Monster Jam (partially found European airings; 2006-2009)
Captain's Curse tumbles into the stands as seen in a European broadcast.
Status: Partially Found
The Monster Jam lost European airings are a series of episodes of the television show Monster Jam that were aired exclusively in European countries, but have not surfaced in full online. Some of these episodes have been partially found while others are completely lost with no footage available online at all.
Background
Monster Jam is a live motorsports show that began in 1992. The show revolved around monster trucks competing against each other in racing and freestyle competitions. Monster Jam was first televised in 2000 under the name Motor Madness before changing its name the following year in 2001. The series hosts events at various stadiums and arenas across the United States, most shows taking place between January and March each calendar year. All of the shows lead up to the Monster Jam World Finals in late March, the main championship event to decide the champions in the racing and freestyle competitions. The series then hosts the Summer Heat series in July, which revolves around speedway shows before hosting the European tour in September till the end of the year. Monster Jam was broadcast on TNN from 2000-2002 before switching over to the SPEED channel from 2003-2013. Currently, the shows are now broadcast on FOX Sports.
European Airings
The unique on-screen transitional graphic exclusively used in European broadcasts
The unique Finals on-screen graphics
The unique Freestyle on-screen graphics
As TNN and SPEED were only available in the United States, this meant that only American viewers were able to watch Monster Jam on television. All of these original episodes have since been uploaded to YouTube on the official Monster Jam YouTube channel, but require a subscription to watch. In 2006, however Monster Jam began airing in Europe, the United Kingdom in particular having the episodes aired on the-then new channel Bravo 2, and Dutch TV channels JIM TV and RTL7 would eventually receive the same broadcasts. A commercial was specifically created for the UK to advertise this, entirely using clips of the Monster Jam World Finals 7 event that had taken place earlier that year.[1] World Finals 7 was the first official episode to be broadcast on the network, though very oddly, the episode was aired in its original SPEED channel format, despite the UK not having access to the channel. The freestyle portion of the show was aired first while the racing portion was aired the next day in the early hours of the morning, despite the racing portion typically being aired first.[2] Strangely, the next broadcast, Montreal 2005, was instead broadcast in an entirely different and unique presenting style, using new on-screen graphics and only showcasing the final race, with the freestyle portion taking up almost all of the episode's run time. Scott Douglass, the main host and commentator for Monster Jam, provided pre-recorded commentary and was the sole presenter.[3] Europe has continued to have Monster Jam broadcasts until at least 2010 in this unique style. However, there were various events that were broadcast in full in Europe between 2006 and 2009 that were either partially televised or not televised at all in the United States. Some of the shows had previously been aired in the United States in segments called "Around the USHRA" which were featured as part of other shows. In particular, in 2007, the SPEED channel aired a special episode recapping freestyle events that had happened throughout the year. Shows such as San Antonio 2007, San Francisco 2007 and Tampa 2007 were shown in this special episode and all three of these shows had been televised in Europe, using the same footage with added timer graphics. One show, Cardiff 2007, was aired in Europe and footage of this show in particular was never released in the US at all.[4] European airings of shows from 2010 are not known to exist, and Europe would often receive Monster Jam episodes months after the US had originally broadcast them.
Availability
As Monster Jam is not as popular in Europe as in the US, these European broadcasts have become extremely rare to find online and only a small amount of clips have been uploaded to YouTube. While it is unknown exactly how many episodes were televised in Europe, there are videos of certain shows available as well as information posted to online forums.
On 14 September 2009, user MonsterJamUnlimited uploaded a 7-minute video of the Monster Jam World Finals 10 event as it was broadcast in Europe. The airing came from Dutch TV channel rtl7. This particular airing gained notoriety on monster truck forums at the time, as it featured the Captain's Curse truck driven by Alex Blackwell rolling over into the stands of Sam Boyd Stadium while racing against Tom Meents driving Maximum Destruction in the final round of racing to determine the champion. The crash was famously censored on the SPEED channel in the US as well as on the official DVD of the event that came out later in the year. The reason for the censoring was due to two separate incidents that occurred in the monster truck industry earlier on in January that resulted in two people being killed, one was a 6-year old boy and the other was famous monster truck announcer George Eisenhart. While the Captain's Curse crash did not result in any injuries or deaths, the shocking footage could've put the monster truck scene in serious jeopardy. It is not known why exactly the crash was shown in full in Europe, but according to the user VVITch on the Monster Mayhem forum, it was shown because the European audience were unaware of the accidents that had happened that year.[5] Despite this, during the CBS Sports recap of the event in the US, a brief shot of Captain's Curse rolling over was seen before the footage cut away from the truck flipping into the stands. The European broadcast of World Finals 10 is the only known footage of the Captain's Curse crash that has been officially released, with the exception of various camcorder footages shot by fans who were in attendance.
