Ancient
Aliens is an American television series that premiered on April 20, 2010, on
the History channel. Produced by Prometheus Entertainment in a documentary
style, the program presents hypotheses of ancient astronauts and proposes that
historical texts, archaeology, and legends contain evidence of past
human-extraterrestrial contact. The show has been criticized for presenting
pseudoscience and pseudohistory.
The
series' de facto pilot was a TV special of the same name that aired on March 8,
2009, on the History channel. Seasons 1–3 aired on the same channel until 2011.
From season 4 to the middle of season 7, the series aired on H2. On April 10,
2015, episode premieres returned to History.
Reviewers
have characterized the show as "far-fetched" "hugely
speculative", and "...expounding wildly on theories suggesting that
astronauts wandered the Earth freely in ancient times."[24] Many of the
ideas presented in the show are not accepted by the scientific community, and
have been criticized as pseudoscience and pseudohistory. History professor
Ronald H. Fritze observed that pseudoscience as offered by von Däniken and the
Ancient Aliens program has a periodic popularity in the US: "In a pop
culture with a short memory and a voracious appetite, aliens and pyramids and
lost civilizations are recycled like fashions."
Forbes.com
contributor Brad Lockwood criticized Ancient Aliens as an example of the
History Channel's addition of "programs devoted to monsters, aliens, and
conspiracies", commenting that, "Ancient Aliens defies all ability to
suspend disbelief for the sake of entertainment." Forbes.com staff writer
Alex Knapp also criticized the series and cited archaeologist Keith
Fitzpatrick-Matthews' rebuke of the History Channel for "treating (Ancient
Aliens) nonsense as though it were fact."
Smithsonian.com
science writer Brian Switek was extremely critical of the series, particularly
an episode that suggested "aliens exterminated dinosaurs to make way for
our species." He characterized the show as "some of the most noxious
sludge in television’s bottomless chum bucket.
Others
have called attention to a paucity of opposing viewpoints. Kenneth Feder,
Professor of Archaeology at Central Connecticut State University and author of
Frauds, Myths, and Mysteries: Science and Pseudoscience in Archaeology, has
said that he was approached by Ancient Aliens producers regarding his potential
participation. "My response was, I’d be happy to be on your show, but you
should know that I think that the ancient astronaut hypothesis is execrable
bullshit," he said, in an interview. "I haven’t heard back from them,
rather remarkably. So, I guess maybe they’re not interested in the other point
of view."
