I know quite a few loggers up around there and down here, and most of them are a tad smarter than average, but some are as dumb as stumps. Keep in mind that the editors can pretty much make anyone look however they want to, but cutting and leaving in what they want. They can make you look smart or dumb, and funny or stupid. Like the series Survivorman, where they make people look more extreme one way or the other. Lots of footage to go through, you can take one person and just show-him being pissed off all the time, and another guy being a suck-up all the time, and another being bossy all the time.
Also they seem to be pushing the envelope for the cameras, and dropping trees in weird ways, and tossing yarding equipment in weird ways. The producers want to make it a more exciting show. Also they were working in weather that no one else was working in up there (especially after the hurricane). And under fake pressure for a non-existant 'end of the logging season' (no one keeps a tally of competitor loads hauled in some kind of competition like they post at the end of the show). 60% of that area was laid off half way through the show. Most loggers I know up there were out of work before October, and so were all the mill guys (around Banks). They also make it look like they are in some remote region of Oregon, way out in the boonies, when in fact many of those cutting sites are less than an hour from Portland. Some sites were 10 minutes from where Highway 26 becomes a freeway (just past Banks) and suburbia in Hillsboro.
They shold call it the Yarding Show though. Not much cruising, falling or trucking or milling. Just yarding. And more yarding. Some falling. And more yarding.
