Danger Rangers Live in Safety Rules! (lost theme park stage show based on cartoon; 2006-2008)

The show's logo.

Status: Lost

Danger Rangers Live in Safety Rules! was a live show hosted at Dutch Wonderland in Lancaster, PA based on the Danger Rangers animated series that aired on PBS Kids at the time.

Background

Danger Rangers was an animated series created by Educational Adventures that ran on PBS Kids from 2005 to 2006 (though some stations continued to rerun the show as late as 2009) that taught various safety topics through example and music videos to educate, entertain and empower viewers to be more careful of their own surroundings and act properly in an emergency.

Production

Opening on April 29th, 2006, the stage show sees three of the show's main characters, Sully the seal, Kitty the cat and Burble the polar bear, along with Dutch Wonderland's park exclusive character known as "The Knight of Safety" (the stage show's live host), educating kids on the various safety topics featured on the show, from hazards at home to the importance of wearing helmets, via audience participation and interaction and singing songs featured in the show's music videos. The show would end with the rangers singing "Everybody Be Water Safe" followed by The Knight of Safety inviting guests and children to walk up on stage to meet the trio.

Following the 2006-2007 season, the show would get an honorable mention award from the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions for "Best Edutainment Show" at their Big E Awards show. The 2007-2008 season saw a return to Dutch Wonderland, along with a revamped version of the live show now under the cooperation between Educational Adventures and RWS & Associates (now RWS Entertainment), a production house that specializes in theme park stage shows.

During this run, it was decided to take the stage show beyond Dutch Wonderland and start hosting at venues like cruise ships, malls, conventions and other theme parks. Sadly, Educational Adventures was liquidated and sold off after a lawsuit was filed with one of the financers, leading to the stage show's closure at the end of the season and plans for the show's expansion to be shuttered.

Availability

While the cartoon itself and the show's soundtrack that was included in the stage show are easily available on second-hand sites, there are no known recordings of the stage show itself, either the original run or the revamped version. This can be attributed to the relative obscurity of Dutch Wonderland itself, the short run the show had and the fact YouTube was still in its infancy around the time the show was active.

Gallery

Images

The Ranger suits used for the stage show.
Sully, Kitty and Burble with Dutch Wonderland character Sir Brandon, the Knight of Safety.
A slide from a Mighty Kids Media slideshow presentation that mentions the stage show when discussing partnerships.
A Dutch Wonderland brochure circa 2006 advertising the stage show.
A behind-the-scenes image showing Sully, Kitty and Burble.
An advertisement in the Lancaster New Era newspaper for the live show's opening day.