Do the Alaskan Bush People get paid? We asked! Read our interview with the Brown family.
AWESOME and EXXXTREME news: #AlaskanBushPeople are back for Season 3 on Nov. 11! https://t.co/csWIiiibrP pic.twitter.com/pVaPOVz4cS
— Ryan Berenz (@ChannelGuideRAB) October 22, 2015
Alaskan Bush People Season 1 Recaps: Episode 1 | Episode 2 | Episode 3 | Episode 4 | The Wild Life
Season 2 Recaps: Episode 1 | Episode 2 | Episode 3 | Episode 4 | Episode 5 | Episode 6 | Episode 7 | Episode 8 | Wild Times | Episode 9 | Episode 10 | Episode 11 | Episode 12 | Episode 13 | Episode 14 | SHARK WEEK! | Episode 15 | Episode 16 | Lost Footage | The Wild Year
NEW! Is Alaskan Bush People Fake? Does It Matter?
Viewers of Discovery Channel’s Alaskan Bush People have been wondering if the four episodes of the Brown family’s adventures in the wilderness are all they’re going to get. The new show Siberian Cut takes over the Tuesday night time slot and no new episodes of Alaskan Bush People are currently scheduled.
[Update: A new episode of Alaskan Bush People, titled “The Wild Life,” premieres Sunday, June 15, at 10pm ET/PT on Discovery Channel. Based on the show’s description, it sounds like it might be a highlights/recap/additional unaired footage type of show: “After facing unparalleled obstacles, the Browns reflect on their past year of living in the Alaskan Bush while providing surprise revelations about the family’s lifestyle.”
Last seen, the Brown family suffered another setback as the boat they were using to scout a new home in southeast Alaska hit an object, took on water and sank at the dock. The family made it off the boat safely, but were left with an uncertain future.
They can’t possibly let the show end like that, can they?
Well, the news here is that there is no news. According to a Discovery Channel spokesman, the network has not announced whether or not Alaskan Bush People will be returning.
As for the Brown family, all nine of them were in Los Angeles in January for the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour and were on a panel to promote the show, which at the time was scheduled to air on Animal Planet. (So no, they didn’t starve or freeze or anything after their boat went down in Episode 4.) You can learn more about them and see some pretty interesting photos of the family at their official website. Also, do read this article by Zaz Hollander of Alaska Dispatch, who did some investigating into some of the behind-the-scenes aspects of the show that have been debated in these recaps.
At the panel, Billy Brown summed up the origin of his family’s Alaskan adventure as well as how the TV show came into existence:
“I was born in Fort Worth, Texas, and my family died when I was 16, and I kind of hit the road. When Ami and I got together, we traveled all over the place, and we found that as we were going places, we never were really content where we were. We kept getting we’d go to the country, and it wasn’t really enough country. We kept getting deeper and deeper in, and then, when Alaska opened up to us, it was like a it was like a ready made home to us. And when we got up I have written children’s books for my kids and stuff and a book about my life, One Wave at a Time, and our guys went in when you go to the harbor shacks and stuff, we get Internet every once in a while, and our guys went in, Bam especially, and he put a website for the kids’ books. And through that, a guy got in touch with us, and we ended up here. And I am the one that didn’t want to come. …
This is, you know, not what we had planned. We spent 30 years of our lives trying to stay as far away from this kind of stuff as we could, and people. And we discussed it a lot, and I guess … it was Ami that really talked me into it more that we thought it would be cool if people could really see how we live because I don’t think you guys know people who really still live that way, because it’s not a movie. It’s us.”
Photo: Credit: Discovery Channel
My grandmother use to tell me that ‘birds of a feather flock together.’ Based on what I know about the browns I have no desire to flock there and I hope that the final days of ABP are coming to a close. If they are proven to be guilty then I hope the honest people of Ak get justice!
