MythBusters
MythBusters is an American science television program on Discovery Channel starring Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, two special-effects experts who set out to test the validity of timeless myths and urban legends of popular culture. The show is narrated by Robert Lee.
MythBusters' new season in the United States started on October 12, 2005.
Format
Adam Savage has described the show as "Jackass meets Mr. Science". Adam and Jamie perform experiments to test and declare popular myths and urban legends as either confirmed, plausible, or "busted" (meaning false).
Adam, Jamie, and their crew use their extensive engineering and construction expertise to construct devices with which to perform their experiments. In cases when a myth involves the human body, the MythBusters use either their crash test dummy (dubbed with intentional irony as "Buster") or ballistics gelatin (This unique substance is often used by ballistics engineers to test the effectiveness of firearms because the gel, once set, adequately replicates the consistency of human tissue). Buster the Dummy has been rebuilt extensively over the series, with one or two experiments nearly destroying him. Because some of the myths tested involve explosives, the resulting experiment is usually quite destructive.
When a myth is shown to be "busted", or confirmed as impossible, the MythBusters will often go out of their way to create conditions necessary for the desired result to occur. This undeterred attitude often leads to many humorous moments on the show. For example, in the "Exploding Port-A-Potty" myth, the MythBusters filled a portable restroom with so much methane gas that any person inside the structure would have immediately suffocated before any explosion could occur. While this was, in part, done to prove just how impossible the myth actually was, its purpose was mostly to provide an opportunity to watch the cubicle (with Buster inside) explode.
When the exact details of a myth are somewhat fuzzy, Adam and Jamie will often compete with each other to find and implement the best solution to that problem. Jamie often (but not always) has more success, due to his greater experience and technical expertise, and his more patient approach to situations.
Starting in season two, Adam and Jamie have been assisted by a small crew of workers referred to as "The Build Team", or "The Mythbuilders". This group helped behind the scenes in the first season and became necessary on-screen hosts because of the volume of work required to produce a program of this magnitude. During the second season the team was comprised of:
- Kari Byron
- Scottie Chapman
- Tory Belleci
- Grant Imahara, at the end of season two.
Toward the end of season two, Scottie Chapman left the show so that she could both pursue her true passion: metal working and, in her words, "Have a life." She was replaced by Grant Imahara, friend and sometimes coworker of Jamie and Adam. Imahara is most famous as the certified operator of movie icon R2-D2 for Industrial Light and Magic. He also participated in Robot Wars/Battlebots, and has an electrical engineering degree.
Also aiding the crew for most of the second season was "Mythtern" Christine Chamberlain, joining the show after she won the "Mythtern" contest promoted by Discovery Channel. Christine, however, left the show at the end of the second season "for love", according to the producer.
Another personality from the first season and beginning of the second is Heather Joseph-Witham, who explains the origins of many of the urban legends explored on the show. Logistics of doing her segments and slight change of the show's format has ended her participation at this time.
The MythBusters typically perform their experiments within the confines of Jamie's M5 Industries special effects workshop. They have also filmed in a variety of locations around San Francisco when the main M5 workshop is too small or if the experiment is too dangerous to perform in a populated area. For experiments requiring extensive safety zones, the decommissioned Naval Air Station Alameda or Novato's decommissioned air station are regular venues. Several experiments involving rockets have been performed in the Mojave Desert. The Myths of Taxi Flip-Over and Airplane Decompression have been done at Mojave Airport (MHV).
Vehicles
When the MythBusters work with myths that involve vehicles, they often purchase a dilapidated vehicle to use for the tests (fans have donated their own cars in several cases). Many of the vehicles the MythBusters have purchased do not survive the testing of the respective myths. One car was destroyed when it was dropped from 50ft. (15.24 m) by a crane while assessing new crash-test dummy Buster 2.0's various features.
In another episode, the MythBusters used an aging cement truck to test whether low grade explosives, suspended within the mixing tank, could be used to clean dried concrete off the inside of the barrel. After this myth was found to be plausible, the MythBusters moved the cement mixer to a quarry and filled it with several tons of high grade explosives. They themselves watched the blast from a mile away. The truck was effectively disintegrated into a few large pieces and thousands of small fragments.
Other Notable Appearances
The MythBusters hosted the 2005 edition of Discovery Channel's Shark Week. The opening episode for this was an episode of MythBusters in which they examined five urban legends in the movie Jaws. In Australia, this was aired in full on the Seven Network, before a screening of the movie itself.
Adam and Jamie appeared on Good Morning America on November 8, 2004. They tested the myth that an opera singer's voice could shatter glass, as hinted at in the 1970s Memorex commercial featuring Ella Fitzgerald. Jaime Vendera proved it could be done without the use of an amplifier.
Adam and Jamie appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman on May 23, 2005. The team was testing whether helium party balloons could lift an adult person. Actor and auto racer, Paul Newman, was lifted up by more than 5000 balloons.
Origin of the show
MythBusters was originally pitched to Australian television networks by producer Peter Rees from Beyond Television Productions in 2002. It was rejected by all networks, with the Seven Network claiming that the show was not scientific enough. Rees then approached Discovery, which commissioned the three pilot specials.
Rees, who had previously interviewed Hyneman about a Robot Wars entry, tapped him to host the new show. Savage, who had worked with him in commercials and the same Robot Wars entry, was later approached by Hyneman to help co-host the show, who in his own words claimed that he wasn't dynamic enough to do it on his own [1].
Foreign Broadcasts
In Australia MythBusters also airs in full on SBS free to air television and as an abridged segment on the Seven Network show Beyond Tomorrow. SBS has recently retained the rights, although segments will still be seen on Beyond Tomorrow, as the deal is non-exclusive. The first season on SBS featured an Australian voiceover, but subsequent series feature narrator Robert Lee.
The version shown on Discovery Channel in the UK and other European countries features an additional British voiceover.
Quotes
- "I reject your reality, and substitute my own." – Adam Savage
- "Am I missing an eyebrow?" – Adam Savage
- "Jamie wants big boom!" – Jamie Hyneman
- "I always enjoy seeing Adam in pain." – Jamie Hyneman