Ever wonder what kinds of shows engineers like to watch? Well, if you
really want to know, read on.
Filmed at the Millennium Dome in London, this British TV show televises high school and university students tackling engineering problems. It's not too frilly, so you really get to see the robots in action. I've only seen it once, but would like to see more.
A show on Comedy Central which broadcasts BattleBots competitions. Do yourself a favor and watch the events live. I don't get Comedy Central on my cable service, so I've only seen the show once or twice, but what I did see was pretty mundane. It's much more exciting in person, but then you'll have to deal with former American Gladiators stars as commentators.
The result of litigation which ceased the live Robot Wars competitions in 1997. It's a British show, hosted by that smeghead from Red Dwarf. And worse still, it's made-for-TV, rather than a televised production of a live event, so it gets pretty hokey at times. Look for it on PBS stateside.
One of my favorite TV shows ever. Bill Nye taught me, from an early age, that being a dork is not only fun, but cool and exciting too. Nowadays it's fun to see how relatively complicated concepts such as inertia and momentum can be presented to a younger audience. I still learn things from this show! Unfortunately, it appears to have disappeared from the airwaves. Hopefully it will resurface soon.
The grandfather of them all. Don Herbert invited kids over to his house to teach them about science. I have fond memories regarding various episodes: using similar triangles to measure the height of a tree, using a starting pistol and two walkie-talkies to demonstrate the relative speeds of sound and light, and even using a large fresnel lens to cook a hot dog.
One of the coolest shows currently being produced (as of 07/15/2001). Two teams run amuck in a well-stocked junkyard for approximately ten hours, rushing to build a machine to complete the objective of the day. Challenges have included building submersible vehicles, grain harvesters, and high-efficiency racing machines. It's a lot of fun to gather your dorky friends and watch together. Unfortunately, since TLC has imported the show to the USA, the quality has gone downhill. The competitors are still cool, but the "dopey American guy" host grates on me. I liked the British pair better. But at least they kept Cathy Rodgers...
Another very cool show, which aired about ten years ago on TLC. The basic premise: two British guys explain how stuff works, both through illuminating cartoons very large models where necessary. One of them was named Bruno. I've got to respect a show which can hold my attention for half an hour while discussing nothing but the internals of a sewing machine.
This was a truly great show when hosted by Richard Hart and televised nationally on the Discovery Channel. New technologies in computers, aerogels, and all sorts of other interesting stuff were covered. Then Hart left to start c|net, and the show moved to BayTV, which shifted the focus primarily to computer software, hardware, and the Internet. Bah.
This hour-long show from Australia featured correspondants travelling the globe reporting on the latest developments in science and technology. I haven't seen this show on the Discovery Channel in years, but according to the website, it's still in production.
This show was virtually identical to Beyond 2000, but was only half an hour long, and didn't go into quite as much depth in its stories. It aired around the same time as its twin, and disappeared from the airwaves in a similar manner.
TLC tries to capitalize on the success of robotics programming, and appears to do a mediocre job. I haven't seem much of the show, but from the clips and previews that I have seen, it looks a bit too flashy and produced for my tastes.