do you think they’re grounded in any kind of truth?
Some of it maybe. But the best lie is one with some truth in it.
What are your opinions on the shows on things like the History Channel
If you look at the info on the channel on most boxes. The shows will say reality in quotes or something (so it's classify as a reality TV show).
Look up Adams Knows Everything Hollywood show. It got into some of the behind the works. Like the bush people living in major cities, and driving around 100k cars. The editing being messed with. How the shows are really forced, and they even have writers.
Basically, reality TV is fake as all out.
The sad thing is, people tend to believe the crap just because the person is on TV or it is in a video. I have my own YouTube channel
https://www.youtube.com/user/TechRHelp
I've told people a few things to help them out in business and with technology. I've been told that I'm lying when I told them something face to face. Later, I recorded myself giving the exact same advice to upload it to the channel. They watched it, and they out of no where believed it.
I've seen it where some family members watched some of the history channel crap. The History channel said something, and no matter how hard I try to tell them (or even show them evidence) that isn't true. They naturally will take a videos word on a major channel over someone they know that will know what is what.
Basically, watch the following and this shows you what goes on behind the "educational" channels. BTW, that video is NSFW