Class Action Park

[heatherchandler]

Has anyone seen this?  I thought it was due to premiere on HBO last week, but I am not seeing it on the schedule.

[JTMacc99]

1 minute ago, heatherchandler said:

Has anyone seen this?  I thought it was due to premiere on HBO last week, but I am not seeing it on the schedule.

It's on HBO Max. If you have a subscription to HBO, you have access to HBO Max. You just have to use a streaming device that isn't an Amazon Firestick or Roku. So you can get HBO Max on an iPad or Android tablet most likely. I bought a TiVo 4k streamer recently, and I can watch HBO Max on it.

Having said that...

Yes! I did watch this. It was fun and interesting, although I was more invested in the stories about the park* itself than the business behind it.

* Because... the year was 1985. I was a fearless teenager visiting Traction Park for probably the 5th or 6th time. By now, I had my fill of getting beat up on the water slides and was mostly interested in Motor World and the Alpine Slide. I LOVED the Alpine Slide.  I could spend half a day just getting in a few runs on it and be happy.

The problem for me was always getting behind somebody who didn't go as fast as I wanted to go. (Side note: This issue plagues me to this day driving to and from work.) Eventually I got a feel for who was going to suck while standing at the top of the slide and hopefully choosing wisely by going down the other track.  On this day, I watched a couple of ladies get on their carts, one on each track, and slowly start their decent.  This was clearly going to be a lose/lose situation, so I looked at the kid "running" the ride and said, "Do you mind if we wait a bit and give those two a head start before I go?" He let some people go by me on just the left track, while I waited an unreasonably long time at the top of the right track.

Finally, I decided that she must be almost to the bottom now and off I went. Leaning into turns, firing down straightaways, breaking just enough not to fly off the tracks into the rocks in the turns. And THEN, I saw her up ahead. Dead stopped. Reaching back on the track, trying to pick up her purse that she somehow dropped. As I processed all of that information, I lost concentration and a slight turn in the track flipped me up in the air, and I then slid down the concrete track on my side, leaving a large amount of the skin on my right arm somewhere on the track behind me. 

Just like they described in this documentary. Just another kid, just another nasty little injury. And like everybody else, I wore it with honor.

[heatherchandler]

19 minutes ago, JTMacc99 said:

It's on HBO Max. If you have a subscription to HBO, you have access to HBO Max. You just have to use a streaming device that isn't an Amazon Firestick or Roku. So you can get HBO Max on an iPad or Android tablet most likely. I bought a TiVo 4k streamer recently, and I can watch HBO Max on it.

Having said that...

Yes! I did watch this. It was fun and interesting, although I was more invested in the stories about the park* itself than the business behind it.

* Because... the year was 1985. I was a fearless teenager visiting Traction Park for probably the 5th or 6th time. By now, I had my fill of getting beat up on the water slides and was mostly interested in Motor World and the Alpine Slide. I LOVED the Alpine Slide.  I could spend half a day just getting in a few runs on it and be happy.

The problem for me was always getting behind somebody who didn't go as fast as I wanted to go. (Side note: This issue plagues me to this day driving to and from work.) Eventually I got a feel for who was going to suck while standing at the top of the slide and hopefully choosing wisely by going down the other track.  On this day, I watched a couple of ladies get on their carts, one on each track, and slowly start their decent.  This was clearly going to be a lose/lose situation, so I looked at the kid "running" the ride and said, "Do you mind if we wait a bit and give those two a head start before I go?" He let some people go by me on just the left track, while I waited an unreasonably long time at the top of the right track.

Finally, I decided that she must be almost to the bottom now and off I went. Leaning into turns, firing down straightaways, breaking just enough not to fly off the tracks into the rocks in the turns. And THEN, I saw her up ahead. Dead stopped. Reaching back on the track, trying to pick up her purse that she somehow dropped. As I processed all of that information, I lost concentration and a slight turn in the track flipped me up in the air, and I then slid down the concrete track on my side, leaving a large amount of the skin on my right arm somewhere on the track behind me. 

Just like they described in this documentary. Just another kid, just another nasty little injury. And like everybody else, I wore it with honor.

Why do they make me stream it?  I just want to watch it on tv like a normal person.  I do have a smart tv but still.. why the forced streaming?

That sounds very painful!  I have heard so many horror stories about those Alpine Slide carts!  

The waterslide that most intrigues me is that cannonball loop.  How did that get past the lawyers?  Ok, off to watch the doc!

 

[JTMacc99]

2 minutes ago, heatherchandler said:

Why do they make me stream it? 

For the same reason you can only get the new Star Trek content on CBS All Access and the Battlestar Gallactica re-boot will only be on the NBC streaming service Peacock and not on a live TV station. As people cut the cord in droves, the companies who are losing those paying customers (because CBS for example gets $3-$5 per month for every cable and satellite customer) they have decided to put a whole bunch of new premium content ONLY on their streaming services. That way they are hoping to get people hooked into the streaming services.

HBO is a different business model, so I'm not exactly sure of the financial benefits of why they're doing it, but that's your answer.

10 minutes ago, heatherchandler said:

That sounds very painful! 

