UFO Epiphany!

So, 15 months after we taped the interview, my segment about Dr. Hynek and the swamp gas incident was finally shown in tonight's episode of "Mysteries at the Monument" on The Travel Channel, and I am happy to say I'm pretty pleased with the final result.

Nice shirt, eh? I bought that especially for the interview. My wife says it brings out the blue in my eyes.

The producer of the segment texted me during the show and said, "Well, they oversimplified it." That's true, but not surprising. It's a pretty complicated story, and getting all the twists and turns and betrayals and sex scenes in an eight-minute segment would have been impossible. Okay, there aren't any sex scenes, but there is a lot of skullduggery that didn't make it onscreen.

So, there are some mistakes -- the Congressional hearing took place in '66, not '68 -- and there are some lapses, and somehow the oversimplification seemed to make the narrative more complex. My only significant issue is that they made it seem as though Hynek changed his mind about UFOs overnight, which I had worked very hard to argue against with the producer. In retrospect, I should have seen that coming; they wanted a dramatic moment -- an epiphany! -- not a plodding, decade-long process...

But, I can correct that in the book, and in the talk I give next March in Michigan. In that sense, tonight's show was sort of a warm-up to the main event!