Two co-workers (one an engineer, the other a fisheries biologist) were in my office yesterday and we were talking reality shows--the pawn store shows, Swamp People, Hillbilly Hand Fishing, Billy the Exterminator, Finding Bigfoot, and Full Metal Jousting.  The fisheries biologist brought up American Diggers--he'd seen it on National Geographic.  He referred to the hosts as doofuses because of their behavior.  He was disappointed with the show because he thought he'd learn something; instead, he watched the two guys metal detect on a beach only to find some coins and a ring.  Their lingo annoyed him as well--civ for Civil War and rev for Revolutionary War.   In his opinion, the dumbest part was the hosts making a bet in which the loser would have to lick a jellyfish.  

If the general public is left with the impression that the show is stupid and a waste of their time, it's not likely the show will last very long.

Liz Davoli
Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority

On Thu, 8 Mar 2012 06:38:22 -0800, Melissa Diamanti <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>The problem with this kind of show is that we can see the flaws, but the general audience cannot.� It takes the old saying of "digging for Dollars" and shifts it from refering to pay to refering to loot, and that ends up being the take-away message - that you can get rich by looting.
�
As long as we are on the subject of protesting such shows, I'll pass along some thoughts.
When I read comments being posted about the show on Spike TV, I was happy that they were all negative (in the beginning).� But the problem is that most of them were in the vein of "leave the digging to the experts."� This may be true, but it won't get people to listen to you.� They've heard that before and still think they can do it just as well as you can.� 
Instead, or in addition, I recommend making arguements about learning from the objects we dig up.� Or about�respecting the people whose lives are represented by these objects.� Or about the idea that it is everyone's shared history, not just one person's to hoard or sell.� Refering to the need to preserve "context" does not have any meaning outside the archaeological community either.� To demonstrate it's importance to the public, you have to give a lenghty lecture, with very specific and concrete examples of how the meaning of one object was only gained from its association with other objects.
Or you can take the moral high ground, as I did in protest to National Geographic about the Diggers show, and suggest that the concept does not fit in with their mission to educate the public.
back to the fray....
Meli

Melissa Diamanti, Ph.D.
Principal Investigator
Archaeological & Historical Consultants, Inc.
PO Box 482, 101 N. Pennsylvania Avenue, Centre Hall PA 16828
814.364.2135
[log in to unmask]


>________________________________
> From: Rich Green <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask] 
>Sent: Wednesday, March 7, 2012 9:40 PM
>Subject: American Digger
>  
>All the hoopla over the American Digger show was for nothing. The show is a total farce with a script obviously written by morons and acted out by imbeciles. The artifacts were obviously salted and the star of the show's ludicrous claims of value in the thousands was even more ridiculous. This wasn't even good comedy. 
>
>
>
>Rich Green
>Historic Archaeological Research
>4338 Hadley Court
>West Lafayette, IN 47906
>Office:� (765) 464-8735
>Mobile: (765) 427-4082
>www.har-indy.com
>
>
>