I Shouldn't Be Alive

I Shouldn't Be Alive
Narrated by	Qarie Marshall, Tim Beckmann
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	3
No. of episodes	20
Production
Running time	60 min.
Original release
Network	Discovery Channel
Release	2005 – 2007 (cancelled 2007)

I Shouldn't Be Alive was a documentary series broadcast on the Discovery Channel that told the stories of normal people in incredible circumstances. The subjects of the show narrate their life-threatening experiences while actors re-enact their experiences.

Production

The first show aired in October 28, 2005 on Discovery Channel. Season 3 also airs in high definition on HD Theater, now all episodes can be shown in HD if you have Directv, Dish or Verizon Fios. The show also airs on Channel 9 in Australia.

As of March 5, 2007 Discovery Channel has canceled I Shouldn't Be Alive and made it part of the "Discovery Classics" series.The show had began being broadcast on Science Channel starting from early 2008.

Over time, the show had different executive producers for British producers, Darlow Smithson. For the Discovery Channel, Jack E. Smith served as Executive Producer over the entire series. Mark Johnston was Assistant Producer for Season 1, replaced by Production Coordinator David J. Smolar who supported delivery of seasons 2 and 3.

Episodes

Season 1

• Shark Survivor – 1982. Five people get caught in a tropical storm and their yacht sinks. They have to survive in the middle of the ocean on a raft with absolutely no survival equipment. To their horror they find the area of the ocean to be infested with sharks.
• Lost in the Snow – A U.S. Army Private, his wife, and their five-month old son travel to a funeral, but on the way there, they miss the sign that leads to the city and instead go into an uninhabited national park which is closed for the winter.
• Escape from the Amazon – Israeli Yossi Ghinsberg along with Kevin Wallace and Marcus Stamm (American and Swiss respectively) are three young friends who go to Bolivian Amazon. There, terrible things are going to take place.
• Swept Away – Two friends go kayaking in the Strait of Georgia. When the tide comes in, one friend falls from his kayak and fears that he will end up in the Pacific Ocean.
• Kidnap in the Killing Fields – A man involved in demining Cambodia accidentally steps on a landmine and blows off his leg. Two years earlier, he was kidnapped by a murderous group of Khmer Rouge.
• Jaws of Death – A man (biologist Greg Rasmussen) crashes his plane in the African savannah. With legs broken in a total of six different places, he has to make it alive past lions and other dangerous predators in a state of intense pain and loss of leg mobility.

Season 2

• Trapped Under a Boulder – An environmentalist heads for a remote island off the coast of Queensland, he then meets a Dutch man on a deserted beach. A one ton slab of granite hits the environmentalist and pins him down to the bed of a creek. The Dutchman must find help for his new friend.
• Ice Cave Survivor – 1995. A man and his son go on a skiing trip to Turkey. When a snowstorm arrives, they lose their way, and the father has to chose between staying with his son or finding help.
• Shipwrecked – Two cousins go on a fishing trip when they realize they are shipwrecked on a deserted island.
• Alaskan Avalanche – Two climbers are scaling a sheer ice-wall in an Alaskan mountain when one of the climbers falls and is badly injured. A passing aircraft sees their SOS signal, but damages the landing gear in the process. Now, the people on board are also stranded on the icy wasteland.
• Lost at Sea – Two sons looking to repair their relationship with their father plan a fishing trip with their father in Mexico. An unexpected storm leaves them stranded in the middle of the Sea of Cortez.
• Crash in a Volcano – Three men filming a volcano in their helicopter crash after losing control and get trapped in a crater of the active volcano. Surrounded by unclimbable ridges and poisonous gases, they must send one of them to radio for help.
• Lost in the African Bush – Five survivors of a private plane crash must survive the dangers of the desolate African wilderness. With two severely injured, some of the group must wander off to find rescue, even though there is no civilization for hundreds of miles.

Season 3

• Nightmare Canyon – Two brothers go on a hike in Utah's Canyons. They expect the trip will take no more than 8 hours, but when freezing temperatures come, one brother breaks his leg and the other has to find help... and fast.
• Frozen at 20,000 Feet – Three British climbers get caught in a snow storm on Mt. McKinley. In order to find help they have to send someone down the mountain alone.
• Trapped Under the Ice – A man and his aged dad go kayaking in the Alaskan wilderness. Everything goes fine until they run into some ice on the river, and soon find themselves swept underneath.
• Into the Heart of Darkness – Two close friends head for the Amazon rain forest and get lost in the jungle. They have to survive the dangers of the jungle and hold on to sanity as they find their way home.
• Blood in the Water – Five boat safari goers find themselves stranded in the hippo and crocodile-infested Zambezi River when their watercraft sinks due to a mad hippo. Four get stranded on a submerged sand flat in the middle of the river and the other barely makes it to the shore. None of them are protected from Africa's deadly wildlife.
• Dive Into Danger – Two divers get stranded in the Pacific Ocean when their boat has to leave them. As they believe help is not coming they make a decision to swim for shore miles away or die trying.
• A Walk into Hell – A group of five teenaged scouts and three adult guides hike into the Grand Canyon during a heat wave. As their water runs out and the older members collapse in exhaustion, three of the teenagers must set out on their own to reach the Colorado River.

External links

• Discovery Channel Fan Site
• I Shouldn't Be Alive in IMDb