Comments on: Bad Universe Episode 3 airs Tuesday April 19

By: Ken

Ken — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 18:05:21 +0000

Just thought I would let you know. Episode 3, Death Stars is finally airing in Canada. Tonight (June 19th) at 9pm

By: Fabio Sadoch

Fabio Sadoch — Wed, 04 May 2011 14:30:20 +0000

It’s the first time I ever write on a blog, (mostly because i hate writing, I’m more of a numbers guy…. and am shy on my own) but i just wanted to tell you guys even though you won’t see me write here much, I support you guys.
Sorry for Mr Plait’s show… I can’t even believe they waited this long to air the 3rd episode(more than 6 months?!?!?! are we $@&&ç@§ kidding?!?!?! Who’s even gonna remember what the show’s about?!?!?…….oh well), I thought I simply could not find a link on the internet. But I found out today that it’s simply because it’s so recent….(Yes, i’m sorry but i haven’t watched tv in general for the past 4-5 years, I prefer to mingle on documentary site’s like “docuwat.ch” and “streaming-maddness.net”, or to watch the occasional episode of “Mythbusters” or “Bear Grylls” on Youtube. I’ve lived in Italy almost all my life and tv here was…..well……just THAT bad).
And all this said I must admit that the idea of proposing your show to the BBC is actually fairly reasonable. The British station is constantly churning out documentaries, but are missing some “fun/youth inclined” content. I wouldn’t be surprised if, with a bit of “American to British” slang translation, they actually picked it up as a series.
I sincerely mean what I have said, and kindly ask you to consider the option.
My recomendation to all that follow this blog is…..if you have the internet, why still use tv? Why listen to mainstream media? Just watch things for free on the internet and support the shows that actually need supporting by buying their DVDs, or giving donations.

Keep up all the good logical reasoning and discussions guys….
Sincerely,
Fabio Sadoch

By: Julesmaine

Julesmaine — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 15:43:03 +0000

While I am all for science related programming, why are all American based shows aimed at four year olds?

I hate to say this but your show came across as something you would teach to a kindergarten child

Can you tell us why it is so dumbed down? Is the target audience children or just simpletons with no knowledge of Astronomy?

Even if it is for people with no knowledge of the universe or for armchair astronomers, I think it is a disservice to treat people as idiots, I am all for making science fun but to make it so dumbed down misses the point completely of teaching people.

The blog sometimes can feel like that, however it is often educational. The root cause of todays lack of respect for scientists is not because of peoples enthusiasm for new media and scientists lagging behind, it is because science has been turned in to a circus with the clowns running things and i blame Discovery and their ilk for this.

DONT DUMB DOWN. Enrich people dont try to enable them.

By: Gonçalo Aguiar

Gonçalo Aguiar — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 17:01:31 +0000

Just watched it and all I have to say is:

Phill, you’re an awesome astronomer but not so good at electrical engineering. Right now we do protect our electrical grid from atmospheric lightning. We have shielding wires in all power lines. Most of the high power transformers are built within faraday cages and the capacitor idea is just plain silly. The amount of capacitance you would need to harness those amounts of energy is immense! You just have to somehow dissipate that direct current into the ground, which is what basically that guy dressed in chain mail was doing.

And btw I counted 2 Holyaleakalas.

By: ZADL

ZADL — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 16:45:15 +0000

DVR issues. Not listed as “New” so the DVR skipped it. You know, I think I’m just going to get rid of the thing, and the cable box. Aside from shows like Phil’s there’s nothing I want from appointment based television.

Oh well, it looks like I’ll just have to wait for the DVD to arrive.

By: Wayne on the Plains

Wayne on the Plains — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 14:47:05 +0000

My DVR got it, which was actually the first I knew about it airing, since I was out of town over the weekend and am just now catching up on the BA Blog.

I agree that it seems like a pretty pointless way to “gauge interest” since they were so spaced out and at odd times, you need to already be a fan of Dr. Plait to keep up, and everyone should expect that regular readers of this blog would watch.

By: Ze Kraggash

Ze Kraggash — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 02:20:02 +0000

My DVR was set to record all new episodes. This worked previously for the first two, but not for number three. I guess, as others have mentioned, the Schedule Gods did not list this episode as “new”.

By: Bobbar

Bobbar — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 02:03:46 +0000

Blast! I thought it said 11:00 *PM*! Missed it

By: Andy

Andy — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 23:28:54 +0000

11am!?? Looks like I missed it.

By: Number 6

Number 6 — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 20:05:52 +0000

Too bad for me that I read this too late to catch the show….I was looking forward to it.

Put me down big time with the others who’d like your shows to be repeated. I don’t see why the Discover Channel can’t.

Here’s today’s schedule after Phil’s show:

All shows are one hour in length except for Cash Cab (30 min.).

