Tonight on Survivorman!

[Papacat]

So Friday was the premiere of a new season of "Survivorman" since the controversy of "Man vs. Wild" forced the Discovery Channel to pull the show.  I'm sorry, but Les Stroud is the most boring person on television.  If I had to be in a survival situation with this  guy I probably would have killed myself after five minutes.  He is so boring, they should rename the show "Waiting to be Rescued."    Sure, Bear Grylls most likely staged some segments of his show but at least he has a personality and some enthusiasm. 

True, Les is knowledgeable but even my wife agrees that he's boring.  At one point during Friday's show Les makes a spear with an  elastic band from his Scooby Doo underwear(Are you five or retarded?) to hunt fish.  My wife turned to me and said,

"That might actually be cool if he wasn't so boring."  That earned a few minutes of laughter. 

I've seen other episodes of "Survivorman" and I'm not shocked why Discovery cancelled it in the first place. 

-Papacat 

   

[665ae]

I always like how Les tries to make everything as dramitic as possible...

I keep waiting for him to say, "If I don't get this camera working, I could die..."

[Papacat]

My personal favorite Stroudism:

"It's a long and tedious task, and I'm going to show you every second of it." 

[AJ]

controversy of "Man vs. Wild" forced the Discovery Channel to pull the show

What!?

Your kidding me?

What controversy?

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

controversy of "Man vs. Wild" forced the Discovery Channel to pull the show

What!?

Your kidding me?

What controversy?

They found out he'd been staying in hotel's ;D

Plus the continuity errors were stupid, there's one episode set on on a volcano where he starts of with a blue rucksack, then a red one that then mysteriously changes back to blue!

plus the advice he gave was just awful

I really wanted to like the show and i do have a lot of respect for the guy on a personal level, but sorry it's all sensationalist crap imho

But i do like survivorman

[MrCoffee]

So Friday was the premiere of a new season of "Survivorman" since the controversy of "Man vs. Wild" forced the Discovery Channel to pull the show.  I'm sorry, but Les Stroud is the most boring person on television.  If I had to be in a survival situation with this  guy I probably would have killed myself after five minutes.  He is so boring, they should rename the show "Waiting to be Rescued."    Sure, Bear Grylls most likely staged some segments of his show but at least he has a personality and some enthusiasm. 

True, Les is knowledgeable but even my wife agrees that he's boring.  At one point during Friday's show Les makes a spear with an  elastic band from his Scooby Doo underwear(Are you five or retarded?) to hunt fish.  My wife turned to me and said,

"That might actually be cool if he wasn't so boring."  That earned a few minutes of laughter. 

I've seen other episodes of "Survivorman" and I'm not shocked why Discovery cancelled it in the first place. 

-Papacat 

   

Actually Les isn't really playing to the camera, none of the fake crap Bear did on Man vs Wild. I use to watch MvW with my son to teach him what NOT to do in the woods. The guy is not only a fake, but a show off. He has been hit for a lot more then staying in hotel rooms.

At least with Les it is real. I personally know a number of the people that the show uses as consultants, and have trained with one of the people that trained Les for this season. Watching the show, I sonetimes go.. oh my Les, you know better then to do THAT... but all in all I really do enjoy his shows.

One of the best things about Survivorman is there are no false pretenses.

Al lot of actual survival is exactly that... long tedious and mindnumbing. And it gets people in trouble to think it is anything but that. Bear made it look dramtic, but only by being really stupid.

Oh yeah, one other thing. Survivorman was one of the top rated show Discovery had for the first season, it isnt likely to be canceld.

[Grant Lamontagne]

I've been staying mostly out of this, but I can say that Les Stroud is at least capable of surviving in most of the environments you see him in, whether or not he actually does do it legitimately for TV.  In fact, he wasn't approached to do the show- he's a tree hugging hippy survivalist who happens to be a documentary filmmaker as a profession.  Rather than the network approaching him to do a show, he peddled the idea for a few short documentaries around, and following the excitement of "Survivor" the networks talked him into doing a regular series.

The whole point was that while the networks may find filmmakers that could exist in the wild (many nature photographers spend weeks in the woods at a time) they were not likely to find anyone who could thrive there the way he could.

As with any shows though, there's bound to be the odd bit of showboating for the cameras, or fancy editing for interest's sake. 

Def

[David Bowen]

Anyone happen to catch that Les is favoring the charge in the new series?


David

[Papacat]

Al lot of actual survival is exactly that... long tedious and mindnumbing. And it gets people in trouble to think it is anything but that. Bear made it look dramtic, but only by being really stupid.

You're right.  There were several points in Man vs Wild where Bear would go too far in showing off.  I was criticizing the editing and presentation of "Survivorman", not Les Stroud's knowledge and skills.  I'm sorry if I offended you, I was just voicing an opinion. 

-Papacat.     

[Papacat]

Anyone happen to catch that Les is favoring the charge in the new series?


David

I've noticed it too.  Didn't he used to use a Swiss Tool most of the time?

