NYTimes.com: WHEN the reality TV show “MythBusters” debuted on the Discovery Channel in 2003, its producers weren’t on a mission to transform science and education in America. They just wanted to entertain. In each episode, the hosts would try to debunk or confirm a few classic urban legends. Could a penny dropped off the Empire State Building really kill a person? Could eating a poppy-seed bagel actually make you test positive for heroin? The producers cast two San Francisco-based special-effects artists, Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage, as hosts. The show was a surprise hit — pulling in as many as 20 million viewers a season — and it helped changed our culture.
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I’m sad to hear that Mythbusters will no longer be airing new episodes after this season. The show was a staple of my childhood and while it didn’t exactly inspire me to go into a stem field I certainly did learn a lot. Not only about the importance of blowing every experiment into pieces after its over but also about how to approach a challenge. Sometimes the best way to get something done is to just start working. Try and approach and when you fail try again. Mythbusters did their best to de-mystify their process, they didn’t just show results, they showed their prototyping, their failures and their successes. I think our generation inherited a certain willingness to try and build it themselves to create an experiment or just something interesting. This is certainly not to say that Jamie and Adam were the only ones responsible for this trend but if they helped at all and I’m pretty sure they did it is very commendable.
I’m sad to see Mythbusters go, I think anyone who has watched a few episodes is. It’s one of those shows you never have to feel guilty for watching because you always feel like you learn something after watching an episode. But more important than the trivia of what myth could happen and what couldn’t was the culture it provided for it’s fans.
I love Mythbusters because it helped me establish a baseline or how to operate in the world within the world from a very early age. It had just the right balance of science, explosions, and shop work. It held high the values of ingenuity, honesty, prioritization, and having fun while being productive.
I don’t want to restate all the things that Mythbusters got right, the article did a pretty good job of that, but I will say that there is a lesson to be taken from Mythbusters for people outside of STEM careers can learn. They’re the kinds of lessons that it doesn’t hurt to go over every once and a while, no matter how many times you’ve gone over them before.
Mythbusters showed us that creativity, logic, and ingenuity have a way of working in concert together. Everyone in this building should be able to learn form that.
I loved Mythbusters when I was younger, and I still really love it. I think that alone is quite impressive, since it is really hard to make content that someone will like as an 8 year old and as an 18 year old. I also was sure I was going to be a scientist when I was little. It wasn’t really until Junior year of high school that I realized that, as much as I still love science, all I ever really wanted to be doing was theater. When I was little I wanted to work on Mythbusters, though I knew the show would inevitably be canceled before I’d be old enough to get that chance, and, as I suspected ten years ago, it has. Still, I really want to find an opportunity to combine stage tech with science, both in terms of using science to create theater, but also in terms of using theater for science education. One example I’ve seen of this working well, in addition to Mythbusters, is Emily Graslie’s Brain Scoop. Though she majored in art, she works at the Chicago Field Museum creating and posting educational videos about what scientists do there. Her videos made me realize that there are jobs in the Field Museum that are remarkably similar to props construction. People like Adam and Jamie (who have a background in special effects) and Emily (with her background in art) inspire me to try to find a project that can help me combine what I love to do (stage tech) with science.
When I first saw the headline of this article, I merely thought that it was a reflection on the impact that the Mythbusters have had on science and entertainment, and has absolutely floored to hear that the show would be ending. I can remember countless Mythbusters marathons and always watching the new episodes. Not only was the show scientific in base, it was also an extremely well-done and produced piece of fun documentary reality television. I never really enjoyed science class that much in high school, but whenever I would come home and see Mythbusters was on, I would watch in a heart beat because they made learning fun and cool just as Bill Nye did. I do remember hearing about a year ago that they were taking Grant, Tory, and Kari off of the show and bringing the show back to its roots in just Jamie and Adam. However, I guess this could have been interpreted now looking back as the beginning of the end.
