Back when the internet was young and facts still had meaning, there was the History Channel, featuring shows about — you guessed it — history. But that version of the network is long gone today. Here are the biggest scandals to hit the reality TV outlet that's now simply called History.
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00:00Back when the internet was young and facts still had meaning, there was the History Channel
00:04featuring shows about, you guessed it, history. But that version of the network is long gone
00:09today. Here are the biggest scandals that hit the reality TV outlet that's now simply
00:13called History.
00:14In late 2012 and early 2013, the History Channel aired a single, eight-episode season of a
00:19reality show called Bamazon. A high-concept treasure-hunting show, Bamazon plucked eight
00:23construction workers who couldn't find employment in their home state of Alabama, dropped them
00:27into the rainforest of South America, and instructed them to run a gold mining project.
00:31The show came and went with little fanfare, but one of the real-life construction workers
00:35at the heart of Bamazon made headlines three years later when he was arrested for his suspected
00:39role in the death of an acquaintance.
00:41Early one morning in Tallapoosa County, Alabama, 40-year-old Norman Deon Creighton was shot
00:46to death. His body was discovered by hunters in a forested area. The local sheriff's office
00:50apprehended 33-year-old Bamazon star Matthew Clayton McDaniel, who had been seen playing
00:55pool at a bar with Creighton the previous evening. In June 2018, a jury convicted McDaniel
01:00of murder.
01:01In 1997, the History Channel aired an hour-long holiday special called Christmas Unwrapped,
01:06The History of Christmas. Later released on DVD, the special sought to educate viewers
01:10on the origins of numerous Christmas traditions, and how observances of the holiday have evolved
01:14over time. According to Christmas Unwrapped, Christmas was deemed such an unimportant holiday
01:19during the early years of the United States that lawmakers met on that day for decades,
01:23business as usual.
01:24The United States Congress sat in session and continued to stay open on Christmas Day
01:30for most of the next 67 years.
01:33That fun fact isn't really true at all, however. PolitiFact investigated and found that the
01:38U.S. Senate met for a moment on Christmas Day in 1797, and the House first fell on December
01:4325, 1802. Other than those two instances, Congress did not meet on Christmas Day during
01:48the time period in question. However, this false fact circulated and was repeated by
01:51numerous organizations and major news outlets, including Fox News, the ACLU, and The Daily
01:57Show with Jon Stewart in 2011. After PolitiFact exposed the truth, Stewart had to apologize
02:02on air and accept that site's Truth-O-Meter rating of Pants on Fire.
02:06American Pickers is one of the most popular shows to ever air on the History Channel,
02:10and it made reality TV stars out of its pickers as well as its third full-time cast member,
02:14Danielle Colby. She watched over the vintage trading business affairs while the other cast
02:18members were on the road, and she also started her own companies buying and selling old valuables
02:22— a Chicago store called Four Miles to Memphis and a bustling Etsy shop online.
02:27However, it would seem that Colby failed to pay her taxes on her earnings. In November
02:312013, Assessors issued Colby a lien of $5,978.40, the amount she owed on retail sales tax, a
02:39guess by the government on account of how she'd not file the return for the year in
02:42question.
02:43Two months later, tax assessors issued Colby another lien, in the amount of $5,957.20.
02:49And then, a few months after that, Colby received another lien for $5,936 in unpaid taxes on
02:55retail sales.
02:56In 2015, the History Channel aired the miniseries Texas Rising. With a cast including Bill Paxton,
03:02Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and Thomas Jane, it was a high-profile, narrative-dramatic series
03:06about the creation of the Texas Rangers' law enforcement operation. Unfortunately, according
03:10to historians, Texas Rising was ripe with errors and inaccuracies. The program even
03:14gets a major date wrong.
03:16A chyron dates the moment when General Santa Anna rides a horse through the destroyed Alamo
03:20as March 7, 1836. In reality, the Alamo Uprising ended the day prior. In response to historians
03:26and journalists pointing out the flaws in Texas Rising, the History Channel released
03:30a statement.
03:31As historical fiction, it is designed to ignite interest, to inspire people to learn more
03:35about the past, to entertain, and to encourage them to form their own opinions.
03:39In May 2011, SEAL Team 6 located and executed al-Qaeda terrorist group leader and 9-11 attacks
03:45mastermind Osama bin Laden. Because the individual identities of the members would be of great
03:49interest to the United States' enemies, security and secrecy is of extreme importance. And
03:54a program that aired on the History Channel managed to violate all that.
