You missed the most out of place and awesome show, MonsterQuest. An hour of searching for bigfoot/the jersey devil/actual sharks swimming up rivers hey wait a second those aren't mythical monsters...it is fabulous in its crazy. #thehistorychannel
i agree...especially about the b.s. shows about prophecy and wacky conspiracy theories (e.g. the nostradamus effect). the worst part is that there's even a "disclaimer" in the intro to nostradamus where they say something like, "hey, we're not taking one side or the other on this stuff...we're just presenting 'the facts'" -- yeah, the wackjob facts.
that said, there is kind of a special place in my heart for gangland. #thehistorychannel
A good place for old-school History Channel is History International. They just dust off shows that are 3-5 years old and re-air them. Right now "Hero Ships" is on but it is Veterans Day. Still, it's all facts.
My favorite is Modern Marvels. I can watch that any time. #thehistorychannel
Yeah, I tend to stick to History International and National Geographic (as well as the 2 local PBS stations) these days for those shows. Every time I see an ad for the damn Nostradamus show, I want to smack someone. I want history and analysis, damnit, not speculation hinging on the mad ravings of an old, disproved loon. If I wanted to hear about the end of the world, I'd call my mom and have her talk about The End Times coming sometime during our hour-long conversation, thankyouverymuch. #thehistorychannel
I fear it's only going to get weirder, what with 2012 on the horizon and the inevitable end-of-the-world "documentaries" that will be taking up hours upon hours of time on the channel.
Gotta say, though, I love the idea of blaming Dan Brown. I think he and Nicholas Sparks are to blame for the demise of a lot of things (sorry if you like NS, but I just. can't. stand. his writing). #thehistorychannel
@elembee: They already are/have. 'Nostradamus Effect: 2012 Extinction', 'Doomsday 2012', '2012: Science Or Superstition' have all been shown in the past 6 months and most, if not all, of these "documentaries" are written by sci-fi writers and not historians. #thehistorychannel
They used to have a neat show called Histories Mysteries where they showed real mysteries like "How was the Alamo lost" or "How was xxx big stone thing built" with computer models and archaeological evidence. You could show it in a classroom. Now it's the same title but it's all knights templar and witches.
They still show halfway decent ancient Rome biopics about obscure Caesars. I try to watch those but they all run together. I figure I'm learning through osmosis just having it on. #thehistorychannel
@BytheSea: There was one once on a plane that went down over the Sarah in WWII (The Lady Be Good), and my grandma's fiance was one of the men who disappeared/died in that, so my grandma got interviewed for the show and loaned the History Channel photos for the episode! #thehistorychannel
I have a degree in History. My love for the subject started while watching The History Channel in the 90s.
I've only watched snippets of it at the gym in the past few years and have been sorely disappointed by the lack of actual history programming. Seriously, what's the historic content of "UFO Hunters"?
Give me "History's Mysteries" over "Ice Road Truckers" any day! #thehistorychannel
Oh god. I recently cajoled my wife into watching a program on the History Channel about "Jesse James's Lost Fortune of Gold" or some bullshit like that.
It's like the channel has started playing the "what if" game nonstop. What if aliens really built the pyramids? What if Da Vinci was secretly three feet tall and Jewish? What if Hitler's still alive?
The History Channel: Running Tangential to Actual History Since 2004. #thehistorychannel
@AndPreciousLittleofThat: My bf made me watch that Jesse James thing. However, he had to change it after he solved the mystery. We came to the conclusion that the gold did not belong to Jesse James. BAM. No conspiracy theories.
@soykatrina: HA! I'll do you one better. I thought it was weird that silver coins buried in the ground for a hundred and thirty years wouldn't be, you know, tarnished. At all.
Real archaeologists call that "salting."
I did think it was great, though, that every piece of evidence that would clearly prove Jesse James had fuck-all to do with the things they were finding, ended up being used as support that he COULD HAVE.
In conclusion, did you hear that Glenn Beck raped and killed a young girl in 1990? #thehistorychannel
One of my professors played us a documentary for a foreign policy class from the History Channel. I think the series was called "Man, Moment, Machine." I thought it was from Spike until I asked and was told otherwise. They were practically screaming at the 18-25 male demographic to please, please, pretty please watch. #thehistorychannel
Oh, and I remember reading something (on Jezebel, actually, probably last year), about how some high-powered woman exec of the History Channel has helped make it one of the most popular channels for males ages 18-35 or something with shows like Ice Road Truckers and Ax-Men. So, I think it's partly just the HC trying to appear "cool" and "awesome" to young guys who they assume have no interest whatsoever in "stodgy" history. So we get shlock like Nostradamus and aliens in the Bible, because "young men are only interested in boobs and aliens and friggin awesome shit and maybe some guns y'know?"
Oh, and I'm pretty sure they assume all these men smoke a lot of weed, because that's the only excuse I can think of for watching half the programs they air now. #thehistorychannel
@randomnessish: That's funny, I thought those shows were aimed at women in their 20s and 30s.
I definitely know women that watch them for the butch dudes with beards. #thehistorychannel
@randomnessish: which is funny, because even though he is not a nerd at all, my brother (30 yo) was super into the history channel when it was all about ww2 all the time. he couldn't get enough of that shit. i don't really know what he watches now, but i know he wouldn't give a rat's ass about nostradamus or aliens. #thehistorychannel
@Isoperla: I kind of think they figure that only old/middle aged men like that stuff...you can tell because all the life insurance commercials air during Modern Marvels/any documentary worth watching. #thehistorychannel
11/23/09
11/17/09
11/17/09
11/12/09
11/12/09
11/11/09
that said, there is kind of a special place in my heart for gangland. #thehistorychannel
11/11/09
My favorite is Modern Marvels. I can watch that any time. #thehistorychannel
11/11/09
11/11/09
Gotta say, though, I love the idea of blaming Dan Brown. I think he and Nicholas Sparks are to blame for the demise of a lot of things (sorry if you like NS, but I just. can't. stand. his writing). #thehistorychannel
11/11/09
11/11/09
11/11/09
They still show halfway decent ancient Rome biopics about obscure Caesars. I try to watch those but they all run together. I figure I'm learning through osmosis just having it on. #thehistorychannel
11/11/09
11/11/09
I've only watched snippets of it at the gym in the past few years and have been sorely disappointed by the lack of actual history programming. Seriously, what's the historic content of "UFO Hunters"?
Give me "History's Mysteries" over "Ice Road Truckers" any day! #thehistorychannel
11/11/09
11/11/09
It's like the channel has started playing the "what if" game nonstop. What if aliens really built the pyramids? What if Da Vinci was secretly three feet tall and Jewish? What if Hitler's still alive?
The History Channel: Running Tangential to Actual History Since 2004. #thehistorychannel
11/11/09
11/11/09
Real archaeologists call that "salting."
I did think it was great, though, that every piece of evidence that would clearly prove Jesse James had fuck-all to do with the things they were finding, ended up being used as support that he COULD HAVE.
In conclusion, did you hear that Glenn Beck raped and killed a young girl in 1990? #thehistorychannel
11/11/09
11/11/09
Oh, and I'm pretty sure they assume all these men smoke a lot of weed, because that's the only excuse I can think of for watching half the programs they air now. #thehistorychannel
11/11/09
I definitely know women that watch them for the butch dudes with beards. #thehistorychannel
11/11/09
11/11/09