I have heard a lot of talk about the mythbusters recently and have read a few and seen even more articles about them and I didn’t even realize that they were getting an influx of attention because no article, until this one, even mentioned that their show was ending. I suppose when you write an article about the mythbusters ending their 14 season run, there is so much praise to give them that there really isn’t even room to say they are ending their 14 season run. And when I read that Mythbusters is coming to a close I couldn't believe it, im still in denial. I would not call myself Mythbusters obsessed but I am definitely a huge fan. I watch full episodes when I have time and 5 min clips on YouTube when I don’t. I along with thousands of people would love to be a Mythbuster when I grow up because as you can see from the show, it is just so much fun. You get to build giant contraptions, have a warehouse full of toys, shoot some sort of firearm every other day. Mythbusters is truly a staple in American culture and it will be missed because it is fun to watch, and because it has inspired and influenced so many people.
When I was a kid I never really liked science unless it was related to Bill Nye the Science Guy or Mythbusters. I always loved how fun both the shows were when talking about topics that would usually bore me to death, and I'm sure I wasn't the only person who felt this way. Now that I'm older and I'm reflecting back on Mythbusters I really admire the work that they did. Finding a way to make science fun for kids is so important, especially in times where interest in pursuing the STEM field is declining. The way that they structured the show made sure that the experiments were interesting enough to keep kids watching, and then made them want to recreate the experiments themselves. Obviously I didn’t pursue a STEM career, but this show definitely made me want to do something like that for myself. I joined a science club and asked my dad to tell me more about what he was working on (he works in the biochem field). Mythbusters encouraged little things like this, and even pushed people into science careers. This show will definitely be missed, and I hope that they continue to show the reruns.
Mythbusters was always a great show to watch randomly. It wasn’t something I needed to see every week but I would scan channels and see that it was on and watch it no matter where in the episode it was on. It was just nice to have something different than the reality tv of beauty, singing, or drama it was just simple science. They took hard concepts and explained them in a way that made people excited and intrigued and that is what I liked. It was a mini science class every time I watched it. I am glad that statistics of people in science have grown because science is a great subject and so unique. We fight for arts all the time but this type of show brought them both together, science and the ability to show the world its work. The best of both worlds.
Science is the most beautiful art that mankind has ever created. If art is about synthesis and truth in the universe, then I don’t see how science could not be the highest art. It is heartbreaking to see someone bury their heads in the sand and refuse to say why and how, and wonder what is next and what the bigger thing is. The future of humanity is built on the absurd ambitions of madmen, and the unreasonable drive to change the world that so few have. When we create things that pander to our base and self serving interests and call it progressive art, that is the biggest disservice we can do to ourselves. Everyone should be optimistic about the future and skeptical of the present. There is a line from Aaron Sorkin’s West Wing: “We develop machines and technology because its who we are. We made fire because we were curious, we sailed over the horizon because we were curious, we dove into the seas and into the skies because we were curious, we will go to space because it is whats next, it is in our nature.”
Mythbusters is a show very close to my heart, for a number of reasons. Everything in this article rings true: the show inspired a generation of young scientists with the ideas that science can be messy, creative, and a learning process while also getting hard data and results back. It's a show that is undeniably entertaining whether or not you like science, which is something most people don't realize. Because it appeals to the natural curiosity inside all of us instead of just listing facts and scientific data, you can see the process played out on the screen in an engaging way regardless of whether you understand the hard science behind it. I've watched this show since it debuted on TV, since I come from a very physics-and-engineering-inclined family, and it's up there with Good Eats and Mystery Science Theater 3000 on the list of shows everyone in my family watches together. Something this article didn't mention was the charisma of the hosts, Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage. They're the perfect people to host a show like this: intelligent but not afraid to get messy, meticulous and thorough in their experiments, and goofy without seeming like they're pandering to a certain demographic. When I was younger my brother and I wanted to be the sixth and seventh Mythbusters, and though I know now that won't ever happen I can still appreciate the problem-solving and creativity skills the show encouraged in us.
Mythbusters completely shaped a huge aspect of my childhood. It has done so much to encourage young children to pursue not only careers in the stem field, but also careers in the artistic fields. I noticed that mythbusters does this amazing thing where they combine different scientific principles with artistic ideas. This definitely applies to Kari, who I was obsessed with as a child, because she was a sculptor and an artist who also had scientific backgrounds. I spent so long wanting to be Kari when I grew up. I still kind of do.