White trash nothing but white trash. They didn’t have a pot to piss in before this show. Is this channel getting that desperate that they have to put these pieces of shit on? I wish they all would get into that piece of shit suburban and drive it off a cliff with all of them in it. I hate all of them! Have a great day you loser billy brown.
they are to always in the Bush but why is the girl thst is called Snow Bird is on a cermerical for cvs? It sure does look like her…I like the show but dad drives me nuts…barking orders….but he does’t do much himslf……whats the deal????I had started watching them on Dicovery .channel…..thank you…would like an answer…please……
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGSI32pXIQ8
http://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/alaskan-bush-people/bios/snowbird-brown/
I am looking forward to the show, (Alaska Bush People) back on the air and watching, everything they have to offer us. The show has great potential, with these young men and their sisters. Mr. and Mrs. Brown, have a very special family, and we all realize it, and wish, we could be apart, of that family, at least I do.
Yeah there was a post a couple of months ago that said show has potential.
Potential is only if Discovery would admit that the shows story is not real…and put more effort into making the plots.
What is “PDF” and do I care?
Should you care? If you do not care if people steal from you then no you should not care.
Short version: it’s money the residents of Ak get every year from the state.
GO TO JAIL FOR WHAT??? What did they do…. in plain english please. I am old with a bit of Alzheimers….K? I love these PEOPLE, not actors….pwoplw. So splain it to me easy like.
Kat
Hi there Kat. I live in Alaska and not only can explain the Alaska State Permanent Dividend to you, but my family and I receive it every year. Going to try to be brief because I have explained it numerous times on different recaps. Not sure if I wouldn’t save time by looking up one of those older post and cutting and pasting. Anyway here going in plain English…
Alaska has lots of oil and very few people who live here. So the state of Alaska back in the 70’s decided that they should take some of the oil money and put it into a savings account. Then in 1982 when the fund had grown into the billions the state government decided to pay a portion of the earnings on that money every year to every resident of Alaska. It varies every year because again it is a portion of the earnings. Some years are good earning years and others are bad. Lowest year was $331.29 in 1984 to a high of $2,069.00 in 2008. Here is the history…
https://pfd.alaska.gov/DivisionInfo/SummaryApplicationsPayments
Again in order to qualify to receive a payment you must be a resident of the state of Alaska. Biggest hurdle is that even if you are a resident you can’t leave the state for more than 180 days per year. So that is what the Browns are being accused of. For four years they were allegedly not living in Alaska, but in Texas. This came to light after people in Texas turned them in for living there. Alaska investigated and found enough evidence to prosecute. There have been thousands of people that have cheated the system and have been caught cheating. Every year when you apply for the dividend, you have to sign a form and have two witnesses sign it also. It is abundantly clear on the form that if you lie about anything you can be prosecuted and will lose you and your witnesses benefits for life. The Browns are accused of stealing over $13,000. So this is not chump change. In fact it in total is 60 class C felony counts against the family. Each count has a maximum of 5 years in jail. Billy is facing 24 counts by himself. So he alone is facing 120 years in prison. This is big time theft over multiple years.
What grinds people in Alaska is think of this as a hat full of money. That money is passed out evenly to everybody. So if you have a bunch of people that shouldn’t get any of that money sticking their hand in that hat, everybody gets less. Also please remember that Alaska is beautiful, but quite expensive to live in. For example my fathers house is a regular house and it costs $7,000 to $8,000 a year just to heat it. Outrageous! So this money is very important to many people to offset the cost of living here.
So this whole thing is not some simple little mistake. It is big time fraud. It honestly isn’t any better than walking into a bank and demanding money from the teller. They made matters worse by lying about it and trying to cover things up. Not only this, but they have left behind a trail of fellow Alaskans that they have taken advantage of and allegedly stolen from.
So when people say how great they are, how they are down to earth, how they are real, blah blah blah, all I can do is shake my head. These are not people that you should be idolizing. These are not people to admire and hope your kids become like them. That this show is 99.99% made up (it is so fake from beginning to end that if you do any research or fact checking it isn’t even disputable at this point), isn’t the bad part. So what if it is made up. Many shows are made up, although this show does take it to new levels. It is the slimy behind the scenes that is so horrible. 60 felony counts? Good gravy!
