Discovery Channel: Urban Explorers TV Show

Discovery Channel's "Urban Explorers" TV Show
Hoggard Productions

Hosts: Steve Duncan, Bryce Tupper, Brittany Griffith, Timmy O'Neill

In 2004-2005, I was an urban historian and on-camera host for a Discovery Channel show titled Urban Explorers. Originally intended to be a full 13-episode season, the show went through several mutations as Discovery changed its lineup and re-organized its focus.

We ended up doing just five episodes of the show (Milwaukee, Chicago, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, and Denver) over the course of about six months. We had a really great time filming, but unfortunately even after the five shows were complete Discovery still wasn't sure if it fit into their new lineup and their new style. (They were having their biggest success with shows about cars and motorcycles, and our history-oriented show was quite different.) Because of this, the show was aired in relatively poor time slots, and although it's been aired around the world multiple times since then, it's never been advertised by the network and they have no intention of pursuing it. Oh well... It was still a lot of fun to do. And every so often I get a note from someone who's just seen the show for the first time and tells me they really like it. (To everyone who has liked the show and taken the time to look it up on the net and drop me a line-- thank you!)

Existing episodes:
Milwaukee
Chicago
Buffalo
Pittsburgh
Denver

Some airdates:
June 27-July 1, 2005 (USA)
April 2006 (USA)
August 2006 (Canada)
March 2007 (Canada)

Unfortunately, I don't know where it's possible to get a copy of the show, and I don't know any future airdates. It might be possible to download a torrent of the show from this link, or if this link doesn't work maybe it can be found somewhere else: http://torrentz.ws/search/Urban-Explorers:rel_2

Columbia News Service: Urban spelunkers explore forbidden--and eerie—territory

Gencer, Arin for the Columbia News Service
“Urban spelunkers explore forbidden--and eerie—territory”
Apr. 20, 2005
http://jscms.jrn.columbia.edu/cns/2005-04-19/gencer-urbanexplorers

http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20050424192816745

Sugarzine: Photo Gallery

Solo Exhibition at Sugarzine Gallery @ Café Bar, Astoria, Queens, February 20 to March 10, 2005. 
http://www.sugarzine.com/site_03.05/gallery.html

New York Underground (Book)

My friend Julia Solis published an excellent book aptly titled New York Underground: The Anatomy of a City in 2005. (For German readers, she had previously published a german-language version of the book under the title New York Underground: Anatomie einer Stadt (CH. Links Verlag; Berlin 2002).)

Some of my photos are featured in the book, including photos of sewer construction and the "cyclotron" at Columbia University.

Solis, Julia. New York Underground: The Anatomy of a City. Routledge; New York and Great Britain, 2005
Available at Amazon.com

The Buffalo News (Newspaper): 'Urban Explorers' take on Buffalo

The Buffalo News (Newspaper)
"'Urban Explorers' take on Buffalo"
August 21, 2004, Page D1.
Photos by Sharon Cantillon, Text by Tom Buckham.

NY1 (TV): Undercity.org Depicts Beauty Of New York's Underbelly

NY1 (TV and Online)
“Undercity.org Depicts Beauty Of New York's Underbelly”
July 20, 2004

Video link from:
http://www.ny1.com/ny1/content/index.jsp?&aid=41734&search_result=1&stid=32

Undercity.org Depicts Beauty Of New York's Underbelly

July 20, 2004
Ever wonder what New York City looks like underground, or from the top of the Manhattan Bridge?

Yahoo Pick of the Day, June 23, 2004

http://picks.yahoo.com/picks/i/20040623.html

Group exhibition, PsyGeoConflux 2004
Project: Beneath the Streets (photographs)
Participant Gallery, New York, May 13-16, 2004.

