You’ve been asking for it, we’ve finally done it - the Deadliest-Catch.com forums are NOW OPEN!

Go ahead and post your questions, comments and suggestions for the show at:

http://www.deadliest-catch.com/forum

Enjoy!!

Well, Season 4 of Deadliest Catch is now just about three months away… what is it you’d like to see this season?

Personally, I thought Season 3 was the best yet.  It really seems like the production team, film crew, etc. found their “sea legs”, so to speak, after the second season closed.  There were some amazing shots in the third season from perspectives I’d never seen before, and I hope to see more of this in season four.  The crew is constantly pushing the envelope in terms of film-making, getting new camera rigs and equipment installed on the boats, etc. so I’m really looking forward to seeing what surprises they’ve got in store for us this year!

I’d also like to see more shots of the families (though I understand many probably want to stay anonymous).  But it seems to me like this would really help to personalize the fishermen even more.  If we could be introduced to their wives, girlfriends (boyfriends?  nah, probably not!), kids, etc. and get a feel for how they stay in touch while on board, what the families do at home while everyone else is out to sea, etc.  I’d love to see a bit more of that.

But that’s me.  What would YOU like to see in season four?

Here are some Deadliest Catch video clips from YouTube to keep all us fans busy while we’re waiting for Season Four to beign (tentatively scheduled for April 2008). Enjoy!

I’ve caught a couple of episodes of Ice Road Truckers over the past few weeks… for those who don’t know, its another “hard-scrabble men doing hard-scrabble work” kind of show ala Deadliest Catch (its also done by the same production team) and it airs on the History Channel.  It chronicles the daily lives of truckers on Northern Canada’s “ice road”, who haul enormous loads of equipment back and forth between “civilization” and some super-isolated diamond mines up in the frozen north.  They call it the “ice road” because its literally made of ice - large stretches of it cross frozen lakes where there’s nothing but a couple of inches of ice holding up 20 ton tractor trailers.  The ice actually bends, buckles and cracks as they drive over it - its really incredible.  No one’s fallen through the ice yet on camera, but apparently it happens more often than they’d like. 

So you can expect that this show would have a lot of the same themes … tough men working long hours with little or no sleep, braving the freezing-cold elements to pull in sizeable amounts of cash.  For me it doesn’t have quite the same mystique as Deadliest Catch, though it does have its moments.  I guess though, its just a lot less interesting watching some guy drive a truck than it is to watch a team of 5-6 men make bait, wrangle crab pots, and pull up a new haul with no idea if it’ll be empty or full of $5000 worth of crawling-crabby-goodness.

Then, there’s Lobster Wars which - again - is made by the same production company.  This one follows a bunch of lobstermen off New England.  But whereas there’s real camaraderie amonst the men and boats of Deadliest Catch, it seems like there’s some real bad vibes between these guys.  (Hence the eponymous “Wars”).  Its a lot of the same themes as Deadliest Catch, but with a lot less danger.  Here the problems arise not from mother nature or equipment failure, but from the underhanded tricks of their fellow lobstermen.   I’ve only seen a couple of snippets of the show, though, so there may be more to it that I’ve just not seen yet.

So, what do you think?  Are either worth watching?

Nice little interview with Sig Hansen from the New Zealand Herald:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1501119/story.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=10466299

Tonight’s Show

They risk dying to make a living. Fishermen from the reality smash “Deadliest Catch,” storm chasers and more. Inside America’s most dangerous jobs with video you won’t believe.

Tonight on Larry King Live, on CNN. 

Just a peculiar article today that caught my eye from The Scotsman:

Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catch is one of the only things ’safe’ for Guantanamo prisoners to watch

I wonder who’s Al-Qaida’s favorite skipper - Sig or Phil? 

Some folks have posted comments suggesting Deadliest Catch should be made into a full-fledged video game.  I think with a little imagination it could probably be done.  After all, there’s already bass-fishing and games of that ilk out there.  This is like bass-fishing on steroids… not only do you have to worry about where the crab are and how to catch them, you have to battle the elements, fight rogue waves, assist in rescues of other crews/ships, catch your crab before the ice pack descends, etc. etc.  I could definitely see these themes woven together into a playable video game.  Granted it’ll probably never become a #1 hit, but there’s enough Deadliest Catch fans out there I think to make it a reasonable success.

UPDATE:  Seems just over 3 out 4 respondents  want the Rollo back on Season 4… so how about it, Original Productions?  Give Nyhammer a chance! 

So what do you think - should Original Productions bring back the Rollo in Season 4 of Deadliest Catch?  Seems from the comments being made here that Eric Nyhammer and his crew are pretty sorely missed… now’s your chance to register your opinion one way or the other - take the poll!
 

For me, the Rollo was a great alternative to some of the more salty-dog ships like Northwestern and Cornelia Marie. Eric was cut from a different cloth than Phil, Sig, Rick and the others. He seemed a bit more refined, a bit more at-ease, with a more casual management style… sort of like the “cool boss” to have. His crew was always good for a laugh, whether they were putting on inflatable sumo wrestling suits or knocking around pinatas on the deck of the frozen ship. It was a nice change-up to see the Rollo, and I genuinely missed them in season three.

If you really want to make your voice heard, follow Eric Nyhammer’s advice and write a letter to the production team. Original Productions can be reached at:

Original Productions
308 W. Verdugo Ave
Burbank, CA 91502
tel.818.295.6966

A couple of folks have sent in questions or posted comments asking if and when Season Four of Deadliest Catch will be airing on the Discovery Channel.  At first I heard rumors about an October 2007 return with new episodes, but now it sounds like it may be March of April 2008, according to the Daily News:

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/2007/06/18/2007-06-18_inner_tube.html

Either way, it sounds like Discovery’s made the right choice and has ordered another action-packed season from Original Productions.  If this last season is anything to go by, these guys still have lots of new tricks up their sleeve.  The deep-sea submersible camera, which apparently didn’t work out very well in season 3 because of inclement weather, may make another appearance, providing some dramatic shots of the ocean floor and crab in their natural habitat.  Or the producers and camera crew may figure out some great new way to film a shot… they already use chaser boats, gimbled-cameras on helicopters… heck, they even strap themselves onto hydraulic cranes and lay suspended 30 feet out from the boat just to get a good shot of the deck.  (My personal favorite was the CrabberCam - where they attached a small camera to a skateboard helmet and had one of the deckhands wear it while he worked… you really got a feel for the fisherman’s-eye-view of things.)

Anyway, the important thing is YES, Virginia… there will be a Season Four!  The big questions now are, which boats and captains will be featured?  Phil and Sig are shoo-ins, and it looks like the Time Bandit Brothers will probably stick around.  The Maverick will probably stay in, just so we can see Blake in his transition from deckhand to greenhorn-captain to full-fledged captain.  But what about the others?   I’m not crazy about the Farwest Leader, though I do have a soft-spot in my heart for Ragnhild… the boat I really miss though is the Rollo.  Eric was always good for a snarky comment or a subtle witticism, and his crew was constantly pulling pranks for the camera.  Maybe the production guys thought they were trying too hard to make “good television”?  Who knows.  But of all the captains I always liked Eric, just as much as Sig or Phil, if only because he seemed like he was cut from a different cloth… a little cleaner and more refined, younger and with a more laid back management style.  He provided a nice contrast with the other salty-dog captains.