Ancient Aliens is an American television series
that premiered on April 20, 2010 on the History
channel.
Produced by Prometheus Entertainment, the
program presents hypotheses of ancient astronauts
and proposes that historical texts, archaeology
and legends contain evidence of past human-extraterrestrial
contact.
The show has been criticized for presenting
pseudoscience and pseudohistory.
The series' de facto pilot was a TV special
of the same name that aired on March 8, 2009,
on the History channel.
Seasons 1–3 aired on the same channel until
2011.
Beginning in 2012 with season 4, the series
began airing on H2.
Season 7 continued on H2 in July 2014.
Production
The executive producer of Ancient Aliens is
Kevin Burns, who also directed and wrote the
pilot episode.
Giorgio A. Tsoukalos serves as consulting
producer and appeared on screen in the pilot.
Erich von Däniken appeared in the pilot episode,
and UFO researcher C. Scott Littleton served
as an expert consultant for the show until
his death in 2010.
Radio talk show host George Noory speaks in
five episodes, including the pilot.
Reverend Barry Downing, known for describing
angels in the Bible as ancient astronauts,
offered his viewpoints in the pilot episode.
Psychologist Jonathan Young, who brings a
mythological perspective, appears on screen
in every episode but the first pilot.
Alternative History author David Hatcher Childress,
speaks frequently in most episodes.
Reception
The program had 1.676 million viewers in late
October 2010, 2.034 million viewers in mid-December
and in late January 2011 it had 1.309 million
viewers.
Some reviewers have characterized the show
as "far-fetched", "hugely speculative", and
"...expound[ing] wildly on theories suggesting
that astronauts wandered the Earth freely
in ancient times."
Many of the ideas presented in the show are
not accepted by the scientific community,
and have been criticized as pseudoscience
and pseudohistory.
History professor Ronald H. Fritze observed
that pseudoscience as offered by von Däniken
and the Ancient Aliens program has a periodic
popularity in the US: "In a pop culture with
a short memory and a voracious appetite, aliens
and pyramids and lost civilizations are recycled
like fashions."
Forbes.com contributor Brad Lockwood criticized
Ancient Aliens as an example of the History
Channel's addition of "programs devoted to
monsters, aliens and conspiracies", commenting
that, "Ancient Aliens defies all ability to
suspend disbelief for the sake of entertainment."
Forbes.com staff writer Alex Knapp also criticized
the series and cited archaeologist Keith Fitzpatrick-Matthews'
rebuke of the History Channel for "treating
nonsense as though it were fact."
Smithsonian.com science writer Brian Switek
was extremely critical of the series, particularly
an episode that suggested "aliens exterminated
dinosaurs to make way for our species".
He characterized the show as "some of the
most noxious sludge in television’s bottomless
chum bucket."
Others have called attention to a paucity
of opposing viewpoints.
Kenneth Feder, Professor of Archaeology at
Central Connecticut State University and author
of Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science and
Pseudoscience in Archaeology, has said that
he was approached by Ancient Aliens producers
regarding his potential participation.
"My response was, I’d be happy to be on
your show, but you should know that I think
that the ancient astronaut hypothesis is execrable
bullshit," he said, in an interview.
"I haven’t heard back from them, rather
remarkably.
So, I guess maybe they’re not interested
in the other point of view."
In popular culture
South Park parodied the show in an episode
entitled "A History Channel Thanksgiving".
Reviewer Ramsey Isler commented, "The aim
is placed squarely on Ancient Aliens specifically,"
and described the animation as "a perfect
satire of all the ridiculousness of this series,
including the black and white art with aliens
photoshopped in, and interviews with people
of dubious authority."
In a June 2011 Rolling Stone interview, singer
Katy Perry commented that she had become "obsessed"
with the show, saying, "When it talks about
the sky people, how everyone comes from the
sky and how the Pyramids were used for star
observations, it's too much for me.
It all seems to connect the dots.
It's blowing my mind."
In a March 2012 appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres
Show, actress Megan Fox remarked that she
"loved" Ancient Aliens.
Ellen agreed the show and its theories were
"thought-provoking."
Episodes
Series overview
Season 1
Season 2
Season 3
Season 4
Season 5
Season 6
Season 7
See also
Pseudoarchaeology
References
External links
Official website
Ancient Aliens at the Internet Movie Database
Ancient Aliens Debunked Criticism of claims
made by Ancient Aliens TV series.
