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River Monsters , which latterly ended its eight - year run , was one of the most successful and beloved serial that Animal Planet and the Discovery Channel has aired ( sorry , American Stuffers ) .
It follow angler and conservationist Jeremy Wade on his worldwide hunt to figure out the Sojourner Truth behind local narrative of dangerous , terrifying fish .
This almost always ended in him catch a huge animal and establish the audience that the citizenry narrate the account are whole correct to be afraid .
Then he ’d permit the creature go so that the legend could continue , which is obviously the right option . We just desire that the show provides the masses who still have to go there with the information they need not to incur a flying fish header - butt that sends them whirl out of their boats .
Behind all of the education and adventure ofRiver Monstersare several odd secrets about the production .
The show is already pretty blunt about the unplanned thing that pass off on its trips , including the time in Suriname when lightning struck the sound guy . He was alright– do n’t care .
However , some disturbed stuff about both the series and its wiz do n’t always end up on goggle box because editor program have a job to do , and they ’re really good at it .
With that said , here are the15 Behind - The - Scenes Secrets AboutRiver Monsters .
You wo n’t see this in any episodes of the show because it pass years ago , but Jeremy Wade has been fishing around the world his intact life– and it has n’t always gone without incident .
That does n’t just imply that he ’s fall out of his sauceboat or chosen the amiss decoy , however . Those things have almost for certain bump , but other incidents have catch a minuscule more serious .
Wade tell thathe got into a minute of troublewhen he was fish in the Mekong River back in 1984 .
He does n’t set why they surmise him , but considering the political climate in that area at the time , with invasion and delimitation skirmishes happening and the Cold War having everyone looking out for citizenry who seemed too dissimilar , it makes a unusual mo of sense that a British man might have raised some eyebrows , even if all he was doing was fishing .
We can add this to our running play list of thing that make Jeremy Wade one of the most interesting citizenry presently live . If the guy cable ’s life story were a motion picture , we ’d call it out for being too implausible because it does n’t seem like all of that could happen to one soul .
14. Local bureaucracy often caused delays
One of the reasons why realism TV is so heavily edited is because realism is , more often than not , incredibly irksome . It ’s mostly just sitting around , and that ’s especially true when events delay take .
This happened to Wade and company when they went to the Congo River . The realm is a volatile one , and the governments are n’t always as helpful or effective as they could be .
It kind of get to good sense , though . If we were in charge of administering a office with that much other hooey going on , we probably would n’t be super concerned about keep back a televised fishing misstep on docket .
In fact , difficultness in getting permits and even assure a gravy holder consume up about a week of the expedition .
Even once they were on the water , the crew had a few limitation .
This was because they did n’t have papers for the country on the other side of the river , which in all likelihood would have take another week to attain .
finally , however , Wade got to where he needed to go and beguile his bailiwick : a Goliath Tigerfish .
Then , when he was trying to release it back into the water , it passed away . It was really disappointing , but at least it was logical with the rest of the stumble .
13. Permits weren’t the only problems in the Congo
TheRiver Monsterscrew was n’t just in a hurry to get on the Congo River because the local government was taking so long to process their paperwork . They also had some emergence with local people .
This was because a villager had disappeared while fishing just about when Wade and his team showed up . This villager was also the chief ’s brother , which made it even more of a problem .
The locals tie the two event — the fade and the arrival — and decided that the film crowd had something to do with it .
coitus between the two groups were pretty tense for a while , but they subside after the missing humanity showed up again .
However , the state of affairs was actually worsened than Wade or his partners substantiate . Some of the villager were quick to take action to seek justice for what they presume to be a offense .
One group blame the chief and thought that he ’d done something to his own crony , while others stuck with the “ outsiders did it ” hypothesis and focused their suspiciousness on the plastic film crew . Either way , whoever ended up with the rap would have been in bother .
Wade revealed during hissecond Reddit AMAthat he did n’t find out until later that some villager were planning on “ dealing with ” the crew , possibly with rocks .
12. Crew does not have a dedicated paramedic
This is plainly a defective estimate , but Wade told Reddit inhis first AMAthat he travels so lightly that “ we do n’t have space in our gang for a paramedic . ” This sound like a really bad musical theme , and that ’s because it is .
However , they are n’t quite on their own out there .
Most of the crew has some aesculapian training , and they carry equipment to facilitate with little emergencies .
So they can do medical dressing , deal with closed airway , and so on . Also , even though they ’re usually out in the midsection of nowhere and ca n’t consider on an ambulance , they are n’t completely alone .
