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Do you remember the first time you realized that there was no Santa Clause or that your mom was the tooth fairy or that Jesus was probably just a regular dude?
That hollowed out feeling that made you want to curl up into a ball and eat a pint of ice cream and just make the world go away for a while? Do you! Well, if you don’t want to feel that again just stop reading now.
It’s no secret to anyone who knows me that I’m a little gay for Bear Grylls, the survivalist star of Man vs. Wild. Of course, every time I watch the show with someone new they always ask, “don’t you think this is a little set up?” After I’m finished smacking them repeatedly through my tears I calmly explain to them that it’s all very real and that Bear is a complete badass, and furthermore he wouldn’t do that to me.
Well, apparently he has done that to me. It seems that when things get “too dangerous” out there Bear pops into a motel or a resort spa to wait until things calm down a little. God, I can’t believe I bought in to all of his bullshit lies. I feel like such an idiot. Why are men such assholes?
Some of the allegations, according to Mark Weinert, an Oregon-based survival consultant for the show are:
- while filming in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains Grylls actually spent some nights with the show’s crew in a lodge called The Pines Resort at Bass Lake, outfitted with television, stone fireplaces, hot tubs and Internet access.
- the episode where Grylls was supposed to be surviving on a desert island, he was actually in Hawaii and spent nights at a motel
- The same episode had Grylls building a Polynesian-style raft using only materials around him, including bamboo, hibiscus twine and palm leaves for a sail. Weinert said he actually led a team of builders to construct the raft. It was then taken apart so that Grylls could be shown building it on camera.
- “I’m in luck,” Grylls told viewers in yet another episode, apparently coming across four wild horses grazing in a meadow. “A chance to use an old Native American mode of transport comes my way. This is one of the few places in the whole of the U.S. where horses still roam wild.” In fact, Weinert said, the horses were not wild but were brought in by trailer.
“Discovery Communications has learned that isolated elements of the ‘Man vs. Wild’ show in some episodes were not natural to the environment, and that for health and safety concerns the crew and host received some survival assistance while in the field,” a spokeswoman for the network said.
“Moving forward the program will be 100 percent transparent and all elements of the filming will be explained up-front to our viewers. In addition, shows that are to be repeated will be edited appropriately.”
I hate you Mark Weinert, you and your stupid survivalist stink face. Seriously, that was really one of my favorite shows on television, now I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to watch it with the same childlike awe and fascination as before. Say it ain’t so Bear.
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13 Comments
1. Sean Martin
2. James
3. charlie
4. James
5. Sean Martin
6. James
7. Sean Martin
8. Sean Martin
9. James
10. Sean Martin
11. Melynda
12. Suraya Walker
13. Josh Caldwell
Want a neat little picture by your comments? Get one here.I’d always suspected there were many things going on that we don’t see on camera. I’m sure he has a hardy camera person following him, but there have been times when they seemed very fortuitously placed.
In an episode I saw recently where he survived a frozen tundra, he abruptly sat down and started sliding down a lengthy ice tunnel. His camera person followed without hesitation clearly, IMHO, aware that Bear would “spontaneously” do this.
He dug himself a nice ice hole to spend the night in, in the middle of a flat plain. That next morning his hole had been covered over and there was no sign of exactly where he was in teh featureless plain, yet teh camera was perfectly placed to get a close up of his hand busting up thru the snow.
Still, if trapped in the wild I certainly wouldn’t kcik him out of the makeshift tent!
Posted Wednesday, July 25, 2007 at 12:37 pm | Permalink
Yeah, I mean obviously the guy knows his shit. I think if they revamp the show a little and have more transparency and show what role the cameramen actually play.
I personally think that would make the show even more interesting to show exactly how they do it.
Posted Wednesday, July 25, 2007 at 1:24 pm | Permalink
i always figured at least some of the stuff was staged or faked. he’s got at least three-four people following him around out there. its still a pretty good show and he still does do some pretty insane shit.
if you want the real deal though, check out survivorman. no crew. nothing fake. just one weird canadian and his wits.
Posted Wednesday, July 25, 2007 at 3:43 pm | Permalink
I tried to watch survivorman but never really got into it. I’ll probably still watch Man vs. Wild more than likely.
Even with survivorman, one of the few episodes I saw he had his crew on a boat come and pick him up because the weather was getting too dangerous.
Posted Wednesday, July 25, 2007 at 5:00 pm | Permalink
Flipping channels last night I noticed Survivorman was about to start. Never seen it before.
I did like how he was very clear that he was leaving his camera crew behind and continuing truly solo. He camped in place for a few days and then started to walk in the direction that he knew a road (eventually) was.
During that walking part there were several places where he was shown walking away from the camera crossing a difficult stream, etc.
So either he’s abandoning a lot of camera equipment as he goes, or (unseen by us) he really makes things harder for himself because he’s constantly doubling back and having to re-do things.
Posted Thursday, July 26, 2007 at 12:25 pm | Permalink
You know there’s only one way to settle this right?
Survivorman and Bear Grylls in a gladiator-like arena and a fight to the death!
Posted Thursday, July 26, 2007 at 2:04 pm | Permalink
Save overhead. Have it done in that same arena where Hilton/Lohan/Spears are facing the lions.
Posted Thursday, July 26, 2007 at 3:30 pm | Permalink
Better still, skip the area and just have HiLoSp dropped off where Bear or Survivorman usually are.
Now that would be good TV.
(No eventual rescue, of course.)
Posted Thursday, July 26, 2007 at 3:58 pm | Permalink
Have HiLoSp dropped off in the middle of the Andes with Bear Grylls and Survivorman hunting them for sport.
I’d definitely watch that.
Posted Thursday, July 26, 2007 at 9:39 pm | Permalink
Y’know, that truly sounds like a “high concept” pitch one could really make in Hollywood.
“Sort of a Blair Witch meets Chained Heat meets Logan’s Run kinda thing.”
Posted Friday, July 27, 2007 at 12:26 pm | Permalink
Yeah, but he still drank elephant poop juice… that’s got to count for something! He’s still bad azz in my book!
Posted Wednesday, August 1, 2007 at 2:50 pm | Permalink
To hell with what all you people think. Your’e all making up rumors just to put someone out of business. Bear Gryll is NOT a fraud and he is NOT a fake. I may be only 13 but I know things, and im not stupid. Stop putting up posts about Bear Grylls up just because your not famous or because you just okan dont like him. To all the poepl that are Bears’s TRUE fans, if they are TRUE fans they won’t just stop watching his T.V show just because some IGNORENT, SELF-ABSORBED, JELOUSE adults make up rumors. To tell everyone the truth…I think YOU adults, need to grow up and do something better with all of your lives. Stop being inconsiderate. Stop tryin to nock people off their pedistols. Grow up and get a life. Cause not all things are true that you hear on the internet! Im a true fan, I will ALWAYS stick up for this man called, Bear Grylls. And I WILL watch his show because it is NOT fake.
Sincerly,
Suraya Venice Walker
Posted Friday, August 10, 2007 at 5:52 pm | Permalink
The writer of this article needs to calm down. Yes, it is like discovering Santa’s not real…but, that didn’t ruin Christmas for me. (And I’m Agnostic!) Of course I would like everything to be transparent, and I don’t like being misled. But those are 4 examples of ‘trickery’ among, what…30 episodes or so? Most of the things he does (not talking about feces drinking, by the way) can’t be done with camera magic. The reaction is so strong and vitriolic because we love him so much. And we still should.
White beard and huge beer belly or not, he’s still the man!
Posted Friday, August 10, 2007 at 7:57 pm | Permalink
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