MYTHBUSTERS Blows Up Urban Legends for a Second Season, Beginning Wednesday, September 29

Hosts Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman Face Modern Folklore Head On Through Pure Science, Daring Stunts and a Healthy Dose of Skepticism

SILVER SPRING, Md., Sept. 9 -- Urban myths: they're the stuff of legend. Whether it's the stern warning given by your mom ("Don't talk on the phone during a thunderstorm!"), or that mass e-mail your buddy forwarded that warned about the serious danger of exploding port-a-potties, urban legends get repeated so often, they become widely accepted "truths."

To determine whether these myths are indeed fact or just clever fiction, hosts Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman have a blast -- literally -- in an all-new season of MYTHBUSTERS, beginning Wednesday, September 29 from 9-10 PM (ET/PT). This second season of methodical scientific mayhem will continue every Wednesday throughout the fall.

In each episode, Adam and Jamie use scientific experiments, special effects, and Buster -- one very abused crash-test dummy -- to show how many urban myths don't stand up to the test. (Though surprisingly, some do.) Jamie and Adam's combined 30 years of experience in animatronics, model building and prototyping, along with their pure, gleeful passion for science - - from calculating terminal velocity to measuring voltage -- arm them with the drive and ability to build and create anything they need to "bust" a myth.

In the first fall premiere of the second season, which airs Wednesday, September 29 from 9-10 PM, Jamie and Adam test three different legends, including one of the world's oldest -- is it possible that the Greek scientist Archimedes actually set fire to a Roman fleet using only mirrors and sunlight? Then, the guys try to remove the fetid funk of a skunk by testing a list of home remedies. Do any of these supposedly tried-and-true solutions actually work? Lastly, Adam and Jamie find out what it takes to make their bulletproof safety chamber ... really bulletproof.

The second fall premiere, which airs Wednesday, October 6 from 9-10 PM, has Adam and Jamie testing Buster the crash-test dummy's luck in the "elevator of death." The myth goes like this -- if you're trapped in a plummeting elevator, you can save your life by jumping in the air just before impact. Can this be true, or will this experiment have disastrous consequences for poor Buster?

Other myths put to the test in season two of MYTHBUSTERS include:

* Is it really that hard to find a needle in a haystack?

* Is it possible to salvage a sunken ship by filling it with ping-pong balls?

* Can a car be made speed radar-proof?

* Can a gust of wind actually carry a small child who is holding a large bunch of balloons?

* Does "killer" quicksand really exist, and do Hollywood's movie depictions of the substance hold true?

In the first season of MYTHBUSTERS (which originally premiered in the fall of 2003), Adam and Jamie successfully disproved myths such as: using your cell phone while pumping gas will set off an explosion; you can use cola to polish chrome or dissolve a nail; and dropping a penny off of the top of the Empire State Building could kill someone on the ground if it hit them.

MYTHBUSTERS is produced by Beyond Productions for the Discovery Channel. For Beyond Productions, John Luscombe and Peter Rees are executive producers. For the Discovery Channel, Judy Plavnick is executive producer.

Discovery Channel is the United States' largest cable television network, serving 88.6 million households across the nation with the finest in informative entertainment. Discovery Networks, U.S., a unit of Discovery Communications, Inc., operates and manages the Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, the Travel Channel, Discovery Health Channel, Discovery HD Theater(TM), Discovery Kids Channel, Discovery Times Channel, The Science Channel(TM), Discovery Home Channel, Discovery Wings Channel, Discovery en Espanol and FitTV. The unit also distributes BBC America.

SOURCE Discovery Channel
Web Site: http://www.discovery.com