Entertainment
Upcoming Prototype This! TV Show Sounds Like Modders, Maker's Geekfest
Posted by Kit Eaton at 9:07 PM on August 15, 2008
Hackaday has a piece about an upcoming Discovery Channel show called "Prototype this!" It's due in October, and since it's about making and modding robots and other gizmos, it sounds like a Mythbusters-meets-Makerfaire geeky heaven. [Hackaday]

Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
There are currently no AU comments for this post.
Gilbert
Posted 9:59 PM 15/8/08
I don't know. From the title alone it kind of sounds uninspired. Then again, if you're right about your comparisons, I'm all for it.
Gilbert
Groggy Banana
Posted 11:30 PM 15/8/08
A show where Grant Imahara could be a guest star is a show worth watching.
Groggy Banana
Lev_Astov
Posted 11:24 PM 15/8/08
Most of the Discovery Channel's shows like this have very unqualified personnel. Hopefully they'll change that with this one, as it sounds like it has potential.
Lev_Astov
logruszed
Posted 11:58 PM 15/8/08
So like Mythbusters are they going to have a moderately attractive woman who nerds and tech geeks will over react to, lavishing her with attention appropriate of a woman far superior in appearance only because this particular woman is associated with the object of their nerdish obsession?
I call this the "Scully Effect".
logruszed
Log1c
Posted 12:18 AM 16/8/08
@logruszed: Except there are no women in that picture.
Log1c
Spoondizzle
Posted 12:32 AM 16/8/08
@logruszed: See also SmashLab, Overhaulin' and, well, any other show on TLC/Discovery.
Spoondizzle
logruszed
Posted 12:58 AM 16/8/08
@Log1c: That's why my snark was phrased Jeopardy style, in the form of a question.
As in: "Are they going to?"
Instead of "I see they have."
logruszed
DeanOfAllTrades
Posted 1:59 AM 16/8/08
Hopefully it's better than SMASH LAB. Which turned out to be a disappointing experimental innovation show that seamed awkward, staged and anticlimactic all at the same time.
DeanOfAllTrades
Log1c
Posted 2:25 AM 16/8/08
@logruszed: Good call.
Log1c
GarthWood
Posted 2:38 AM 16/8/08
One of the reasons MythBusters works and SmashLab doesn't is because we actually know something about the characters in MythBusters (even though that might be the result of clever editing). We know them, and we like 'em.
Also, SmashLab fails in that all it has are young 'uns on it. On MythBusters, Jamie's the "dad," who, along with Adam ("dad's" goofy younger brother) have a great deal of combined experience, helping to keep the younger charges from going off the rails, while the counterbalance is that the youngsters bring enthusiasm, energy and a willingness to try the truly bizarre even at the risk of (some) personal injury. The show ends up being a pretty good balancing act, and the older/younger dynamic is also played up to decent comic effect on occasion. Plus, y'know, Grant Imahara's really a Korean evil super-genius, and we'll all be able to say "I knew him when he was just a MythBuster, instead of our beloved totalitarian World Overlord." ;-)
Contrast this with SmashLab: in one episode, they decide to try out solid rockets as a braking mechanism for vehicles towing large, unwieldy motorhomes.
Solid rockets. Otherwise known as "multi-thousand pound bombs just waiting to explode in a vehicle collision, or heavy traffic, or even in gridlock." Yeah, that'll work.
If the SmashLab equivalent of Jamie or Adam had been there, they would've poured cold water all over that idea in a big hurry, and rightly so.
SmashLab isn't particularly good, and trying to make the players more enticing by making them "cool" (what with the goofy statistical T-distribution haircut on the engineer and all) isn't working very well. In order to explore some of their weirder ideas, they also need more budget sometimes.
Long live MythBusters. Hopefully, Prototype This! tries to mimic some of the "formula" for MythBusters' success. And those darned kids on SmashLab need an older, wiser guiding hand or two...
GarthWood
chaoslink
Posted 2:31 AM 16/8/08
I saw one episode of SMASH LAB (with the pneumatic "quick" sand traps). The subject matter was really interesting, but the presentation was boring.
I'm hoping this is good, but it seems like whenever I get into a show it gets pulled - see Junkyard Wars, Monster House.
chaoslink
crash1105
Posted 3:28 AM 16/8/08
kari is hot
crash1105
Neverkilled: [light corner bending]
Posted 3:50 AM 16/8/08
@crash1105:
I like how you come through to the comments and remove all previous intelegable discussion.
notion seconded
Neverkilled: [light corner bending]
logruszed
Posted 4:14 AM 16/8/08
@GarthWood: I saw some pictures on the internet and now I'm pretty sure that while Jamie might be the "dad", Adam is actually the "mom".
logruszed
Jonathan21
Posted 4:13 AM 16/8/08
@crash1105:
+1
Jonathan21
th4tkid
Posted 9:59 AM 16/8/08
Mythbusters is the best show on the discovery channel and i dont think this show will meet the overall win that its (still hoping it does). I dont want another smash lab plox.
th4tkid
wookiepeasent
Posted 4:26 AM 16/8/08
i think i know someone who knows someones boyfriend that co-hosts this show, seriously
wookiepeasent