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The Worst Episodes of Modern Marvels

Every episode of Modern Marvels ranked from worst to best. Explore the Worst Episodes of Modern Marvels!

The Worst Episodes of Modern Marvels

HISTORY’s longest-running series moves to H2. Modern Marvels celebrates the ingenuity, invention and imagination found in the world around us. From commonplace items like ink...
  1. Background image for Cruise Ships
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    #1 - Cruise Ships

    S1:E4

    A large machine turned water city, cruise ships are exciting and new.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  2. Background image for Las Vegas
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    #2 - Las Vegas

    S2:E3

    Rising from a stretch of desert with nothing but remoteness to recommend it, Las Vegas became a glittering wonderland for dreamers. We’ll take a look at the forces that made Las Vegas a place unlike any on earth.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  3. Background image for Ocean Liners
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    #3 - Ocean Liners

    S2:E8

    With technological advances, our ancient struggle against the sea has turned into a luxurious holiday. Come aboard for a peek at the elegant life on these floating resorts.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  4. Background image for Space Shuttle
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    #4 - Space Shuttle

    S3:E1

    Considered by many to be the most astounding machine ever built, this reusable spaceship is the apex of flight technology. This program recounts the challenges and the critical issues that led to NASA’s decision to create an “airplane” to navigate space.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  5. Background image for Brooklyn Bridge
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    #5 - Brooklyn Bridge

    S3:E2

    It was an engineering feat of almost miraculous proportions and a design of spectacular elegance. Rare photographs and behind-the-scenes stories recall the politics, the struggles, and the tragedies that made possible “the Eighth Wonder of the World”.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  6. Background image for Tunnels
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    #6 - Tunnels

    S3:E3

    There is no more potent demonstration of man’s resolve than the design and construction of tunnels–avenues that slice through a conspiracy of elements in the single-minded determination to connect two points. Whether underwater, blasted through solid rock, or negotiating the shifting strata of earth’s unstable crust, we explore the design and engineering of famous tunnels…and the motivation behind them.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
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  8. Background image for Tennessee Valley Authority
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    #7 - Tennessee Valley Authority

    S3:E4

    During the depths of the Great Depression, it was FDR’s greatest triumph: A massive public works project that took a 40,000 square mile, disaster-prone river basin, and turned it into a model of industrial progress.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  9. Background image for Oil
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    #8 - Oil

    S3:E5

    From the first well in Pennsylvania to the gushing Spindletop and modern supertankers, the story of oil is the story of civilization as we know it. We’ll take a look at the ingenious and outrageous men who risked everything for “black gold” and unimaginable wealth.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  10. Background image for Silver Mines
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    #9 - Silver Mines

    S3:E6

    It was called the "mother lode", a deposit of silver so massive that it would produce $300-million in its first 25 years of operation, establish Nevada as a state, and bankroll the Union Army in the Civil War. Named after an early investor, we'll see how the Comstock Lode, discovered near Virginia City, proved to be a scientific laboratory from which vast improvements in mining technology and safety were pioneered, including innovations in drilling, ventilation, drainage, and ore processing.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  11. Background image for The NYC Subway
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    #10 - The NYC Subway

    S3:E7

    A trip through time on the New York Subway beginning at the beginning– October 1904. We look at New York before the subway–a world of horse carts and elevated trains. We see early impractical experiments in transportation like the pneumatic subway or the elevated cable car. The program will deal with the technology of the subway, the construction, and financing. We look at subway stations and equipment.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  12. Background image for The Railroads That Tamed the West
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    #11 - The Railroads That Tamed the West

    S3:E8

    The year was 1869 and America had just completed the greatest building achievement in its history–the Transcontinental Railroad. A thin ribbon of steel and wood now connected East and West. But the fledgling country now faced an even greater challenge–how to harness the awesome potential of the railroad to tame the still wide-open and wild West.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  13. Background image for Paving America
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    #12 - Paving America

    S3:E9

    The story of the construction of our grand national highway system, from its beginnings in 1912 (it was conceived by auto and headlight tycoons) to its completion in 1984 (when the last stoplight was removed–and buried).

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  14. Background image for The Alaskan Oil Pipeline
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    #13 - The Alaskan Oil Pipeline

    S3:E12

    Being starved by an OPEC embargo, America is desperate for oil, and in 1973 construction begins on a 800 mile pipeline, tapping into Alaskan oil to quench their insatiable oil hunger.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  15. Background image for Polio Vaccine
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    #14 - Polio Vaccine

    S5:E1

    When “poliomyelitis” swept the nation, thousands died or were disabled before American ingenuity, trial and error, and blatant acts of desperation led to one of the greatest scientific breakthroughs in history. We’ll see how polio shaped the vision of FDR, and catapulted the young unknown doctor Jonas Salk to international celebrity.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  16. Background image for The Motion Picture
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    #15 - The Motion Picture

    S5:E2

    The complete story of the feuds, the mistakes, ingenuity, and successes that made movies possible–and kept Edison at the front of the inventor pack. Includes rare early films from the Edison Studios.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  17. Background image for Satellites.
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    #16 - Satellites.

