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Shark Week
Genre	Annual Week-long Event
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
Broadcast
Original channel	Discovery Channel
Original run	1987 - Present

Promotional pedicab

The Discovery Channel's Shark Week, which first aired in 1987, is a week-long series of feature television programs dedicated to facts on sharks. Shark Week is held annually, normally running in July or August. During Shark Week 2006, the Silver Spring, Maryland, headquarters of the Discovery Channel was outfitted to resemble a giant shark.

In 2000, six million 3D Pulfrich glasses were distributed to viewers in the United States and Canada for an episode featuring an extinct giant shark which had 3D segments. [1]

In 2005, Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman from the Discovery Channel series MythBusters hosted Shark Week, and a two-hour MythBusters "Jaws Special" was premiered for the event. In 2006, Mike Rowe from Dirty Jobs hosted, and two Dirty Jobs episodes were featured, titled "Jobs that Bite" and "Jobs that Bite Harder".

Shark Week 2008 ran from July 27 to August 2 and was hosted by Les Stroud.^[1][2]

In popular culture

• In the NBC sitcom 30 Rock Tracy Jordan encourages Kenneth to "Live every week like it's Shark Week." This itself was referenced on the Mythbusters 2008 Shark Week Special when Adam Savage encourages viewers to do the same.

• Alaskan comedy duo Danny Tanner's Rainbow Militia have recorded an entire album entitled "Shark Week: The Album", dedicated to the week long event.

• In the 2004 film The Girl Next Door, while frantically driving Matthew Kidman to an adult film convention in Vegas, Klitz tells his mother, via cell phone, that "Shark Week is all week long" and he'll watch it with her tomorrow.

• News comedian Stephen Colbert featured a small segment on The Colbert Report in which he found that sand (especially people being trapped in their own sand holes) has been responsible for more fatalities in the United States than shark attacks, prompting him to suggest the Discovery Channel hold an annual Sand Week. In his last show of 2008, he also declared Shark Week his favorite time of the year, with Christmas coming second (hoping though it somehow be possible to combine the two).

• On the animated TV series The Simpsons, Homer was about to leave Maggie under the supervision of "Grandma Shark Week."

• In the TV movie Billy & Mandy's Big Boogey Adventure, General Skarr expressed displeasure over the fact that he could not watch Shark Week due to his TV being broken.

• On the Showtime series Weeds, "Shark Week" is used as a euphemism for menstruation on the "Just Like Tomatoes" episode in Season 2.

• During a 2006 issue of The Punisher (vol. 6, issue 34) the title character relies on information culled from Shark Week to survive when an enemy has thrown him to wild sharks.

• Late night talk show host Craig Ferguson has sarcastically mentioned it as his "favorite" week of the year.

• On the sitcom In the House, Debbie Allen's character tries to bond with her son Austin by telling him it's Shark Week.

• In the movie Step Brothers, Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly are on the couch, after fighting in the yard, watching Shark Week.

• In the 2000 film Down To You, Eddie Hicks and his new girlfriend Emma have to leave Al's party early because she has to go watch Shark Week.

References

1. ^ Shark Week 2008: Discovery Channel : Shark Behavior and Conservation
2. ^ Les Stroud-s Blog ~ Survivorman » Les Stroud hosts -Surviving Sharks- for Shark Week 2008

External links

• Discovery Channel's Shark Week
• Ocean Conservancy is Discovery Channel's Shark Week Conservation Partner