The Flaming Nose Remembers 9-11-2001

On the 9th anniversary of one of the most shocking days in America's history, The Flaming Nose honors all of the television coverage that kept us informed, horrified and riveted throughout the nightmare. From the time the first planes hit the towers, through the endless funerals and memorials and tributes for all of the poor souls who were lost in this terrorist attack, television was there for us all. It is said that this was the most watched, most photographed event in history. We all watched, and could not turn away.

Here's to ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox. Here's to CNN and all the local stations in NYC that kept broadcasting through the day of horror. Here's to the History Channel, which is airing 9-11 specials all day long today. The History Channel never forgets. Neither should we.

Most of all, here's to all of the brave people who helped each other in NYC, in Washington and on Flight 93 nine years ago today. Heroes all.

Crazy Summer TV: Expedition Africa!

Flaming Nose fans are familiar with our ongoing Star Trek obsession. Here's a series focusing on the re-creation of a very low-tech trek. The History channel's "Expedition Africa" follows four modern day explorers who are attempting to retrace journalist Henry Stanley's (1871) eight month journey through Tanzania to find Dr. David Livingstone. New episodes air Sunday nights on History at 10pm eastern.

On any proper "survival" type reality show, the participants must have distinct and exasperating personalities. Expedition Africa includes the following "characters":

• Navigator: Pasquale Scaturro (cranky, contentious and very bossy)
• Wildlife Expert: Dr. Mireya Mayor (quiet, tiny and dour)
• Survivalist: Benedict Allen (British, snooty, put upon and hates Pasquale)
• Journalist: Kevin Sites (A bit "deer in the headlights" but the most accessible of all the players)
  

There are a number of factors in this premise that require viewers to massively suspend their disbelief. No matter how dire the hot, sweaty, muddy, snake bit and insect eating hike these folks are having in Africa, we can't help but be aware that their crew is standing by with GPS, helicopters and satellite mobile phones. Frankly, the three things that a modern day African walkabout might have that would be far more frightening than what Stanley and Livingstone experienced (AIDs, Ebola and teen aged terrorists toting automatic weapons) are not even remotely explored in this series. That's an unfortunate, albeit politically correct decision on the part of the producers.

Nevertheless, Expedition Africa is worth watching, if only to see the gorgeous Masai Warriors helping our modern explorers find their way. The Masai are master trackers and a hundred times more comfortable in the harsh African environment than the gang of four, even without Nylon tents and Nike hiking boots.

It's Wednesday Night -- Time for "MonsterQuest" on History Channel!

For lovers of all things cryptozoological, Wednesday night means the tremendously entertaining MonsterQuest on History Channel. Now in its second season, MQ is consistently fascinating, sometimes amusing, and most definitely mysterious. Open-minded but not slavishly toeing the "these are real" line, MonsterQuest intrigues us through the use of studious scientific technique brought to bear against the mythic creatures of which legends are made.

Tonight's new episode is at 9pm ET, with "Snowbeast Slaughter" -- an investigation into stories of a large hairy creature which has been sighted in the Rockies. It's preceded by a repeat of the "Jersey Devil" episode, another chilling hunt for the truth behind longstanding accounts of a frightening winged creature seen in and around New Jersey.

At 10pm, MonsterQuest is followed by two hours of the equally excellent UFO Hunters, starring a trio of smart and personable UFO investigators who painstakingly look into the circumstances of assorted UFO reports. The three guys -- Bill Birnes, Ted Acworth, and Bill Uskert -- are wonderful and uniformly smart, and this show is always riveting. Whether or not you believe or even tolerate discussion about UFOs, it's a delight to watch three intelligent and curious men applying their brains to help us understand this baffling phenomenon. I love these guys.

I'm completely hooked on shows where smart people talk about what they know, and there are plenty of them out there right now. We're lucky that networks such as History Channel, History Channel International, Science Channel, National Geographic and others offer ample air time to scientists and their always beguiling truths. These networks have managed to pepper the science with just the right amount of excitement to make the perfect viewing experience, engaging the audience on all cylinders.

