Discovery Channel Alaskan Bush People recap: The Wild Life special

Alaskan Bush People

Do the Alaskan Bush People get paid? We asked! Read our interview with the Brown family.

In a new special episode of Alaskan Bush People, titled “The Wild Life,” premiering Sunday, June 15, at 10pm ET/PT on Discovery Channel, the Brown family looks back at their adventures presented in the first four episodes. The family answers questions presented by viewers, discusses some of the show’s more controversial moments, and reveals some more details about them and their lifestyle. The special also includes deleted scenes and previously unseen footage.

Alaskan Bush People Season 1 Recaps: Episode 1 | Episode 2 | Episode 3 | Episode 4 | The Wild Life

Season 2 Recaps: Episode 1 | Episode 2Episode 3 | Episode 4Episode 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

Alaskan Bush People

Let us call this the episode in which the Browns tell you that everything you think is fake is not fake.

“The Wild Life” doesn’t waste time getting to the good stuff. It starts by addressing a lot of the questions viewers have had, particularly those posted on the show’s Facebook page. Is this family real? What’s with those accents? What’s with the cars? What’s with the glasses? Are these really all your kids? Isn’t it cruel to punch fish?

Whether or not you’re satisfied with the answers depends on your definition of “bush.” (What?) In the first episode, I was really quite surprised the Browns had an SUV. Can you really be that “bush” if you have an SUV? Then we see throughout the series that the Browns really aren’t all that self-sufficient, that they have to go running into town for stuff all the time, and they live off the land only to a certain degree. It’s not like they’re drilling and refining the gasoline that runs their SUV, chainsaws and generators. They’re still dependent on civilization, which is probably disappointing to a lot of viewers.

The biggest point I took away from this segment was how much show’s producers have really backed off the “government burned their cabin down” story. And now we find out that not even Billy is 100 percent certain the government torched their home that was built on public land. “My cabin burned and I wasn’t home,” Billy says. “That’s all I can say.” What’s always confused me is the timing of these events — how soon after the cabin burned did this film crew show up to document the family’s move north? What happened to the Browns during that time between the fire and the purchasing of the land in the Copper River Valley? Was this cabin even their primary residence? And was there even a fire at all, or was it just devised to create a premise for the Browns’ dramatic race against time and the elements to construct their new home before winter? You’re free to doubt all of these things, because the show has not adequately explained them.

As for Bear punching fish, I’ve no problem with it. Yeah, it looks and sounds funny, and that’s the point of it being on TV. But it’s really just a low-tech method of doing what most anglers do anywhere.

Viewers have asked about how the Browns have some pop-culture knowledge and have seen movies. Again, it’s probably not all that “bush” to be watching Darby O’Gill and the Little People on DVD (though it would explain why some of them sound a little like Sean Connery). They’re able to have electricity because, as Birdie says, “Anybody who lives in the bush has to have a generator.” Except for that one episode where they didn’t have a generator and had to barter with a dozen people to get one from a junkyard.

(I should mention how weird it is to see Birdie and Rainy interviewed in this special. They’ve barely said anything this entire series, but you put them together and stick a camera on them and they giggle and chatter like 12-year-old girls at a mall in 1986. I am freaked out by this.)

Which brings us to a deleted scene involving junkman Gale, he of the “violent personality.” Gale is even wackier than he was first portrayed, and I’m wondering why his best material ended up on the cutting-room floor. “I can vaguely recall having been a half of a star, a planet, a blade of grass, a pile of manure and a briar that grew out of that,” Gale says, perhaps trying to explain reincarnation and his past lives. Gale also believes in aliens. “I would go to another planet,” he says. “I haven’t done so well on this one, so …”

In another deleted scene, Billy hangs out with Cowboy Dean, who pulled out a few of his own teeth last night.  Cowboy Dean speaks in a language only intelligible to Gale’s alien friends.

