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Knott's Scary Farm Halloween Haunt 40th Edition
Season Pass Podcast 2012 Report

Oct. 22, 2012

Listen to Episode # 213 - Live! Knott's 40th Haunt-Schulz Family & Ed Alonzo! Part 1

Listen to Episode # 215 - Live! Knott's 40th Haunt-Julie Owens, Rob Perez, Daniel Miller, Brooke Walters & More! Part 2


A very long time ago, I and my grammar school buddy Jamie Schwartzman went to one of the earliest Knott's Berry Farm Halloween Haunts, either the first or the second, I can't say which for sure. But I do remember being scared witless generally, and most specifically, riding Satan's Sawmill, the log flume overlay, with monsters jumping at us around every turn and that strobe-lit Lucifer standing tall at the top of the final climb, chortling demonically. That rocked my world pretty hard back then, and certainly helped make me the man I am today ALL HAIL THE DARK LORD. (Kidding.)

Thus, joining The Season Pass to record a multi-part podcast extolling the 40th (!!!) edition of the Haunt was an extra-delightful treat for that reason, and so many more.

(Note: this report is going to be even more rambling than normal, so gird your loins.)

There was an abundance of mobile-unit work, but when seated around a table, we were stationed on the second-story dock of the former Kingdom of the Dinosaurs dark ride. VERY COOL. Cooler still, we were joined by Chris Gore, at left, and Jenna Busch, next over to the right. Chris, you probably already know from G4's Attack Of The Show, PodCrash!, Film Threat, and about a thousand other things. Funny as sin, a clown-prince of geekdom. Here's his official site, if you need to be enlightened.

Jenna Busch is my dream woman, no doubt true for about a billion other guys. Very funny as well, charming, an übergeek, and just look at the picture, DUH. Her résumé is also a mile long; best place to learn more is at her blog, Girl Meets Lightsaber.

And then, of course, there was Knott's own Jeff Tucker, who is Mr. Entertainment. If you spend five minutes in his company and don't laugh at least once, there's a problem, and it's your problem.

So the KoD queue and load areas are almost unchanged since the ride closed. They pretty much just cut down the switchback barriers and left the rest as is. Which is a good thing because they are going to be putting a new dark ride in here. Because I'm using every Jedi mind trick I know of to make this happen.

Honestly, I wasn't a huge fan of "...Dinosaurs," but it was a dark ride, and there is no such thing as an irredeemably bad dark ride, save for Superstar Limo, the exception that proves the rule. Don't try to argue with me on this; you will lose.

Oh, to have peeked inside these doors to see what's there... Dinosaurs? Unlikely, but if there were big, rotting animatronic dinosaurs, I mean, damn, that would be freaking wicked, right?

The ride op booth, cute!

 

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