what survival show do you like / hate.

[PT945]

Mine are . I like dual survival. Don't like man vs wild.
What's yours.

[Echo2]

They are all for entertainment only.....I like Les....survivorman.

All have a common theme....get back to civilzation.

[herbalpagan]

I love dual survival...I never fail to learn something from that show. I don't like man vs wild...that guy is a showman, never walks when he can swing like Tarzan, never eats the local fruit or greens when he can eat a big or drink pee.

[Omegaman]

I also think Bear is just a show boat and will get some body hurt or killed some day.:mad: I watch Dual Survival, Survivor man and Man/Women wild. I know these shows are for entertainment but in the industry I work in I hear too many people that take these shows as gospel. Bear spent a ton of time skinning a seal to make a wet suit that didn’t even cover his whole torso, what a waste of time and energy. Bear also never takes the safe way around and obstacle, he prefers to pole vault, swing or jump across them.

[slowz1k]

I know that they're all for show but I like Survivorman... The old series, not his new stuff where he hangs out with the natives. I've seen him breakdown and cry when he couldn't find water. Plus... He's really on his own, even if his team is just a few miles out. I really enjoy Dual survivor also... You get two very different views on survival, and it's usually good fun when they don't agree.
We watch Man, Woman, Wild as well. I've seen two of their shows where they failed. One desert episode, she would have died, and one arctic where both would have perished. They had to call in the team on both episodes. I thought it was very cool that they struck the ego, and aired those episodes so people can see that even if you have a ton of survival experience and are reasonably prepared mentally, and physically... sometimes nature still wins.

I agree 100% with Omegaman on the BG analysis

[Brother Bill]

I used to like Dave. His common man YT vids are really helpful for people just getting started. But I lost all respect for him when his military transcripts came out. He just wasn't what he promoted himself to be. I do like Les. And I have added some of his ideas to my training program. He promotes safety first. The rest of them are all hype. Not that they don't have some value. They're just not for me..

[Echo2]

I know that they're all for show but I like Survivorman... The old series, not his new stuff where he hangs out with the natives. I've seen him breakdown and cry when he couldn't find water. Plus... He's really on his own, even if his team is just a few miles out. I really enjoy Dual survivor also... You get two very different views on survival, and it's usually good fun when they don't agree.
We watch Man, Woman, Wild as well. I've seen two of their shows where they failed. One desert episode, she would have died, and one arctic where both would have perished. They had to call in the team on both episodes. I thought it was very cool that they struck the ego, and aired those episodes so people can see that even if you have a ton of survival experience and are reasonably prepared mentally, and physically... sometimes nature still wins.

I agree 100% with Omegaman on the BG analysis

Mother Nature can be a cruel bitch when she flexes her muscles....:)

[Dawg Fan]

I know that they're all for show but I like Survivorman... The old series, not his new stuff where he hangs out with the natives. I've seen him breakdown and cry when he couldn't find water. Plus... He's really on his own, even if his team is just a few miles out. I really enjoy Dual survivor also... You get two very different views on survival, and it's usually good fun when they don't agree.
We watch Man, Woman, Wild as well. I've seen two of their shows where they failed. One desert episode, she would have died, and one arctic where both would have perished. They had to call in the team on both episodes. I thought it was very cool that they struck the ego, and aired those episodes so people can see that even if you have a ton of survival experience and are reasonably prepared mentally, and physically... sometimes nature still wins.

I agree 100% with Omegaman on the BG analysis

I agree 100%.

[prkchp76]

les stroud 100% man woman wild close second dual survival NOT

[Oscar Wilde]

"Married with Children"

O.W.

[Gone Bananas]

Have you seen his "Off the grid" show? Pretty cool set up he has started!

[Gone Bananas]

My favs are.........

Les Stroud and Dual Survival..........

[Diesel]

Here's a pretty amazing post By Cody Lundin of Dual Survival

http://www.codylundin.com/survive_tv.html




Survival on TV
By Cody Lundin

I thought long and hard before writing the contents of this page as I knew it would piss some people off. In the end, my obligation as a survival instructor is to tell it as I see it, consequences be damned.

Another reason I chose to put this in writing is the onslaught of people asking me what I think about the survival shows on television. Instead of spouting out another one liner, or taking time, (again) to explain the details of the situation, I’m putting my opinion down here for all to read and accept or reject as they see fit.

Here are some important points to consider, as it’s in them that I’ve based my opinion. First, realize that I don’t watch TV. I consider the lion’s share of programming to be a waste of time. Second, I have participated in a lot of television over the years both on and off camera. I know what producers want and how the game works. Third, I am intimately acquainted with the realities of survival skills based upon years of “doing it” in the field with and without students. Thus, due to my level of experience, it’s not difficult for me to figure out if “something survival” is faked or embellished on TV – and I myself have done the faking on more than one occasion.

While trapped in my hotel room in Portland, Oregon in October of 2007 as part of my book tour for When All Hell Breaks Loose, I caught parts of two major survival programs on cable television. Unfortunately for one of the hosts, the show I watched was filmed in Arizona’s Sonoran desert. I lasted 10 minutes before I changed the channel due to inaccuracies and poor desert survival priorities. For the other popular show, I lasted even less time as the programming was simply dangerous to the viewer if taken seriously. The point of this page is not to critique other people’s television shows. It is to enlighten you as to how the game works regarding programming on TV.


