MythBusters

The series concept was created for the Discovery Channel as Tall Tales or True[5] by Australian writer and producer Peter Rees of Beyond Productions in 2002. Discovery rejected the proposal initially because they had just commissioned a series on the same topic. Rees refined the pitch to focus on testing key elements of the stories rather than just retelling them. Discovery agreed to develop and co-produce a three-episode series pilot. Jamie Hyneman was one of a number of special effects artists who were asked to prepare a casting video for network consideration. Rees had interviewed him previously for a segment of the popular science series Beyond 2000 about the British/American robot combat television series Robot Wars. Adam Savage, who had worked with Hyneman in commercials and on the robot combat television series BattleBots, was asked by Hyneman to help co-host the show because, according to Savage, Hyneman thought himself too uninteresting to host the series on his own.[6][7]

During July 2006, an edited thirty-minute version of MythBusters began airing on BBC Two in the UK. The episodes shown on the European Discovery Channel sometimes include extra scenes not shown in the United States version (some of these scenes are included eventually in "specials", such as "MythBusters Outtakes").

The fourteenth season, which premiered in January 2016, was the final season for the series with Savage and Hyneman.[8]

Adam Savage returned to TV with the show Mythbusters Jr., without his original co-host Jamie Hyneman, but with a cast of teenagers, hence the name. The show debuted on the Science Channel on January 2, 2019[9] with rebroadcasts every Saturday morning on Discovery, as well as international broadcasts.

Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman are the original MythBusters, and initially explored all the myths of the series using their combined experience with special effects. The two worked at Hyneman's effects workshop, M5 Industries; they made use of his staff, who often worked off-screen, with Hyneman and Savage usually shown doing most of the work at the shop. The show is narrated by Robert Lee, though in some regions his voice is replaced by a local narrator.

As the series progressed, members of Hyneman's staff were introduced and began to appear regularly in episodes. Three such members, artist Kari Byron, builder Tory Belleci and metal-worker Scottie Chapman, were organized as a second team of MythBusters during the second season, dubbed the "Build Team". After Chapman left the show during the third season, Grant Imahara, a colleague of Hyneman, was hired to provide the team with his electrical and robotics experience. Byron went on maternity leave in mid-2009, with her position on the Build Team temporarily filled by Jessi Combs,[10] best known for co-hosting Spike's Xtreme 4x4. Byron returned in the second episode of season eight. The Build Team worked at its own workshop, called M7,[11] investigating separate myths from the original duo. Each episode typically alternated between the two teams covering different myths. During the Build Team's tenure, Belleci was the only member to appear in every myth that the team tested. At the end of the 2014 season finale "Plane Boarding", Savage and Hyneman announced that Byron, Belleci, and Imahara would not be returning in 2015. This was reportedly over salary negotiations due to the rising cost of 5 hosts. Hyneman and Savage would return to being the sole hosts.[2][3][12] Byron, Belleci, and Imahara would go on to host Netflix's White Rabbit Project.

The series had two interns, dubbed "Mythterns": Discovery Channel contest winner Christine Chamberlain and viewer building contest-winner Jess Nelson. During the first season, the program featured segments with folklorist Heather Joseph-Witham, who explained the origins of certain myths, and other people who had first-hand experience with the myths being tested, but those elements were phased out early in the series. The MythBusters still commonly consult with experts for myths or topics for which they need assistance. These topics include firearms, for which they mostly consult Lt. Al Normandy of the South San Francisco Police Department, and explosives, for which they consult retired FBI explosives expert Frank Doyle and Sgt. J.D. Nelson of the Alameda County Sheriff's Office. The MythBusters often ask other people, such as those supplying the equipment being tested, what they know about the myth under investigation. When guests are on the show, the MythBusters generally consult them or include them in the experiments.

There is no consistent system for organizing MythBusters episodes into seasons. The program has never followed a typical calendar of on and off air periods. The official MythBusters website lists episodes by year.[13] On the other hand, Discovery sells DVD sets for "seasons", which sometimes follow the calendar year and sometimes do not.[14] In addition, Discovery and retail stores also sell "collections" which divide up the episodes in a different way—each collection has about 10 or 12 episodes from various seasons.

The following table is organized according to year of first broadcast. Including Specials, and the revival series, a total of 296 episodes of MythBusters have aired so far.

