Metalworking on TV

SteveB wrote in article ...

Springer and his ilk are proof to the following rule.

People of HIGH intelligence discuss ideas.....

People of AVERAGE intelligence discuss things....

People of LOW intelligence discuss other people....

Interesting thread. Thanks for bringing it up, Ed, as it is apparent from all the other posts that you are not alone in the distaste of that aspect of these shows. Having been exposed to this kind of crap in the workplace, I know all too well that it occurs. It might "interesting" to see it once in a great while, but every episode??? I now think that producers "goose it" for their shows because they think it makes for "good" TV. Like someone posted, good TV for the low intelligence crowd.

Here's another element of this phenomenon: how does it make you feel as a potential customer? Case in point, I just watched "Wing Nuts" for the first time last night. Although I'm not likely to be a customer of these guys (Moto Art) or the Teutels or Boyd, et al, I was turned off by seeing all the dysfunction on Wing Nuts. I didn't find it inspiring me to spend any greenbacks with them.

Maybe the owners feel that the free publicity for their business is worth it in the long run. But if I owned one of these shops, I sure as hell wouldn't want my potential customer base seeing that kind of ugliness and incompetence going on in my operation.

Will

"SNIP

us who don't enjoy TV commercials, maybe we could get them to design a crap filter so we could enjoy these programs.

Here's another question for the group. The woodworkers among us have shows that are strictly hands on and really pretty informative as far as the craft. My question is "Why hasn't someone done a real metalworking show ??" I know HGTV had a series called Modern Masters that touched metal, but it was pretty minimal. It seems to me that a MW show would have almost unlimited subjects. Any thoughts ??

Ed Angell

That's good. I did something so like (not similar) that today and the guy didn't get it. He was just laughing about it ! Ahhh , what did I say? "Is that what below 100 IQ is like?"

Hell , send me a $15,000 + camera and I'll find some stuff everyone would love on this group. Getting the footage on TV ???... I've considered this . It always comes down to $.

A acquaintance showed up on the job today and I could not stop laughing. Unreal funny about the Bruha in spanish and down right blow away those silly shows if that was filmed.

I've met alot of people and its scary how they act. Beyond me how they accumulated that much money some times.

I've thought about keeping a diary and I don't think I could keep up. Hmmm maybe on tape , hmmm they even miss the good adversity on those shows.

It is also beyond me (and just had it happen) why a customer will try hard to piss you off before your about to do the most important part of there backyard. Major complicated job and screw with me? LOL

LOL

"Sunworshipper" wrote

Save your money and go to

Some absolutely funny stuff.

Steve

On Wed, 06 Oct 2004 15:49:38 GMT, "SteveF" calmly ranted:

You just described the perfect 1-hour football game and the 7-minute nightly news report--sans commercials.

Thank Buddha for VCRs (and TIVOs.)

--- - Friends don't let friends use FrontPage -

I still have the episode on Tivo so I stepped through the scene several times.

No markings on the bike, no radio antenna on the bike, officer dressed sloppy and didn't carry himself like a motorcycle cop. Background police radio chatter clearly dubbed in. Scene shot with multiple cutways, something a real cop wouldn't stand around for.

Yeah, I think it was faked. F*ck.

After 'scaring' the guy with termination, Boyd

Agreed.

I was also wondering about why he got stopped but not the Discovery chase crew... the cop would've been behind, and the chase car was behind, they would've been the easier target, no? And somehow I doubt a cop would buy the story that "oh, we're a TV show, just following that guy >>>> he's the real one you want busted!"..

Better e-mail the producers and see what the idea was. I'm suspecting they staged it and the guy happened to buy it.(!)

Tim

-- "I've got more trophies than Wayne Gretsky and the Pope combined!" - Homer Simpson Website @

- Find the market. RCM is large, but not large enough... and only so many have TVs....etc....

I'll be damned if it stays on the air for more than the pilot episodes, but it'd be damned cool if it stuck around!

Tim

-- "I've got more trophies than Wayne Gretsky and the Pope combined!" - Homer Simpson Website @

I suspect there would be a fairly large market for it. After all, we who participate in this activity get to play with metal and fire...and how cool is THAT!!!? (actually still the thought I get when I finish whacking together something with the welder and realize I have produced a number of really nice looking beads). In any case, audience is less important now, with the essentially infinite capacity of cable and/or digital TV. There is a great series called "hand made music" on DIY where a luthier walks through a LOT of the steps needed to build an instrument, starting with the rough stock and ending up with a great sounding guitar/mandolin/etc. It is not exhaustive, but, it goes through a vast majority of the process... I, for one, thought that while Modern Masters had the right idea, they really needed to expand out and go to half an hour or an hour for many of the subjects. After all, some of the art being done in metal and glass is fascinating to watch through the process. Regards Dave Mundt

Yeah, I have no use for those "conflict with a bit of shop work thrown in" shows. There are a few mechanical shows that aren't too bad, though. I enjoy "Trucks!" and "Horsepower TV".

Trucks! has been particularly good recently, with a *lot* of fabrication work on some *really* clapped out old trucks (a wrecked and rotted 66 Bronco for example). Stacy gave a surprisingly good tutorial on TIG welding body panels in a recent show. He comes off as someone you'd really like to work with too.

Since I'm in the middle of redoing a 78 F350 work truck, some of the tips shown on the show were just what I needed to know to do some of the restoration body work.

Gary

Anyone remember the old series, "Industry on Parade"?

Every week it toured a factory as it showed how things were made.

Fascinating to a kid like me. Which I suspect got me started in Making Things.

Gunner

Liberals - Cosmopolitan critics, men who are the friends of every country save their own. Benjamin Disraeli

Also works great for stock car races. I'm amazed those cars stay on the track in Fast Forward! Although if I can't catch any of the race on Sunday I just catch up on "Inside Nextel Cup".

Steve.

I'd venture it's because there are huge numbers of people with table saws and far less people with milling machines. People watch Norm Abrams and then go try to build something similar. Someone can get started in wood working for $100 in hand tools. Then there is the issue of the relative precision required which means that Norm can show a mortise and tenon joint quickly (again!) where a lesson on threading a shaft would take much longer (and probably be boring to most folks).

Steve.

That was a great show!

How about the old Watch Mr. Wizard shows too? Don Herbert (?) used to do a lot of hands-on with the kids on the show. Told kids to have a parent or other adult handy if they wanted to try something and demonstrated safety equipment, but no DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME!!!! - Licensed Professionals Only - crap.

It'd probably be illegal now -- after it was investigated by the Dept. of Homeland Security.

I worked with Mr Wizard (and it is Don Herbert) a couple of times (hosted at a science museum). Loved the show as a kid but I've never seen such a good example of the kind of sexism that keeps girls out of science/math as the Wiz in real life. It was almost comical to watch as he would tell girls that they were wrong and tell the young guys that they were right when giving essentially the same answer. Knocked his image down several knotches in my eyes.

Gunner mentioned "industry on parade" and the shows of factory production. I LOVED that kind of thing as a kid and I believe I learned more real production from those than anything else. Even Mr Rogers used to do segments on production. This old house and others still do a little of this but it has seemed to be more superficial than in the past. To add to the wish list of shows, I'd love to see one on real production of items. It would be especially great to see common items that have the "I wonder how they do that?" flair.

Just to add a question to the mix.....What would you like to see the nuts and bolts of how they are produced?

Koz

As a father of an 18 year old daughter who is intensely interested in science, I'm very disappointed in that.

Was "Industry On Parade" the same as the Atlantic Richfield show?

A little off-topic, but another favorite of mine was "You Asked For It"