History's new series How The Earth Was Made (it premiered last month, and is an offshoot of a special from last year) airs on Tuesday nights and it's incredible. To quote their website, the series "...travels the world to reveal the geological processes that have shaped our planet." Every episode is completely engrossing from start to finish and it's become one of my favorites. Also a must-see is Mega Disasters, also on History and its sister stations, with its heartpounding assortment of Mother Nature's best attempts to beat the human race down. (There are three episodes of MD airing tonight on History Channel International starting at 8p, btw.)

I know it's asking a lot for some people to turn away from crime dramas and reality shows and chef competitions to watch a documentary, but if there is an iota of curiousity in you about the world around you, you will be hooked, too.

My only carp about History Channel right now is the show Ax Men. Maybe it's just me, and I realize it's a dangerous occupation, but the idea of watching men wielding chainsaws to beautiful forests rather turns my stomach. (For a truly wonderful account of loggers, try watching the movie Sometimes a Great Notion with Paul Newman. At least it's art.) I shudder to think of what macho-man occupation will be glorified next -- maybe a series about the guys who bash in the heads of seals up in Newfoundland? Or maybe the guys who stun-gun the cattle before they hit the slaughterhouse? I also realize that I sound like a tree-hugger here, but featuring loggers as heroes seems an odd choice when everybody's trying to go green, already.

But don't let that stop you from watching everything else that's amazing on History Channel!

Cities of the Underworld

While we wait in breathless anticipation for the final episode of Showtime's "DEXTER" tonight, I'd like to give a vigorous nod to a little gem that I've wanted to write about for quite a while. It's called "Cities of the Underworld" (History Channel, Mondays at 9pm).

When I was about 9 years old, I lived in a suburb a half hour outside of New York City. I'll never forget the first time my mom brought me out of our bland Leave it To Beaver landscape into NYC. It was like "Oz" for me, and I fell in love at first sight. The soaring buildings! The honking taxis! Even the smell was electric and appealing, a mixture of Chock Full of Nuts coffee, gasoline and steam. But one of my best memories was of the underground shopping center beneath the Empire State Building. It seemed to go on for blocks and blocks, a whole city underneath the magical metropolis of New York.

If you've ever wondered what lies beneath, "Cities of the Underworld" will captivate you. The most appropriately named host Don Wildman will lead you there, whether it's under NYC's Grand Central Station (pictured) or ancient Rome or even Sin City itself (Las Vegas), which I would have thought to be too new and sandy to have an underworld. Turns out, the relentless heat of the desert makes building part of the city underground practical and more energy efficient.

I've watched many episodes where Don squeezes himself into impossibly tight spots. He's been wedged into narrow caves under ancient druid enclaves , or lowered into appalling sewers far below the streets of London, where Jack the Ripper himself may have escaped from his dreadful deeds. Through it all, Mr. Wildman maintains an absolutely correct tone of enthusiasm and amazement. He's fearless in places that would reduce most folks to claustrophobic hysteria.

Like many cable shows, "Cities" is repeated endlessly, so it won't be hard to stumble across it on the History Channel. It's worth searching high (or low in this case) to find a few dark places where most people never travel.

You Need to Watch "102 Minutes That Changed America"

As Jane mentioned in her earlier post, the History Channel has added an encore presentation of this amazing documentary in response to the tremendous audience feedback. Do not miss it. It is nothing less than riveting and so skillfully put-together. Please visit the interactive map on The History Channel's website to more fully explore the background of the footage included in the special; it's fascinating.

Even more impressive is the fact that this encore presentation will also be without commercial interruption, as was the initial broadcast. You're a class act, History Channel.

102 Minutes That Changed America

To mark the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on America, the History channel aired (for the first time) an amazing documentary last night called "102 Minutes that Changed America". If you missed it, please try to catch the encore presentation this coming Sunday at 8pm on the History Channel. They are also offering the DVD for sale if you go to the History website.

