The ArchiTECHS

Overview

The ArchiTECHS was a one-episode television show on The History Channel - one of two pilots for a proposed series in which a team of innovators struggle to come up with unique design solutions under a suspenseful time limit.

The show featured "five geniuses", including author-scientist David Brin, TV legend and designer Dave Stollery, visionary artist Tim Flattery and others "in a 48-hour quest to design better ways to escape and fight skyscraper fires."

Promotions for the show had this to say: "Five geniuses are challenged: innovate fire rescue and evacuation tools for skyscraper disasters... and do it in 48 hours! Watch a small team of designers and visionaries form a high-tech think tank, racing the clock to shape bold, over-the-horizon designs for the future. With unprecedented cooperation from New York's regional fire departments, episode #1 culminates in a dramatic presentation to Former FDNY Commissioner Thomas Von Essen, one of the heroes of 9/11..."

Another Pilot Episode was filmed half a year earlier, at the U.S. Army National Training Center at Ft. Irwin, California, where a somewhet different and larger team of "geniuses" were charged (by 4 star General Paul Kern) with the task for "designing the next humvee." Result? A super badass concept vehicle. It is unclear, as of January 2007, whether there are any plans to show that episode or offer it on DVD.

CAST MEMBERS OF THE FIREFIGHTING EPISODE: David Brin, Tim Flattery, David Stollery, Jim Tucci, Andrew Thompson

CAST OF THE (never shown) HUMVEE EPISODE: David Brin, Tim Flattery, Adam Rogers, Alexander Rose, Noah Shachtman, David Stollery, Reichert von Wolfsheild

Produced by Mod3 Productions: http://mod3productions.com/ Danny Gold, Mathew Asner, Larry Herbst

Showings

• Premiere (2006-10-11 23:00): Wednesday, October 11 at 11:00 PM
• Repeat (2006-10-12 23:00): October 12 at 3 AM & October 14 at 11:00 AM

Discussion

• Architechs Show thread on History Channel forums
  • Note that a search of the History Channel web site will not find this page; WTF?

A DVD of the show appears to be ambiguously for sale on the History Channel (A&E) site at: http://store.aetv.com/html/product/index.jhtml?id=75873

Details re: CAST MEMBERS OF THE FIREFIGHTING EPISODE:

David Brin - author http://www.davidbrin.com,

Tim Flattery - artist http://www.timflattery.com/

David Stollery - designer, www.imdb.com/name/nm0831564/

Jim Tucci - rocket scientist,

Andrew architect.

Details re: CAST OF THE (never shown) HUMVEE EPISODE:

Reichert von Wolfsheild - inventor,

David Stollery - designer, www.imdb.com/name/nm0831564/

Noah Shachtman - defense journalist, http://www.defensetech.org/

Alexander Rose - roboticist http://www.longnow.org/people/staff/,

Adam Rogers - editor WIRED Magazine,

Tim Flattery -artist, http://www.timflattery.com/

David Brin - author/ scientist http://www.davidbrin.com

Links

• 2006-10-10 ArchiTechs: terrific!... and other news: Brin comments on the preview
• 2006-10-11 Watch David Brin on The ArchiTechs Oct.11, 2006: announcement at Futurist.com

Reference

• IMDB