“ We also have a orbiter earphone so we can get advice and inform our production society if anything go on , if we have reception , ” Wade said .
“ And the output ship’s company always asks two question on the rare juncture we call them if there is an emergency : interrogative sentence one , is everybody hunky-dory ? Question two , immediately afterwards , did you film it ? , ” he stated .
It ’s good that the production company has the order correct there .
While Wade say that they did n’t used to film constantly , they start into the habit later on . It ’s serious that they did because you never love when , for example , your sound guy might be on the wrong end of lightning .
11. It was only supposed to be a one-off
It ’s kind of tough to trust that after nine seasons and over 100 instalment , specials , and spear carrier , the original plan for what ended up becomingRiver Monsterswas just a single program .
That was “ Killer Catfish ” , which engage Wade and his team to India to investigate a serial of foreign drownings in the Kali River .
potential culprits include whirlpools and crocodiles , but the title of the episode variety of put down the suspense for that part of the investigation .
Wade decides that this is due to the goonch , a metal money of wolf fish that can grow to be human - sized or larger . Thanks to the local habit of ramp up funeral pyres at the border of the river , the goonch had developed a taste for human shape .
We are n’t trusted about that last part , honestly . However , it does make for some fairly interesting television , and Wade draws out his quarry by lighting a huge fervidness on the bank building of the river .
The goonch shows up for the fire , expecting a red-hot meal , but instead some guy hooks it and demo it off to the domain .
However , at least Wade let the Pisces go after , and they did n’t terminate up making the most of those raging embers . The one - off garnered a deal of tending , and finally a show was made .
10. ‘Killer Catfish’ is Jeremy Wade’s favorite episode
We do n’t have a go at it if it was because of the name and address , the drippy value of it launch his show , or what , but reportedly , “ Killer Catfish ” is Jeremy Wade ’s favorite episode ofRiver Monstersthat he ever made .
It ’s definitely a dependable story . The tempo is good , and it ’s exciting watching the investigation stretch as Wade eliminate defendant and eventually figures out what ’s in all likelihood go on .
The snatch itself is also highly exciting .
At one point , the “ extreme angler ” bring in that he does n’t have enough bank left to pursue the fish , so he swim across dangerous waters with a individual hand , all while still keeping a grip on his sportfishing pole .
Also , if you know about Wade ’s life story , which include surviving malaria and a plane clangour , you will discover that this is only about the fifth most grave and interesting thing he ’s ever done .
However , it worked , and he capture the Pisces and assist plug nine more seasons of doing what he loved .
“ Killer Catfish ” has a lot going for it . And the rest of the serial publication is enthralling , too . But it ’s kind of a bummer to think that it peak for the host at the pilot . That ’s not to say that he is n’t clear having a eruption the balance of the series , but apparently the goonch was a tough act to top .
9. Wade appeared in an Asylum movie
The host ofRiver Monstersdoesn’t just take hold of fish with a rod and Virginia reel . In one , incredibly creepy case , he let a lamprey latch onto his neck to demonstrate how they operate .
If you ’ve never seen a lamper eel ’s mouth before , you probably do n’t need to , as they are the stuff of nightmare . It ’s like a bottomless orchestra pit full of tooth with a barb that number out of it .
We do n’t have intercourse if this episode straightaway inspired “ mockbuster ” factory The Asylum ( Jehovah of theSharknadoseries ) to make a B - movie about the vampire fish , but they did– and it even premiered on Animal Planet .
It ’s calledBlood Lake , and it ’s about mutated , amphibious lamper eel who assault a low tourist township .
In it , the head of the local police personnel require the city manager to shut everything down , but the mayor is not opened to it . Because of this , a circumstances of hoi polloi suffer their life history . This is fundamentally the plot ofJaws , but it ’s cheesier in every way .
Jeremy Wade appears about 17 second in — on a computer screen — as a “ lamper eel expert ” who reveals that the aggressive animals have run out of food and will get nutrition wherever they can .
He also disclose that they can pass over . It ’s just a thrown-away exposition view that sets up the leaping lamper eel we ’ll see a act later .
8. It was cancelled because it ran out of fish
This is perchance a act of an exaggeration , as the show did n’t really draw out of Pisces , but it was a little surprising that Animal Planet would end one of its best meet shows ever while it was still pop .
It did , however , seem like they were run a little light on idea during the later seasons .
The 8th class , for representative , look at entirely with sea life , and you do n’t have to be a scientist to recognize that sea and river are not really the same things . They do n’t even have the same kind of water in them .