03:57In 2017, the channel aired Navy SEALs, America's Secret Warriors. In a segment about the unit's
04:02origins, producers introduced a 1980s-era photo of the 76 original members of the SEALs.
04:08No faces were obscured. A one-time SEAL told Page Six,
04:11"...why would they show that picture? I already am hearing from people who recognized me.
04:15Not cool."
04:16When reached for comment, a spokesperson at the History Channel said nothing was amiss
04:20because that photo had been passed around the internet for years.
04:24Ice Road Truckers is one of history's best-known reality shows, depicting the perilous lives
04:28of drivers in the iciest regions of Canada and Alaska. And sure, it's been criticized
04:32by actual trucker media like Truck News for exaggerating or even faking some of the danger.
04:37"...Man, it is cracking. It's something fierce. I can't go any slower. Oh my gosh!"
04:46But real scandal hit the show in 2013. According to a CBS report, star Tim Zicker abducted
04:52Lisa Cadeau after hiring her for escort work in Las Vegas. He claimed she overcharged him
04:57by $1,000 and demanded she meet him to settle the dispute. It was then that he dragged her
05:01back to his apartment, beat her, and tied her up in a closet. Fearing for her life,
05:05Cadeau gave Zicker the phone number of an undercover police officer, claiming he could
05:08pay her ransom. Zicker called the number and unknowingly arranged his own arrest. The Las
05:13Vegas Sun reported Zicker confessed on the spot that he intended to hold Cadeau hostage
05:16and prostitute her through Craigslist.
05:19Every so often, even the History Channel has to admit that some of their programming is
05:22a tad controversial. Like the time they commissioned and then abruptly canceled a $30 million miniseries
05:27about the Kennedys. A Hollywood reporter explained that an early leaked draft of the script caused
05:32an outcry among Kennedy family allies. And after months of rewrites and filming, the
05:36high-profile project was pulled entirely for being pretty much wall-to-wall slander and
05:40lies.
05:41They made it sound like I like Hitler. Said I was anti-American. Me!
05:47Co-creator Joel Cerno defended his project via The Atlantic, claiming people were biased
05:51against him for being a staunch conservative making a series about the Kennedys. Conspiracy
05:55theorists also took the opportunity to insist that the surviving members of the Kennedy
05:59family had bullied the History Channel into dropping the show. But when the miniseries
06:02eventually did come out elsewhere, The Hollywood Reporter-Review called it, quote,
06:06"...dull, unwatchable, and a ham-fisted mess."
06:09Swamp People follows the lives of alligator hunters living in Louisiana, but alligators
06:13actually seem to be the least of the cast's worries. According to TMZ, Swamp People stars
06:18R.J. Molinare and J. Paul Molinare were arrested for attacking a man with a beer bottle. TMZ
06:23also reported that Trapper Joe was arrested for burning his girlfriend with a lit cigarette
06:27and then punching her in the chest. And ScreenRant detailed a time that Roger Rivers Jr. got in
06:32trouble with the law for selling illegal meat.
06:34We like it all. We eat everything down here.
06:37The Swamp People of the show proved so troublesome, Starcasm reports that most of the cast was
06:41suddenly fired before season 7 of the show, shocking fans and sending angry cast members
06:46into social media ranks. Producers held firm, though, and remaining fans just had to deal
06:51with a whole new bunch of Swamp People.
06:53Bigfoot Captured was a feature-length special about the discovery and capture of a real
06:57Sasquatch. It was also, as Paste magazine put it, a TV abomination. History Channel
07:02styled the show as a real documentary, despite the fact that the program was pure fiction.
07:06But not everyone recognized it as fake, leaving some viewers furious about pseudoscience being
07:11presented as fact, and others excited to discover proof of a real Bigfoot.
07:15At this point, I think Bigfoot's going to become a lot closer to reality.
07:19Not only did the channel fool their audience, they also more or less lied to their guest
07:23experts about the nature of the production. Professor Jeff Meldrum said, via the Idaho
07:27State Journal, that he was disappointed that the documentary faked evidence and had no
07:31interest in working from credible information. His suggestion for viewers? Take what you
07:35can from it and have a chuckle over the remainder.
07:38According to Variety, the show Hunting Hitler upset plenty of people by trivializing Hitler
07:42and giving credence to conspiracy theories about his escape to Argentina.