Each MythBusters episode focuses typically on two or more popular beliefs, Internet rumors, or other myths. Many of the myths are on mechanical effects as portrayed in live-action films and television of fictional incidents. The list of myths tested by the series is compiled from many sources, including the personal experiences of cast and crew, as well as fan suggestions, such as those posted on The Discovery Channel online MythBusters forums.[15] Occasionally, episodes are produced in which some or all of the myths are related by theme, such as pirates or sharks, and occasionally these are dubbed as "[Theme] Special" episodes. As of May 2009, four myths have required such extensive preparation and testing that they had entire episodes devoted solely to them,[16][17][18][19] and four specials have been double-length.[20][21][22][23] Several episodes (including the 2006 Holiday Special) have included the building of Rube Goldberg machines. Before a myth gets introduced by the hosts, a myth-related drawing is made on a blueprint. After the hosts introduce the myth, a comical video explaining the myth is usually shown.

Many of the myths tested involve purported household scenarios, so all episodes begin with a disclaimer against attempting the experiments seen on the series; most episodes also feature a second warning halfway through the running time. These disclaimers are not broadcast on SBS in Australia, in the Netherlands, Discovery Mix in Sweden, the Discovery Channel in Denmark, or on the Prime and Sky Discovery Channels in New Zealand. Often, they are presented with an element of humor, such as Savage wearing a padded suit as Hyneman hits him in the chest with a baseball bat, or Hyneman explaining that he and Savage are professionals before Savage slides into view and crashes into a barrier while saying, "Don't try this at home!".

The series employs various degrees of safety or courtesy-related censorship. Vulgar language is censored, as the show is considered family-friendly and most such language occurs spontaneously when the team is surprised or overexcited; at other times there is a deliberate effort to keep the scripted material clean. In addition to the standard bleep, the show often uses a relevant or humorous sound effect. Euphemisms and scientific terminology are used for potentially offensive terms.[34] In the "Peeing on the Third Rail" myth, the show censored the valve used to release urine from the dummy. The names of ingredients used in the production of hazardous materials and some explosives are usually censored to prevent amateurs from recreating potentially dangerous substances. For example, in the "Hindenburg" special, Savage ignited thermite with a hypergolic mixture of "blur" (a syrupy, pale blue liquid) and "blur" (a dark powder). In a Civil War-themed episode, the ingredients for making a form of homemade black powder were censored in similar fashion.

In one extreme instance of self-censorship, the team explored an urban legend stating that a widely available material could be used to create an explosive. To their surprise, the seemingly unlikely legend proved true, but the material was so easy to obtain, and the resulting explosion so powerful, that the production team decided it would be irresponsible to allow such information to reach the general public, instead electing to destroy all footage of the experiment and agreeing never to speak of the incident. Only several years later, when DARPA solicited advice from the public regarding potentially unknown bomb risks, did Savage contact them about their discovery.[35]

In another episode that focused on myths surrounding electronic security devices, there was a segment on defeating biometric fingerprint readers using various methods. One of these techniques involved creating a fake 3D fingerprint from a 2D image of the authorized print. After some trial and error, the team successfully cast a viable ballistics gel reproduction using a copper-coated circuit board, a picture of the fingerprint printed on acetate, and a photochemical acid etching process. After the reproduction was shown to defeat both fingerprint scanners, and although the chemicals used during the etching process are never identified, the narrator still hints at an important step having been edited out and discourages viewers from trying it themselves. None of the other techniques that successfully defeated the fingerprint scanners or the other security devices tested in the episode were censored or obfuscated, perhaps because the rest were all fairly simple and straightforward methods, such as holding up a bedsheet or moving extremely slowly to hide from ultrasonic motion detectors or holding up a pane of glass to defeat thermal motion detectors.

Brand names and logos are regularly blurred or covered with tape or a MythBusters sticker. Brand names are shown when integral to a myth, such as in the Diet Coke and Mentos experiment or Pop Rocks in the very first pilot episode of MythBusters.

The Diet Coke and Mentos experiment is also an outlier with respect to their safety warnings, as Savage and Hyneman stated on air that this myth was perfectly safe for viewers to replicate on their own. Another example of this is the "Phone Book Friction" episode, in which they investigated the difficulty of pulling two telephone books apart after their pages had been interleaved. One episode from the 2014 season, "DO Try This at Home?", classified several myths as safe or unsafe for testing by viewers.

Due to the nature of the experiments performed on the show, many have not gone as expected. Sometimes, these mishaps have rendered the test equipment unusable, such as when the rocket in the "Rocket Car Revisit" exploded on ignition. Others have even resulted in minor injuries to the personnel involved with the show, such as when Tory banged his knee falling off a fire tower; the fall was expected and prepared for using a safety harness, but the injury to his knee was unforeseen. The most common injuries are caused when moving safety equipment which has resulted in stitches and at least four broken fingers.[36] These kinds of incidents are usually included in the broadcast program, with little other media attention, but sometimes things fail in more spectacular and news-worthy ways.

