Bear Grylls...Man vs. NOT so wild?

Discovery Channel is re-evaluating one of its most popular series, "Man vs. Wild," after allegations surfaced that its survival-expert host was bunking in motels when he was supposed to be braving the great outdoors.

www.reuters.com...

Seems Bear isnt all he claims to be.

I never really liked this show mainly because i felt ALOT of what he was shown doing didnt seem to be the best for survival on your own in the wilderness. Running down the side of mountains,climbing under glaciers.

But when you have a camera crew and a nice warm hotel room i guess you gotta go for it.

Not a huge shock to me. Any man who would treat his knife that way cant be real, Stay dry stay alive, is what I was always told. That guy is never dry.

Like all things however there is a good side. It has brought attention to the survival community and given us more of a main stream slant. A community that doesn't grow with new blood dies with the old.

I couldn't agree more with angryamerican's first comment. One of the first thing I was ever told was to "stay dry" when I saw this guy jump into a river i knew the whole thing was just for ratings. In fact im always hoping someones doesn't die because of his 'advice'.

I fully agree!
This guy climbs up waterfalls to get milk from a tree for his tummy ache! Seems to me this Bear is anything but wild.

Who names their kid Bear anyway?
That is just silly!

Originally posted by Edn
In fact im always hoping someones doesn't die because of his 'advice'.

Thats the same thing i told my girlfriend..this guy is gonna get someone killed. As far as shows go ill take Les Stroud over anything Bear says anyday.

I watched one episode of this show and knew it was crap. The situation were so preposterous and he never showed anything of real use. Acting like this in a real survival situation would get him and broken leg or arm easy and he would be screwed.

I do however, enjoy Survivorman. It's realistic and the premise is great, they just strand him somewhere and he has to film it himself. His traps always look picture perfect and he almost always cooks his food.

I'm glad this Man Vs Ratings guy is going down.

Les Stroud is the man.

I don't like this Bear guy. His name sounds like a cafe at UC Berkeley. (Go Bears).

The Man vs. Wild that had me going was when he was in Utah, found a corpse of some animal in the water, said one drop of it would make him sick or kill him, then he dove in and started swimming through it.

It's definitely a poor imitation of Survivorman.

My friend told me he heard Bear was sleeping in motels,
and I didn't believe him. I said I'd have to see it here on
ATS, and well, I stand corrected.

I'm disappointed, but the obvious has been stated, Survivorman is better.

There was another news article in one of the papers today about him faking a grizly bear coming into there camp, apparently they couldn't get a tame bear so they got someone to dress up as one..

Id link to the story but I cant remember what paper it was, if anyone knows please let me know.

Why would this cause even the slightest bit of outrage. Discovery Channel is re-evaluating this show? Why?

It's television. It's entertainment. It's meant to get ratings, and nothing more.

"Oh no, the reality show lied to me"
At least reality shows are aware that they're entertainment.

Where's the outrage that the mainstream news lies, distorts, and manipulates? Oh that's right, the news would have to report on and CAUSE the outrage, and since the news doesn't report that it's lying, it obviously isn't.

Let's see a "survive-off" between Grylls and Les Stroud. Nah, let's make it a celebrity death match.

Really, since the very beginning, Man Vs. Wild has subjected itself to this kind of scrutiny. In one episode, he's "swimming" the rapids of a river, clearly wearing a life jacket under his sweater. I understand the need for safety in a situation like that, but the premise of the show is to survive with what you've got. Didn't happen to have a life jacket, don't get in the water.

In my opinion, taking Bear Grylls' advice will net you three things in the wild. You'll be cold, you'll be wet, and you'll have a dull, bent, useless knife.

The show is pretty good as far as entertainment value, but it's definitely not what it portrays itself to be. As far as I'm concerned, it might as well be filmed on a set.

Viva Survivorman.

I have been fortunate enough to have met Bear some years ago. This is whilst i was serving in the military. he is a decent guy and all that but dont be fooled by the TV show. This man tells you he has one camera team with him and then he decides to rock climb down a waterfall. Along the way is a camera filming him from the top, a camera from the bottom a camera following him down and sometimes he holds one himself yet he has nothing to hold a camera with. In other words its obvious there is a big team with Bear and its obvious they do as many takes as nes to get their shot. At the end of every born survivor episode he always finds civillian settlements etc just when he cant go on much longer. (Yeah Right) and this is supposedly a ex SAS man. Dont even get me started on this fella he is the fakest of em all

I dont know which of the 2 shows but everytime I randomly watch it, he always seems to find a cache of pots, pans, small tools, utilities, and the funny thing is he always says that they must have been left behind by other campers, and he makes it seem likes its normal to find your survival pots and pans if you ever get stuck in the wild.

First off I love this show and I've watched it a lot.

