Bloopers for the Holidays (Part 1)

With the release of each new TV series, we collect our favorite bloopers and wrap them up in a goofy little video package. We’ve posted this batch of the-camera’s-rolling screw-ups to brighten your holiday just a little bit and to share some of the fun we had while filming our latest season.

In reviewing these, I notice how I struggle to remember my lines, how we work hard to get just the right light (often in the last 30 minutes before sundown), how we scout just the right spot for “on-cameras” (like in the mud of the Venetian lagoon), how I’m determined to include the heavy history, and how I can hardly contain myself when it all comes together (like sitting in Casanova’s prison cell).

These clips also remind me how thrilling it is to be all alone in great places (like in Florentine palaces and with Monet’s water lilies)…and how we have no control over who veers into our shot. It seems we’re always dealing with limited time — either how long we’re allowed in a place, or how long we’ll have the good light. Many of the actual on-camera lines are crafted right there on the spot, when we better understand what we will have in the program (and with time running out). And another big concern is helping those making guest appearances on camera with me to be loose and have fun. I love to get other voices in on the program.

We have fun ongoing jokes with our crew. For a decade, I’ve been trying to sneak in my various favorite little factoids. For example, years ago I was told that the word “barbarian” comes from the Roman notion that non-Romans were little more than animals with a language that sounded that way: “bar bar bar bar.” But my crew always outvotes me on the veracity of that notion.

Anyway, enjoy these little bloopers as you enter into what I hope is a very happy holiday season for you and your family.

If you can’t see the video below, watch it on YouTube.

Comments

4 Replies to “Bloopers for the Holidays (Part 1)”

  1. On the new Brit episode I thought I heard Rick acknowledge the heroism of the RAF in 1944. The Battle of Britain was of course in 1940, but then maybe I just mis-heard. It really doesn’t matter, with these shows being by far the best travel TV that have ever been taped. Keep up the good work, Rick, bloopers and all.

  2. The comment about the origins of the word barbarian are almost correct. Its actually a Greek word/notion. Some say it came from Greek attempts to understand the Phoenicians, but that isn’t certain. Other say it comes from Greek contacts with the indiginous tribes of North Africa, the Berbers, but that too is not a certain derivation. What is certain is that it’s a Greek word.

  3. S, you are correct Barbarian is what the Greeks called people who didn’t speak Greek…Rick did write this in a blog when he went on the Greece tour…Rick being Rick…I wish he would correct his first Rome show this season to correctly reflect the “Boxer Statue”, which was brutally realistic…the Greeks did many realistic statues, and besides…the best artists in Rome were Greeks or Romans who were taught by Greeks…

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