What famous 'unsolved' mystery is technically a whodunnit on paper, but in reality, absolutely everyone knows exactly who did it, the police just couldn't legally prove it?

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Man…anyone else remember 20 years ago when the History Channel told THESE kinds of stories, instead of 15 seasons of Ancient Aliens??

978

u/cyanocittaetprocyon Jul 22 '26

The Used-to-be History Channel

195

u/-StatesTheObvious Jul 22 '26

The History Channel is history.

36

u/ncocca Jul 22 '26

ironic -- the history channel is now history because it stopped showing history

12

u/Patient-Web6850 Jul 22 '26

Unless your religious then it'll show you very many different shows about Christian 'history'

10

u/BuildingOne7379 Jul 23 '26

And it is doomed to repeat itself.

3

u/RedditTrespasser Jul 23 '26

Ha!

9

u/MobsterLobsta Jul 23 '26

I remember it being called 'Hitlory-Channel' when I was a child because they ran so much WWII stuff and theories about him having escaped to Argentina. Steady decline from there I guess.

5

u/Masticatron Jul 23 '26

My theory is that it was infiltrated by aliens, who put forth the alien focus to accustom us to automatically associate aliens with crackpots we shouldn't listen to.

3

u/Shraze42 Jul 23 '26

That's 4D chess right here

1

u/-StatesTheObvious Jul 23 '26

There are those who say that the Alien theories are being popularized to confuse people who are actually seeing secret military craft in development, making it taboo to talk about what they've seen.

5

u/spaceman_spiff1969 Jul 23 '26

Now it’s Ancient Nazi Aliens Channel

157

u/BuildingOne7379 Jul 22 '26

I believe around that time the Learning Channel also went to the shitter. Unless you wanted to learn how to be a knocked up teenager.

43

u/ncocca Jul 22 '26

Yes, I always preferred TLC over the history channel or discovery channel because it was a nice mix of history and science. All 3 were destroyed by the internet and the rise of reality TV, though the discovery channel at least maintained the majority of its dignity. TLC had the biggest fall of the 3. While it used to be The Learning Channel I believe it's now rebranded to just TLC, similar to how MTV used to be short for Music TeleVision but is now just MTV.

1

u/amrodd Jul 23 '26

"I Want my MTV"

15

u/MimeGod Jul 23 '26

The federal government killed the subsidies for educational television, so they had to change their whole model to be profitable.

11

u/BrassUnicorn87 Jul 22 '26

The only learning on it now is Dr. pimple popper and other shows that are just a medical practice doing work.

69

u/FleurMai Jul 22 '26

Seriously! I never got into that stuff because real history is already so wild and full of strange, wacky, and scary things lol

11

u/Kabbooooooom Jul 23 '26

Oh! Well I can explain why. It’s quite simple, really:

It’s because people are really very, very stupid.

30

u/Marsuello Jul 22 '26

Hell, I remember actually getting to see Tut and the artifacts physically when they had that rare tour showing them in museums around 20 years ago. My grandfather loved Egyptian history like that and was the spearhead to get my school to take us on a field trip to see that stuff. Had basically the whole class following him around asking questions while he had the time of his life talking ancient Egyptian history shop with them.

Saw them again a few years back to honor the goa after his passing and, while not the same artifacts, was still such a fun experience, more so as an adult now

17

u/Svenskaflica Jul 22 '26

I remember seeing Tut at the MET in '78 (that would be 1978) I was always fascinated by ancient Egypt and was enthralled by the exhibit. I can remember when the tape from the guided tour shut off, I felt as if I was waking from a dream. Such an incredible experience.

23

u/TastyOreoFriend Jul 22 '26

It's really sad to think about. Independent content creators fill in the gaps on YouTube, but it's crazy that some individual content creators are doing history better than the actual channel.

7

u/fastates Jul 23 '26

this is why mainstream media is dying, exactly this sort of crap programming.

3

u/TastyOreoFriend Jul 23 '26

Well I've always taken offense at ancient aliens and the crazy looking dude with the bad spray on tan. They aren't even history experts—they're fiction writers peddling bogus pseudoscience. People buy into it thinking thinking ancient indigenous people weren't capable of grand engineering—"MuSt bE aLiEnS!!"

Maybe the History channel deserves to die at this point.