That really gets to the root of why Mythbusters is so cool. It does not only introduce science and engineering to young children, but it does so in a very unbiased, genderless way. It allows people of all ages and genders to gain an interest in this topic. Oftentimes, STEM events end up being geared more towards men tend to develop this sexist feeling about them. And even if they are purposefully geared towards women, the sexist vibe still remains with the nature of the events and activities. Mythbusters is geared towards people. Just generic people, and that's what I love.
I want to start of this green page comment with personally thanking the myth busters for doing what they do. Thanks to them so many of my greater world questions have been answered. They are not scared to research and do the crazy and stupid things that most people would be scared to even try in an effort to create some great TV as well as answering the questions of many people around the world. The only questionable part of everything they do is how much of it is TVized. In other words, what is scripted or edited to create good entertainment and is not completely true. However, I choose to trust it because that is significantly easier than me trying these things out on my own. Just think about it, with out the Myth Busters, we wouldn’t know so many awesome things that we know today! Just for that we owe our thanks!
Not Mythbusters! I remember watching them all the time when I was a kid, and I still go back and watch more episodes every once in a while. They really had the best way to teach kids (and adults, lets be real) about science in a really fun and engaging way. Every episode was a journey because no one, not even anyone on the show, knew how the experiment was going to turn out and they would keep trying more and more elaborate ways to give the myth a chance to be right and they would get into the most ridiculous situations.
Another reason why I think the show went so well for kids was because they never downplayed children's intelligence or capacity to learn. You can see so many other children shows that are supposed to teach science giving the most dumbed down version possible because children wont understand anything else. But with Mythbusters they just did the science and showed how everything was being done. Their support of the STEM fields and interest in science in general, is so important. I really hope that this trend of science being cool continues because we could always use more people in the STEM fields to find out more cool things about our world and universe. What Neil deGrasse Tyson is doing with Cosmos is already a step in the right direction to have more shows which show pure science in a fun way. I certainly hope they keep doing reruns for as long as possible so the current generation of kids can still watch it.
I’m incredibly curious to know what lead to their decision to end the show now. For so much of my life Mythbusters has been one of the mainstays of my tv watching. As my taste in shows would change and the way I’d watch them would change the one thing that was likely to hold steady was watching Mythbusters. It even managed to be one of the few shows that everyone in my family (and I do mean everyone, even aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents) liked to watch. The last show that did that was The West Wing. The Mythbusters have had such a huge effect on the people of our country. Their reach was widespread enough that they got asked to the White House so the President could get them to retest a myth. Loosing them may not leave a hole in our science education but it will leave one in the motivation of young people to learn science.
Even as a kid not particularly interested in science, watch Mythbusters fed my insatiable curiosity like so few shows do. I was so fascinated by their "if it does work this way, we'll try another way" mentality, and the creative way they tackled even the most unusual problems (How do we see if a piece of paper can be folded in half more than 7 times? Make a piece of paper the size of a football field, of course!). It put a wonderful feeling of fun into the scientific process, and provoked a desire to build and create that hasn't ceased since. I remember one great quote from one of the hosts Adam, which was that "The only difference between screwing around and science is writing it down." It kept discovery from being stuffy, and reminded me of how much I could do with my own two hands. Thanks Mythbusters. It's been quite a ride.
I heard Myth Busters was going into their final season a while ago, and was shocked and saddened. I used to watch the show when I was a kid, one of the few education shows my parents would allow, and even now I will watch it on occasion. I am not surprised that we owe thanks to the Myth Busters team. I think they really did hit the nail on the head with the show. From a personal stand point, this is something I could love to work on. Well, I guess not this show anymore, but something similar. The challenges that it would present would be thrilling to work on. Trying to coordinate all the places they went to test new experiments and all the different objects they needed, all while keeping in a budget. To see the production teams process would be very interesting. Did they plan out an entire season at a time, or just go for each episode and let it take you where ever it went.
