Mantracker No More

[Albertadiver]

http://www.calgarysun.com/entertainm.../17293846.html

Mantracker fans are as ****ed off as peeled rattlesnakes.

You just don't mess with their hombre.

"You throw a cowboy up against the wall and he's liable to say screw you," Terry Grant tells me down the line from his spread near High River, Alta.

Grant is the steely-eyed star of the popular reality show. Ex-star, I should say. He's been unhorsed. Rode hard, put away wet -- and "retired."

He ain't happy. Same for his followers.

I give Dan, my condo security man, the grim news.

"Whaaat?" gasps Dan. "He is Mantracker."

Was, amigo, was. They're already auditioning for his replacement.

"Why?"

Well, set a spell, have a mess o' beans, and I'll explain.

Unless you've been dead or hiding in the woods, you know Mantracker is to Canadian reality TV what the Kardashians are in the States.

Just like the Americans have Survivor, a soap opera on the beach, and we have Survivorman, in which Les Stroud, armed only with a camera, goes to some godawful place and lives on grasshoppers or snow.

Canadians like their reality harsh. Thus, Canadian Idol never soared like its American cousin.

If only Terry Grant could sing. Instead, he spent 25 years working such legendary Alberta ranches as the Bar-U and the OH, dragging heifers out of blizzards and such. He's a certified tracker and helped found the local search and rescue service.

When Mantracker hunts two human prey through the wilds, he's not acting. Neither are the prey.

Fear Factor was never this taut, or Wife Swap so fraught with peril.

The prey have 36 hours to traverse brush and swamps infested with bears and cameramen before Terry rides 'em down, which he does about 70% of the time.

Just watching gives you chills. The show is a hit and will soon shoot a seventh season -- without Terry Grant.

Two weeks ago, Calgary made him a "white hatter." It's like being knighted.

Now this. End of the line. His TV trail boss in Toronto says Grant quit. The cowboy says he had no choice. The details are lost in mudslinging, though Grant insists he wasn't asking for a raise in his $84,000 annual grubstake.

Well, sir, Grant, 53, has a huge herd of couch potatoes -- and they're boiled.

For days they've peppered Bonterra Productions and Rogers' OLN network with e-mails and they've launched a protest Facebook page that quickly soared over 5,000 members. Mostly women, I notice. Oh to be a fireman or a cowboy.

"OLN, you are a Man-Wrecker," writes Cathy Wyman.

"Keep up the pressure, folks! OLN is in our sights with Bonterra in the cross-hairs!" says Rosemary Keutzer.

Bookstores must be selling out of cowboy glossaries.

"This one is for you, Terry," says Marian Hedrich, among many who've made Mantracker their profile photo.

Says Bethany Mollie: "Mr. Grant is Mantracker. There can be no other."

Whoa, Bethany, looks like the horse is out of the barn.

Show creator and Bonterra boss Ihor Macijiwsky is just back from auditioning 132 potential new Mantrackers in B.C. and Alberta.

"It's like James Bond," Macijiwsky, 57, tells me. "I loved Sean Connery, then Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig and the others came along and I adjusted.

"They have the same set of skills, but different styles.

"That's the excitement in looking for a new Mantracker."

But his fans say there's only one Mantracker.

"I created the character," says Macijiwsky, "before Terry came along. Then I went out and found the guy to fill it.

"But nothing is forever."

Grant will prowl your screen this summer -- the season is already in the can, including the opener with Coyotes captain Shane Doan as prey.

But in real time, he's already hung up his Mantracker spurs and will go back to carpentry, rescuing folks and riding Nickel, his Appaloosa. (See trackingwithterry.com).

"It was a great run and I'd love to go back to the show," he tells me. "But I'll get on with my life. It was a matter of principle."

The code of the range?

"You might be miles from the nearest building and you're dealing with a bull that doesn't want to come out of the bush but you say, OK, I'm a cowboy on a horse, you're a bull and you're coming out of that bush."

Here's a reality show I'd like to see: Keeping Up With the Kardashians, except it's Terry Grant tracking Kim, Khloe and Kourntney through the kountryside.

Follow the perfume, Mantracker.

And beware the claws.


I had a look at Terry's website yesterday, and there's a comment from him that it was his decision to leave, and that he'll update more later.

[ram crazy]

Well that sucks I liked that show. It won't be the same without him!!

[HunterDave]

A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.

