What was once a television destination for science and history programming has since expanded its offerings to include an array of reality TV series. In the past decade or so, The Discovery Channel's efforts to generate shows in line with more popular shows resulted in many cancelations.
This list digs into 10 such canceled series and failed attempts to combine entertainment and education.
10 Destroyed in Seconds (2008 - 2009)
This show is exactly what it sounds like: mash-ups of various objects being annihilated in seconds. The events depicted are not simulated: they are situations that unfolded in real life.
Hosted by Ron Pitts, the incidents on the show include extreme weather events, fires, crashes, and floods. Some moments of destruction even involve death.
9 Verminators (2008 - 2009)
ISOTech is the Los Angeles pest control company at the heart of this reality TV series. In each episode over its two-season run, the crew at ISOTech expel rodents, bugs, and birds from both commercial and private properties. they crawl through basements, shimmy through attics, and climb tall ladders to get the job done. In the second season, the business moves to Florida, where legions of subtropical creepy crawlies keep the cast busy.
8 Amish Mafia (2012 - 15)
This problematic series managed to air for four seasons before getting the boot. It stars Lebanon Levi as the leader of a purported Amish mafia in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. Along with his three assistants, Levi tries to keep the peace in his community and protect it against outside influence.
Local journalists, police, and Amish communities in the area have spoken out against the show, labeling its events completely fictitious. They also claim is misrepresents Amish life.
7 One Way Out (2009)
Taking a few queues from Houdini, stuntman and escape artist Jonathan Goodman puts himself in precarious situations and finagles an escape. In one episode, Jonathan is locked in a box full of bees positioned on top of an active washing machine. In another, he's buried inside a coffin.
The series explores the science behind escape, but this secondary educational context didn't save it from the proverbial ax.
6 Man, Woman, Wild (2010 - 2012)
Putting their marriage to the test in more ways than one, couple Mykel Hawke and Ruth England venture into hostile natural environments in order to show off their survival skills. They push their bodies to the limit in climates as varied as swampy Louisiana and the frigid Scottish Highlands.
Man, Woman, Wild was a popular survival show, but Hawke and England called it quits after the second season. They announced it was too much for them to sustain.
5 Swamp Loggers (2009 - 2012)
Like other series of its kind, Swamp Loggers follows a group of hard-working, no-nonsense laborers. In this case, the subjects are loggers who traverse North Carolina swamps to locate their revenue source.
Fueled by politically incorrect dialogue and unplanned setbacks, the crew at Bobby Goodson's All Terrain Logging company always manage to come together at the end of the day for a barbeque.
4 Howe & Howe Tech (2010 - 2011)
This series pursues two twin brothers in Maine who run a business that manufactures military-grade armored vehicles. A show for engineering nerds, Howe & Howe explains how these state-of-the-art machines are made.
The brothers, Michael "Mike" and Geoffrey "Geoff" Howe have earned world records for their inventions, including the smallest armored assault vehicle, which they refer to as the Badger.
3 Weird Or What? (2010 - 2012)
Yes, William Shatner had a brief stint as the host of a pseudoscience series that tried to reproduce the success of Unsolved Mysteries. Not even Captain Kirk could keep this show running after three seasons, though.
In each episode, Shatner digs into three bizarre and strange cases, from aliens to natural disasters. Employing both supernatural and scientific theories, Shatner seeks to figure out how these events unfolded.
2 The Colony (2009 - 2010)
In each of this show's two seasons, 10 people are thrown into a simulated post-apocalyptic situation where they are forced to fight for their lives. In the first season, the volunteers live in a fictional Los Angeles destroyed by a viral epidemic. In the second season, they find themselves in a city outside New Orleans, Louisiana. They are given the tools and resources to plant gardens, gather supplies, and erect shelters.
Replete with supporting actors and scripted scenarios, The Colony's third season is on permanent hold as of 2011.
1 Ghost Lab (2009 - 2011)
Mike Rowe narratives this paranormal investigator reality television series about ghost-hunting brothers. The brothers, Brad and Barry Klinge, own and operate Everyday Paranormal. They travel the country in search of evidence that the afterlife exists. In the series, they travel from New York to New Orleans to San Francisco, hitting other haunted spots along the way.
The Klinge brothers employ a variety of standard tools for their field of work: infrared cameras, motion detectors, and audio recorders. They even have their own remote lab where expensive computers give them access to the latest audio and video programs.
from ScreenRant - Feed https://ift.tt/2xZ6VUY
![DC's Next Batman May Be [SPOILER], Not Bruce Wayne | Screen Rant](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_sHV8wiPKjatOm9wAx5ADqWXSqrLTt_9VcX9msHe-_mOU8vfese9YxpizK17V04oRfZM6DjC8Tn4k9M1E9mtJogDnVacDRV3ygBWXKj5twcUNHYGgsLgQTvjgCP2jx9vvRoooB-qEhS40qzAkZ4BUor3giiVNNHoqbKxoedHE4CVQ=w72-h72-p-k-no-nu)
0 Comments