Do the Alaskan Bush People get paid? We asked! Read our interview with the Brown family.
On Tuesday, May 6, at 10pm ET/PT, Discovery Channel introduces new reality series Alaskan Bush People, which follows the nine-member Brown family as they journey 1,500 north in the Alaskan wilderness to build a one-room cabin on their new land before the winter and the darkness bring cold and death.
RELATED: What happened to Discovery Channel’s Alaskan Bush People?
Alaskan Bush People Season 1 Recaps: Episode 1 | Episode 2 | Episode 3 | Episode 4 | The Wild Life
Season 2 Recaps: Episode 1 | Episode 2 | Episode 3 | Episode 4 | Episode 5 | Episode 6 | Episode 7 | Episode 8 | Wild Times | Episode 9 | Episode 10 | Episode 11 | Episode 12 | Episode 13 | Episode 14 | SHARK WEEK! | Episode 15 | Episode 16 | Lost Footage | The Wild Year
Now, when I was first told about the premise of Alaskan Bush People, I was expecting perhaps a depiction of some authentic Inuit culture or something. But this is a Discovery Channel reality show, so instead, the Brown family is more like those stoners you knew in high school, though far, far more motivated and industrious.
The patriarch is Billy Brown, who with his wife, Ami, has seven kids. The first five are boys (I’ll get to them in a bit). Billy and Ami chose to live in the Alaskan wilderness, and they’ve raised their family in a remote cabin, which, unfortunately, was built on public land and burned to the ground by the government. Harsh.
So the family is looking for a new homestead, and they’ve purchased some cheap land even more in the middle of nowhere than their previous land in the middle of nowhere. They pack up the SUV and a trailer and head from Ketchikan or thereabouts 1,500 miles north to near Chitina or thereabouts.
Now, about the boys. They’re the real color of the show. The one called Bear appears to be the most interesting. He’s EXTREME! He runs everywhere. He climbs trees … to the TOP! “One of my main skills is my extremeness, actually,” he boasts. He’s sort of like a hybrid of snowboarder Shaun White and Saturday Night Live‘s Mr. Peepers. The oldest son is Matt, who says, “Fishing is both my best quality and one of my worst flaws.” (Oh, the paradox that is fishing!) Gabe is the strong-backed, weak-minded one. The boy is an ox. “On a strength level, how strong I am would be pretty darn strong,” he says, unable to numerically quantify things. Noah is the MacGyver of the bunch, and can fix anything. Anything, that is, except his bum ankle that makes him all gimpy. Bam Bam (his grandpappy liked The Flintstones) is the bespectacled one and he seems to have managerial skills that may someday allow him to work in the one Arby’s location in Alaska.
On the route to Chitina, the trailer blows a tire, which stops their journey (and just grinds this whole TV series to a halt after 10 whole minutes). So they haul the SUV into the nearest area inhabited by humans to get a comparably sized tire, leaving two of the boys behind to build a fire and defend the trailer against a distant, disinterested moose. “The sun is literally falling,” says Bear, whose extremeness is figuratively boundless. Hours later, the rest of the family returns with the replacement tire, which is just a tad too big and requires someone to bend the hell out of the fender to install. Nice work, MacGyver boy.
The family arrives at their land the following day, and they get to work building a temporary “trapper shack” that will give them shelter and protection at least through the night. The sun is literally falling and so are the temperatures, and the trapper shack is kind of half-assed and plastic covered. They’re leaving someone outside with a shotgun for “bear watch” shifts, while the rest of the family gets their sleeping arrangements set. This involves digging “hip holes” and “head holes” into the dirt. Take note, good people at Sealy.
Some of the boys have to go and “bury the meat” (stop laughing!). No, friends, this is literally burying the meat in the ground so it stays cold.
Construction continues the following day. Our dear narrator teases us with the promise of “a deadly mistake.” A tree falls and nearly takes out Bam Bam, but other than being pissed off at his brothers, he’s perfectly fine. The deadly mistake resulted in nothing. Already the show is lying to us.