07:46If this were really a picture of Hitler, it would change history.
07:49But even more upsetting is the fact that the History Channel promised anonymity to one
07:52of their key sources, and then clearly broadcast his entire face to more than 180 countries.
07:58The team arrives at a private home, where the informant, along with his translator Philippe,
08:03has arranged to meet them under the condition that his identity be protected.
08:08As the New York Daily News reports, the grandson of a Nazi war criminal agreed to appear on
08:12the program with the understanding that his face would not be shown.
08:15Production did blur his face out, except for one shot where it is clearly visible. An obvious
08:19disaster for someone who doesn't want to broadcast that his grandfather was a Nazi.
08:24Remember when the History Channel solved the mystery of Amelia Earhart's, only to have
08:27their key piece of evidence immediately debunked by a blogger?
08:30When you hear the name Amelia Earhart, it's a question mark that's never been solved.
08:35According to Vanity Fair, the documentary Amelia Earhart, The Lost Evidence caused some
08:39short-lived excitement when it presented a photo of Earhart and her navigator, alive
08:43and in the Marshall Islands after her mysterious disappearance.
08:46The documentary suggests that Earhart survived her infamous crash in 1937, and that the U.S.
08:51government knew she was alive, but covered it up. The network enjoyed a brief moment
08:55of historical triumph before they were thwarted by a blogger doing minimal research.
08:59National Geographic reported that Japanese military blogger Kota Yamano looked up the
09:03alleged location of the photo in the Japanese National Library's database, and found that
09:07the pic was published in a Japanese coffee table book in 1935, two years before Earhart
09:12took her flight.
09:13So even if it were Amelia Earhart in that photo, which it's not, it proves nothing about
09:17her disappearance.
09:19American Pickers follows a couple of guys while they travel around the country and sift
09:23through piles of other people's junk in the hopes of finding treasure. The show's producers
09:27have occasionally been accused of planting the good stuff, and while we can't know that
09:30for sure, at least one of the show's two stars has definitely been caught doing less-than-upstanding
09:35stuff.
09:36This is a perfect situation for a pic.
09:39Back in 2018, Frank Fritz pled guilty to charges of operating while intoxicated, which also
09:44included driving the wrong way on the interstate. According to the police reports, Fritz was,
09:48quote, "...weaving about the roadway under the influence of Xanax and alcohol."
09:52The miniseries The Bible was a huge hit for the network in 2014, except for that one slip-up
09:57where the producers cast an actor who looked a whole lot like President Barack Obama to
10:01play the Devil. As described in The Guardian, the comparison went viral almost immediately
10:06after the 10-hour miniseries first premiered. You couldn't throw a stone emoji without hitting
10:10several hundred posts of Obama's face next to Moroccan actor Mohamed Ouzani. Producer
10:15Roma Downey claimed the resemblance was a total coincidence, but the damage was already
10:19done.
10:20If you will bow down and worship me, I will give you the whole world.
10:28Time reported that when The Bible producers cut down the series for the feature-length
10:31film version, Son of God, they decided to nick Satan entirely, hoping audiences would
10:35focus their attention on Jesus instead. The reality competition alone tries to one-up
10:40Survivor by abandoning its contestants in the middle of nowhere and then following their
10:44journey to survive alone in the wilderness. Happily, none of these people are naked, because
10:48another truly awful reality show already did that.
10:53The really stupid thing about all of this is that no matter how alone the series makes
10:59it look like these people are, of course, they're not really alone. What about all the
11:03camera people who are literally everywhere, right?
11:06One thing that's very interesting about how the show was shot is that it's all self-documented.
11:12We may never know the truth on that, but according to E! Celebrity, contestants are not being
11:16forced to survive miles from civilization, which is what the showrunners want you to
11:20believe. Instead, in many cases, the contestants are actually within an hour's walk to the
11:24nearest town, and sometimes they're in a place where there is a network of trails, which
11:28definitely seems to suggest that they're not really that isolated.
11:31Harry's Mountain Men features people pretending like they are living in the 17th century,
11:35except for when they watch TV while no one is looking.
11:38To me, there's way too much overdevelopment in this world, and I want to do at least my
11:43part in keeping some of it wild.