In January 2005, children's author and adventurer Andrew Knight commenced legal proceedings in Australia against Beyond Productions, the producer of MythBusters, alleging passing off in relation to the use of the name "MythBusters".[47] Knight asserted that he had previously organized a team of "MythBusters" and had used the name continuously since 1988 in relation to pursuing myths, ghosts, monsters, goblins, and other such mysteries in an offbeat manner around the world. Knight wrote a series of self-published children's books under the banner "MythBusters" in 1991, 1993, and 1996.[48][49] In February 2007, the Federal Court of Australia dismissed Knight's claims against Beyond Productions.[50] A parallel action, relying on the same three books and a collection of short television appearances was brought later that year in the Chancery Division of the High Court of England and Wales. Beyond Properties Pty Limited was again a defendant, as were two other Beyond companies and Discovery Communications Inc, the entity responsible for broadcasting the MythBusters programme in the UK. These claims were also dismissed.[51]

Savage (left) and Hyneman as keynote speakers at Symantec Vision 08

Hyneman and Savage have appeared on numerous entertainment programs, such as Good Morning America,[52] the Late Show with David Letterman,[53] NPR's news program All Things Considered,[54] the syndicated radio Bob and Tom Show, and in the movie The Darwin Awards (as two military surplus vendors who sold a JATO rocket to the main character). Skeptic magazine's Daniel Loxton interviewed the duo in a 2005 article titled "MythBusters Exposed".[55] Hyneman and Savage spoke at the annual convention of the National Science Teachers Association in March 2006, and the California Science Teachers Association named them honorary lifetime members in October 2006.[56] In 2009, they were the featured keynote speakers at RSA Conference.[57] They also are occasionally interviewed for articles by Popular Mechanics and are featured in that magazine's September 2009 issue.[58]

Hyneman and Savage occasionally appear at colleges around the United States to talk about what it is like to be a MythBuster; the show consists of an interview and discussion to give the audience the opportunity to ask the MythBusters questions. The Build Team members have sometimes made appearances in similar capacity. They hold lectures in both collegiate and corporate settings, though the technical colleges tend to be the most enthusiastic.[59][60] They have spoken at WPI, RPI, MIT, Michigan Tech, UC Berkeley and many others.

At the Discovery Channel Young Scientist Challenge posing with Skulls Unlimited International, Inc.'s Jay Villemarette and Joey Williams in 2004

Adam Savage has written a primer on mold-making for Make magazine, and has been featured guest at the San Mateo Maker Faire since 2008. Kari Byron was interviewed on The Late Show, on January 16, 2006.[61]

People involved in survival stories reported in local newscasts have sometimes mentioned previous viewings of MythBusters as an influence to their actions. Twenty-three-year-old Theresa Booth of St. Martin, Minnesota, credits a MythBusters episode for her and her infant child's survival. On April 3, 2007, she skidded off the road into a drainage ditch which had filled with flood water from the Sauk River. Unable to open the door, Booth recalled the Underwater Car myth and waited until the pressure equalized to open the door.[62] On October 19, 2007, in Sydney, Australia, a teenager named Julian Shaw pulled a fainted middle-aged man off the railway tracks near a train station to safety below the platform. He pulled back as the train passed, citing that the "Train Suction" episode affected his response.[63]

The 3rd Annual Independent Investigative Group IIG Awards presented an award to MythBusters recognizing the promotion of science and critical thinking in popular media on May 18, 2009.[64]

On the May 1, 2008 episode of CSI, "The Theory of Everything", Hyneman and Savage appeared in a cameo as observers taking notes during a test to determine whether a taser bolt can set someone on fire under various circumstances (which was later tested on MythBusters itself).

During August 2008, Hyneman and Savage appeared on the stage of NVISION 08, an event sponsored by Nvidia, having been asked by Nvidia's Creative Director, David Wright, to provide a visual demonstration of the power of the GPU vs a CPU. They did this by creating an image of the Mona Lisa with a giant parallel processing paintball gun, setting a world record for largest paintball gun in the process.[65][66][67] An encore of the demonstration was given at YouTube Live featuring Hyneman standing in the path of the paintballs wearing a suit of armor.[68]

On the April 17, 2012, episode of NCIS, "Rekindled", the character Abby Sciuto demonstrates a thermite fire to her boss, Jethro Gibbs, by playing a clip from the MythBusters episode "End with a Bang". Gibbs asks if the men in the clip are pyromaniacs, and she replies, "Scientists, Gibbs! Okay, yeah, they're kind of pyromaniacs too."

