Finding Bigfoot: Debrief of “Bigfoot Crossing in Georgia” by Cliff Barackman
Posted by: Craig Woolheater on September 10th, 2011
Cliff Barackman, bigfoot researcher on Animal Planet’s television series, Finding Bigfoot, does a video debrief of the Georgia episode.
This was the first episode that aired in the initial season of Finding Bigfoot.
Cliff started doing the video debriefs after the second episode aired, so he went back in time and did this one.
Co-founder of Cryptomundo in 2005.
I have appeared in or contributed to the following TV programs, documentaries and films:
OLN's Mysterious Encounters: "Caddo Critter", Southern Fried Bigfoot, Travel Channel's Weird Travels: "Bigfoot", History Channel's MonsterQuest: "Swamp Stalker", The Wild Man of the Navidad, Destination America's Monsters and Mysteries in America: Texas Terror - Lake Worth Monster, Animal Planet's Finding Bigfoot: Return to Boggy Creek and Beast of the Bayou.
That gives me some more respect for the people in the show…maybe not Animal Planet, but it definitely gives me cause to relax a bit. The fact that the show didn’t even air the wood knocking back and forth ticks me off, and the way the show slants things doesn’t endear me to Animal Planet.
It’s EXACTLY as Cliff said and we have all said here…this show and any show is no where near a “documentary” or “reality tv.” It’s the producers attempts to manipulate the viewers and get ratings.
It’s because of Animal Planet’s ratings-hungry editing techniques that “Finding Bigfoot” comes off as the slower-witted cousin to “Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files” at best and amateur hour on YouTube at worst. BFRO would have been better off just financing and producing their own material instead of signing a deal with the devil. Then again, Moneymaker making an ass of himself is pretty much a constant in any media form, so they’re kind of doomed from the get go.
Can’t we just dust off Nimoy and get a return to form of the classic “In Search Of…” series?
The problem is that even would someone put together a real documentary, you’re going to have to sell it to a network, and doing so, they’re still going to be after ratings which means that said documentary most likely wouldn’t be accepted right out of the “can” and they’d still tweak it to make it more “thrilling.”
I don’t think the BFRO has the kind of cash to put that together and then produce it on their own. Sad.
So in the meantime we have to put up with the smoke and mirrors shows…
Didn’t the BFRO say they had some millionaire backing their efforts? Filming a respectable documentary is far cheaper than doing a feature film, so it’s entirely within reason for them to bring their respective talents to the table and generate their own product free of the executive hassles…
This is why scientists don’t go, “sure, Animal Planet, come on with us while we document the unknown.”
(OK, I don’t watch TV much, at all. But if scientists do this, I’ll show you how it’s different.)
Whenever one hears “Georgia” on a Bigfoot show, it’s nose-hold time. Not that there isn’t considerable stuff from Georgia as good as there is. You just know in the TV ratings world it’ll be (a) Georgia Boys or (b) Fatfoot crossing. ‘Cause TV found out decades ago how much dough there is in laughter.
But then, I don’t watch TV much. In this case it’s because TV isn’t going to get us any closer. As Jeff Meldrum says on another blog:
“It’s unfortunate,” he added. “You get these amateur ‘experts’ making silly pronouncements, and the skeptics use it as ammunition to discredit all the evidence that comes to light.”
Substitute “Bigfoot shows putting up silly stuff as evidence” for “amateur ‘experts’ [etc.]” and, um, yup.