Animal Planet

[leoman777]

i dont watch AP anymore, but i used to watch it A LOT.. back with Steve Irwin and Jeff Corwin..but now it sucks :/

 

[BrilliantEraser]

I went on vacation for the first time in a few years, down to Myrtle Beach (spend my days watching the native reptiles and visiting some reptile sanctuaries -- I was in heaven!). I had one night in where I wasn't doing anything, so I flipped on Animal Planet. So sad to see how far down the drain that channel has gone. As a child, Steve Irwin was my IDOL.
The only show I could sit through recently was Reptile Kings (I believe that is what it was called); they were a group of field-herpers looking for the rare Tioman Pit Viper. That show was actually quite decent! They put plenty of wild herp species on the show, giving them all factual and unbiased coverage.
The next show on was Killer Aliens (Burmese Pythons for that episode), and I had to shut it off. The blatant fear-mongering was sickening.

 

[SK8INGGECKO]

the reptile kings show was by far the best reptile show i have seen on animal planet for a very long time. Now all that seems to be on about animal attacks, thats all they show anymore! The shows scare people away from reptiles and other animals that they show.

 

[M_surinamensis]

It is strange to see my thoughts about Irwin relative to many of the nature documentary television hosts who came before him... now being echoed about things that came after him.

Animal Planet has always been predominantly crap. Irwin was actually the worst of the bunch for shows they aired earlier on. Corwin was competent but aimed at children in a way that I did not appreciate. O'Shea was the only competent herpetologist and he got cancelled for doing all that boring stuff... like using hooks and not screaming at the top of his lungs.

If you want a good nature program, get ahold of Attenborough, Perkins and Fowler, Cousteau, National Geographic specials, Stouffer, Nova (and a ton of one-offs by individual PBS stations, WGBH had some classics) and the things aired on the Discovery Channel before they turned it into a channel composed of nothing but hour long specials on human deformities like some kind of modern circus sideshow.

Especially Attenborough though, he was not the first but he is undoubtedly the greatest.

 

[BrilliantEraser]

As usual, M, you're spot on. Yes, Irwin was my idol as a child (and I'm talking about six years old here), because he worked with big animals and it was hysterically funny to watch him yell and jump around. If he were still around today and I were watching his shows, I'd likely feel queasy and change the channel. Even that fact doesn't *quite* dim how glamorous I thought his life really was.

Moving on. I love Attenborough. I could just listen to him all day. Bugs me to no end that the show Life has to be re-dubbed by Oprah, in order to be released for sale in the US. Apparently Attenborough talks too much about "evolution"

 

[M_surinamensis]

Attenborough has long been my favorite guy for nature documentaries.

He calmly and intelligently explains some fairly complex biological concepts in a straightforward and accurate way but using language that is easy to understand. He always has something interesting to say about the physical adaptations, unique (or less common at any rate) behaviors of the animal or something interesting about how it interacts with its environment.

He rarely touches or directly interacts with *most* species, except those few where it can be done in a very low-stress, not particular invasive or forced kind of way...

... and the BBC camera crews he works with have photographic skills that rival the stuff produced by organizations like National Geographic- just amazing aesthetics, angles not seen anywhere else and levels of detail that are astounding.

It ends up not mattering what the animal in question actually is. His segments on deep sea species that have never before been caught on film are just as interesting and engaging as his segments about the mating habits of common crickets, the bizarre and unusual can segue right into something that I can find living under a rock in my back yard and I'll still sit there and watch every second of it. Blue whales or red back salamanders, indonesian tigers or garter snakes. It is always worth the time.

 

[acpart]

I don't have much time for TV anymore and I feel the same way about Animal Planet as most people who have posted. It used to be my late night or early morning folding the laundry channel and I really liked the SPCA shows where you could see how rescued animals were rehabilitated and adopted. Those shows are getting harder and harder to find on the network and I don't care enough to search for them and tape them.

There is going to be a segment about geckos as pets in October on one of the episodes of Cats/Dogs 101 (it will be called "small pets 101"). The company that filmed it is in my town and the supplemental footage for the gecko segment (I haven't seen the segment yet) was shot in my living room. I had a long talk with the guy who did the shooting (who is not an animal planet executive or employee) about "getting it right" and hopefully he will. At least the geckos in the supplemental footage won't be on sand.

Aliza

 

[SFgeckos]

Speaking from my experiences in the industry, remember that the majority of viewers who currently watch AP shows aren't necessarily watching the programs for the animal knowledge or educational purposes.

Often times, it's about THE CHARACTER OF THE HOST. If the human characters/host is interesting, creative and intriguing then the audience will continue to watch the show. The older generation of animal shows (which I miss greatly) were very educational/informative but they are quite different than today's "animal shows". Those animal shows were almost always animals on screen with a human voice talking. Today it is more about "television entertainment" and the audience needs to connect or be entertained by the human character on the show. Next time you watch a show on AP, try to count how long "just animals" are on the screen- it's not very long at all, because the human character is actually the co-star or often times the actual star of the show. It could possibly be compared to "reality shows"- examples include "Animal Cops", "I shouldn't be Alive", "Whale Wars" etc etc. The audience is relating to the humans on screen, not really the animals! Just something to think about...=)

Jon

 

[Keith N]

Animal Planet is the new Spike T.V.

 

[Fyrii]

I was wondering what the hell was wrong with AP lately- all these weird shows about deadly creatures blown out of proportion and what not?

I grew up LOVING that channel. Like, I was all into watching those "boring" documentaries about how a typical wolf or lion lives and Crocodile Hunter, definitely... but now I guess they need to be more exciting than MTV...which fell in the dumps after the 90's.

I'd just have to say that TV in general is dead. That's why I don't watch it anymore- only an hour on Thursday and Friday for my fav shows, I'm more of a computer person

 

[T-ReXx]

Perkins and Fowler, now that brings back memories! I grew up on those guys.