So at the end of the day just think about what you are rooting for here. So many people go on, and on, and on, about how they love these people but never ask any questions or look into it. All you ever see is what the camera shows you. You see what they want you to see. It is fine to enjoy any show, good or bad, if it entertains you. But how people get emotionally invested in the Browns is beyond me. These people are just putting on a fake scripted play for people. But to start getting emotionally attached and saying you “love” them is pretty crazy. Love your family and friends. Don’t love people that you have never met, spoken to, seen in real life, or will ever have any dealing with. BTW the Browns will go on trial in Ketchikan Alaska in the middle of June. This is all public record. Don’t believe me just google “Alaskan Bush People PFD” and there are lots of stories on this. Hope this helps in understanding what PFD means and what they are charged with.
You folks realize that this show is fake? Right?
Hope the Bush people show comes back on ,
Take the PDF crap and shove it!!!! Put my bush family back on the air.
Sorry Melissa, but when you are charged with 60 class C felonies and up to 300 years in prison, they don’t just sweep it under the rug.
hmmm, come on people take a vote, is Melissa a brown family member, or paid staff from the discovery channel?, personally I think it is one of the brown family girls.
Love this show a lot!! Please keep it going!!!
love the show
I really like the show. I hope the legal stuff is sorted out and thre Browns are back on the show. They aren’t screaming at each other or showing there bodies as so many shows are doing to get the ratings. They seem real, but I wonder???? why they don’t get there teeth fixed. The mother was told she could die from ”not” getting hers fixed. The children do so well it seems but really! NO TEETH IN THE FRONT?. This must be one of the things I would want to fix for my children. I know its expensive but one at a time couldn’t hurt them too much. I’m not being judgmental . Just wondering.
Thanks Brown Family and Discovery Chanel
How could you even throw that in there? Some people don’t have health insurance sometimes people don’t have the money for those kinda things. If you weren’t being “judgemental ” u would have never said it just saying.
Yeah seems like they could have used that $13000 to get the medical care they seem to need. Or the money they used to buy leather coats that aint worth a darn for warmth. Looks to me as if money for medical is there that is being spent on other stuff. Guess it’s all in what your priorities are or are not.
Hallo everybody i live in Holland, and i didn’t know that the Brown family were having trouble with authorities, but i wish them all the luck in the world…they deserve it!!! I hope that they don’t have to stay in prison, it’s unbelievable when people wish that bad things happen to others….if it’s not a positive comment it’s better to keep it to yourselves or just don’t watch it!! Can’t wait for series 3!
What is so wrong about wanting justice? If it involved you would you not want justice?
Nobody wants justice! They want the show to stay on air. Geezee!
I sure hope the bush people come bk on my husband n I enjoy the show alot
We love the show and can’t wait till it comes back on. Would love to know how much money they make for being such a loving, respectful, responsible family.
Also wonder how those grown boys are ever going to find someone that would like to live their life style? they are very well read, so wonder when and if they ever went to normal school. So much is not said, would love to read their biography, can’t find a book about them.
so many questions and so love the show. Wish they would set up a real answer to question session.
I think they made several thousand (I think around $13,000.00) when they lied and stole from the Alaskan government which is why they are up on felony charges.
Maybe when they are sitting in jail they will set up a question and answer session because I have a lot of questions: I would like to know why they feel entitled to steal from the true residents of Alaska. I’d also like to know if there are guilt feelings for all the deceit and dishonesty they have engaged in with their dealings with claiming money they were not entitled to and the lies about living and growing up in the Alaskan wilderness basically the deceit in the entire ABP show.
I’d like to know how each one rationalizes the deceit and dishonesty that has taken them to the point they are at present.
