As a parent, I’m always looking for good stuff on television for my kids. If they are going to watch television, it should be something good for them. (Or at least not bad for them.) It’s a bonus if the television show is something that I can also enjoy.
Megapede
An hour of big, cool machines doing big, cool things. What’s not to love?
Heavy Metal Task Force is a fun show my five-year old and for me. Each episode has three acts, each starring a heavy metal machine and its support team. They are not just rolling out big dump trucks, but big, strange, unique machines.
Blade
The Heavy Metal Task Force premiere on October 2 featured three machines: Blade, a military surplus heavy lift helicopter, plunks 10,000 pound utility poles into the Colorado mountainside, an elite team of engineers harness the world’s biggest mobile cranes to move an offshore wind turbine, and loggers fight an epic battle to save the gulf coast of Louisiana.
Each feature highlights the massive size and power of the machine as they engage in their working activity. Each heavy metal machine also encounters crisis during its operation. The crisis highlights the team of operators and the resiliency of the machines themselves. I could probably do without the overly dramatic crisis, but it does allow the show the highlight that even these powerful tools have their limits.
Beluga - The Airbus A300-600ST
The downside to the show is that it airs at 10 on Friday nights. Recently, they have started broadcasting reruns at more reasonable hours.
Of course you can just use your Tivo to record it for enjoyment on Saturday mornings. That’s what happens in our house. You do have a Tivo, don’t you? (I suppose a DVR will also do.)
Images courtesy of the Science Channel.
