It's called "How It's Made" and is about, well, how things are made. Each half-hour show picks three or four unrelated items (Golf balls, drawer pulls, mozzarella cheese, room dividers) and follows the manufacturing process. It's all close-ups of vats and presses while lame upbeat electronic music plays and the narrator says stuff like "The material is placed in a press for 17 seconds while heat is applied." We both really like that stuff, and always try to go on factory tours when we go on vacation, so it's right up our alley. Bonus--it's produced in Quebec, so you sometimes get cool bilingual products, like stop signs in French and English. It airs on the Science Channel.

There was a kid show in the 70s called Hot Dog that did that. But it had the added bonus of them interviewing standup comedians how things were made and they'd riff off the top of their head and come up with hilarious and nutty answers to how mozzarealla was made.

Good comedians too, like Woody Allen and Jonathan Winters.

"Yes, well, rubber balls are mined in Central Slovenia. You need a special pick axe with a scoop on the end to carve each ball out indivdiually..."

"Marshmallows, of course, are hammered into shape using raw styrofoam."

I think "How It's Made" is actually on the Discovery Channel, because it has bumped my beloved "It Takes A Thief" on weekdays.

OMG, how much do I love It Takes A Thief? So much.

I reference Jon Douglas Rainey all the time in common parlance.

ITAT: The HoYay on that show amuses me to NO end.

I know! It is slash central! And hott!

Jon will be scrambling up a wall and I'll be all, this is wrong, huh, for it to be so attractive to watch a thief! It's the competence thing, I think. Also, limber.

I love this thread! I don't care about being spoiled for non-plotty shows, and I adore Mythbusters, Ghost Hunters, Dirty Jobs, and a lot of the others you've been talking about.

Robin, ND is going to love you. He is obsessed with How It's Made and has to endure my mockery about choosing to watch shows with titles such as "Paint." (Don't tell him that I actually kind of like watching them sometimes too!)

I LOVE How It's Made!! It's like a whole show of the factory segments of Mister Rogers.

It Takes a Thief kind of stresses me out.

I like the new format of "Thief" where the homeowners don't know exactly when they'll get hit, and it's just Matt sitting in the van WIGGING OUT and narrating Jon's action (so to speak). I call it the "Matt-alogue."

Also I love that Jon seems to charm the pants off the HOs even though they were just vowing vengeance and violence on him.

I guess I get nervous sometimes watching it, but that's part of the fun.

Ooh, I haven't seen this new format.

Also I love that Jon seems to charm the pants off the HOs even though they were just vowing vengeance and violence on him.

Oh yeah -- they totally go from wanting to punch him to wanting to hug him.

On Shear Genius --

I don't think it's necessarily that the judging on the show is subjective, it's the the challenge rules and judging criteria are laid out poorly for the contestants. They've had this problem on the Bravo Reality Contest Show before.