In name only though. And even then, only slightly.

The’ and ‘channel’ are History for network
Anyway, it just doesn't sound right in conversation. How do you refer to it without mentioning it's a channel?

This prof says it for me...
Now; can we get an article where they ask that of the History channel executives?

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Numbers are not case sensitive. (me)

And here I thought a personal friend had made that up.

Let me guess: Dog the Bounty Hunter, Gene Simmons Family Jewels, 12 Prom Queens will make up the programming?

I sure hope THC doesn't go STUPID, but as most people tend to prefer dumbed-down stuff...

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Groovier than thou. ;p
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A jagged little pill of Reality

those that control the past, control the future

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"Ah, the Luftwaffe. The Washington Generals of the History Channel." -Homer Simpson

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"You miss 100% of the shots you don't take" - Wayne Gretzky

I heard it last night- '...on History'. It just sounds weird. Sounds like it's just going to be another tabloid channel. I watched the exciting Axe Men episode 1 show last night. I think DULL best describes it. They try to make it interesting by using quick scene cuts and jumping from one crew to another every five minutes. It's still just guys cutting down trees. Monster Quest? I can and did stop watching it. But they still have some good shows on so I'll stick with it a bit longer.

I happen to like the WWII shows. Oh well.

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You're a coward and a liar and a thOOF - Bart Sibrel

Me, too--and at least it is history, which the loggers show or the truckers show cannot claim.

I will continue calling it "The History Channel," though I still call "TLC" by its old name, despite the fact that there's essentially no learning there anymore.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

I enjoyed the WWII documentaries as well. Heck, I could probably watch a channel that showed nothing but WWII documentaries.

I wonder if 'History' plans on covering history much any more?

To commemorate this change of focus, they can show the history of the Shark Jump.

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"If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction."
Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
Illuminati's Razor-The most complicatedly evil answer is usually the most correct answer. - Fazor
"Every book is a children's book if the kid can read." - Mitch Hedberg
"Distance doesn’t matter much in space, where if you just start a thing off with the right kind of shove, sooner or later it will get where you want it to go." -Frederik Pohl, Mining the Oort

put the 's' at the beginning of the new channel name, and that will probably say it all for the future of the channel, and the other documentary channels.

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it could be argued that the ice road truckers of the last few decades have helped open up more of the frozen northern "wasteland" to humanity, which has indeed Historically helped Canada in more than a few ways.
as for the Axmen- well, if it wasn't for people out cutting down trees, we wouldn't have many of the things we take for granted in today's world- the lumberjack as shown on that show is a modern version of a historical figure.
i actually like those kinds of shows- they are full of some of the best characters on tv, and they are 100% real people- the kinds of people i've known all my life.

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"blacker than the blackest black... times infinity."- Nathan Explosion
The.. Best.. Thread..Ever...

Not to downplay the role loggers and truckers play. The ax men guys have certaintly been beat up during their careers and hey, we need to wood. They did touch on the history of the ice road and what I saw, they touched on the history of logging too. But any way you slice it, Ax Men and Ice Road truckers are reality shows, not history shows.

I guess they changed the name so that it didn't sound like all they played was history shows. Sort of like TruTv or whatever the court channel changed to.

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You're a coward and a liar and a thOOF - Bart Sibrel

history isn't something that happened in the past- history is always unfolding. reality shows, by definition, if not practice-- are sort of historical documentaries that are unfolding in "real time".
i love the "reality shows" like Ice Road Truckers and Ax men on History and Dirty Jobs on Discovery. shows like "Modern Marvels" that show how things are built and manufactured are also really cool to me. i also used to like watching all the "gearhead reality shows" on Discovery and TLC like American Chopper, American HotRod, and Monster Garage back when i could watch them. they show real people doing real things- and, since i consider myself to be a "real person" that does those kinds of things for fun and for money, i enjoy watching them on tv. another good side effect is that kids might see these shows and realize that there is nothing wrong with putting in an honest day's work for an honest day's pay, and working with your hands and body can have rewards beyond just the paycheck you get every week- which can be enough to live a pretty comfortable life if you're good at what you do, since almost every job that they show pays pretty dang good- well, maybe not some of the jobs Mike Roe does, but that's kind of the point of the show.

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"blacker than the blackest black... times infinity."- Nathan Explosion
The.. Best.. Thread..Ever...

True enough I suppose but when you think history, most people think of the past. And while I don't watch the likes of survivor, I did watch Ice Road Truckers and if I ever remember to set it up, I'll keep watching Ax men. While they're not terribly exciting, they are interesting enough.

I doubt I could get my kids to watch though. It might do them some good.

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You're a coward and a liar and a thOOF - Bart Sibrel

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"There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened."
Douglas Adams

From my Dictionary Widget:

History (noun) 1) the study of past events, particularly human affairs 2) the whole series of past events connected with something or someone 3) a continuous, typically chronological, record of important or public events or of a particular trend or institution.

As you can see history is, by definition, something that happened in the past. "Ice Road Truckers" and "Axe Men" are not history shows, they are journalism.

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"There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened."
Douglas Adams

To commemorate this change of focus, they can show the history of the Shark Jump.

Sometimes you jump the shark and other times it jumps you.

history isn't something that happened in the past- history is always unfolding.

I think the late historian Will Durant would agree with you. History isn't just about "important people doing stuff", either.

Civilization is a stream with banks. The stream is sometimes filled with blood from people killing, stealing, shouting and doing the things historians usually record, while on the banks, unnoticed, people build homes, make love, raise children, sing songs, write poetry and even whittle statues. The story of civilization is the story of what happened on the banks. Historians are pessimists because they ignore the banks for the river.

Unfortunately, the History channel is turning into the woo-woo channel too much of the time for my tastes.

Who cares? It´s just TV...

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"Shut up and calculate" R. Feynman

"Just TV", I'll wager, has helped shape your view of the world and continues to do so.

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It's a symptom. When there are people who think Ice Road Truckers is anything but a cheap ratings gimmick (sorry for those who like it, but it is--a program showing the effect it's had on the world wouldn't be, but one hyped "who will fall in the water and die?" is), it's a symptom of encroaching ignorance.

And, yes, history is things that happened in the past. Kinda, as pointed out above, the definition of the word. After all, it's not as though there isn't a ton of history they haven't explored. And even Modern Marvels shows the origins of the things they're talking about.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

Pity........appart from public broadcasting, we can't seem to get more than
a few intelligent channels...and even then ..the inconsistency .
WINGS ....used to be really something. But....

Sometimes there's nothing any good but the weather channel. Humpf...back to the wood shop...put on a cd .

Best regards, Dan