How It's Made is a Canadian television documentary series created by Gabriel Hoss and produced by Productions MAJ showing how common, everyday items (including foodstuffs, industrial products, musical instruments and sporting goods) are manufactured.
The series premiered in Canada on Discovery Channel Canada in 1999. There are 13 half-hour episodes in each season.
How It's Made airs in South Africa on DStv's Discovery Channel.
Season 10 premiered on Discovery on Monday 21 July 2008, at 19h30. New episodes air weekdays at the same time. There are 13 half-hour episodes in the tenth season.
Repeats
Weekdays: 00h00, 04h40, 14h40
Synopsis
Ever wonder how everyday objects are manufactured? How It's Made answers all of your questions. This series looks at how the most ordinary and mundane things are made.
The style of the show is simple, and the pictures tell the stories of how things are made.
From hockey pucks and hand saws to drill bits and frozen French fries, How It's Made offers viewers a first-hand look at how these deceptively simple objects are constructed.
Thousands of humdrum items are put to good use on a daily basis, but it's easy to overlook how things like aluminium ladders, firefighter's helmets, matches and engine blocks are constructed.
How It's Made visits dozens of assembly lines where raw materials become finished products right before the viewer's eyes.
In each episode of the series, viewers see how many common items are manufactured in high-tech factories around the world.
Narrators
The first season of How It's Made was narrated by former Canadian swimmer Mark Tewksbury. Since Season 2 the series has been narrated instead by a variety of narrators:
Season 2-4: Lynn Herzeg
Season 5: June Wallack
Season 6-: Lynne Adams
Additionally, a different voice-over track is recorded for U.S. audiences by Brooks T. Moore (Seasons 1-8) or Zac Fine (since Season 9).
The main difference in the versions is that the U.S. host gives units of measurement in United States customary units instead of metric units.
In the UK, rest of Europe, S.E. Asia and Africa, the series is narrated by Tony Hirst.