I miss Steve Irwin....

Originally Posted by WingedWolf

Maybe his death wouldn't have been a surprise if he'd been eaten by a crocodile or tagged by a venomous snake...but come on...a stingray barb to the heart? How on earth is that not a surprise? He wasn't even messing with that animal, just swimming over it--though plenty of people do play with stingrays, and getting barbed at all is pretty rare.

It wasn't stepping over the line that killed him.

I wasn't surprised that he died while filming his show, he was tagged so many times by various creatures and always seemed to push their boundaries.

Though you are right, I expected the news reports to say he had been killed by his beloved crocodiles and not a 'freak accident' involving a stingray.

I thought his enthusiasm was infectious, I just think that he should have been more cautious and respectful to the animals he handled. My heart goes out to his wife and children.

Originally Posted by Wolfy-hound

The camerawork on his programs is 'hands down' some of the best.

Agree with you there.

Fowler? Perkins? Attenborough?

And lest we forget, Cousteau!

They all opened the door of wildflife exploration (and even exploitation), they all turned on the camera, long before Erwin, so we long-distance dreamers, admirers and knowlege-seekers could live vircariously through their adventures, their travels, their discoveries.
Long before Steve Irwin shared his own style of exuberance, his knowledge and passion to the screen; those pioneers above brought their true knowledge and dedication to us without all the contrived showman factor.
Steve Irwin figured out how to grab the camera and run with it. He was a showman, an animal activist/zoo keeper/actor, not an actual scholar or zoologist/biologist/naturialst. His over-the-edge personnality and charisma is what made him the popular personality he was. Well, that and a nice set of legs
I do miss him too, though. ... ironically, I was scuba diving the day, the morning he died, taking photos of the small sharks, the rays, & fish around the bay. I came out of the water and people on the dock were acting goofy; some crying, some talking aloud about "Steve Irwin". I had to go into the live bait shop and ask what was going on before I knew.

Originally Posted by hhmoore

lol - Wild Kingdom, fond memories...but so many variations of the same theme

"...and Jim is going to attempt to castrate the water buffalo with his Swiss Army knife" Camera goes to Jim - clad in safari shorts & hat - who trots bravely into battle. The skirmish ensues, Jim's hat comes off, there are clouds of dirt & grunting sounds....then the camera pans to Marlin - sitting calmly in the jeep, enjoying a ham sandwich. Back to Jim, walking (limping?) sullenly back to the jeep - his shirt untucked, clothes dirty, definitely looking the worse for his experience.
"That one got away...but there's always next time on Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom"

LOL, this is just too dang funny. It wasn't much, but it was all we had in those days.

"Crickey!!"

Who can say that any better on TV?

Originally Posted by Junkyard

"Crickey!!"

Who can say that any better on TV?

NOONE!

I grew up watcing Wild America, Nature, and re-runs of Wild Kingdom, but to me it became boring...I still enjoyed watching the animals through the TV screen, but I was dying for something cute and cuddly....you know, with TEETH and SCALES! Even better would be to see people interacting with these animals so that the information went beyond mere observation. Steve Irwin provided this.

As for unnecessary risk, how many in his field can say they have been handling hots since they were a teen without ever being envenomated? His risks were calculated, and he always made clear that the animals he was working with COULD kill him.

Also, as for how he died, I heard many people say how they saw it coming, or what did he expect. My response to them has always been, "Really? You had a feeling Steve would be killed by a stingray he was swimming with as countless divers have done in the past? People routinely hang onto their backs while diving in some of the tourist locations, but it's going to get Steve Irwin, huh?"

Precious few people cared anything about the animals we love before Steve Irwin, and that is undeniable!

Originally Posted by captnemo

I grew up watcing Wild America, Nature, and re-runs of Wild Kingdom, but to me it became boring...I still enjoyed watching the animals through the TV screen, but I was dying for something cute and cuddly....you know, with TEETH and SCALES! Even better would be to see people interacting with these animals so that the information went beyond mere observation. Steve Irwin provided this.

I personally like the minimal interaction approach. Generally I want to see the animals behaving as they do naturally in relation to their environment.

Irwin's handling and approach opened up something that I think is a rather unfortunate debate about experience and technique relative to these shows. Animal Planet's big three early on were Irwin- who was the most popular and freehandled everything with that shouting leaping style, Corwin- who largely targeted a younger audience and was handling very few venomous species and O'Shea- who used proper handling techniques, hooks and tubes... which left his show as the least popular out of the three because the audience wasn't there waiting for him to be bitten the way they were with Irwin.

I don't think it's a far cry to say that the likes of Nigel Marvin are direct, and unpleasant, descendants of Irwin's popularity over the popularity of the less sensationalistic but better educated documentary filming zoologist.

As for unnecessary risk, how many in his field can say they have been handling hots since they were a teen without ever being envenomated? His risks were calculated, and he always made clear that the animals he was working with COULD kill him.

Most. Most people working in... whichever field you think is his... can say that they have never been envenomated. In what manner were his risks calculated? I'd almost give that point to you when he was handling animals from inside the park or australian species that he had direct experience with and antivenin nearby for. Or for the species incapable of doing him any permanant harm. Not so for the species he claimed he was seeing and handling for the first time when he found them in the wild. That's either a lie (quite possible) or the antithesis of a calculated risk.

'course I also never really saw the point or appeal of watching a guy throw himself out of a truck to make a flying tackle on a lace monitor. Especially not when it had been filmed from a distance for three minutes doing it's thing oblivious to the camera crew first. The handling criticisms weren't related solely to the hots. They also involved penguin violation.

Precious few people cared anything about the animals we love before Steve Irwin, and that is undeniable!

I wouldn't exactly call it "precious few" prior to him but I do acknowledge that his popularity had an impact. Of course if he gets the credit for introducing some people to reptiles then he also gets the blame for everything they have mishandled, given inadequate care to and killed through negligence. Can't have it both ways, either it's all on him or none of it is.

Originally Posted by Seamus Haley

Can't have it both ways, either it's all on him or none of it is.

That's crap in my opinion. No person's life is all positive or all negative. Each and every one of us make positive and negative contributions during our lifetimes. To try and insinuate that all of ones contributions have to be all positive or all negative in the end is horse apples. Irwin did a lot of good in his life and he did a lot of dumb crap. Welcome to being human.

Originally Posted by shrap

That's crap in my opinion. No person's life is all positive or all negative. Each and every one of us make positive and negative contributions during our lifetimes. To try and insinuate that all of ones contributions have to be all positive or all negative in the end is horse apples. Irwin did a lot of good in his life and he did a lot of dumb crap. Welcome to being human.

Well... exactly. It's not like he's solely responsible for the massive sale of leopard geckos that Petsmart and petco have pulled off for the last ten years. When he's praised, by people who think he's praiseworthy, they heap a lot of credit on his shoulders for things he had very little to do with.