- [Brian] Oh, it's trying to eat your fingernail.
- [Bruce] Yeah, I think he's actually
trying to consume my fingernail.
- Half the time I was fighting back tears, I had chills.
(dynamic upbeat music)
Hey, good morning, everybody, welcome to the vlog.
Today is actually the premiere
of the Irwin family show on the Animal Planet
and here at the Reptarium, we actually have
a Premiere Night, where people are coming to watch it,
but we have a lot to do before then,
we still have to get the Reptarium together,
get all kinds of things done
and we have to open up for the day,
so regardless we have a lot of work,
what do you say we get going?
Might as well get started by feeding some frogs.
(dynamic upbeat music)
I wanted to show you guys really quick
these giant day geckos, they are so fun to watch eat.
Well, if I'm gonna talk about the Irwins
and in particular, Steve Irwin,
I guess I'll start with an Australian snake
like this Woma python here.
What did Steve Irwin mean to me?
The truth is is that, you know, I was into reptiles
far before Steve Irwin made it onto TV,
but yet he inspired me so much with his passion.
I often said that the fact that he loved crocodiles so much
is the reason why when you go into a toy store
and there's stuffed animal crocodiles,
I mean, before Steve Irwin,
people were terrified of crocodiles,
you would never see a crocodile in a store for a kid,
but Steve's passion for crocodiles
made other people love them.
Although my journey into the reptile world
for the last 30 years was not sparked by Steve Irwin,
it was still very affected by him,
just the things that he did
and the truth is when Steve Irwin passed,
I never intended on doing the internet
or doing any television at all
and let me start by saying there is no way,
that I ever wanted to take Steve Irwin's spot
or be the next Steve Irwin, 'cause it's like I've said,
there is really the no next Steve Irwin or is there?
I've been saying this for the last
probably five or six years,
that if there is the next Steve Irwin,
it's probably gonna be his son, Robert Irwin,
because he has the same enthusiasm,
but he's still pretty young,
so I am pretty excited to finally get the first show,
that has Robert Irwin in it
and of course, Bindi and Terri and all that too,
I am super excited to see how this turns out.
But first let's back up a little bit,
I have said that I didn't wanna be the next Steve Irwin,
because again I think that would almost be
an insult to his legacy, he was such an amazing person
and I realize not everyone agreed with the things he did,
but who could possibly agree with the guy's passion
and the fact is that when Steve Irwin died,
the reason I started Snake Bytes TV,
the first internet show that I did
was because I felt that no one was stepping up
and doing anything about it,
again it wasn't because I thought,
oh well, maybe I can be the next Steve Irwin,
what it was was I thought if I just did a little bit
and a bunch of other people did a little bit,
maybe we could just fill a little bit of the vacuum
that was formed, when Steve died,
again never thinking that I would take his spot
and I never thought I could take his spot,
I just thought that if I even a little bit
got people to love these animals as much as he did,
I was gonna be making some sort of a impact
and that's why I started YouTubing.
So weirdly enough, even with Steve Irwin's death,
he inspired people, he inspired me
and he continues to inspire people all these years
and now the next step in that inspiration
is starting tonight with the Irwin family
reality show on Animal Planet.
I am hoping for the best
and I think that the Irwin family wouldn't do anything
that would be too hokey or overproduced,
so I honestly have pretty high hopes for this show.
But I've been around television
and on television enough to know
that sometimes you can have an amazing idea,
you can film amazing things
and then somewhere along the way,
things get a little bit hokey and a little bit overproduced.
In this case, I don't think that's gonna be happening,
because the Irwin family has enough cache behind their name,
that I'm sure they have a lot of control,
just like Steve did,
Steve literally controlled all of his content,
he didn't let someone in an executive board room
decide what his content was gonna look like,
so I'm pretty sure you're gonna see
the same thing tonight on Animal Planet.
So here's the deal, we actually open up here
relatively soon at the Reptarium,
we're only open for like four hours tonight,
because we're getting ready for a bunch of people,
we sold 20 tickets for people to sit around,
eat pizza, drink some sodas and actually watch
the Irwin family premiere on Animal Planet.
Afterwards I will give you guys a comprehensive review
of what I felt about it, was it a great show,
what's the future of the series,
will I be watching, should you be watching?
I know some of you guys don't have cable,
so will you watch it online?
I will give you my honest opinion of what it is.
Yes, I have high expectations,
but yes, I also realize it is television
and we just don't know what's gonna happen,
but I will tell you this, when Steve Irwin died,
the entire era of animal programming died along with him,
that's right, you guys remember Jeff Corwin, Austin Stevens,
Mark O'Shea, Nigel Marven, the likes of such,
they all lost their shows, when Steve died,
because what happened when Steve died,
the networks decided to pull the plug
on that type of programming and for over a decade now,
we kind of had pretty much garbage television,
when it comes to education
or entertaining animal programming.
What I'm about to say
is just with my background in television,
when a successful show happens, more shows will follow,
so if the Irwin family reality show does well,
there will be other animal shows like it
and we will get away from those
overproduced, sensational animal shows,
that we've been seeing for over the last decade
and we may get back to seeing some amazing things.
So you guys might think, oh, it's just another show,
but the fact is this could be the beginning
of another great era of animal programming on television.
Now with that said, you guys are probably a lot like me
and say hey, you know what?
I don't even watch television, I don't have cable,
I don't whatever, but the fact is
there still are some people in trend or trends,
I am a big proponent of YouTube obviously,
I don't have to have an executive producer,
I don't have to have a network,
I don't have to have anyone telling me what to do,
I listen to you guys, you guys tell me what you want
and then I try my best to fulfill what you guys wanna do
and that's how it works, television is different,
but that doesn't mean that we don't want
that to be successful, because if we do,
we could really be bringing a whole new generation
of people, that love animals and aren't afraid of animals,
'cause the one thing I know,
no matter how good, bad or otherwise
the Irwin family show is,
it's not gonna be sensational
and it's not gonna paint animals in a bad light.
