MYTHBUSTERS 11/9: "Location, Location, Location" (and PENN & TELLER)

So why am I bothering to start a thread for what was basically just a clip show? Because it actually did reveal some interesting new info about Mythbusters history. I think I'd heard the story about how M5 got its name, though I don't think I'd heard that Adam was responsible. And I didn't know about how they spun off M6 and then M7 as the junior Mythbusters' shop. I love it that the locations special included two locations, M6 and the town near that quarry, that the Mythbusters got kicked out of/banned from due to the disruptions they caused.

It's also nice to have confirmation of what I figured all along, that their two myths set in Africa, the shark myth and the elephant/mouse myth, were shot on the same trip despite being a number of episodes apart. But I didn't know the elephant myth was an impromptu backup plan when a hurricane disrupted the shark myth. It's cool that it got such a striking result.

And it's a shame that after 7 years, Jamie still hasn't found that handcrafted cannonball he lost at Alameda. I hope he stumbles across it sometime. Though I wonder if some obsessive fan already found it and took it home. (Though maybe it's not as easy as that to get into the naval yard.)

And I've heard those big crane thingies likened to Empire Strikes Back AT-ATs before, but is it true what Adam claimed, that the ones at Alameda were the direct inspiration for the AT-ATs?

It's interesting that they admitted that the setup of the "Presidential Challenge" episode -- the implication that it was President Obama's idea to test Archimedes' death ray a third time -- was bogus and that it was really the producers' idea to revisit. But it's nice to get a good explanation for why they went back to that well a third time: they wanted to do it full-scale as Archimedes proposed.


This time it's relevant to mention Penn and Teller Tell a Lie in the Mythbusters thread, because I not only identified the lie correctly for the second week in a row, I identified it because of Mythbusters. They busted the thing about tattoos in MRI machines years ago. And I guess the Discovery Channel audience remembered that, because something like 83% of the live voters pegged the tattoo-removal story as the lie with nothing else getting more than single digits, the most lopsided voting result ever for the show. (Plus I recognized that the alleged tattoo-removal device was just a defibrillator paddle, and I knew that "electromagnetic resonance paddle" was just technobabble. And they overplayed the "hurts like hell" claim. Now that I think about it, why would anyone go through that when we already have laser removal for tattoos?) Plus most of the other claims were stuff I'd actually heard of, like the echolocation and the "musical" road (and good grief, did they ever get the tune wrong, but I guess they were limited to the car's overtone series and had to approximate it), or stuff that just made physical sense, like the centrifugal force during a barrel roll or the effect of liquid nitrogen on metal. Plus the linen armor thing was like the paper armor myth that the Mythbusters confirmed not long ago. So the only thing here that was new to me was the snail thing, and that seemed more plausible than the tattoo thing. It's actually pretty interesting.

 

Re: MYTHBUSTERS 11/9: "Location, Location, Location" (and PENN & TELLE

What is the name of the town near the quarry? I ask because I have close connections to a town near that quarry and if it's the same one I will have to definitely check out this episode, instead of just possibly watching if I'm bored.

 

Re: MYTHBUSTERS 11/9: "Location, Location, Location" (and PENN & TELLE

Thanks for sharing nice info.

 

Re: MYTHBUSTERS 11/9: "Location, Location, Location" (and PENN & TELLE

The town was Esparto, Calif.

I watched(ing) the episode and it actually wasn't too bad. Again, I'm not normally a fan of these types of episodes though it did give some good info -though I'm sure we've been told the situation M6 had with their neighbors before. Didn't know about the problems they've had with quarries and such.

It was okay, but really I watch this show for the myths bit.

 

Re: MYTHBUSTERS 11/9: "Location, Location, Location" (and PENN & TELLE

I stopped watching during the airplane story because, for one thing, I knew it was true because airshow great Bob Hoover came up with that trick decades ago, and for another, Penn kept pissing me off every time he called a 1950s T-28 trainer a "Valuable World War Two Fighter."

Here's Hoover doing the gag in a twin-engined Aero Commander while flying 1-handed:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZBcapxGHjE
(Toward the end)

BTW, that should also work during a loop, as long as you keep positive G on.

 

Re: MYTHBUSTERS 11/9: "Location, Location, Location" (and PENN & TELLE

Yeah it was cool that this was as much a "behind the scenes" show as a clips show. I think I was most surprised to hear they actually use three shops. M7 looks so much like M5 that I just assumed it was the same place we've been seeing since the beginning.

