The Discovery Channel Presents: The Greatest American

[on:]

I don't know if anyone saw this show when it aired, but I was looking around the Discovery Channel's website when I stumbled across the final list for the show "The Greatest American."  Given the premise of the show and the celebrity-laden pool of nominees, it is my opinion that it might have been more appropriate to call it "Greatest American Idol."

At any rate, the top 25 look like

this:

• Ronald Reagan
• Abraham Lincoln
• Martin Luther King Jr.
• George Washington
• Benjamin Franklin
• George W. Bush
• Bill Clinton
• Elvis Presley
• Oprah Winfrey
• Franklin Delano Roosevelt
• Billy Graham
• Thomas Jefferson
• Walt Disney
• Albert Einstein
• Thomas Alva Edison
• John Fitzergald Kennedy
• Bob Hope
• Bill Gates
• Elanor Roosevelt
• Lance Armstrong
• Muhammad Ali
• Rosa Parks
• Wilbur and Orville Wright
• Henry Ford
• Neil Armstrong

[/small]

The 100 candidates can be seen here.  Any thoughts?  I know I've got some.

[Reply #1 on:]

Maybe I dont know as much about them as the people who made this list but...I really dont see why Ronald Reagan is better then all of them...Specifically FDR

[Reply #2 on:]

Ronald Reagon had a big part in the ending of the Cold War and the USSR. I think Rosa Parks doesn't need to be that high, and George W. Bush is WAY out of place. What's he done to deserve that spot? Also, Clinton needs to be lowered and Einstein, Disney, FDR and Hope need to pushed up some.

On the people not in the top 25, Bill Cosby, RFK, Lindbergh, Jesse Owens, Mark Twain, Harriet Tubman, Fredrick Douglass, and John Glenn could've been in the top 25.

[Reply #3 on:]

Come on.  Oprah?  Bill Gates?  Ronald Reagan?  Dubya?  Billy Graham?  %$#@ing Elvis.

This list is so bad it's almost astonishing.  Almost.

[Reply #4 on:]

Bush in the top 6?

And I used to think Discovery Channel was cool...

[Reply #5 on:]

Oprah, Dubya and Elvis all finished ahead of Einstein, Edison and the Wright brothers? What the hell were the judges on? And where can I get some?

Who the hell is Billy Graham?

[Reply #6 on:]

 

Originally posted by Nasty Pasty:
Bush in the top 6?

And I used to think Discovery Channel was cool...

To be fair, I think these were all voted on by viewers online.  So, in fact, it is Discovery Channel's viewers that used to be cool.

[Reply #7 on:]

What the hell? Is Isaac Asimov even on the list? W at #6? Oh, sure put Edison in front of Tesla again, jackass. This list is crap.

[Reply #8 on:]

Anyone who puts Dubbya on a list of the Greatest Americans should be forced to choke on a pretzel while ripping up his NRA membership card and spouting all of the liberal phrases that I choose to write on my Democratic Flashcards...of Justice.

Anyway, it kind of seems like a flawed list. I can see why you would put Reagan on a list like this, but number one seems like too much. I would have rather seen Elanor Roosevelt or Rosa Parks or FDR or Martin Luther King Jr. at the top of that list.

And Dr. T is right about the whole Greatest American Idol thing... 

[Reply #9 on:]

 

Originally posted by Teral:
Who the hell is Billy Graham?

He's a Christian evangelist who leads a crusade to assimilate new people into Christianity.

Needless to say, he's one of my favorite people. 

[edit]Hey! Wait! Isn't George Washington British?!!?      [/edit]

[Reply #10 on:]

He was born British since he was lived in the colonies, but under the Constitution, all people born under British reign in the colonies are American citizens. It's more comparable to Einstein being German but then moving to America and become an American citizen.

PEELers should unite and make a better list that doesn't include recent deaths and current likings as a factor, but more on their acheivements while they were alive. I mean, seriously, Dubya shouldn't be anywhere up there, not even in the top 100. It said under Greatest Acheivement, or whatever the top thing was called, 43rd President. I mean, considering some people helped find a vaccine to polio and others abolished slavery, that's nothing.

PEELers should unite and make a better list that doesn't include recent deaths and current likings as a factor, but more on their acheivements while they were alive. And this list must include Asimov, who was not even in the top 100, and should not include any Bush. All they did was get us into a war with Iraq, launch up oil prices, and give us funny impressions on SNL.

[Reply #11 on:]

I just learned who Sam Walton is...but seriously, who thought that the guy who invented Wal-Mart would even have a chance at being the Greatest American?  Wal-mart is evil!  Don't these people watch South Park?!

