Anyone watch Gem tv shows?? Gem Hunt? Game of Stones?

[psproot12]

There are quite a few reality TV shows that are trying to capitalize on names that sound like Game of Thrones, so it's easy to do!

I love Gem Hunt, and Game of Stones is entertaining but nothing and I mean nothing can touch Game of Thrones it is the single greatest piece of media to ever exist. A masterpiece in production, the cliffhanger ending (SPOILERS) at the end of last weeks S4E6 was stunning when Tyrion demands a trial by combat in which he plans to totally screw Tywinn over because if he dies Tywinn is left without a Lannister name and if he lives he is left with a dwarf son who he resents and a son in the kingsguard (this voids the deal Tywinn made with Jamie). I believe the champions will be Prince Oberynn Martel of Dorne and Ser Gregor Clegane (The Mountain) who will fight! The show is a masterpiece and although many shows rip off the name (Game of Stones, Game of Arms), none can compare to it's brilliance. Game of Thrones is the only thing I love more than all my other interests and hobbies combined! All men must die! Winter is coming! and I have to go to work!

 

[deskjockey]

To be blunt, the audience doesn't care if it's truthful, they only care that it is exciting and entertaining. Sad but true.

The director of a nonprofit I work with has been approached multiple times about doing a reality show. Knowing how they make everybody look crazy, she's said no each time even though it would probably bring us some very much needed funds. I'm always sort of amazed anybody agrees to go on a reality show at all. :/

Crazy people make the best TV. Except for maybe Mike Rowe from Dirty Jobs, pretty much everybody else you see on TV who is a good performer is 100% lunatic. Without doubt. We don't make them look crazy. They come that way. And where would we be without them? I have to be a connoisseur of crazy to succeed in my job.

Ha! This is true. We're pretty good connoisseurs of crazy too - the horse rescue world is like the dog show world on hallucinogens. We definitely encounter a lot of insanity on a regular basis. I think that's how the whole thing got started, she was telling some insane buyer stories to someone who knew a producer. heh.

 

[CraigMeade]

To be blunt, the audience doesn't care if it's truthful, they only care that it is exciting and entertaining. Sad but true.

The director of a nonprofit I work with has been approached multiple times about doing a reality show. Knowing how they make everybody look crazy, she's said no each time even though it would probably bring us some very much needed funds. I'm always sort of amazed anybody agrees to go on a reality show at all. :/

Crazy people make the best TV. Except for maybe Mike Rowe from Dirty Jobs, pretty much everybody else you see on TV who is a good performer is 100% lunatic. Without doubt. We don't make them look crazy. They come that way. And where would we be without them? I have to be a connoisseur of crazy to succeed in my job.

Ha! This is true. We're pretty good connoisseurs of crazy too - the horse rescue world is like the dog show world on hallucinogens. We definitely encounter a lot of insanity on a regular basis. I think that's how the whole thing got started, she was telling some insane buyer stories to someone who knew a producer. heh.

Like.

 

[gemandjewelrylover]

No, psproot, sorry, I was not writing about you -- just people in general. Didn't mean it to sound pointed at you, I apologize. I do disagree about Gem Hunt, though -- it was so unlikely & hokey, I kept bursting into laughter while watching it. I read online that Ron is actually a bartender in Toronto, don't know if that's true, but he doesn't show any more knowledge of gems than if he were. The one about the emeralds in Colombia gave me a big fat hoot -- guns & dangerous banditos all over & they sashay in flashing dollars. Mr. Colombian Capone puts a pile of cut emeralds on the table; they slide them back & forth on the tabletop -- if they'd been genuine & not glass, they would have been irreparably scratched. And nobody can afford to go halfway around the world & buy ONE stone only, unless he found the Hope Diamond every single trip. The chick does not make purses in real life. I could go on -- if it's fun to watch, that's great. But keep in mind that it's fiction.

