MythBusters
JATO Car, Pop Rocks (Pilot 1)
TV Flash files “JATO Car, Pop Rocks (Pilot 1)” as a desk essential hour — MythBusters (2003–2016) on Discovery, season 1, episode 1, aired 2003-01-23, 47 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S01E01: listed hour 1 of 273 in the MythBusters guide, first listed hour of season 1. It aired 2003-01-23 (47 min). No earlier hour is listed in this guide. Next is “Stuck on You, Biscuit Bullet, Falling Lawyer (Pilot 2)” (S01E02).
Essential hour: “JATO Car, Pop Rocks (Pilot 1)”. JATO Car, Pop Rocks (Pilot 1) treats urban legend like a lab assignment: Jamie and Adam detonating the hypothesis for the cheap seats, STEM as showbiz.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Episode 1- "Jet-Assisted Chevy" (Pilot #1) Myths tested: Can a 1967 Chevy take off with JATO rockets, like in the tale of the JATO Rocket Car? Can Pop Rocks and soda, when eaten simultaneously, cause the eater's stomach to rupture? The story of the jet-assisted Chevy goes like this. The Arizona Highway Patrol stumbled across a blackened crater in the side of a mountain at the end of a long stretch of desert road. After an investigation, they learned that an Air Force sergeant from a nearby military base had attached a rocket-assisted takeoff unit to the roof of a 1967 Chevy Impala. He got up to about 80 mph, and then fired the things off. Within seconds the car was traveling at 350 mph. The crater was found in the mountainside 100 feet off the ground. Who do you think will be the "dummy" to test this myth? The Pop Rocks and soda legend concerns a boy known as little Mikey, who was featured in commercials for Life cereal. Some years later, Mikey was challenged by his friends to eat six packs of Pop Rocks candy with six cans of soda. According to the myth, the carbon dioxide in the candy combined with the carbon dioxide in the soda to create so much pressure that Mikey's stomach exploded and he died. Our MythBusters risk their lives for you, the viewer, in these two death-defying experiments.
Viewer FAQ
Where does JATO Car, Pop Rocks (Pilot 1) sit in the MythBusters guide?
S01E01 is listed hour 1 of 273 — first listed hour of season 1, season 1 episode 1.
When did MythBusters S01E01 air?
JATO Car, Pop Rocks (Pilot 1) aired 2003-01-23 and is listed at 47 minutes.
Is MythBusters just explosions?
Explosions for the cheap seats after the hypothesis. Special-effects experts treating urban legends as lab assignments — confirmed or busted as the ritual.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage treat urban legends like lab assignments, then detonate the hypothesis for the cheap seats. MythBusters made STEM mass entertainment: goggles, build-team chaos, and the confirmed-or-busted verdict ritual that turned method into a good time.
Someone on that lot said blow something up for the cheap seats, and then they did it with a hypothesis. Peter Rees's MythBusters (2003–2016) put Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage on Discovery as a global science-popularization hit: special-effects experts testing urban legends and movie physics, Kari Byron, Tory Belleci, Grant Imahara on the build team, goggles as the carpet look, confirmed-or-busted as the verdict ritual. Education as entertainment. STEM as mass-market catchphrase culture. Twenty seasons in this…
Filed against
- Jamie Hyneman as Host
Jamie Hyneman hosted MythBusters like a lab assignment with a blast radius — urban legends detonated for the cheap seats, STEM as mass entertainment, goggles and a confirmed-or-busted verdict ritual. 2000s method as a good time. TV Flash…
- Adam Savage as Host
Adam Savage co-hosted MythBusters as if urban legends were lab assignments — then detonated the hypothesis for the cheap seats. Jamie Hyneman’s opposite number, goggles, build-team chaos, confirmed-or-busted as a ritual that turned method…
- Kari Byron as Build Team
Kari Byron’s MythBusters Build Team turned urban legends into lab assignments — Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage detonating the hypothesis for the cheap seats, STEM as mass entertainment, goggles, chaos, confirmed-or-busted as ritual. Method…
- Tory Belleci as Build Team
Tory Belleci was MythBusters Build Team — goggles, chaos, and the confirmed-or-busted ritual that turned urban legends into lab assignments you could detonate for the cheap seats. Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage owned the hypothesis; the…
- Grant Imahara as Build Team
Grant Imahara built the chaos on MythBusters as Build Team — Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage detonating urban legends for the cheap seats, STEM as mass entertainment, goggles and a confirmed-or-busted verdict ritual. TV Flash files him as…