What were wild animal shows like before Steve Irwin brought the world up close with its first snapping crocodile?

Can anyone remember the time when nature shows were purely just footage of some guy on a safari pointing off into the distance and saying “look over there it’s an animal of some kind”?

Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter was the first nature TV show host that got up close and personal with real dangerous wild animals. Never before had the TV watching populace see a man jump in to a swamp and wrestle out a three-foot crocodile.

We all thought he was crazy. I would always joke that he would come to his end when at the teeth of a crocodile. Everyone would sit around and joke that one of these times he wasn’t going to come out so lucky.

The moment that TV audience heard him say “Crikey that hurt,” or “She’s just a little ornery” people would scoot to the edge of their couch and wait for that horrific moment when the crocodile, alligator or whatever would bite down on Steve then the show would cut to black.

But that moment never came, Steve never got the comeuppance we all thought he would. No matter how dangerous, how crazy the situation got Steve and his team would come out of each episode just as safe as they were at the start.

In the back of our mind we all thought that Steve was invincible. He seemed immortal, the Greek god of teeth and claws, scales and shells.

When the news broke late Sunday night in to early Monday morning that Steve Irwin had died while producing a new documentary is seem almost impossible. For Steve to be killed it had to have been a 20-foot croc at the very least, but low and behold he did by accidentally getting to close to a sting ray — a sting ray, not a croc, a shark or some other “man”-eating animal.

Believe it or not this seems like a fitting end, don’t get me wrong I never wish that Steve died, but his death really had to come about by something small and normally not deadly.

If a large dangerous beast would have ended his life, it would have tarnished his image. Having a small insignificant sting ray get the best of him completes the fable. Steve has become Achilles, invincible to many a stronger and deadlier beast, but caught unaware by something not as deadly.

With reality TV’s power waning, what will it be remembered for? Will audiences remember it for displeased wives, horrible singers or conniving interns?

Or shall it be remembered for that actual spots of decent programming that crawled out from the mass of garbage. With a hope the mention of reality TV will spur for moments from “The Crocodile Hunter” in our minds, visions of eight strapping Aussies jumping onto a 13-foot crocodile, being lead by a smiling man in with sandy hair.

I hope that Steve is remember not by his demise but the shear love for animals that shown through in his smile each time he encountered a new animal.

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