"...Cynical Sue is back..."

Oh boy, she is my favorite!!!

Rumor has it that Criss Angel Mindfreak is fake too, but with a name like Mindfreak it has to be real. When he split that woman in two it looked pretty real so it's gotta be true

So, you take it for what it is, good entertainment. You gotta admit, Bear isn't the boring type. I might even follow him for a ways, just to see him pull some of his silly stunts and if he wipes out just once.

Stretch, please tell us you are being sarcastic. The man is proof that even Darwin has his off days.

So he is being presented as an instructor; so much for everyone who whines that he's a just for entertainment. That brings in a whole different ethical component than if he was just a sideshow freak. And probably a legal one.

They are going to regret that press release.

"...interaction between him and his camera crew is strictly forbidden..."

So if he is going down for the third time in that bog they are going to just stand there taping and do nothing? Yeah, right...

Agree. They could label it a number of things but calling it an instructional 'how-to' guide is just setting themselves (Bear, DSC, et al) up for a huge lawsuit by the survivors victims relatives.

Hehehe. The sarcasm was dripping, my friend. You knew that.

There was a woman named Muriel Gray who produced and starred in a series called "The Munro Show" for STV (Scottish Television) in the early 90's, in which she would take a camera crew up one of Scotland's famed "Munros" (hills which are over 3000 feet high, according to the original classification by Sir Hugh Munro, after whom they are named).

In the sort-of-but-not-quite-a-companion book, My First Fifty, she describes how they climbed one peak, lugging all sorts of camera equipment and other production gear, but for some weather-related reason, they were unable to complete filming. (I forgot whether the weather prevented them from reaching the summit, or merely prevented them from filming.) They dragged all the gear back down to the base of the hill, spent the night at a nearby hotel, and set off early the next morning to do it again. this time, they reached the summit and finished filming successfully - or so they thought.

Later, when editing the final version, they realized that the footage they had shot at the summit was unusable. With no time left in the budget, they were forced to charter a helicopter, fly herself and the camera crew to the summit so they could reshoot the scene. Naturally, there were a couple of hill-walkers already at the summit, so she went over to them, introduced herself, and explained what she was doing - only to receive the icy reply "Oh, so that's how you do it. Most of us just have to walk up."

She wrote that it was all she could do to refrain from grabbing them by their throats, one in each hand, and choking them while screaming "I CLIMBED THE BLOODY THING TWICE IN TWO DAYS, YOU MORONS" (or words to that effect - I quote from memory, and probably do not do it justice).

I've never seen Bear Grylls's show, but I believe some of the criticisms of it are well-founded. However, it may be worth remembering that even someone who is genuinely trying to make a show as realistically as possible may be forced to cheat a little in order to reshoot some scenes or come up with that little bit of extra footage.

I'm not saying this is what happened here, only that it might be.

Well now, I've been considering this: In each episode, the Bear seems to know every indigineous plant, herbicidal medicine, animal, and the history of the indigineous culture. It occurs to me that, not only does he know alot, he also studies up before going into the region. BUT, what seems even more glaringly obvious to me is that, in addition to a full camera crew, motel booking agents, emergency response team, medical staff, and more, he also has local natives with him to advise and council him on the aforementioned plants, animals, herbs, and culture.

While the story of the Munro Show is interesting, I really don;t see that in the Bear's ventures. I can;t fault him for finding a motel (we'd have a brewski together because that's where I'd probably be), but his show remains what it is... fruity entertainment. I've come to love it... those sentiments were cemented with his last episode in Scotland where he jumped into the bog. I just have to admire his innocent idiocy.

Now Les Stroud? He might've had to go back to the summit twice or more maybe.