What made this special unique is that it recreated the events of 9-11 in NYC in real time, piecing together mostly amateur video, from the time the first plane hit the towers to the time the second tower collapsed. Hard to believe, even 7 years later, that it only took 102 minutes for the tallest buildings in the world to be reduced to a steaming pile of rubble.

The most incredible and (to me) uplifting take-away from this documentary, if a word such as "uplifting" could even be used to describe this dark day, is the absolute resilience and bravery of the people of NYC in the face of apocalypse. I always wondered why so few people were killed when those behemoth structures collapsed, and now I know. It was because of the hundreds of NYPD and FDNY workers pleading, yelling, begging everyone to keep moving and get out of the way. For once, stubborn New Yorkers complied, in a way that was orderly and incredibly not chaotic. And while thousands of people ran from the scene, hundreds of firefighters marched in the other direction, up into the towers and to their doom. It's strange, but the whole event has always made me think of the line from the movie "Starman" with Jeff Bridges. The alien says to the scientist, "Do you know what we have always loved most about you (Humans)? You are at your very best, when things are at their worst".

This is as real as it gets outside of being in NYC on 9-11-01. There are no official narrators, no posturing pundits. The only dialogue comes from the anguished comments of the regular folks, who, in picking up their home video cameras on a bright blue September morning, ended up recording history for all the world to see.

"Mega Disasters" New Season Starts on History Channel tonight!

The most consistently exciting documentary series on television begins its second season tonight -- The History Channel's incredible Mega Disasters has a new episode premiering at 9pm! Hypercane posits the fascinating theory that the massive dinosaur extinction of 65 million years ago, precipitated by the Chicxulub asteroid impact, was helped along by the consequences resulting from that event, possibly including a mega-storm that could have wiped out most of life on Earth all by itself. The special will examine the incredible destructive powers in such a storm, exponentially stronger than anything we have ever experienced in recorded history, and show us how the dinosaurs simply wouldn't have had a chance of making it out alive.

The concept of a Hypercane is itself a theory, and you can read some real scientists discussing Hypercanes: Fact or Fiction at a completely intriguing Sciforum site.

To celebrate the beginning of its 2nd season, The History Channel is running several episodes of Mega Disasters during the day, both in the
morning and later in the afternoon. At 4pm you can catch Yellowstone Eruption, at 5pm West Coast Tsunami (about what might happen if the Cascadia Subduction Zone breaks), and at 6pm Mega Freeze. At 8pm directly before the preem of Hypercane one of the best segments -- Comet Catastrophe -- repeats. This is one of my favorites; a comet comes down in the ocean off the coast near San Francisco. Yikes! And then of course the premiere of Hypercane at 9pm. (The Comet Catastrophe/Hypercane combo repeats again beginning at midnight, and check the History Channel website for additional plays.)

Mega Disasters is compelling, frightening and awe-inspiring television! Congrats to The History Channel for taking this great concept and running with it. This is the kind of programming that helps beget tomorrow's scientists, and heaven knows this planet is going to need them.

History Channel Does It Right -- In the Underworld!

With a new host up on deck for its second season which starts tonight, History Channel's exciting Cities of the Underworld offers up subterranean suspense with a neat dose of history. Tapped as our new fearless guide to the delights deep down is actor/host Don Wildman, a stalwart and heroic-looking fella who might be familiar to you from his work in myriads of commercials and as host of various adventure-y shows on ESPN, Travel Channel and CNBC.

Wildman seems to have the real life chops necessary to carry out his new mission; he's kind of a smart he-man/Renaissance man, tracing his lineage back to the early Quakers and walking the walk as an amateur pilot, scuba diver and other pursuits perfectly suited to his new gig on Cities of the Underworld. He gets to shimmy down skinny little ratholes, poke around spooky dungeons, and explore forbidden hidden spaces guaranteed to fascinate.

Tell me, who doesn't like the idea of scrambling around dark places looking for creepy secrets? For those of us who prefer our thrills brought to us in a neat package with a cool host, Cities of the Underworld is the perfect solution to our couch potato dreams.

Check out the show on the History Channel website -- loads of information plus vid clips and other cool stuff! The show airs regularly on Monday nights but also pops up in other slots; check out the History Channel's schedule page to search for additional airings.

