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I thought there used to be a thread about this show, but I can't find it. Anyway, I always knew something was funny with the show Look at this:

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1771093

nice! here's more parody on Bear the survival dude by a guy I know... watch all 4!
https://youtube.com/watch?v=z4zTA13W1vU

Another article:
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Entertainment ... id=3412744

Those videos are hilarious!

I've always thought that Man v Wild was cheesy.

I think Survivorman is pretty cool though. He can't actually make it totally "real" because the mental/emotional stress of being stranded somewhere can't be duplicated when you know that somebody will be looking for you on day 7 and you have a satellite phone for emergencies ... BUT at least Les actually spends 7 days somewhere without a cameraman, crew, or any other assistance. (and no motels!)

I don't think any less of Bear if spends a night in a motel now and then. I'm mostly interested in what survival skills he teaches.
Survivor Man is still my most favorite, though. Les is the man!

Preston, I agree about Bear. It's fun to watch and learn from a former SAS guy. He does have a lot of good info to offer.

But sometimes I can't help but laugh at the setup.

Did you see the episode where he miraculously was near natural hot springs to to ward off hypothermia? Please. That's not a survival skill, it's made-for-tv!

I much prefer Man vs. Wild over survivorman. It would make no sense in a survival situation to carry ALL that camera gear, set things up twice just it can get the shot of you going thru an area. I swear he just sets up a basecamp and just sits there for a week. Bear actually covers miles and I think actually teaches more survival skills. Plus I do find him more entertaining, gotta love that accent too.

I feel the exact opposite. Bear and Les do all the same things, the difference is Bear stays at hotels while he does it and Les carries 80 pounds of camera equipment. Les may be wasting a bunch of time setting up shots, but at least he's honestly demonstrating survival skills. Man vs Wild is really more like a one-man outdoors Fear Factor. I watch them both and really like all the stuff they do, but I think that I learn more from watching Les, he actually shows you how to do stuff, rather than showing you what it looks like to bite into a raw, live fish... Les may stay in a base camp, but my guess is that most survival situations go down something like that rather than racing through terrain (and besides staying at a base camp is still cooler than staying at a motel 6).

I've watched a few episodes of both, and haven't found either one to be especially interesting. Both seem cheesy in their own right. I guess that's something you can't avoid, though, if you're trying to show off "aloneness" in the wild. However, I don't feel that either of them are really worth my time.

Here's my .02.

Survivor Man is boring and static, while Man vs. Wild is fast paced and entertaining....just like TV is supposed to be. They both teach essentially the same skills, although Survivor Man is probably more practical. Maybe Bear is staying in a hotel...who cares. All that proves is that he is smarter. One thing for sure; there is nothing fake about Bear when he is downclimbing 50 ft waterfalls and trees. But that is just entertainment. I'm sure that downclimbing anything short of a 3 ft ladder will get most people killed, not keep them alive.

If you really want to learn survival skills, get a good survival book, and get off the couch and go practice. Neither Bear nor Les will do you much good if you're getting fat in front of the tube.

Hoffmaster wrote:
If you really want to learn survival skills, get a good survival book, and get off the couch and go practice.

..or you could sign-up for one of te-wa's overnighter's to accomplish the same..

Just kidding with you Mike, glad you made it home safely !
Hank

OK-

So I just have to add to this thread by mentioning that the most recent Survivorman episode in which he spends a week in Labrador with a pack of sled dogs was terrible. Not that I would personally enjoy such a week or have an easy time surviving it, BUT to see Les pack up a survival kit, thermal blanket, a friggen rifle and ammo for goodness sake! ... axe, saw, flint, etc. and then proceed to spend four nights in an insulated building ("emergency shelter") constructed by the Canadian government before proceeding to be rescued by helicopter because the snow got slushy... I was unimpressed.

He did make some snowshoes out of pine branches ... but with the rope, axe, and saw from his survival kit, even that wasn't a real stretch of genius.

I hope Les isn't going the way of "bear"...

I watched what I believe was the first episode of Survivorman recently. He was in the "Sonoran Desert", and I think he was right outside Phoenix somewhere. It was kinda funny to watch...

That first episode of Survivorman in the Sonoran Desert actually listed the GPS Coordinates briefly on screen at the beginning. Since I don't have Tivo I was never able to go back and determine his exact location. However I'm pretty sure he was in an area within 20 miles of Young. If anybody got those coordinates, I'd be interested to know exactly where...

The best part of that episode was Les expressing fear of ferocious packs of javelina. That's not an animal I've ever thought would be a great danger to me...

Did anyone catch the new Man vs. Wild: Africa on Friday night? That grub or whatever that exploded in Bear's mouth:

Preston Sands wrote:Did anyone catch the new Man vs. Wild: Africa on Friday night? That grub or whatever that exploded in Bear's mouth:

Yea, that was pure savagery!!!

Wasn't it slow cooked caterpillar or something like that.

The coordinates Les gives are N34'00", W111'02", which places it in the Tonto National Forest, just north of the Salome Wilderness. To be more precise, take 288 north from Roosevelt, turn left on Forest Road 216. After about 4.3 miles, you'll come to Dinner Creek, follow the trail south about 0.7 miles to Jerky Butte.

in a recent interview Bear states (regarding that caterpillar) "In Africa I ate a huge, pulsating grub that was a bit dodgy. I was climbing a waterfall with diarrhea, hanging by one hand and using the other to pull my trousers down. I'm on camera begging, "Give me some space!"
now thats good t.v. Too bad (Im sure) that particular scene was cut from the viewing audience. I probably aired full steam ahead over in Europe.

Yea I wish they would have left that in, it would have been hilarious!!