Worthy Belize TV Appearances
Being a small, relatively inconspicuous nation as far as media goes usually means that Belize sightings on tv are very few, and very far between, and that also means that when we do catch a glimpse of The Land of the Free, for better or for worse, we tend to get a little bit excited.
The above being said, we could probably count on our digits how many times Belize has been seen in mainstream media. Here are the eight Belize TV appearances we think are the coolest:
Breaking Bad
Starting this list off with a bang is probably the most famous and widely known mention. Breaking Bad was a total hit and in episode 10 of season 5 nearing the climax of the show, Walt, being angry at Skylar for talking to Hank, goes over his options with his lawyer Saul Goodman. Saul then suggests if Walt has “considered sending him to Belize?” at which Walt is outraged. That line caught us all by surprise, and fans of the show here were somewhat taken aback for a moment resounding a collective “did he just say Belize?”.
Criminal Minds: Crossing Borders
This mention made it onto the list simply for being so bad and inaccurate that it’s even comical (to us at least). The tenth episode of the show’s first season revolved around a vacationing couple who go missing in; you guessed it, Belize. The entire premise already had us looking sideways but we looked on patiently waiting for scenes of our jewel to take air only to see Florida beaches and unrecognizable mountain roads – bummer. What was Belize was about ten seconds of footage leaving the airport with our “Thanks for visiting Belize” sign, so much for “crossing borders”.
Bizarre foods
This seemed bizarre to us, nothing about Belizean food is bizarre… is it? Andrew Zimmern is a famed travel writer, chef and food critic, which makes it no wonder that he got a show on travel channel. In one of their later installments after the show’s popularity skyrocketed they decided to make a stop in little (soon to be world famous) Belize.
The Bachelor
Being a long running TV show, with several spin-offs the writers behind The Bachelor are bound to have run out of ideas by now. Back in October 2011, however, they pulled quite the novel idea out of their hats and decided to shoot an episode of their show in Belize. Bachelor Ben Flanjik and his bevy of eager matches came to Belize for some days of island decadence in Ambergris Caye’s San Pedro town, Caye Caulker, Altun Ha and the great blue hole. it was a weekend of romantic walks on the beach, couples high adrenaline adventure and ultimately a heartbreak or two.. but hey, they were in paradise right?!
Wild Boyz
Steve-o, Johnny Knoxville, Chris Pontius and select others from the crew of jackass on MTV. They star in a show much like the movie and series that brought them to fame, except now centered around ridiculous stunts with wild animals. Where better to find wild exotic animals than in Belize? The cast visited the zoo and they were given rare encounters with the residents therein among which the tapir, jaguarundi, and the Jabiru Stork. In true Wild Boyz fashion. they proceed to interact with the wild denizens in rather questionable ways that most of the time ended in hilarity. Worth a look if you want a laugh but never try those things at home.
Shahs Of Sunset
The Shahs of Sunset is a reality TV show, or surreality if you will, centered around young affluent Persian-Americans living in Los Angeles, California. In the tenth episode of the show’s fifth season, the group makes a trip to beautiful little Belize in an attempt to “save” the marriage of one of their friends. As is normal with these shows drama ensues at quite a few turns of the plot. The cool thing about this drama series is that it was actually shot in and around Belize, unlike a previous mention and shows many of our beautiful vistas and while not enough to satisfy our residents living away who miss home it is worth a look for some scenery!
Man Vs Wild
In Man VS Wild a seasoned explorer purposely strands himself in dangerous wilderness off the beaten path of traveled destinations to show travelers what to do in the case of a trip gone horribly wrong. Bear Grylls comes to Belize and gets dropped off so to speak at the top of the 1000ft falls. His aim is to show people best practices in the wilderness and how to find civilization again to get help. In this episode, Bear makes a dangerous trek down the side of the waterfall, gets confronted by a huge boa constrictor and tries his best to make a raft that will float him down to town. We truly get to see the wild side of Belize waiting just beyond where we dare to trek.
Naked and Afraid
Naked and Afraid is another survival show, but not quite like Man VS Wild. Two people, a man, and a woman are put in the middle of the jungles of Belize for 21 days, with no supplies and for some reason no clothing. For the next three weeks, this pair must hunt, forage, scavenge and fight to survive the challenges that the environment places them in. In the Belize episode, Aaron and Kacie spend their time fighting the jungle, falling trees fer-de-lance snakes, bees, and bot flies in what is truly an extreme time trekking through here. This episode as well shows how truly wild Belize still is, how much of our natural habitat we have kept and how undisturbed some parts still are.
Oceans 11
Oceans 11 is a was a reboot of a 1960s film back in the early 2000’s. The plot centered around Danny Ocean a con-man played onscreen by George Clooney who gets out of prison and rallies up a team of old colleagues (so to speak) to perform a heist on a casino in Las Vegas. With the prospect of walking away with $150M in cash, they all pull together to make this all happen. Danny Ocean’s right-hand man is Rusty Ryan played by Bead pitt. Rusty is seen eating fast food of some sort in every scene of the movie and in the scenes where Danny and Rusty are trying to get Ruben in on the plan, Ruben agrees and mentions that he owes them for a previous incident. Danny tries to play it off as nothing but Rusty blurts out “I’d never been to Belize…”. Brad, now would be as good a time as any! 🙂
Did you see some other cool feature about Belize on TV? Let us know by commenting below! 🙂
There have been at least 4 episodes on HGTV shot in Belize!
Linda, from Placencia
Hey Linda! thanks for mentioning HGTV – we will update this blog post soon and will include it! 🙂 – Roberto
Family Jewels with Gene Simmons. He proposed to his girlfriend on the dock at Victoria House.
That must have been one heck of a romantic proposal – Thanks for mentioning it to us, we’ll check it out! 🙂 -Jared
Belize was mentioned in “Better Call Saul” – in a heartbreaking scene where Saul is calling Bingo at a senior citizens’ home…
//As he pulls B ball after B ball, quickly losing the little sanity he had left – whatever wasn’t attached to the dignity he’d been stripped of by his brother and law firm – you wouldn’t have been alone if you were hoping or expecting him to to say those magic words: “B as in Breaking Bad” (or some possibly more subtle variation). Instead, we got a different B word:
Yup, B as in Belize. “Beautiful place,” he says. “So I’ve heard. I would love to go there. But let’s face it, that’s never gonna happen.” Let’s hope this is a reference to the actual Belize, and not Breaking Bad’s euphemistic Belize. You know, “where Mike went.”// -http://www.pajiba.com/tv_reviews/what-those-better-call-saul-easter-eggs-tell-us-about-jimmy-mcgills-future.php
We’ll go ahead and take it as a reference to the actual Belize 🙂 – Thanks for mentioning Kathleen! – Jared
American Dad episode when they have a company retreat in Belize.
Indeed it did! So did Bob’s burgers when they were relaxing on the beach 🙂 – Thanks for mentioning it, we’ll update this post to include it! – Jared
Mad Dogs show on Amazon Prime!
That is really cool! A crime show that was actually shot here – Thanks for mentioning it, we’ll update this post to include it – 🙂 Jared
Although Mad Dogs claimed to take place in Belize, only a few clips were taken here and many things were way off. I think it was filmed in Puerto Rico. I was disappointed in how the country was portrayed – I’m not sure it will attract tourists 🙁
The series Mad Dog is based in Belize and shows Belize in it although most of it was filmed in Puerto Rico.
Belize was mentioned by Carmen Cortez (Alexa Vega) in Spy Kids. The first movie.