"Life After People" -- Tonight on the History Channel

Quel domage! The Eiffel Tower has turned into the Leaning Tower, and there's nobody left on Earth to prop her back up again. That's the intriguing premise of Life After People, History Channel's new two-hour documentary premiering tonight at 9pm. Envisioning an Earth where humanity has been wiped out, LAP puts on screen the hypothetical conclusions which scientific experts surmise might be the fate of what's left behind after we've gone.

As the cities and landmarks crumble, what of the various ecosystems? Will kudzu take over the Empire State Building? Will wolves roam the White House (and one might ask aren't they already)? Life After People is another one of those amazing apopcalyptic scenarios that are so fascinating (to some of us, at least) and work so well on TV these days thanks to the terrific special effects available to illustrate them.

The special promises intelligent theories, a perhaps shocking and unthinkable possible future, and a chance to ponder the imponderable -- Mother Earth sans her homo sapien inhabitants.

I know I'll be glued to the set, and I hope you are too!

Life After People, tonight at 9pm, and it will run several more times during the week. Check out the History Channel website for more information, the whole schedule, and special features on this riveting special.

Mega Disasters on History Channel Today!

By now you must know how much The Flaming Nose loves apocalyptic television, such as History Channel's excellent and exciting series Mega Disasters. It's a bit late notice, but there's a three episode mini-marathon of MD today starting at noon eastern time, with "Asteroid Apocalypse", "Mega Freeze" and "New York City Hurricane" all set to wreak havoc. What a line-up!

This is a terrific show, with great CGI sequences and the kind of oh-my-god scenarios that ought to make your everyday annoyances seem fairly inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. Let's hope so, anyway. Programs like this offer good old-fashioned thrills and chills along with a bracing dose of science, and there's hardly a better combination than that. Wow! I can't imagine a kid not being fascinated by this stuff, too. Too scary? Wouldn't you rather know about a possible danger than have it completely surprise you? Give me a little forewarning and I'm good, and I hope you are, too!

So enjoy Mega Disasters today on The History Channel, starting at noon!

Yikes! Monsters!

I'm in love with History Channel's new-ish wonderful (in the true sense of the word) series MonsterQuest, a weekly journey into cryptozoology (the study of mysterious, rare and elusive animals). Now, whether or not something this exciting and fanciful even belongs on History Channel is certainly up for discussion, but I understand their desire for younger demos and this may be a great way to capture them. If the show weren't so well done there might be an issue, but it's super. Nat Geo already has Is It Real? which deals with some of the same subject matter (and seems quite at home on the channel), and it's good too, but there's something about MonsterQuest -- probably starting with the hilarious menacing beastly eye logo that shows up frequently during the show (as seen above)-- that is extra-exciting and oh so watchable.

If you've never checked out this well-made and serious-minded show, you've got a chance tomorrow, Sat. Jan. 5th, when they're running six episodes on a row starting at 11am. You'll see the latest on Giant Squids, Sasquatch, strange big cat attacks (kind of relevant really, with that tiger attack at the S.F. Zoo, and what about the revelations that those boys may have been taunting the tiger with slingshots? Ick. The Flaming Nose hates animal abuse and that changes the whole story, doesn't it?), Killer Apemen (with kooky CGI footage of an army of Russian chimp footsoldiers marching in Red Square, very much worth tuning in for!), Swamp Beasts, and giant killer fish. It doesn't get much better than that.

Grounded in hard science and with much use of DNA and modern identification techniques, MonsterQuest has one foot planted in crazyville and the other in the laboratory. I love the sincerity of those who study this field and hope that one day they'll find their Yeti, Nessie, Ogopogo or whatever else they search for. Until then, we can all go along for the ride and experience our vicarious monster-hunting thrills on History Channel's MonsterQuest!

(If you don't catch up with tomorrow's marathon, MonsterQuest regularly airs Wednesdays at 10pm. Check out the show's website for more information and fun extras! I also found this nice interview with MonsterQuest's creator Doug Hajicek right here.)