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Review of Rob Riggle: Global Investigator S01E04: "The Mystery of the O.K. Corral"

4/9/2020

21 Comments

 
Picture
Picture
After three episodes in which Rob Riggle confidently misinformed his viewers that fake history was real and fictitious places and artifacts actually existed, are any members of the show’s dwindling audience actually surprised that this episode featured yet another case where Riggle wastes an hour of our lives wandering around in search of a fictitious historical mystery? Does it make you feel better to know that this episode basically remakes a 1990 episode of Unsolved Mysteries? No? Well, that’s OK. Since the supposed treasure of the Skeleton Canyon never existed, there’s no reason to get too worked up about Riggle pretending to think he stands a chance of finding it.
As regular readers know, I have very little interest in treasure-hunting stories. I could barely work up interest in last week’s hunt for pirate booty, and if there is anything I find less interesting that pirate treasure, it has to be Old West treasure. I didn’t care about the Lost Dutchman’s mine when Scott Wolter hunted for it on America Unearthed. I still didn’t care about it when Legend of the Superstition Mountains became a series hunting for it. I didn’t care about Wolter’s hunt for Confederate treasure, either, or that time he tried to find George Armstrong Custer’s treasure. I did not watch Josh Gates hunt Old West treasure on Expedition Unknown. And I don’t care about this even more obscure and pointless local treasure tale. But, boy do cable TV shows love fruitless hunts for Old West treasure. How long before the Secret of Skinwalker Ranch reveals that the aliens buried Nibiru’s treasury of gold under it?
 
However, due to COVID-19, we have both a dearth of new TV and a shortage of pseudo-history to discuss, so we are all stuck with this show.
 
According to a local legend, in the 1870s or 1880s (usually 1881) a Mexican gang led by an outlaw named José Estrada went on a robbery spree, denuding Monterey’s banks and churches of gold, silver, and jewels. While the Mexican gang was on its way to hide the treasure in Arizona, American outlaws seized the booty and killed the Mexicans. The Americans then deposited the ill-gotten gains somewhere between Skeleton Canyon in the Peloncillo Mountains northeast of Douglas, Arizona and New Mexico’s Animas Valley.
 
However, as even Unsolved Mysteries learned thirty years ago, research into the newspapers of the time and government and bank records found no evidence of the massive robberies attributed to legend. At best, any robberies involved only a small amount of money. Instead, more recent research has indicated that the story that developed locally around Skeleton Canyon grew out of cattle-rustling operations in the canyon, such as those conducted at the time by the Clanton Gang. Some ambushes targeted Mexican smugglers, but few serious historians argue that this netted anywhere near the amount of treasure in the modern legend.
 
So, the Skeleton Canyon treasure was already debunked old news three decades ago. And when Unsolved Mysteries tells you that your treasure hunt is largely a pointless misunderstanding, you really ought to consider the possibility. Nevertheless, Rob Riggle dares to go where even the History Channel has yet to sink by searching for a completely fake treasure with the power of unfunny improvised cringe comedy. After all, it’s not like he’s going to find anything.
 
Segment 1
The segment begins by alleging that the Skeleton Canyon treasure is worth $20 million and that the shootout at the O.K. Corral in October 1881 was really about this treasure. They don’t really have anything to do with one another except that O.K. Corral participant Billy Clanton was part of the family of cattle rustlers whose exploits inspired the myth. As in previous episodes, if you didn’t come to the show knowing the story, you’d have no idea what was going on because the script provides only the most minimal background, and does not distinguish between historical fact and myth.
 
Riggle meets with Craig Hensley, described as a “local Arizona historian.” He is actually an actor who formerly appeared on sister station AHC’s Gunslingers, and as in previous episodes where an actor subbed in for a real expert, Riggle purposely lets his show fake parts of its alleged nonfiction, fabricate experts, and promote fiction as fact. I’ll give him credit, though: No other show has had the audacity to twice hire actors to pretend to be historians. Other cable shows at least find deluded lunatics who think they are historians. (To be scrupulously fair, Hensley lives in Tombstone and promotes local history through the arts.)
 
At least the treasure hunter Riggle hires, Cody Drake, is in fact an actual treasure hunter, for what it’s worth.
 