So I hear the Brown family’s court date is this next month. I’m wondering if anybody knows how the Alaskan court system might deal with them if they are found guilty of the charges.
Billy, his wife and three of the sons are charged. If all but the youngest was guilty then she would go into state custody. If it were only the two girls they would be too vulnerable and not be able to make it on their own. This way they have Matt to take care of them, the oldest boy that Billy seems to put in charge a lot. (They would’ve had a better chance with Solomon.) I wonder what they have planned as to how Matt and the girls will survive without Billy giving orders.
How will Billy take to prison life as I hear the prisoners do work within the prison. Will there be a supervisor position for him as that is what he seems to only know how to do?
pay attention, the sons and wife also stole, so way would Alaska have to house a proven “Texan”, let the brown girls go looking to see if texas has a ‘offspring of scummy felons fund’ to suck off of, texas has no desire to help scum, even cute scum. perhaps the texas system drove them out
one son found love but the t.v. show moved to hoonah, so an adult sons love and future took a backseat to billy browns t.v. show, research the papa pilgrim debacle, while thinking billy brown.
I was a neighbor of Billy Brown and his family, Bill, Kathryn and his sister Kathy Jean. My husband was the manager of the Isis Theater Ft. Worth, Texas. He had a talent show on the stage of the theater every Saturday morning and Kathy Jean was his M.C. Billy had a band and played every Saturday. He was such a good looking young man. I wish he would cut that long mustache off. When his mom, dad and Kathy Jean were killed in the plane crash, my family plus many, many others were divested .They were very popular people.
I thought that Billys family was rich! Are you sure it’s the same people?
I love watching the Brown family. The family being thekey word.the 4 b
boy that respect there parents is great. If things are not real well it is t.v. But the family unit and the ability to use there brains for real life. I mean they made a comb from a deer antler.So I do hope they will be back . I will be waiting.
T
I hope to see the show return. I truley enjoy the Brown family.
Matt, just watched the latest show. Question: how do you watch rehab addict in the bush?
My bad..it’s Addict Rehab.
I was just wondering how much a deer liver weighs (two rifles and an empty or partially empty ruck sack.)
I think Billy might want to begin a weight lifting regime or take a course in how to work…which ever applies.
Tressa.. Please keep your inconsiderate comments to yourself. (crackers and cheese with that) Wine and complain to producers not people who watch the stuff already out on tv. What b.s. do you watch?
I don’t like Alaska the last frontier. there’s something about the browns that I really like. they are funny to watch. they don’t seem to know much. they don’t have a huge wood pile stock for the winter even. All these shows should be called entertainment tv, all of them are scripted. Like when Gabe put that bloody deer around his neck, he would have been covered with the blood it dripped after walking all those miles, and smelled real bad too. But his neck & jacket were clean. Oh well, it’s funny to watch that stuff & spot all the stuff we know are fake. I love the show. They are at least smart enough to get on tv & make millions. I guess they can spend it later on & act poor & live off the so called land in the mean time. You gotta give them credit for making that kind of money anyway. Even if they do go to jail.
Did you catch when they were shooting at the deer his scope covers were still on the scope? LOL Or when he attempted to field dress the deer? Om my. Its obvious they have never done this before.
has anyone seen them tag their game or label their crabpots, or does Alaska game and fish have separate laws for the browns, filming yourself poaching is considered evidence of a crime, those deer were shot by the owner of the lodge, yes lodge where the brown family lives, when the locals built their first house they were only the ones directly profiting from the “offseason” discovery channel employees spending cash, the staff of discovery had decided to leave to film in hoonah , and the locals wanted the income stream to stay, remember the pizza parlor, it was only a half mile from their “bush” home and every day they sold food to the filmcrew, this is why these parasites were welcomed, only by those directly making cash off the crewmembers, and shunned by those who dislike the lower 48ers, remember their dates, paid women who are in commited relationships, one is a hoonah policewoman, paid to “date” those boys. can you say prostitute.