Originally Posted by
endurance
Discovery did a series called The Alaska Experiment last year that was far from perfect, but was none the less interesting. Four groups of total city slickers dropped off at remote cabins in the Alaska wilderness forced to fend for themselves for three months in the fall (I think it was September-ish thru December-ish). They were given carbs like rice & potatoes, but no proteins or fats. They had to put up their own firewood, catch their own fish, and some groups were given 1-2 days with a big game guide to secure meat, but then they had to can or smoke their own food. Again, group dynamics played a larger role than real survival for the most part, but it wasn't set up that way as much (although one family was particularly dysfunctional early on, but did improve).
There was one real adventure during the filming that probably scared the $#!* out of the producers and camera crew. A group of three decided to hike to their neighbors cabin, just 40 miles away. They packed for eight days, four days there, four days back. Ha! You're not going to do 10 miles a day in Alaska. In the end they were so dehydrated they were suffering from auditory halucinations, hypothermia, and I'm sure the crew had to intervene, but it wasn't shown. It also had some good scenes of one couple slowly losing their minds to cabin fever, but fortunately, their visitors from the other cabin saved them from what could have been pretty tragic.
IMHO.
