Top Gear and Mythbusters stealing each other's ideas

janstett

janstett

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I've noticed with some indignity that Top Gear in series past had "borrowed" ideas already done by the Discovery Channel series here in the US called MythBusters. For example, the remote controlled cars.

Today MythBusters is returning the favor; I'm watching a segment at this very moment where they're trying to speed so fast that the speed camera won't catch the car. IIRC that was in series 1 -3.

Curiously they first tested a Dodge Neon and made a comment about it being a "typical American car", suggesting that non-American cars were in their prep for the segment? Perhaps they are just watching TG for ideas.
 
janstett said:
I've noticed with some indignity that Top Gear in series past had "borrowed" ideas already done by the Discovery Channel series here in the US called MythBusters. For example, the remote controlled cars.
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To be fair, remote control cars was done by Scrapheap Challenge (Junkyard Wars) ages ago - I suspect before MythBusters did it.
 
Its TV, ppl wanna see the same thing over, and over, and over again
 
Then again, no one has seen enough in America to notice Mythbuster's take. Not to mention the speeding camera was done totally different compared to Top Gears
 
More people in America will have seen Mythbusters before than some weird foreign show with three random blokes, so it's not exactly going to spark outrage.

Besides, Mythbusters is great!
 
Top Gear did a much better job than Mythbusters anyway.
 
I know Top Gear is great and all but sometimes I wonder if their results aren't just a little bit tweaked...In that respect I would trust Mythbusters more with a proper conclusion. I don't really mind the similarities between the two shows, they are usually done very differently. What I hate is Clarkson just taking stuff from his DVD's and putting them on Top Gear again. Great for people who've never heard of his DVD's but really silly for the odd person who does actually watch them.

Mythbusters is a fantastic show btw, their Ninja episode had me laughing off my chair!
 
Mythbusters failed to overturn a car with a jet engine because the engine they used was too small. The speed camera test was pointless as they didn't have the camera set at the right height - unlike Top Gear. If speed cameras were three feet off the ground even I would kick them in! They also did the 'drop a car into a swimming pool and see how long it takes to get out' thing.

Top Gear did each of these things better than Mythbusters... but Kari Byron is still absolutely edible. :wub:
 
Oh don't get me started about Kari Byron.... :hump:
 
James May's Hair said:
Mythbusters failed to overturn a car with a jet engine because the engine they used was too small. The speed camera test was pointless as they didn't have the camera set at the right height - unlike Top Gear. If speed cameras were three feet off the ground even I would kick them in! They also did the 'drop a car into a swimming pool and see how long it takes to get out' thing.

Top Gear did each of these things better than Mythbusters... but Kari Byron is still absolutely edible. :wub:
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Weren't they testing radar guns, not speed cameras on mythbusters? Two different things, radar guns are held by police officers sitting in their patrol cars on the side of the road. Try kicking one of those.
 
The Mythbusters did radar guns in an earlier series; Top Gear hasn't by far.

However, the Mythbusters are more receptive to viewer feedback and there was a ton of posts on the Discovery Channel's Mythbusters "Everyone's a Critic" board saying "No no no you did it wrong look at Top Gear 01x01 you better call the BBC."

So I would guess they would try it again, this time with better (read: European) cars.
 
scanlory said:
Weren't they testing radar guns, not speed cameras on mythbusters? Two different things, radar guns are held by police officers sitting in their patrol cars on the side of the road. Try kicking one of those.
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No, it was a speed camera. They used a hawk to see if birds could trigger them and managed to photograph the bird as it flew past.
 
pretty much everythin on TV has been done at some point in the past by somebody else.

thats all pop records are today, i guess those in charge also think they can do this with tv as well.


to be honest i see no harm in two different shows doing the same "experiments" for starters, not everyone in the UK has access to the discovery channel, you need a subscription service such as Sky TV or you can get it on freeview but you have to pay for an upgrade car i think? (i dont know, i have sky plus :p) ... BBC2 is available to anyone with a TV+ariel... and yes even those who dont pay the licence fee (though they will get caught eventually)

second of all...... it can show different methods/outcomes/techniques/aims etc and thats always interesting to see. Mythbusters methods arent always the best, its nice to see another take on the same idea.

thats what happens when TV shows become world wide...... i bet even in Japan they have an equivalent and i bet theyve done remote control cars and how many bikes can you jump with a bus. China almost certainly has....hell they even copy disneyworld.

at the end of the day, something gets exploded....and thats a good thing.
 
STrRedWolf said:
The Mythbusters did radar guns in an earlier series; Top Gear hasn't by far.

However, the Mythbusters are more receptive to viewer feedback and there was a ton of posts on the Discovery Channel's Mythbusters "Everyone's a Critic" board saying "No no no you did it wrong look at Top Gear 01x01 you better call the BBC."

So I would guess they would try it again, this time with better (read: European) cars.
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i liked the forzen chicken gun myth, where the myth was that the brits borrowed the gun, then didnt realise they needed to thaw their chickens before firing.

adam was adamant it didnt matter because the mass was the same and the velocity was the same, the change in momentum and thus force was gonna be the same

jamie said it wasnt the same and that frozen chicken would have more penetrative power.

they did loads of inconclusive tests, till at the end, they used 12 panes of glass. frozen chicken smashed thru all of them, thawed broke about 2 panes lol adam = owned.

i dont know why he didnt realise though, it was clear to see that the thawed chicken would deform, absorbing some of the energy from the impact whereas the frozen one wouldnt deform at all.
 
Mythbusters, Top Gear and Brianiac

Mythbusters, Top Gear and Brianiac

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery?

Actually, it is more interesting to compare some of the experiments conducted by Richard Hammond during his tenure on Brainiac with some of the things done on Mythbusters. The most glaringly obvious was the test done with "non-Newtonian fluids". On Brainiacs, they filled the pool at Richard's house (perhaps this is the real reason he sold the house?) with custard. In Mythbusters, they filled a large water tank with a blue goo. In both cases, one of the presenters then strolled across the fluid. As long as they kept moving, they did not sink. When they stopped moving, they started to sink. Frankly, the Brainiac experiment was much more impressive.
 
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