12PM….Deadliest Catch
American Chopper
American Chopper
American Chopper
American Chopper
Man, Woman, Wild
Cash Cab
Cash Cab
Deadliest Catch
Deadliest Catch
Deadliest Catch
Hogs Gone Wild
11PM…Deadliest Catch

Now, couldn’t they sneak a rerun of Phil’s show in there next week or next month when most of the shows are similar to the above and those shows are repeated and repeated and repeated and repeated and repeated….?

By: Sledge

Sledge — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 17:41:19 +0000

Bad Universe episode 3 drinking game

“Holy Haleakala”: one shot

That’s all. You’ll easily be wasted by the end of the show So set your DVR to record it so you can watch it when you sober up.

By: SteveInMI

SteveInMI — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 17:26:50 +0000

Curses! I saw the 4/19 date but missed that it was a morning airing… so no DVR.

Here’s hoping for reruns soon!!!

By: runawayuniverse

runawayuniverse — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 16:06:34 +0000

Just watched and enjoyed the episode. Hopefully there will be more.

By: RAF

RAF — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 15:04:31 +0000

I have to agree with those who question “if” it’s going to be picked up as a series…I looked through my TV listings and this is “apparently” the only time it will be aired, so if anyone was expecting a series, this is certainly not the way Discovery would “handle” it.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 14:40:23 +0000

I hope this is just the last one for this season!

I’ll have the recorder running. I hope Discovery makes a commercial version that I can show my classes.

Keep up the good work.

Jeff

By: Childermass

Childermass — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 03:03:31 +0000

They waited this long to air the 3th episode and then will air it during business hours?

Sadly I will be shocked if they pick up more episodes. When they are airing it is a fairly clear answer. There is no way it can get good ratings at the time slot it was given. And that lack of ratings will be used against it. I suspect a case of “well, we paid for it so we might as well air it but lets wait until a bad time slot opens up.

By: Third episode of Bad Universe airs tomorrow! : Samara Lectures

Third episode of Bad Universe airs tomorrow! : Samara Lectures — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 23:34:57 +0000

[...] We’re happy to announce that this third episode of Phil Plait’s Bad Universe will air tomorrow, April 19th at 11:00AM EST on the Discover Channel. Check your local listings. Here is Phil’s blog announcement with more info: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2011/04/18/bad-universe-episode-3-airs-tuesday-april... [...]

By: AdirondackAstro

AdirondackAstro — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 22:08:57 +0000

I haven’t caught the first two episodes, and wont be able to catch tomorrow’s episode due to work. Hopefully it airs again sometime soon.

By: Liisa

Liisa — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 21:53:30 +0000

Awesome, hope it’s on in Canada soon as well

By: M.K. Oestby

M.K. Oestby — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 21:38:11 +0000

I’m looking forward to the third episode. I also hope to see more of this show, it is good.
The fact that the show is quite good is the problem here. It needs to be crap if it is going to have staying power, with few exceptions this certainly seems to be the case nowadays.

By: Matt B.

Matt B. — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 21:29:00 +0000

Whew, I still have the Discovery channel. I got Extremely Basic Cable when I moved into my apartment, and it’s TLC I’m missing.

They should put you on after Firefly; then you could call your show Bad ‘Verse.

By: Viking

Viking — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 21:28:15 +0000

Used my smart phone to set my DVR to record it. Gotta love technology.

For some reason it wasn’t showing up as “New” for me either.

By: Drew

Drew — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 20:33:13 +0000

Hopefully somehow it works out, I really enjoyed the first two episodes. It would be great to actually see more science on the Discovery Channel! My fear is the the channel is slowly going to become like TLC is now, with little science content and little to set it apart from the 100 other channels doing mostly reality programming anymore. And not to mention that monstrosity of a show “49 Kids and Counting”, or whatever the number is now!

By: Kitty

Kitty — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 20:16:21 +0000

Echoing others Phil, you’re not getting any support from Discovery. This reminds me of how FOX handled Arrested Development in its second and third seasons: no advertising, frequent, unpredictable breaks between air dates, jumping it around on the schedule, preempting for other shows of no quality…

What you need is viral momentum. You are probably doing the best one person can manage but you need your peeps to promote the heck out of it across social media. Some good clips “accidently” loaded to Youtube or somewhere until they get yanked doesn’t hurt either. As long as someone else is doing it!

But cable TV is dead, it just doesn’t know it’s a zombie yet.
Most BBC science shows are awesome, why can’t we get shows of that quality made in the USA?
Other than the zombie-TV reason, I mean?

By: IVAN3MAN_AT_LARGE

IVAN3MAN_AT_LARGE — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 20:09:53 +0000

Dr. Brian Cox's Wonders of the Solar System and the recent Wonders of the Universe were/are shown during prime-time on BBC TV; therefore, Phil, next time ask the BBC to do your TV show!