Was there any other reason to watch the show?
That’s just weird to me. I wouldn’t have thought anyone would interpret “going over like a lead balloon” to mean a lead membrane filled with gas, but rather a big hunk of lead. That’s the point of the aphorism. It’s something that is the very opposite of a balloon.
I agree with Irishman. In context, to me, “lead balloon” has always indicated a balloon-shaped hunk of lead. Maybe it was solid all the way through or partially hollow, but certainly a substantial piece of metal, not merely a “membrane” or an “envelope” made of lead.
Agreed with Irishman, Acsenray and Lasciel.
Continues hijack…
With regard to the lead balloon, I think both sides are right. One would not expect a helium balloon with a lead skin to float nor would one expect a balloon-shaped piece of lead to float. (I would also note that I would not expect a red balloon to be filled with ‘red’. English is weird)
Personally, I always envisioned it as a normal-sized lead balloon filled with helium.
And, I’ll add that the efforts made to make it happen were pretty amazing and great TV.
With regard to splitting the team, I’m indifferent. However, I am intrigued by why it happened. Was there some kind of disagreement (i.e. contracts) or was it a decision to shake things up? Very curious.
To be perfectly honest, I’d rather watch Grant, Tori and Kari than Jamie and Adam. That moustache disturbs me.
It was entertaining to watch.
We don’t know and are forced to speculate. Seems their contracts may have been up, so it’s a cost savings? Eliminating the build team means getting rid of the second shop, and possibly the second camera crew.
I rarely watch the show anymore, but mostly because it just doesn’t come on at a time that fits for me.
Mythbusters reveal new format, explain cast changes – exclusive
Quoting Adam from the link:
Here’s my tip for the guys: Don’t worry about that, just slow the narrative down a bit. For a number of seasons now, the show has felt like it’s constantly hyped up on triple espressos. Just use more of the footage that you have. There’s plenty of material, surely.
You don’t have to have a cut, a visual effect, a big boom or someone whooping or howling every two seconds. You don’t have to cut out a ton of the building process and replace it with a five second animated summary. That doesn’t feel streamlined, it just feels like you all fell into a bucket of speed or something. Really, our attention spans aren’t that short.
Honestly, if they do a single myth per episode, and simply fill 20 of those minutes with footage of the guys goofing around, discussing, and building things, I’ll be a happy camper. We want to see all that stuff. I mean, don’t we?
From what I’ve heard Adam say about it in other interviews, that is what they’re doing. It will be a new emphasis on the creating, building, and problem-solving side of things. I look forward to it, as long as they don’t accidentally ruin things somehow.
A agree–I’d like to see more of the process, from brainstorming to design to construction and trouble-shooting.
I think this change could be a very good thing.
I’m actually optimistic, too.
It’s been a while since I’ve been paying much attention to the show, but there was an episode from just this year that I actually enjoyed a lot: The one with the supersonic ping-pong cannon, where the guys (spoilers here, I guess) launch ping-pong balls out of a tube at speeds above mach 1. For one thing, it involved building something outrageous. Secondly, there was a lot of problem solving, as they kept running into new and unexpected problems at every stage of the build, and had to come up with clever solutions. And thirdly, for a little while there Adam seemed to slip into that obsessive mode, where he just has to keep fiddling with this thing until it works, dammit! I love that, and I don’t remember having seen it for a while.
The episode also had the Build Team making an ice cannon, but, for some reason, that part wasn’t nearly as entertaining, even though it was very much the same kind of story.
So, yeah. If we can get more stuff like the Adam and Jamie part of that episode, I’ll be happy.
Grant is mythbusting for McDonalds now. I think it can be a good thing. A lot of crazy accusations has been made about Fast food. The ingredients, how much factory processing, how its prepared in the restaurant kitchen, and so on. I’m glad that McDonalds is tackling this problem and explaining how their food is made.
Kari is narrating a series of “life hack” commercials for American Express:
Luigi…I mean Tory, is presumably doing something, but I suspect that Grant and Kari have the best chance of a reasonable career as mini-stars ahead of them.
Yeah, Tory is in a bit of a pickle, I fear. The problem with being the mythbusting comic relief / doofus sidekick, is that it’s so freaking context specific. Unless he can find some other mythbuster to attach himself to, I can’t off to the top of my mind see where he can put that schtick to good use.
On the other hand, Mythbusters is in heavy syndication here in the Uk and I am sure the same is true of most of the worlds cable markets. Unless Tony and the others had the worlds worst entertainment lawyer the residuals alone are probably going to set him up for life.
Yeah, Kari is smart, hot, female and telegenic, Grant makes the robots for Star Wars, and Tory is, uh, a carpenter who does pratfalls. Hope he’s invested wisely.
Tory can get plenty of work so long as he doesn’t insist on being in show biz. He’s hardly going to go hungry with his skills.