That’s the stuff that drives me the most crazy because ANE archaeology is actually very fascinating to me, but the History Channel shows range from rank, Biblical literalist fabulism (Ark hunting shows, biographies of Moses, etc.) to (at best) pseudo-academic speculation on stuff like whther the Hyksos were “Hebrews,” or the Black Sea hypothesis for Noah’s flood.
Biblical miracles are always soberly accepted as genuine historical possibilities, and anything regarding Jesus tends to uncritically accept the Gospel narratives as journalistic history. Those shows are aimed squarely at religious believers, not at discovering or imparting any actual information.
There were several around Christmas in which astronomers (and a couple of astrologers) took on “What exactly was the Bethlehem star?” and not once was it even suggested “Something that was added in a century after his birth” or pointed out the Magi were only in one gospel. They’ve done tons on Moses in which they try to explain how to naturally kill all the first born (and only the first born)-
Dudes, if a plague only killed first borns, there was nothing natural about it. It was a miracle- that’s the point- it can’t be explained- just cue the 10 Commandments clip. It’s interesting to speculate on what things can turn water to blood color and the like because you can see this being an omen to some people, but ultimately true believers believe it was supernatural anyway.
It would be more interesting to take on the unexplained in the much more recent era where there’s a possibility of understanding it. Examples: the sun turning green in Virginia in 1831 which Nat Turner and his followers saw as their signal- what kind of disturbances in the atmosphere can make the sun appear green/recreate what it would look like/how long would it last. What happened during his last week (when there are no records) that sent Edgar Allen Poe from a guy whose life was actually on the rebound [rich girlfriend, literary recognition, no longer drinking] to a completely insane incoherentmadman dressed in someone else’s clothes? Or the various UFO reportings in the late 19th century before airplanes- examine what they could have been, or how exactly did the castrati sound? I might be naive but I think there’s a small but loyal audience who’d watch things like this.
I get the point, but, if you scoop out a big serving of macaroni and cheese at the local cafeteria you are well within your rights to expect some pasta and dairy product.
Actually, names are in fact descriptions all the time, so maybe I don’t get the point.
At least they aren’t as bad a BBC America’s latest WTF. Out of all the great BBC shows past and present they could license and show what did they pick? Star Trek: The Next Generation. It’s already syndicated on at least 4 channels. I guess because it has a British Captain they think one will notice.
No, you’re correct. Certain words have a certain connotation. If you are going to use them to brand your product, people will have certain expectations and they will be disappointed if they aren’t met. If you call your network The History Channel or Comedy Central, people expect stuff about history or funny programming. The SciFi Channel implies science fiction and fantasy programming. “Syfy” doesn’t mean anything. Next step, the channel programs are less “science fictiony” and more generic soon you just have another channel that broadcasts reality shows, old movies and sitcom reruns.
The shift in the History Channel even hit their existing shows.
Deep Sea Detectives was my favorite show they ever did. The two divers on the show were the the real deal. John Chatterton has made some amazing deep dives. The first two seasons of Deep Sea Detectives are really good. They dived on the Edmund Fitzgerald and several other important sites. Third season they were diving Loch Ness looking for Nessie. :rolleyes: I suspect the new executives at History thought that would bring in ratings.
Someone above mention Josh Bernstein’s show Digging for the Truth. It was good the first two seasons. Then they started doing silly shows geared more for ratings. Josh even dived with the Deep Sea Detectives in a cross over show.
Thanks for the link. I wasn’t aware of this story about Poe.
It strongly reminds me of the news story about Margot Kidder (Superman). She got off a plane (1996) and disappeared. They found her disoriented and looking like a bag lady a week later. She was hiding in someones back yard. They found out she had an attack from Manic Depression. They got her back on meds and she’s been ok.
That might be what happened with Poe. I’m just speculating.
One interesting theory is that he got grabbed by men and forced into voting repetedly [got to love 1800 politics … vote early and vote often] by getting him thrashed out of his mind on alcohol, possibly spiked with drugs like opium. THey would take bums, make them go vote, then change their clothing and shave off the beard and cut their hair, then make them vote again, then take them back, change the clothes and shave the mustache off , and vote at different voting stations. Anybody spending 24 hours being forced to drink and do drugs is not going to be doing too good …
I stopped watching the History Channel after I watched a “documentary” on Nostradamus that ran 95% of the way talking about him like all his predictions were true and only at the end threw in a “most historians agree that Nostradamus’ true predictive power was debateable…”
The history major in me is saddened by its demise.
I remember the fights about the funding of PBS, that Nature & NOVA were obsolete because the market driven TLC and Discovery channels provided the same content. Free enterprise knows what’s best in providing intelligent programming. So “they” said.
Personally, I always thought it was odd when The History Channel started running a show called Modern Marvels. Then that show changed from ‘cool innovative things of today and tomorrow’ to ‘things that were cool and innovative and some point in time’ to what it is now…‘neat stuff.’ But don’t get me wrong, I still love watching it,
