Last night, they tried to turn conservation into a Japanese game show, with a ‘documentary’ about a scientist being swallowed alive…for Science!. I didn’t watch it — I was grading papers, as I will be doing 25 hours a day for the next two weeks, I think — but the reviews are scathing.
One other thing I’d like to complain about: stop complaining that it was a bait-and-switch, because the snake didn’t actually swallow the person — he backed out after the poor reluctant animal was force-fed part of his arm. That’s the good thing. If the snake had actually swallowed him, it probably would have done harm to the animal, and the so-called experiment actually had no scientific value anyway.
Maybe next year, the Discovery Channel will, in desperation, publicly eviscerate all of their executives — LIVE! ON TV! — and use their guts to chum the waters during Shark Week. It’s the natural conclusion of this trend, one can hope.
Discovery is a lost cause. Bear witness to the recent “Surviving Exodus” WTF? And hosted by Aaron Paul?
Jebus.
Bah. You know as well as I do that executives are never to share in any of the bad consequences of any shit they dream up ever. The whole world economy is based on that.
This seems to be the fate of all channels that are supposedly educational. Animal Planet is all about cryptozoology and the History Channel splits its time between Pawn Stars and Ancient Aliens. What a joke we are.
I also root for the bulls in Pamplona every year.
I didn’t watch that cr*p. I thought the real demonstration was to be the effectiveness of the “snake-proof suit”. My imagination ran away with the idea, asking ‘what will they do when the man is swallowed by the snake?’ All I could imagine was him brandishing a knife, to cut his way out. “So long snake”, would have been the whispered narration of the event.
But that just made me ask, once again, “How is this HISTORY? Whatever happened to their nonstop replays of the WWII documentaries, and ‘Hister’ shaming?”
Ugh, I had seen a few mentions of this on Twitter.
I have not had a TV that was used for anything other than streaming from the internet for a few years, but back when I did have cable I did occasionally flip past Discovery Canada, and History Canada and was usually quite disappointed. I see that History Canada is currently highlighting Ice Pilots NWT, Mountain Men, American Pickers, and The Curse of Oak Island (okay, the people wasting time on Oak Island might be fools, but I am from the Maritimes so it is nice to see some coverage from that area, so I do not completely dislike that show). Of course, if I look at all of their shows I see Pawn Stars and Ancient Aliens are still going strong. They used to show some decent Canadian made documentaries about battlefields, but I do not see anything listed on the website right now.
It might not be perfect, but my go to source for decent history documentaries and programs is the BBC, especially BBC Four, both TV and radio. If I am tired and do not want to read something heavy, I can usually find a little bit of watchable history programming there.
re @5:
oops. misread the name of the channel. That last question is still directed to the faux-History channel. I guess that snake shenanigans qualifies as Discovery. Still, the title of the OP is still very valid.
Not true. They also have shows about building tree houses.
But yeah, for-profit channels just can’t seem to maintain focus on educational content and inevitably switch over to crappy reality programming with fake drama because it’s cheaper to produce. A couple of years ago, I realized that Too Cute was literally the only show still on Animal Planet that was actually about animals anymore. All the other animal shows have now been shifted over to National Geographic Wild. I’m waiting to see how long it takes for that channel to move do the same.
@microraptor #8:
And it will still be about animals, when it succumbs to its inevitable re-purposing and is renamed Too Cute To Live. Although it’ll be canned after half a season if everyone always votes for the chainsaw.
When the oldest grandson was small, he and I used to watch Animal Planet together, and he was inspired to want to be an animal conservationist.
I missed much of the change-over, because we were living in another state. Since we’ve been back, my now teen-aged grandson spends time with me during the summer and of course, he turned on Animal Planet. I was shocked to see the tree house show, some toothless hillbillies catching “varmints” in the most inhumane ways, and worst of all. a hunter demonstrating how to clean and put together a gun. I turned off the TV and would not let my grandson watch that channel again.
