Mythbusters (lost unaired segments of Discovery Channel science entertainment series; 2006-2015)

This article has been tagged as NSFL due to its disturbing subject matter.

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Logo for the series.

Status: Lost

Mythbusters is a popular science entertainment TV program, hosted by veteran special effects artists Jamie Hyneman & Adam Savage, that puts various modern myths, storytelling tropes and urban legends to rigorous scientific test. Adam & Jamie then use their results to determine if the myths are in reality "plausible" or "busted". Over more than a decade, this has resulted in some startling and surprising television... but in only one case was it so startling that the footage never made it to air.

Banned Footage

In the 2006 Mythbusters episode "Steam Cannon," among the myths being tested is "there's more nutrition in the cardboard box than the cereal." The resulting segment, as aired, features Adam & Jamie exploring various means of determining the nutritional content of cardboard. While mostly unremarkable, it comes across as a bit vague and disorganized in comparison to the show's usual meticulously planned investigations.

In a Q&A some years later (and several times since) Adam explained that this was because the original plan for testing this myth had gone so horrifically awry that it was unusable. According to his account, the experiment involved lab mice placed in three groups - one eating normal mouse food, another sugary cereal, and the last cardboard box pellets. After several days' filming the crew had noticed on the Friday afternoon that the cardboard-eating mice were acting strangely; on resuming the following Monday morning, they discovered that one of the "cardboard mice" had eaten the other two mice in its cage. All that remained of each victim was, in Adam's words, "...a head, and a tail, and nothing but a ribcage in-between."

The show's producers at the Discovery Channel refused to allow the debacle to be part of the episode. In the segment as aired, Jamie only very obliquely alludes to not wanting to actually eat the cardboard out of concerns over toxicity. However Adam claims that in the initial footage both he and Jamie had tried to play the ruined experiment off as gruesomely hilarious, holding up the 'very fat' cannibal mouse (which they had dubbed 'Killer') and joking along the lines of 'when mice attack!'

Availability

Adam had made a rough cut of this footage by the time the decision was taken to pull it, and in the Q&A he admits to showing it at "Northern Michigan Tech" (likely referring to either Northern Michigan University or Michigan Tech University). When Discovery found out, however, they forbade him from showing it ever again.

Mythbusters ceased first-run production as of 2016 - and despite his claims that the producers insisted he destroy it, it's plausible that Adam may still have a personal copy of the footage. But due to the graphic animal violence it remains very unlikely it will ever resurface publicly. The Discovery Channel has always done their best to keep a family-friendly image and strictly avoid any hint of animal harm (never testing the myth of "drying a dog in a microwave" in any form, for instance).

"Easily Available Explosive," The Other Banned Segment

The only other known segment to have never been aired is a segment about testing an "easily available explosive." According to Adam at Silicon Valley Comic Con, some time during the Grant, Tori, and Cary era (2006-2015) the team set out to test a myth about the explosive capability of "a commonly available material." The mindset of the test was likely "[this thing] is supposedly very explosive, let's see if it is true, if it is we will censor out details so people can't make it at home like when we made Nitrous Oxide, but it likely isn't so we'll be telling people not to waste their time doing it." The results were supposedly so explosive and dangerous that instead of censoring the instructions they destroyed all footage and agreed never to talk about their findings again, except for when Adam reported the findings to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Gallery

Q&A where Adam describes the experiment and its aftermath.

Tested livestream where Adam again talks about the experiment, adding further details of the lost footage and Discovery's response (37:42).

Q&A Where Adam discusses "the largest behind the scenes disaster" at 32:27

See Also

Discovery Channel

• Fifth Gear Europe (partially found European Discovery Channel motoring series; 2009)
• Land of Lost Monsters (found Discovery Channel special; 2003)
• PitchMen (found Discovery Channel docudrama series; 2009-2011)
• Top Gear (partially found Discovery Channel adaptation of BBC Two motoring series; 2005)

Discovery Kids

• Darcy's Wild Life (found Family Channel/Discovery Kids teen sitcom; 2004-2006)
• Kenny the Shark (partially found live-action Discovery Kids special; 2000)
• Kenny the Shark (partially lost unaired pilots of Discovery Kids animated series; 2001)
• The Paz Show (partially lost TLC/Discovery Kids animated short series; 2003-2006)

Hub Network

• Family Game Night (found Hub Network game show; 2010-2014)
• The Game of Life (partially lost Hub Network game show; 2011-2012)

Science Channel

• Future Living 2025 (Lost Science Channel documentary; 2002)