Survival Shows on Discovery

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Bear Grylls or Les Stroud?

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a6m5

a6m5

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Who else likes these survival shows? Here are the three I have caught so far:​

Survivorman - Featuring Les Stroud, an survival expert. He attempts to survive in the wild for week, with very minimal supply. He not only attempts the survival, he is also responsible for the filming. No production crew, he is truly on his own.

Man vs. Wild - Bear Grylls is an extreme adventurer. He has British special forces training, and he is hardcore to say the least. While he does have camera man who films, and lug around his own gear, compared to "Survivorman", he tackles more extreme situations, and he'd eat anything. :yuck: :lol:

Alaska Experiment - From what I understand, the first season followed four groups from all over the U.S. dropped off, then attempt to settle down in four separate locations in the Alaska wild.

Second season, they switched instead to nine people being dropped off in middle of Alaska. They were given map, schedule, and were to advance from one location to next, until they have reached civilization. Surprisingly, this was the most entertaining survival show for me. I missed out on the first season, and as much as I want to see it, Netflix doesn't have it, and the whole season on DVD, from what I understand, cost hundreds. Yeah, I'm not doing that. :crazy:

I have yet to see the third season, which I believe is based in South America. When the show "Survivor" came out years ago, I thought it was going to be this type of show. Survivor is everything wrong with reality TV IMO. These survival shows on the other hand, very fascinating watch for city slicker like myself! 👍​



For fun, I have attached a poll. Les Stroud(Survivorman) vs. Bear Grylls(Man vs. Wild)! I decided to do this when I was googling for survival shows, this argument had come up. Bear-camp argues that Bear is the better survivalist. End of the argument. Les-camp will let you know that most viewers will die horrible death, attempting stunts in Bear's Man vs. Wild. Les' survival are noob-friendly, and he is also responsible for the filming, and gears associated with it.

Vote however you want to vote, on whatever merit you like. Here are some examples:


Survivorman


Man vs. Wild
 
I love how Les Stroud is all on his own and has no camera crew with him.
I'd vote Les Stroud but I just have so many laughs with Bear Grylls. I remember the episode where he stumbled upon a dead zebra, kneeled down and put his teeth in the last bit of raw meat that was left in the neck of the animal :lol:!
 
Awww, man. One of the reasons why I like Les, stuff he finds to eat, I also can(I think) in order to survive. Stuff Bear goes after, I don't know if I can. And as you've seen, sometimes, even he starts gagging after. :lol:

While I was looking for youtube on those two, I came across this:



Guy posted it in five separate parts. Les cooking steak on top of stacked fridge & microwave was a classic(part 4, I think). He also shows you how to distill water. 👍

How awesome is Discovery Channel? I'm of the opinion that cable TV's for suckers(I will pay, or watch commercials, but not both), but these guys put out some genuinely interesting shows. 👍
 
I keep seeing Survivorman show up on Netflix (very likely because of my ratings for Man vs. Wild :lol:) but so far haven't checked it out yet. I do have to admit that watching episodes of MvW back to back to back got a bit old - Bear gets stranded, Bear finds carrion, Bear eats the maggots off of the carrion (or live trout), Bear builds fire, Bear reaches civilization, rinse and repeat. :P
 
nk4e
Does Man vs Food count? wait..that is the Travel Channel.
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Get serious, nk, we are talkin' survival!
TB
I keep seeing Survivorman show up on Netflix (very likely because of my ratings for Man vs. Wild :lol:) but so far haven't checked it out yet. I do have to admit that watching episodes of MvW back to back to back got a bit old - Bear gets stranded, Bear finds carrion, Bear eats the maggots off of the carrion (or live trout), Bear builds fire, Bear reaches civilization, rinse and repeat. :P
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You should at least check him out. I watch them on Netflix, too(god bless them & PS3), and while both shows are about survival, they have completely different pacing. Needless to say, I enjoy Les' style more. But I also like that all his episodes have the same goal of him surviving on his own for seven days. In the three seasons he was on, I think there were couple of episodes where he didn't make it.

