I really don’t spend a lot of time watching TV, A full time job, plus trying to help run a hackerspace like Quelab, does not leave me with much free time. I don’t have cable either. So that cuts down on whats out there that id love to watch.
But over the years i have caught a few good hacker spirit shows. Starting with Nova on pbs. It was one of those shows that as I was growing up was on the approved family watching and discussion list. So it still has a soft spot in my heart, and it continues to be a source of learning new things. Another show from my youth was MacGyver, What red blooded boy wouldn’t love a show like that?? There was also Connections (you can watch it all via that link), James Burke blew my mind watching how inventions lead to other inventions.
A little later on in my life I anxiously awaited the release of a British show Junkyard Wars AKA Scrapheap Challenge. Which was one of the first of those kind of Make Magazine Esque build stuff out of junk and compete with it. sort of shows. loved every moment of it, and often kibitzed from my couch. There was also Battlebots around that same time, to entice me to think about robotics, and building things hardy.
The colony, (there were 2 different seasons of this, both were kinda kabitz worthy, due to the outside influences, but still some good hacking.
Around that same time I caught a little bit of the BBC (and later PBS’s) Rough Science, which was great because it came out around the time of survivor, but instead of being petty and lame, it put the contestants together to use their knowledge and skills to get the job done together. Its awesome I highly recommend it for teachers!
Currently Science channel has 2 pretty good hackish shows, one is called Junkies(link to watch) (Link leads to a online streaming link site, which is legally gray, but if you are like me there is no legal way to see it without getting cable and lots of channels I Don’t Want!), but all in all its a great show about a junkyard where people building things go to to source parts. And the other show is Stuck With Hackett
Link to watch). All in all The host is kinda annoying, but the builds are interesting..
Well there you go, some places to turn to for hacking inspiration. aside from just hitting up Make, or Gizmodo, or Hackaday. I hope this list or shows or above links help inspire someone. Let us know what your most loved hacking shows were!
*EDIT*
EEEEGads! i totally forgot to mention Mythbusters!
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