In regards to the whole European broadcast of World Finals 10, MonsterJamUnlimited put in the description of the video that the rest of the episode was going to uploaded, but this never happened. The 7-minute upload can still be viewed on YouTube.[6]
Six days later on 20 September 2009, mtcthor uploaded two separate compilation videos of the Toronto and San Antonio 2009 shows. Neither of these were televised in the United States in any capacity, making these broadcasts exclusive to Europe. The uploads from mtcthor are still available, albeit with music playing over the footage.[7][8]
After 2009, three years would pass without any footage of the Monster Jam European episodes surfacing online. However, on 5 April 2013, user Square One uploaded a video titled "Monster Jam Greasing the Wheel", a compilation video featuring various Monster Jam crashes. The video included footage of Cardiff 2007 and Anaheim 2008, two shows that never received a broadcast in the United States. Blue Thunder's and Thor's crashes at Anaheim and Cardiff respectively were the clips in question. The full broadcasts of both shows were not known to be online at the time of the discovery and it was unknown where Square One acquired the clips.[9]
The final known instances of European broadcasts being uploaded to YouTube was around 2014 when user pita888 uploaded the San Antonio 2007 episode in its entirety, albeit split up into parts. The airing did not have English commentary and all parts have since been removed due to a copyright claim by FELD Entertainment. However, pita888 uploaded another video titled "My Edited Video (MJ Freestyle Part 4)". Another compilation video, this upload featured clips of An Escalade's and Maximum Destruction's freestyle runs at San Francisco and Tampa respectively, both from 2007. Both of these shows were included in the recap episode on SPEED, but were shown in Europe, which were not known to be online in full.[10]
Forum Discoveries
On 19 July 2021, fandom Wiki user PolarisWasTaken discovered old posts from the online forum, Monster Mayhem. One thread from 15 July 2009 detailed the European broadcast of World Finals 10 with the Captain's Curse crash. User uk_dan, an English monster truck fan, highlighted that the airing featured Nitro Circus and Grave Digger both landing on the side aprons at the side of the track, as well as the Maximum Destruction backflip at the end of the show. The Nitro Circus and Grave Digger rollovers where only shown through on-board footage in the US airing and DVD releases while the Maximum Destruction backflip was completely omitted from both those releases.[11] uk_dan also previously posted on the forum two months before on 12 May 2009 about which shows were televised in the United Kingdom on Bravo 2. The shows he listed were the first 2009 Minneapolis show, Phoenix 2009, Tampa 2009 and Knoxville 2009. Knoxville was an arena show, of which those were rarely shown on TV apart from brief clips, thus making that airing the only known full broadcast of an arena show.[12]
Monster Jam Membership
In July 2020, Monster Jam announced on their official YouTube channel that they would be offering a paid membership for fans and subscribers to watch all Monster Jam shows from 2000 to 2018.[13] These shows were the original US broadcasts on TNN, SPEED and FOX Sports. All the original US airings have been officially released, but no European broadcasts were included on the membership.
First FELD Response
In August 2021, fandom Wiki user RobotManiac reached out to FELD via email to ask if the European episodes would be released as part of the membership. FELD responded on 18 August stating that they have discussed internally about releasing the episodes and consider it a good idea. However, as of 2022, no European broadcasts have been released on the membership.
Episodes Found
In late 2021, it was discovered that YouTube user orlenmonsterjamshow had uploaded part of the TV broadcast of the Chorzow, Poland Monster Jam show on August 11, 2009. The footage was uploaded into 4 separate videos, but the first part was taken down by FELD, which can be found here. The event was broadcast on Polish TV network Polsat and features both commentary from Monster Jam announcer Scott Douglass, along with dubbed commentary in the country's native language
In April 2022, it was discovered that a YouTube user by the name of MohawkMarkus had uploaded the 2009 Barcelona show in its entirety on June 22, 2011. The show was aired on the El 33 channel in Catalonia and featured commentary in the country's native language. This is the only known European Monster Jam airing that is available in full online.[14]
Further Discoveries
On April 27, 2022, pita888, now under a new channel name called Vale, revealed himself in the comments section on one of RobotManiac's videos (under his YouTube channel name Taz91) detailing where he had found the episodes.[15] Vale, a Hungarian member, stated that an unknown YouTube user whose channel is now deleted, later revealed to be named Monsterjam379, uploaded various 2007-2008 European airings and he had downloaded them to make videos of his own. He posted a link to one of his videos on the Hungarian video site, Inda Video, showing one of his uploads that featured King Krunch's San Antonio 2007 freestyle.[16]
In the same comment, Vale revealed where Square One had acquired the clips from Cardiff 2007 and Anaheim 2008 for his videos. He stated that some "mysterious" videos titled simply "Monster Jam 1/9" and "Monster Jam 2/9" contained the clips from the shows split up into parts, which Vale had watched sometime in 2015 before revealing that these videos have likely been deleted as well. Vale continued by stating that he remembered watching the European episodes in Hungary on the Viasat6 channel. Viasat6 showed Monster Jam until 2012. Vale also provided a link to a music video titled "Monster Jam - If Today was your Last Day", uploaded on 17 March 2010 by the user RomBomj2, which heavily featured clips from European broadcasts.[17] Finally, Vale provided another link to a Dutch site called UTIZending that contained more European airings uploaded as early as 2008. The World Finals 10 airing is shown on the site (likely where it had been originally before being uploaded to YouTube), as well as various other European exclusive broadcasts and rebroadcasts of events that had been aired in the United States using the European graphics. Unfortunately, while the thumbnails of the videos are still up, the videos themselves are gone.[18] Vale concluded his comment by stating that he will still keep looking for European airings and will inform the Monster Jam community about it if he does by providing links in a video that he will plan to upload.
