Nat Geo’s “Rocket City Rednecks” is backwoods brilliant

Comedian Jeff Foxworthy once lamented that whenever anybody heard his down-home Southern accent, they’d automatically deduct 100 IQ points.

Nat Geo’s new reality series Rocket City Rednecks, premiering Wednesday at 9pm, sets out to prove that tendency wrong, following second-generation Alabama rocket scientist Travis Taylor — who looks like actor Thomas Jane and sounds like Larry the Cable Guy — and his whiskey-loving band of buds and relatives as they combine their scientific know-how with good ol’ backwoods fun, sometimes creating genuinely useful stuff, sometimes not.

Why is the show as addictively tasty as a platter full of Southern-fried chicken? What other show will teach you how to make moonshine AND a rocket that is powered by it, all in the name of creating alternative fuels? And depriving Mom of new plumbing?

Or make you think hard about national unity during the creation of a homemade moon buggy (hint: sumo suits as conflict resolution)?

We give it two thumbs, one red neck and a million IQ points up!

2 Comments

  1. In a tornado, roofs blow off because a tornado is a low pressure event and the pressure is inside the structure (a door will blow outward). On the other hand, debris hitting the outside will cause inward stresses. In other words, it does not matter whether the door opens inward or outward because it must be able to withstand stress in both directions. The FEMA design includes three deadbolts – one at the top, one in the middle, and one at the bottom, and three heavy duty five-knuckle hinges all with appropriate reinforcement. The door is not going anywhere inward or outward.

  2. Your guys taught us how to build a tornado shelter with a door that swings in .Without a massive lock the door could be forced into the outhouse size space crushing the occupants. Brilliant!

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About Lori Acken 1195 Articles
Lori just hasn't been the same since "thirtysomething" and "Northern Exposure" went off the air.