First, ratings rule on television as its all about the money. If a show does not draw enough viewers to support the dollars spent in advertising during the program, the show or “pilot” (test show to see if there is enough viewer interest to make a series) will be cancelled. Now-a-days, to achieve ratings, almost anything goes. Notice how radical many nature shows have become. In the 1960s, Jacques Cousteau, host of The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau, would never have dreamed of interfering with wildlife the way today’s animal program hosts are expected to do. (His son said as much in an interview after Steve Irwin’s death) In the past, television shows about wildlife featured the wildlife itself as the star, and the human host was all but irrelevant.

This thirst for ratings colors everything, and truth and reason go out the window when people stand to make a lot of money. It is expected that the television host and the production company will bend the rules to allow whatever network executives want to appear on TV. If the host doesn’t prostitute themselves out to the network and deliver the right product, there is a line of people more than willing to do so. I myself have been asked to do incredibly dumb things by network executives such as purposely fall into cold water and get hypothermic in the name of “drama.”

Second, big city producers and the networks themselves haven’t a clue about what real wilderness survival skills entail, and the proof is in their over-the-top yet shallow programming. Real survival can be boring, which is unacceptable for TV. How visually interesting is it to watch someone die from hypothermia, the most common way to die in a real survival situation? Also, there is no quality control for programming other than if “Joe viewer” will watch it, and needless to say, a gullible general public is just as clueless about survival skills as the networks. For some reason, if a program appears on television, people assume it to be factually correct and well researched; and at times nothing could be further from the truth.

Thirdly, depending on the show, the illusion of television and the big screen is largely that. Once the initial filming has been accomplished in the field, there is nothing that can’t be faked or tweaked to a producers liking in the edit bay back at the production company. No one is willing to risk an entire operating budget to film in Africa and not get what they came for, one way or another. Again, money is the name of the game. In my “eat a rat” video, a production company hired a film crew for specific reasons to film me. It was known before hand that the intention of the shoot was for me to kill and eat a packrat. As the film crew was being paid and on site for only a day, I had to kill the rat the day before. I placed the long dead rat under the deadfall rock minutes before we shot the scene. It appears that the deadfall trap was tripped and killed the rat…which was the point. Again, almost anything can be done in the edit room with the right footage.



If the television shows in question were simply cooking or home decorating shows, I wouldn’t care. But these shows are supposedly depicting human survival skills. If these skills are faked or embellished and made to appear as fact on the show instead of entertainment, we have entered into an entirely different realm of accountability. Touting “edit room survival skills” as real survival skills can kill real people in real survival scenarios. In fairness to the networks, anyone who bases their preparedness program on a television show should probably leave the gene pool anyway. Does watching a football game on TV mean you know how to throw a football? In like fashion, watching a program or reading a book on survival doesn’t mean you know how to deal with a survival scenario.

If you love your survival shows and pick up a cool survival tidbit or two, fine. But please have the common sense and wisdom to realize the show for what it is -- entertainment.




About my role in Discovery's Dual Survival show:

September 2009.

To Whom It May Concern,
Teaching survival skills has been my passion and my profession for a very long time. I take this lifestyle choice seriously and strive to give the very best training to my students both in and out of the field. I live my profession, and continuously refine my self-reliant homestead to embody the most effective combination of ancient and modern technologies designed to do more with less. I am acutely aware that my training may some day help decide a student’s fate during a real survival scenario. Unfortunately, even many so-called survival instructors are not burdened by this all important responsibility, (let alone television producers) and over the years, I’ve witnessed hundreds of examples of crappy or flat out dangerous instruction.

Please know that I have little if any control over how Dual Survival is ultimately concepted, produced, and edited. While all production work involves the efforts of many talented individuals, very few if any of the players involved with this show have any experience in outdoor survival skills. It wouldn’t be a stretch to surmise that the majority of the top urban people involved have not even camped outside. So what happens when “city slickers” design an outdoor survival show? Only time will tell.

I have and will try my best to make the show as authentic and professional as possible – while still being fun to watch! I have and will continue to push this agenda personally and professionally, using the talent and clout of an entertainment attorney as well to further these wishes. Regardless of my efforts – as my grandmother used to say – “whatever will be will be.”

It’s in the spirit of educated hope, faith, and trust that I enter this project; knowing full well that compromises will have to be made by "each side". To my students, and somewhat to the readers of my books, you know my training far more intimately than any TV show could portray. It’s to my students that I give my undying gratitude. These hearty souls have bothered to get off their butts and follow me into the mountains and deserts over the years, come what may; desiring to know the truth about survival skills. Decades of students have helped me to achieve a level of competency, “dirt time”, and stark honesty that can never be bought or faked. Thank you!

In short, watch the show, laugh, and learn a survival trick or two. But…never, ever base your emergency preparedness plan on a television show.

Sincerely,
Cody

[bcauz3y]

the wild within

[TennOutdoors]

well Most of them are entertaining. but as far as actually picking up tips I have to go with Les Stroud.

Dual Survival is okay in my book, but theres not alot of useful info to me. only so many times I can watch Cody complain about Dave hunting, or stand watching him walk barefoot thru areas any one with common sense would wear shoes. anyway before I rant LOL.

I enjoyed the Alaska Experiment to. but that wasnt really a survival show per se.