How It's Made - TV-G

What goes into building a skateboard? Find out.

TV Rating: TV-G Network: Discovery Channel Genre: Educational
Available on: Download

Common Sense Note

Parents need to know that this fascinating fact-based educational series demonstrates how all sorts of items are constructed. Occasionally segments focus on potentially disturbing products, like hatchery chicks, in which baby chickens are seen hatching and then being sorted by hand and machine onto giant conveyor belts for eventual shipment to farms (and subsequent slaughter). Little kids might not be interested or have the attention span to follow the different segments, but children who like to know how things work may very well be entranced.

Families can talk about everyday products they're curious about. What things do you want to know more about? Which products seem mysteriously constructed? Have you ever thought about where your food, car, furniture, sporting goods, etc. came from? How do you think people would get by if they were responsible for obtaining and/or making everything they needed themselves?

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Common Sense Review

Reviewed By: Sierra Filucci

In this fascinating educational series for all ages, viewers learn about the construction of everyday products.

Using clear, factual language, the narrator describes the steps involved in making food products, household goods, and more as viewers watch the production onscreen. Episodes usually feature four products, from car radiators and phyllo dough to aluminum foil and hatchery chicks.

In the phyllo dough segment, for example, viewers watched flour get mixed with water as the narrator explained the proportions of high-protein flour to low-protein flour in the dough. A machine mixes the dough and forms it into cylinders that workers then shape into balls by hand. The dough is then flattened, dried, stretched, cut, and packaged -- some by machine and some by hand -- until the dough becomes what consumers recognize from the supermarket.

Curious kids and adults will learn from the show, and some segments can really broaden your perspective. For instance, the segment on hatchery chicks might encourage a discussion about where meat comes from or families' opinions about industrial versus sustainable food production.

With its emphasis on facts, some might find How It's Made lacking in personality. Some segments will appeal to viewers more than others, depending on your interest or familiarity with the featured item.

Fans might also enjoy Engineering an Empire and Extreme Engineering.

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Content		CS	adults	kids
Content
Sexual Content Segment on hatchery chicks talked about fertilized vs. unfertilized eggs.
Violence Brief mention of topics like animal slaughter.
Language
Message
	Social Behavior Encourages curiosity about the world. No mention of working conditions in the factories where the products are made.
	Commercialism The show is all about specific products, but brands usually aren't part of the deal.
	Drug/Alcohol/Tobacco