Monday, April 19, 2010

Previewing Explorer: 25 Years


Explorer

Please note that in celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of Explorer, the National Geographic Channel sent over a bottle of champagne in honor of the milestone so I may have been a little happy while writing this post.

I would venture to say that most people didn’t have cable back in 1985, me being one of them, but that was the year Explorer debuted twenty-five years ago making it the longest running documentary series in cable history racking up nearly sixty Emmys in the process. Tonight Lisa Ling looks back at the series from the 1987 first look at the Titanic wreckage all the way up to Ling’s undercover report from inside North Korea from 2007 (which is even more interesting now considering her sister’s ordeal in the country last year). My favorite part of the retrospective is the look inside a maximum security prison where whenever a fight breaks out, a alarm sound and whoever doesn’t fall to the ground could get shot, and seeing a bunch of inmates drop down like a grade school class would is an odd sight to see. The two hour special Explorer: 25 Years airs tonight at 9:00 on the National Geographic Channel and is presented in HD where available. Check out a preview below:





National Geographic’s sister station, Nat Geo Wild, is actually doing a little counterprogramming, so those not fealing all the nostalgic may want to tune into Shark Island with Enric Sala at 9:00 tonight instead. The channel will stay under the sea tomorrow when it premieres Hunt for the Giant Octopus also premiering at 9:00. Sadly the show’s definition of “Giant” is not the same as awesomely lame Syfy movies.

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