The major discovery of "The Discovery Channel" has been that viewers will swallow just about anything. Its utter lack of intellectual honesty and journalistic integrity is appalling -- especially for a cable network that airs "Mythbusters". Ultimately, viewers are likely to start disbelieving just about everything on "Discovery".
"Moonshiners" has been an enjoyable show, because at least parts of it appear to be true. But like many viewers, I wondered why moonshiners who were /not/ known to the police (such as Tim Smith -- if that's his name -- or Josh & Bill) would willingly appear in front of cameras. That question has still not been answered.
The Discovery Channel is nothing if not alert to exploitation. It hit the mother lode with "American Chopper", with a wildly dysfunctional family whose head had no practical people-management skills.
Steven Ray Tickle, Tim Smith's nominal partner in moonshine crime, must have seemed a Godsend. Like Festus Haggen, he's intelligent but not (apparently) well-educated. * And he's cute. The spin off was inevitable.
It's hard to take the show seriously. Though I'm fairly comfortable in believing in the real-world existence of most of the characters, ** it's obvious that the producers are "guiding" the participants. (Tickle's discovery of a moonshine stash -- which started the series -- is almost certainly a fabrication.)
It's not "Frasier", but if you don't take "Tickle" too seriously, it's a pretty entertaining sitcom.
* One of the striking things about "Moonshiners" is that the lawbreakers seem to be rather brighter than the police chasing them.
** The Wikipedia article claims that Tickle is single. That doesn't surprise me, as I don't see him marrying such an unattractive woman.
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