Showing you buildings, bridges, vehicles, and most notably, everyday items,
Modern Marvels is a non-fiction
TV documentary series on
The History Channel. Unlike many other documentaries that are mainly about history,
Modern Marvels doesn't spend all of the episode time on history, but also covers the specifics of what exactly it is/they are, how it is/they are made (which includes history for structures), and how it is/they are used.
Modern Marvels first aired on January 1, 1995, and
is still airing new episodes, even after more than 16 years on the air.
Other former History Series have been made into
Modern Marvels episodes, like
Tales of the Gun.
There is a series within
Modern Marvels called
Engineering Disasters, which focuses on things that obviously
didn't work. So far there have been twenty-two of these episodes.
- Narrator: The show's format requires one. Lloyd Sherr (see Stage Names below), is the most common one by far.
- Non Indicative Name: It doesn't always focus on "modern" technologies. One episode focused on the technology behind mummy-making, which is just about as far from "modern" as is humanly possible within the bounds of recorded history. See also the episode on knives, which (in their flint incarnation) are probably one of mankind's earliest inventions. A large portion of that episode dealt with swords.
- Stage Names: The main narrator, Lloyd Sherr, is listed in the credits as Max Raphael.
- Technology Porn: Pretty much the reason for this show.