Hubber, Caroline Roper, Ella McLeod, John-Luke Roberts, Justin McElroy, Clint Mc...
It's no secret that the video game industry is a notoriously male dominated field, but women have been a part of the industry since its very inception. Today we highlight two women: Mabel Addis, the writer and historical expert behind the first educational game used in classrooms, and Carol Shaw, the first woman employed at Atari, and the programmer of the best-selling game River Raid.
In the early 90's, the Walt Disney company was searching for a way to add some thrills into their theme parks, and somehow, they managed to settle on building a drop tower themed after the 1950's horror anthology show, the Twilight Zone. But there's more to this attraction than meets the eye!
A new Smurf's movie is coming out featuring an entire album and musical score by Rhianna! So, just who are these little blue fellas and how have they managed to stay in the public consciousness all this time?
The Superman radio show premiered in 1940, introducing the masses to many new aspects of Superman's Canon, but in the middle of its historic run, the people behind the show decided that they wanted to use Superman's influence to enact positive social change. Enter, Operation Intolerance, and more importantly, the sixteen part series "The Clan of the Firey Cross" that directly took on real life racial hate groups.
Before Nintendo Online, before the PSN, before Xbox Game Pass, there was Sega Channel, a revolutionary way to play new games on your Sega genesis through your cable provider.
It's time for a classic Halloween in February celebration. Learn the tale of the world's (supposedly) only haunted carousel horse, located at Cedar Point, and marvel in some of the more well-known Disneyland urban legends and hauntings. Why does Tomorrowland have so many ghosts? Honestly it's a mystery.
Before Coraline, before Nightmare Before Christmas, before Wallace and Gromit, George Pal was making his "Puppet Toons" starting in the 1930's! Using upwards of 9,000 individually carved wooden puppets, Pal's work has almost been completely forgotten by pop culture. And yes, some of it was a bit racist. It was the 30's! Of course it was!
In 1993, two cartoons starring Sonic the Hedgehog premiered within two weeks of each other; one airing weekdays on syndication, and the other on Saturday mornings. Despite being drastically different from modern day Sonic, these shows helped to establish who Sonic was as a character and fleshed out a world that had previously been confined to pixels. Get Sonic! Get Atomic!
Since the dawn of time, games have been for the fellas, but in Japan, in 1994, a collective of women designers got together to make a genre defining game. What if there was one princess, who had to choose between a collection of handsome and beautiful men on her quest to save the world?
Rollercoasters don't typically have sequels, and one of the reasons that might be is because of Son of Beast, formerly the world's tallest, fastest wooden rollercoaster, whose entire existence was mired in an endless string of incidents and repairs. From sections of the track collapsing, to getting hit by lightning, to having its best element, a record breaking loop, removed, the little beast just couldn't catch a break.
Before Rudolph, and the Grinch, and a Charlie Brown Christmas and all of the classic animated Christmas Specials that you all know and love, there was a little old man with poor eyesight who was brought to life by one of the scrappiest animated studios there ever was. This week is about the first (that we know of) animated Christmas Special, Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol, and how it paved the way for all the Christmas specials to come.
This story is about a lot of things. It's somehow about tigers, Sea World Ohio, the world's tallest drop tower, Fabio getting hit in the face by a goose, and so much more, but above all, it's about Kingda Ka, formerly the world's tallest and fastest rollercoaster, and sister coaster to Cedar Point's Top Thrill Dragster. For decades, Kingda Ka stood with her records untouched, but soon she'll be dismantled for parts, marking the end of the roller coaster wars as we knew them.
