Ancients Behaving Badly

[Dannyalcatraz]

The minotaur thing was probably an (ill-presented) effort to show how early Christianity ripped off a variety of ancient religions for iconography and co-opted certain holidays with their own celebrations- like how some claim that the December 25th date for the celebration of Christmas was a co-opting of the Roman celebration of Sol Invictus.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

So ummmm...what ever happened to this show? Anyone know?

Also, never got to reply to Danny's comment:

The minotaur thing was probably an (ill-presented) effort to show how early Christianity ripped off a variety of ancient religions for iconography and co-opted certain holidays with their own celebrations- like how some claim that the December 25th date for the celebration of Christmas was a co-opting of the Roman celebration of Sol Invictus.

I thought the Dec. 25th date WAS picked to co-opt pagan holidays / winter solstice? At least, if you're not a Christian (believer), that was the accepted reasoning for it. I think they even taught that in my history class.

 

[Thunderfoot]

So ummmm...what ever happened to this show? Anyone know?

Also, never got to reply to Danny's comment:



I thought the Dec. 25th date WAS picked to co-opt pagan holidays / winter solstice? At least, if you're not a Christian (believer), that was the accepted reasoning for it. I think they even taught that in my history class.

Show is still on (though it appears in re-runs more than anything else)
And yes, it was - even the Catholic Church historians have admitted as much.
BTW - Joyus Saturnalia...

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I thought the Dec. 25th date WAS picked to co-opt pagan holidays / winter solstice? At least, if you're not a Christian (believer), that was the accepted reasoning for it. I think they even taught that in my history class.

Speaking of poorly expressed- yes...that is the case, and I expressed it poorly.

I was trying to critique them for expressing the point poorly, and then did as much in this thread.

Irony, eh?

 

[Thunderfoot]

Speaking of poorly expressed- yes...that is the case, and I expressed it poorly.

I was trying to critique them for expressing the point poorly, and then did as much in this thread.

Irony, eh?

It's the lawyer in you sneaking out....

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

[kramer]Oh, its out there, baby...its OUT THERE![/kramer]

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

I really want to know what the hell happened here. I did a search on the history channel website: Search Results

Are they just going to premiere a whole crap load of episodes for the first time on a random Saturday morning? I doubt it, and I would hope not! Which causes me to want to know...when are these episodes actually airing for the first time?

History Channel was starting to redeem itself with me lately with Warriors, Ancient Discoveries, and this. But...Battles B.C., Clash of the Gods, and the inexplicable invisibility act this show's being put through right now...maybe History Channel still sucks after all. Except before it was for being the 24 hour hitler channel. Now, it's because half their prime time shows seem to be godawful reality tv history hybrids (Gangland, Pawn Stars, Ice Road Truckers, Axe Men, just to name a few...), or as Bill Maher suggested they rename themselves, "The Poor Life Choices channel." Oh and half of the half not covered by that garbage is apocolypse/doomsday bs, UFOs, monster quest.... *sigh*

 

[Thunderfoot]

I really want to know what the hell happened here. I did a search on the history channel website: Search Results

Are they just going to premiere a whole crap load of episodes for the first time on a random Saturday morning? I doubt it, and I would hope not! Which causes me to want to know...when are these episodes actually airing for the first time?

History Channel was starting to redeem itself with me lately with Warriors, Ancient Discoveries, and this. But...Battles B.C., Clash of the Gods, and the inexplicable invisibility act this show's being put through right now...maybe History Channel still sucks after all. Except before it was for being the 24 hour hitler channel. Now, it's because half their prime time shows seem to be godawful reality tv history hybrids (Gangland, Pawn Stars, Ice Road Truckers, Axe Men, just to name a few...), or as Bill Maher suggested they rename themselves, "The Poor Life Choices channel." Oh and half of the half not covered by that garbage is apocolypse/doomsday bs, UFOs, monster quest.... *sigh*

I have an answer for this, but you're not going to like it.
You see The History channel is run by Discovery Networks, and if you have been paying attention across the DSC board, all of their channels, Discovery, Discovery International, History channel, History International, Military channel, SyFy, the Science channel, etc. have all been undergoing a slight cosmetic alteration.

