I liked it . Skip Van Leeuwen looks great for his age and he did a good job explaining how tough it was to do the jumps back then. All of the people they interviewed in this show helped Leigh Montville with his book. After the Snake River Canyon jump I don't believe Evel had a credibility problem. In fact in 1975 Ideal Toys really cranked out the toy line. And the Wide World show in 1975 showed he was still very popular.
The short clip of Evel on the Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder was sad. Evel looked like he had aged 10 years in a short time. He also looked like this when he gave a interview with someone from ABC about his haystack stunt. I noticed he was slipping a bit when I saw him in The Bionic Woman in 77. Doug Wilson gave him credit for what he did best, promote. Being a Knievel fan in 1977 and 78 was very strange. My mother wasn't happy about him. Then he was gone after 1978 and we hardly heard from him again.
One interesting point was what Doug Wilson said about Evel on this show and also in print just a few days ago. He felt something bad was going to happen. Either the money or something bad would cause his downfall. And he was right on when he said Evel built his career and then he alone knocked it down.
--Previous Message--
: Thanks for all the input. I'm sure it will be
: out on DVD before Christmas.
:
: --Previous Message--
: There is an 8mm shot from a helo at SRC that
: shows the jump from above . It is the most
: accurate of what really happened . How he
: went all the way over b4 the chute went to
: FULL Canopy, The as soon as it does the wind
: sends him back . A calm day he would've made
: it .
:
: --Previous Message--
: I was approached by the producer of this
: documentary to help him find rare footage.He
: was especially interested in the super 8
: footage of Evel at Snake River.I believe he
: used mostly public domain footage to avoid
: the licensing fees like the WWOS clips would
: have cost.The good news is that EK's family
: is also doing a documentary and are looking
: for rare footage as well.
:
: --Previous Message--
:
:
: --Previous Message--
: I'd like to hear what you thought. Was it
: factually accurate or did they mix and match
: events? I don't have the Discovery Channel,
: so I'm very curious how it was.
:
:
: It was a very truncated look at his life,
: but was worth seeing. It did look at his
: dark side, and dispelled some of the myths
: (29 day coma claim) while perpetuating
: others (400+ broken bones, something even he
: himself never claimed). Featured interviews
: with a number of people that were very close
: to him (promoters, producers, fellow racers,
: relatives). Some decent unseen (at least to
: me) footage, however there was hardly any
: ABC footage (no footage of Wembly (only
: still photos), no ABC footage of Snake
: River, no Kings Island coverage at all). It
: mostly tried to look at the 10 year pop
: culture tidal wave that he was, and not a
: historical look at the specific jumps.
:
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