On April 30, 2022, Vale spent most of the day trying to access his old pita888 account in order to try and salvage the European episodes he had downloaded to no avail. However, he would provide a screenshot of a thumbnail of one of his unuploaded video titled "My Edited Video (MJ Freestyle Part 3)". The thumbnail featured The Patriot's San Francisco 2007 freestyle with the driver profile box graphic. Vale stated that the 9 minute 40 second video could possibly contain only clips of European episodes.[19]
Second FELD Response
Following these unsuccessful attempts at trying to archive the videos, Vale would email FELD himself in late May 2022, due to there being no progress from FELD regarding the European airings from the first email by Taz back in August 2021. FELD's response to Vale would throw a spanner of confusion into the works as despite the previous statement saying they had discussed releasing the airings, FELD stated that they did not have a current timeframe of when the airings would be released and that "anything that can become available will make its way to the YouTube membership channel". Judging from this statement, it seems likely that FELD do still have plans to release the European episodes but are unsure when.[20]
Facebook Reveal
On July 3, 2022, Taz left a post on the Monster Truck Collecting Facebook page asking if anyone had any of the airings recorded. A user named Liam Mann left a comment on the post revealing that he had had recorded several European airings back when they were on TV. Liam stated that he was looking to convert the footage into MP4 files to be shared online. He would then post a photograph of a clip of Bob & Tom at Indianapolis 2008 on a video player.[21]
RTL7 and JIM Broadcasts
As Liam did not have a recording of the Cardiff 2007 episode, Taz would reach out to various other users who had shown footage of the episode in their videos. Taz would get into contact with Square One via his second channel Yours Truly, Chris and asked if he had the Cardiff episode. Square One would find the episode in his archives which he had downloaded to make videos of his own before it was taken down and would send a link to Taz containing the episode split into two parts in the early hours of July 25, 2022.[22] Square One also found the Anaheim 2008 episode and a JIM TV highlight episode from 2010.[23]
The Cardiff and Anaheim episodes were the videos that were included in the Monster Jam 1/9 series previously mentioned by Vale. As well as containing almost the full episodes, the video files also contained edits including movie maker style text slides, revealing the user who had originally uploaded them, RoccProduction2008. The episodes were the original RTL7 airings (which were no longer in the RTL7 archives) with some minor edits cutting out various parts, but keeping most of the important content intact. Taz would then upload all the videos in a zip file to Google Drive, where they can now be downloaded and viewed.[24]
Releases
After being unable to finish off uploading the episodes, Liam would pass on a USB drive to Taz to finish the project off, who originally intended to release the episodes on August 4, 2022 but this would be delayed due to difficulties. After a 4 day delay from its original intended release date, Taz would release the episodes on August 8, 2022 via a Dailymotion account and they would also be released on Google Drive with some aid from Vale. All 2007, 2008 and 2009 episodes are now accessible via Dailymotion and Google Drive.[25][26][27][28]
2006 Episodes
On 20 December, 2022, Monsterjam379 discovered that he had a DVD stored away which had several European Monster Jam episodes from JIM TV recorded on it. Among the items were Flemish dubs of Anaheim 2007 (Show 1), San Antonio 2007, Detroit 2007 and Jacksonville 2007. Also included were two 2006 episodes, the first of several lost ones to be discovered. One was Atlanta 2006, which was aired on SPEED in the US, and the other was San Diego 2006, one of the previous European exclusive episodes that had not been found. The episode has been uploaded to Taz91's Dailymotion channel and is in the Flemish language, but the episode itself is mostly unchanged apart from an exclusive interview with driver Chad Fortune only shown on the JIM version.