Before this article came out some time last week I suspected he was faking stuff.

They showed some uninterrupted / unobstructed shots of him spear fishing and he wasn't catching a thing. Then magically, all of a sudden, he's catching fish - but the shot is obstructed. It shows a close up of him throwing the spear and then the shot where he is pulling the fish out of the water was from an obstructed camera angle from behind a tree.

As soon as I saw it I knew it was being faked - why not just show the whole sequence of him throwing the spear and then coming up with the fish ?!

PLUS he always has a camera man with him !

There is another show, which probably isn't faked where the guy doesn't have a camera man with him, he has to move/setup the cameras himself.

Yea for hollywood trickery !

Originally posted by Sunsetspawn
Why would this cause even the slightest bit of outrage. Discovery Channel is re-evaluating this show? Why?

Because some people believe that everything they see on tv is fact, when about 2% really is. People also assume everything has to be true because its on the discovery channel. TV is entertainment.

If people didn't automatically believe everything they hear, this wouldn't be such a big issue.

I agree with the above post, people believe far too much they see on the boob tube. I dont mind this show, it is entertaining, even though the guy is full of crap. They should have a disclaimer or something that says this is for entertainment purposes only, some of the things bear does should never be attempted in a real survival situation as they will surely get you killed. Like I said though it is entertaining, for me it is an opportunity to show my family what not to do in a survival situation. There was one show when he was in the sierra nevadas, a place where I have spent many hours, eastern slope western slope, I can pretty much pinpoint what elevation it is by pictures. While he was decending down the mountain he jumps into a river in the foothills, then the next shot after he gets out of the river is in alpine terrain again. Maybe there is a river in California that flows uphill somewhere, but I have never seen it. That is the first man vs wild I ever saw, and besides that scene he was running down hills etc etc, I thought man what a load of horse crap this guy is. I dont think they should pull the show though, it gives me something to laugh at. I will watch survivor man for something resembling real world survival.

He was in the TA SAS,I have a friend who was an instructor there and i was kind of surprised there even is a TA unit!

www.stuff.themutual.net...

Recently bear made the news here for being very fake-he is fit as a butchers dog but doesnt rough it at night

There is a TA regiment in fact i think there are 2 which are 21SAS and 23SAS

21 is based in London and 23 is based in Manchester. 23 i definitely know of because i have been in that place many of times whilst serving myself
in the armed forces

Yes he is ex-SAS and that is important to remember when considering how useless this show is for survival tips. SAS have to keep moving and never stop to make shelter or a camp. They have to survive on enemy territory for extended periods and make due with limited rations. The important things to remember is that SAS go in with a pack full of useful stuff - they aren't in emergency survival situations.

He has a great knowledge of plants and is a skilled climber but he does things that are strictly against the rules when you are a lone person attempting to survive in the wild. It makes more sense when you consider that most of his training is in 4 man groups and 2 man fire teams. He isn't used to being alone and it is obvious he never thinks about nor mentions consequences like "If I do this and sprain my ankle climbing the tree I could be dead."

Someone said it best in another forum:
You are in a small plane that just crashed with both Les Stroud and Bear Grylls and only the three of you survived. After you split the supplies 3 ways, Bear goes in one direction and Les in the other.

Who would you follow?

Jon

Bear is an idiot. I might just follow bear for the entertainment value, and so i can tell rescuers where to find his body when i get out. I'd follow les though cause we'd get along well.

Man VS Wild is exactly that, man battling AGAINST nature, like a competition to "survive" the fastest. Solo adventure race repackaged and scripted. I have a sneaking suspicion it's actually intended to discourage the average city dweller from venturing outside the cities, convinced they can't do what bear does, and therefore would not survive.

Stroud and Mears are some of the best shows for real survival mentality. These guys aren't acting like they're on speed, wasting precious energy, running blindly through foliage and jumping off waterfalls, they'll sit down, evaluate the situation, formulate a plan and carry it out in a deliberate methodical manner with safety in mind.

I laughed, and was angry over the Ecuador episode when he was in the cloud forest, he waited till it rained to try and start a fire. If he was actually intent on making a fire he would have gathered dry stuff along the way and let it air out as he walked. If it did start to rain, cover it with something like your shirt or some large leaves while you get it going. The clip where he's sitting there wearing out his flint trying to light soaked tinder was funny, but i was angry that such an incompetent fool is demonstrating no forethought, singlemindedly rushing towards the goal with no regard for safety in a panicked rush as survival technique.

I'm going to start making my own survuval show, i did a few clips the other day on digging water and eating Manzanitas. I'll start bringing a camera and filming Stroud style this season. We have ATS video, right? Can I post my own survival show? I don't have a camera crew, or even a good camera, but somebody needs to do it. I need to get a bunch of memory cards.