So again, there it is, enough said,
now you know where I stand.
Again, we're gonna open up the Reptarium,
we are gonna have an awesome night
watching the Irwin family show on Animal Planet
and then I will sit down
and give you a review of what I think.
What do you say we get our last things done
here at the Reptarium and open up for another fun night.
So it's definitely been a crazy night
to start here at the Reptarium,
we've got people from all over the place,
people from Orlando, people from Indianapolis,
all over the place,
we've had no less than about five or six people,
that have already held their first snakes,
you sir, you've held a snake,
but this is the first big snake?
- Yeah, this is the first big snake,
that I've held by myself. - Oh my gosh!
So literally at least five people,
you held your first snake, didn't you?
- Yes, I did. - You were a little scared?
- I was nervous, but it, - You did good.
- She did real good. - and I think I might
hold Perdida next. - Oh my gosh,
so she's gonna hold Perdida, she just held the piebald,
so that is awesome, this has been a really fun night
and we're just getting started.
How you doing? - Good.
- You alright? - Yeah.
- See, she's fine, right? - Such a good job.
- Real good, good job. - Good job.
- Oh, my God. - Look at him go.
- That's the one that's-- - Look at him go.
- Hi, honey. - Oh, she's beautiful.
- She's gorgeous.
- So remember when I took the black headed python
off the other day and I said it's just not quite ready?
(laughing)
This is why it's not quite ready,
so Bruce of course, he works here,
he's great with these animals, he's completely,
oh, it's trying to eat your fingernail.
- [Bruce] Yeah, I think he's actually
trying to consume my fingernail.
- [Brian] Yeah, you might wanna try to get him off.
- [Bruce] Okay, let me go get help.
- Good luck, good luck, Bruce, good luck.
That is why we haven't been taking him out
and showing him to other people,
he's a little cheeky monkey,
so I will continue to work with him,
we'll get bit, we won't let other people get bit,
but that's exactly why we didn't do it in the past.
Hoo, doggy, what a night here at the Reptarium,
we're so busy, it was so amazing, it's incredible,
but we are about to shut down
and then the Irwin premiere happens in about 35 minutes,
so I'm excited to see this,
I'm excited to see how this changes things in the future.
Let's go ahead and wrap things up at the Reptarium
and get ready for the premiere.
We've been just kind of pre-gaming
with the Steve Irwin stuff,
I tell you, this has got me so amped up, it's incredible.
Are you guys as excited as I am?
(cheering)
So we're gonna turn off the lights here and watch this
and I will give you that comprehensive review
on the other side.
So we're about halfway through so far
and I'm gonna be honest with you,
again I'll talk about this at the end,
but I couldn't be more happy,
I think the show is unbelievable, I mean, I've had chills,
some tears have been in my eyes, it's been amazing,
I mean, how do you guys feel, I mean, is it cool?
- I think it's awesome. - Awesome.
- What about you guys? - It's great.
- [Brian] Oh, my God, I'm so glad you guys.
- Dude, this is awesome, I love it.
- I tell you what, Animal Planet, you've redeemed yourself
for anyone that didn't like them, as far as I'm concerned,
again another half hour or so to go,
wow, I mean, just wow.
- [Robert] At Australia Zoo,
it's not just looking at animals, you're right in with them.
- Wow, I mean, you know, it's so crazy
to really, you know, see that show
and I don't know what the ratings are gonna be like,
I've mentioned that if they're good ratings,
Animal Planet and other networks
are gonna do similar shows like that,
but to me, I've been to Australia Zoo,
I've talked with Steve's Dad, Bob Irwin,
who's a friend of mine, I've seen the crocoseum.
To see the family really carrying on Steve's work,
the person that probably made the most impact on them,
direction in life, it was shocking,
I mean, I can't tell you how much I loved the show,
I don't know what other people are gonna think,
I don't know anything, but it was great, you know,
we saw that Robert is emerging to be the next Steve Irwin,
like I said, his family is supporting him.
To me, this was exactly what I was hoping for,
I mean, it had great story, it had great character,
we had Wes, I didn't know Wes was gonna be in there,
Steve's best friend, it was, to me, it was great,
it think the production company did fantastic,
kudos to Animal Planet,
I know they've taken a lot of hate over the years,
since Steve has died from animal lovers,
this was a step in the right direction.
Now I can only hope that they continue on like this,
I mean, I just know that to me,
half the time I was fighting back tears, I had chills,
I hope that, you know, if you guys watched it, you liked it,
let me know in the comments, if you did watch it,
what you thought about it
and hopefully this is like a new dawn of a new era,
so good for you, Irwins, good for you
for fighting through all of the things
and emerging so amazing, you are the future of wildlife,
you are the future of conservation
and I'm so glad to see that the Irwins are back
and they're gonna really inspire a new generation of people
just like Steve did, so with that said,
I'm emotionally drained, it's been an incredible day.
Let me know again on the comments what you feel
and I'm gonna go ahead and end the vlog here
and wish you guys a great evening, night,
whenever you happen to be watching.
As always, your support means the world to me
and I truly, truly do love you so much,
I'm more inspired than I've ever been.
Can you do me a couple of favors,
before you get out of here?
Can you smash that like button,
turn those post notifications on,
leave a comment down below,
let me know something amazing about you guys,
be kind to someone
and I promise I will see you guys tomorrow.
(dynamic upbeat music)