Well, I watched the Peterbuilt build on Monster Garage, and he was a participant. He’s a creative genius IMHO, but doesn’t work at all well with people. IMHO the show would not be pleasant to watch.
I’m a great fan of Randy Grubb, but I could not stand to watch him.
Nice, nice, nice; and then some. 
I hear that Van Gogh didn’t work well with others either, but he managed to do some good stuff too. ;-). I guess some people are meant to work alone.
I agree. Creative geniuses are often not people persons.
As to Counting Cars being staged, they had a thing on their page where you could enter your name and have your car featured on the show if they drew your name. I imagine that’s where they get a lot of those ‘chase the guy down in the middle of the street’ thing going on.
I’ve had a couple conversations with my step dad about some of the shows he watches. He talks like those monster hunters are really out there chasing, being chased, and shooting supposed legendary monsters in the woods somewhere is really real. I’ve told him those shows are more staged than scripted TV shows, he disagrees.
Some of their injuries might be real if they get into a wreck or something, but I know the majority of things are staged.
Those same people believe that Pro-Wrestling is real…and fall for the shows like UFO hunters and Ghost hunters. Pseudo science at it’s best. I have a hard time understanding how anyone with an IQ over 90 can actually believe in these shows…but they do.
I attended a optional lecture at PSU by the “Paranomal State” guys before they got their show. They seemed very level-headed and such. If they were running a con, they were very, very good at it–they seemed to totally believe in what they were doing.
Now, that’s not to say the subsequent tv show wasn’t monkeyed with…
My mind remains open to various theories. I’m not sure where we are on the continuum of human understanding but may only be at 1% from the beginning of time. Much to explore and understand yet. Our Governor was a pro wrestler and claims his body took a toll from it. Spend a night sometime at Getteysburg to see the strange phenomenum there or Omaha Beach. I suspect there might be something beyond the moon that we have not discovered yet in the multi-trillions of light years of space that we have not been to yet. Maybe it ends someplace with a wall, but then what is on the other side of the wall? I remain open but not disillusioned. If anybody is out there I hope they don’t speak Germain anyway.
Pro wrestling is staged, but they really do get hurt during the match. Getting hit with a folding chair or thrown out of the ring hurts as bad as it looks.
And scripting has been the practice forever. George “The Animal” Steel was a high school PE teacher and is quite the conversationalist. He always stole the interview with the league president, who complained to George to shut up. One time, George just grunted during the interview after a match. The president liked that and told him to keep it up. He did, and George “The Animal” was born.
Television producers give us what we want and reality television indicates just how dumb we apparently are… Honey Boo Boo. Orange County Chopper. Panem et Circences.
I’ve been trying for several years to get my wife to agree to just shutting the stupid TV provider off and go with just picking up the local channels. So far no luck.
A 140 channels and nothing to watch…
I watched part of Discovery Channel’s “Devil’s Ride” based on promos and I have to say that it’s one of if not the lamest shows on TV. It’s wheels related and supposedly about a San Diego motorcycle club. After watching parts of 2 episodes I felt embarassed to be part of the human race and bailed out on the show.
I also discovered that show is produced by Eric Bischoff; yes, the pro wrestling guy.
it would be really nice if we could pick channels we want, instead of being forced to accept all the crap , if we want cable. i just got cable a couple years ago, for the first time (legally anyway).
there are about 10 channels i watch and 200 i have no use for.
I read somewhere that the cable and satellite companies have been begging for a la carte programming for years but the FCC has always said no. Their reasoning? Channels that didn’t get watched enough would have trouble staying in the entertainment market. Really. That’s the way it should be…I don’t like “artificial success.”
@wesw
Years ago, when my brother was still living in an apartment, a guy knocked on the door and asked if he wanted cable installed cheaply. He didn’t actually say the words illegal or bootleg, but it was clear what he was talking about.
He wanted something like $50. My brother showed him his wallet, and there was only $20 in there. The guy said okay, and hooked him up. That $20 actually lasted a few years
I believe the guy was actually working for a cable provider, and was doing “sidejobs” in the evenings and weekends. Presumably because they paid him so little
I moved into an apartment where it was already hooked up once, it stayed on for about 6 months…
when I talked to cable salesmen they went crazy when I told them I d get cable if I could choose the channels I wanted. one guy started yelling at me, at my own front door!
they sure didn t sound like they wanted a la carte, the guy said they would not be able to make any profit if they did that…
A la carte programming is actually more expensive. The clerical costs to make it work might lead to a cable bill equal to or higher than what you pay today. That’s why Honda sells trim packages and no options.
Things like the Roku or ClearTV will become more popular once people start hearing about them. Once people find out they can get HD channels for next to nothing, they’ll probably ditch cable/satellite altogether
If they were running a con, they were very, very good at it--they seemed to totally believe in what they were doing.
It’s called pseudo science for a reason. Just enough jargon for the lay person to believe this person actually knows what they are talking about. One of these so-called paranormal investigators was talking about the science on ghosts. His explanation was that each living person creates their own electrical energy (which is true). And the readings he’s getting is based on Einsteins theory of E-MC^2…that when the body dies it’s converted to energy. Those energy readings he’s picking up with is ghost-a-meter is the energy.
That statement right there tells me he doesn’t have any basic knowledge of science. And it’s made believable to those who also don’t have any knowledge of science.
Then’s there shows like TAP’s. So lets make a science show on paranormal investigation…HMM what scientists should we get to host the show…I got it…these two PLUMBERS fit the bill perfectly.
Digital television signals seem to have a significantly reduced range compared to the analog signal. Years ago a dipole antenna mounted behind the television would bring in channels from as far as 100 miles but when my CATV was lost in the April tornado I bought one of the new high tech antennas for $40 and found that it would not get any signal even from a local station unless it was mounted above my roof so I tuned in to NPR for a constant back ground sound and tossed the antenna in my pile of defunct electronics.