Where is Bear?

Bear Grylls in Man vs. Wild What happened to Bear Grylls, and why isn’t he back on TV?

I wrote about about the Grylls fiasco three weeks ago, and fully expected him to issue an apology. Sadly, I cannot watch Bear’s exploits after lunch anymore, because Grylls still has not apologized, and Man vs. Wild is still off the air.

UK’s Channel 4 is not renewing their version of the Grylls show for next season. The Discovery Channel was supposed to bring his show back with a disclaimer, unfortunately, Bear seems to have been replaced in the schedule by Survivorman.

Another Blow for Bear

Grylls suffered another setback over the weekend, when the UK Sunday Times reported that he faked scenes on a Hawaiian volcano.

In one episode Grylls was supposed to be on top of a volcano, surrounded by pits of molten lava, and engulfed by noxious fumes. It was terrific!

Alas, it was too terrific for anyone, including Bear Grylls, because his crew created the lava and smoke. The ersatz lava was actually coals, of the barbecue variety, and the smoke was Hollywood smoke.

Bring Bear Back

Despite all of Bear’s chicanery, I really miss Man vs. Wild.

The Discovery Channel should rename “Man vs. Wild” —> “The Adventures of Bear Grylls” and bring it back as fiction. Grylls should be allowed to use special effects.

Bear Grylls Meets The Mythbusters

The Discovery Channel should precede each show with a warning:

“Don’t Try This At Home!”

Do you think Bear Grylls should be allowed to use stunt doubles too?

Comments

Audrey

Honestly, at this particular juncture, I’m disappointed with Mr.Grylls. No longer do we look forward to a Friday night premier at 9pm, because Mr. Grylls has practically been taken off the air. Thanks for this goes to
you, the public, for your gross misinterpretation of fact.
How much of the television that you watch is uncensored? Uncut? Or unblemished truth? None. So why do we continue to punish Mr. Grylls for attempting to spice up fact with a little drama?
The Discovery Channel in and of itself doesn’t actually (big surprise) get a great deal of highly rated (or watched) shows. Bear Grylls was going to change all of that by creating a fun and exciting show and marketing it for the general public. And in order to keep the attention of the ever changing climate that is public interest, you must continue feeding us things we feel
we can find no where else.
And even skeptics have to admit, no one had ever seen sensationalism of this caliber from a survival show. For weeks Mr. Grylls kept us all glued to our seats watching some of the best television, I believe I’ve ever seen.
Maybe it wasn’t “real”, but it was a real interpretation of what might actually have transpired, and it really showed how Mr. Grylls would have handled things should he have had the misfortune to be stranded in some of the
most remote locations on the globe, and had things go terribly wrong, (i.e. the “bear” incident.”)
Where else am I going to find someone to brave the wilderness, and show me (the average American, who never plans to be in a non-climate controlled environment for longer than absolutely necessary) how to defend my
poor pitiful self against terrain and animals, the like of which I’ve never and probably will never, see.
So, my point is simple. Leave Mr. Grylls alone. He’s just doing what the rest of us would. He found a great idea, he exhausted it’s truth, and used
fiction to keep it interesting, since it was making him SO MUCH MONEY.
Wouldn’t all of us have done the same?

Mitch

I don’t agree with “all of us would have done the same”, because nobody should ever misrepresent themself.

But I agree with your point:
Bear Grylls has no ethics or morals, but neither do most of our politicians, and that doesn’t keep them off TV. I also agree with you that Man vs. Wild is “some of the best television I’ve ever seen” – and it makes no sense to keep Bear Grylls, and Man vs. Wild, off TV.