The channel has gone from educating young people about caring for animals and conserving their habitats to teaching about killing and injuring them and destroying their habitats.
I’m appalled at what this country has become.
magistramarla
I have fond memories of actual educational programs on animal planet when I was growing up. I haven’t had a tv for several years, so I’m not sure of the current programming situation, but last time I checked, none of the shows were educational and only a select few could even be seen as inspired by a love or interest in animals.
I’m so glad they didn’t go through with it…i don’t even understand how it could possibly be legal to propose this ridiculous show in the first place. Aren’t there laws against torture of animals in the US? WTF?
And Paul Rosolie should be fucking ashamed…a conservationist my arse, what a fucking arsehole….
I hope this means a severe blow to his career. No university should work with a biologist that so blatantly disregards ethics.
I’m off to watch a David Attenborough’s program to cleanse my brain.
I feel like TLC has dropped about as far as a channel can go. When I was younger I was greatly inspired by programs like The Day the Universe Changed and Connections when they were aired on TLC, now it is just a collection of reality shows, and “lifestyle” fluff. I guess I should not be surprised by that as it is owned by Discovery Communications.
A&E is also gone, having switched over to mindlessness at about the same time. Just before concentrating on reality tv, they aired one of my favourite programs, A Nero Wolfe Mystery. But of course, despite good ratings, it was cancelled and wonderful content was jettisoned.
OK folks here we go with a close up of the snakes anus. Wait for it. There it is, it looks like his head just coming out now. Uh oh, it looks like his shoulders are stuck and the SPCA has just showed up with an injunction against injuring the snake in any further way. What will they do now?
I’m shocked! How could a network that puts two naked people into survival situations for scientific research purposes, show such trash?
I figure someone somewhere in the chain of decision making has a vore fetish.
Is it because the Discovery Channel is now mostly being watched by social conservatives who hate science? Because that would make sense.
My first thought when I saw that he was going to do this was that I hope the snake kills the fucker.
To me, the whole idea exemplified everything that’s wrong with humanity – doing reckless, stupid shit without a thought for the damage it would cause to the world around us, all in the name of things like “discovery”, without any real purpose or benefit. What the hell would we do with a “snakeproof suit”? Screw scientific merit, there’s NO merit for this shit. The only possible use for a suit like that would be to allow assholes to go fuck with snakes in the wild for their own sadistic entertainment.
Idiot conservative pundits ridicule publicly funded science, but this is the kind of shit we get when science is funded privately, for the purpose of entertainment and profit. Sure, there’s money in figuring out new ways to kill people, and there’s money in pharmaceutical research, as long as they get to overcharge for the resulting products, but there’s also this crap – things that would pass for science in Hollywood, and that non-scientists might mistake for science.
All it does is further the notions that (1) science is just idiots mucking about without any real purpose, and (2) scientists have no regard for the wellbeing of any living thing if they’re studying it. It also reinforces the notion that it’s ok to abuse the world around us for our purposes.
I’m glad they called it off, but this is the first time I’ve thought someone DESERVED to be crushed and eaten by a snake.
See, all you people who complained about ‘the Hitler Channel’, you got your wish & they stopped showing anything remotely historical. I hope you’re happy.
At least American Heroes Channel (I’m not making that name up) has Myth Hunters which is mostly skeptical and fairly decent – when they aren’t doing shows like ‘The Mafia’s Greatest Hits’.
Discovery Channel: Discover how low we can sink!
Maybe next year, the Discovery Channel will, in desperation, publicly eviscerate all of their executives — LIVE! ON TV! — and use their guts to chum the waters during Shark Week.
As President Bartlett said, if the Oscars were like that, I’d watch ’em. It would certainly be more satisfying than the series finale of “True Blood.”
(But please don’t do that in “True Detective” — that would mean feeding Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey to less watchable actors!)
See, all you people who complained about ‘the Hitler Channel’, you got your wish & they stopped showing anything remotely historical. I hope you’re happy.