We learn a little more about the mating habits of the Brown boys, which is all about making young women feel trapped and uncomfortable. Gabe charms the ladies with his “bush charisma” and ability to make people laugh sometimes, “not just with tickling.” Matt’s courtship ritual features juggling in front of women who just want to get their coffee and get the hell out of there. Bear just goes for it. “I like to dig in the dirt,” he tells a young lady held captive working behind the counter at some shop. “I like to start fires, too.” The flirtation then goes to the next level in a romantic interlude about the fat content of venison.

And then we get to the whole business of people shooting at the Browns and forcing them to abandon the cabin that they spent this whole series building. Billy talks about two other incidents, one in which someone busted their car windows and another in which some crazy guy came out to yell stuff at the film crew. There’s practically nothing else explained, and if you thought this incident was B.S., you’re now probably even more convinced that it’s B.S.

And you know what? Who cares? The Browns were happy to be forced off their land, because they didn’t even want to be there to begin with. So there! You just lost nine customers, Grizzly Pizza!

We learn a little more about Bear’s hunting techniques. “I like to stalk through the woods and hunt the deer,” he says. Bear doesn’t seem to have any firearms, though. My wife, who is far more perceptive than I, asks, “How does he kill the deer? Does he just run up and punch them?”

The Brown boys all wear watches, but none of them actually work. In fact, the Browns really don’t give a crap about specific dates and times. They were two and a half weeks late for Christmas. BABY JESUS WAS PISSED! They don’t even know their exact birthdays, only the seasons in which they occur. “When it gets close to summer, [unintelligible, unintelligible, start fires, climb trees, punch fish, unintelligible] … that’s my birthday I smell,” Bear says.

The Browns are then asked about some really stupid stuff that we in the Lower 48 wish we’d never learned about to begin with: selfies, manscaping, Justin Beaver [sic]. Bam delivers the most metal response to the manscaping question: “Is that when you build walls out of dead bodies? Like Spartans?”

Finally we get to the Browns’ sunken vessel incident that closed out the first four episodes of Alaskan Bush People. If you think this was staged to add drama to a reality TV show, then clearly you are a cynical, heartless bastard. The Browns lost everything in that boat, including the lovely poem Billy wrote for Ami and a treasured stuffed animal, both essential to the family’s survival. Like I said in the recap of that episode, whether or not you buy this depends on how much you’ve bought in to all the other stuff you’ve already seen. Some of you have bought into it so much that you’re willing to write a check to the family. Some of you think the only thing that holds water here is their boat.

It’s pretty safe to assume that Alaskan Bush People will be back on TV in some form, hence this “We Are Too Real!” special episode. My guess is you’re going to see more of a focus on stuff like the Browns encountering wacky Alaskans like Gale, Cowboy Dean, Animal Dave and Insane Duane (R.I.P). You’re also going to get more of the Browns behaving weirdly with cityfolk in awkward punching-fish-out-of water scenarios that just occur naturally without being staged for a TV show. It’s going to be less of a show about a family surviving off the grid in an unforgiving land and more about backwoods folks doing and saying funny stuff to amuse us. If you think this show is absurd now, just wait.

Regardless, the interest in the Browns went way beyond what I expected when I first saw and recapped the show. It’s rare to find a show that so passionately polarizes an audience, but Alaskan Bush People has done it. It’s been fun doing these recaps, and I’ll continue to do them when the show returns. I’ve also enjoyed reading your comments and contributions to them, so thanks for joining in.

Now I’m going to call Verizon to see if they’ll accept 20 pounds of trout in exchange for a wireless data plan.

Alaskan Bush People

22 Comments

  1. I know this family personally and discovery channel has glorified a real piece of %&$@ family that is druggies and losers and have been kicked out of every place they’ve lived and aren’t from Alaska. Sad you guys don’t know the truth!!!!!!!! Losers,especially matt brown

  2. I wanna go live with the Brown’s so I can learn how to live like they do. I ain’t joking I think it’s cool as hell. If somebody knows how to get throught to discovery channel I’d love to find out how I can learn from theses people. I don’t care if I’m on tv or not. I just wanna live completely wild.