[hillbillyreefer]

Wasn't there a thread on here a couple weeks ago about auditions in Red Deer?

[Albertadiver]

I like Terry Grant, all the rest will be in his shadow. My guess is the show will be done after a season.

[Okotokian]

"It was a matter of principle."

So what the heck was the principle? Seems a rather large gap in the story. Why wouldn't either party say why he left?

[Redfrog]

Originally Posted by Jimboy

never did like the show or him , good riddence l say , or put the bastard on foot like the prey.

WOW! It's a tv show.

[209x50]

Originally Posted by ram crazy

Well that sucks I liked that show. It won't be the same without him!!

You are right it won't! It'll be better or worse but it won't be the same.

[AxeMan]

Originally Posted by Okotokian

"It was a matter of principle."

So what the heck was the principle? Seems a rather large gap in the story. Why wouldn't either party say why he left?

If Terry said it was a matter of principle, that is good enough for me. You don't go around questioning a man's principles.

Why he isn't filling in all the details? Perhaps, both sides feel it is none of our business.

They will find someone else ,sure, it is their show. Will people compare the new guy to Terry? Sure they will, but I won't. He is the Mantracker and is himself; that is what was admirable about him. The new guy may be just as good and if he is my hat will be off to him too.

Thanks for the run, Terry. You always made us Albertans proud when you captured those "fugitives".

[TheClash]

Not sure I was ever proud of him as an Albertan when he captured the "fugitives"....

[AxeMan]

Originally Posted by TheClash

Not sure I was ever proud of him as an Albertan when he captured the "fugitives"....

Maybe I meant to say it was entertaining to watch a cool Alberta cowboy run down a couple of smack talking eastern city boys in the bush and say: "Had enough boys!"

That's what I meant.

[TheClash]

lol, I know, just giving ya the gears lol.

[Rather Be Hunting]

Too bad..........

[IAMBREAD]

A friend of mine stole his shoes once at a party, he ain't that great!

That's nothing, he crashed my birthday party last year!

Good guy but times change. He had a good run and it's time for him to move on. I hope he enjoys sucess wherever the next road leads him. No one is irreplaceable. They found someone to take over for the Arrow Affliction dude...lol

[Shaggy]

It's dissapointing, but life goes on. There was more than one Batman, more than 1 James Bond. Some where better than others. I am just glad I got to meet Terry. And meeting him is a story that my boys will be bragging about for years.
I will still watch it based on the premise of the show. I like the idea. Opens some eyes for some people.


I think they should do the same with Rodeo. Might shut up a bunch of city idiots that keep calling Cowboys "pansies". They have no idea.

[bowhunter1]

mantracker doesnt track me, I track mantracker...

[gitrdun]

Originally Posted by bowhunter1

mantracker doesnt track me, I track mantracker...

I'd pay a dollar to see that!

[name]

I was on the show last year, too many cameras giving us away!!

[Okotokian]

Originally Posted by gitrdun

Perhaps you don't like the show, but you don't like the man?, you don't even know him...so shut your mouth.

LOL Hey Git, so you wouldn't say you don't like Jack Layton or Wendy C? LOL

Like or dislike is an emotion. It doesn't require personal contact. With anyone it's really "From what I know or see of him I don't like him".

Anyway, from the comments here it seems that anyone who has met and spent time with the guy likes him, so I change my vote to "I don't like his act, but maybe it's just an act for TV".

And hsi show was fine. Moderately entertaining, good clean fun, doesn't hurt anything.

[gitrdun]

Originally Posted by whitetailhntr

Musta been into the rum last night hey Git!

Admittedly yes. But my spelling and grammar skills hadn't been affected. And I patiently read the heated argument between sheep and chuck in the brown bear thread and managed to stay out of it....I think I stopped at 3. lol

[alittlej]

my wife has meet Terry at an AHEIA event a few years back and has talked fondly of this gentleman ever since..... Terry is a true gentleman and a classy person....tv is always trying to glorify the simple things for ratings and if it was against Terrys "principal's " I believe he would speak up like a true, man of principal....if his producers could not see it for what it is i beleive "buttonheads" is a word Terry would use.... a true man like Terry would not allow himself to get involved into a public game of mudsling and this is why I believe we will not hear the truth as to why Mr.Terry Grant would not be willing to come back based on principal.
i have also email the producers of the show to inform them that i think there is only one MANTRACKER.... and he is a classic of which there is no replacement.
Derek

[Elkaholic6]

Originally Posted by sheephunter

That's nothing, he crashed my birthday party last year!

