How Long Did Mythbusters Run – Grant Imahara, an electrical engineer who co-hosted the pop science show “MythBusters” on the Discovery Channel and operated robots in the “Star Wars” prequels and other major Hollywood films, has died. He was 49 years old.
Discovery Communications confirmed Imahara’s death Monday night. A spokeswoman for the company said the cause was believed to be a brain aneurysm and that Imahara, who lived in Los Angeles, was thought to have died hours earlier. No other details were immediately available.
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“We are heartbroken to hear this sad news about Grant,” Discovery said in a statement. “He was an important part of our Discovery family and a truly wonderful man. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family.”
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Imahara was born in Los Angeles and graduated in 1993 with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Southern California, according to his Facebook page and a brief biography on Discovery’s website.
He then worked as an animatronics engineer and modeler for Industrial Light & Magic, a film special effects designer that was founded by George Lucas in 1975. In a brief biography on the film site IMDB, Imahara is described as an “electronics wizard”. “, who has worked “behind the scenes on many Hollywood films for years.”
Imahara operated R2-D2 in the “Star Wars” prequels. He also worked on “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines,” Steven Spielberg’s “The Lost World: Jurassic Park” and the “Matrix” sequels, among other films, and developed a custom circuit for the Energizer Bunny’s arms and ears.
He also built a machine that became a champion on “BattleBots,” a robot fighting show that ran on Comedy Central from 2000 to 2002. A year after the show ended, he published a book, “Kickin’ Bot: An Illustrated Guide to Building Combat Robots”.
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Asked in a 2008 interview with the website MachineDesign what a typical day was like on the show, Imahara replied that there was no such thing.
“We could be jumping out of planes, learning how to swing on a trapeze, swimming with sharks, and the list goes on and on,” he said. “We usually find out what we’re doing for the week on Monday morning.”
In a 2006 article about “MythBusters,” New York Times science writer John Schwartz wrote that the show’s cast specialized in “banging things together” and “setting them on fire.”
“His delight in discovery for its own sake is familiar to most scientists, who accept any result because it confirms or disproves a hypothesis,” he wrote. “That sense of things can be corrupted when grants or licensing deals are at stake. But the Mythbusters get paid whether their experiments succeed or fail.”
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Along with his former “MythBusters” co-hosts Kari Byron and Tory Belleci, Imahara later co-hosted “White Rabbit Project,” a show on Netflix that reviewed the biggest inventions and heists in history. It ran for one season in 2016.
In 2018, he tweeted that he had spent the previous year working on a Walt Disney Imagineering project to create autonomous robot stunt doubles. As of Monday, his Facebook page said he was still working as a consultant for Disney.
The page said he has also been working as a mechanical designer for Spectral Motion, a California-based company specializing in animatronics, action props and prosthetic makeup effects.
In March, as the coronavirus began to sweep through the United States, Imahara posted on Twitter a picture of a desk in his home littered with papers, a magnifying glass, a laptop and a jumble of other electronics.
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“Show me your FMH space!” she wrote in a post that ended with a smiley face emoji. “Here’s mine: a bunch of electronics on a folding table.” Tonight, the Science Channel resurrects its reality show where two hosts test a bunch of urban legends, usually with a heavy dose of science, engineering and explosions.
Ran for 14 seasons with hosts Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage, and a supporting construction team of Tory Belleci, Kari Byron, Grant Imahara, as well as Scottie Chapman and Jessi Combs for a couple of seasons. That incarnation of the show ended in 2015, with Savage and Hyneman closing out the show with a special “farewell” season. The original MythBusters have since moved on to other projects: Belleci, Byron and Imahara now host The White Rabbit Project on Netflix; Hyneman is working on a bunch of neat gadgets; and Savage movie videos
Was winding down, it was clear that the theme and format were enduring. Science Channel CEO Marc Etkind says they recognized the show’s appeal and “made sure the show had the DNA” of the original, bringing much of the original team to work on it. “Jaime and Adam are not replaceable, they are legends,” notes Etkind. “And we recognized that we couldn’t just put two people in there to play [the couple].”
Adam and Jamie were engaging and entertaining hosts, and this is the kind of show that relies heavily on the charisma of its leads. Audiences didn’t just tune in to watch the two blow something up—they showed up to watch their antics. (Ironically, Adam and Jamie aren’t close friends.) Picking the right hosts to spearhead a revival of the show would be key.
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To do this, the Science Channel turned to a format that relies on people tuning in to watch shenanigans: a reality TV competition. launched
, in early 2016, which pitted 15 candidates against each other for the chance to host the show.
Back: Jon Lung and Brian Louden. Etkind says the reality show put the contestants to the test to make sure they not only had the right skills, but the right charisma. “We wanted to make sure they were their own people,” he explained. “They’re not acting, they’re not trying to be anybody, but they bring their own skills, talents and sensibilities.”
Both bring considerable skills to the table. After high school, Louden became an EMT, and later a paramedic. He went to university, where he studied biology and authored several peer-reviewed articles (“Molecular Typing Methods for Tracking Foodborne Microorganisms”, “Use of Blue Agar CAS Assay for Siderophore Detection” and “Characterization of Antimicrobial Resistance in Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium”. isolates from Food Animals”), before moving on to own a bar and work as a drilling engineer. “I’m kind of a backyard, do-it-all kind of guy.” Lung says he’s been building things since he “could fold a piece of paper.” He went to college to study engineering, and worked as a graphic and product designer in New York.
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Lung acknowledged that they have big shoes to fill. “Brian and I have been huge fans of the show since day one,” he said
In a phone call. “We’re still big fans of the show.” He explained that they worked with much of the original team to produce a show that fans will recognize.
“What people love about the show is the STEM entertainment,” says Louden. “A lot of times when we have science, engineering and technology on TV, it’s either grandiose and bogus for entertainment, or it’s dry.”
“What made us fans of the original series was them making the engineering and design so accessible,” says Lung. “They make mistakes, you learn from them, and that was the biggest attraction for me. So I think we bring the same thing to the table. We want to make it accessible and fun at the same time.”
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Longtime fans of the show will certainly recognize the format. There are great constructions to prove the myths. Will your car’s airbags kill you if you put your feet on the dashboard? If you kill someone with a sword, does it really stay in place for a second like in the movies? They get a taste of these and more in the first couple of episodes, along with some explosions, crashes, sword-wielding robots and more. Even the show’s iconic narrator, Robert Lee, returns to provide voiceovers for the show.
Lung and Louden have quite the chemistry on screen. Although Adam and Jaime seemed to get along for the cameras, these two seem to be fast friends, bantering and bantering as they perform their tests. Etkind says that the couple met during the concert, and that even the other
Looks almost identical to its predecessor, Etkind does not rule out that it will not change as Lung and Louden make it their own. “We’re never going to lose track of the basic premise of the show,” he explains. “But what excites me is that when the program started 14 years ago, we all didn’t have cell phones. We didn’t have drones, and we didn’t use computer models like we do now. There’s a lot more they can do now to test the myths.” Two lines crosses that form an “X”. Indicates a way to close an interaction or dismiss a notification.
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