"If you can’t wait that long to see your home state on cable again, check out "Mounted in Alaska," a new History channel reality series about Knight’s Taxidermy shop in Anchorage.
The show debuts on April 7 and yes, that is the real title. (Picture the bumper stickers.)

From the History announcement:

“There's no job too challenging for (owner Russell Knight) to tackle. From mounting a charging warthog so that it's busting through a wall in one client's home to creating the world's first camel form to the complete restoration of an historic 50-year-old polar bear that's an Alaskan landmark ...”

Link

What, no flamers yet? (I just like to see what's on the walls behind the "show".) Next to y'all's work these guys are kinda shabby, IMHO.

that poor, poor lion!

well Ive watched two nights (4 seperate shows) of this now, and while some of the dialogue and staff/customer interaction maybe seems a bit "scripted" and the time line completion for the mounts seems a bit unrealistic (to short compared to taxidermy work Ive had done on personnel trophies over the years) it has been sorta interesting to watch. The one show I saw where they did the one guys whitetail deer with its back legs still over a fence it was jumping looked pretty cool to me after thy had it up on the owners wall. Like anything we see on the TV, have to take it all with a grain or two of salt (believeability), but as long as this is on and I can remember to watch it on Thus nights, I'll keep seeing what these guys can create.

I have tried to give this show a chance, but I finally have to say it is aweful, unrealistic, made for TV garbage. Nothing on there helps hunters, or taxidermists alike. The "competition" was a real eyeopener.

Compared to 90% of the stuff on TV it is intereting, entertaining and a touch of information I may not have known. Oh and it is pro hunting!

only eclipsed, for the moment , by people buying storage units, whats next?, people in a park waiting for a public restroom?

I have watched a couple of the shows and the boss is it Russ, should keep his mouth shut about African animials. The Zulu nation and the Lord Derby Eland are about as close to each other as the Seminole Indians and Yukon. The work is no better than my taxidermists both Russ Oneal and Marcus Zimmerman in fact they couldn't hold a candle to Marcus. My Thar is so much better job than theirs, also my Leopard is better.

I owned a taxidermy shop for several years, was nationally certified, and won numerous awards (NOT honorable mentions!). I'm raising a whole herd of BS flags on this show!!! It's total c**p - much like the full body leopard mount they did. That mount didn't even qualify high enough to be called "horrible"!

There is NO WAY you can start a mount (the stag mount) and expect it to be anywhere near ready for competition 3 days later. The fact that the mount is still wet would be a disqualification.

I'm done with it.

Just my $ .02 worth . . . adjusted, of course for inflation.

JDS

Just watched it again and again, Russ should keep his mouth shut. Nyala is a Zulu name not Kisawahili. He really doesn't know much about Africa. I am not a taxidermist but have paid taxidermist a bit of money probably now in the 6 figures for very close and I would have had him do two mounts for me first and last all at once.

I've tried watching it twice now and after the last show, just can't watch another.

I too think the whole show is unrealistic, and too many new hunters are going to unrealistic expectations from any taxidermist they go to. I think that leopard mount was pathetic and I agree, there's no way a red stag mount is going to be done in three days!

But that's just my take on it...

Might not be a great show but there are a lot worse shows for sure. I agree on the timing and stuff but it is TV. I would rather watch a half hour of that show than a fishing show or parking wars or American Idol but that is just me.

I've watched three episodes and will probably not watch any more. I really wanted to like the show, but it appears to be staged, and quite poorly so, and the mounts are just not very good in my opinion. I saw their self proclaimed "cat man" mount a lion and a leopard and both, in my opinion, were horrible. I see much better taxidermy every day on these pages.

I love how he announces in the beginning of his show he has assembled the finest group of taxidermists in the world. Isn't there an FCC for this sort of stuff?

quote:

Originally posted by smarterthanu:
I love how he announces in the beginning of his show he has assembled the finest group of taxidermists in the world. Isn't there an FCC for this sort of stuff?

The FCC is just another useless federal agency. They're kind of like the EPA and the BATF.

I like the show. Taxidermist are rarely depicted in a good light on tv or in the movies. Here they are seemingly normal people. The show is tv and edited for time. They seem to only show tanned skins and never go in the skinning room which is probably good, they are trying to appeal to a large audiance. This show is very pro hunting and I like that. Not enough of this on TV. I like it! I hope it last for many seasons.