Known Episodes List
| Episode Title | Status |
|---|---|
| Antwerp 2004 | Lost |
| Antwerp 2006 | Lost |
| Arnhem 2006 | Lost |
| San Antonio 2006 | Lost |
| San Diego 2006 | Found (in Flemish) |
| Indianapolis 2006 | Partially Found |
| Minneapolis 2006 | Lost |
| San Francisco 2007 | Found |
| Anaheim 2007 (Show 1) | Found |
| San Antonio 2007 | Found |
| Tampa 2007 | Found |
| Indianapolis 2007 | Found |
| Minneapolis 2007 (Show 2) | Found |
| Cardiff 2007 | Partially Found |
| Anaheim 2008 (Show 1) | Partially Found |
| Indianapolis 2008 | Found |
| Costa Rica 2008 | Lost |
| San Antonio 2009 | Found |
| Minneapolis 2009 (Show 1) | Found |
| Toronto 2009 | Found |
| Phoenix 2009 | Found |
| Houston 2009 (Show 3) | Partially Found |
| Knoxville 2009 | Found |
| Tampa 2009 | Found |
| World Finals 10 (Euro Airing) | Found |
| Chorzow 2009 | Found |
| Barcelona 2009 | Found |
| Barcelona 2011 | Found |
| Madrid 2011 | Partially Found |
Images
An Escalade at San Francisco 2007 with the driver info box graphics used in the European airings
An Escalade at San Francisco 2007 with the timer graphic used in the European airings
Maximum Destruction at Tampa 2007 with the timer graphic used in the European airings
El Matador at San Antonio 2007, never seen in any US broadcast
Blue Thunder at Anaheim 2008, never seen in any US broadcast
Team Suzuki at Anaheim 2008, never seen in any US broadcast
Avenger at Indianapolis 2008, never seen in any US broadcast
Thor at Cardiff 2007, never seen in any US broadcast
Thor at Cardiff 2007, note the different timer graphic used for this episode only
Slingshot at Cardiff 2007, never seen in any US broadcast
An Escalade at Cardiff 2007, never seen in any US broadcast
King Krunch at San Antonio 2007 with the timer graphic used in the European airings
The Patriot at San Francisco 2007 with the driver info box graphics used in the European airings. This screenshot comes from one of Vale's (pita888) unuploaded videos
Avenger at Indianapolis 2006, taken from a Swedish broadcast on TV6
See Also
- Monster Jam World Finals 1 (lost footage of freestyle runs; 2000)
- Monster Jam: The Movie (lost motorsports film; 2004)
References
- ↑ Monster Jam Bravo 2 UK Advert Retrieved 23 Feb '22
- ↑ Audience account from Taz Retrieved 23 Feb '22
- ↑ Audience account from Taz Retrieved 23 Feb '22
- ↑ Audience account from Taz Retrieved 23 Feb '22
- ↑ https://www.monstermayhem.org/threads/world-finals-dvds-worth-it.10913/#post-157740 Retrieved 2 May '22
- ↑ Monster Jam World Finals X - Part 1 Retrieved 23 Feb '22
- ↑ Monster Jam Toronto 2009 Freestyle Retrieved 23 Feb '22
- ↑ Monster Jam San Antonio 2009 Freestyle Retrieved 23 Feb '22
- ↑ Monster Jam Greasing the Wheel Retrieved 23 Feb '22
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWagDZbviWY&t=512s Retrieved 23 Feb '22
- ↑ Bravo 2 - Uncensored WF X? - Monster Mayhem forum thread Retrieved 23 Feb '22
- ↑ New Monster Jams on UK TV - Monster Mayhem forum thread Retrieved 23 Feb '22
- ↑ Monster Jam YouTube Memberships Retrieved 23 Feb '22
- ↑ Barcelona 2009 playlist Retrieved 9 Apr '22
- ↑ YouTube video containing Vale's comment Retrieved 29 Apr '22
- ↑ https://auto.indavideo.hu/video/Monster_Jam_Freestyle_1_10_resz Retrieved 29 Apr '22
- ↑ Monster Jam - If Today was your Last Day Retrieved 1 May '22
- ↑ UTIZending page containing Monster Jam videos Retrieved 29 Apr '22
- ↑ Google Drive link featuring Vale's screenshot Retrieved 1 May '22
- ↑ Private correspondence between Taz and Vale, Retrieved 26 May '22
- ↑ Facebook post with Liam Mann's reveal Retrieved 3 Jul '22
- ↑ Correspondence between Taz and Square One Retrieved 25 Jul '22
- ↑ Correspondence between Taz and Square One Retrieved 25 Jul '22
- ↑ Google Drive link with the RTL7 and JIM TV episodes Retrieved 26 Jul '22
- ↑ Taz91 Dailymotion account with the European broadcasts Retrieved 8 Aug '22
- ↑ 2007 episodes Google Drive link Retrieved 8 Aug '22
- ↑ 2008 episodes Google Drive link Retrieved 8 Aug '22
- ↑ 2009 episodes Google Drive link Retrieved 8 Aug '22