The Roanoke Times: The Wild Life

Comments

# 1

[February 1, 2007 3:18 PM]

Bob

Ok, I have to admit that I go way back to the very beginnings of outdoor shows which included the likes of Gadabout Gaddis, Virgil Ward, and The American Sportsman. Outdoor shows were such a rare phenomenon back then that I even watched Marlin Perkins on the Wild Kingdom.

Virgil Ward’s theme song went something like this:

From the lakes of Northern Canada To the Gulf of Mexico Wherever fish are biting That’s where we’re gonna go

There’s a lot of exciting country Just waiting to be explored So join us now in the Great outdoor world of Virgil Ward

Kinda catchy huh? Virgil was an old geezer whose motto was that no fish was too small for the creel. You never saw Virgil release a fish.

Jerry McKinnis of the Fishing hole came along and it was pretty good. But then Jerry caught a bunch of flack from the politically correct crowd for urging the wearing of life vests at all times while he was never photographed with one on during his shows….

Didn’t know about the penned Buck of Jimmy’s, but Jimmy got removed from my outdoor watching years ago with just too many of “those laughs”. Those of us who are follically challenged (which includes you and me) always resented Jimmy’s cereal bowl haircut anyway (what we could do with all that hair!).

I have seen Tred’s show a few times. He tries to palm himself off as an every day Joe but just about everything he does is far from the reach of the regular hunter. I am not sure Tred’s elevator is quite making it to the top floor.

Tom T. Hall wrote the theme for Orlando Wilson’s fishing show and it was pretty good. Don’t know what happened to Orlando though.

Bill Dance used to open his show with a wonderful ballad written and sung by Jerry Reed who also used be a celebrity guest on the show once a year. But on a show Jerry caught a huge largemouth which he kept to be mounted and when he wasn’t looking Bill removed it from the livewell and released it and Jerry and him aren’t buddies anymore.

Nowadays I don’t even listen to the jingles. I have written before about how I am sick of our intelligence being insulted by the outdoor shows when the camera shows the hunter finding the deer. I am firmly convinced that most of these shows now do a tremendous disservice to hunters by not publishing such information as the day the show was shot, and how many days they spent in the stand to get the 5 minutes of the deer getting shot.

But, another question for you. This is a real personal pet peeve of mine. It has to do with does. It is a shame to me that very few shows actually show the harvesting of a doe. And when one does, it is either with the “disclaimer” that it had to be done for population purposes or it is a kid getting a doe (because a real man wouldn’t shoot one-macho). My question is: what in the world is wrong with shooting a doe and why make any excuse about it?

If we want people to start harvesting does, isn’t it time that we started congratulating people on shows for shooting them and encouraged it in that way? I have been tempted to write “North American Whitetail” magazine to tell them to change it to North American Whitetail-Bucks only magazine. They sure never feature does.

# 2

[February 1, 2007 3:21 PM]

RG

Funny most guys do not pay much attention to those myself included. I do remember when I was a kid about say 20 years ago I was nuts about bass fishing. My dad and I would go several times in the spring of the year just the 2 of us and that kinda helped to get me interested. Anyhow we liked to watch the fishing shows and I think TBS had several fishing shows on. At that time my dad only listened to country music and I of course as a typical teenager hated that redneck music....(love it now BTW). The song that I remember was from the Roland Martin fishin' show. I believe he got this song sometime around that time 20 or so years ago. He still has it today and it was by Tom T. Hall. The title of the song was "The Great American Fisherman". One thing that really has always stuck in my mind no matter where or when I hear that song to this day is the line that says "He's the great american fisherman he'll fish anywhere. Anywhere there's water lord knows he'll be there. He's just like a gypsy mighty hard to find the great american fisherman he's got fishin' in his blood". Maybe if we could get more of these teenage and younger kids to get a little of that fishin' in there blood we'd have just a few less kids in front of the computer or the playstation or whatever video game it is that they are playing and get out and enjoy what is better than anything that money can buy. Anyways I just thought I'd shoot you a note on the fishin' song that I remember and I think it is a pretty good song not to mention that it says something about us that like to call ourselves fishermen.

# 3

[February 3, 2007 11:44 AM]

Jerry

Hank Parker's theme song had to be the best I've heard. Don't remember the words; but it describes ol' Hank leaving all the honey-does and going fishin. Hank Parker in my opinion is one of the great ones who sacrificed his career for family and will never look back to regret it. God bless ol' Hank.

# 4

[February 13, 2007 10:06 AM]

Ben

You need to put the Barta theme song into context. Look at the show as a whole - ridiculously entertaining - emphasis on ridiculous. The theme song works for the show.

# 5

[February 13, 2007 4:07 PM]

Mark Taylor

Point taken, Ben.

I agree that Barta is entertaining, but is it just me, or is he getting a little too far out there?

Doing things the hard way is one thing. But hunting ducks with the longbow? (Yeah, he hit one. Given the size of some of those flocks, I think most of us could have hit one taking that many shots.) Or, my personal favorite, coyote hunting with a longbow? Next up: 100-pound tarpon on 2-pound-test tippet.

I mean, it's kind of like watching an 8-year-old kid shoot nothing but 3-pointers at the gym and never getting even close to the rim. If he steps up to the free throw line, it will still be hard and he can be proud when he makes it. But at least he's got a chance.

That said, I still like Barta 100 times more than some of those other shows where success is a sure thing.