Mythbusters in the UK !

Posted by: andy

Mythbusters in the UK ! - 12/06/2004 11:58

The excellent Mythbusters has finally made it to the UK. It is on at 10pm on Sunday, on Discovery. Now if only Discovery could be arsed to support Sky+ series links

http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/mythbusters/mythbusters.html
Posted by: tman

Re: Mythbusters in the UK ! - 12/06/2004 12:05

Huh? It's been on TV before as my TiVo recorded it.
Posted by: lectric

Re: Mythbusters in the UK ! - 12/06/2004 12:08

I wish they'd come out with more in the US. I keep Tivoing old ones.
Posted by: andy

Re: Mythbusters in the UK ! - 12/06/2004 12:51

I hadn't spotted it before and I emailed Discovery Europe recently to see if it was coming soon. They said that it was coming to the UK any time soon.

Tivo 1 : Sky+ 0

I wish Sky+ was more like Tivo.
Posted by: tman

Re: Mythbusters in the UK ! - 12/06/2004 13:16

Weird. I'm sure I saw an episode of it because one of the guys got his entire body painted to see if it really was dangerous like that James Bond film.
Posted by: tfabris

Re: Mythbusters in the UK ! - 12/06/2004 15:41

one of the guys got his entire body painted to see if it really was dangerous like that James Bond film.
Holy cow, I missed that one. I thought I'd seen all of them by now.
Posted by: SE_Sport_Driver

Re: Mythbusters in the UK ! - 12/06/2004 17:22

Me too.... hmm..
Posted by: tman

Re: Mythbusters in the UK ! - 12/06/2004 18:21

Okay. I swear I saw it okay. It does get mentioned when you search with Google so I didn't imagine it
Posted by: tman

Re: Mythbusters in the UK ! - 12/06/2004 18:40

Ah hah. Found it. It was part of a special
Posted by: msaeger

Re: Mythbusters in the UK ! - 12/06/2004 18:54

The latest episode was them redoing some of the experiments and this time they painted the goofy sidekick type guy (sorry can't remember the names Adam maybe ?). I guess in a previous episode they painted the other person. I have not seen that episode. I thought I had seen them all too.

One thing they did different in this latest episode that I didn't like was they showed other people doing most everything and the two main guys would just make an appearance.
Posted by: andy

Re: Mythbusters in the UK ! - 13/06/2004 01:32

Ah hah. Found it. It was part of a special

I'm still not sure any of it has been shown in the UK though. The show was discussed in some detail here, perhaps that is why you think you've seen it ?

I've seen a couple of episodes already because a kind USian from the bbs sent me them on DVD.
Posted by: andy

Re: Mythbusters in the UK ! - 13/06/2004 01:41

Strangely the episodes they are showing the UK don't seem to match the descriptions of any of the ones on the Discovery US website.

Todays episode is:

Jet Assisted Chevy.
Two feature film special effects experts test the bizarre claims of urban legends and misconceptions, using ingenious experiments to assess the facts.

Which doesn't really match with any of the episodes described here:

http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/mythbusters/episode/episode.html

And next week is this:

Biscuit Bazooka.
Two feature film special effects experts test the bizarre claims of urban legends and misconceptions, using ingenious experiments to assess the facts.

(don't you know love Discovery UK's infomative programme descriptions, though I suppose we are lucky they are actually giving some sort of epsiode title, they often don't bother with that either)
Posted by: tman

Re: Mythbusters in the UK ! - 13/06/2004 05:28

I don't think they've shown the series before but they've definitely shown the 3 specials. You can look at the episode list. I distinctly remember watching it on my TiVo and I've never downloaded it from anybody else.

The Jet Assisted Chevy and Biscuit Bazooka are the first two specials. The painted guy is the last special.
Posted by: andy

Re: Mythbusters in the UK ! - 13/06/2004 07:14

That will teach me to rely on the "official" site. The Discovery site of course makes no mention of the three specials in their episode guide

http://dsc.discovery.com/fansites/mythbusters/episode/episode.html

I guess Discovery in the US are just as hopeless the the European arm when it comes to actually telling people about their shows.

I am fed up with them airing 12 part series, where they never put any episode specific info in the EPG data they send to Sky. Another Tivo benefit maybe ?
Posted by: tman

Re: Mythbusters in the UK ! - 13/06/2004 07:32

Sometimes the TiVo guide data is incomplete as well. If that happens then the TiVo will record them all just in case as it can't tell if you've seen it before.

