Recent trend in "Survival" shows???

Is it just me or is there an odd (and somewhat ominous) trend in seeing more and more popularity in these survival shows. Most seem to be on Discovery. I really like watching them, but that Bear Gyles dude (man vs wild) is a nut. Half of what he does, the risk is not worth the reward. He always seems to be free-climbing into or out of something.

The shows i like are:
- Man vs. WIld (Bear Gyles, he'll be the next crocodile hunter, by that i mean he'll likely die shooting a show. he's done some pretty un-speakable stuff w/his own urine)
- Dual Survival (w/an ex Ranger type and a hippie dude who hasn't worn shoes in +20 yrs)
- Man, Woman, Wild (ex spcl forces guy and his wife)
- The Colony (post-appocolypse setting where a group of people have to survive off what they can find/create... very creative ideas)

I wonder if there's a correlation between the uptick in the popularity of these shows and the general "hell-in-a-handbasket" sense of direction of the world... ha ha.

I'm a more sedate "Pawn Stars" and a "American Pickers" kind of guy.

Yep, seems like survival shows and food/cooking shows are everywhere these days.

I can't help but wonder how many people over the last 3 years or so have changed career paths and gone to culinary school as a result of cooking shows becoming a television trend? Ironically, the other day there was a Yahoo news story about the 10 worst college degrees you could get as far as average salary goes..... a culinary degree was one of them.... doh!

Man, I seriously think American Pickers is my favorite show on TV right now. I didnt imagine anyone was watching but me though. Seriously my dream job, especially when they get into buying bike parts and such. Killer show.

I have watched my fair share of Bear though. That guy is insane.

I love Bear... That guy's a bada$$. If I have a son I'm going to name him Bear in his honor. Ha, ha, ha.

richard,

i went to culinary school 3 years ago and had no grand delusion that i would be on tv, even though it is basically inferred by the recruiters that a career on tv is not that hard to get with a culinary degree. the recruiting processes that those schools use is borderline criminal, in fact there is a class action suit against my school as of now. you walk into the offices and they have food network on tv, there are huge posters of flay, batali etc. now 3 years out of school i have a pretty good job as a sous chef but i think only 8-10 people in my 35 student class are even in the industry.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UpSlpvb1is

http://digitalheadbutt.wordpress.com...e-off-day-one/

Charles, it took a a few times to warm up to that show. I kept thinking how silly it was that these 2 guys drive all over the country and only make like a few hundred a trip. Once I got past that it got fun to watch.

Last month or so ive been watching alot of Amer Pickers and Pawn Stars. Its summer and the dodgers suck.

John, I was just in Vegas. Evan and I and the girls went to Pawn Stars. I still don't know why I was so excited to be there! Cool show though. I saw several items in the store that were acquired in the episodes that I watched.

I have watched a couple of episodes of dual survival - it's entertaining but there was one scene where they were in the Olympic rainforest in washington and the dude shoots a wild turkey with a bow & arrow. I was thinking to myself - I don't think turkeys are native to that area and that was the luckiest shot in the history of TV.

Survival shows Zombie movies etc etc.. Stock up on canned goods, ammo, generators, fuel etc etc

I'l be ready... WIll you?

Jarrod, so the shop is the same as in the show? I've seen on the web where people were saying the "show shop" was different.

The Pawn Star guys seem to know a little too much about a piece when the guy first walks in so I suspect there is some research first. The Picker dudes don't seem as much like that. PS is still my favorite of the two, but Pickers seems to be ramping up. It's a lot of cool history on the items.

Bear Grills sucks....

Les Strout was the only true "survivor" no camera crews, nothing.... it was boring as hell but at least it was legit.

-- With Pawn Stars I went in there too and they were filming while I was in there (Coke Salesman little thing ) It was cool to see, but they were dicks, they kicked people out left and right for looking at the camera or sneezing.... and it is SOOOOO staged. They did they seller's entrance like times - kind of ruined it for me, I thought it was more natural (I was stupid for thinking that) but how fake it was made it lame. And I realized they had plenty of time to research what they were buying, Rick doesn't know everything - history works google for him

Watch til the end of the video.... Bear is joke

ha, ha, ha... that's hillarious. I still think he's a bada$$. I'm not sure how you'd stage some of his freeclimbs, even if there were a hidden cable it's still cool.

Oh well...

Im a survivorman fan. It at least seems that Les Stroud is legit. Bear Grylls is obviously fake, at least in some aspects. Still a bad ass, but come on.

Disappointing that pawn stars is staged, I like that show.

