Cody Lundin, the survivalist author, spent two years spent living in a brush shelter in the woods where he slept on pine needles and cooked over an open fire, becoming disenchanted with his new role in the elite class of television survivalism presenters.
It seems like Hell may have broken loose after Cody issued a bizarre letter at the end of the first week filming his new series, Dual Survivor, for Discovery Channel.
“I have little if any control over how Dual Survivor is ultimately concepted, produced, and edited….” Lundin tells a small group of survivalism fans.
“Very few if any of the players involved with this show have any experience in outdoor survival skills. So what happens when “city slickers” design an outdoor survivalism show?”
LA Production company Juma Entertainment last year signed Mr. Lundin to a development deal with not one but two series in the works.
The first series, “Stranded,” finds 12 people living in the extreme wilderness for 20 days and vying for a prize of $1 million. Unlike other outdoor survival reality shows, Mr. Lundin, the star and host of the series, will be living out there alongside the contestants, guiding them through the experience and offering advice along the way. The second series is based on Mr. Lundin’s book “When All Hell Breaks Loose: Stuff You Need to Survive When Disaster Strikes.” That series will take on the urban jungle, explaining what to do in the city in a worst-case situation such as the electrical grid shutting down, a building collapsing, etc.
“…watch the show, laugh, and learn a survival trick or two. But…never, ever base your emergency preparedness plan on a television show,” Lundin tells his fans in what appears to be early disenchatment with the production process.
Lewis Fenton, head of production for Juma, said there are multiple networks after the latter series. “When we were in New York pitching the show, we realized that in this technological era, we have no survival skills. So we will explore how to find potable water, catch a sewer rat or get out of a trapped subway. Those skills are hot right now.” -Chris Pursell
7 Responses
I don’t see how Cody’s statements are in anyway “bizarre” as this author asserts, or even express “disenchantment.” Cody is being honestly critical of bellicose, commercially driven media (which sought him out, not visa versa) and clearly seems to not be taking its social responsibilities seriously. Cody is making responsible statements, for one, trying to get across to people that outdoorsmanship is about ethics, safety, education, responsibility, cameraderie, etc. That’s the whole point. You get off the web and learn you have to depend on other human beings for your life and health. Its too bad they couldn’t just let Cody run the show and skip the commercial bombardment. This is a guy whom the government would be wise to subsidize so he can educate people on PBS so they stand a little better chance at surviving the effects of destructive multinationals and their complacent commercial media lapdogs. But heck, folks are basically jonesing for apocalyptic conflict. Bizarre? Check out Freud and Jung.
Dual Survivor, end of may this year
When will this show be on TV and what will be the name?
I recently watched Apocalypse Man during the History Channel’s Armageddon Week. Though I watched with much anticipation because programming of this type is so rare, I had to put my pen and pad down after two pages of noting the hosts mistakes and inaccuracies. Very disappointing.
I think the advice could be shortened to “Never watch TV, period.”
The very fact that people are watching this kind of entertainment is significant. They believe they may need this kind of information. Too bad they’re not getting good economic advice, too.
Which explains the dearth of well produced, well written and creative fare coming out of the entertainment industry today. Not only do the ‘creators’ have no practical knowledge of that which they create, their level of literacy, in general, limits their imagination and creativity. They have nothing to draw upon…theirs is a giant cultural and intellectual void. That is, except for the pre-packaged techno knowledge they have been fed from their I-pods, made for DVD movies and video games. Where is their ‘real world’ base of knowledge? From what cultural repository do they draw upon to craft their tales?