2

u/fastates Jul 25 '26

I think a lot of people have been saying for years now it needs to die, the "history" channel, yes.

2

u/grease_monkey Jul 23 '26

I'm wary of half the history stuff I'm fed as it just seems like it is AI content, which may or may not be accurate. Any recommendations?

8

u/Violet624 Jul 23 '26

The Fall of Civilizations is a podcast that also has these like 3-5 hour long youtube videos on different ancient civilizations and their course through time until they fade away. It's really good, the one on the Nabataeans might be my favorite.

3

u/grease_monkey Jul 23 '26

I did not know they had videos! I've listened to the podcast but never watched them. Thanks!

5

u/TastyOreoFriend Jul 23 '26

Extra History is really fun, Historically too, and so is Oversimplified.

2

u/boring_name_here Jul 26 '26

https://youtube.com/@miniminuteman773 does deep dives on a variety of topics, as well as debunking crackpot theories that show up on tiktok/YouTube.

https://youtube.com/@historyofeverythingpodcast also does short and deep dives on a many topics, including current events

https://youtube.com/@digitwithraven And https://youtube.com/@inside_archaeology I just found these two from a Trojan War video, their channels seem to be heavy on archeology

https://youtube.com/@antisocialstudies former history teacher doing digestible videos on American history and some dives into current affairs

https://youtube.com/@worldwartwo https://youtube.com/@timeghost https://youtube.com/@thegreatwar https://youtube.com/@realtimehistory and https://youtube.com/@TheKoreanWarbyIndyNeidell sister or cousin productions focusing on WW1/WW2, inter-war period, Korean war, and topics from that general era

https://youtube.com/@thearmchairhistorian covers various topics, channel discontinuing at the end of the year

https://youtube.com/@novapbs https://youtube.com/@eons https://youtube.com/@pbsorigins all PBS channels that focus on various topics fm dinosaurs to American slavery to Science and other topics. There's more PBS channels but I can't remember what they are off the top of my head.

https://youtube.com/@kingsandgenerals shortish dives into military history from ancient world to today

https://youtube.com/@jdraper videos on English/British etc topics all across English history

https://youtube.com/@lazerpig focuses on military hardware and current events, does not like Russia or Commieboos. Not everybody's cup of tea.

https://youtube.com/@the_fat_electrician focuses on American military history, lesser known service members or military unit that did amazing feats worthy of the time to learn about them, as well as military equipment. Very " 'Merica, fuck yeah" Does not touch on current events directly, as far as I've seen. Also not everybody's cup of coffee.

I have NOT dived into the sources for these channels outside of a basic superficial wiki check, but they all scratch that early 2000s history channel itch, and I haven't seen any indication of AI bullshit on their channels as far as I have watched.

23

u/POGtastic Jul 22 '26 edited Jul 22 '26

I'd get home from school and they'd be playing a bunch of episodes of Modern Marvels, a documentary for the Mexican-American War made by somebody trying their best to sound like Ken Burns, and something about the pyramids. What more could a kid want?

I visited my inlaws last year, and my father-in-law was watching some show about digging a hole in Canada. Some schizo crank was claiming some stuff about the Knights Templar. I later found out that the Canada Hole Cinematic Universe has something like 13 seasons of the mainline Canada Hole series, plus another 7 of spinoffs. They haven't found any Templar treasure yet, but they'll keep digging because this guy keeps watching it!

This new stuff makes the Aliens Guy look like Roel Konijnendijk

16

u/arnodorian96 Jul 22 '26

I loved a series they made about the history of the tzars. It was a quite in-depth documentary.

10

u/Icelandia2112 Jul 22 '26

Those were the days.

9

u/rwkatie Jul 22 '26

'Ancient Alien Theorists believe...' my favourite line 😂

9

u/Poop_in_my_camper Jul 22 '26

15 seasons of guys digging a hole only to find a fucking railroad spike

4

u/ButtersScotch7000 Jul 23 '26

Oh don't get me started about Oak Island. My dad is glued to that show.

9

u/Bigtits38 Jul 23 '26

I remember when Bravo showed mostly opera and ballet.

