MovieChat Forums > MythBusters (2003) Discussion > Jamie - early seasons vs later seaons

Jamie - early seasons vs later seaons

posted 8 years ago by slackersmom
11 replies | jump to latest

I haven't watched this show religiously over the seasons, but I have enjoyed it (for the most part) and if I don't watch it first-run, heaven knows there are reruns aplenty, so I've seen a lot of them. ANYWAY, in the finale last night, as well as the reunion show, I was struck by a big difference in Jamie. In the clips from earlier seasons we see him smile or even laugh from time to time--just in the brief clips that were shown. But I don't recall seeing him laugh much (at all?) in the more recent seasons. I wonder if maybe he was a bit tired of the gig, or perhaps he wished the focus of the show was a little different. Maybe even--dare I say it?--dealing with Adam might have finally gotten under his skin??

Or... maybe he smiled and laughed as much as ever, and I'm just imagining things.... 

[–] suebob-28169 8 years ago

To me in the more recent episodes Jamie seemed to be more engaged with the camera, in how he was presenting his data. It's hard to explain and it's hard to bring up an example, but that was the feeling I got. Nobody expects Jamie to rival Adam's more exuberant personality, but I'm guessing Jamie knew he had to bring it up a notch to continue to make show watchable since it was back to just him and Adam.

[–] Legendary_Badass 8 years ago

I think the opposite is the case. Jamie became the stoic character and only shows infrequent emotion on the show as part of the contrast to the child-like Adam.

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[–] slackersmom 8 years ago

I agree that Jamie did get known as the 'serious, professional' one, and Adam made fun of him for it all the time. But the question is, especially in the later seasons*, was Jamie simply acting the 'serious, stoic' part, in contrast to Adam, or was there another reason for him to seem like a sober, impassive person?

*In later seasons, I think some of the so-called 'myths' they dealt with got more and more nonsensical and less and less genuine. For someone as serious and professional as Jamie, maybe this was an unwanted development? 

[–] suebob-28169 8 years ago

Oh I agree that Jamie is mostly like this. I didn't mean that his on-screen behavior was so markedly different. It was just a feeling that maybe he looked a bit more like was he enjoying what he was doing. It would have been just a small incremental difference.

[–] Koolguy456789 8 years ago

Jamie didn't even want to be in the show in the beginning. Unfortunately, due to a contract dispute and extortion deal, he was forced to. Its pretty obvious, especially the way he used to "accidentally" injur Adam

[–] slackersmom 8 years ago

??? Contract dispute? Extortion?? I don't suppose you'd care to explain more about these assertions?

[–] Purk 8 years ago

I believe Adam said that Jamie is even drier off-camera.

[–] scfc 8 years ago

Adam has elaborated a bit on that in the Untitled podcast, but they film a lot more stuff than what the show gets edited down to, and there are a lot more people who decide what gets produced and what gets shown than Adam and Jamie. So creating psychograms of the two hosts from the broadcasts might be fun, but they will never be even close to the truth.

[–] slackersmom 8 years ago

they film a lot more stuff than what the show gets edited down to,

Yes, I'm aware that each one-hour episode is culled from many, many hours of footage. But still, that doesn't negate the observation of a difference in Jamie from early seasons to later ones.

[–] scfc 8 years ago

No, but you claim that this difference is caused by Jamie changing his demeanor, and I refute that assertion by pointing out even if he wanted to, he couldn't show himself unfiltered. The average MythBusters viewer probably didn't watch the show to see Jamie smile or laugh, and so producers and editors will have focused instead on the explosions, car crashes, builds, etc. For example, there have been lots of episodes that deal with myths in other TV shows or movies released at that same time. I don't doubt that these could be really interesting in themselves, but the timing suggests that the possible cross-promotion might have played a major factor in the producers' and broadcasters' considerations. MythBusters generated a lot of income for a number of people, and you don't blow that by making the viewers watch Jamie smile (unless they want exactly that).

[–] haynese_98 8 years ago

Jamie and Adam are the Siskel & Ebert of busting myths:

1. They both "play" their roles
2. Editing does the rest

Shall we play a game?