It has begun. The final season of MYTHBUSTERS opened with “MYTHBUSTERS Revealed: The Behind the Scenes Season Opener” on the Discovery Channel, to be repeated Wednesday night at 9:00 p.m. ET on the Science Channel.
Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman hosted the program like any MYTHBUSTERS episode, but this was both a behind the scenes look at how the last season was produced and a look back at how the program became a phenomenon, building to what will likely become its best and most memorable season ever.
First, some stats from this reveal. Over the course of 14 years, the MYTHBUSTERS crew has shot off over 500,000 bullets, smashed 280 cars, blown up more than 15 tons of explosives, used up 83 miles of Duct Tape, with more than 3,500 volunteers doing more than 3,000 experiments on 1,000 myths. Whew! This final season, they use 5 tons of explosives and destroy 178 old props and five Busters and, to quote Adam, “one epic cement truck,” to close out the series.
During this introductory episode, they teased the upcoming 12 shows, teasing just enough to get us to watch but not enough to spoil the fun. What we have to look forward to include drifting on dirt tracks, a rail tanker car crush, a Reddit episode of fan suggestions, rocket launches including one using poop as a fuel, driving a hovercraft over land minds, Duct Tape trebuchet (catapult for war), a new McGuyver episode involving smothering an explosion with wet cement, a car lift using a vacuum cleaner, flattening a car with a massive explosion, a zombie revisit using 200 MYTHBUSTERS volunteers, a truck wedge using a semi cab, and an episode with Kari, Tory, and Grant reminiscing the past 14 years of making cool science and how-to builds. Oh — and the big finale: the explosion to end all explosions, involving 5,000 and 1 pounds of explosives, the biggest explosion ever attempted on MYTHBUSTERS.
The program ended on a tear-some note. Adam was emotional. Jamie was, well, Jamie. It’s hard to end anything that’s been an influential part of your life, and now they’ve had to say good-bye. Now it’s time for us, the viewers, to ride along for the long so-long and enjoy the journey. “We happy?” asked Jamie. “We happy,” answered Adam. I think in the end, we, too will say, “We happy.”
Next week begins the actual meat of the episodes for the final season of MYTHBUSTERS with “Explosion Special” at 8:00 p.m. on the Discovery Channel. See you then!