  3. I would like to know how to get a dvd of these episodes and if there will be a follow-up on how
    the Brown family progressed after the boat sank and what they are all doing now.
    have any of the chyildren married and had families?

    Please let us know.

  4. I and my husband loved watching this show. It is interesting to see how people decide to live and how they put up with life like this. I really admire their strength through the difficulties in many situations.
    I hope they will pop up on tv again!!!

  5. Read Billy browns book One wave at a time, Only then will you really get a reality check of who the browns are If you don’t read the book then you have no business commenting. What did people think that the show was going to see people in animal skins living in a cave and rubbing two sticks together? If so the government would come in and arrest them.
    The browns have no idea what the film crew is doing except when their about to film. They are now stranded in civilization trying to earn enough money to buy another boat, doing odd jobs and living crammed in a tiny house. They long to get back out into the wilderness as that lifestyle is where they belong.
    many Alaskans live the way they do but rarely do you run across such a tightly knit family. They are as real as it gets ,Hopefully they earn enough to get back to the wilderness as city life with all its constraints that we all live with is a real burden on them. Alaska is one state that you still can live very rural and have enough wildlife, fish- crabs-shrimp-deer- etc to eat. The feds have taken over Alaska with forest cops( as we call them) crawling through the woods to harass subsistence folks. God bless the browns and their bond as a true miracle unlike the city dwelling broken fatherless families that infest the U.S.A. oh yes Alaska is the highest welfare state because the homeless will freeze to death. where Arizona you can live outside year round cooking a rat on a spit. Its a whole different world here with a set of problems unlike anywhere else. So do your homework before you condemn the browns.

  6. Look at the generator that they saw in the junk yard,,,,then watch close, they had a brand new Honda generator !!!!! Not even close to the one at the junk yard !!!!

  7. Serisouly people wake up this show is phony. Billy bryan brown is a published author. Look at his families website alaskan bush. They dont do this crap. They live in a big house with their own rooms hell even rainy has barbies and pets her room is like any teen girls tbats even on their website.2009 they went all over the lower states doing book signings and tenessee to sign a movie contract . They have their own website theyre own publishing company facebook youtube posting…. . Sure maybe they did some bush living t one time but what commercial fisherman is going to be in the bush when they need to be by theyre boat to make a living. Not a damn single one of them i know this from experience as i was a commercial fisherman for years. As for the show its self when they set up camp they have all brand new chainsaws axes shovels and a handsaw that the paint isnt even scratched. Or how about the brand new oil lantern that the paint isnt even charred. As for the boat there is a picture of them younger on the exact same boat.you people should wake up no bushman is going to wear a bikers leather jacket in the freezing cold….. you would freeze to death.. bartering and selling fish and wildlife is illegal and a jailable offence. Not to ment hunting and fishing out of season thats called poaching the family are oprotunists that will cash in on every nickle they can sucker people on. But hey thats reality tv for you. Get on tv with a idea sold to some exctutive. Then get paid to do all these tours everywhere to sell the script and phony ideas . Real bush people are apalled at this farce. Discoveries reality shows are equal if not worse then the crap they try to sell you on mtv. As for goverment burning their house guess what after ten years on a homestead on crown land is called a homestead free and legal goverment would have sent pice to remove them not burn it down. Shame on society for falling for the fakeness tv is ..reality tv is about what they think you want to see. Wale up smell the coffee dont believe everything you see on tv. If you want to help people with money and food and clothes just look iin your own town or city kids are starving right out your own front door

    • What is wrong with you? What’s the proof this is phoney ? It sounds like your a bitter jealous person about the brown family . Quit being a hater on this family. U must be rich.

  8. Please do not take this show off so much of tv is not worth watching this is a good no sex an cursing an it is taken off. Bring them back!!!!!!!!!!!

  9. I happen to like this show quite a bit, real or not, it’s nice to see a family work together and to learn a few things about being in the wild. My family and I like to camp in the primitive camp sites, so this is neat to see the different ideas for things. I hope that they have more episodes of this show.

