January 23, 2003: “MythBusters” Premieres

Left to right: Grant Imahara, Jamie Hyneman,

Keri Byron, Adam Savage, Tori Belleci

January 23, 2003: MythBusters premieres on The Discovery Channel. It runs for 13 years. The show's original hosts, special effects experts Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, used elements of the scientific method to test the validity of rumors, myths, movie scenes, adages, Internet videos, and news stories.

Hyneman was born in 1956, and grew up on a farm in Indiana. He worked as a boat captain, a certified divemaster, a wilderness survival expert, a linguist (he has a degree in Russian from Indiana University), a pet store owner, an animal wrangler, a machinist, a concrete inspector, and a chef. All before founding a special effects company.

Savage was born in 1967, and, appropriately for a MythBuster, grew up in Sleepy Hollow, New York. His father was an animator for the PBS kids shows Sesame Street and The Electric Company, which led him into doing voices for those shows, acting, and special effects. He describes MythBusters as "the perfect marriage of two things, performance, and special effects."

They filmed in San Francisco. Planning and experimentation took place at Hyneman's workshops there. Experiments requiring more space or special accommodations were filmed on location, typically around the San Francisco Bay Area, but also going to other States, or even countries, when required.

During the second season, members of Savage and Hyneman's behind-the-scenes team were organized into a second team of MythBusters, "The Build Team" or "B-Team": Tory Belleci, Kari Byron and Grant Imahara.

The MythBusters typically tested myths in a 2-step process. In early episodes, the steps were described by Savage as "replicate the circumstances, then duplicate the results": First, the team attempted to recreate the circumstances that the myth alleged, to determine whether the alleged result occurs.

If that failed, they attempted to expand the circumstances to the point that will cause the described result, which often reveals that the claims of the myth are objectively ridiculous or impossible to achieve without specialized training or equipment.

By the end of each episode, the myths are rated "Busted," "Plausible," or "Confirmed." Myths were rated as "Busted" when the myth's results could not be replicated under either the described parameters or reasonably exaggerated ones. Often, when a myth was declared "Busted," the team would attempt to see what would be required to replicate the result of the myth through scientific means, discarding the original parameters of the myth itself. Going to absolute limits of what is physically possible to replicate the results was the origin of what was unofficially titled the MythBusters motto: "If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing."

"Plausible" was given under a few circumstances, usually if the myth's results could be replicated by expanding some parameters of the myth by a realistic and reasonable margin; or if no documentation of the myth occurred at the time of the episode's production, yet the MythBusters were still able to duplicate it very closely as to how the myth was described (such as the myth that pirates wore eye patches to keep their night vision). If the myth's results were achieved using the method described, but the underlying reason is different from the one described in the myth, such as in the myth of throwing a fire extinguisher into a fire to make it explode and extinguish the fire, that would also be considered "Plausible."

If the results stated in the myth were attainable, but in such a way as to make the process either highly dangerous, or less efficient than more common methods of achieving the same result, they used "Plausible (but not recommended)."

There were several "Confirmed" myths, and just one scenario was enough for them to confirm the myth. For example, when testing to see whether shooting fish in a barrel, a metaphor for something being very easy, was, in fact, very easy, in most tests, they could not hit the fish with a bullet, but the energy transfer to the water by the bullet was lethal to the fish; therefore, the myth was declared "Confirmed." (Although, to me, this sounds more like it should have been listed as "Plausible.")

The program generally avoided experiments harmful to live animals, Early episodes made heavy use of crash-test dummies for observing blunt trauma injury, and ballistic gelatin for testing penetrating trauma. The crew progressed to using pig carcasses when an experiment required a more accurate simulation of human flesh, bone, and organs. Occasionally, real or simulated bones were molded within ballistics gel for simulations of specific body parts. Synthetic cadavers, or SynDavers, were used in a few tests.

They refused to test some myths. Paranormal concepts, such as aliens or ghosts, were not addressed because they could not be tested by scientific methods. This led to the Internet series Epic Rap Battles of History doing an episode titled "Ghostbusters vs. Mythbusters" in 2014. With "Nice Peter" playing Hyneman and "Epic Lloyd" playing Savage, the Mythbusters not only explained that ghosts aren't real (in the real world, anyway), the Ghostbusters' power packs wouldn't work in real life, and sided with "villain" Walter Peck of the EPA:

Savage: Good thing you work in a firehouse.

Hyneman: 'Cause you just got burned.

Savage: You are poor scientists.

Both: And that's Confirmed!

B-Team member Grant Imahara died in 2020, from a brain aneurysm. He was only 49 years old. As of January 23, 2022, the others are still alive. However, Savage has stated that he is unlikely to work with Hyneman on any future projects, stating that, although they worked well together as a classic example of a double act (with Hyneman as the straight man), their personalities clashed off-screen and on-screen. Savage suspected that both Hyneman and he were enjoying spending time apart from each other. Hyneman confirmed the personality clash: "We certainly had respect for each other, but we really weren't friends."

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January 23, 2003 was a Thursday. Baseball was out of season. The NFL was between the Conference Championship Games and Super Bowl XXXVII. There were 3 games in the NBA:

* The New Jersey Nets lost to the Golden State Warriors, 105-97 at The Arena in Oakland, as the Oakland Coliseum Arena was then known. Jason Kidd scored 41 points in defeat for the Nets.

* The Dallas Mavericks beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 107-94 at the First Union Center (now the Xfinity Mobile Arena) in Philadelphia.

* And the Sacramento Kings beat the Memphis Grizzlies, 104-98 at the Pyramid Arena in Memphis.

And there were 7 games in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers beat the Nashville Predators, 4-2 at the Gaylord Entertainment Center (now the Bridgestone Arena) in Nashville.

* The Ottawa Senators and the Atlanta Thrashers played to a tie, 3-3 at the Philips Arena (now the State Farm Arena) in Atlanta.

* The Boston Bruins beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 4-1 at the Mellon Arena (as the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh was then known).

* The St. Louis Blues held their arch-rivals, the Chicago Blackhawks, to a 3-3 tie at the United Center in Chicago.

* The Colorado Avalanche beat the Columbus Blue Jackets, 5-0 at the Pepsi Center (now the Ball Arena) in Denver.

* The Phoenix Coyotes beat the Calgary Flames, 7-1 at the Saddledome in Calgary.

* And the Minnesota Wild beat the Los Angeles Kings, 2-1 at the Staples Center (now the Crypto.com Arena) in Los Angeles.