I’m still waiting for them to do “Dweebs of Death Week.” You know, Himmler, Molotov, Goebbels, Beria, Malenkov, Sauerbrey, Ieng Sary, all the middle-managers who make the big atrocities possible.
microraptor @#8 — “…switch over to crappy reality programming with fake drama because it’s cheaper to produce.” Maybe it’s cheaper, or not, but the execs must have some reason to believe that this crap gets more eyeballs and better ratings, so more advertising revenue…in other words, TV$$. Sadly, they probably have the numbers to back up their decisions. Cognitive junk food sells well.
I see that History Canada is currently highlighting Ice Pilots NWT, Mountain Men, American Pickers, and The Curse of Oak Island…
Sounds like the Bad Career Choices Channel. Maybe they could spruce it up with shows about more interesting careers, like gunrunner, organ-thief, government-hacker, mercenary, blood-diamond-wholesaler, etc.
In other snake news, there has been a diced onion dispute at a Saskatchewan Tim Hortons’. A disgruntled employee threw a harmless snake at the employee:
http://globalnews.ca/news/1714538/snake-thrown-in-tim-hortons-after-diced-onion-dispute/
It’s a sad day for our fair country.
No, see, here’s the thing. It doesn’t actually matter if the reality show gets better ratings, it just has to be more cost efficient. Bigfoot Hunters could get 1/4 the ratings that a hypothetical documentary show about wild cats of North America, but if it also cost 1/10th as much to produce it’s the one that’s going to get made because it will bring in more. Ratings become less relevant as production costs fall. I think this is how the SyFy channel remained on the air.
I think that’s the primary audience for television in general anymore. Everyone else is either on the internet or out doing stuff.
Well, at least it wasn’t as bad as Sarah Palin’s Real American Celebrity Bigfoot Ghost Hoarders.
…oh, wait, that one was on The Learning Channel, wasn’t it?
I couldn’t bring myself to watch any of it, or even read anything. I’m glad to hear that they didn’t actually go through with it, because regurging is dangerous for a snake! While most will recover, it can be fatal to some snakes, possibly due to some internal injury as the prey item is brought back up, or for other reasons unknown. I’ve lost a couple baby corn snakes that way; they had been eating find for months, then regurged one day and were dead a couple days later.
Forcing a snake to go through that is animal cruelty, but people go “Oh, it’s just a snake” and that makes me so angry because they’re still alive and should be treated well.
I don’t understand the basic idea behind this stunt. This kind of snake makes very sure its prey is dead before it tries to swallow it. Does the snakeproof suit protect you from being suffocated, while tricking the snake into believing you’re dead somehow???
TSIB.
There are still moral folks out there doing what is best for animals, it just doesn’t sell on TeeVee. Several years ago when Animal Planet was airing Wildlife Emergency they were filming at the Wildlife Center of Virginia, a teaching hospital for native wildlife. Evidently after a few seasons the producers requested that the Center make their episodes “more dramatic.” Ed Clark, the founder and director said in effect, “no bloody way!” We are here to help animals, not exploit them. Ed told them to take their program and clear out. The Center has expanded greatly over the past few years and augmented their educational programs with a successful online presence.
Which leaves us with: What possible scientific or commercial use is there for a “snake-proof suit”?
Well, it’s an excellent thing to have for that segment of the population that’s at frequent risk of being eaten by a large snake. So hooded rats, hamsters, chipmunks, and various other assorted rodents.
Well, that’s easy. You put the idiot in the snake-proof-suit in front of a camera, televise it, and rake in lots of money. Then, you spend the money on more snake-proof-suits. It’s the cirrrrcle of liiiiiiife…..
