It's FORD night on the History Channel

[Steve Plucker]

Ford's turn on the History Channel tonight.

Starts, I think, 8:00 PM Eastern Time.

Pluck

[AlanD]

They are running the other episodes this afternoon and I've been enjoying them except for the tons of commercials. So many that I nearly loose interesting in something I like.

[Roadster62]

The cars used in the 1901 race with Henry Ford and Alexander Winton are a 1913 WHITE and the 1909 ALCO that in fact won the Vanderbilt Cup races in 1909 and 1910. So much for accurate history. I hope they don't rewrite too much Ford history later tonight. Bob

[kartknut36]

I just read this thread, and checked the History Channel program lineup. I don't see it listed. Is it on another channel?
Thanks.

[marc hildebrant]

The part on Ford was O.K. but lacked many details. Numerous good books are available though, for thoses that want more info.

Interesting tidbit on the Sheldon patent....

Marc

[Patrick L.]

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I enjoyed the series and think they did a good job with the time they had.. There was probably a lot of info missing from the series,, such as more of the problems with Edison/Morgan and Tesla/Westinghouse regarding the Worlds Fair.. They didn't spend too much time on Ford and tended to only show the main good things regarding him..

[Bruce Adams]

Originally Posted by Roadster62

The cars used in the 1901 race with Henry Ford and Alexander Winton are a 1913 WHITE and the 1909 ALCO that in fact won the Vanderbilt Cup races in 1909 and 1910. So much for accurate history. I hope they don't rewrite too much Ford history later tonight. Bob

I am pleased to know the owners of both cars, in fact, I "Hooked Up" the owner of the White with the ALCO owner when they were looking for cars to use for the episode.
Too bad they were not looking for a 1931 Cabriolet.

[Big John]

Henry said; " History is more or less bunk" ......Besides they can only show very little detail in an hour minus commercials program....

[29ModelA]

As much time as they spent on the other people, I would have thought Ford would have got more time. Especially his wage contributions etc...

[Steve Plucker]

Originally Posted by 29ModelA

As much time as they spent on the other people, I would have thought Ford would have got more time. Especially his wage contributions etc...

If you minus all the commercial time; minus all the flashback time; then you have about a good two hour program...give or take...then if you minus all the other guys, Ford had about a good 20 total minutes of time devoted to him alone.

Pluck

[Jason in TX]

I was really looking forward to enjoying this series, but I just can't watch it anymore.

They do SO much back tracking with telling you a story, going to commercial break, and then when they come back, they tell you the exact same story, using all the same footage over and over.

How many times did the editor use the "sanding the wooden spoke wheels?" I work in television as a producer and that is just basic laziness thinking no one will notice. Get more footage of the assembly line, etc. Maybe it was a budget thing, but it's pretty slow and repetitive to watch.

This had huge potential

[Purdy Swoft]

I recorded it. I watched part of it and wasn't impressed, Too much jumping around with others. I had thought it would be about Ford history only. I probably won't watch the rest of it. I've got books and am fairly familiar with Ford history.

[lance leblanc]

I thought the first episodes of the series were better and then begin to trail off with fewer details as the series legthend and gained more caracters. They seemed to want to connect all of the people together. But their was no mention of Fords business relation to anyone. Also I was hoping to see more actual turn of the century film/footage. Even photographs would have been nice. I'd rate to series a 7, due to high expectations.

[Steve Plucker]

Originally Posted by Jason in TX

I was really looking forward to enjoying this series, but I just can't watch it anymore.

They do SO much back tracking with telling you a story, going to commercial break, and then when they come back, they tell you the exact same story, using all the same footage over and over.

How many times did the editor use the "sanding the wooden spoke wheels?" I work in television as a producer and that is just basic laziness thinking no one will notice. Get more footage of the assembly line, etc. Maybe it was a budget thing, but it's pretty slow and repetitive to watch.

This had huge potential

Amen to that Brother!

Pluck

[LukeDahlinger]

I didn't watch the Ford segment last night as I knew going in it was likely to be an abortion of a project.

This further proves my point that there needs to be a serious effort to produce a quality program on Henry Ford.

There's the 1987 "Ford Man & Machine" mini series based on Robert Lacey's book, but this film was of poor quality and does not match the quality of the book it was based on.

From a Ford Historian standpoint, I think it would be really neat to film segments of the production at surviving Ford places such as the Piquette Plant, Highland Park, Fair Lane, Greenfield Village etc.

Maybe we can convince Ken Burns to give up talking about Baseball & Jazz and do a series on Henry Ford. He certainly contributed more than Baseball & Jazz combined.

[todd3131]

My favorite bit last night that they used the same piece of film was the part where Rockefeller buys an iron quarry in Minnesota and it shows them working the mine, twenty minutes later they talk about digging the panama canal and use the same exact footage.
I have to agree the story was correct just not the telling of it.
Todd

[duffer]

Originally Posted by kartknut36

I just read this thread, and checked the History Channel program lineup. I don't see it listed. Is it on another channel?
Thanks.

It was on Monday night.

[Tony G]

The History Channel could never be taken seriously as a factual resource of knowledge.Most of their programming is tired overused footage with half a$$ed explanations.They offer cheap filler material to hang commercial breaks onto.

[d.]

How about the part with Harley & Davidson, where they show a bunch of English bikes with their huge number plates on front racing around. They couldn't find any US motorcycle footage?
It also looked like every time they showed a steam locomotive railroad scene they were all those very obvious British trains.
Who "spell checked" this documentary anyway?

[Roadster62]

Bruce, Were was that long driveway the MERCER touring was driving down with the "Old" Mr. Rockefeller? Great car, I helped rebuild the engine it it back in the late 1970's. Bob

Originally Posted by Bruce Adams

I am pleased to know the owners of both cars, in fact, I "Hooked Up" the owner of the White with the ALCO owner when they were looking for cars to use for the episode.
Too bad they were not looking for a 1931 Cabriolet.