I'm down to just two episodes left, which sucks because unlike Man vs. Wild, Survivorman is no longer around. :guilty:
 
Les Stroud is amazing. He's in serious survival situations and doesn't have a crew to proactively protect him. I've seen him abandon a mission in one episode when he was in a raft floating in the middle of the ocean. I believe he was rescued by a crew waiting nearby because his situation really was impossible.
 
Keef
Les Stroud is amazing. He's in serious survival situations and doesn't have a crew to proactively protect him. I've seen him abandon a mission in one episode when he was in a raft floating in the middle of the ocean. I believe he was rescued by a crew waiting nearby because his situation really was impossible.
Click to expand...

I remember that episode.

Don't get me wrong on Bear, props to the man, and he puts him self through a lot of hardcore situations, but from my understanding of the uproar last year, he films it in segments and has the luxury of accommodation between segments and of course, of crew around him all the time.

Les is by far the more extreme. Getting dumped somewhere for what, 7 days, and being left to 'make it'. Plus he is carrying like 40lbs of camera gear and has to think about filming himself all the time. Les gets my vote 👍
 
I like Les the most. Haven't watched his show in a long while, though. Is he still making new episodes?

That Alaskan show was the best. I loved it.
 
Les Stroud all the way. I love his filming and narration style. Bear Grylls isn't bad, but the fact he has a film crew with him most of the time, and the fact he did a special with Will Farrell once, both cost him points in my book.
 
Mike Rotch
Les is by far the more extreme. Getting dumped somewhere for what, 7 days, and being left to 'make it'. Plus he is carrying like 40lbs of camera gear and has to think about filming himself all the time. Les gets my vote 👍
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Vote for Les! 👍
 
Well, I like the five straight votes for Les. :D:tup: And Mike Rotch, I haven't seen that name since around the time I joined here. :lol:

Solid: As far as I can tell, Survivorman ended in '08, but like the youtube I posted in the third post, looks like he's done some miscellaneous stuff here & there.
 
a6m5
Well, I like the five straight votes for Les. :D:tup: And Mike Rotch, I haven't seen that name since around the time I joined here. :lol:

Solid: As far as I can tell, Survivorman ended in '08, but like the youtube I posted in the third post, looks like he's done some miscellaneous stuff here & there.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I haven't seen it on TV for a while. Too bad, I liked it.

This looks promising... http://www.travelchannel.com/TV_Shows/The_Wild_Within

The Wild Within on Travel Channel. I'm going to give that a shot in January. It's more of a hunting show, than a survivor show which is right up my alley.
 
a6m5
Well, I like the five straight votes for Les. :D:tup: And Mike Rotch, I haven't seen that name since around the time I joined here. :lol:

Solid: As far as I can tell, Survivorman ended in '08, but like the youtube I posted in the third post, looks like he's done some miscellaneous stuff here & there.
Click to expand...

According to Wikipedia, Les stated that he didn't want to do any more shows because it was too hard to lug around all the camera equipment. He said setting up and taking down the camera's accounted for almost 65% of the time he was out at a location.
 
R1600Turbo
According to Wikipedia, Les stated that he didn't want to do any more shows because it was too hard to lug around all the camera equipment. He said setting up and taking down the camera's accounted for almost 65% of the time he was out at a location.
Click to expand...
Watching his shows, I always wonder how many takes he usually need to get the right shot, right angle, etc. I think he has four cameras with him. As a lazy bum, I can't begin to imagine the chore working & maintaining four cameras is. For me, it might be a bigger challenge than the survival itself. :crazy:
 
Bear Grylls all the way. His shows are not only very informative, but often very entertaining and funny too. He is just amazing, it's like he's not scared of anything, and he also doesn't just say "get a bug from under the rotting log, bite off its head, squeeze out the guts and eat it raw", he actually does it. Which is not always a good thing because I often watch it while eating dinner, but it does make him seem like a guy who's actually trying to teach you to survive as opposed to some actor.

I also found a video on Youtube about MvW, there's actually been a lot of controversy about this show though, don't know about you guys, but I'm not convinced.



