Being broadcast tonight, and reportedly to be repeated for months to come, will be "Weird Travels: Lake Monsters" (Sunday, 23 October 2005, 10:00 p.m. Eastern) on the Travel Channel. The episode details cryptozoological research and hunts for the Loch Ness Monsters (Nessie) at Loch Ness, Scotland, and Champ at Lake Champlain in New York, Vermont, and Quebec.

The producer and crew stopped by to interview me on August 10, and they had just been to Lake Champlain. My time with them was serious and well-balanced. They did tell me that they had just taped footage of the Vermont Expos mascot, Champ, so I wondered how this travelogue might look in the end.

But, hey, I’m interested in the cultural impact of cryptozoology, so that choice made sense to me. Let’s see if the translation to the screen works out okay.

I’ll add an update here, after I see the program.

++++

After the program has aired…It was a decent overview of Nessie and Champ, with each getting about a half hour each. Gary Campbell, Dick Raynor, Adrian Shine, Willie Cameron, and George Edwards were interviewed to hold the Nessie story together. It very much reminded me of a visit to the Loch, with these folks being the ones there who are the spokespeople for the current situation. On the Champ side, they used Sandra Mansi and myself, mostly, to chronicle that story. One disappointing feature was their continued notion that there was one Champ in Lake Champlain and one Nessie in Loch Ness. But in general, it was a well-balanced program with high production values.