I LOVE THE MYTHBUSTERS AND I’M SO SAD THAT THE SHOW IS ENDING! I legitimately cried a little bit when I found out about the cancellation of the show. Mythbusters was the show that got me interested in what I’m doing today: backstage magic. Jamie and Adam taught me to love applied science and math because it can create incredible things. In school, math and science bored me to no end because it was constant memorization and that was all. Applied math and science was the real fun part. This got me interested in engineering, which lead me eventually to this damned career path which will hopefully get me lots of money but it is very doubtful. When I say I want to get lots of money, I don’t mean I want to get as rich as a famous actor. I want enough money to comfortably live and pay my bills for once. Growing up in a lower middle class family, I know what it’s like to struggle to pay the bills, but my hope is to keep the American Dream alive and move up in rank to have a better life for myself.
I used to love this show, I mean whats not to like about watching people blow things up and test out theories you have seen in Movies, on TV or theorized in a paper. People continue to try to do new and stupid tricks, especially in movies and science fiction, and its nice to know if its actually possible or not. While a lot of what the tested wasn’t ground breaking, it was thought provoking and amusing. Science is incredibly important and it often hard to get kids to watch science shows instead of cartoons and what ever silly show is popular at the time. Shows like bill Nye aren’t really aired anymore, and while Myth busters have have not been quite as overtly ‘science-y’ as Bill Nye, it opened up young peoples minds about what you can be capable of with the help of science and maybe ever created a few young scientists.
As someone who watched a decent amount of MythBusters, I was sad last week to hear that the show was coming to a close. The show had become a movement of its own, creating such a strong fan base that the idea of the show ever ending seemed impossible. I think the author’s argument that the show is partly responsible for an increased interest in science and engineering in America is completely true. The MythBusters approached science in a far more creative and curious manner than had been previously presented, and did so in a very open and engaging way. The scientific method was suddenly far more tangible for many young Americans watching the show.
Aside from finding the engineering and maker aspects of the show interesting, I think one of the show’s strongest pulls is that it is essentially a show about problem solving. Each episode Adam and Jamie, along with their team, are presented with questions they need to find some sort of answer to (even if that answer is “we don’t know!”). This requires them to think quickly and find logical solutions to sometimes out-there problems. I think inspiring this type of creativity and eagerness to attack problems is important for all viewers, including those who didn’t go on to pursue STEM sciences. I think it is also important that the show was honest and straightforward about failure. If the MythBusters’ tests were inconclusive, they were honest about it, and this is important because oftentimes scientists find that they need to perform further testing to find an answer. And this is an OK result because it doesn’t mean that we are giving up, but just that we are acknowledging that a different approach is needed. This concept is also both applicable and important outside of the science world.
The MythBusters show inspired future scientists, engineers, and inventors, while also inspiring a desire for problem-solving and question-asking in many other viewers.
Wow. Talk about the end of what feels like an era! Mythbusters was a fantastic show and really went a long way towards inspiring people to actively think about and be curious about STEM and science in general. I think the show was particularly fascinating because of Adam and Jamie's Theatrical/Stagecraft & Special FX background. In a way, it feels like Adam and Jamie were the origin of the "Maker Community", whereby average people can be empowered to create complex physical devices. Ultimately, it just reinforces the notion that here at school we are training not only to be Theatrical designers and technicians, but something more, if not preparing us for anything we want to do. Furthermore, Mythbusters made the Scientific Method both exciting and entertaining. It is so much more easy and accessible to get interested in at least nominally "furthering the knowledge of Mankind" when you have two exciting and personable Television characters to get behind.
I remember when Mythbusters first aired, and what I remember about it even at its origin was that it was never about the myth itself or about the science. I was about the puzzle that creates the scientific process. I often think about the impact that society has on the TV shows that we watch, but the article implies that the TV shows airing at this point in recent history actually helped shape society. As theatre artists, we often think about what the impact of our piece is supposed to be, and I guess I never thought about if TV shows do as well. I always thought they existed solely to make a profit, but perhaps there is the potential for a subset of popular television that has thought about its sociological impact.
In particular, Mythbusters is interesting because it says that the process and the journey is often more important than the result.
