How theExpedition Unknownhost became every dads favorite reality-TV star.
Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
Everest, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay.
But shes raising money to build that.
The U.S. government took the skull away from Nicolas Cage, Garriott says.
Gates fits neither description.
His screen energy is more likeMike Rowe, the affable frontman of DiscoverysDirty Jobs, or Scottish mountaineerCameron McNeish.
He could be your genial uncle the one who was heartbroken whenNational Geographicceased putting its print edition on newsstands.
When hes huddled with an expert translating a scroll or ancient map, hes blurting out Thatsamazing!
and grinning like a kid looking at his birthday cake.
In the end, Gates knows hes not going to solve the disappearance of D.B.
Cooper or conclusively determine if the Yeti is real.
Its adventure with more chuckles than screams, just the way Steven Spielberg liked it.
Theres something about seeing your host, your Everyman, out there.
Theres a Schadenfreude thing where people want to see you as a real person, Gates explains.
One of the things I think people forget about Indiana Jones is that sometimes he misses the ledge.
But Gates and his crew usually findsomethingwhen they visit a ruin or tomb.
I do think its important that there are moments of discovery, Gates says.
And sometimes they are big moments.
Weve been there to discover entire pyramid complexes and platforms that nobodys seen in centuries.
Because its an unscripted show, the humor is always ad-libbed.
You have to really have a good internal barometer.
My dad was always going away to what seemed to me like very exotic places.
Two million viewers regularly tuned in to the shows third season, a series high.
(He sometimes wears a brown leather fedora and scarf like Indy, too.)
But then they go, Is that true?
Thats all you’ve got the option to hope for in life.
We filmed the first month in a makeshift studio we made in my bedroom.
If Im doing that even a little, Im thrilled.
Not every planned adventure works out.
He picks up the framed original of Roosevelts software for membership.
Its a very special thing.
But Gatess attention keeps returning to a large wooden crate on the library floor.
Inspection of the label confirms its the repatriated Nicolas Cage T-rex skull thats supposed to be opened later tonight.
I leave him an unsatisfied man.
The caption reads, Richard Garriott found a screw gun.