Anyway, Riggle believes a credulous 1950s Western magazine article claiming secondhand knowledge of a deathbed confession seven decades earlier from O.K. Corral participant Zwing Hunt that he recovered the treasure and buried it near a waterfall at Mt. Davis in the Bradshaw Mountains of Arizona. (Riggle mistakes the 1950s account for actual firsthand testimony from 1882, when Hunt died.) Weirdly, Drake claims the mountain doesn’t exist on modern maps and is difficult to reach, though it clearly exists since there are hiking trails that lead up to it. Weirdly, while Hunt allegedly spoke of two “springs” near the treasure site, Riggle identifies these as rivers.
 
Segment 2
Riggle spends a lot of time walking around and repelling from rocks, looking for the treasure and pretending that the shallow canyon he examines with a metal detector is an unexplored wild. There is a rather pointless staginess to the adventures, and once again Riggle irresponsibly promotes the idea that it is legal and acceptable to run around digging holes for treasure and destroying any archaeological context that might exist around whatever they find. It turns out that a show that I at first dismissed as a misguided waste of time is actually actively harmful, which means it’s already a candidate for the worst archaeology show of 2020.
 
Segment 3
The third segment continues Riggle’s peregrinations through the Arizona desert. He and Drake make camp. He eats a scorpion. When he finds nothing, he tries some new treasure hunters, both named Robert Leonard, being same-named father and son. Nothing happens before the commercial.
 
Segment 4
Again claiming that the “springs” from the old article are actually rivers, Riggle and the Leonards use a drone to hunt for gold in another location. Staged humor with a mule follows. It is not funny. Riggle enters a hole in the side of a hill after declaring a modest pile of small stones to be the “rock formations” from the 1950s article. The segment ends. No one is even trying at this point. It’s all just slapped together shit from people who seem to have realized that they didn’t have enough story to fill an hour. Another brief comedy bit serves as an interstitial during the commercial break.
 
Segment 5
In the final segment, the Leonard family and Riggle search the small 10-foot by 10-foot cave for hidden treasure. Riggle does not explain what permissions the show obtained to dig in the cave, so once again he promotes irresponsible looting as he rips a nineteenth-century spur, a key, and some other detritus out of the ground and speculates about how much money it all might be worth. “Who’s got the treasure?” he sings in falsetto. He falsely identifies a skeleton key as the key to a “treasure chest,” though it appears to be a door key. Michael R. Grauer, an art teacher and art historian at the Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, declares it “possible” that it is the key to a pirate treasure chest from Spain, though no one provides any evidence to support this claim, or to explain why it would not be a nineteenth century key as it at first appears. Riggle describes Grauer as an “antiquities expert,” though his expertise is in Old West era art.
21 Comments
Doc Rock
4/9/2020 10:33:53 pm

Same as with the pirate treasure spiel; outlaws grab a bunch of loot and bury it instead of heading to the nearest city and blowing it on booze, poker, nice horses, fancy clothes, and ladies of negotiable virtue. Or, god forbid, heading a couple states north and buying a large farm or ranch or business. At least Riggle is still making beer money off the scam....

Reply
E.P. Grondine
4/10/2020 10:26:09 am

Hi Doc -

I took a look for about two minutes. Riggle is not the guy I want to be with on a treasure hunt.

Reply
Doc Rock
4/10/2020 10:09:39 pm

This has got to be Karma's way of making me do penance for some horrific conduct in a past life. That, and all my favorite watering holes closed for the duration.

E.P. Grondine
4/11/2020 08:58:56 am

Hi Doc -

While all of the bars are closed, you can get drinks to go.
I'm spendingf the time reading Jason's book with my editing glasses on.

Bill
4/9/2020 10:37:55 pm

"It’s all just slapped together shit from people who seem to have realized that they didn’t have enough story to fill an hour."

Sadly, I strongly suspect that the tv schedule will soon be filled with this. Once the current shows finish whatever they have in the "can", and with the current scattering of new vs old in the schedule, there won't be much to fill the void. It will be reruns or failed pilots or whatever crap they can get their hands on as "new". Travel shows will be on hold for a considerable timeframe.

At least this show doesn't claim to be realistic or factual. It "tries" to be funny, but is pretty much a dismal failure. Sort of like watching certain people try and do daily Press conferences.

Reply
B L
4/10/2020 10:29:16 am

Sorry, man, but I like this show. It's hilarious.

Critiquing the show as if Riggle is seriously claiming to have found "the" treasure they were hunting for when he produces a rusty skeleton key is just not an honest critique. Anyone who actually watches this show for 5 minutes will see that there is nothing serious about it. Riggle's background is in comedy. He's portraying a treasure hunting character similar to the way Sasha Baron Cohen took on the Ali G personna. When he does actually have experts on the show, you can immediately tell they they are not in on the joke and that they think Riggle is a bumbling buffoon. Toward the end of the show they realize what they've gotten themselves into, relax a little, and have fun.

