Popular Mechanics for Kids

Popular Mechanics for Kids

1997
Popular Mechanics for Kids
Popular Mechanics for Kids

Popular Mechanics for Kids

8.5 | en | Documentary

Popular Mechanics for Kids is an educational Canadian television series based on Popular Mechanics magazine. It was notable for starting the careers of both Elisha Cuthbert and Jay Baruchel. The show's purpose was to teach viewers how things work. It was awarded the Parents Choice Award in 2003, and was nominated for the Gemini Awards. The series aired from 1997 to 2001, and re-runs of the show continued to air on many channels until 2008. It aired on BBC Kids and Discovery Kids until December 31, 2009. After the closure of Discovery Kids Canada, BBC Kids stopped airing re-runs in all countries except Canada. The reruns on BBC Kids in Canada ended on May 14, 2011. As of 2013 re-runs of the show continue to air on Knowledge Network. Along with Cuthbert and Baruchel, the cast included Charles Powell nicknamed "Charlie" for the series, Tyler Kyte, and eventually Vanessa Lengies. The show was filmed primarily in Montreal, Quebec, and is currently distributed on VHS / DVD by Koch Vision.

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Seasons & Episodes

4
3
2
1
EP6  On The Front Lines
Feb. 12,2001
On The Front Lines

Tyler joins the Skyhawks, which is Canada's elite parachute team and he gets ready to jump out of a plane at 10,000 feet above the ground. Strapped to the back of one of the Skyhawk jumpers, he will be able to see exactly how these tandem jumps are orchestrated and the special skill it takes to execute such a daring adventure. These parachutists are trained to land these dangerous jumps to get medical personnel into remote areas where help is needed such as avalanches, floods, plane crashes an war zones. Vanessa takes to the skies of California to fly her own fighter plane in a high-speed airborne dog fight! She proves just how daring she can be when she loops, turns and rolls her own plane and then attempts to 'shoot down' an enemy aircraft with high-tech laser beams. Vanessa gets to operate an eight-wheeled army surveillance truck called the Coyote. Able to spy on targets up to thirteen miles away, the Coyote is a state-of-the-art surveillance vehicle used in both military and non-

EP5  In Deep Water
Feb. 05,2001
In Deep Water

Tyler goes underwaterat the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute in California where he uses a remote-control operated vehicle called a ROV and explores the largest submarine canyon on the continent's West Coast. With deep sea depths reaching more than 10,000 feet, Tyler assists scientists in the search for never-before-seen life forms at the bottom of the ocean floor. Tyler receives a diving suit that weighs a full ton, and after securing his oxygen supply, he accompanies underwater welders. He'll find out how this unique skill is used to repair pipelines, drilling rigs, ships, barges and even nuclear power plants and how some amazing tools can produce enough heat to melt steel even in the icy cold temperatures of the ocean. After all of Tyler's adventures, he goes to Jules's Underwater Sea Lodge, which is a hotel underwater! Built in a lagoon some 30 feet underwater, the Lodge has only four rooms each with its own supply of air sent down from the surface using an umbilical cord

EP4  Horseplay
Jan. 28,2001
Horseplay

Popular Mechanics for Kids goes behind-the-scenes at the world renowned Strathcona Mounted Troop (the only non-British Cavalry Unit in history to mount the Queen's Life Guard at Buckingham Palace). Tyler participates in the Musical Ride and finds out how the twenty horses are taught to obey the riders instructions, and after, he prepares to enter the world of jousting where he will learn about the history of the sport. He will sport a ten-foot lance, and fit inside a full suit of armour and rides a horse. Vanessa heads west to Alberta's cowboy country where she learns all about the rigors of the range. Wearing authentic cowboy gear, she saddles up with a real cowboy for some calf-roping, cattle herding and lasso tying while Charlie shows us the art and science of throwing a lariot.

EP3  Escape
Jan. 21,2001
Escape

Vanessa catches up with Dean Gunnerson, one of the most famous escape artists in the world while Tyler visits a cockpit of an underwater helicopter and finds out what it's like to be trapped inside something that is slowly sinking to the bottom of a deep pool. He arrives later in Delaware and tries out a life chute designed to rescue people from high rise fires while Charlie shares a few tips on the art of escape.

EP2  Fighting Disaster
Jan. 14,2001
Fighting Disaster

Vanessa travels to Oregon to create a real landslide, and she learns that scientists uses a unique outdoor laboratory to find out more about the patterns of landslides and how to prevent them from destroying the environment. Vanessa down to the coast of Los Angeles where she trains with the Collapse Rescue Team (a group of scientists who save people from such emergencies as collapsed buildings, stalled elevators and vehicle accidents). Tyler gets a chance to see how real life disasters are dealt with when he goes out into the field with a crew of fire researchers and helps them set a room ablaze! By setting these kinds of controlled fires, scientists are able to learn and devise the most powerful fire-fighting technique.