Even before that , Wade ’s traveling contract him to sites like Loch Ness and the chill pool alfresco of the doomed Chernobyl nuclear superpower plant .
Both of these episode were honest , do n’t get us unseasonable , and he caught a normal - sounding but incredibly radioactive catfish on that 2nd slip , but when you pose down to watch a show calledRiver Monsters , you in all probability anticipate to see some rivers .
Duringhis second involve Me Anything session on Reddit , which carry place just before the oceanic season , Wade mentions that he set up a list of fish that he wanted to hitch when the show first started .
At that head , he say he ’d caught most of them , so it ’s not hard to imagine that it was just time to move on two years afterwards .
7. Wade often destroyed his clothes
Shooting a realness show , peculiarly one out in Nature under occasionally dodgy weather , can make some havoc on your gear– and clothes are no elision .
Wade con early on that he was travel to require multiple kit to keep take care groovy and fresh throughout the shoot .
In fact , this deterrent example run all the way back to the pilot sequence , “ Killer Catfish ” . We ’ve already verbalize about his search for the immense goonch catfish in that one , but between all of the probe and sportfishing , you might remark something else : Wade ’s shirt is slowly disintegrate .
He talks about this in the limited episode “ Jeremy ’s Monster Story ” , which aired after the serial coda .
Wade says that while on later shoots , he make for multiple turnout along “ for persistence , ” he ’d only bring the one T - shirt to go up against the goonch– and it ’s obvious .
Between rough terrain , day of hard piece of work , and the concluding encounter with the Pisces , that shirt saw some bad habit .
wear a ratty shirt while catching a human - sized siluriform fish does n’t really diminish the accomplishment , but since he target it out in that particular episode , it ’s all we ’re function to notice whenever we capture footage from the original .
6. The cameraman’s journey
It ’s not often that you see much from the crew fritter away a reality show , even one as rasping and furrowed asRiver Monsters . That is , unless one of them take a bolt of lightning– that ’s by all odds going on idiot box .
However , remember that this is a show about Jeremy Wade go around to severe seat and doing hazardous things , which means that his crew has to be powerful along with him .
That ’s not always potential , though , as a cameraman reveals in the “ Jeremy ’s Monster Story ” special installment .
There was a moment in which Wade decided to swim across the river , which was foolish for more than one reason . The first reason , obviously , is that he could have lost his life , which would have made terrible television .
However , second reason is that the cameraman still had a job to do , and that was reasonably tough after his subject just did something that would destroy his equipment ( at least ) if he tried to follow .
“ I had to scramble up a 45 - degree hill,”camera operator James Bickersteth say . “I had to cross the bridge to get across the river and then hunt down along the independent route far downstream , go down a bowlder - covered mound , and then cross a boulder - strew line of business to get to where Jeremy was on the edge of the river . ”
All you see in the main sequence is the television camera flow up behind Wade just before he extract in the wolffish . However , kind of a good deal happened before that .
5. The Muskie took over 15,000 casts to catch
One of the most tedious and frustrating pursuance on all ofRiver Monsterswas Wade ’s Richard Morris Hunt for the muskellunge in Ontario . However , it was n’t really his fault because “ muskies ” are a notoriously unmanageable fish to catch .
Anglers even gave the obstinate beast a sobriquet : “ the Pisces the Fishes of 10,000 mould . ” This is because muskies are so fussy and tough that mass typically only snag one through raw persistence bordering on obsession .
gratefully , Wade did not give up . It did n’t take him 10,000 casts to entrance his Pisces the Fishes , though . rather , by his count , it take him at least 15,000 tries , and he still did n’t hook anything .
He broke the sameness by bring as many different come-on as he could and using different ones to keep it interesting– well , as interesting as fox out a lure 15,000 times in a row without catching anything can be , anyway .
Eventually , he give up and adjudicate to reorganise .
He decided to hear to catch something lowly to remind himself what that mat up like and in rules of order to regain some confidence .
So of course , that ’s when the muskie decide to bite . Not only was Wade not expecting it , but he was n’t even prepare .
He was n’t using strong enough line , for one matter , but somehow he managed to pull in the huge Pisces because Jeremy Wade ’s life-time is just straight - up play .
4. Shoots took way longer than they looked
InRiver Monster , stroke have a deal longer than they looked , though this more or less goes without say about all reality shows , since few if any take place in real time . However , unremarkably the hour or so of television that we end up with covers somewhere around a day or a hebdomad of filming .
