Anyone watch 'Stars Earn Stripes' on TV?

[saddlebum]

Hosted by General Wesley Clark, (retired). I enjoyed the first episode more than I did 'Top Shot'. It was much more rigorous and demanded more physical ability. All of the winnings go to charities. Todd Palin kicked butt on his first "mission". Two others had to be rescued from the water after they jumped out of the hellicopter. Looks like it will draw my attention more than Top Shot did. As long as they don't get into all the personal relationships of the contestants like they did with Top Shot. That was a major turn off for me.
 
Anyone agree with those that are saying that this show "glorifies war", or is insulting to service people?
 
On Monday, nine Nobel Peace Prize winners, including Bishop Desmond Tutu sent a letter to NBC Entertainment Chairman Bob Greenblatt, producer Mark Burnett and host retired U.S. Army General Wesley Clark, among others, calling for NBC to cancel the program.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-stars-earn-stripes-criticism-from-veterans-20120815,0,1262321.story
 
An online petition urges NBC to cancel Stars Earn Stripes, a reality television show in which celebrities compete in military training exercises to win money for charities. “This show makes war a game, and war is anything but a game,” the petition on iPetitions says. “In real war there are no prizes only the hope that you survive to come home to one’s family and friends.”
https://mashable.com/2012/08/18/stars-earn-stripes-online-petition/
 
I noticed Chris Kyle was on the show. The guy who claims to have hammered Jessie Ventura in a bar. Former United States Navy Seal who is the deadliest sniper in US military history, with 160 confirmed kills (out of 255 claimed kills).....God bless Texas, (specifically Odessa)
 
I've only seen the first episode and like it better than Top Shot.....so far.
 
http://www.nbc.com/stars-earn-stripes/about/#credits
 
 
 

[finisher]

Hey, what we "think" is irrelevant as long as there is a dollar to be made right. After all, this is America and from my understanding of the way the rest of the world perceives us, it's ALWAYS ALL ABOUT THE MONEY!  Charity... .


Or we could just say "hey, it's just entertainment" right?

[Sourdough]

I wanted to see that because Todd was in it.  But I had other priorities last night.  I thought he would do well, Todd is that kind of guy.  Todd is a really nice guy, and I like him.  Even after the big argument we got into the first time we met.  Todd came back later and apologised, admitting he had been wrong.  Takes a big man to do something like that.  It was over Levi Johnston, Todd was defending him. 

Todd excells as a snowmachine racer.  That's one really tough race, from Wasillia to Nome, along the Idarod Trail.  Then following the Yukon River, the Tanana River to the Flood Project, across the Flood Project to the Chena River, then down the Chena into Fairbanks.  The Secret Service guys could not stay with him, they followed along in a warm helicopter.  Speed of over 100mph, and wind chill gosh I could not even guess just way below zero, actual temps are 25 to 30 below in some spots.  Todd drives the only American made machines in the race. 

He raised his son track to be like him, and I know many of the guys that worked with Track while he was stationed at Ft Wainwright.  They all said Track was one Heck of a soldier.  Track hated it when his Mom would be in Fairbanks and stop at Ft WW for official functions.  Track wanted to be his own man and not associated with his Mom (who was Governor at the time) in any way.

I don't think it glorifies war, I think it glorifies men being in shape both physically and mentally.

[Shu]

I don't think it glorifies war or anything like that. I think it shows some of the stuff, a minor amount anyway of what the troops do. It only shows the cool stuff and not the day to day boring stuff and I think that might give the wrong impression but who wants to watch the boring stuff in military life anyway. If this one has the drama queen crap I won't watch it either.
 
I like TopShot I just fast forward through the drama queen crap, I just want to watch the shooting.

[BBF]

I saw it and am trying to remember what I know about Gen. Clark.
 
Otherwise I file this show under the "WHO-RAAAH" we are BAD  genre.
 
I was impressed with the female performers and not so much with the two males, one of which was a hunk of muscles on two legs which would have drowned if left by himself.

[saddlebum]

I wanted to see that because Todd was in it.  But I had other priorities last night.  I thought he would do well, Todd is that kind of guy.  Todd is a really nice guy, and I like him.  Even after the big argument we got into the first time we met.  Todd came back later and apologised, admitting he had been wrong.  Takes a big man to do something like that.  It was over Levi Johnston, Todd was defending him. 

Todd excells as a snowmachine racer.  That's one really tough race, from Wasillia to Nome, along the Idarod Trail.  Then following the Yukon River, the Tanana River to the Flood Project, across the Flood Project to the Chena River, then down the Chena into Fairbanks.  The Secret Service guys could not stay with him, they followed along in a warm helicopter.  Speed of over 100mph, and wind chill gosh I could not even guess just way below zero, actual temps are 25 to 30 below in some spots.  Todd drives the only American made machines in the race. 

He raised his son track to be like him, and I know many of the guys that worked with Track while he was stationed at Ft Wainwright.  They all said Track was one Heck of a soldier.  Track hated it when his Mom would be in Fairbanks and stop at Ft WW for official functions.  Track wanted to be his own man and not associated with his Mom (who was Governor at the time) in any way.

I don't think it glorifies war, I think it glorifies men being in shape both physically and mentally.

To give you an idea of Todd's performance, I'll try to describe what happened.
 
The contestants had to jump out of a helicopter in small teams, decked out in full tactical gear and SCAR rifles. They jump into a lake, do a little swimming to an inflatable assault craft and go to the really muddy beach. They run to some barrels set up as a shooting station for small stationary and man sized moving targets. Then they belly crawled in the black slimy mud under barbed wire. All while under gunfire and small explosions are going on around them. Not sure how the show pulled off the similation of being under fire, but it was pretty realistic. Bullets seeming to ricochet off the barrels and stuff. After the really muddy belly crawl, they have to "sprint" through knee deep black lake mud a distance of maybe 30 yards and grab a large box marked 'ammo'. Carry the box another 20 or 30 yards to a small building where one of the team breaks down the door and the box is deposited inside. The helicopter then hovers overhead while the team hooks up to the pick-up lines and carries them away just as the building explodes. It was a timed event, Best times win money for charities. As I recall, 10,000 dollars each was given to two of the teams charities, plus some 'consolation' money to others charities.
 
The guy on Todd's team who is a fitness trainer for some show called "The Biggest Loser", sank like a rock after jumping in the lake. He would have drowned if they hadn't rescued him with a wave runner craft that was standing by. That put Todd's team behind right from the get-go. Todd hit the beach a-runnin, he hit his targets, left the others, (including the military guys), behind under the barbed wire, slogged through the knee deep mud and reached the box before the others even cleared the barbed wire, and jogged over to the building with that big wooded box on his shoulders. The other team's members that were watching were amazed. Jaws dropped on almost all of them and the former seals were really impressed. One of them, (maybe Gen. Clark?), said of Todd that he had alot of 'heart'. Todd did very little talking in the show other than to say that he was used to dragging nets and his other commercial fishing stuff through the mud. Other than that he just had that funny grin on his face the whole time. Sure, I'm a little bias, but in truth, Todd out-shined all the others on the first episode.