They changed the format in the last season and did a bunch of smaller myths and the build-team was less involved. They basically knew they weren’t going to do any more, so none of the cast were invested.
Kari, Tori, and Grant left when they asked for more money and discovery said no. Fuck discovery for running a good thing. Same mother fuckers ruining HBO and warner brothers.
A few years ago I was rewatching the Smyths edit of the show and I was wondering if it was ruined or if the show just was a product of its time and couldn’t exist in <modern year>
I think the internet has turned urban legends on their head. What constitutes a plausible myth has changed. We can just search for a lot of these now (and back then too, but it was less common and there was less stuff online). A lot of new urban legends are floating around now, but I don’t know, a lot of these early episodes tackled timeless schoolyard myths.
But the point wasn’t always to test the myth, the myth was just a premise to see them build things and blow them up. Even when I remembered the outcome from when I was a kid, I loved rewatching some of these episodes. It was really interesting to see how they set their experiments up as well. Very practical, very “workshop-brained” in the very best way.
But more than that, I think there’s just no way any network is bankrolling anything like that anymore. My understanding of TV show finance is very limited but I can’t see a modern Mythbusters being profitable, between the insurance and the networks’ unfailing appetite for canceling shows and writing them off, especially expensive shows. Didn’t Netflix make a spiritual successor with the B team only to cancel it, back when Netflix was just blowing up in popularity?
I firmly believe Mythbusters was made in the best possible era for it. Right when the internet was becoming a part of everyone’s lives but not to an intrusive level. Right when there was enough public interest in educational (well, educational-adjacent) TV and right when it was feasible to make the show.
Of course I’d like Mythbusters to exist in some form today. Maybe a tiny self-funded operation with its own in-house streaming site. But are there enough 25-40 year old vaguely nerdy types willing to pay for it? Adam Savage’s YouTube just isn’t the same. I appreciate it, but it’s a shadow of the real deal.
I do really miss seeing the world through the eyes of a kid flipping channels and landing on Jamie Hyneman creating a frozen poultry cannon.
They changed the format in the last season and did a bunch of smaller myths and the build-team was less involved. They basically knew they weren’t going to do any more, so none of the cast were invested.
If you’re referring to Kari, Grant, and Tori they got rid of them completely as I recall.
Kari, Tori, and Grant left when they asked for more money and discovery said no. Fuck discovery for running a good thing. Same mother fuckers ruining HBO and warner brothers.
A few years ago I was rewatching the Smyths edit of the show and I was wondering if it was ruined or if the show just was a product of its time and couldn’t exist in <modern year>
I think the internet has turned urban legends on their head. What constitutes a plausible myth has changed. We can just search for a lot of these now (and back then too, but it was less common and there was less stuff online). A lot of new urban legends are floating around now, but I don’t know, a lot of these early episodes tackled timeless schoolyard myths.
But the point wasn’t always to test the myth, the myth was just a premise to see them build things and blow them up. Even when I remembered the outcome from when I was a kid, I loved rewatching some of these episodes. It was really interesting to see how they set their experiments up as well. Very practical, very “workshop-brained” in the very best way.
But more than that, I think there’s just no way any network is bankrolling anything like that anymore. My understanding of TV show finance is very limited but I can’t see a modern Mythbusters being profitable, between the insurance and the networks’ unfailing appetite for canceling shows and writing them off, especially expensive shows. Didn’t Netflix make a spiritual successor with the B team only to cancel it, back when Netflix was just blowing up in popularity?
I firmly believe Mythbusters was made in the best possible era for it. Right when the internet was becoming a part of everyone’s lives but not to an intrusive level. Right when there was enough public interest in educational (well, educational-adjacent) TV and right when it was feasible to make the show.
Of course I’d like Mythbusters to exist in some form today. Maybe a tiny self-funded operation with its own in-house streaming site. But are there enough 25-40 year old vaguely nerdy types willing to pay for it? Adam Savage’s YouTube just isn’t the same. I appreciate it, but it’s a shadow of the real deal.
I do really miss seeing the world through the eyes of a kid flipping channels and landing on Jamie Hyneman creating a frozen poultry cannon.