R.I.P. Phil Harris--(Deadliest Catch)

[Blancofan1]

Phil Harris died of a massive stroke while in port in Alaska. Admittedly I am a fan of the Deadliest Catch program overall, but Phil was my favorite captain on the show for sure. I really thought he was almost dead from the blood clot he dealt with while filming the show last season. I'm interested to see if they continue featuring his boat on the show and if his two sons are going to continue working on the rig.

[burniebrewer]

That sucks. Deadliest Catch is one of the few TV shows I watch (aside from sports) and I always thought he was the most entertaining captain on the show. I hope his kids take over the boat and carry on the tradition.

[Buckylovesbeer]

This is sad news....I love deadliest catch, and I dont think his kids are cut from the same mold. Good luck to them and the rest of the crew.

 

It will be interesting to see how the show goes about telling this story

[Dragonbait]

They're gonna have to address this on the show.

They are in the middle of Opillio (sp) season.

[jerichoholicninja]

I love the show and feel terrible for the family and crew...

 

however, as morbid as it sounds I am really interested in seeing the reactions of the rest of the crews. Jake's sister died last year while he was out and it hit the crew of the Northwestern really hard, but Phil is well-known and respected among the whole fleet and I'm interested to see how each crew handles it.

[jlau20]

My guess is that they do an After the Catch style episode looking back on Phil. I wonder if they'll do it right away when new episodes start or wait until after they air the king crab episodes.

[jjkoestler]

This is BIG news up here in Alaska. I post a on a few AK fishing/hunting forums and everyone loves him. Apparently he had the world's strongest/most memorable handshake, and was a very likable, down to Earth, and genuine guy.

[danzig6767]

Bummer to hear. Love the show and as others stated, Phil was a favorite of mine.

 

That said, the lifestyle of his being a boat captain which consisted of high stress, little exercise, not enough sleep, chain smoking, and i'd assume a poor diet all had to be brutal on his body.

[RyDogg66]

Yeah, he looked as unhealthy as any 53 year-old I've seen. He seemed genuine though and it is a huge loss for the show, not to mention his family and crew.

[WisconsinSportsRule]

This is some sad news.

 

I thought he was great for the show. Especially with his kids on deck.

[jerichoholicninja]

This Tuesday is the episode where Phil has his stroke. For those keeping up with this season it's been real scary the way Phil has been talking about not being around much longer. I also have had a real problem believing some of the "reality" that's happened. Mainly early in the season when Phil and Sig traded Jakes mid-ocean. That was unbelievably stupid and dangerous.

[brwrsfan]

I would agree, the episode a couple weeks back when he told the camera guy he wasn't going to be around much longer was really creepy. Watching it and knowing he was going to die in a few weeks was really odd. Wonder if he felt sick or what the deal was. He's also had some serious issues with his son Jake this season, this past episode he caught him stealing his drugs and went ballistic on him. Who knows how much time passed between that and his death, but I'd hate to be the son and have that be the last interaction I had with my father.

 

I would also agree on the "Jakes" thing. That was incredibly stupid. There had to be a better way to get them back on their respective boats than to throw them in the water like that. You'd think they'd be in port near the same time or something. They got really lucky nobody got hurt or died in that sequence.

 

I wonder what both the show and the boat do going forward. Does one of the sons take over? Do they sell it? I can't see one son working for the other. Maybe Phil had a will leaving it to one of them? Could either of them do it? Jake probably not. The other one maybe could but neither has much experience driving the boat, dropping pots, etc. Might be tough to maintain. And does the show stay with them without Phil? He was one of the more popular people. I bet they stay for one more season to see how it goes, then maybe replace them if it isn't as good. Kinda like the roving 5th boat they always follow - they usually suck.

[thebruce44]

I would agree, the episode a couple weeks back when he told the camera guy he wasn't going to be around much longer was really creepy. Watching it and knowing he was going to die in a few weeks was really odd. Wonder if he felt sick or what the deal was. He's also had some serious issues with his son Jake this season, this past episode he caught him stealing his drugs and went ballistic on him. Who knows how much time passed between that and his death, but I'd hate to be the son and have that be the last interaction I had with my father.

 

I would also agree on the "Jakes" thing. That was incredibly stupid. There had to be a better way to get them back on their respective boats than to throw them in the water like that. You'd think they'd be in port near the same time or something. They got really lucky nobody got hurt or died in that sequence.

 

I wonder what both the show and the boat do going forward. Does one of the sons take over? Do they sell it? I can't see one son working for the other. Maybe Phil had a will leaving it to one of them? Could either of them do it? Jake probably not. The other one maybe could but neither has much experience driving the boat, dropping pots, etc. Might be tough to maintain. And does the show stay with them without Phil? He was one of the more popular people. I bet they stay for one more season to see how it goes, then maybe replace them if it isn't as good. Kinda like the roving 5th boat they always follow - they usually suck.

I think Phil was always showing the older son his secret spots. My guess would be that they bring in an experienced captain (like Maury? wasn't that the guy who took over for Phil when he had his original stroke) and he kinda takes the older son under his wing.

 

Last weeks episode was one of the best hours of TV I have seen in a while. Jake's father has been missing all season but he hasn't told any of the crew and now Sig found out. Then Phil finds out his son is addicted to pain pills at the end of the episode. Pretty intense stuff. It will be interesting and sad at the same time to see the new episode. As others have said, I hope Jake and Phil at least come to some type of understanding before Phil passes away.

 

[jerichoholicninja]

I read that as Phil was dying he told them to keep filming because he wanted people to see what his lifestyle had did to him. If they leave that in there that will be tough to watch.