Les-camp will let you know that most viewers will die horrible death, attempting stunts in Bear's Man vs. Wild. I lol'ed
 
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lukecfc
I also found a video on Youtube about MvW, there's actually been a lot of controversy about this show though, don't know about you guys, but I'm not convinced.

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I dunno man..... At Motel 6, you could get robbed, or die from food poisoning... I'm just sayin'.......
Daniel
I voted for Man vs. Wild. Why?
Here is the reason why.
It's really funny seeing Will Ferrell eating part of a reindeer carcase :lol:.
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"Rich in vetemins..." :lol: I'm gonna have to watch the whole thing later. :lol:👍
 
Les actually stays out in the wild... Bear just pretends. Apparently he just films and then sleeps at a hotel near the wilderness. Also, Les has no camera men to help him... so he is in a much more dangerous position.
 
I've seen the video where Bear's crew accidentally filmed a Highway nearby while he was jumping over a river of lava or something. But I don't care, because in the end he still jumped over a river of lava. Besides, a one time thing doesn't prove that he always does that, so unless someone has more evidence I don't really see a problem. Les does more work but IMO the fact that he has to film himself just makes it less interesting because he's limited to where he can go and what he can do. Bear goes places where it would be impossible to film himself, places where things change fast enough so he doesn't have time to set up a camera. Les has to worry about the cameras so he can't put himself in the same situations. They're both just as tough, but IMO Bears show is just more entertaining.
 
While I'm a Les fan(clearly :P), there is merit to both shows. Bear sometimes stage stuff, and as far as I'm aware, he openly admits it. It's not like he's trying to trick anyone, somethings he wants to show the viewers, it must be duplicated in order to feature it in the show.

Bear is more sensational, he does stunts, yada yada, but for me, Survivorman(and now apparently on 'Beyond Survival'?) is just perfect. Contents of the shows are practical, useful, and I have very little chance of dying trying to copy it. :D

Again, I think there are strength to both shows.

Edit: I was just checking out the poll.... 👍 It's interesting there is no vote for tie, or neither. I know there aren't that many votes, but I can't remember the last time I saw voting result like this.
 
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Comment says that he was in Portland, Oregon! Must be something Columbia Sportwear organized(they are based in Portland). Funny. I'm sorry I missed it.
 
I must say, that I'm on the BG side, but the reason is not that i'd prefer him before Les Stroud, but because I've actualy never heard of Les Stroud.:dunce: I think it's because Discovery channel never aired his show in my country. Why? I have no idea.
Well, to say something about BG: I think he's very strong personality, he achieved quite a lot of things and I must say that he's actually one of the very few people alive that I admire.
Probably next week I'm going to start reading his bok Facing The Frozen Ocean.
And about his show Ultimate Survival (Man vs. Wild): It's great show. Educational and entertaining (as he performs some of the crazy stunts) at the same time. And he's not pretendindg it to be for real as some people think, on the other hand I reckon that he doesn't sleep in a hotel either (night scenes from his shelters are shot by a hand camera).
That's about all I wanted to say, might add something about that book later. And please don't stone me to death for not knowing Les Stroud;)
 
JohnnyBravo
I must say, that I'm on the BG side, but the reason is not that i'd prefer him before Les Stroud, but because I've actualy never heard of Les Stroud.:dunce: I think it's because Discovery channel never aired his show in my country. Why? I have no idea.
Well, to say something about BG: I think he's very strong personality, he achieved quite a lot of things and I must say that he's actually one of the very few people alive that I admire.
Probably next week I'm going to start reading his bok Facing The Frozen Ocean.
And about his show Ultimate Survival (Man vs. Wild): It's great show. Educational and entertaining (as he performs some of the crazy stunts) at the same time. And he's not pretendindg it to be for real as some people think, on the other hand I reckon that he doesn't sleep in a hotel either (night scenes from his shelters are shot by a hand camera).
That's about all I wanted to say, might add something about that book later. And please don't stone me to death for not knowing Les Stroud;)
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I honestly think both shows are great. If you are interested in checking out Survivorman stuff, check them out on youtube. There are plenty of videos on there.
 

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