Riggle is not Wolter or Gates or Georgio. He's poking fun at those guys.

Reply
Bill
4/10/2020 01:17:54 pm

Fair enough, except that it perpetuates the fake history and fake claims / myths. If the humour aspect was applied on top of actual facts, then that would be a valid option. As for "experts"..... I'm not sure there really have been any (at least according to Jason, I haven't researched who is or is not qualified).

Things being what they are at the moment, if it provides the type of humour that appeals to you, and perhaps others, then GREAT!! We need something to relieve the stress.

Reply
B L
4/10/2020 02:47:48 pm

I believe there are three main reasons why ratings are so low for this show...

1. The vast majority of people just don't have time for this fringe nonsense anymore, especially with the market being so saturated.

2. Riggle's sense of humor isn't for everyone. If it was, he'd be much more successful on television and in movies.

3. True fringe fans and followers understand that this show is laughing at other shows like America Unearthed, so why tune in if your beloved pseudo-science is just going to be disrespected?

An Anonymous Nerd
4/10/2020 04:48:47 pm

[Riggle is not Wolter or Gates or Georgio. He's poking fun at those guys.]

I have the impression that he thinks, or at least the show thinks, that the history presented is real and that he's supposed to be the only fake thing.

He's not.

-An Anonymous Nerd

Reply
B L
4/10/2020 05:46:57 pm

You may be correct, An Anonymous Nerd. If so, I would be more apt to think the show's producers might buy into the fake history (or at least the profitability of fake history messaging). It seems to me like Riggle doesn't really have a vested interest in "proving" any fringe ideas. He's just trying to be funny, collect a paycheck, and see some cool things he might not otherwise get to see.

E.P. Grondine
4/11/2020 09:05:54 am

Bill,

I've found that good comedy is dangerous. Riggle's isn't.

Reply
Jim
4/10/2020 06:41:54 pm

Heeeeees back !

Wolter's "Geologic Dream Team" and peer review.

http://scottwolteranswers.blogspot.com/2020/04/reminiscing-about-geologic-dream-team.html

Reply
Kent
4/12/2020 09:25:08 pm

Your and my disagreements apart, they all "peer reviewed" Wolter's "work" and he doesn't understand "peer review". What a stupid ass.

Reply
Jim
4/13/2020 10:30:17 pm

Gosh darn it, Scotty is mad at me again over my comment on his blog.

Reply
Doc Rock
4/14/2020 12:16:37 pm

I don't know that I would describe a bunch of earth Sciences types from Duluth as a dream team. They can tell you that it is a rock and likely from that general area, but then anything beyond that starts to veer sharply out of their lane. If Scotty has such confidence in this team maybe he should bring them in to help the FBI and him to crack the Great Cider Press Vandalism Caper. Would make a great special two hour episode of AU.

Reply
Kent
4/15/2020 02:31:06 am

You make a very good point, but they're all either dead or he doesn't want people bothering them. And *that's* the very important reason he's always refused to name them. I don't make the rules. It's the Insanity Protocol.

I suspect that the change is... they're all finally dead. And can't talk about the idiocy.

Doc Rock
4/15/2020 10:58:12 am

surely there is some esoteric Grand High Poobah Mason Templar ritual that could bring them back to life or at least permit them to communicate with Scotty to locate the fraternity brothers, oops, I mean Neo-Nazis, that desecrated the cider press.

Jim
4/15/2020 11:20:54 pm

Don't forget Scotty is also saying that the Cider Press vandals are the same gang that is burning down Freemason lodges left right and center.

Doc Rock
4/16/2020 07:53:37 am

Jim,

That would be the double top secret Smithsonian truth suppression arson squad doing the torching. If you ever see a van with a Smithsonian decal full of middle aged men in shitty looking corduroy sport coats pull up to a gas station and start filling up five gallon cans of gas then you will know they are working on "a thing."

Jim
4/16/2020 04:20:36 pm

Are you sure Doc ?
I thought it might be descendants of Native American, Templar families descended from old Prince Henry Sinclair's 1362 wave of refugee Templars.
They are probably burning down the fake pretender's lodges in retaliation for the Masons (fake Templars) usurping their true Templar standing.
I blame Scott Wolter, as he is the fakiest fake Templar around.

Bob Jase
4/11/2020 11:11:09 am

Treasure hunters who have to work for a living are as convincing as psychics who do the same.

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