All of the programming on DN channels was watcher/content specific, History for military historians (until they created the military channel), Science for science geek, SciFi for science fiction geeks, etc. and this was fine; except a couple years back the company underwent a changeover in their higher-up (three years I think, but I'm too lazy to check) and that's about when things started altering. See now they are actual looking for "ratings shares" not that cable/satellite channels have ever done it in the past, but hey, why not. So starting with Discovery, they started doing reality shows to draw in more viewers, and it worked, but then some genius decided to start moving shows to other channels to "share the wealth". Now Ghost Hunters on SciFi made sense, Junkyard Wars on The Science Channel made sense, Special Ops on the military channel made sense, but what in any thing would a reality show on the history channel would make sense. They only thing I see that soul have worked was what PBS did a few years ago with the "house" series (1800's House, 1900's House, 1700's Community) where modern people were put into old world situations for 30-90 days and made to live according to historical standards, but the budget for those kinds of shows are out of this world. ([seedy marketing voice] "And of course, re-enactors are just plain sad, right?" [/seedy marketing voice] *rolleyes*)

So you get Pawn Stars, yeah lots of history on that show, I mean it's about old stuff right? And what about Ice Road Truckers, those guys are all old relics, so that fits. And Gangland is about... umm... mobsters, yeah cause their... umm old skool... umm... yeah.
Frankly whatever marketing weenie is pulling programming dollars from good historical shows and funding this tripe should be drawn and quartered, which IS historical and would be great programming for The History Channel. I know I'd watch it.

 

[Alt F4]

I really want to know what the hell happened here. I did a search on the history channel website: Search Results

Are they just going to premiere a whole crap load of episodes for the first time on a random Saturday morning? I doubt it, and I would hope not! Which causes me to want to know...when are these episodes actually airing for the first time?

History Channel was starting to redeem itself with me lately with Warriors, Ancient Discoveries, and this. But...Battles B.C., Clash of the Gods, and the inexplicable invisibility act this show's being put through right now...maybe History Channel still sucks after all. Except before it was for being the 24 hour hitler channel. Now, it's because half their prime time shows seem to be godawful reality tv history hybrids (Gangland, Pawn Stars, Ice Road Truckers, Axe Men, just to name a few...), or as Bill Maher suggested they rename themselves, "The Poor Life Choices channel." Oh and half of the half not covered by that garbage is apocolypse/doomsday bs, UFOs, monster quest.... *sigh*

The Julius Ceasar one already aired, or at least the schedule in my cable box said it did. I missed it, and the middle of the night Sunday/early Monday repeat that let me catch the Atilla the Hun episode didn't happen for the Ceasar one. As far as I know though, none of the other episodes have aired yet. I've been trying to check my cable box every day, but I think I've missed a few times.

The thing that drives me crazy about the History Channel's current scheduling is that they seem to get caught up on one show, or one type of show, play it like crazy for anywhere from a week to a month, and then it disappears completely. Usually the next theme or show is completely different, so I can easily go from wanting to watch everything they air one week, to wanting to watch nothing the next. If the stuff I don't like goes on for too long, then I quit checking and it may be weeks, months, or longer before I wander back again.

 

[StreamOfTheSky]

The thing that drives me crazy about the History Channel's current scheduling is that they seem to get caught up on one show, or one type of show, play it like crazy for anywhere from a week to a month, and then it disappears completely. Usually the next theme or show is completely different, so I can easily go from wanting to watch everything they air one week, to wanting to watch nothing the next. If the stuff I don't like goes on for too long, then I quit checking and it may be weeks, months, or longer before I wander back again.

That's how it's been with me and History Channel, too. Lots of wandering back and forth. My last big migration away was when they decided Human weapon wasn't worth another season. I had only recently been lulled back with Warriors (another excellent show that will never see a season 2) and the seeming massive sudden spat of ancient, mythological, and medieval based series, which mostly turned out to suck and are now largely gone regardless.

I did catch Caesar's episode, haven't seen anything since then, and I don't know if it's because I missed them or because it's not airing -- no set schedule and a crappy un-informative page on their website doesn't help much in trying to find airings. It's sad, because this series is actually decent. Not really good, but at least entertaining to watch.