I share the sentiment here. Seems like most educational networks have degraded. At least Food Network/Cooking channel is staying close to its roots (even though half the shows on FN seem like advertisements for restaurants too far away to visit). Since they’re still running reruns of Good Eats they have some science and historic worth. These days Science Channel is relying heavily on “How it’s Made” series. I checked out the program line up for Animal Planet. I was never much into that channel since they had a lot of animal cop shows, now it’s an even bigger disappointment.
I go to YouTube now for most of my entertainment. There’s only a few shows I watch on TV these days.
marinerachel/#25:
Minor correction: from reading the story, it sounds like it was actually a disgruntled customer who threw the snake. At an employee…
… I mean, I had to check. The way you wrote it, it just sounded… umm…
( …. pause … thinks about just how on Earth he’s supposed to put this… )
Okay, so it sounds a bit strange either way. My point is…
( … pauses again… )
Okay. Giving up now. Anyway. Customer.
I called hoax right from the beginning, especially since the first announcements came on the heel of the phony Megladon documentaries, I even had short debates with people one who insisted it had to be real because it was billed as already shot and in the can. Which begs the question as to whether Rosolie defrauded TDC, or whether TDC knowingly defrauded their audience?
I miss the days of The Universe and How the Universe Works. I miss the shows that actually talked about science.
I even enjoy Through the Wormhole, to be honest, even though I know it can feature pseudoscience.
Though I have to say… I really think it started with MTV. Once MTV stopped playing music, other theme-oriented channels realized they could stop with the theme and still be successful. So now the Discovery Channel and the Science Channel stopped featuring science, the History Channel stopped featuring (real) history, the Learning Channel stopped teaching, the Sci-Fi channel became SyFy channel and tanked, and so on.
I would seriously love to see the day when these channels get back to their themes, but I guess that would require a more intelligent consumer-base that wants to see intelligent TV.
Discovery Canada is equally dumb but you’ll never get me to stop watching Canada’s Worst Driver.
Yes, AJ Milne, I beg your pardon. It was indeed a disgruntled customer who threw a wee snake he pulled our of a companion’s coat pocket at a Saskatoon Tim Horton’s employee during a diced onion dispute.
Shameful times we live in. The way we treat snakes is just… for shame.
Alverant @ 35
I think that the Food Network/Cooking Channel have started showing way too many competition shows. I do enjoy one occasionally. I used to really love Iron Chef America, but I tune in to watch cooking demos and to learn new recipes from people like Ina Garten and Giada DeLaurentis.
I’m with you – I also love Good Eats. It seems rather sad that now Alton Brown’s culinary talents are being wasted on him being a game-show host.
A personal friend was the *STAR* of an Animal Planet “reality” show episode, part of a “reality”series – which I’m afraid is still being aired. His statement to me was, “It’s about the drama, not the reality.” Another personal friend, a retired game warden with much experience and with many awards and citations, told me if he had done his job as portrayed on Animal Planet (North Maine Law) he’d be on the carpet as a candidate for a newly installed bodily orifice.
Well, I’m in Australia. Having just gone over to multiple free to air channels, many of the newbies are, for the most part, replaying old stuff from the main ones. Others are showing stuff which wasn’t previously available free to air. Which means we get at least one, sometimes several, episodes of David Attenborough’s oeuvre available each week. And there is always something on technology or war or the technologies of war. (That’s partly because the topic’s augmented/exaggerated at the moment by all the stuff around the centenary of WW1.)
But if all these people want to do is to make money, there are hundreds of excellent documentary, or equivalent, series available for not very demanding license fees. You could replay both the UK and US versions of Time Team every year or two on a history type channel, along with thousands of hours of reasonable archaeology of Egypt alone, let alone all the other Rome/UK/Greece/US/Aztec/alltheothers series. Many of which are dreck but just as many more are fairly factual. Add in all the history of war, technology, the history associated with architecture, gardens even, along with the sometimes sick-making glorious exploits of explorers of Australasia/Africa/the Americas and you’d be able to juggle up 2 or 3 years worth of programming even if no new stuff was available or affordable. I’m pretty sure some of the earliest series of “Who Do You Think You Are” would be available under license to give a different spin on how to approach history from an individualist perspective.