I think we as theatre artists share a passion for process with scientists which we often don't consider. To fail to do so is a disservice to ourselves as creators. Think about it: here we are, rehearsing, designing, preparing, and experimenting every day to follow through a process which we know and trust but can never guarantee. We do all we can to make the process as educational and discovery-oriented as possible, to use it as a platform for something which we know to be more than just a performance. And then the show opens, and all the audience sees of that is the tip of the iceberg, because that is our job - to hide the enormous underbelly of the work. Scientists in labs across the globe are doing essentially the same thing every day; they experiment, they discover, the follow a process, and ultimately they present to the world but a fraction of that for viewing. Mythbusters, however, did something essential to the survival of science - it made the process interesting. Because as cool as the tip of the iceberg is, the underbelly has so much more to offer. By making the acts of discovery fascinating to watch, Mythbusters took the stagnancy out of science and proved to the viewing public that it was all much more than just facts. In my opinion, theatre could use a little bit of process publicity too. Yes, it is important to create a world for audiences to live in which is so airtight it eliminates their awareness of any design or direction. However, once the curtain falls all they've walked away with is a static, beginning-to-end plot line. Pulling back the curtain on the world of the theatrical process could do a lot to reinvigorate the public's passion for performance art. This could be tricky, I know, as so much of the work we do is judged based on its invisibility. However, I think to strike the right balance could work wonders for public appreciation of theatre as an art form, just as Mythbusters helped sky-rocket a love of science as a process rather than stone-cold facts. I know many would argue that showing our inherently unseen process defeats its purpose - but it could also be the very thing which allows us to keep practicing it. More so, it could be the thing which inspires a new generation of performers, designers, directors, and producers to make passion-fueled work.
Mythbusters for me was a great show because it allowed young audiences and a younger me that we can figure out anything if we put our minds to it. we have so many unanswered questions in our lives but we dont try to figure them out because we are lazy or we think we cant. the show was able to put popular questions to the test and make people think about what else they could figure out. At the end of one episode i watch i found myself asking all sorts of different questions like how deep is the ocean really, what has gone down there to figure it out? has anything gone down there. these questions are what make people do amazing things like go to the moon or cure sickness. Even if the show was just entertainment to 90% of those watching , at least that 10% (which is a lot) were inspired to go out and learn more. These kids might be the next creators and visionaries but what I think the original show was trying to capture was really great entertainment and an even greater message to those watching.
The best part about Mythbusters to me is that Jamie and Adam both initially came from the entertainment industry, which was really my first exposure to the idea that you can figure out how to do almost anything, it just takes the right combination of research, iteration, and ingenuity. As a kid, it was really freaking cool to watch them figure out how to blow stuff up, and analyse the results of the explosion. Their ability to do all the crazy stuff I can't do in real life was just really fun to watch.
The other thing I love about Mythbusters as an adult is how it effectively scales the scientific method that kids learn in school to a level that is really fun and exciting. School science experiments are frequently kind of boring because you're demonstrating something that people have demonstrated 80 million times before, and it has to be small/inexpensive enough that everyone can do it, and safe enough that idiot teenagers won't hurt themselves etc. etc. I know Mythbusters has received some flack for the way in which they demonstrate the scientific method, but the essential ideas are all there, and it engages people far more than any science lab I've ever done has...
Growing up I was always shown more Bill Nye the science guy in science class but heard the stories of myth busters being an amazing show. Now while middle school ended my dream of being an Astronaut all because I didn’t enjoying writing a basic lab report, that all probably could have been changed for me had I been shown how not always using the scientific method could be boring. I believe what made myth busters so success is they took an approach to science that everyone could connect to by examining common well-known myths like how Schrodinger’s cat thought experiment explained the idea of quantum superposition to the general public by creating a thought experiment involving cats! The idea of using myths that everyone knew was fun and helping people better engage in learning without feeling like they were really learning. And I am happily surprised to know that myth busters helped start the DIY community in my generation because I feel like so often now people are missing out on the satisfaction from creating something yourself.