I've just had a look and it's only got the 3 specials on Discovery. The guide data is only for 2 weeks in advanced though so I don't know what happens after the 28th which is the last showing of the 3rd special.
Posted by: tfabris

Re: Mythbusters in the UK ! - 13/06/2004 10:10

The latest episode was them redoing some of the experiments and this time they painted the goofy sidekick type guy (sorry can't remember the names Adam maybe ?).
AH! Cool, that one. That one's on the Tivo and I haven't watched it yet. I didn't read the description closely enough and thought it was perhaps a re-hash compilation episode like when they re-aired all of the "best animal myths" in one episode. So I wasn't in any hurry to watch it. Now that I know it's a new episode, I'll be sure to watch it.
Posted by: lectric

Re: Mythbusters in the UK ! - 13/06/2004 12:58

Me too. I checked out the first few minutes this morn. It seems they're revisiting a few old myths. The first one was the "Peeing on the Third Rail" myth. They said they got a LOT of emails saying that people had in fact peed on an electric fence and gotten shocked. My guess is that they forgot that urine comes out under pressure, not like pouring from a funnel.
Posted by: msaeger

Re: Mythbusters in the UK ! - 13/06/2004 16:40

I didn't really equate the third rail with an electric fence so I don't know why people were emailing that. The first time they tested the 3rd rail myth it did work when they got the rail close enough that the stream didn't get broken up. I would think when peeing on a fence the fence would be pretty close whereas the rail is on the ground.

I can't say I have tried either one though
Posted by: SE_Sport_Driver

Re: Mythbusters in the UK ! - 13/06/2004 18:47

I just watched this last night. I guess it had been stored on the Tivo for a while now.

I was a little bummed out that they are not longer building their own experiments. I always thought their science was very weak, so the fact that they were craftsmen impressed me. But now they are just supervisors!

That said, they are at least addressing the shady experiments they've done. Seems once something gets a little hard they "quit" and say it's impossible. Not to mention they seem to not research stuff a lot.

Having a "crew" will help them in a few ways: 1) They can now spend more time "doing it right" and 2) More episodes! Honestly, I think the slow output of shows is due mostly to them taking too long in the workshop.

Hopefully they'll keep the same crew so we can get to know them too.
Posted by: lectric

Re: Mythbusters in the UK ! - 13/06/2004 19:58

Most of the time electric fence wires are about a foot off the ground, to keep animals from trying to dig under a fence, as well as on top, to dissuade them climbing over. I once grabbed a bicycle whose kickstand was touching an electric fence. Quite the wake up.
Posted by: msaeger

Re: Mythbusters in the UK ! - 13/06/2004 20:12

Not the ones I have seen they were a few feet off the ground. I remember walking into one. Maybe it depends on the animals ?
Posted by: lectric

Re: Mythbusters in the UK ! - 13/06/2004 23:11

Perhaps. I've seen it mostly around dogs. I had a German shepard that loved to dig under his kennel, so we buried fence under the entire thing. Next he learned to climb the 8' fence. So we added electric wire around the top and bottom of the fence. That worked for about 3 weeks. Somehow he still kept getting out. It took us another 2 weeks to catch in in the progress of escaping again. He would push his hind quarters against the fence, ( I guess it didn't hurt so much) until the fence shorted out. Then he'd happily climb over. We eventually had to put a roof on the thing. Unbelieveably intelligent.

Before everyone gets all upset, his kennel was quite large and I took him out to play with him several hours a day. We'd go romping through the woods all the time. We just couldn't let him run loose, he definitely wasn't an inside dog, and there's NO way I was going to chain him up.
Posted by: frog51

Re: Mythbusters in the UK ! - 14/06/2004 02:22

Peeing on the 12v ones round farms in Scotland gives you a fair old shock. I wouldn't do it again, but it wasn't as bad as you'd expect.
Posted by: andy

Re: Mythbusters in the UK ! - 14/06/2004 07:52

I watch the first special on Discovery UK today. For some reason they have replaced the existing voice over with a new British one. They are clearly intending to use the new voice over in Europe (or Oz maybe), because the woman doing the voice over keeps going on about kph when everyone in the show is talking in mph, very annoying.