With the trapper shack built, they can finally start working on the foundation of their permanent shack. But it turns out that the trees in the area ain’t no damned good and are too scrawny for cabin construction. Billy now needs lumber, and is forced to go into the nearest town, Chitina, to try and find someone with wood who is willing to barter. (BTW, everyone in these parts has guns, and they spend most of their free time shooting at street signs.)
Billy and one of the boys head to Uncle Tom’s Tavern, which looks like it might be the Mos Eisley of Alaska, and meet a few of the locals. Billy explains his situation. The locals laugh at him, telling him that it gets really cold out there and he’d better get his house built soon, because that’s the kind of local wit and wisdom you can only get at Uncle Tom’s Tavern in Chitina. The barkeep knows a lumber guy, but the lumber guy’s price is $10,000 (lumber guy has acting lessons to pay for). Billy barters with lumber guy, offering caribou and the indentured servitude of his five male offspring. Lumber guy eventually accepts, probably because the show’s producers told him to, and because the death of nine people is not something you want on your conscience.
And so, what do you think of Alaskan Bush People? Are the Browns rugged individualists or nutjobs? And, more importantly, do you care enough to keep watching this show to see if winter comes and they’re forced to eat the camera crew?
Photo: Credit: Discovery Channel
Oookay. First one has glasses were did they get the money to go to the eye Dr’s to get them. They have new guns and a trapper shack really..To me it looked like they were camping and no body living Alaska does not build a cabin in the middle of no were right before winter, They have nice clothes and are literate,if they really lived like this the state would step in and take the children. To much to list…sorry it is just not real.
I like this show so far lol, I can tell its scripted but all reality shows are now a day’s… Anything is better than that stupid show Naked and and alone. ( except for the camera crew,safety crew, make up crew, and Dr’s )
Discovery channel has been a joke ever since Gold Rush…The Hoffman crew has to be the dumbest group of people ever.. I mean how the hell did a dumb fat ass like like Todd Hoffman ever convince Discovery to do a reality show about him and his really really stupid dumb ass friends???? It’s UN freekin real hahahaa.
You’ve got to be kidding! What a bunch of drivel…
You expect people to believe this…9 in one room . Right …
Raised ” in the wild”
Never seen wild “bush people ” with cool glasses , haircuts and groomed brows ( guys and the daughter ) and jewelry( not home made)
Trying to build a ” cabin ” with saplings???
C’mon … Ridiculous.
Stupid accents …
No I won’t be watching . Id rather see the Kilchers or the alaskan bush pilots! Those guys can fly an airplane.
Debra
Ormond Beach , Florida
ThankGod that the self appointed judges and experts in fake reality shows took a break between Jersey Shore and Keeping up with Kardashians (both shows wel known for unfakeness erudition and a total lack of australian accent),and blessed us with their wise and expert advise.I rather watchtheese fake alaskans with autralian accent than Golden Globes or Oscars where the vanity, depravity, coarsness, envy, fakeness, ignorance and narcicism are in full parade.
Yes! What he said!
…
What did he say?
Alaskan Bush People has set a new (low) standard for stupidity. There is no saving grace in this, completely staged and cast excuse for a reality show. The boys have what sound like Australian accents while the parents have no accent. They claim to have been raised away from civilization with no neighbors. Where did the accents come from? And that is only the start of the stupidity. I generally am a fan of Alaska shows but will not watch this series.
Thith review ith complete bogith. You guyth are pithing me off. Get a life you idioths.
My uncle went to Alaska once and he said that this is what it is like. Well he didn’t actually go there but his friend wayne who died by being bited by a hephalump (bless his heart) told him that his wife’s sister went there and she died because the car that she was in crashed into a stump. But if you want to argue with my uncle i’ll even give you his phone number and then he will teach you. He told me that he knows everything and even ask him so i did and he said that he does. plus they don’t lie on TV shows because otherwise it would be fake. Duh
Leroy’s Uncle for President 2016
“Ask em and he’ll tell ya!”
If any of you idiots actually watched the show, they are named “Alaskan bush people” not because they are FROM Alaska, but because they CURRENTLY reside in Alaska. Hence, since they live in the Alaskan bush, they are Alaskan bush people. Wow.