EP1  X-Treeme Rides
Jan. 07,2001
X-Treeme Rides

Tyler starts us off when he takes to the skies in a powered parachute plane and then he gets ready for his next adventure on a mountain in Virginia. To play Street Luge, Tyler must wear protective body gear and lay down on a luge board just two inches from the pavement. The speed of the descent depends on the steepness of the hill. Vanessa receives a kite skiing lesson in Oregon, which is similar to water skiing, but the kite stands in for a boat, a kite skier can reach speeds of up to 20 mph using only the power of the wind and a 20 foot kite. Charlie builds an extreme ride by attaching cables between two trees and using a pulley to get your body from one spot to the next.

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8.5 | en | Documentary , Family , Kids | More Info
Released: 1997-09-07 | Released Producted By: Shaw Media , Hearst Entertainment Productions Country: Canada Budget: 0 Revenue: 0 Official Website:
Synopsis

Popular Mechanics for Kids is an educational Canadian television series based on Popular Mechanics magazine. It was notable for starting the careers of both Elisha Cuthbert and Jay Baruchel. The show's purpose was to teach viewers how things work. It was awarded the Parents Choice Award in 2003, and was nominated for the Gemini Awards. The series aired from 1997 to 2001, and re-runs of the show continued to air on many channels until 2008. It aired on BBC Kids and Discovery Kids until December 31, 2009. After the closure of Discovery Kids Canada, BBC Kids stopped airing re-runs in all countries except Canada. The reruns on BBC Kids in Canada ended on May 14, 2011. As of 2013 re-runs of the show continue to air on Knowledge Network. Along with Cuthbert and Baruchel, the cast included Charles Powell nicknamed "Charlie" for the series, Tyler Kyte, and eventually Vanessa Lengies. The show was filmed primarily in Montreal, Quebec, and is currently distributed on VHS / DVD by Koch Vision.

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Cast

Elisha Cuthbert , Tyler Kyte , Charles Edwin Powell

Director

Producted By

Shaw Media , Hearst Entertainment Productions

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Reviews

Melypunk709 This show is awesome and i watch it a lot still. it can be kind of cheesy at times but it is still fun. I'm fifteen and i enjoy it! it comes out on discovery kids if anyone ever wants to watch it or just buy the DVD. they are worth watching. the cast is also entertaining. i knew that i recognized Elisha Cuthbert from the girl next door and house of wax when i first watched the show on TV. it was kinda funny watching her on the show while she was a young teen. i saw the other comment on popular mechanics for kids and i do think that younger people would enjoy the show a lot more than adults. i hope this helped and make sure that you watch it! you will actually learn something from it. enjoy!
Ginger87 "Popular Mechanics for Kids" was one of my favorite shows when I was younger. I watched it every Saturday morning at 7:30 for over a year. I liked Tyler the host the best. He was funny, clever, and HOT! My favorite "Popular Mechanics for Kids" episode is the episode about Roller Coasters since I love to ride them. This showed me how they ran. I also liked the episode about ghosts. The part of that episode when they were hunting for ghosts actually scared me. Overall I really enjoyed this show. I sometimes still watch it on "Discovery Kids" when I get a chance too. I was sad to see it leave Saturday mornings since it helped me in Science class. I give this show 9/10 stars.
mille52 I have just discovered this show, and although I feel that I'm too old for it, looking at it from a child's point of view, it is probably very entertaining. Perhaps the show's greatest gimmick now that it is in reruns (2003) is that one of the show's young stars is Elisha Cuthbert, who has become a household name through her fame on the Fox's 24. Over all, even though it can be a little over the top at times, if I were still twelve years old (ahh...how those days have come and gone) I definitely would watch this program. It's a mix of the gross-out experiments that your stuffy science teacher never taught you combined with a (slightly) educational element. I still believe that for older viewers (particularly aficionados of 24) the real fun of watching the show is seeing a young Cuthbert talking about everything from zoo animals and explosives to stage make-up and animatronic creatures.
cfc_can This program gives kids a bird's eye view into how things like computers and machines work and how things are made. It is colorful, fast paced and appears to have a higher budget than many Canadian-produced TV shows do. The two teenage hosts go all over North America to visit factories and research centers for their reports. Some of them are quite interesting though a bit complex for young kids to understand. The show however seems to have a fixation on the grungier side of things. One segment for example showed how manure is manufactured into fertilizer and actually showed a cow defecating (definitely not a pretty sight!) The show also features a man (Charlie Powell) in between the news segments, doing home made science experiments. In one show, he demonstrated to kids how to make homemade boogers! (now that's educational!)