I honestly remember being more annoyed at the purse lady than hurt by the giant arm burn. There was definitely a mindset of "minor injuries are just expected" when you went there.

I don't remember the cannonball loop thing, Probably because it was never actually open due to the high chance of killing somebody. 

[MicheleinPhilly]

I watched this the other night and was absolutely gobsmacked by what they were able to get away with. I don't know what it says about me but I was actually giggling throughout the first 2/3 because I just couldn't believe what I was seeing. 

I was too young to have experienced it in person but one of my older sisters reminded me of the time she came home with all of the skin from one of her elbows missing thanks to that straight down waterslide.  

[pigs-in-space]

Was there ever a class action lawsuit against this place? I know it's a funny pun on the name since it seems like a lawsuit waiting to happen, but it doesn't actually seem terribly accurate.

The owner seemed like a piece of shit. 

I really liked Chris Gethard's commentary on it - both funny and insightful.

[biakbiak]

Shauna Malwae-Tweep!!!! I mean she went by her actual name, Alison Becker, but she will always be Shauna Malwae-Tweep from Parks and Rec to me.

it was insane but really enjoyed it.

[Guest]

I was a teenager in the early 80s growing up near Philly and am super glad that, while we were adjacent to New Jersey, that the ads for Action Park must have only reached the Northern parts of that state because, without a doubt, had we seen them, my friends and I would have absolutely gone there had we known it existed. I also know we'd all have been very seriously injured. 

But I gotta say, the place looked squalid. Like, my absolute nightmare come true -- way too many people, nowhere to park, endless lines, janketty rides, and danger. But it did look fun. And I would have had the time of my life working there like the other kids did. 

I felt super sad for the mother who was interviewed about her son who died there and for the pittance of a settlement she received from the asshole owner. While her inclusion was necessary for the narrative, it made me feel awful about laughing about other people's injuries.

Edited September 5, 2020 by Guest

[ElectricBoogaloo]

On 9/2/2020 at 8:38 PM, biakbiak said:

Shauna Malwae-Tweep!!!! I mean she went by her actual name, Alison Becker, but she will always be Shauna Malwae-Tweep from Parks and Rec to me.

Hahaha, I had the exact same reaction! I yelled, "OMG, Shauna Malwae-Tweep!" as soon as she appeared.

9 hours ago, Giant Misfit said:

I felt super sad for the mother who was interviewed about her son who died there and for the pittance of a settlement she received from the asshole owner. While her inclusion was necessary for the narrative, it made me feel awful about laughing about other people's injuries.

Don't feel too bad about laughing earlier. There's definitely an element of "welp, it was the 80s" to the first half of this documentary. It was a time when kids rode bikes without helmets and expected to run home with bloody knees when they inevitably wiped out. And this was also a time when you could drive a pickup truck with kids in the back and no one batted an eye. That's why some of the earlier footage made me laugh too because it wasn't at all surprising that kids got hurt and no one thought it was a big deal. Scraping the skin off your arms and legs on the alpine slide? Of course! Kids jumping into the water haphazardly and knocking over other people? Of course! Letting 14 year old kids be in charge of ride safety? Of course! I'm not excusing the negligence of the park at all though. I'm just saying that given the way things were in the 80s, some of the earlier stuff made me shake my head and laugh.

Of course, there was also the CRAZY stuff like that looped water slide where I was like ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME? Even 12 year old me would have known that looked like a potential death trap. When they said people were getting lacerations and they later found it was from the teeth that had been knocked out by previous riders, I was like OMFG BARF.

The owner was a shit bag to refuse to pay settlements. It's not like people were suing over a paper cut. People DIED and he just didn't care.

[Tachi Rocinante]

On 9/1/2020 at 11:09 AM, JTMacc99 said:

I don't remember the cannonball loop thing, Probably because it was never actually open due to the high chance of killing somebody. 

It actually WAS open for a short period of time. 🤯

[GreekGeek]

I watched on Friday and started a thread (now locked) under Movies, not realizing this there was already a thread under HBO Documentaries. I was already past the target customer age in the 80's, so if I ever saw ads for this place, they didn't register. I'm kind of glad I never went, as I'm a big chicken even about most rides at regular amusement parks. This doc was fun to watch, but also heartbreaking to learn about the deaths. I too was more interested in the reminiscences about the park than in the business details, though it was fascinating to learn that even Donald Trump wanted no part of it!

@JTMacc99, did you get that horrible alcohol-iodine spray squirted on you after you scraped your side? 

I found myself thinking about this place being a perfect setting for The Goldbergs : Barry gets a job as a lifeguard, Erica's bikini top flies off on the Tarzan Swing, and Adam gets stuck in the Cannonball Loop. I can imagine him shouting "Ohhh, Balls!"as he plummets.  Of course Beverly has a huge hissy fit at the thought of her schmoopies in such a dangerous place.

For more details on the test run of the "man in the ball in the ball," look here.

[Tachi Rocinante]

Interesting and humorous, but not very well done.  I hate documentaries that use the same still photos over and over, and this one even had a few film clips running in reverse.