[Mike, Lord of the Spammers!]

yep it was a vic huntsman in the first episode then he went over to the swisstool

[David Bowen]

course once again he is seen using a Leatherman in ONLY a dry enviroment where there is no chance of rust, anything else and he puts the swisstool through it!

David

[David Bowen]

WOW Les uses the charge in the VERY wet enviroment of the Amazon, wonder how it panned out?

David

[Grant Lamontagne]

Since he only has to survive for a week or so, I don't think it's really a big deal.  I doubt that any rusting that shows up in the first week would really be all that significant, especially if he's constantly using it. 

Def

[Papacat]

WOW Les uses the charge in the VERY wet enviroment of the Amazon, wonder how it panned out?

He buys them in bulk.   :grin:

[Trocergian]

I enjoy both shows but on different levels. MvW is more entertaining while I find Survivorman more interesting on an informational level. I describe them as MvW shows you how to survive if you just happen to be a world class athlete, while survivorman shows you how your average weekend camper might have a chance to make it.

The thing that I find funny is that for the most part Les goes a week without eating. He grabs a few bugs or plants to eat but for the most part he's horrible at catching anything to eat. I think I've seen him snag a hare once with actual technique, and stumbling over a snake and killing it to eat.

Each show scratches a different itch, but are both enjoyable to watch for me. I'm not surprised at all about the allegations against Bear though!

[Grant Lamontagne]

They say that the average human can go something like 40 days without food, provided they have enough water, so a week in the wild shouldn't be too hard to do.  Besides, to me it makes a certain amount of sense to not exert too much energy trying to catch something to eat.  If all you get is a small animal you will likely exert more energy to catch it than you would gain from it.  That's why there are so relatively few large predators, especially in North America.

Def

[AJ]

Why don't they ever eat any mushrooms?

I understand that you must know what ones you can eat and what ones can make you sick, but this is something they should know.

[Grant Lamontagne]

Mushrooms are a by product of poop.  As far as I am concerned, none of them are edible!

Def

[AJ]

Mushrooms are a by product of poop.  As far as I am concerned, none of them are edible!

Def

Yeah, but that is besides the point. These guys will drink there urine so why not have some mushrooms too?

[Grant Lamontagne]

That's another interesting point actually.  I had always learned that you are better off not drinking your own urine, even in a survival situation because that is stuff your body is trying to get rid of- or rather the stuff inside it is.  From what I have read (and I can't think of the source off the top of my head, but I am thinking US special forces manual for some reason) drinking urine is a short term gain, but detrimental over a longer term, even within a few days.

Of course, who am I to argue with Bear and Les?  I don't even like to poop in a strange toilet, let alone the woods!

Def

[NeitherExtreme]

Mushrooms are a by product of poop.  As far as I am concerned, none of them are edible!

Def

So is corn and a lot of other field-grown stuff

PS: I love mushrooms  ;D (Cooked. Raw mushrooms don't work for me )

[Grant Lamontagne]

Poop helps most vegetables grow, but they are rooted in the dirt, soaking up minerals from the ground.

Mushrooms grow in poop and from poop.  I used to live near a mushroom farm years ago.  Fortunately we were far enough away that you couldn't smell it, but every time you drove by it you wanted to barf like crazy!  Some things never leave you....

Def

[NeitherExtreme]

Poop helps most vegetables grow, but they are rooted in the dirt, soaking up minerals from the ground.

Mushrooms grow in poop and from poop.  I used to live near a mushroom farm years ago.  Fortunately we were far enough away that you couldn't smell it, but every time you drove by it you wanted to barf like crazy!  Some things never leave you....

Def

Hehe, I spent about 3 years working construction in Chester county PA, and I now all about stinky-mushroom-land. On a warm, humid day in the middle of summer, our shop would be smelling pretty ripe. Sometimes the stench was downright unbleiveable. I try to separate those experiences from eating mushrooms. Now I'm milking cows, and I have to do the same with milk. Years ago I worked a summer job on a tomato picker, and I couldn't look at ketchup the same for a while. I also could have a problem with eating dead animals if I thought about it too hard. I have to play mind games with myself to stay sane. HAHA, if you've ever seen What About Bob, I remind myself of someone riding a thin line between being Bob AND the Doctor!

[Grant Lamontagne]

You mean Richard Dreyfuss at the beginning or the end?

I love that movie and I have it on DVD...

Def

[NeitherExtreme]

You mean Richard Dreyfuss at the beginning or the end?

Somewhere in between. Maybe right after the TV interview ;D . I love that movie! It's like watching myself in two different colored mirrors and being able to laugh about it!

[Grant Lamontagne]

May I take your fish?

Def

[NeitherExtreme]

Oh my gosh! Gil needs fresh water! How could I forget!?!

[cortiz1679]

So Les uses a LM Charge? I just started watching the show & was wondering what tool he uses

[CQC-7]

I believe that he uses several diferent tools.