"I, Caveman" on Discovery channel

HornyToad said:
I saw it up to when they killed the elk. After the "hunter" got teary eyed about killing an animal to survive I went back to Sunday Night Football.
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I watched maybe 10 minutes of it, and didn't see the elk. I watched the game, too. But a "hunter" getting teary eyed over killing an animal to eat is new to me. I hunt, and I am excited and have adrenaline pumping when I get something, even see something.
 
Saw about 3/4 of it last night, it seemed like an episode of Gilligans Island gone horribly wrong. Where did they get the participants, in the parking lot of a local Ikea? None had any clue about basic survival stuff, let alone hunting skills, and certainly would have starved to death in the real world. They seemed to think that they could just walk up into the elk herd, stick one with a spear and sit down to a nice lunch. And who picked the participants? A vegetarian caveman? Really? You would think that the cast would at least have some interest in and/or knowledge of the subject of the show. Seems to me it could have been better if it were more of a 10 day demonstration/practical test of how early man lived, with some knowledgeable people in front of the camera.
 
Arathol said:
Saw about 3/4 of it last night, it seemed like an episode of Gilligans Island gone horribly wrong. Where did they get the participants, in the parking lot of a local Ikea? None had any clue about basic survival stuff, let alone hunting skills, and certainly would have starved to death in the real world. They seemed to think that they could just walk up into the elk herd, stick one with a spear and sit down to a nice lunch. And who picked the participants? A vegetarian caveman? Really? You would think that the cast would at least have some interest in and/or knowledge of the subject of the show. Seems to me it could have been better if it were more of a 10 day demonstration/practical test of how early man lived, with some knowledgeable people in front of the camera.
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Keep in mind, I'm pretty sure Morgan Spurlock (who I think was a vegetarian before Supersize Me, btw) seems to focus more on "people are stupid, look what happens in this completely unrealistic hypothetical situation" rather than "this is interesting, let's see if it would work".
 
foxx said:
I could tell by the previews that these "normal" people would fail. It's a bad experiment. "Caveman" or any other hunter gathers had inherited cultural knowledge about how to survive in their environment. A modern city dweller will not know the detailed knowledge of how to survive much less thrive.
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I need to see this show. Your impression is approx. my impression, too. Any hunter who has watched hunting shows on TV w/ Non Hunters present immediately sees this. I was quite surprised the first time I noticed this, from listening to their well meaning, but confused and profoundly ignorant comments. I almost quit watching the cooperative big game hunt and started watching the N. H.'s sitting next to me, instead. They have no idea what's going on, and further, no idea what is the appropriate course of action to take in a developing situation.


Heck, even most modern hunters would prolly starve for the whole 10 days in a Caveman Show deal. Remember the starving Marines in that Fall(?) snowbound survival school on cable TV. I don't think they got any wild game for themselves. The closest anyone around here ever seems to come are our Hawaiin posters who primitively hunt with pig dogs and bowie knives. They might do just as well with fire hardened bamboo spears, lacking iron.


Next, we need a show where Everyday Joe has to fit into some primitive Indian Tribe situation (somewhere out West or in Canada, maybe?), and function in a pre iron age subsistence hunter/gather culture.
 
One "anomaly I came across: there was elk grazing nearby in the background while they were butchering the carcass. I read somewhere that a fence was visible, so the herd of elk they were hunting was penned in. On the credits, they included some sort of ranch.
 
looks like there might be just one dude that actually has some primitive survival skills. i have a friend that had tried out for this show and he was in the running and was in the last group of people that discovery was still deciding on who to pick. countless phone interviews and finally a personal interview with discovery which they paid for his plane ticket to fly to LA from Bangkok, Thailand. And my friend has probably over 30 years of survival/bushcraft/primitive skills. He finally got the hint that discovery was actually looking for your typical reality show person. from seeing the show for the first time it looks like he was probably right! at least he got a free plane ticket back to the states.
 
Ultraman said:
One "anomaly I came across: there was elk grazing nearby in the background while they were butchering the carcass. I read somewhere that a fence was visible, so the herd of elk they were hunting was penned in. On the credits, they included some sort of ranch.
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I finally got around to watching this series and this part cheesed me more than I thought it would.
It was obviously a canned ranch hunt (the biggest clue being atlatl's aren't legal to take wild elk with for one). Go on Discovery, keep perpetuating the falsehood that anyone can wander around the woods long enough and come home with a bbq feast.

It's worth watching once, if you have something else to do and need some background noise.
 
How many parts in this series? I'm trying to dvr it, but only can record past episodes. So far I have two episodes.
 
I think you guys missed the point about the show. Its not a show about how to survive or live off the land. Its a show about how a modern human would react and deal with if he had to live like a cave man. There is nothing more to it. The part i like is more then half the group would just lay there doing NOTHING, But complain about everything. I cant remember the name of the guy but he does those shows all the time by putting one person in someone elses shoes.. Now the shoes were the cave man skins. All i could think about was i would have walked away from that group and set up my own camp. There is no freaking way im feeding them anything what so ever. If you just lay around doing nothing might as well starve to death.