Invisible Frontier: Exploring the Tunnels, Ruins, and Rooftops of Hidden New York [Book]

Available from Amazon (Paperback)

Deyo, LB & Leibowitz, David.
Invisible Frontier: Exploring the Tunnels, Ruins, and Rooftops of Hidden New York.
Three Rivers Press, New York, 2003
ISBN-13: 978-0609809310

WNYC Radiolab: Urban Exploration

WNYC Radio Broadcast, New York, December 5, 2003
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2003/12/05

• Listen to the whole show (Urban Exploration piece is about halfway into episode)
  

From WNYC Website (http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2003/12/05)

Flipper Goes Underground
Swedish radio producer, Marcus Lindeen follows a the urban-exploring collective Jinx, hopping fences and digging around abandoned buildings. Is this growing trend of budget adventure travel, or a Do-It-Yourself horror film in the making?
Producer: Marcus Lindeen, Flipper
Links:
Jinx Magazine

National Swedish Radio

National Swedish Radio (Broadcast in Swedish), Produced by Marcus Lindeen.

From the Swedish Radio website (http://www.sr.se/cgi-bin/p3/programsidor/artikel.asp?ProgramID=2164&artikel=548505)

Urban Exploring
Urban Exploration går ut på att man ger sig ut i staden och försöker utforska gömda platser som är bortglömda och övergivna, för att på så sätt upptäcka staden på nytt. Det kan handla om allt från att bryta sig in i ett utblåst sjukhus till att ta sig ner till gamla övergivna tunnelbanestationer långt under marken. Flippers Marcus Lindeen följde med urban exploration-gruppen Jinx på en av deras expeditioner i New York. Inslaget har också sänts i det experimentella dokumentärprogrammet Radiolab på amerikanska radiostationen WNYC.
Urban Exploring 1
Urban Exploring 2

GEO: Safair Zu Den Weissen Flecken Der Stadt

GEO Magazine (Germany)

"Safair Zu Den Weissen Flecken Der Stadt"

October/November 2003, Pages 110-111.

Photos by Jonas Bendiksen, Text by Verena Lueken.

In photos:

Bottom left - LB.

Top right - LB (on left), me (on right), both of us fleeing from pursuit in a subway tunnel.

mMode Magazine: The Last Explorers

mMode Magazine

"The Last Explorers"

Fall/Winter 2003, Pages 28-31.

Photos by Joshua Paul, Text by David "Lefty" Leibowitz.

Men's Journal: Urban Exploring: The Last Frontier

Men's Journal

"Urban Exploring: The Last Frontier"

September 2003, Pages 23-24.

Photos by Shaul Schwarz, Text by Jonathan Miles.

New York Times: PsyGeoConflux Festival (Photo only)

New York Times
Article on PsyGeoConflux Festival 2003
May 12, 2003
Metro Section, Page B6
Photo by Michelle Agins

Front Magazine: Urban Gorillas, February 2003

Front Magazine (UK)

“Urban Gorillas”

Issue 53, February 2003, Pages 94-97.

Photos and Text by Alan Emmins

VSD (France), January 2-8, 2003

VSD (France)
"Aux Frontieres de l'Equilibre"
Number 1323, January 2-8, 2003, Pages 78-83.
Photos by Shaul Schwarz, Text by Delphine Berger

City Squares: New York City, by Steve Duncan (Editor)

City Squares: New York City, by Steve Duncan (Editor)

Ars Subterranea, Exhibit on Underground New York

Ars Subterranea Inaugaral Event
Group Photography Exhibition, Atlantic Avenue Tunnel, Brooklyn, New York
November 10, 2002

 

 

 

Outside Magazine: Dispatches: Wild in the Streets

Outside Magazine

"Dispatches: Wild in the Streets"

October 2001, Pages 22-24.

Photos by Kike Arnal, Text by Brad Wieners



Article online at: http://outside.away.com/outside/news/200110/disp_1.html

Caption: Shadow over Gotham: Steve Duncan, of the urban-exploration group Jinx, clowns around at the Roosevelt Island Smallpox Hospital [photo by Kike Arnal]