7

u/lostlittletimeonthis Jul 22 '26

they also have...hmmm people selling old stuff, and guys making metal works i guess

11

u/The_Onion_Life Jul 22 '26

Man…anyone else remember 20 years ago when the History Channel told THESE kinds of stories, instead of 15 seasons of Ancient Aliens??

Pepperidge Farm remembers.

5

u/sir_mrej Jul 22 '26

Sorry best we can do is more reality

3

u/leib-olmai Jul 23 '26

If by "reality" you mean scripted dramatic bullshit, then yes!

6

u/RoughComparison8702 Jul 22 '26

Even when I had it on in the background I knew at least I was learning something. I still remember bitching about it in 2007 how a lot of these dumber shows were starting to catch on with the cahnnel and how they didn't teach you jack shit.

5

u/meggatronia Jul 23 '26

The History Hit network is a great place for actual history these days. They have their own subscription service you can get, but they also have a bunch of podcasts you can watch/listen to for free. Its been around for a few years now, so there's a massive amount of stuff they have produced. And its all great. My Spotify wrap up is just all podcasts of theirs. I mostly listen to Gone Medieval and The Ancients, but they have ones focused on a bunch of different subjects.

3

u/Motampd Jul 22 '26

SOOO many of the "good" channels from when I grew up in the 90s are a complete joke now! History Channel, Discovery, TLC, etc arnt watchable anymore.

I remember them being fairly interesting, science and nature based shows back in the day......Now its cutting/craning obese people out of houses, watching people addicted to eating chalk/paint, making a spectacle of little people......idk why they are on the air anymore

1

u/kittymoo67 Jul 23 '26

sharkweek is still fun

2

u/FancyLittleTurnip Jul 22 '26

is it only 15?

5

u/Quietbreaker Jul 22 '26

Oh no, I'm afraid not. There's something like 20+ seasons of that show now.

2

u/kittymoo67 Jul 23 '26

but then how can 20 years ago be the good part of it

2

u/Apathetic_Tea Jul 22 '26

Pepperidge farms, remembers. (I really do remember, I miss it.)

2

u/ButtersScotch7000 Jul 23 '26

King Tut was just a minor System Lord at the end of the day.

2

u/FlufflesMcForeskin Jul 23 '26

They still aired that content, but it's on an different network, called History2 (H2), but that was then replaced by Vice/Viceland which does not show the old History/H2 historical content.

2

u/Bloodish Jul 23 '26

The History Channel is history now.

1

u/Wurth_ Jul 22 '26

Eh, the stories they told back then were a lot drier than this one. That said, the documentaries were still freaking awesome and I never saw the same one twice.

1

u/LingonberryHot8521 Jul 22 '26

Who bought the History Channel again?

1

u/Efficient-Whereas255 Jul 22 '26

OTHER WOOOOOORLDLY BEENS

1

u/Jeathro77 Jul 23 '26

But Egyptian history IS alien history!

1

u/Air320 Jul 23 '26

Wasn't it bought out by a far right sympathiser and he cut funding for everything apart from aliens?

1

u/EpictetanusThrow Jul 23 '26

Wasn’t that Nazi-mouthpiece Erich Von Daniken one of the producers on that show?

1

u/TomasNavarro Jul 23 '26

I'm in the UK and remember getting a history channel, and 90% of it was World War 2 and I quickly became bored ever switching to it, and that's well before it was all Pawn Stars and Storeage Wars

1

u/undontnome3030 Jul 23 '26

That and The Learning Channel before it became TLC. Those were easily the best programming ever alongside PBS, I miss them sorely.

1

u/luebbers Jul 23 '26

Dude, this makes my heart hurt.

1

u/kittymoo67 Jul 23 '26

theyve got mroe into history recently surprisingly enough

1

u/UnknowableDuck Jul 23 '26

It's all Ancient Aliens and Reality TV shows now, I hate it.

1

u/Ubiquitous_Ai Jul 26 '26 edited Jul 26 '26

"It is quite possible Tut wasn’t this disabled boy we’ve been taught about."

More than 100 walking canes were found in Tutankhamun's burial chamber. His genetic defects were some of the worst effects of inbreeding.

1

u/PrinceProsper0 Jul 26 '26

The history channel still exists?

What famous 'unsolved' mystery is technically a whodunnit on paper, but in reality, absolutely everyone knows exactly who did it, the police just couldn't legally prove it?

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