Thrills, Chills and Spills Kick-Starts Summer With Discovery Channel's Fifth-Annual Roller Coaster Event
Memorial Day prime-time event is screaming good fun,
May 28, 2001 from 8:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m. (ET/PT).
Every job has its ups and downs - just ask the producers behind Discovery Channel's fifth annual Thrills, Chills and Spills prime-time event on Memorial Day, Monday, May 28, 2001. The roller-coaster enthusiasts, who filmed these programs, hit the road every year to bring viewers the most eye-popping, jaw-dropping, heart-stopping footage of the world's latest and greatest coasters. The only way to capture this kind of excitement is to climb on board. The result? The next best thing to being there!
This year's Thrills, Chills and Spills line up includes the premieres of 30 Roller Coasters In 24 Hours? (8:00-9:00 PM - ET/PT); More Top Ten Coasters (9:00-10:00 PM - ET/PT); and Extreme Rides 2001 (10:00-11:00 PM - ET/PT). Produced by the same team behind Discovery's wildly popular and highly rated Scream Parks, Extreme Rides 2000, and the original Top 10 Coasters specials, these Memorial Day programs were made using lipstick-size cameras, custom audio mounts and specialized camera mounts to record exclusive on-board footage. Every scream, every howl (is that laughter or fear?), every suspenseful climb and sudden plunge seems especially real to the viewers. Each program includes interviews with ride designers, engineers, park owners and enthusiasts who explain and explore the popularity of the rides people love.
30 Roller Coasters In 24 Hours?
May 28, 2001 - 8:00 - 9:00 p.m. (ET/PT)30 Roller Coasters In 24 Hours? documents history in the making with the breaking of a Guinness World Record. Last October 14-15, multiple film crews using van cams, body cams and coaster cams videotaped a one-time-only attempt (no re-takes allowed) to break the Guinness World Record for riding the most roller coasters in a 24-hour period. The seven-person team successfully broke the 1999 record of 29 coasters by riding 40 coasters at California amusement parks, including rides at Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, Paramount's Great America, Six Flags Marine World, Scandia Family Fun Center, Upland Family Fun Center, Adventure City Theme Park, Knott's Berry Farm and Six Flags Magic Mountain.
More Top 10 Coasters
May 28, 2001 - 9:00 - 10:00 p.m. (ET/PT)
More Top 10 Coasters features the year's Top 10 winners of Amusement Today magazine's "Golden Ticket" Best Coasters survey, which polled hundreds of experienced amusement park and coaster fans. Taking viewers for a front-seat ride aboard the Top 5 winners in each category, the program spotlights the following thrill rides:
**Top 5 Wooden Coasters**
1. Raven, Holiday World, Santa Claus, IN
2. Shivering Timbers at Michigan's Adventure, Muskegon, MI
3. Texas Giant, Six Flags Over Texas, Arlington
4. Rampage at VisionLand, Bessemer, AL
5. Phoenix, Knoebel's Grove, Elysburg, PA
**Top 5 Steel Coasters**
1. Magnum XL-200, Cedar Point, Sandusky, OH
2. Millennium Force, Cedar Point, Sandusky, OH
3. Montu, Busch Gardens, Tampa, FL
4. Steel Force, Dorney Park, Allentown, PA
5. Raptor, Cedar Point, Sandusky, OH
Extreme Rides 2001
May 28, 2001 - 10:00 p.m. - 11:00 p.m. (ET/PT)
The final hour, Extreme Rides 2001, takes viewers aboard the latest and greatest scream machines, exploring the incredible technology behind the tallest, fastest, longest, highest and scariest rides in the world. Some of the rides examined include Men in Black, a revolutionary interactive attraction at Universal Studios in Orlando, in which competing teams riding in motion-based vehicles must shoot down enemy aliens. There's also the Rhino Rally at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, an off-road, four-wheel-drive attraction that combines up-close animal encounters with a raging river adventure. Buckled into the front seat of Superman: The Ultimate Escape at Six Flags Ohio in Aurora, viewers experience first-hand how linear induction motors catapult riders at 70 mph up two 180-foot towers – forwards and backwards! Across the Atlantic, Ripsaw Falls at Alton Towers in Staffordshire, England, terrorizes riders with water while turning them every which way but loose. Viewers also board two of the world's tallest, fastest coasters – the 310-foot, 92 mph Millennium Force at Cedar Point, and the 318-foot, 95 mph Steel Dragon 2000 at Nagashima Spa Land in Japan.
All three premieres of Thrills, Chills and Spills are produced by Termite Art Productions; Erik Nelson is executive producer, Kiku Lani Iwata is producer. For the Discovery Channel, Suzy Geller Wolf is executive producer and Clark Bunting is executive in charge of production.
For more information on these shows see our TV Show Guide or visit the Discovery Channel online.
| TV Specials | TV Show Guide |
Raven and The Legend photos courtesy of Holiday World. HyperSonic XLC photo courtesy of Paramount's Kings Dominion. All rights reserved.