    S5:E3

    Strong enough to survive their fiery launch into orbit, sophisticated enough to provide life-saving images or relay tens of thousands of phone calls at the same time. By monitoring weapons systems and troop movements, these "eyes in the sky" may be the difference between security and annihilation. From the futuristic visions of a British sci-fi writer to creations of a German rocket designer for the Nazi war machine to the Cold War technological race, we review the satellites that link our world.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  18. Background image for Radio: Out Of Thin Air
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    #17 - Radio: Out Of Thin Air

    S5:E4

    To some it was a miracle. Others call it the triumph of illiteracy. Somewhere between adoration and scorn. Somewhere between the carrier pigeon and television. There was and is radio. We take radio for granted. Perhaps think of it as a second rate medium. A poor relation to our pride and joy, television. But fewer than a hundred years ago, the discovery that people could communicate over great distances without wires, galvanized the world to a degree that has been equalled.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  19. Background image for The Electric Light
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    #18 - The Electric Light

    S5:E5

    Probably Thomas Edison’s best-known invention is the electric light. But the familiar light bulb is only the most obvious element of Edison’s accomplishment. He also created from scratch a delivery system for his light. His invention literally changed the world, putting the power of electricity at our fingertips. In 1878, Edison said: “The electric light is the light of the future. And it will be my light.” This is the story of how he and his team raced against competitors to make good his word.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  20. Background image for The Phonograph
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    #19 - The Phonograph

    S5:E6

    Thomas Edison registered over 1,000 patents, but his favorite invention was one of his first. Rare photographs and early recordings show how the young inventor and his team outfoxed Alexander Graham Bell.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  21. Background image for Great Towers in the Sky
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    #20 - Great Towers in the Sky

    S5:E7

    Viewer discretion is advised for those with vertigo! Featuring rare construction footage and interviews with steely-nerved iron workers who risked death to build them, we climb to the top of the world's tallest, most innovative, and most thrilling structures, including Seattle's Space Needle, Toronto's CN Tower, and Las Vegas's Stratosphere. The architects who designed these astounding buildings explain how each broke the boundaries of architecture at the time it was built.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  22. Background image for Household Wonders.
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    #21 - Household Wonders.

    S5:E8

    Reviews the revolution in home improvement and glimpses the kitchen of tomorrow. Included: the development of the stove, sewing machine, refrigerated air, washing machine, vacuum cleaner, toaster, and mixer.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  23. Background image for Radar
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    #22 - Radar

    S5:E9

    Examines the history of radar, focusing on its role in the Allies’ victory in WWII–from the Chain Home Network, rudimentary radar towers that ringed England’s eastern coast, to the role of Boston’s MIT in developing a smuggled English secret, the cavity of magnetron.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  24. Background image for Forensic Science: The Crime Fighter's Weapon.
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    #23 - Forensic Science: The Crime Fighter's Weapon.

    S5:E10

    From Sherlock Holmes' examination of the physical evidence at a crime scene to today's DNA technology, we review the history of crime detection through the use of forensic science.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  25. Background image for The Stock Exchange
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    #24 - The Stock Exchange

    S5:E11

    Welcome to the center of the American economy, where nearly $90-million changes hands each minute. Journey back to the wooden wall, built to hold back Indians, where early traders signed a pact creating the New York Stock Exchange; watch worldwide markets quake with the crash of 1929; and visit today’s computer-driven wonder.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown
  26. Background image for NORAD: The War Game Fortress
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    #25 - NORAD: The War Game Fortress

    S5:E12

    Journey inside the top-secret headquarters of NORAD–the North American Aerospace Defense Command–a binational military command composed of the United States and Canada. Established in 1958 during the height of the Cold War, NORAD’S initial mission was air defense against a bomber attack by the Soviet Union. We see how its primary mission has changed through the years, and go inside the Cheyenne Mountain Operations Center, one of history’s most ambitious underground building projects.

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    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

Worst Episodes Summary

"Cruise Ships" is the worst rated episode of "Modern Marvels". It scored /10 based on 0 votes. Directed by Unknown and written by Unknown, it aired on 3/20/1994. This episode scored 0.0 points lower than the second lowest rated, "Las Vegas".