The Emmy® nominated series Mythbusters begins a run of eleven all-new episodes starting Wednesday, March 24th at 9:00 PM on Discovery. One of the highlights of this new run will be the return of Kari Byron on the March 31st episode. Named Sexiest Geek in Wired Magazine and included as one of FHM’s 100 Sexiest Women, Kari has been on maternity leave testing some birthing and baby myths, even if not in a job-related capacity. Kari’s highly anticipated return will of course be tempered by the departure of Jessi Combs on March 24th. Jessi has done a phenomenal job filling the geek girl shoes of Kari and hopefully she’ll assist with future myths down the road.
The March 24 premiere episode takes on Hollywood and real-life. Adam and Jamie talk trash and crash when they test whether a Styrofoam cup full of soda can be a lethal projectile when thrown from a car at high speeds. Does the cup penetrate the windshield of an oncoming car and seriously injure the driver? Jamie and Adam build a number of soda shooting cannons to see how deadly this myth really is, including a never-before-seen shoulder mounted cannon courtesy of Jamie. On a higher note, Grant, Tory and Jessi Combs (in her final episode with the team) test the classic silver screen cliché of the death defying hang. Are any of these actually viable? Using a helicopter and their wits, the team finds out if these hang times can happen.
Here’s a look at the first handful of episodes:
“Soda Cup Killer” – March 24th
This episode of MYTHBUSTERS mixes a killer cocktail of lethal littering and high-flying action movie action. In cup vs. car, Adam and Jamie tackle a tall tale of trash and crash. Can a Styrofoam cup of soda, thrown from a car at highway speeds, penetrate the windshield of an oncoming car and seriously injure the unfortunate driver? It sounds far-fetched, but Adam and Jamie discovery how much damage a drink can really do. Tory, Grant and Jessi find out if film ‘fall guys’ can really hang on to the side of a building, Hollywood-style. Just about every action movie has a variation on the death-defying cling, but is it actually viable? The team tests their limits using their wits and a fake chopper.
“Dive to Survive” – March 31st
More Hollywood hi-jinks are explored in this episode of MYTHBUSTERS. First up, Adam and Jamie plunge head first into a climactic cinema cliché: to survive a blast by the bad guys, the good guys dive underwater and resurface unscathed. Can a deep dive really save you from imminent annihilation? Kari Byron returns from maternity leave with a vengeance when she, Grant and Tory call for directory assistance. According to on-screen espionage scenarios, lining the inside of a car’s doors with a layer of phonebooks will bulletproof the car. But can you believe everything you see?
“Spy Car Escape” – April 7th
On this episode of MYTHBUSTERS, it’s spy vs. spy as Adam and Jamie investigate the best way to lose a tail in a car chase. These intrepid investigators test three of the all-time movie classics: tacks, smoke, and oil — all launched from the trunk of a moving car. Jamie and Adam not only design and install the weapon systems, they take turns as ‘pursued’ and ‘pursuer.’ In a fascinating physics ‘thought experiment,’ Kari, Grant and Tory explore whether an object fired backwards from a vehicle moving forwards — assuming both speeds are exactly the same – will simply fall straight to the ground. Common sense says it should, but science is not as straightforward.
“Bottle Bash” – April 14th
Adam and Jamie get feisty with a bar fight fable while Kari, Grant and Tory investigate a ballistic material mystery from history. Forensic scientists have supposedly discovered that you’d be worse off having an empty beer bottle smashed over your head as opposed to a full one. Sounds counter intuitive, no? To get to the bottom of the bottle mystery, Adam and Jamie begin the brawl by bashing Buster, a pig, Mr. Jell-O Head and something they dreamed up called Meat Head. Meanwhile, Kari, Grant and Tory challenge the concept of a leather cannon. According to historical documents, ancient Swiss and Irish armies used animal hides to build their cannons. There is no written record of how successful these leather cannons really were, so the testing was rather explosive.
“Mythssion Control” – April 28th
Jamie and Adam take on Newton’s third law of motion thanks to an eagle-eyed physicist fan who spotted a flaw in a previous episode’s experiment. The team sets out to test the theory of two cars crashing into one another or another inanimate object at the same speeds. In a cacophony of car carnage, the MYTHBUSTERS drive this myth up the wall, not once but 3 times, as they crash, bash, and smash to put the Hyneman Hypothesis to the ultimate test. Meanwhile Kari, Grant and Tory are back in the school of hard knocks, as they retest ‘Knock your Socks Off.’ The last time they tested this myth, nothing they tried could separate Buster’s toasty socks from his feet and the myth was down for the count. Or was it? Fans say ‘no way’ with hundreds of emails telling the team exactly what was wrong (wrong socks, wrong legs, incorrect punch, etc.). So, armed with an arsenal of suggestions, the team puts Buster to the test again.