11:46One of the stars of the show is Eustace Conway, and his deal is teaching people how to be
11:50self-sufficient and also how to be super pretentious about their self-sufficiency. His bio reads,
11:55"...like Thoreau, Eustace has gone to the woods to live deliberately, fronting only
11:59the essential facts of life, to see if he could not learn what it had to teach, and
12:03not when he came to die, discover that he had not lived."
12:06Yeah, he's that kind of guy.
12:08But when he's not being pretentious on Mountain Men, he's being pretentious on his 1,000-acre
12:12wildlife preserve in North Carolina, where he teaches people how to live in the wilderness
12:15for a mere $700 a week, or $65 an hour if you'd rather just spend an afternoon riding
12:21around in a horse-drawn carriage. According to The Wall Street Journal, the preserve was
12:24recently raided by health, construction, and fire officials, who deemed many of Conway's
12:28buildings, quote, "...not fit for public use."
12:31When you think of lumberjacks, you usually think of burly dudes in plaid chopping down
12:35trees, putting wipe-your-butt-on-a-spotted-owl stickers on their trucks, and maybe pressing
12:39wildflowers like in that Monty Python song. You don't typically think of them pulling
12:43stuff out of the water, because that's not where trees usually are. According to NPR,
12:48though, there was a time when lumberjacks used to float log rafts made of felled trees
12:51down the river for transport. Every now and then, the trees would fall off the raft and
12:55sink to the bottom, and they don't rot down there, either. If the water is cold, the trees
12:59will stay preserved at the bottom for a long time and can eventually be salvaged.
13:03The problem is, salvaging sunken trees is not legal in the state of Washington. But
13:07that didn't stop the late Axeman star Jimmy Smith from fishing those logs out of the river
13:11on national television, which was either ridiculously arrogant or ridiculously stupid.
13:15I'm the first one in the Northwest to do this type of logging."
13:19Smith had an entirely altruistic reason for his actions, though, to protect people participating
13:24in water sports on the river. He said,
13:26If I can save one kid or one boater, I think it's worth it. And we're sure that the money
13:30he got for those logs didn't factor into it at all.
13:33The wildly popular Pawn Stars features the supposedly real day-to-day activities of the
13:37world-famous Gold & Silver Pawn Shop in Las Vegas. But the show has been widely criticized
13:41for having a rather loose definition of reality, and the shop itself has previously gotten
13:45into trouble over some of its merchandise. According to ABC News, they may have once
13:49melted down $50,000 worth of stolen coins. But the most valuable treasures at the Gold
13:54& Silver Pawn Shop, apparently, are the stars themselves.
13:57HuffPost reported in 2012 that the former talent agents of the Pawn Stars stars were
14:01suing their ex-clients for switching agencies, demanding $5 million in lost commissions.
14:07The agency, Venture IAB Inc., claimed that History Channel execs had intentionally seduced
14:11the stars away from their original representation, convincing them to hire rival Michael Camacho
14:16of UTA as their agent instead and losing Venture millions in commissions.
14:20It's unclear what happened with the lawsuit, which likely means it was dismissed or settled
14:24out of court. Then there's Pawn Stars fan favorite Austin Lee Russell, better known
14:28by his stage name, Chumlee. He's portrayed as the comic foil at the shop, but in non-televised
14:33reality, Chumlee's life is somewhat less whimsical. As USA Today reports, police carried out a
14:37search of his house while following up on assault allegations in 2016. They didn't find
14:42evidence to convict him, but they did find drugs in his regrettably named Chum Chum room,
14:46including marijuana and meth, as well as numerous illegal firearms. According to the New York
14:51Daily News, however, the reality star was able to avoid jail time with a plea deal,
14:55despite being charged with several felonies.
14:58Ancient aliens might hold the dubious crown of the History Channel's least historical
15:01show. It also made its way onto Southern Poverty Law Center's Hatewatch blog for showcasing
15:06white supremacist theories.
15:08Is it possible that the course of human civilization has been determined not by history's most
15:13profound thinkers, but by some external force?
15:17The idea that ancient African, Asian, and Native American architectural marvels could
15:21have only been built by some kind of alien entity isn't a new one. Hatewatch reminds
15:26us that this concept was used by Andrew Jackson to justify the Indian Removal Act of 1830
15:30in North America. In fact, much white supremacist literature over the years has suggested that
15:35non-European civilizations didn't build any wonders of the past, and that ancient Aryans
15:39are somehow secretly responsible. Switch out Aryans for aliens, and you can see why some
15:44people find the show so distasteful. And as Hyperallergic points out, we already know
15:48how the pyramids were built. Ramps.
