In the same vein as The Discovery Channel’s Deadliest Catch comes Ice Road Truckers on The History Channel, a chronicle of the yearly trucking trials and tribulations faced in the great white north. The series focuses on the few weeks a year the ice is hard enough across many of Canada‘s lakes to allow for semi’s packed with supplies to make runs to outposts which would otherwise be inaccessible, including a De Beer’s diamond mine.

The ice is a treacherous place, and the first few episodes go into detail on some of the many problems facing truckers stemming all the way from moisture freezing in airlines to frostbite from failed heaters in the cabs. Its almost a thankless job, but full of pride as we get to see a stable of regulars gunning for each other, topping the number of runs laid down by comrades, and aiming to be the best of the best.

The series is shot in a quasi-documentary style focusing on the dynamics of trucking across the ice roads, how the roads are maintained and safety checked, and how the truckers are able to survive in the harshest environments on earth. On the flip side it also focuses on a handful of actual truckers and their issues with trying to complete runs and dealing with common problems like a broken pin in a transmission. Problems that would be easy to fix in the standard climates most of us are used to, but under the urgency of supply runs and the bid to make as much money as possible, become life threatening ailments.

A particularly interesting segment deals with how sunken truckers are rescued by a specialized squad of divers responsible for submerging themselves in the below freezing water to save lives. It becomes very obvious that this is not an easy, infinitely rewarding, or safe manner to make a living, but as the old saying goes, someone has to do it.

The limited run series is unique, although maybe not the best placed series for The History Channel, it is, nonetheless, an interesting and entertaining series and a welcome change to the typical occupational-reality fare focusing more on the interesting aspects of the industry rather than the overly dramatic lives of its participants.

Ice Road Truckers debuts Sunday, June 17, 2007 on The History Channel.

If someone came up and told me that one of the most entertaining reality series on TV would be based on at car dealership in the Nevada desert, complete with a blue genie, I’d have sold them some of my ocean front property here in Phoenix, but after viewing select episodes from the second season of King of Cars, its no lie.

King of Cars takes place at the aforementioned car dealership, Towbin Dodge, in Las Vegas where diligent owner, Chop, who is featured in DUB magazine via a photo shoot in the opening of “Ugly Truckling,” one of the second season’s episodes, takes running a dealership to an unheard of level. We’ve all bought cars before, whether new or used, it is a daunting, and sometimes terrible, experience depending on the dealership, but just about everyone who has had a bad experience may need to flying into Las Vegas and buy a car here.

While you have to expect some playing up for the camera, the sales team at Towbin provides a two fold experience for the viewer, it goes behind the scenes to show you, as a consumer, how deals get down in a dealership, and may give you some insight into the cut-throat world of selling cars, and the incentives that go with them. In “Ugly Truckling” a team of two is tasked with bringing together contestants vying for $1000 by having the most ugly, deplorable truck on four wheels. The episode itself whisks by its 22 minute runtime leaving you wanting more because the on-the-lot experience is just ripe with material to be filmed.

In fact, it’s surprising that so much material can be turned out from a car dealership to fill a reality show, but the charismatic personality of Chop and his staff makes for great, sometimes excellent, TV.

Chop himself may be the “star” of the show, filling out the cheesy, yet entertaining, opening credits wonderfully, but the sales team he has constructed and the positions he puts them in is what creates the material for these episodes.

The second episode we were able to review focuses on the promotion of one employee and a back-stabbing competition to fill his former position which is ultimately decided by a basketball game when both contestants closed the same number of deals during the work day. This episode, in particular, really focuses in how hard car salesmen work to close that deal and help you out, while also having them work for something behind the scenes. The competition really brings out the great relationships between the sales staff, even in an environment such as this.

The show’s editing also makes it a point to not always show the happy endings, with some sales falling through at the last minute, and shots of utter disappointment on the face of both customer and salesman. It’s a tough job, and King of Cars shows the good and bad aspects of it, but the good is the focus of the show and the humor really brings that out.

You may have never heard of King of Cars before, but its definitely one of the most entertaining shows on cable, and this half-hour series would be a great edition to your viewing or DVR habits.