Hyneman, Savage, and others from the MythBusters crew have appeared at The Amaz!ng Meeting, and subsequently were interviewed by Dr. Steven Novella and the "skeptical rogues" for the podcast The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe.[69][70] On April 16, 2010, Hyneman and Savage received the Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award in Cultural Humanism from the Harvard Humanist Chaplaincy.[71]

At the White House

On October 18, 2010, President Barack Obama, as part of the White House Science Fair, announced he had taped a segment of MythBusters and would appear on December 8, 2010. Obama's segment covered the Archimedes Solar Ray myth.[72][73]

Both men appeared at the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear on October 30, 2010 in Washington, D.C. They had an experiment with the crowd involving the wave. They had the audience make various noises (e.g. popping their cheeks or laughing) all at the same time. They also had everyone in the crowd jump up at the same time to see if it would register on a seismograph.[74]

Hyneman and Savage received honorary doctorates from the University of Twente in the Netherlands for their role in popularizing science, on the occasion of the university's 50th anniversary, on November 25, 2011.[75]

As of November 2011, all five MythBusters have also appeared in new shows, segments or specials for Discovery's Science Channel including: Head Rush (Byron, 2010–present); Punkin Chunkin 2010 (Hyneman and Savage); Flying Anvils 2011 (Belleci); Road to Punkin Chunkin 2011 and Punkin Chunkin 2011 (Belleci, Byron and Imahara); Large Dangerous Rocket Ships 2010 and Large Dangerous Rocket Ships 2011 (Byron); "Killer Robots: RoboGames 2010" (Imahara); Curiosity (Savage); Punkin Chunkin 2012 (Belleci, Byron and Imahara). Savage and Hyneman are judges on the game show Unchained Reaction which premiered in March 2012. Belleci and Byron are also hosts of the 2015 Science Channel show Thrill Factor.

Aired on February 12, 2012, Hyneman and Savage lent their voices to The Simpsons episode "The Daughter Also Rises" to be featured on a show similar to MythBusters called Mythcrackers in which Hyneman and Savage take on the classic myth that a cat will always land on its feet. In the episode they do not want to harm a real cat so they took a Build A Bear carcass, stuffed it with ballistics gel, shot it with a 20' barrel steam cannon, then made a scatter plot of the remains. By the end of the experiment, Hyneman asked, "What was it we were trying to prove again?" to which Savage replied, "Don't know, don't care." Clips from this show appeared in the MythBusters' Simpsons Special that first aired in 2015.

On October 3, 2012, Byron and Belleci made a guest appearance on the Discovery series Sons of Guns. They test-fired some of the weapons in the Red Jacket shop, then watched as the staff re-tested a myth busted by the Build Team in 2008: that a propane tank could explode when hit with a bullet.

The MythBusters at a 2015 performance in Iowa

In 2015, Hyneman and Savage appeared in a series of Australian television commercials for Dulux paint, depicting them testing the maker's claims of durability.[76][77][78]

In 2016, a New York Times study of the 50 television shows with the most Facebook Likes found that MythBusters "has the second-highest share of 'likes' from men of any show in the data, after Fast N' Loud.[79]

MythBusters is broadcast in several countries, primarily by each country's version of the Discovery Channel. In some countries, the English speech is either subtitled in the relevant language, or the narration voice-over is replaced, or the entire show (narration and hosts' voices) is dubbed. The United States customary units, used by the hosts throughout the show, are converted to metric in the process. In the UK since 2011, the use of US customary units in the show has often been retained, rather than being replaced with metric units. Sometimes, the part where the myth is explained in sketches is completely redrawn in that language. Excerpts of the show were also shown as part of the Beyond Television–produced Beyond Tomorrow. It also shows in Hong Kong's ViuTV 6.

In late March 2016, it was revealed by Variety that Discovery's sister network Science Channel was planning to produce a revival of MythBusters with a new cast, and that its hosts would be determined by a reality competition spin-off, Search for the Next MythBusters (later renamed MythBusters: The Search), which was hosted by Nerdist's Kyle Hill (Because Science).[83][84] The revival, hosted by Brian Louden and Jon Lung, would premiere its first, 14-episode season on November 15, 2017.[4]

In September 2016, it was announced that Beyond was producing a new original series for Netflix, White Rabbit Project, starring Byron, Belleci and Imahara.[85]

In April 2018, it was announced that Adam Savage would return to the franchise to host and executive produce a new spin-off, Mythbusters Jr., with a 10-episode first season which premiered in December 2018 with a sneak peek episode and the series officially starting January 2, 2019. The series features Savage working with a group of six young scientists. Savage stated that his goal for the series was to "start passing on everything to the next generation" as he grows older.[86][87]

Savage has stated that he likely will not be working with Hyneman on any future projects, stating that although they worked well together as a classic example of a double act (with Hyneman as the straight man), their personalities clashed off-screen as well as on-screen. Savage suspected that both he and Hyneman were enjoying spending time apart from each other.[88]

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