Hard to picture the family as Alaskan Bush People. Interesting reviews about the show.
I watched the first episode, I’m done.
The show you are airing, Alaskan Bush People is so incredibly ridiculous! Honestly, where are these people from??? NO ONE in Alaska speaks like this or has this accent these people speak with! They sound like they are from Louisiana, Cajun or something!!!??? They are NOT from Alaska! They may have chosen to live in the wilds here, but they are not Alaskans. We are not this ludicrous! This show is stupid and portrays Real Alaskans as idiots. Shame on you for showing this kind of crap. If I lived in Chitina, I would run them out too…
you don’t even know the half of it guy.
then don’t watch it . nobody cares
Fake or not, I enjoy these kind of shows bacause it gives you an idea of how people live outside the norm of urban life. And yes they might have nice clothes on and have guns, maybe they got an advance from the producers.
we are not homeless we are camping but I still like the show real bush people have a hard life but who knows someday we all may be their
Warning: The previous post is best read outloud using your best Yoda voice.
These people aren’t Alaskan bush people. Bush people from somewhere maybe. Alaskans really aren’t that ridiculous. I’m from Valdez AK and have friends who live up in the area (right on the highway 25 miles from a hardware store/lumber yard) where they built their cabin. It’s about 90 miles north of Valdez and by no means is it the middle of nowhere. There’s a bar/pizza place right where they filmed it called Grizzly Pizza! So all you people who think this is real, IT’S NOT!! It’s Hollywood. And it’s embarrassing. There isn’t one shred of truth other than yes, it does get cold.
I completely agree… this show is stupid and an insult to real Alaskans. Shame on the Discovery Channel for showing such crap.
Get out much? Apparently not
Apparently so…
(since he is a real Alaskan)
I call BS on this show. First they all look too well dressed to to be scroungers. Where did they get the money for all of those guns, and how did they get all of the plastic they used to construct their temporary shelter. They have far more equipment then you can carry in an SUV considering it is full of people. How come they make so many references to pop culture.
I was hoping they’d sound more like Jodie Foster in Nell.
Chickabee….
Jeez Louise, they all have different accents. Had to look the show up on line to find out where they were from. New low in television.
I can think of many many shows that are worse. Anything regarding a storage unit for starters.
My husband and I just found our new favorite tv show! What a breath of fresh air. Not one cus word. A family that loves, protects and takes care of each other. Can’t wait to follow the Brown family on this new chapter in there lives. We can all learn a lot from this family. God has blessed each one of the them with a special and different gift to contribute to the family! Can’t wait for next weeks episode!
This show is complete manufactured garbage. Anything Discovery shows these days should be viewed with an eye toward disbelief.
Take “Bear” (guy who runs full speed everywhere like an idiot in area full of wildlife), seriously, if you grew up in the bush, you don’t boogie around like a 3 year old monkey. This is just one of the many red flags the show is putting up. This is what TV has devolved into. I weep for the future.
Ssshhh…
He isn’t running around like a monkey.
He is blessed and that is his special gift that we will all somehow learn a lesson from.
(Don’t ruin the show for Tracey, Discovery needs all the viewers they can find.)
Also all these dudes sound gay.
your name is gay
you guys are hilarious with your comments, cmon people its television, its something to do on a boring night, oh and believe me i got a kick out of mcgyver geneius noah trying to make voltage with an altenator just by turning it, uh noah you have to put 12 volts in to get anything out , and by out it i mean aproxx 13.5 volts which would not light a house light bulb! bahhhahhhahhhahh! good one!
I’m having trouble buying into this. Its pretty interesting I admit. I just don’t buy the fact that these kids were raised in the obscure Alaskan wilderness. For example the guys shooting shotguns look like they’ve never done it before. I would think people who gre up in the bush would look like theyve fired a shotgun once or twice. Getting rocked back by a 12 gauge is what happens to a beginner.
Real people? Real life? Real story?
All fake? I don’t care. I love these Alaskan Bush people and I can’t wait to see the next episode.
Way way way too Fake. Why the hell are they talking with what sounds like Australian accents . I watched the first one but I’m out
That sounds nothing like an Australian accident.