My Dreams have been Shattered!

[Crazed Rabbit]

Discovery Channel in the US airs a show called Man vs Wild, showing 'Bear' Grylls, former British SAS, surviving on his own for five days in the wild in various locations.

Sadly, it now seems some scenes may have been faked, and rumors swirl that he doesn't really rough it the whole time. How can we trust modern society with this going on?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070730/tv_nm/man_dc

"Man vs. Wild" now truth vs. deception

By Andrew Wallenstein Sun Jul 29, 11:57 PM ET

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - First there was Santa Claus. Then came the Tooth Fairy. And just when you thought no one could fool you into believing in mythical figures again, along comes Bear Grylls.
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Grylls is the star of "Man vs. Wild," an increasingly popular series on Discovery Channel that recently concluded its second season. Each episode he parachutes into a different uninhabited territory without a map or much else in the way of camping equipment and spends several days trying to find his way back to civilization.

But this British adventurer is now the subject of an investigation by U.K.'s Channel 4, which already has confirmed that Grylls checked into motels on a few occasions when he was depicted on TV having slept under the stars. Other allegations have been made suggesting that the crew that records Grylls in action isn't as hands-off as it might appear to viewers.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/showbiz/showbiznews.html?in_article_id=471510&in_page_id=1773


Latest TV fake scenes: 'Grizzly attack' on survival show was man in fancy-dress bear costume
By JAMES TAPPER - More by this author » Last updated at 15:18pm on 30th July 2007

Comments Comments (5)
To the viewers, it was the moment TV adventurer Bear Grylls narrowly escaped the attentions of a hungry wild bear.

Yet it seems he was not in quite as much danger as those watching might have thought.

Grylls was menaced by nothing more threatening than a colleague in a fancy-dress bear costume, according to a survival expert present at the filming.

At least I never joined one of the 'Bear Grylls is the man' facebook groups.

CR

[seireikhaan]

*sighs. Oh well. The show was enjoyable the couple of times I watched it. But if he's a fraud, well, then he should get off the air. Or get his act together and actually go into the wild.

[Lemur]

I dunno, it's still good TV. The only episode with a menacing bear that I remember was one in which we never even saw the bear, so I must have missed an episode. Given my TV habits, that's not hard to believe.

Just having some reality TV that isn't another gosh-darned elimination show is good in my book.

[Divinus Arma]

They really screwed up on this one. That show was generating a very loyal audience. I used to Tivo every episode. Until I found out the show was thickly fabricated.

Bummer indeed CR.

[Papewaio]

Haven't seen it... is it obvious that there is a camera crew?

If you want a more realistic show about survival (at least in the Outback) then...

The bush tucker man (http://www.abc.net.au/abccontentsales/s1174897.htm)

Les Hiddins (aka Bush Tucker Man) (http://www.abc.net.au/gnt/people/Transcripts/s1096363.htm)


Les Hiddins (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Hiddins)

[Xiahou]

:laugh4:
I could never stand this guy. I don't know what, if anything, he knows about survival- but his show was as obviously phony as "Most Haunted" and not half as funny. His survival "advice" is most often jaw-droppingly stupid and would likely get your average person seriously injured or killed if they followed it.

Naturally, I'm thrilled that the media finally blew the lid off of this fraud. The pity is that there was no good reason (imo) for them to package the show so dishonestly. Had they toned down the drama and been more forthright about it being recreations, ect.- it might have been a worthwhile show. :no:

Anyhow, for a more authentic survivalist show, I recommend Survivorman (http://www.survivorman.ca/). I think there's a new season coming out soon- but if you can catch the re-runs of the 1st season, they're quite good. :2thumbsup:

[InsaneApache]

Hah! Ray Mears (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sn9GmxWvABk) is da man! :2thumbsup:

[Kongamato]

The one episode I remembered with a possible bear was where he was sleeping and heard rustling noises and felt he had to move out immediately.

The show itself seemed like more of a gross-out spectacular as he did the most desperate things to survive for a short time. He would eat rotting carcasses, maggots, etc while also finding every opportunity to take his clothes off. I shouldn't doubt him, but I sometimes wonder how sick he gets after filming each episode, and whether someone can truly survive long-term using his methods.