This is n’t really the case withRiver goliath , tough , and that ’s the case for several reasons .
The first , obviously , is traveling . It takes time for the crew to get where they ’re going , even if they take private planes . Also , then they have to get through customs , peradventure pathfinder out motion-picture photography sites , and then ensure everything is in order .
The experience with the carmine tapeline in the Congo shows that this is n’t always as easy as it sounds for the crew to get where they need to be .
However , even assuming that they get to where they ’re give-up the ghost and cypher out what Wade is going to pick up right away , that ’s no guarantee of a quick shoot .
“ Killer Catfish ” required quite a scrap of prep work before any sportfishing ever in reality happened . Even then , once Wade was last able to angle , the fish refused to cooperate .
We understand , of row . Pisces are gaga animals , and they do n’t like about Wade or his filming docket . However , the goonches in the Kali River play hard - to - bait for four weeks before one lastly claim the bait– and the gang was filming almost that whole time .
3. Wade still eats fish
regard the fact that Wade does everything he can to let the Pisces the Fishes that he watch free at the final stage of each episode , he admits that he still consume some from time to time .
We do n’t mean the “ characteristic fish ” like the goonch or the muskie– that would be a lot of nutrient for such a little crew , and dealing with remnant would be a nightmare .
However , Wade secernate Reddit that he does sometimes eat small catches , but that ’s only “ if there ’s plenty of them in the river , " which is pretty reasonable .
Because Wade goes to removed and exotic localisation all over the world , though , this means that he is n’t just talking about pole or another typical variety of fish . Wade has in reality eat on pirana before– and he ’s not afraid to talk about it .
“ They ’re not very good,”he said . “I do it more for the part reversal . ”
Of the fish he does condescend to wipe out , though , he does have a orientation . “My favorite is a tambaqui , a relative of the pacu . The tambaqui has tooth a bite like a horse ’s tooth used for smash bollock … they have a very rich , organic dieting . Their meat isdelicious , ” he state .
He could have stopped at “ tooth like a horse ” because that ’s absolutely what we ’re face for in a meal .
2. Wade hates handling one fish
Do an image lookup forRiver Monsterson the cyberspace , and you ’re guaranteed to see dozens of pictures of Jeffrey Wade holding tremendous Pisces . He ’s smile in each and every image because this is his favourite thing in the public .
However , it turn out that he does n’t love every kind of fish .
In the episode “ Amazon Flesh Eaters ” , Wade discusses two of the most terrific metal money in the world– and we do n’t mean piranhas , which are pretty scary on their own .
No , these are two member of the candiru syndicate , and if you ’ve never heard that name before , we advance you to finish eating before you look it up .
The littler , more famous candiru is known for “ infiltrating ” unsuspecting male natator in the least comfortable way possible . However , its cousin , the candiru - acu , is somehow even worse .
They ’re large and more voracious , and their victims look like they come straight out of a repugnance movie– and not a swish one . We ’re surprised that The Asylum has n’t made a candiru movie yet , countenance ’s put it that way .
However , the candiru - acu ’s fright factor is n’t why Wade does n’t like handling them .
“ I do n’t mind handling fish , ” he told Reddit in his first AMA , “ but it just experience very foul to handle . It ’s very slimy , and wriggly , and just looks creepy . They have tiny , luminous eyes . ”
you may descry his revulsion during the installment , but we assumed it was because he ’d see to it what the voracious eater had done to his decoy fish .
1. Episodes are longer in the United Kingdom
River Monstersis a production of British television connection ITV , where it debut before an exportation to the United States . However , it apparently lose some footage on its way across the Atlantic .
It did n’t just suffer a prospect or two , either . The variation of episodes that strain in the U.S. are up to 10 bit forgetful than the “ extended ” ones that show on ITV .
American viewers are missing out on all kinds of animals that Wade showcases in each episodes .
Okay , we say “ all form , " but they ’re mostly fish , obviously . However , it ’s the principal of the thing– pieces are miss .
We don that the conflict is because Animal Planet demand that extra place for more ads . That ’s not to say that the series is commercial - spare on ITV , though . Rather , the show - to - promo ratio is a flake small in the United States .
We are n’t needfully saying this is a good or bad thing– it ’s just dissimilar . However , it is dissatisfactory that some of the audience stupefy less of a show that they love . It ’s just how television set work over here , deplorably .
Nobody complains about the Puppy Bowl being one foresighted commercial break , but that ’s because it buy us with the cute wienerwurst .
