I was a bit harsh on poor Mr. Ed yesterday. But the reality is that I have almost invariably had difficult relationship with typical tv, which is why I stopped watching it after I left home at age 18. Do not ask me about tv shows from 1971 on, because I missed out on 99% of them. The same largely applies to other aspects of popular culture. Yes, I later worked in tv, which only reinforced my feelings about it (I considered myself akin to a vegetarian butcher). We did not have a tv at home when our kids were little; they were read to, and started reading at a very young age instead.
Enough sermonizing. Fortunately the availability of watchable tv has vastly improved in recent years, and I have indulged in some quite good series on dark winter nights. But I invariably prefer documentaries and other non-fiction (books too) over scripted and fictionalized tv. Currently I’m watching these “Deadliest Roads” documentaries, and find them to be very compelling, and not just because of the scenes of ancient trucks, buses and cars navigating horrendous roads. There’s lots of human interest, history, geography, politics as well as excellent insight into how a large portion of humans live, often on a dollar or two a day. There’s some intense human drama and reality embedded in these, including little children as young as age six pounding rocks to make gravel. Here’s just a sampling; there’s quite a few more of them on Youtube.
This one documents how an incredibly ancient and battered Bedford truck makes one more journey to get building bricks for a remote village, even if it has absolutely no brakes. There’s other story threads too.
An old American school bus is one of the heroes of this segment; its ability to traverse horrendous roads would make its maker proud.
This one takes place in the deserts of Somaliland, which long ago broke away from Somalia and has remarkably effective democracy and government but has not yet been internationally recognized.
I’ve watched a couple of these (thanks for the tip, Paul!) and they really are quite good. I think I skipped them originally as I thought they’d be typical scripted garbage with endless re-edits of the same exact scene (oh, no, will they make it past the slidey cliff bit while the tattoed guy has a fit and throws tools etc), but no, more like a travelogue with insights into how the cars, trucks, buses, are tools for daily life for the locals with nary a foreigner in sight.
The one with the Mercedes bus converted into a milk tanker in Argentina is quite impressive (not linked above).
I haven’t gotten to that one yet. Something to look forward to.
I’ve been watching something similar made by the BBC called World’s Most Dangerous Roads, the two I most felt a connection to were the Ho Chi Minh Trail episode (dangerous because of all the unexploded bombs still in the ground, some _under the trail_) because of family who were involved in bombing there and the Dalton Highway (the Alaska Pipeline highway to Prudehoe Bay) episode ’cause I was living in Alaska when it was opened.
https://www.dailymotion.com/search/World's%20Most%20Dangerous%20Roads/videos
My favorite series on YouTube. I watched a bunch of these after I injured my back last year and had to do a lot horizontal time on the couch. The Cameroon episode is one of my favorites, where a bush taxi driver wrings every last bit of life out of a very dilapidated Corolla. And I really loved the “Iron Lady” truck in that Zambia episode you mention. The Bolivia episode, which i think has the homemade zipline, is also a great episode.
That Corolla in the Camaroon episode was amazing. Makes the old beater Corollas here look like trailer queens.
I’ll second Paul’s sermon about not having a TV. I’ve been TV-free periodically in the past, and about about a year ago our TV just died, and I haven’t replaced it yet. I don’t miss it at all – of course the kids are lobbying to get a new TV, and eventually they’ll win out, but for now I’m enjoying TV-free life once again.
Anyway, I had a chance to watch some of the Zambia documentary today, and it’s quite enthralling, so thanks for this recommendation. I’ll finish that one up, and watch some others when I can. Always good to find out about stuff like this.
I have tended to avoid these because of bad experience with similarly titled clickbait web sites. Wait, this road I commuted on for years, or this mountain pass I’ve crossed on my motorcycle 100 times, is a “dangerous road”? But after watching a bit of the Congo 8×8 (huit par huit) film I think I’m hooked. Entertaining, but informative. As much as I dislike it, the expression “first world problems” has some truth. The “western” countries, between colonialism and resource extraction, have left a toll on many parts of the world. On the other hand, our technology and medicine have helped a lot of people.
I had stumbled into some of those clickbait ones in the past, and was wary. But I decided to give one of these a shot, and it was quite different.
I have been a fan of the show myself for a few years. Like you, I am not a tv gazer. Waist of time. Instead I have spent most my evenings in shops, building cars, fixing things such as an acerage needs. I also enjoyed Ice Road Truckers for similar reasons. Reading autobiography’s has taken more of my time than evening TV shows.
I gave up on commercial television about 15 years ago. Frankly, I never watched much TV once I hit my teens and found that real life was far more interesting than the screen.
I like documentaries but I tend to avoid programs like Deadliest Roads. My own transportation projects are troubling enough, I find it’s unsettling to become immersed in other people’s problems, too.
To be fair, “Deadliest Roads” isn’t the worst of them. There’s other programs that take people’s normal work day (like transport trucking or tow truck operations) and fill it with faux suspense, breathless narration and dramatic music. Take away all the fake drama and you have a person’s pretty dull, routine workday.
These look pretty interesting. I’ll probably check one out this evening. I’m also not a big fan of TV. The last time mine was actually plugged in was around ten years ago. Cable is so stupidly over priced especially taking into account all the commercials they make even more money on. Been using the celly exclusively for almost twenty years now and haven’t looked back. First via tethering then via hot spot for my internet. With great blogs like Curbside Classic and many others tailored to individual interests TV just seems so stuck the twentieth century.
Ive been watching these recently too, very much agree with the recommendation. Didnt think free YT documentaries could be this well made and interesting before seeing them.
I lived such roads while deployed in various countries in Africa. During periodic outbreaks of peace, we traded our military advisor hat for that of a military observer. The intent was to observe sides disarm themselves – a task at which they invariably cheated. During such times, we were usually directed by the State Department rather than the Defense Department.
Instructions from Washington could sometimes have us moving from one point to another in a totally unrealistic time frame.
I remember being berated once that our expected route was less than 2 inches on someone’s map and they had no reports of land mines. When I saw the route, I strongly suspected that the less than 2 inch measurement might have been taken from staffer’s globe rather than tactical map.
As boots-on-the-ground, we saw how route information was gathered. We didn’t put much credence in the intel and did our routes as safely as possible – time be dammed. State wasn’t always happy, but our observer missions never had a casualty.
As an aside, I did learn to respect how well suited the Lada Niva & UAZ 469 were for 3rd world roads and maintenance capabilities. Whatever you might think of Russia these days, their off road vehicles were pretty stout. Sure they were uncomfortable vibrators, but it took a lot to put one down.
Quite an assemblage of suffering and pressing on. A reminder that human muscle was the main energy source for most of our existence. Those times are not that far in the past. When I first moved to VT 50 years ago, there was the ‘planned out way’ and the ‘Vermont way’. Without any forethought at all, you just linked up and “got er done”.
Gave up TV in 1961 and never looked back. Never actually owned one. The rare moments when I have actually glimpsed the TV screen it is like a secret window into a bizarre culture that seems a lot less real than these films.
I have a soft spot for those old TJ6 Bedfords I got my heavy rigid licence in one,a very long time ago when it was quite a new truck 330cu diesel engine and 4 speed it had a hiab behind the cab and was a general duties truck around the powerstation I worked at the fitters shop where I was also had a smaller J1 Bedford and a Mazda B1600 pickup,. if stuff had to be fetched or moved that was how it was done.