I saw the episode last week where they were fixing the polar bear's nose. I liked the bear before the "fix" even with the hair loss.

And the lion, oh my!!!

I had some work done by one of those featured on the show. It was a simple shoulder mount hog...It was the 7th or 8th I've had done over the years. The work was nice but unimpressive and much more expensive as compared to other hogs I've had done that looked more natural.

My biggest complaint was the "fluffing" of the bristles and the plastic jaw parts (I asked for composite tusks to match the natural tusks) ....the work was fine...just unimpressive.

Won't use them again for my nilgai, scim oryx and full mount javelina.....

quote:

Originally posted by Doug Pisano:
I had some work done by one of those featured on the show. It was a simple shoulder mount hog...It was the 7th or 8th I've had done over the years. The work was nice but unimpressive and much more expensive as compared to other hogs I've had done that looked more natural.

My biggest complaint was the "fluffing" of the bristles and the plastic jaw parts (I asked for composite tusks to match the natural tusks) ....the work was fine...just unimpressive.

Won't use them again for my nilgai, scim oryx and full mount javelina.....

Did you ship stuff to Alaska to have it done at Knight's while living in Massachusetts? In all due respect that doesn't make much sense to me. They do average work. They did my Brown Bear. My Africa stuff is getting dome in Abilene.

Hey Frost,

I didn't...on the original show there were three taxidermists featured....I used the one from CT.

quote:

Originally posted by wyoske:
only eclipsed, for the moment , by people buying storage units, whats next?, people in a park waiting for a public restroom?

Smelliest Job: Extreme Garbagemen. Coming soon to a idiot box near you...

My comment from the "Mounted in Alaska" thread in the Alaska Forum:

quote:

I watched this show a couple of nights ago, it was actually a couple of episodes, first was a Lord Derby Eland and a Tahr, the next was a Red Stag and a leopard. What a joke and complete misrepresentation of the work and effort that goes into the Art of taxidermy. I feel for taxidermist who have to deal with these misinformed jerk offs now. And the work was horrendous. The LDE and the stag were lower end production work, the tahr and the leopard were a travesty. I do not know who is more incompetent, the shitty taxidermists or the owner for allowing that crap to be paraded in front of the masses.

Doug...you are talking about another show. There are two new ones. I can't say I am impressed with either one.

Hi Bob...I think you are right...I haven't been watching the one about the shop in Alaska...I've kinda had enough of the reality thing...between the pawn guys and the pickers and crab and swordfish fishers and the ghost hunters....oh man....a hundred channels and nothing to watch....

I still watch the show and don't think it is that bad but I am really unimpressed with their cat mounts. Some taxidermists struggle with cats and the cat expert struggles in my opinion. In response to him saying he has assembled the finest group of taxidermists around, what else is he supposed to say; they are terrible? I think every owner of a business would say he has the best of the best even when he knows it is not true. I hope the show stays around but I definitely would not want anything mounted by them due to quality and cost.

quote:

I think every owner of a business would say he has the best of the best even when he knows it is not true.

Nope.

quote:

I've kinda had enough of the reality thing

Doug-I am with you........

I am with you guys on the un-reality shows. Never did like them to tell you the truth. Now that every network sees it as a way to get ratings for little money we are drowning in them.

Sad thing is I have been in knights several times over the last 12 years or so. The guys are really nice and are neither as untalented or as stupid as the show portrays them. They can do alot of nice stuff if allowed to work like normal. That also means sticking to what they are good at. It isnt cats. Cats are the most difficult animal to get the eyes and face to look real IMHO. Very few taxidermists get it perfect.

I am also not a fan of what looked like an over stuffed kids animal (the camel) to me. I cant quite put my finger on why I didnt like it, but I didnt.

Last I hate all the scripted drama and bullshit tension that is made up to sell the show. You all know what I mean so no sense going into detail. Oh and they make it look like just about every customer sends them the critters already tanned. What is that all about? Ok, enough of my rant, someone elses turn.

I'm not a taxidermist, so I don't know the inner-workings of a shop well enough to sniff out some of the issues a few of you have pointed out. I do, however, love seeing a show on main stream TV in which a hunter walks in, proudly shows off a trophy animal, shares a few details of the hunt, and is congratulated for it. I know it seems a little fake and made-for-TV-ish, but I for one will keep watching. We need more shows that celebrate our sport.