She didn't really need to explain to us that the popping candy they were researching was called Space Dust in the UK. If you had every eaten Space Dust you knew exactly what they were talking about.

Did I mention already that it annoys me the way Discovery mess with their shows in the UK
Posted by: tfabris

Re: Mythbusters in the UK ! - 14/06/2004 10:44

He would push his hind quarters against the fence, ( I guess it didn't hurt so much) until the fence shorted out. Then he'd happily climb over.
"They were testing the fences for weaknesses... but they'd never test the same place twice. They remember..."
Posted by: lectric

Re: Mythbusters in the UK ! - 14/06/2004 13:20

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Mythbusters in the UK ! - 14/06/2004 17:26

Jet Assisted Chevy.
Two feature film special effects experts test the bizarre claims of urban legends and misconceptions, using ingenious experiments to assess the facts.

I think that's close to the exact description that Tivo uses for US reruns.

Jet Assisted Chevy was, I believe, the very first episode. Some have been describing specials. There are some specials, but each episode consists of multiple myths. Wasn't the Chevy episode one of the ones I sent you, Andy?

Anyway, I'm glad you've finally got it over there. Otherwise I would have had to start a Mythbusters UK distribution business
Posted by: andy

Re: Mythbusters in the UK ! - 15/06/2004 01:12

Wasn't the Chevy episode one of the ones I sent you, Andy?

No the Chevy wasn't in the ones you sent me. You sent me:

Penny Drop, Deadly Microwaves, Radio Tooth Fillings
Break Step Bridge, Toothbrush Surprise, Rowing Water Skier

Heh, I'd forgotten about Rowing Water Skier. I was very impressed when the managed to make that work.

On "Radio Tooth Fillings", my Dad (he's in his 70s now) used to manage to listen to the radio (the BBC Home Service on AM) using just a quartz ear-piece and and half mile stretch of rust chain link fence.

Otherwise I would have had to start a Mythbusters UK distribution business

Yeah, thanks for sating my appetite in the meantime. I'm amazed none of the bittorrent sites have never had any Mythbusters listed on them.
Posted by: tman

Re: Mythbusters in the UK ! - 06/09/2004 18:01

MythBusters seems to be on Discovery in the UK again. The TiVo just asked if I wanted to record "MythBusters - Exploding Toilet" which is starting right now.
Posted by: andy

Re: Mythbusters in the UK ! - 06/09/2004 18:34

Thank you, thank you.

And joy of joy, Sky+ even has a series link for it. I have been waiting for Discover to start using them for ages. They now suck less...
Posted by: Dignan

Re: Mythbusters in the UK ! - 07/09/2004 00:51

And thsoe in the US can rejoice!

Quote:
MythBusters Returns!

Season premiere is Weds Sept 29 at 8pm with the Ancient Death Ray/Skunk Cleaning/What is Bulletproof Myths

Note the New Time and Day
Posted by: boxer

Re: Mythbusters in the UK ! - 07/09/2004 06:14

Quote:
They now suck less...

Sky, with infinite wisdom decided, in July, that, despite the fact that I've got a Leeds postcode, I, and the whole population of York and Harrogate, with 60 miles of Yorkshire to the North of us, are Tyne Tees viewers.
We now have commercials for Sunderland and the Lake District and have to endure totally irrelevant news programmes.
Methinks someone who had never ventured North of Watford Gap has been meddling!
Posted by: andy

Re: Mythbusters in the UK ! - 07/09/2004 09:13

You know that you can tune into the correct region on Sky manually ?
Posted by: boxer

Re: Mythbusters in the UK ! - 07/09/2004 11:13

On BBC and I've got it set up, but Sky tell me that you can't with ITV, I've tried and I can't get round it.
Posted by: andy

Re: Mythbusters in the UK ! - 07/09/2004 11:40

You can do it for ITV by manually adding the channel, via the "add channels" feature:

http://www.geocities.com/digitalsatuk/itvregions.html
http://www.geocities.com/digitalsatuk/addchannels.html

So Sky were lying, imagine that
Posted by: boxer

Re: Mythbusters in the UK ! - 07/09/2004 11:46

Lying or plain ignorant at customer services!
I must admit that I was told about this locally, but I couldn't make it happen, which is why I contacted Sky. Now I've got it properly documented, I'll try again tonight,.
Thanks!