Edited? As in staged? I mean seems kind of dangerous to do on a whim with half a dozen dudes around filming you... Meh, just show me the man GETTIN THE GOLD!
You're up there all by yourself (forget about the camera crew) and you wouldn't fuck around just a little bit? I know I'd be finding all sorts of ways to amuse myself like running over trees with the bulldozer, pooping in Todd's old bed, buggering the bears . . . Don't judge me.
Oh fuck yeah I would. There's a reason they rent heavy equipment out by the hour on Father's Day... because it's fun as hell. If you're just fucking around and waiting for your crew and gear to show up, I'd be making up all kinds of Heavy Equipment Olympic events. And I'd involve the guns way, way more. And I won't judge you.
I like how the producers realized "Oh shit. Everyone who watches the show watches it to see the Hoffman's fail, and we've set up Fred as the villain, so we have no one for the audience to root for. Quick, grab that nice kid from the mine across the way and stick a camera on him."
I figured that the Hoffmans weren't using the wave table because they are retarded. Did I miss something or was the kid panning the sludge by hand as well? I'd have thought that decades into the business they'd have found a better way of doing that.
I thought of this exactly as well when the kid did it. I have a feeling it was one, him testing his theory quickly by panning a handful out, and two the producers wanting to visualize the moment with him using a pan. No fucking way those guys hand pan the amount of shit they produce. I do like how he blows away the black sand leaving THE GOLD while the Hoffmans just bottle up the single jar of shit last season. There are a bevy of little machines that do this for amateur prospecting enthusiast I can't imagine they don't have larger industrial machines for it (the wave table for one).
The one I am really rooting for is Parker. He has some work ethic for someone who is sixteen and I really enjoy how he can move from the different heavy equipment with ease. Dakota Fred is just as retarded as the Hoffmans with the way he does things. You know he has to be a real asshole because his own son calls him Fred, not Dad. I don't think I have met someone who calls their parents by their first name. The Hoffman's are lucky that the have Dave because I don't think anyone else could have dug into the permafrost without flipping the machine. Can you imagine Jack driving that thing?
<a class="postlink" href="http://www.adn.com/2011/08/22/2026320/gold-rush-alaska-mines-hit-with.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.adn.com/2011/08/22/2026320/g ... -with.html</a> It looks like if the Hoffmans would have stayed at Porcupine, they would have really been fucked.
I'm a little confused about the placement of gold on the Hoffman's claim. From the map it seemed instead of drilling all over the claim, they did 6 holes on the one end and 6 holes just off the edge of the other, where they found jack shit. So are they just going to focus on that one strip of land?
It seemed like they did six holes around where they were already clearing the top layer off of. That is where the surveyor found traces of gold. Then Hoffman chose six other spots on the other side of the claim (In the woods) where he thought there would be gold. Of course, there was jack shit there.
Fucksakes, they're really starting to milk it. That filtration system that he designed on the fly was pretty damn ingenious though. The entire team would be fucked without that mechanic on call.
They always have. Narrator: If they can't find the trim guard to Jack's beard trimmer the Hoffman's gold mining season could be over before it even begins. Jack: I just can't see the controls of the loader when my beard isn't trimmed. (swings loader arm wildly) (obvious off screen ADR) Todd: OOOHH FRICK! Insert Gold Rush plate screen. Cut to commercial.
I get the sneaking suspicion that Parker's whole storyline is completely fabricated. I have a feeling the mine is turning out the same amount as usual and they just paid them to shoot his storyline this year. He's basically just done two or three random task that they say are his actions to "save" his grandpas mine. The way his grandpa acts on film he doesn't seem to give a shit less what Parker is up to or that there is filming going on.
This wouldn't surprise me at all. We haven't seen anything from the two other guys working on the claim in the past few episodes. My guess is they're doing all the normal mining with the grandfather. On the other hand though, the dude's 91 years old. Maybe he's not all that concerned if the mine goes tits up at this point. They've said he's already made, what, a couple million over the years?
If they paid him and his grandson, probably 10k range total for the season, I could see him saying fuck it screw around with my grandson, just stay away from the real miners.
And who's to say that the mine isn't a separate corporation, and all the historical cash is already tucked away in grandpa's mason jars in the back yard? So if the mining operation goes tits up, the only loss is the mining operation. Dude's probably got more than enough to retire on, if I had to guess. At least if he was smart about it. And made up story lines or not, Parker is the star of the show. 17, and he gets to play with real, grown-up shit. "Never cut down a tree before... so let me start with a 100' monster and a beast of a chain saw." Awesome. He's like a kid in a candy store... he's a kid, but the candy is all sorts of fucking cool equipment. More kids should do this. Hell, I want to do this. (Just not for a living). The last shot where he has a bit of a realization about how hard it's going to be really touched me though... but kudos to him for meeting it head on and with some serious resolution. For all the seemingly fucked up idiots being raised by idiots, it's refreshing to see kids like him.
Might have been the last episode, but one scene really typified how stupid Todd Hoffman is. They needed to raise the shaker 3 feet. Todd and that other idiot with a stupid goatee were arguing in circles about not having a plan. The competent quarry mangers pipes up, just put logs underneath it. Problem solved. I have a suspicion his family couldn't care less he is off in Alaska filming a TV show but he and the engineer guy with the bad back are the only two useful people on their team.
As much as I'm sure the majority of Todd's team are morons, at least some of this has to be exaggerated by the producers for TV purposes. I remember reading something (maybe here) from last season where the producers were practically begging the Fish and Wildlife inspectors to fine the crew for siphoning off water from that river so that they could turn it into a big storyline. At the end of the day, it's still reality television. And reality television that, apart from shit breaking, flagrant incompetence and personal conflicts, is pretty mundane. I still enjoy the show, but I've started taking a lot of it with a big grain of salt with regard to what's an honest portrayal and what's played up for TV.
I can't be the only one disappointed in Thurber. Dude, you have a fucking ROCKING 1849 prospectors mustache, stop crying every ten minutes.