Review: Museum Men Resurrecting the Titanic

When I first learned about the Museum Men episode coming on the History Channel, I was excited.  When I learned that it was about them creating the Grand Staircase for the Titanic museum in Pigeon Forge, I was more excited.  I was really looking forward to them bringing up interesting facts about the Titanic's construction, showing us how she was built, and talking about the Grand Staircase during the voyage and sinking.  By the end, I was very disappointed.

Museum Men is a show on History Channel 2 about a group of men that replicate rooms, machines, and monuments for museums across the US and the past few episodes have been excellent, entertaining, and education until now.  When they got to the Titanic, they talked a big talk about recreating history and honoring the Titanic's legacy, but they didn't deliver regarding the details.  They did have some interesting facts thrown in about the construction and building materials, but I wasn't sure about how much I could believe because they got so many "facts" wrong!  From saying that the Grand Staircase was nicknamed the "Stairway to Heaven" at the time to saying that it was only for a limited number of 1st class passengers, it was just a mess.  Plus, they used a black and white photo obviously of the Grand Staircase at the Branson Titanic museum as if it was an actual photo of the Titanic/Olympic's Grand Staircase even though there are multiple photos of the Olympic's Grand Staircase photos they could have used.  While we're on the subject, they did mention the Olympic and Britannic.  However, they focused heavily on their WWI service and didn't show photos of the Grand Staircases for comparisons.  On top of that, I felt that they rushed the editing with them reusing footage from several past Titanic History Channel documentaries to rushing through some parts while other parts were unnecessarily lengthy.

It was nice to see how the Grand Staircase at the Pigeon Forge Titanic museum was made and from personal experience, it is truly wonderful to walk up those stairs.  It really takes you back in the time when you walk into that room.  But it could have been a lot better with proper research and more careful editing.