Friday, June 25, 2010




Reality Check: Summer Edition #1

Ode to the History Channel

Every TV lover knows that one of the very few bad things about the summer is the television lineup. Like you all know, I love reality shows, but I hate this Housewife crap. I just can’t get myself to watch it. I’m sorry. I tried. So one night, while flicking around in the hundreds on Fios, I stopped on the history channel where I saw a commercial for a new show called, “Top Shot.”

This show takes renowned marksmen from around the country (one guy is from England) and makes them compete in various competitions. The winner gets the title of “Top Shot” and $100,000. The cool thing is that they are not only shooting guns. They are shooting historical guns, throwing knives and shooting bows and arrows. Another cool thing is that it is hosted by Survivor Alum Colby Donaldson! Would I be watching this show if it was on in the fall? Maybe not, but I like it enough to keep watching for now!

What this show did do is open me up to a world of shows on the History Channel. I actually really like Pawn Stars and American Pickers. Pawn Stars is about a Las Vegas pawnshop. They might take anything that is worth money, but I like when they focus on historical memorabilia. The other day, a guy brought in buttons that were worn at George Washington’s inauguration. Now, I know I’m a history dork, but that’s pretty cool.

American Pickers are basically two guys who travel across the country and go through people’s collections of antique things, buy certain items and then sell them for retail price. The other day they visited a cement block-making factory where the 89-year-old owner had garages filled with awesome stuff- from cars, to signs, to antique gumball machines. Mindless television, yes, but very entertaining!

So now, much like the D-I-Y channel and HGTV, the History Channel is on in the Jones household often. Try to check some of these shows out one day if you are bored. I promise you that they are not disappointing.


See you guys soon... keep watchin!!!

1 comment:

  1. Mindless television? No. Sounds pretty educational to me. This 'Top Shot' sounds pretty cool..I'll give it a shot. (no pun intended)

    I just wish I could find these channels. They moved all of them around recently and I can't even find CNN to watch the news. I wish the channels were more stable like network TV is.

    Morgan Freeman and Stephen Hawkinf have a couple of really cool science shows on one of the science channels that I caught last weekend. I wish I could recommend them...but who can remember what channel those were on. Bah!

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