MythBusters – a sci-fi advantage
Posted on March 11, 2009
Filed Under East meets West, NEWS | Leave a Comment
MythBusters is a popular science television program produced by Australian firm Beyond Television Productions originally for the Discovery Channel in the United States and Canada. The series has since been picked up by a number of international broadcasters, including SBS in Australia, and BBC2 in the UK. The series stars special effects experts Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, as well as their mottley crew of Mythbuilders, Mythterns, and resident ‘crash test dummy’ Buster who use basic elements of the scientific method to test the validity of various rumors, urban legends, myths, movie scenes and news stories in popular culture. It goes like whether a Medieval Chinese astrologer make it into space by strapping rockets to his chair and setting them off? Just how hard IS it to find a needle in a haystack? Can you in fact go insane by having water drip on your forehead? These are just a few of the myths, urban legends, and improbable sayings that the Mythbusters try to figure out.
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Filming for MythBusters is based in San Francisco, California, United States though some elements of production are done in Artarmon, Australia. Planning and some experimentation usually takes place at the cast’s workshops; experiments that require more space or special accommodations are filmed on location, typically around the Bay Area of San Francisco. During the second season, several members of Savage and Hyneman’s team (“The Build Team”) were split off into a second team of MythBusters, and now typically test separate myths from the main duo. Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman are the original MythBusters, and initially explored all the myths on the show using their common background in special effects. The two work at Hyneman’s effects workshop, M5 Industries; they make use of his staff, though they often work off-screen, with Hyneman and Savage usually shown doing most of the work at the shop. One of the show’s gimmicks is the interaction between Savage and Hyneman, which is similar to a double act, wherein Hyneman plays the straight man and Savage is the comic relief. The show is narrated by Robert Lee, though in some regions his voice is replaced by a local narrator.
Mythbusters takes myths, tall tales and urban legends and gives them the scientific treatment to determine their validity. Myths are proved true, probable, possible, improbable or busted. Often after the real-world practical tests have proved or debunked a Myth, the team will take the experiment to the extreme, many times using more modern technology than the myth could have used or upping the black powder for impressive explosions. Truly a world class experience, I guess.
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