 

[funky-rat]

I will have to look for this to hit another source.  I was there for a few hours before we got drug out by parents.  I hit someone on the Alpine Slide,  and started in one lane on Surf Hill, but ended up in another one.

[JTMacc99]

15 hours ago, GreekGeek said:

 

@JTMacc99, did you get that horrible alcohol-iodine spray squirted on you after you scraped your side? 

Nope. Didn’t even occur to me to report my injury or seek treatment. It just was something that happened. 

[MicheleinPhilly]

On 9/5/2020 at 5:54 PM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Don't feel too bad about laughing earlier. There's definitely an element of "welp, it was the 80s" to the first half of this documentary. It was a time when kids rode bikes without helmets and expected to run home with bloody knees when they inevitably wiped out. And this was also a time when you could drive a pickup truck with kids in the back and no one batted an eye. That's why some of the earlier footage made me laugh too because it wasn't at all surprising that kids got hurt and no one thought it was a big deal. Scraping the skin off your arms and legs on the alpine slide? Of course! Kids jumping into the water haphazardly and knocking over other people? Of course! Letting 14 year old kids be in charge of ride safety? Of course! I'm not excusing the negligence of the park at all though. I'm just saying that given the way things were in the 80s, some of the earlier stuff made me shake my head and laugh.

Exactly. When I think about some of the crap I did as a kid in the 80s/early 90s, I'm amazed I'm still alive. 

[Irlandesa]

On 9/1/2020 at 10:09 AM, JTMacc99 said:

HBO is a different business model, so I'm not exactly sure of the financial benefits of why they're doing it, but that's your answer.

HBO Max is actually Warner Media's streaming service, not HBO's.  That's how it got something like Friends because WB owns Friends. Warner Media owns HBO so I guess they chose to use "HBO Max" as a name because of....brand recognition?  What ended up happening was create brand confusion because people couldn't figure out what was going to be different about HBO Now vs. HBO Max nor do they realize so much of the content is WB content and not exclusively HBO content.  The weird thing is that HBO owns Cinemax, therefore Warner owns Cinemax, and yet Cinemax material isn't included in HBO Max for some reason.  In fact, I lost access to Cinemax and it probably has to do with my cable company switching my subscription from regular HBO to HBO Max. 

So in the tldr; version, this isn't an HBO documentary; it's a Warner Media acquired documentary. HBO Max has HBO content but it's not exclusively HBO content.

This documentary was amusing in the beginning when I heard all about the accidents but it also made me sad.  It's easy to go "oh it's the 80s" but when I see hundreds of thousands attend festivals in spite of the pandemic, I can absolutely see people fighting for an owner's right to be operate a dangerous water park and celebrate his ingenuity to hire ride designers without the appropriate training to make things safe.  And for a town to protect an owner because it brings in a lot of money.

The attitude that protected this waterpark in the 80s hit way too close to home.

[cpcathy]

I'm late to the water slide party, but I really enjoyed this. Yes, we were laughing at the first half of it, these people are around my age group, and I wouldn't have gone to Action Park on a bet! But then, whoa, what a turn. I understand the one mother who said Malviwell was a piece of shit, funny at first, but then, yes, he was a piece of shit. I am not surprised that a certain New York real estate turned president was almost involved. Seems right up his alley.

[Racj82]

I actually went to this park when I was a kid.

I smashed into someone on the alpine slide.

I was forced to go down a waterslide head first (they wouldn't let me go feet first) and nearly drowned after hitting the water. I never been in water that deep before.

And the lift they use to take you up the cliff is one of the scariest things ever. It's so damn far up and the lift doesn't stop, you had to jump. But, where you jump, there is a giant edge of a cliff behind you. If you tripped or something, there was nothing stopping you from falling to your death. 

Just another day at Action Park.

[Dancingjaneway]

I had no idea this park existed until the documentary. The creator of the park was a piece of shit. The first half is definitely light-hearted & fun but the 2nd half is like they chucked you into the cannonball loop. One aspect that I KNOW they didn't talk about was sexual assaults or predators/rapists. I have to wonder how many kids were attacked by pedos or how many girls fondled, raped, attacked etc. There is NO way in a park setting like that, that shit didn't go down. 

[funky-rat]

On 8/30/2021 at 10:30 PM, Dancingjaneway said:

I had no idea this park existed until the documentary. The creator of the park was a piece of shit. The first half is definitely light-hearted & fun but the 2nd half is like they chucked you into the cannonball loop. One aspect that I KNOW they didn't talk about was sexual assaults or predators/rapists. I have to wonder how many kids were attacked by pedos or how many girls fondled, raped, attacked etc. There is NO way in a park setting like that, that shit didn't go down. 

Not sure about that, but it was 100% true that people on the swing would drop trou and people lost swimsuits.

[Scout Finch]

I'm finally reading the book about it, written by the owner's son, which is hysterically funny in his descriptions but also equal parts "my father was freakin' insane and no matter how many concerns we'd raise about the potential for serious injuries--or death--from some new ride he'd built, he didn't want to hear it." I'm thoroughly enjoying it, though, even if I am just getting around to reading it after it's been on my Kindle for about two years!

Edited January 9 by Scout Finch