15:51When it comes to the curse of Oak Island, there exists a piece of so-called evidence
15:54that we know is fake, the Oak Island map. This particular map looks like it got torn
15:59out of a journal someone purchased at the Dollar Tree, but the notes are in French.
16:03According to the show, this map is connected to a much more mysterious and valuable Templar
16:06document.
16:07"'Xena's Map' and her research I find incredible. I want to prove that it's authentic. And to
16:13that end, I think we've made some strides."
16:16But according to Donald Rue, who was once in possession of both of those documents,
16:19the two are unrelated. He also says that the Oak Island map is a fabrication, created by
16:23someone in the 70s. If the show's use of those two pieces of evidence is what amounts to
16:28proof, we don't really believe anything else on Oak Island.
16:32The fact that Counting Cars star Danny Coker is living a hippie-hating, muscle-car-loving
16:35masculine stereotype isn't surprising. He's a car guy, and he likes combustion engines,
16:40loud noises, and high speed. And really, none of those things are compatible with a cleaner
16:44environment.
16:45"'Guys, I'm just not feeling this."
16:48He told the Canadian morning show in 2013,
16:50"'Prius? I've got no use for it. If it gets four miles to the gallon and has 800 horsepower,
16:55I'm thrilled. We've got more oil than we can shake a stick at. The politicians are playing
16:59the game. Let's burn this stuff and have a good time.'"
17:02According to The Vegas Tourist, Rick Dale from American Restoration was called out in
17:062012 for restoring a 1950s-style jukebox but failing to actually repair the thing for the
17:11original agreement. Now, it's great to have a sharp-looking jukebox, but what you really
17:15want is a sharp-looking jukebox that plays music, especially if you paid someone $4,000
17:20to do it. But not only did Dale reportedly fail to acknowledge that the work wasn't complete,
17:25he also cashed the check and stopped returning his customers' phone calls.
17:28"'It's not all about the money. It's about making something that you want your memory
17:33alive.'"
17:35Sons of Liberty is what American history would look like if the Founding Fathers were all
17:38moonlighting as characters on Riverdale. Actual history recalls the Sam Adams of 1765 as a
17:44middle-aged dude with a paunch, but in Sons of Liberty, he's hot. And that's not the show's
17:48only inaccuracy. The Journal of the American Revolution listed 22 missteps within the first
17:53episode alone.
17:55"'This is yet another incident in a long line of treasonable acts committed by a childish
18:00and insubordinate colony.'"
18:02Of course, this is historical fiction, and almost every piece of historical fiction ever
18:06written contains inaccuracies. It's called creative license. Just don't believe everything
18:11you see on history.
18:12"'That that freedom cannot be taken away from us! That! That is our God-given right!''
18:20In history's defense, Vikings is based on the Old Norse sagas, which National Geographic
18:25reports were written down in the 13th century but were passed down verbally for centuries
18:29prior. So the facts recorded in the sagas have likely been embellished, altered, or
18:33even completely made up. Historians don't even agree on whether the show's central character,
18:37Ragnar Lothbrok, even existed.
18:40"'Who wants to be king?''
18:44One of the biggest liberties showrunners took was with the relationship between Ragnar and
18:49In real life, assuming Ragnar existed, the two men were not only not brothers, it's unlikely
18:53they ever even met. And the show's timeline is suspect, too, as we see our favorite marauders
18:58raiding a monastery in Season 1 and then attacking Paris in Season 3, two events that happened
19:03120 years apart according to Ranker. Also, the Vikings did wear helmets, though not horned
19:08ones. Christians didn't crucify heathens, and Vikings almost never fought pitched battles
19:13since they preferred raids. Sadly, that doesn't leave a whole lot of room for the truth.
19:18It's one of the world's most ridiculous conspiracy theories. The government is filling the air
19:22with chemicals so they can control the weather. Most people understand that this idea is ridiculous,
19:27because if it was actually true that the government was filling the air with chemicals in a bid
19:30to alter the weather patterns of the United States and beyond, they appear to be really,
19:34really bad at it. Most people think the idea is dumb, except History Channel, who evidently
19:38felt like it was worth discussing in an episode of That's Impossible called Weather Warfare.