[R'as al Ghul]

These are dire times when we can't even trust TV anymore. :laugh4:

[Zasz1234]

I always knew this show was a too ridiculous. I agree that survivorman is the way to go. No film crew, just a man in the wilderness filming himself. My favorite is that both men got dropped into the same area. Looking at the almost straight drop down Grylls says "I have to get down now, my only choice is to scale down these very dangerous cliffs" Survivorman's response? "Wow those are really steep. You would have to be stupid to try and climb down those, especially in a survival situation. I'll be taking the long way down." Just goes to show I guess...

[Gregoshi]

I'd take Survivorman's advice over Bear's any day. I agree with Kongamato in that Bear seemed to go for reaction over practicality, but I'll bet those maggots were actually chocolates. :laugh4:

You have to admire Les "Survivorman" Stroud though. I saw one episode that was kind of a "making of" show. He has to do most things 2-3 times. In one show there was a shot of him climbing down a series of large boulders - from below. To get that shot he had to climb down, place the camera, climb back up and then climb back down. That's got to be tedious.

I can only hope he doesn't turn out to be a cheater too, because, if he is, then I've only Ghost Hunters on SciFi to pin my hopes for legitimate reality TV. :laugh4: (Actually I have The Deadliest Catch and Dirty Jobs too.)

[CrossLOPER]

Bear Grylls: OMG guys! I'm so lucky! I found this GIANT FRESH STAG lying just FEET FROM THE HOT SPRING! Oh, and looky here! I here's a frikin dead sheep that just happened to get wedged between these rocks....IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE!! Boy-o-boy am I lucky!

[edyzmedieval]

Well, I doubt it from the start that the guy actually did all those scenes for good. I mean, how could you possibly do some scenes? You offer yourself for that and you go in the wild killing snakes to eat when you got pizza and hamburgers? (just giving an example, of course...)

[Sasaki Kojiro]

It's a good show. Him cheating a bit for good cinema is no big deal, man vs wild was always more about doing crazy stuff than about being practical.

[CrossLOPER]

It's a good show. Him cheating a bit for good cinema is no big deal, man vs wild was always more about doing crazy stuff than about being practical.
It's much easier to be practical if you have large, meaty, thick-furred animals dropping down from the sky and a bunch of crew members to help you out if you need a bear attack.

[Xiahou]

Here's a good one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UpSlpvb1is

This is funny too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoagOL29Zqk&mode=related&search=

Also, notice how there are convenient hand-holds already carved into the ice for Bear.

[master of the puppets]

I KNEW IT, I KNEW IT I DID. my brother is one his fans and i kept saying “just having the camera crew there comprises the show and he probably cheats”, i was always an advocate for Survivorman who really kind of of shows you what to do if your an average joe in the wild.
and he always complains about the loneliness which must be the worst part.

btw, British TV is stupid (imo)

[Lemur]

Once you pull a single thread, the whole thing unravels (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=474866&in_page_id=1770). I was okay with him showboating to make good TV, but it seems he cheated just about every chance he got.


In the latest episode of TV series, yet to be broadcast on Channel 4, he is filmed amid billowing clouds of white gas seeping from the crust of the lava field.

"Look at this, you can actually see the sulphur dioxide seeping out of these vents," he says. "In high concentrations this gas is a killer."

Sulphur dioxide certainly is poisonous, but the smoke seen in the show had been faked by the production crew, the Sunday Times reported.

"Sulphur dioxide fumes are colourless and you can't see it, so smoke generators were used off-screen to make the existing fumes seem visible," said a safety adviser.

According to insiders, the red glow of the molten magma which he warned could incinerate him 'in seconds' was supplemented by burning hot coals brought in by members of the production team.

Last month it was revealed that Grylls stayed in hotels when he claimed to be 'a real life Robinson Crusoe' on a desert island and that the raft he used had actually been built by experts.

A Discovery Channel insider told the Sunday Times that the fakery was 'unacceptable' and had been identified in an internal investigation.

More (http://www.mounteverest.net/news.php?news=16305): Apparently Grylls wasn't in the "real" SAS, but rather the TA SAS, which has the tea-drinking killers all ticked off. The link also contains a critique from a skiier who really did fall through the ice into the Arctic Ocean, and she makes note of the handholds Xiahou pointed out.