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.
Episode 22 : Live At PMK
January. 30,2000
It's the first ever Behind The Scenes of Popular Mechanics for Kids, where you will get a front-row centre seat this week when Tyler discovers what it takes to stage a meca-rock concert and then gets into the ring with a WWF fighter to learn about the very dangerous business of professional fighting. Elisha learns a few secrets herself when she goes under the big top and behind the scenes at the world-famous Cirque du Soleil.
Tyler gets to go behind Niagara Falls to see how the massive falls keeps electricity flowing. He then keeps his wet suit on and joins a real emergency oil spill clean team. Elisha has a hair raising adventure when she takes a run down the rocky rapids in an Ultramodern and indestructible raft.
Elisha finds out if she can stomach the brand new gravity-defying vomit comet while Vanessa gets a lesson in virtual reality in the NASA laboratory where the space stations are actually built. She was able to train as an astronaut using actual equipment but in a virtual-reality world where she tries to fix a damaged part of the ship.
It's Sci-Fi time, and Vanessa joins the creative team of ""Spawn"" and discovers what it's like to put together the coolest comic book on the planet. Tyler learns all about the universe when he visits NASA's Deep Space Network and sees how their huge towers send signals to the flying saucers floating around the universe.
Tyler hangs out with the deadly Komodo Dragons and finds out what makes them one of the most feared animals on the planet. Later he meets up with a tiger in a facility that helps neglected wild animals get back on track. Vanessa journeys far up North and finds out what happens to the wild polar bears when they get too close to people.
The team is sent to Southern California to hang out with the Navy Seals, where Tyler gets to climb into the combat training tank and swim with the Seals as they trade scuba gear underwater and learn how to rig explosives in the water. He also gets behind the wheel of a special Seal boat and helps the Navy parachute team get ready for a show full of very unique tricks.
Tyler dives down to the ocean floor, with the team searching for an ancient ship that has been buried for more than 100 years. He learns how to sword-fight and then goes sword-to-sword with a team of real life swashbuckling pros while Elisha makes her very own pirate treasure when she turns ordinary rock into pieces of gold.
Elisha gets a family of crash test dummies ready for a dangerous crash test. Tyler also gets in the action at an armoured car factory and helps build one of the safest vehicles around.
Vanessa checks out the newest sports craze as he shimmies up and down a sand dune on a gigantic flat board called a sand board. She also keeps her headway down when she joins a snake hunting expedition and captures a few of the slithering critters in a giant bag.
Vanessa gets to find out how Hollywood creates those magical winter snow scenes for the movies. Elisha gets the rink ready for a big hockey game by making the ice, painting the lines and even driving the Zamboni machine. But then she receives goalie equipment where she will try to stop a 100-mile shot by an NHL player while Tyler goes deep inside NASA's ice tunnel and discovers how the experts make airplanes safe for flight during those wicked winter storms.
Elisha strikes gold more than a mile under the earth. Tyler finds out how the slimy, gooey stuff on cave walls may be a valuable tool for medical science and then unlocks the mysteries of the ocean when he gets to be an aquanaut for a day, diving with the scientists who work in the world's only underwater laboratory.
Elisha gets behind the wheel of an airborne blimp as Tyler battles gravity as he masters the art of para-gliding and then catches up with the Elite pilot team at the Edwards Air Force base where he gets to check out the fastest and highest flying spy plane in the world.
Vanessa finds out if she's got the right stuff to be a motorcycle daredevil, when she helps a daredevil pass through a gap where an explosion will occur. Tyler also tests his driving skills when he takes the very fast and brand new Slide Machine for a spin!
Tyler hunts down the ghosts haunting the USS Homet ship and he was also able to visit a real house of bug horrors to discover how the poisonous venom from a tarantula can help medical science. Vanessa gets all made up as a zombie creature and tries to scare the kids at the Thrillvania theme park in Texas.
Tyler takes a breakdancing lesson , learning how to produce those amazing moves. Vanessa get some real-life training in fixing broken bones when she hangs out with an orthopedic surgeon, she had a chance to break a bone on a real human skeleton and watch the delicate operation of re-setting it. Tyler also gets medical this week when he joins the team of doctors tuning up super athletes for a triathlon race.
Vanessa goes to see and find out information about the largest species of octopus in the world while Elisha watches as a frozen frog gets a new lease on life. Tyler worms his way into a special farm for the creepy crawlers and finds out why they really are a fisherman's best friend.
Vanessa searches through New York City's garbage dump looking for something very special that she accidentally threw away. Tyler also gets his hands dirty when he takes a romp with rhinoceros to find out if he has to do to become a zookeeper. Vanessa holds her nose to discover how fish get from the ocean floor to our dinner tables when she visits a very stinky fish-gutting factory.
Tyler takes a dive with the dolphins off the Florida coast and then heads back to dry land where he helps the doctors at Sea World nurse a sick turtle and manatee back to health. Vanessa has a whale of a time with the humpbacks off the coast of Newfoundland and finds out what blubber tells us about the largest animal on the planet.
They are Awesome Amusements! The team travel to Universal Studios: Islands of Adventure, in Florida to discover what makes this giant theme park so great. Elisha buckles up for a ride in the gut-wrenching Incredible Hulk Coaster while Tyler gets drenched in Poseidon's Fury when he walks through a forty foot tunnel containing thousands of gallons of water and enters the underworld where a battle of Poseidon and Zeus began. Then, he heads to the Triceratops Encounter and learns how advances technology makes the dinosaur come alive.
Tyler holds his breath for a class at the underwater acting school, while Vanessa gets the lowdown on high-tech protection at a school for bodyguards. Then, she goes over to a school in Nevada where she learns the awesome power of the mammoth land vehicle called a Hummer.
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