Good guy but times change. He had a good run and it's time for him to move on. I hope he enjoys sucess wherever the next road leads him. No one is irreplaceable. They found someone to take over for the Arrow Affliction dude...lol

Yeah, and now that show is garbage. Liked it 100% better with the other dude. The new guy just ****es me off, and now I don't even watch the show.

[deerhunter]

Terry is a great guy am going to miss him on the show!

[FishingMOM]

In a half dozen years, Terry Grant, star of the Mantracker reality TV show, has become a Canadian icon.

He's the steely-eyed cowboy who stares unflinchingly at the horizon until his human prey stumble into view.

But a six-year run on the Outdoor Life Network show has come to an end for the Alberta cowboy.

A salary dispute has the TV star back on his High River, Alta. ranch doing his day job – a carpenter who builds custom furniture, renovates his neighbours' homes and occasionally chases cows.

The show will continue, but without the venerable Grant.

Fans upset
“I’m going to miss it,” he told CBC News. “It was a great time seeing new country...meeting new people.”

Fans of the show aren’t sure the unflappable hero will be easily replaced.

“The response to me leaving the show has been overwhelming," he said. "Thousands wrote in. I had no idea it was this big.”

The premise of the show is simple, though ingenious. Give two people a map, a compass and a head start in open bush country.

Then Grant and a partner spend the next 36 hours riding after them on horseback.

The show is shot across the continent from Newfoundland to the west coast, from the Yukon to California.

Originally a niche show, Mantracker has won over viewers in Canada, Europe and the U-S.

Show hitting its prime
The show was hitting its prime this season as stars in their own right were lining up to be cast as prey.

Grant's fame even led the professional tracker to be invited to train British soldiers how to spot improvised explosive devices (IEDs) hidden in the ground in Afghanistan.

Now it’s all over. And the reality TV star said he will have no problem going back to mere reality.

“I had a perfectly good life before it came along,” he said. “I had a great ride on that thing. The wave crashed on the beach and I’m going to carry on with my real life again.”

And when he said the ride hasn’t changed him, it’s easy to believe him.

“It’s hard. Everybody has me on a pedestal like they do all TV people.”

“I feel I’m still me and I’m just the guy that rides his horse and am lucky enough to be on TV.”

'I'm the same guy'
On the adjustment from celebrity to fulltime carpenter, he said “I’m the same guy you see on TV. I didn’t have to act.”

“A lot of the people I do work for, they don’t say, ‘I had Mantracker do my basement for me.”

“They just say, ‘Hey this guy does a good job,’ and when I show up (on the next job), their eyes kind of open up a little and they say, ‘Wow, you’re him.’”

Fans shouldn’t hold their breath about seeing him back on the show, Grant said.

He would love to return, he said, but it isn’t going to happen.

“I don’t think the producer and I will ever see eye to eye again. It’s gone too far for too long. “

Instead, he said, he would like to see a spinoff come out of Mantacker - a show focusing more on the art of tracking.

[huntinstuff]

Yeah i cant see another guy being called Mantracker. Kinda like the Oprah Winfrey show, but without Oprah......wont work

Maybe a show called The Chase......fugitives with no hope for parole get the chance for freedom but they are pursued by hunters/trackers and dogs...if they make it, they go free. If they get caught, well, maybe the show would be rated "R"

The Running Man meets ManTracker.......

Id watch that show

Reminds me of when my son James said "ManTracker should carry a rifle".......

[Arn?Narn.]

knowing the man pretty well, there;s a lot to the story...

There is only one Mantracker.

[FishingMOM]

Man tracker

VS

Pin-up model /Pole Dancer

Opera Singer/army cadet

[SonnyJ]

Originally Posted by huntinstuff

Reminds me of when my son James said "ManTracker should carry a rifle".......

hehe....I like that..

But seriously...I'm thinking he could become a movie star..

edit....as long as he doesn't film on brokeback mountain...lol

[super7mag]

It was an entertaining show, but hey when the prey hit the dirt and the camera man is 5 feet away, showing you they hit the dirt then pan to mantracker miraclulously looking their way with the binos. wow. The real way to win on mantracker is after the flair fires kick the camera man in the nuts and run, make for a boring show, till the camera man caught up to you at the finish, then it'd be a ufc . Well I got a kick out of him and probably won't be watching the new series.