--- Laurie

He's not a bartender, he owns a bar. And it's not that fake, I mean ask Craig he worked on the show. They definitely weren't dealing with glass emeralds. Maybe they used glass for the shot, but he definitely is buying some real stones, and they usually make 5-10k profit per trip after expenses. Does that mean none of the situations are contrived? No, but there is definite gap between complete fiction and reality tv.

I also love Million Dollar Listing NY and LA! Fredrick is my favorite, and you can simply search his sales online, he is definitely a successful agent. I hate Josh Altman though, so much. Him and Heather can go f...

Hi, Ron and Diane used to own the Colored Stone bar in Toronto. He's not a bartender, but would be a very good one I reckon. He is a GIA trained gemmologist.

I thought all the emeralds we showed in Colombia were sitting on white paper. Ron did buy other emeralds, I thought we showed that too.

Diane designs the handbags and has other people make them. My wife has one.

As for authenticity, all shows need a little help, we heat treat them to add some clarity or help the color a little. If you get my drift. But I do want to be as real as is possible. Telling outright lies would be bad.

But I'm glad the show is fun for you, because that really is the most important factor for me. Thank you for watching.

Craig - I think I've just fallen a little bit in love with you

If you haven't watched Game of Stones (and I suspect you have) it unfortunately falls into the outright lies category!!!

What a nice thing to read.

I haven't gotten to watch Game of Thrones yet as it hasn't made it to New Zealand TV yet - but it's coming soon I hear. Doesn't Weather Channel have a gem show too? What is that one like?

If I'm not mistaken, the show on the Weather Channel is Prospectors. I like that show, it shows people in the US looking for stones in places like the Rocky Mountains etc. It seems to be pretty real, and it shows all the work that people go to looking for stones. Usually they dig by hand and in a couple episodes I've watched they've been finding aquamarine and so forth. There's one family, the Dorris family, that sometimes uses machinery and comes up with some really incredible gem specimens of different kinds of stones. I sometimes worry about what they're doing to that area where they are mining, but I suppose that's what mining is. Sometimes there's a price to pay. But they seem to find the best and the most valuable stones.

But of the three shows, Gem Hunt is my favorite. I really enjoy seeing the locations in foreign countries that the stones come from, and watching them go through the stones to look for the perfect piece and bargain with the sellers. Craig Meade, thank you for posting to let us know the show is more accurate than many people think. And I do hope that you can do some other kind of gem shows in the future. I will definitely watch!

 

[JasonHaugen LGS Rock Shop]

Hi, I made the Gem Hunt series. You'll see my name in the credits as executive producer. I am happy to give honest answers to any questions about the show. In reference to the discussion above:

- The gem hunters used their money to buy their own stones.
- The production didn't fund any stone buying.
- We did fund a certain amount of the expenses to get to the location and travel around.
- The show was not scripted, though we did need certain things to be said and done in certain ways at certain times.
- So I guess we could say the dialogue and action was coached and crafted but not pre-planned.
- The show is largely authentic.
- We did reuse the 'pack-shots' of some stones - the pretty close-ups. Because the proper stones may not have been available to us at the end of the shoot when we filmed those close-ups. They may have been already shipped, flipped or cut.
- The final prices were not easy to determine due to various factors such as overhead and stones being sold as part of larger packages, but we did our best. They also fail to recognize the number of stones not necessarily in the show that turned out to be bad deals.

As I said, I'm happy to answer questions about Gem Hunt.

Hi Craig, I know this is a way old thread, But I actually loved the show you helped make. I was sad that there was only one season, what happened to it? I am a co owner of LGS Rock Shop, we are a small business group that sells rough and polished gemstones, crystals, gold and silversmithed jewelry etc. We do Cabachons and gemstone faceting. We are always looking for the best deals on rough gems, including visiting mines, private sales, auctions and mining for ourselves.
Anyway, my point is the show was great, wish you guys would do more, or a new similar show. Let me know if you end up working on something new. Thanks again.