Sasha
 
Yep Sashaa. I finally saw an hour of the show, and was astonished by the presence of lay-about whiners and non hackers. I guess it's hard to motivate yourself to go and do when you are cold and hungry.

Another major surprise is that they actually got an elk with atl-atls. The possibility that it was all conducted on somebody's fenced ranch is of no consequence to me. There's NO WAY that FishAndGame would have permitted that method of take on public land anyways, so that's a non-starter right off the bat. It was a case of private ranch hunt, or nothing.

Further, it wasn't a "Sport Hunt." It was a "we haven't eaten in almost 10 days Subsistence Hunt." Has anyone here ever starved in the countryside for a week or 10 days? It'll change your perspective, big time. I have. But I was too sick to eat (or walk out) on a solo backpacking trip, so maybe that one doesn't count?

Cost me 10lbs of body weight.
 
G'day TF

Talfuchre said:
....I get so tired of watching idiots not know how to do the simplest stuff be accepted on these shows.

They have a massive water area - no one is fishing or trying to make water traps. They set up a few traps - and then sit around. You should have HUNDREDS of traps after sitting for hours.

They have no skill in knowing even the basics - down wind hunting, stalking, the simple stuff.... and then to watch them cry and quit just makes me want to cut the power to American for a month and weed out the stupid. TF
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Bolded emphasis added by myself.

Goes some way to explain why I won't have pay TV in my house. :D

To be honest, I'm at a loss to understand how watching these types of shows have taken the place of getting off one's ass and getting outdoors. :thumbup:

Might go some ways to explain why I haven't posted on most internet forums for a long time.



Kind regards
Mick :D
 
G'day Temujin68

temujin68 said:
...... And my friend has probably over 30 years of survival/bushcraft/primitive skills. He finally got the hint that discovery was actually looking for your typical reality show person. From seeing the show for the first time it looks like he was probably right!......
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.

IMO you should be a carpenter 'cause you have just hit the nail on the head.

One only has to look at the internet popularity of the "starving man" i.e. Les Stroud, as being the "real deal'. :yawn:

Why? Because he has struck a cord with all those who don't know how to survive in the wild.

Why?, because he has made them feel better about themselves because he has "struggled". :thumbdn:

IMO, if you want a presentation that is delivered by electronic media to be popular, you need to cater to the majority, that have repeatedly shown they really know nothing about the outdoors, yet don't like this fact pointed out to them.

That way you won't isolatate your potential audience by suggesting they are ignorant. :D

Thus the "format" of survival man: dual survival: man, woman, wild and now this new one.

IMO, people would be better getting out and doing rather than just watching. :thumbdn:



Kind regards
Mick :D
 
i watched most of it. the conclusion at the end by the "scientist" or "experts" was what got me going. I don't remember the exact words but they seemed to think it was a success. it seems 10 people from modern time (now) could be dropped into paleo times and do well. possibly even thrive. WOW, its just that easy.
nothing to it, its as easy as having someone tan the hides and give you a nice area to camp in that has fenced in elk and plenty of water and sunshine. oh ya, it all takes place in the spring. perfect, not to cold not to hot.
so easy a cave man can do it.
they should have left them out there for another month without supervision and help. with the "experts". then see how well modern man would do.
 
Leave a bunch of unsupervised idiots out there for a month, and you'ld have the beginnings of a brand new lazy tribe via pregnant cave girls.

Maybe it was naive of us to expect more?
 
Whether we talk about this show, or Bear Grylls or Survivorman, its worth remembering that its just a tv show, the purpose of which is to generate advertising revenue for the network. Its not a scientific endeavor, nor a penetrating glimpse into man's struggle against nature. Its just a camera crew and a bunch of goofballs wandering around in animal skins.

Thats not to say that I wasn't entertained, because I was. And aside from the whining, it sorta looked fun. But I think that we miss the point by criticizing the show for being less than perfect in its premise or data collection or whatever. Its just a tv show. JMO. :thumbup:
 
At least it wasn't a rerun of Green Acres. Or Beverly Hillbillies. Or Gilligan's Island. Same premise though. IMHO it would be more interesting to use a more knowledgable group of people in the scenario. And a "Chief" like Cody to assign tasks and roles in the "tribe" after at least a few weeks of skills training. Assuming that ordinary people would reinvent and use archaic skills in such a short time was begging to see them fail. For drama's sake, of course.
 
G'day Heresthedeal.

heresthedeal said:
It seems 10 people from modern time (now) could be dropped into paleo times and do well. possibly even thrive. WOW, its just that easy.
nothing to it, its as easy as having someone tan the hides and give you a nice area to camp in that has fenced in elk and plenty of water and sunshine. oh ya, it all takes place in the spring. perfect, not to cold not to hot.
so easy a cave man can do it.
they should have left them out there for another month without supervision and help. with the "experts". then see how well modern man would do.
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Obviously.

That's why all internet forums are full of posts that show modern people venture outdoors 12 months a year. :wink:

Although I will ask, "why would the shows producers leave them outdoors for another month, without game that is fenced in and easy to take".

After all, the reality of life outdoors might just shatter most people's delusions and mean they won't tune into the next episode.

IMO, not exactly what TV producers want. :friendly_wink:




Kind regards
Mick
 
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