Of course, as much as I love the show, I can only imagine how utterly annoying it would be to have them as neighbors, with all the really loud shit they're always doing. lol

I guess it's no surprise that the bomb range was their favorite location, but personally I would have chosen the Mojave desert. They don't use it very often, but it always looks spectacular when they do. Either that or the rocket sled place. The slo-mo shots they get there are easily my favorite of the show.

 

Re: MYTHBUSTERS 11/9: "Location, Location, Location" (and PENN & TELLE

Well, only two shops at a time. At first, they moved the "build team" out to M6, then the neighbors complained so they closed M6 and opened M7 to replace it.

Looks pretty different to me. M5 seems a bit more narrow, or maybe L-shaped, with that long corridor running through it with all the shelves and drawers alongside, where they tend to build their really long test rigs. M7 looks more square and open.

Also, it's very rare to see the two teams interacting anymore. Seeing all five of them in the same room for the intro here was kind of startling. Generally they seem to be completely autonomous, practically operating in separate worlds. So that's a pretty big clue that they're not working out of the same building.

I thought Alameda would be the favorite. It's my favorite MB location, at least. (And hey, it's where they kept the nuclear wessels! Though not anymore.)

 

Re: MYTHBUSTERS 11/9: "Location, Location, Location" (and PENN & TELLE

Ok, I guess the way they edited it just threw me off for a second. So M6 and M7 were the big wide open buildings, and M5 is still the same narrow space we've always seen.

The other cool thing was seeing that shot of Kari in the first episode. I knew she'd been in the shop for awhile, but I didn't know it was literally from the very beginning.

 

Re: MYTHBUSTERS 11/9: "Location, Location, Location" (and PENN & TELLE

I wonder if my wife is getting tired of me saying "Al-a-mee-da" in my Chekov voice every time the show goes there.

 

Re: MYTHBUSTERS 11/9: "Location, Location, Location" (and PENN & TELLE

Oh, yeah. It's kind of an infamous story that her first job for Mythbusters was being the model for the foam-rubber rear end in the myth about airplane toilet seat suction in the pilot episode (although they added a ton of material to it to simulate a fat person's backside). Do a Google image search for "Kari Byron" and the very first image you get is a shot from that episode with Kari in a flesh-colored leotard, posing for the process.

 

Re: MYTHBUSTERS 11/9: "Location, Location, Location" (and PENN & TELLE

You also get "Kari Byron feet" as a recommended search string.

 

Re: MYTHBUSTERS 11/9: "Location, Location, Location" (and PENN & TELLE

I hadn't heard the backstory of the M5 name before, so that was interesting...and disappointing. I always thought it was a Trek reference. Oh well.

Does anyone know how many new episodes we have left this year? It looks like next week is a rerun, but there might be a new one on 11/23.

 

Re: MYTHBUSTERS 11/9: "Location, Location, Location" (and PENN & TELLE

Same here. I prefer the old music.

 

Re: MYTHBUSTERS 11/9: "Location, Location, Location" (and PENN & TELLE

I've gotten somewhat used to it, but the original was still much better.

 

Re: MYTHBUSTERS 11/9: "Location, Location, Location" (and PENN & TELLE

I don't notice the music.

 

Re: MYTHBUSTERS 11/9: "Location, Location, Location" (and PENN & TELLE

I hate the new theme.

 

Re: MYTHBUSTERS 11/9: "Location, Location, Location" (and PENN & TELLE

Two weeks now with repackaged "clip shows."

Come on, Mythbusters! Did you not just say you've got a near limitless number of things you could be testing? Why two damn clip shows/repacks in a row? If this was next week I might let you slide by damn!

 

Re: MYTHBUSTERS 11/9: "Location, Location, Location" (and PENN & TELLE

Presumably the same reason any series does clip shows: to save money. What they hypothetically could test is one thing, what they can afford to test within a given season's budget is another.

And one extra benefit here is that Mythbusters clip shows tend to contain some bits of new material, stuff that was presumably cut out for the US broadcasts or maybe even some behind-the-scenes stuff that was never aired before.

 

Re: MYTHBUSTERS 11/9: "Location, Location, Location" (and PENN & TELLE

What if they've been working on bigger myths this season that take more time to take care of, so the clip shows are a way of filling in the extra time? Personally, I've enjoyed the clip shows. They've given some real interesting information in both of them that I didn't know previously.