[eanelson4]

I think the exchanging of Jake and Josh wasn't as stupid as you guys make it out to be. The water was relatively calm, they were in survival suits (guys can survive for 24+ hours in them), attached to buoys. I guarantee you Sig and Phil wouldn't do anything that would put those kids in serious danger. It seemed very calculated, choreographed, and much safer than trying to get the boats close enough to bring them over with a crane or something.

 

On Phil Harris: These next few weeks are shaping up to be the most compelling in the history of the series. I know I'm dying for next Tuesday to come around. It sounds like they taped basically everything about Phil's last weeks and will show quite a bit. I also read an article -- probably the same as you Jericho -- that talked about how Phil wanted the camera rolling through even the most personal parts of his failing health. Jake and Josh Harris said there isn't anything they want the discovery channel to omit that has been recorded because they want it to be as real as possible and to tell Phil's story. Also, I think they want it to work as a warning to viewers as to what happens when you live in the fast lane/wreckless as many of those fishermen do.

[thebruce44]

I think the exchanging of Jake and Josh wasn't as stupid as you guys make it out to be. The water was relatively calm, they were in survival suits (guys can survive for 24+ hours in them), attached to buoys. I guarantee you Sig and Phil wouldn't do anything that would put those kids in serious danger. It seemed very calculated, choreographed, and much safer than trying to get the boats close enough to bring them over with a crane or something.

They talked about this on "After the Catch.' The anouncer brought it up and said they had a lot of mail asking why they would attempt something so dangerous. Every captain at the table said that was the best way to do it and if they hadn't switched boats, they wouldn't have been able to for the rest of the season. It would have gone smoothly if the weather hadn't picked back up which was kind of unexpected (though is always expected around there).

 

[brwrsfan]

I thought the programming on Discovery was very poor though. At the end of the latest Deadliest Catch episode, Phil is seen having the stroke and taken away in an ambulance - but he is still somewhat talking, the last thing you hear is "I'm not leaving you" or something like that to his son. So they don't really finish the story (I'm assuming that's in the next episode). If you were just a casual viewer of the show you might not know that he passed away. So you'd be very intrigued for the next week's episode.

 

Immediately after the episode they have another "After the Catch" show and they talk about Phil passing away and how his picture is hanging there instead. They hadn't gotten to that on the actual show yet, then told everyone on After the Catch that he had died. Basically just ruined the next episode for those people that hadn't heard the news.

 

Granted, most people probably had, but I still thought it was poor judgement. They shouldn't have shown anything at all or talked about it until after it actually happened on Deadliest Catch. These next few episodes and next season will be very, very interesting though.

[eanelson4]

Brwsfan -- If I'm not mistaken, Phil's health will play an integral part in the next 3 episodes (I believe that's what the article I read stated). I think there will be much more to it than he had a stroke in one episode and dies in the next.

[brwrsfan]

Right, which I think is great. The show should be interesting to watch.

 

But last week, he had a stroke at the end of the show, if you didn't know that he had passed away - the show gave no indication that he didn't make it, just that he had the stroke and got taken away in an ambulance.

 

Immediately after that episode, the "After the Catch" special was on, where all of the captains get together and talk about the show and the season and whatnot. During that show, they basically said Phil had died and there was a picture of him at the table.

 

The Deadliest Catch show has not yet said that he died (and as you said, will have 2-3 more episodes on it) but the After the Catch did so before the actual Deadliest Catch show got to it - ruined some of the drama of the next couple of episodes for those people that didn't know he had died.

[jwill535]

In their defense, TDC made a pretty big deal out of him dieing when he did. If you were a fan of the show, you knew it had happened.

[thebruce44]

In their defense, TDC made a pretty big deal out of him dieing when he did. If you were a fan of the show, you knew it had happened.

Yea, its not really a reality game show or anything. It is more of a documentary on the lives that these guys lead. After the catch has always been about them further explaining what you see on the show together. They have to film it after the season ends of course and they can't exactly ask the skippers to not give out spoilers.

 

I guess I don't see it as a very big deal. I don't think a lot of viewers watch the show in anticipation of a beginning, middle, and end.

[brwrsfan]

Couldn't they have easily just aired the After the Catch episodes later in the season? After we all knew he died? They could have avoided it if they wanted to, that's all I'm saying and it ruined it for at least one "semi" fan.

 

My wife watches it with me sometimes, and she had no idea and was mildly disappointed with how they handled it.

[Barbs4339]

I have no problem with the way it's been handled, and in many ways to me, knowing that he died makes it even more compelling to watch and that much more sad watching his kids reaction and how the other captains are reacting during this rare "reality TV" moment. Knowing that he did not survive this, makes me very teary eyed thinking about my own father and my kids while they are showing this footage. Yes his lifestyle and occupation clearly led to this result, but it does not make it any less sad.

[jerichoholicninja]

If they held everyone in suspense over whether or not he died I think that would be rather tacky. They would be profiting over a man's death. Yes they still are but instead of ending each episode with "Will he or won't he? Tune in next week!" they flat our told us from the start he died. Like someone said, this is a documentary, not really a reality series.

[thebruce44]

Couldn't they have easily just aired the After the Catch episodes later in the season? After we all knew he died? They could have avoided it if they wanted to, that's all I'm saying and it ruined it for at least one "semi" fan.

 

My wife watches it with me sometimes, and she had no idea and was mildly disappointed with how they handled it.

He isn't a character being killed off a sitcom. A real man died.

 

This extends well outside of the show and the stories they are telling on the actual program. Its real life. The news came out so that everyone knows and of course they are going to tell you. They aren't trying to build suspense, they are trying to show how much he will be missed. If you are looking for suspense or a reason to tune in next week you are looking in the wrong direction.