Ooooo, I love stuff like this. I'll definitely have to check it out. I can't remember that name of the town they were in (somewhere very near Chernobyl), but I've seen pics before ... very spooky. They also used some shots of that town in the game S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

They showed a bit of the carnival rides, but I was hoping that they'd show the ferris wheel ... it's really freaky.

Hmm, funny that everyone's reading "The World Without Us" right now, too! I hear it's pretty cool.

I always liked this woman's tours of Chernobyl:

[www.kiddofspeed.com]

Well, shoot, man, that's what happens when something occurs that is so transformational that it effects Everything in the world--people freak out, they search, they search for answers until science can drudge up the numbers and bring some resolution to the occurence(s). Physics--and mathematics--have done so in this decade, I believe that. We're just experiencing a "Hollywood Hangover" with regard to the latest, thank God it's Hollywood this time and not, say, your government?

New Television Series Examines Life Without Hollywood Writers.

At last! Peace and quiet.

@rrich: No kidding. I won't have to stomp on the floors anymore to get my loud-ass neighbor to shut it.

I've been looking forward to this since the Alan Weisman mentioned it on Coast to Coast AM, The History Channel's been doing a great job of teasing me with constant commercials and bumps for it too.

That looks incredible. Unfortunately it's not airing here in Canada.

I like their description of what will happen to animals. I have to be sure to leave an escape hatch for my cats so that they can get of the house if they want.

As for small dogs. Heh.

So it's a doc about Chernobyl with cool what if CG. Nice.

Also, Children of Men used pictures of schools in Chernobyl to design the school in the movie.

@Transuranic: It is. Check out the slideshows on the website.

Seems a little suspect that they have shots of buildings exploding and falling over. One would think that the end mankind would lead to a lot of dust building up on stuff more than anything else.

Also: where are the zombies? How will that have an effect on things? Surely the giant zomby nests and the lack of fresh brains will be the most important issues of the day?

Thanks for the heads up. Tivoed. I love stuff like this. I don't know what that says about me.

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nice. When can I move there?

@lasertagsp: I wondered this too. I really don't know, but I'm not sure how likely it is that these structures will come down quite so spectacularly. It seems like it will also just slowly crumble. Of course, that doesn't make good television.
Very cool concept though - I love history and discovery speculative stuff. Anyone catch 2057? That was fun. I imagine the descendents of Paleo-future will be giggling about it in 2058, but it was still fun.

Screw the teevee. Read "The World Without Us". By Chapter Four, you'll be thinking, "Hey, we had a good run. Maybe us going extinct won't be such a bad thing."

@lasertagsp and Paperclip Mixmaster: Most skyscrapers have steel frames. They'll eventually deteriorate in one way or another, simply from the weather. Concrete might last a bit longer but will also be taken down by erosion in the end. Either way, once a weak spot develops, the whole structure can become unstable very quickly.

Look at 9/11. All it took was for a bit of the WTC's metal frame to be compromised, and the upper floors began to sink. As soon as that started, it quickly became a runaway collapse. (Assuming you believe the mainstream theory of what happened, which I do.)

Wasn't it George Carlin that said the only reason man evolved is because the earth wanted plastic?

Something like that.

Battlefield Earth featured a world almost devoid of humans (at least in the book, I couldn't bring myself to watch the humans). Things grow, animals move back into the places we stole from them over the years. We quit polluting so much - I imagine the place would smell better, in general.

I like this kind of stuff, too. Funny that it's on the "History" channel, and not Discovery or something. Although I guess the tie-in with Chernobyl kinda explains that.

I have just gotten into Battlestar Galactica, and I got the same sort of goosebumpy feeling with the episode of them finding the long-deserted Kobol as I did watching this.

oooooOOOOOOoooooo i wonder if there will be mutants ??? (giggles with an evil glee)

@ihtdet:
Oh, yeah. I'll tell you. Now listen about that place from the person, who lives only 80 miles away from it.
Firstly, as far as I know, there only mutants inhabited there are big pikes and carps and dozens of wolves. Since, almost no one lives there anymore, the place became like a national park there.

And what about Prypyat itself. Yes, this is deserted place, but perhaps it's the coolest theme park in Ukraine. Seriously, several tourist agencies send people there almost everyday. I think after STALKER game release almost every of my friends have been there at least once. Now one day full trip costs something around 80$. The only thing that isn't allowed... yet:) is to enter the atomic reactor itself. You can only observe from distance.
Yes, and another issue is that Prypyat also looks like a museum of soviet era. Whatever you think, but even modern Russia doesn't share much in common with USSR. For me, who was born in the last years of USSR it was pretty interesting to see how cities looked at that time.

@joemono: The names of the channels are meaningless now. When is the last time you learned anything from "The Learning Channel" (TLC)? I'm really disappointed with what's become of the whole "Discovery Family of Networks". They used to actually be educational and interesting- cool documentaries and things like that. Now it's almost all "reality" TV, with the occasional cool special (like this one!) thrown in.

@BadUncle: I just read through her tour of the Ghost City and was blown away. Thank you for linking it.

I hope that the show takes the time to talk about what got left behind and why, although somehow I doubt that it willl be anything more than an "OMG look at that iconic structure lying in ruin" CG extravaganza.

@dead_red_eyes: that ferris wheel is really freaky ...[www.kiddofspeed.com]

@Dereks: That would be fascinating, to have the history frozen, in a way. I read kiddofspeed years ago and am always hooked by the thought of a land where time stands still.

@BadUncle:

Wow, thank you linking that site. It's haunting tour of the chernobyl area.

Looks kewl. Can't wait for it. Yea no more humans. Is this post mother ship coming to harvest the humans? Well I suppose that's another story. Listens to Mother Earth breath a huge sigh of relief.

@VAST: Seconded. This is going to be a series? I feel like I got the gist from the preview.

Sweet. This'll feed my post-apocalyptic jones now that I've finished reading The World Without Us.