I honestly had no idea the Mythbusters were ending until right now when I read this article, and I personally find it all extremely saddening. I think this article hits the nail on the head in many ways, Adam and Jamie really became symbols of scientific curiosity and expertise in our time, and likely began the recent trend that shows like the Big Bang Theory owe there success to, which is the discovery of everyone's "inner nerd". Having watched the shows for several years now I think I owe a lot of my scientific curiosity to the Mythbusters for helping me see the cool more extrapolated applications of scientific principles which helped spark my interest in learning the base principles that add up to the great feats the myth busters preformed. Even now that I'm pursuing a career in art I'm thankful for the Mythbusters contribution in sparking my creativity and helping me find new approaches to problems/ways to think. The show was really a pinnacle symbol for science in our time, and it will greatly be missed.
First off, I am distraught and at a loss for how I am going to function when MythBusters is no longer creating new episodes. I secretly hope that the show will really only be off the air for a few seasons and then come back as itself or a reimagined version of itself. Jamie and Adam are surprisingly personable for what I would consider two rather eccentric special effects masters. The dichotomy the two have on air has given us not only this new found respect for tinkering and science, but also for opposing ideas and the mentality of toleration. By no means do Adam and Jamie agree 100% on everything they do, and that is one of the most important aspects of the show. They aren’t fighting against one another, they are fighting for a solution and taking different approaches to get there. The mutual respect and scholarly regard they have for one another is not something that we see very often. In addition to all of the exposure that science and creativity are getting through MythBusters, Jamie and Adam are also showing us how to conduct ourselves in a competitive environment where the end result is almost always unknown.
Jamie and Adam made science cool! They inspired nearly an entire generation of physicists, scientists, special effects artists and engineers, theatre makers, stuntmen, and overall curious minds. I strongly believe that this won't truly be the end of MythBusters because I have a feeling that there's going to be someone else who comes along and continues to do this kind of work and televise it in maybe a slightly different format. There are already science YouTube channels that are doing MythBusters-style work, but catering to a more computer-centric audience. It was a show that got more people to ask the question "why?" and even more people genuinely curious to find answers to those questions. They also showed people to be unafraid of the unexpected, and that every result is something one can learn from. They never approached a problem or a question with a closed mind, and they took all of their experiments as far as they could go. And they also highlighted professions and organizations that could help curious minds find answers to questions, and how to do so safely, by televising the fact that they were consulting professionals for their larger experiments and letting everyone know where they got the equipment they used. I don't think MythBusters is truly over. I think they just created more myth busters.
I watched that show quite a bit over the years, every time it brought about a new direction, as to what myth they were undertaking. On a slightly similar note, it’s almost like watching How It’s Made on television. It has its own set of intrigue, because you never really thought about how something like that could be made, but there it is. MythBusters is constantly catching the eye, and that’s what has been so great about it. Some of the things you’d always thought about but never were satisfied with your own thought up answer, and they helped provide one for you. They are able to do experiments on a larger scale than what you might be able to do at home, which probably makes it that much cooler. They are able to bring about a diverse audience, because well, if you blow stuff up, you’ve got the guys, if you making some chemical reactions happening, or just talking about various types of processes, I’m sure you’ve got just about everybody else.
Excluding the current season, I have watched every episode of Mythbusters. It is one of my favorite shows on TV, even if I’m watching reruns. Being interested in science and engineering, I was drawn to the show. Especially seeing Adam get hurt. Some of the myths that they tested have true relevance to the theater industry – like their experiment involving steel-toed shoes. I have actually used that in one of my classes to demonstrate the importance of safety. While seeing Adam get hurt is funny, one of the things the Mythbusters did was to encourage safe practices. Whether it was working with firearms, large cables, or shearing the valve off a gas cylinder, they maintained safety to a high standard. While their disclaimer may not have discouraged people from “trying this at home”, many of their results showed why you shouldn’t. I was fortunate enough to see Adam and Jamie live when they came through Detroit on their tour. They have truly inspired a generation and gotten support from across the country, including the President and First Lady. I will miss watching their experiments and the way they entertain through science (or science through entertaining). And seeing Adam get hurt.
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