The Ground Round was originally opened in 1969 by orange-roofed American icon Howard Johnson. Its corporate website describes it as “the original ‘no rules’ place.”

But a complete lack of rules would be a bit of an overstatement, considering that the Ground Round was – and continues to be -- a family restaurant. And total anarchy has never been the secret behind the success of large casual dining chains such as Olive Garden (DRI) or Chili's (EAT).

But you'll recall from your mall-rat youth that Ground Round did show cartoons and old Little Rascals episodes on big-screen TVs, served bottomless baskets of popcorn and peanuts -- and encouraged patrons to toss the shells right on the floor, adding to the free-wheeling atmosphere.

And toss those shells mall patrons, of all ages, happily did ... Until tragedy struck.

Yes, the lowly peanut brought 2 Ground Rounds to their knees in near-identical incidents.

How?

Apparently, no one in management realized that peanut shells were flammable until, on separate occasions, the husk-covered floors of both the Yonkers, New York and the York, Pennsylvania Ground Round locations caught fire, killing one patron and injuring scores of others.

Today, popcorn is still available, but the days of the deadly peanut basket are over -- especially given the peanut allergy that's swept the nation in recent years.

And there have been other changes at the Ground Round since you patronized it as a child as well. For starters, its signature Bingo the Clown has been killed off and replaced by the anthropomorphic Ground Round Hound -- perhaps to eliminate the sheer terror an encounter such as the one pictured below might provoke in young children:

However, clowning at the Round wasn't just scary for the kids. Take a look at this post from an online message board aimed at clowns:

“Hey there everybody! I have been clowning since '94. A friend of mine who worked at the Ground Round doing Bingo the Clown suggested I should give it a shot. I’m always up for a challenge, so I started working there as the clown, doing 4-5 nights a week. Talk about jumping in feet first!! I can still remember the stark terror of walking out there for the first time and being swarmed with kids. But I must say that it was a great place to learn my craft, and I had plenty of practice twisting balloons.”

All was fine and dandy until Friday the 13th, 2004, when the “ownership structure” of the Ground Round changed (corporate-speak for a bankrupt company going completely off the rails).