History Bites

Rick Green, co-creator of the wonderful Canadial show, The Red Green Show, branched out in the early 90's to create and star in this "bet you thought you knew what happened" history program. Combining a very good ensemble cast along with the use of humor to get points across, History Bites takes the premise of what might we know about certain points in history if television had been there to record and report it?

Would the Hun really turn out to be a bunch of misunderstood guys who really thought they were doing a good thing by slaughtering thousands as their horde moved across Asia and Europe? Was Genghis just trying to live up to his father's image?

Were the Norsemen who conquered western France shocked when the French just gave them the land and told them the now THEY had to care for the population.

History Bites is a funny show. It should be mandatory viewing for 5th through 8th graders in all schools to help them understand that what me might think of as historical fact is often just what the winners wrote, not what happened. And humor is the best way to get across this kind of information.

Too bad the Canadians keep it to themselves. Or, too bad US networks like The History Channel or even Comedy Central haven't picked this up. There are more than enough individual shows to fill more than a year's programming (at one per week).

Pretty good way to trick people into learning- by entertaining them. Much more entertaining than educational, but they do their research well, though some of their joke are off the bat. They're not history teachers.

I was so bad at history, but putting it in a comedic context always helps it to seem interesting. You have to hand it to Rick Green for creating so many really clever projects.

This was a funny show that taught little lessons about history through comedians doing period specific sketch comedy as historical figures.

This is a brilliant combination of comedy and interesting history. Try to imagine the result of the SCTV cast (John Candy, Joe Flaherty, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Rick Moranis, Martin Short, Dave Thomas, etc.) taking on the teaching of history, and you have a good picture of the result.

The premise is "what if TV had been around for the last 5000 years?" and depicts modern shows (eg. Seinfeld, etc.) as if they had been done in those periods. The witty parody of these shows is reason enough to tune in. This is fine comedy.

Some of the topics are pretty specialized (Math Cults, for example), but the learning is painless, and will frequently have you laughing out loud.

As far as I can tell, this is only available on the Canadian History Television network, though you might want to check with the US History Television channel and your favorite PBS affiliate.

"Only in Canada, you say? Pity."

Lightning has struck twice! Rick Green has again turned a no-budget television program into comedy/learning gold AGAIN! Rick Green was fantastic as the host of "Prisoners of Gravity" now he's hosting "History Bites" a wickedly funny history lesson program airing on Canada's History Television.

The premise of this innovative television show is based around the supisition that television has been around since the dawn of history; So why not watch some of those reruns?

Hilarious impersinations of Jeopardy, Martha Stewart, David Letterman, Who Wants to Be A Millionaire and many, many, many, other shows allow instant accesability to famous and infamous historical events and persons. Barbara Walters interviewing Genghis Kahn. Ted Koppel interviewing Joan of Arc! So many events have been covered in the first three seasons, and I've learned so much laughing all the way! If at all possible check out this hilarious brainfest!

WARNING THIS PROGRAM IS NOT FOR THE STODGY!