Can anyone explain "the colony" to me better? From what I understand, they find some willing participants to "survive" in a created post-apocalypse world. well these people obviously know its fake, and these "invaders" and security threats are obviously fake/actors. the cast obviously has to know that. are we really supposed to buy into this being remotely real? or is it understood that everything is fake and its just the what-if scenario that these people are working through (like an assignment where they are following rules but know its obviously possible to do it easier by breaking them)

Pawn Stars is completely fake - I watched one episode where a dude comes in with a guitar - says it was played by Robert Duvall in the movie Tender Mercies. They are skeptical - as usual - then the dude pulls out pictures of the cast with the guitar - and you can tell it's the same one because it has distinctive markings, and I think it was autographed by Duvall too.

My point is - there is no way the guy was looking to pawn that guitar - the whole thing was a setup to sell it later on - getting it on TV was just a ploy to pump up the value. I see a lot of crap like that - dudes with Civil War guns, etc.

haha the bear grylls video is hilarious

That is a very funny, but disappointing clip from Bear Grylls. Doe this mean him squeezing the liquid from a freshly laid elephant turd was fake too?

Guys, it's TV, it's just entertainment! I think most people already know that there is a crew surrounding Bear when he does his stunts, but still he's doing some impressive things. I watched him eat a giant worm that shot puss out when he bit into it. Was the puss fake puss? Fake worm? Fake when he was buck naked swimming across a frigid river in the snow? I know there's a crew to save him, but he's doing some crazy stuff that you or I wouldn't.

The point is to show you how you might survive in certain challenging conditions, not to mnake you beleive that he is literally fighting for his life in every episode. Most people would die before they ater a worm, drank their own urine, or squeezed water from ****.

both Man v Wild and Dual Survival have disclaimers about receiving assistance during filming etc. If you view them more as "what if" rather than trying to pass of as real.

I do agree on survivorman, forgot about that one. those were cool because it was just him and his camera.

Adam, The Colony is just a scenario too. the participants know it's fake. I hate the "invader" scenes because of the fakeness. I like watching it still becuase there are some really creative ideas that they come up with (although i often wonder how much "help" they get w/coming up w/their ideas). In a prior season, one of the most interesting things i saw was where they used a process called "wood gassification" where they had i thiink it was a power-washer engine w/an alternator connected via belt to it's output shaft, but no fuel. so they made a chamber out of a 55gal drum and filled it w/wood chips, then lit a fire under the drum to heat the wood inside to a point where it releases a flamable gas. then used piping from a hole in the top of the drum to route the gas to the intake of the cabeurator on the power washer, and when the wood put off enough gas the engine was able to run.. and thereby power their battery bank... the trick apparrently is to heat the wood to the point that it'll release the gas, w/o over heating it or burning it directly (oh, and to not blow yourself up because duh, you've got a 55gal drum full of combustible gas sitting on top of a fire ha ha). In this season's show, they have a disabled diesel tractor but again, no fuel. so they created bio fuel by cutting the fat off some pig carcases (how convenient to have a truck load of rotting pigs) and they boiled the pig fat down to a liquid, strained it repeatedly to purify it and bingo.. bio fuel. it apparenly has enough combustible power to run a diesel engine. same thing.. connect a car altenator to the PTO of the tractor and you've got a 12v power supply to recharge a battery bank.

Originally Posted by snyder

Adam, The Colony is just a scenario too....

I thought that it may be interesting to watch the show to learn about the pig fat for fuel deal, but the show's preface is just too fake. Like you said, the "invader" scenes are the worst part. If this scenario was real, there would be people dying, and real quick. Wait! That is next year.

How far are we from shows like "Running Man"? <----arnold movie

I wish that Beverly Hillbillies show would have been broadcast. Google it if you're not familiar with it. I'm guessing they probably ruined some people's lives and corrupted them beyond repair and didn't want to show it. It still would have been interesting.

I liked Survivorman and now watch dual survival. Survivorman seemed much more "real" than the others and even though it wasn't as excited, I was much more engaged in his show. I like how Codi and Dave interact with each other and it can be funny at times. I think the season finale is on tonight, no?

I can't stand Bear.Just annoying and some of the scenarios are just so bogus.

Originally Posted by sidekicknicholas

Watch til the end of the video.... Bear is joke

Yup...so is Everest!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bear_Grylls

Anyone watching "Surviving the Cut?"

Brutal!

^^^ that show is BAD A**^^^

that part during water survival, where they cross the beam with the step up in the middle then shimmy the rope and drop is intense
talk about breaking you down mentally and physically.