19:43The special basically just repeated the whole conspiracy theory and provided a platform
19:47to the paranoid people who actually believe it, which is not a great thing to do in an
19:51era when half the population already doesn't trust science.
19:55Reality television is part exploitation, part making fun of people who deserve it, and part
19:59totally, utterly, and completely fake. But there are lines that even reality television
20:03producers try not to cross, and the producers of American Jungle definitely crossed one
20:07or two of them. The 2013 show American Jungle was short-lived, so you might not even remember
20:12it. It was presented as a show about Native Hawaiians from rival groups fighting each
20:16other over hunting territory. The Hawaiian government was certainly not amused, claiming
20:20the show portrayed the participants in a culturally insensitive way, as well as portraying Hawaii's
20:24history inaccurately. According to officials in Hawaii, the show depicted illegal activities,
20:29too, such as hunting at night and hunting feral cow without a permit. We're not sure
20:33how much any of this had to do with the show's swift cancellation, but it didn't get past
20:36its first eight episodes.
20:39Shows about hidden treasure and unsolved historical mysteries tend to do well for history, but
20:42as anyone who was inspired by Indiana Jones can tell you, real treasure hunting is super
20:47boring.
20:48A neat collection. George Washington's campaign buttons. You're missing the 1789 inaugural,
20:52though. I found one once.
20:55That's very fortunate for you.
20:56So to get people to actually tune into a show about treasure, you kind of need to sensationalize,
21:01embellish, and just make things up as you go along. With that in mind, the accuracy
21:05of most treasure hunting shows is questionable at best.
21:08The history show Pirate Treasure of the Knights Templar was a short-lived series starring
21:11forensic geologist Scott Walter and treasure hunter Barry Clifford. Their team was searching
21:16sunken wrecks off the coast of Madagascar that they believed were connected to the Portuguese
21:20Templars. The show was called out for unprofessionalism by UNESCO, which accused them of treating
21:25the research and recovery of the vessels recklessly, without proper precautions, and actually damaging
21:29the sites.
21:30In response, Walter claimed that UNESCO had a personal vendetta, writing on his blog,
21:34UNESCO hates Barry Clifford simply because he is the most successful pirate ship discoverer
21:38in history.
21:39Oh. Okay. That must be it.
21:42Gilson Frontera had a comfy little stint as a reality TV star-slash-background character
21:45on the history series Counting Cars, but then he blew it. Or at least, that's what a lawsuit
21:50filed against him by his former employers at Counts Customs says. Frontera was accused
21:54of embezzling around $75,000 from the shop and using the money to buy plane tickets and
21:59make a down payment on a Range Rover. How did he do this? His accusers think he made
22:03rubber-stamped copies of the company boss' signatures, so the company's checking account
22:07could become his own personal checking account.
22:09The scandal was big news for a while, but the case was closed in April 2019, obviously
22:13finding in favor of Counts Customs.
22:16At a certain point, one has to wonder when the History Channel is going to change their
22:19name, because they certainly don't seem to be heading down a trajectory of finding more
22:23historically accurate subjects to talk about.
22:25One of history's semi-recent shows is a scripted drama called Project Blue Book, which is another
22:30show about aliens, although this one actually had a lot of factually correct stuff in it.
22:34Dr. J. Allen Hynek, for example, was a real person who worked as a scientific consultant
22:38for a government program called Project Blue Book, which collected 12,000-plus accounts
22:42of unidentified flying objects.
22:45The problem with the series is that it doesn't just stick to the real story — and it's
22:48not because the real story is super boring, either. It's because it's just not exciting
22:52enough for big ratings. So History dumped a whole bunch of made-up stuff into the mix
22:56and gave it a stir, so there's just enough untruth that viewers have no idea what's real
22:59and what's fake. You know, as any good history channel should do.
23:04Who doesn't love a good Kennedy assassination conspiracy theory? Most people, actually,
23:08but that didn't stop History from airing an older docuseries called The Men Who Killed
23:11Kennedy, with additional episodes created for the 40th anniversary airing in 2003.
23:16The only people who really paid attention to the series were the relatives of Lyndon
23:19B. Johnson, because an episode called The Guilty Men implied that it was Johnson himself
23:23who plotted to kill Kennedy so he could become president himself.
