L.A. 10,000 B.C.

L.A. 10,000 B.C. is an edutainment special that aired on the Discovery Channel in 2004. It was narrated by William Hootkins.

Premise

The program's basic premise is to simulate how life was like for early Americans living in California during the Pleistocene. The program primarily uses special effects to represent ice age wildlife, with brief computer animated clips appearing to depict how it would've been like.

Unlike many other educational paleontology programs this is not a documentary and focuses heavily on special effects. Three notable stunt actors were featured, Richard Bucher, Greg Fitzpatrick and Cheryl Lawson. The stunt actors would wear typical cavemen outfits and are then put in situations to represent Clovis people.

There were two most notable segments shown in this production; one involved an animatronic teratorn and a large Columbian Mammoth animatronic. The teratorn would be used to peck at raw chicken and a hand prop to see how strong its jaws were; it would also flap its 'wings' at one of the stunt actors. The mammoth animatronic was used to showcase how defensive mammoths were during a mammoth hunt. The mammoth would toss the stunt actors with its 'tusks' and crush tomato cans to represent human heads.

One segment involved the making of a trail that would be covered with fake mammoth dung and watering holes. The trail would then lead to targets that represent three predators that lived in North America during the Pleistocene. The stunt actors would then have to throw their spears at the target to make a 'kill'; if they miss then water would be sprayed at them to represent an attack.

Other segments included talking head interviews with paleontologists and anthropologists like Larry Agenbroad and Nicole Waguespack, where they give out educational facts about the animals and how these people lived. Another segment involved how to make spears and atlatls and to see how effective they are for hunting

Prehistoric animals featured

• Columbian Mammoth
• Teratornis
• American Lion
• Arctodus
• Smilodon

Gallery

Columbian Mammoth

Teratornis

Smilodon

Smilodon roaring

Arctodus

American Lion

Trivia

• The program was originally known as Ice Age Beast.
• The special has had two DVD releases; a shorter edition released in 2004, and the full special released in 2009 as a double feature with Ice World.
• This is one of many Discovery Channel programs that featured special effects by the special effects company Technifex.