Personally, I think there should be some sort of licensing condition in the USA that The National Parks: America’s Best Idea should be broadcast every 18 months or so by every channel everywhere (and every school should have at least two sets of the DVDs available for science, history, civics teaching). There are only six episodes and it’s Won.Der.Ful.
Though I have to say the decline of the history channel and discovery generally is a huge letdown for me. I often regretted not having Foxtel (or whatever it was) back in the days when it was expensive. Now that it’s really cheap since the expansion of free to air, I’m not prepared to pay even that just for a couple of well-known series and very little else. Having the choice of even more dreck is not appealing – I’m more interested in sport than my husband is, but there’s enough on free to keep me happy.
So… quick question.
I have TV shows like The Universe, How the Universe Works, Through the Wormhole, Planet Earth, Life, 100 Greatest Discoveries, Bill Nye the Science Guy, numerous episodes from BBC Horizon, Cosmos (both of them), PBS Nova Science Now, some episodes of Curiosity, Extreme Universe, How the Earth was Made, Into the Universe with Stephen Hawking, Journey to the Planets, Stephen Hawking’s Grand Design, Stephen Hawking’s Universe, The Elegant Universe, The Eyes of Nye, The Fabric of the Cosmos, The Genius of Britain, The Incredible Human Journey, the Life of Mammals, The Mythbusters, Wonders of the Solar System, and Wonders of the Universe.
In terms of documentaries I have Hubble’s Amazing Universe, Journey to the Edge of the Universe, National Geographic’s Parallel Universes, Dinosaurs Myths and Monsters, Professor Brian Cox’s A Night with the Stars, PBS’s Creation of the Universe, Journey to the Stars, Peter Higgs (Particle Man), Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life, Hubble 3D, and Judgement Day (Intelligent Design on Trial).
Is that basically it in terms of good science programming, or is there more to find out there? I’m interested especially in stuff dealing with physics, theoretical physics, cosmology, astronomy, quantum physics, astrophysics, and stuff in that vein…
Nate Heavens @ 44,
Look out for Jim Al-Khalili – various tv series include a three-part Science and Islam, another on the history of chemistry which includes an episode on the Periodic Table, plus several other. Also long, adult-level interviews with top scientists including Brian Cox and Robert Winston. Oh and his Royal institution lecture on quantum theory and biology.
Brian Cox’s later series will, I hope, get to you eventually.
Much of this is already available full length on You Tube. Good luck!
@ 45
Jim Al-Khalili’s new series on Quantum Theory starts tonight on BBC4 at 9pm tonight for all UK viewers. I agree with Maureen – his documentaries are excellent. I’d also recommend (also from the BBC) In Our Time with Melvyn Bragg, a half hour radio discussion on a single topic (history, science, philosophy, maths)
When The Learning Channel first started, they actually had programs that were supposed to tie in with real-and-actual education. I know — I had a brief freelance gig writing learning guides for teachers to use along with the shows.
Then came Honey Boo Boo (or whatever).
David Marjanovic: I don’t understand the basic idea behind this stunt. This kind of snake makes very sure its prey is dead before it tries to swallow it. Does the snakeproof suit protect you from being suffocated, while tricking the snake into believing you’re dead somehow???
I’m afraid the idea is even worse than that. Snakes take — at a minimum — several hours to digest their prey. Assuming this snake had swallowed the man without harm, what would the man breathe during that time?
It’s a dumb stunt for sure.
Apparently he expected to be promptly puked out. But it gets worse: swallowing anything that size easily takes a snake an hour.
I love how the biggest complaints about the show are that the guy DIDN’T get eaten by a snake. “You had ONE JOB!” I think they figured that reality TV had reached such a low point that keeping the basic promise of the title of the show wasn’t necessary any more. Well, I mean if Bigfoot Hunters can get away with it…