23:27Johnson's family wanted to be able to rebut the episode, and History Channel tried to
23:30appease them by saying they'd hired experts to review the new episode that they had based
23:34on the book Blood, Money, and Power, How LBJ Killed JFK. And then, if they found more
23:39inaccuracies, they promised to air another program that would publicly debunk the theory.
23:42Who's at risk? Who's going to gain the most? Who wins in this deal? There's only one answer
23:48to that question, and that's Lyndon Johnson.
23:51While their experts must have found something implausible in the episode, because History
23:54did issue an apology during a one-hour special entitled The Guilty Men, A Historical Review,
23:59which concluded that the original episode should have never been broadcast.
24:03No. It's wrong. It's corrupt. It's dishonest. It's deceitful. And, which this film is in
24:11its entirety.
24:12History's The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch was supposed to be a level-headed scientific analysis
24:17of the weird things that happen on the infamous Sherman Ranch in Utah. But when you really
24:21sit down and watch the show, you begin to suspect that maybe the team is just using
24:24science to try and back up what they already think they know is happening.
24:28Look at that.
24:29It looks like an object above the tree.
24:33And it happens right when the cow moves, raises up.
24:36There's even an astrophysicist on the program, but even his theories seem to lean more religious
24:40than scientific. By Episode 2, viewers were already hate-tweeting and abandoning the show
24:44in droves, with one disappointed viewer writing,
24:47"'What investigation?' It's just a bunch of dudes playing with high-tech toys."
24:51The Knights Templar had a cool name, they were mysterious, they were powerful, and they probably
24:55looked awesome in chain mail.
24:57The Knights were originally supposed to protect pilgrims crossing into the Holy Land, but
25:01they ended up being much more than just bodyguards. They also acquired the blessing of the Pope,
25:05who exempted them from taxes and other rules that applied to non-Templars, so they eventually
25:09became unusually rich. So rich that they set up a bunch of banks so pilgrims could withdraw
25:14money once they were in the Holy Land and not have to worry about getting robbed en
25:17route. Yes, the Knights were bankers. Not so according to History's Nightfall, though.
25:22In Nightfall, the Knights Templar are an elite fighting force, have a lot of affairs, and
25:26get sweaty, but somehow still manage to stay Hollywood-attractive under all the blood.
25:30The show kind of has to embellish the Knights, because they probably weren't really an elite
25:34fighting force so much as a powerful financial institution, and King Philip IV of France
25:38probably took them down because he owed them money. You might get a few guys on Wall Street
25:42to tune in for that version of the show, but History's viewers may actually prefer the
25:45fiction in this case.
25:47Somehow, the title The Men Who Built America made it past History's team of whoever it
25:51is that stops terrible titles from happening. As it turns out, The Men Who Built America
25:55celebrates the accomplishments of a bunch of really rich dudes. But it also just ignores
25:59millions of workers who actually got their hands dirty, and perhaps even more tellingly,
26:02downplays or even villainizes the contributions of the people who toiled to bring these visionary
26:07heroes' visions to life.
26:08One episode in the miniseries depicts the Homestead Steel Strike, but even though the
26:12show is a documentary, it gets a lot of the facts completely wrong, implying that there
26:16was something sinister about the strike and the workers who plotted against poor, wealthy
26:20Andrew Carnegie. And so it goes on, asking viewers to venerate all those wealthy men
26:24because they built some cars and bridges and loaned a lot of money to people.
26:28History doesn't exactly shy away from the morbid or tasteless, so it should have surprised
26:32no one when they publicly announced they'd be making a documentary that would end spectacularly
26:36with the exhumation of a corpse.
26:38John Dillinger was a gangster who gained infamy in the 1930s for robbing banks, and also being
26:42handsome. The end of Dillinger's story is that he was taken down by the FBI and then
26:46buried under three feet of concrete. And ever since, there are people who say it wasn't
26:50really John Dillinger who got shot by the FBI that night. This rumor has persisted for
26:54so long that Dillinger's relatives decided to have him exhumed in order to finally answer
26:58the question, and History decided that it should be on video.
27:01As it turns out, though, it's not actually that easy to get permission to dig up a corpse,
27:05and Dillinger's family had to abandon the idea after a judge dismissed their case against
27:09the cemetery, which had denied permission for the exhumation. Before that decision,
27:13though, History decided to back out of the project. They didn't say why, but it might
27:17have had something to do with the fact that digging up corpses is morbid and morally bankrupt.
27:21Then again, that hasn't stopped History before.