[Sca-cooks] New PBS Show Warrior Challenge

[johnna holloway]

Ok-- in case you missed it--
starting  May 6th---

Intrepid American and British volunteers
travel back in time to live, train and fight as
knights in a medieval castle, Vikings and more.

It's called Warrior Challenge and it's coming
to PBS.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/warriorchallenge/

Fro the pressroom coverage
at
http://www.kaet.asu.edu/pressroom/2003/may/warrior.htm

comes the following description:

     They may be tough enough for some of today's most demanding jobs,
but will a group of marines, U.S. Air Force personnel, riot police and
athletes survive a few days in the worlds of long-lost
     warriors? Viewers find out in Warrior Challenge, a light-hearted
approach to "hands-on history," the genre made popular by series like
The 1900 House and Frontier House. The four-part
     series airs on Tuesdays, May 6-27, 2003, at 9 p.m. on Channel 8.

     In the four one-hour episodes, intrepid American and British
volunteers travel back in time to live, train and fight as knights in a
medieval castle, centurions along a Roman Empire outpost,
     Vikings and gladiators. Throughout, Warrior Challenge adheres to
the historic details of each era, accurately simulating the customs and
activities particular to each one. The series follows
     participants as they engage in combat drills, don their best armor,
exhaust themselves during rigorous athletic tasks, learn to handle an
arsenal of weapons with hard-to-pronounce names and
     the potential to do some serious bodily harm, feast on traditional
gruel and party into the wee hours of the night at a Scandinavian jarl.
Each installment culminates with an authentic competition,
     during which the "warriors" duke it out using pilums, scramsaexes,
halberds, tridents and the like.

     "One of the best things about Warrior Challenge is the way it's as
amusing as it is educational," said Beth Hoppe, the series executive
producer. "The re-creations of bygone environs and
     traditions are valuable history lessons, but the overall package is
really entertaining."

     Warrior Challenge kicks off with "Romans" (5/6), during which eight
volunteers get a taste of what it meant to be a soldier of the great
empire.

     "Knights" (5/13) travels back to the "day of the knight."

     "Vikings" (5/20) chronicles the experience of a squad of marines
and police officers as they pit their skills against life in the Dark
Ages. They train hard by day, then chow down on traditional
     Viking fare and fresh-brewed mead by night. Eventually, defensive
shield walls and longboats come into play; who gets a better grip on
Viking scramsaexes, shortswords and axes, the British
     or the Americans?

     The last episode, "Gladiators" (5/27), offers a journey to a
different Roman world, one in which combatants duel before a live
audience rather than defend their country.

You'll note that the Viking episode mentions Viking mead and traditional
chow.

Johnnae llyn Lewis   Johnna Holloway