I don’t have cable/satellite but I watch it on You Tube. As much as I adore my industry my true love is with factories. They just don’t pay as well.
ETA: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=search_playlists&search_query=“How+It’s+Made”&uni=1
Depends on the factory. 
This clip is the closest I could find to my factory. The equipment shown is positively ancient though.
I think my favourite episode was the one where they made aluminum pots, that or the fluorescent tubes. Many of the factories shown are easily driveable from here, mostly in Quebec. Sometimes I can talk my wife into visiting one while we’re traveling.
You’re lucky. My wife is more into transportation than manufacturing and I skip to the end of the videos because I couldn’t care less about packaging and shipping.
I know. I need to remember that more often.
Packaging is the dull side but some of the equipment that uses robotic arms are pretty cool to watch in action. I’d love to have a job with an OEM if they paid better and get to visit a variety of plants.
I don’t care for the show. They tend to omit most of the details. For example, Helicopters.
Step 1: Design it on a computer.
Step 2: Cut carbon fiber.
Step 3: Attach honeycomb.
Step 4: Bake in an oven.
Step 5: Make a door for the engine housing.
Step 6: Make an electrical harness.
Step 7: Assemble the helicopter.
Step 8: Install the engine.
Step 9: Bolt on the blades.
Step 10: Install the instrument panel.
Step 11: Install the interior.
Step 11: Paint the completed helicopter.
There’s actually a lot more to it than that. They could fill at least an hour; but they ‘show how a helicopter is made’ in under five minutes. It’s just not satisfying. (Not to mention inaccuracies like ‘The instrument panel is the brain of the helicopter.’)
Of course, helicopters are of special interest to me; but they’ve given short-shrift to things I hadn’t thought to be interested in and, once mentioned, I said ‘Say, that’s interesting,’ only to be disappointed by their 100,000-foot overview.
I love that stuff too and especially the show. It really bothers me when I have no idea how something is done no matter how mundane. I recently started work as the only IT analyst in a large pharmaceutical plant owned by one of the largest and most famous companies in the industry. I do white collar work that is heavily influenced by really skilled blue collar workers in an industrial setting. They make replacement body parts there for people needing things like hip replacements custom fitted. I have a large office but everyone that needs to walk around the shop floor including the executives has to have on steel toed boots or shoes and sometimes safety glasses and a hard-hat.
I love seeing how they make that stuff and ship it out to patients needing body part replacements sometimes as soon as the next day. It is really stressful though knowing what is at stake. Systems fail every day and I have to get them back up or someone somewhere laying in a hospital bed isn’t going to get what they need.
I used to work in a similar but slightly less critical role in the supermarket industry. Most people don’t even think about supply chains and how the food gets to their table but it is complex and requires lots of brainpower from people in many different roles. I have tried to explain it to people in the simplest terms possible but their eyes tend to glaze over when I get 1/4 of the way through it and I am not a boring person.
I have learned that the things that make the world go round are really, really complicated when you start to look at the systems as a whole that make it happen.
Everything has missing steps. The fun* comes in when you have to imagine what those missing steps are and how they would be accomplished.
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- Note to Normals, who are unlikely to have opened this thread: That’s “fun” for engineers and often comes in the stretch between when the alarm clock goes off and the first snooze alarm. At least it does for me.
The time limit screws them. It seems like the more complex the product the worse it translates to the show. I think that’s why I like the ones I mentioned so much. The making of aluminum pots has few stages so they can show more of the process within the time limit.
I tried to get a tour of the Sikorsky plant in Connecticut but then the 9/11 attacks occurred and they were unavailable. I should try again. I never got an answer on whether they offer public tours to some areas or not. I certainly wasn’t going to pester them that week.
You are a helicopter pilot though. I love airplanes more than some family members. I could watch a 20 hour mini-series on how an Airbus 380 is designed and built but most people would never consider watching such a thing. A high level overview that offers some perspective and is a little entertaining is great and educational and good for the general public. I don’t sew for example but I would watch a ten minute overview on how high-end, complicated sewing machines are designed and made. I love to see how things like huge dams and bridges are made at a high level even though I won’t ever go into that field. It isn’t an advanced college course after all. It is quality entertainment for people that like to learn something about lots of things.
OK, time for a nerd confession. Half the fun for me is when I see the preview for the show and then try and picture how some things are done. I love seeing the elegant solutions they come up with. They’re that much more impressive after putting some thought into it beforehand.
There, I’m not admitting to anything nerdier than that. Ever. 
Mine had totally retro gray-tortoiseshell plastic frames and side screens rather than Lexan side shields. The near-bulletproof polycarb lenses were tuned to 18-24 inches 'cuz I spent more time at my computer than in the shop and the effect was totally techno.
Since then I’ve been in an industry without dangerous shit flying around and an expectation that billionaires might show up at my desk at any time and I had to go with Joey Greco-style glasses.
As for steel toes, many years ago I demonstrated to myself that having room enough to scrunch up my toes worked as well and didn’t leave toes cut by the caps if one had wider feet.
Well, that’s just normal! 
Granted. I’ve seen a few episodes for simple things, and things that I’m only interested in because they mentioned them. But I agree with The Number One Super Guy that they tend to fall down when it comes to more complex things.
My brother, I assume the thread’s title filtered out your potential oppressors. We are Brothers and Sisters of the Bridgeport and the CNC Cutter, be it Press, Water, or Laser, and you can feel safe here.
I understand that part, but I have to admit I was still a bit disappointed when they talked about how a Rolls Royce takes at least two weeks to hand build and then the show was basically “Weld a chassi, build interior, put in motor and screw on a hood ornament.” That almost seemed demeaning to the people building it.
And how do you vote in the all-important props vs jets distinction? Do you prefer to see what is propelling you forward or do you take it on faith that some invisible something is doing the work?
I skim through those. An advantage of watching online. Another is that there are no commercials, though the boring parts (packaging and shipping, f’rinstance) could be filled with them and I wouldn’t complain.
Yes. You’d think a chainsaw was as hard to make as a Rolls-Royce. They should really consider extending the time for some clips or at least making extended versions available on the website.
Well, you see, that’s why I like helicopters. An airplane has wings that stick out. You look out the window, and you can’t see them doing anything. They could stop working any time, and you’d never know until it was too late! With a helicopter, you can see the wings working!
I accept that answer,
I love that show, but it always irritates me when the narration is badly out of sync with the action on the screen. One of the worst examples of this is the episode where they show the factory that makes player piano rolls.