[Reply #12 on:]

Ronald Reagan sucks Bob Dole's butt also George W. Bush is a retard. What about the world's greatest Germans?

[Reply #13 on:]

I'd suspect Otto Von Bismark...

I mean, he did make Germany a country.

Although ten bucks says Hitler ends up being in the top 5 somehow...

[Reply #14 on:]

If I had to redo the list, the top 5 would look something like this:

1. George Washington
2. Abraham Lincoln
3. Martin Luther King Jr.
4. Ben Franklin
5. One of the Roosevelts.  I'll give the edge to FDR at this point.

Things get a little murkier as the list goes on to round out the top 10.
6. Theodore Roosevelt
7. Booker T. Washington
8. Susan B. Anthony
9. Thomas Jefferson
10. Thomas Edison

[Reply #15 on:]

My personal top 5:

1. FDR
2. Martin Luther King Jr
3. Ben Franklin
4. Henry Ford
5. Ronald Regan

[Reply #16 on:]

Why the hell do people keep on putting Edison up there? Once Tesla invented AC power, he went on a crusade to show that DC was better. He would show how "dangerous" AC was by electrocuting small animals in front of crowds! Wherever he went, domestic animals would go missing. The man couldn't accept that somone else made something better than him.

[Reply #17 on:]

Edison was the greatest innovator the nation had seen since Ben Franklin.  That his ego couldn't accept alternating current as a superior power transmission format doesn't detract from the nearly 1100 patents he had.  AC>DC, but Edison>Tesla any day of the week.

[Reply #18 on:]

He electrocuted kittens!

[Reply #19 on:]

Reagon is #1? I rate George Lucas higher than that Coke sniffing dead loser.

Screw Roosevelt or Lincoln, choose that idiot instead.

Honestly, all these 'top 100' lists are pure shite.

[Reply #20 on:]

they did this same thing on Canadian televition awhile back. Don Cherry made the top ten. need I say more?

[Reply #21 on:]

Something occurred to me at work today.  Why the hell wasn't John Marshall on the list?  Not only was he one of the foremost politicians of his time, but he made the U.S. Constitution what it is today through establishing judicial review.  If I had remembered him, he certainly would have been anywhere from #7 to #5.

[Reply #22 on:]

it's kinda sad the discovery channel didn't include stephen hawking on that list..he does seem to be one of the most progressive scientific minds around..

though that's an outsider's point of view...i don't know much about american history...

[Reply #23 on:]

FDR was a fucking cripple!@1 

[Reply #24 on:]

 

Originally posted by Nurdbot:
Reagon is #1? I rate George Lucas higher than that Coke sniffing dead loser.

You're just jealous because he pwned the commies.

[Reply #25 on:]

 

Originally posted by airbagfailure:
it's kinda sad the discovery channel didn't include stephen hawking

It may have something to do with him being British, but you never know...

[Reply #26 on:]

 

Originally posted by Nixorbo:
 You're just jealous because he pwned the commies.

Why, cause Nurdy wanted to pwn them?
 

[Reply #27 on:]

ahhh ha.. shit.. aint i a moron... it would have gone totally unnoticed if it wasn't for YOU!...

[Reply #28 on:]

Hey, it occurs to me that none of the people on the top 100 are Native Americans.  True, they have been pushed to the margins of American history, but it seems that Samoset, Tisquantum (Squanto), and the Wampanoag tribe seemed to have cast an indellible mark on American culture.  And I have to say, Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce seems to embody more of the traits we'd find attractive in an American than many of those selected...or at least more than Dr. Phil.

[Reply #29 on:]

Originally posted by DrThunder88:
At any rate, the top 25 look like this:

• Ronald Reagan
• Abraham Lincoln
• Martin Luther King Jr.
• George Washington
• Benjamin Franklin
• George W. Bush
• Bill Clinton
• Elvis Presley
• Oprah Winfrey
• Franklin Delano Roosevelt
• Billy Graham
• Thomas Jefferson
• Walt Disney
• Albert Einstein
• Thomas Alva Edison
• John Fitzergald Kennedy
• Bob Hope
• Bill Gates
• Elanor Roosevelt
• Lance Armstrong
• Muhammad Ali
• Rosa Parks
• Wilbur and Orville Wright
• Henry Ford
• Neil Armstrong

[/small]

Reagan on top? What the hell?! What has he done that was more important than the actions of Washongton, both Roosevelts, Lincoln, Marting Luther King jr, and possibly even JFK? And George W. Bush? Please.