  10. I and many more would like to see more !! I think these people r tough and good people! They don’t ask for anything and not living off of welfare like many do! They take care of there own that’s more than I can say about most. And it’s a better watch than any Kardashian…lol . Wish I could join you guys..good luck to the Brown family from the Lambert family!!!!

  11. No money but build a home with no access to water then drive 60 miles to get 20 gallons of water. Not sure if I’m the bigger idiot for watching it

  12. Real or Fake…what couldn’t be faked was the love this family has for one another, the respect the young people show their parents, and the blessedly refreshing lack of foul language! Thank you Brown’s.

  13. I liked this show. It’s fun trying to guess where reality bleeds away into the cold Alaskan night. Surely they caught some fish and spent a few nights in the cold. Maybe they were really just building a summer cabin in the north. Maybe half the boys got drunk one night and were shooting at Big Foot and the other half thought it was angry neighbors. Who knows? Who cares, it’s still fun.

  14. Wow, is it really possible that there are so many gullible people out there that believe this BS? Most people don’t believe in fairy tales anymore after they reach a certain age. Answer this….where is Bird keeping her many pets while the family “suffers” so many mishaps? According to the Brown’s website, she has 3 cats, 2 dogs, a squirrel, a frog and turtles and “her room” is the typical teenager’s room. ……Some idiots even want to send money to a family that has a nice large home and isn’t lacking for anything. It was really amusing and pretty good comedy to see them back peddling on the last show, yet they didn’t mention that Jason Hoke, an economic development director and next door neighbor to the Browns while they built the cabin on the adjacent 5 acre tract of land, fired 2 or 3 fireworks rockets in the air to get the helicopter with the film crew to quit flying directly over their home and frightening his children. There were NO shots fired at anyone and the fireworks rockets were also not aimed at the helicopter or to hurt anyone. Mr. Hoke was charged a $500 civil penalty for discharging the fireworks. BTW, this 5 acre parcel of land (paid for by Discovery?) is just a few yards from Robinson R44, a paved highway I suggest that some of you read the Alaska Dispatch article that reported on the incident. In the meantime, try watching something other than the phony reality shows. The only real show on Alaska is the Alaska State Troopers. The rest of them, including the dummy Sarah Palin’s short lived baloney show, is a phoney as it gets.

    • Yeah, I was going to give an Alaskan perspective as well but you did a pretty good job. Yup pay a bill with warm half rotten humpies. Why couldn’t they stay on the road system instead of coming back to southeast . TAke them back please we have enough kooks

  15. I loved the show, Alaskan Bush People! I loved the scenery, I loved the family and the way they worked together to make their way of life work! So many families today are seperated by school activities, work and even distance so it is very nice to see a family united and working together to preserve their beliefs and traditions. I also loved the fact that they were not afraid to bring God and their beliefs into the show. Good job Discovery Channel!

  16. Stupid discovery channel failed me on this one. Not because I didn’t like it, but because I didn’t see it. I set it to record on the DVR but when “the wild life” was first scheduled to air according to the cable guide, it instead playes, Alaska the great frontier. I was sad to miss the episode and can’t find it anywhere online to watch. This strange family has really made me eager to see more. Hope I get to watch this episode soon.

  17. I loved the latest bush people. It makes you feel good and the hour show flies by and when its over you want more. I want more!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Do not make me come after you!!!!!!!!!!!!! When its makes you feel good who cares if its all really real. That suv as you car it is a piece of crap. Do want to go in a spin in it. Hell no you might get some fish guts on your fancy cloths. Also it come in a optional white garbage bag rear window. Just remember this we want moreeeeeeeeeee of the brownnnnnnnnnnnn soon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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About Ryan Berenz 2166 Articles
Member of the Television Critics Association. Charter member of the Ancient and Mystic Society of No Homers. Squire of the Ancient & Benevolent Order of the Lynx, Lodge 49, Long Beach, Calif. Costco Wholesale Gold Star Member since 2011.