History Channel v History International

[onager]

Griping about the so-called History Channel is one of my favorite hobbies, and a lot of others in here seem to agree.

As I write this on Memorial Day, the regular History Channel is showing a "Pawn Stars" marathon. Well, at least it's not a "Nostradumbass 2012" marathon - that's coming tomorrow night!

But later tonight the regular History Channel is showing the 2-hr. "Gettysburg" produced by Ridley & Tony Scott, which might be worth a look. I don't know how the channel had time to sneak in some actual history.

It seems like the better shows are on History International. This weekend it has been mostly showing stuff about the Civil War and Reconstruction.

Bonus points for clever titling: "Full Metal Corset," about female spies in the Civil War.

I just watched "April 1865," which was interesting and taught me some stuff I didn't know.

e.g., at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Richmond, VA, for the first time in history at the end of April 1865, an African-American man left the segregated section reserved for black worshippers and went up to take communion with the whites.

The whole church froze. The white worshippers left the single black man kneeling at the communion rail. The preacher froze with the communion cracker in his hand. Nobody moved.

Until one white-haired old Caucasian gentleman went up and knelt down right beside the black man at the altar.

The white man was (the very recently retired) Gen. Robert E. Lee. That broke the spell and unfroze everybody. The white folks went up to take communion and the preacher started handing out the crackers.

I guess that's not too surprising, after all. Lee hated slavery and called it "an unmixed evil." He also thought secession was unconstitutional. That's one of the things I like about history - it's full of weird ironies.

[awoke_in_2003]

1. "the preacher started handing out the crackers"...

Hmmm, crackers for crackers :) Seriously, it is good to see the History Channel stop being the bible channel for a while.

[immoderate]

2. Don't forget the ghosts!

We gotta hunt 'em down!

--imm

[sakabatou]

4. That's more in the Sci-Fi (Syfy) channel

[Warpy]

3. When I got my first hookup five years ago, I noticed HI had the best stuff

and History had become fluff and bible shit. It's one reason I've kept the slightly more expensive lineup of channels, that and Ovation and Link and Logo and a few other channels that the basic lineup never has.

If you get the Documentary Channel, it often has some really interesting fare.

History, however, is really not worth the click to see what's on.