The show's original hosts, special effects experts Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman, used elements of the scientific method to test the validity of rumors, myths, movie scenes, adages, Internet videos, and news stories.

Filmed in San Francisco and edited in Artarmon, New South Wales, MythBusters aired 282 total episodes before its cancellation at the end of the 2016 season in March.

This arrangement continued until August 2014, when it was announced at the end of "Plane Boarding" that Tory Belleci, Kari Byron, and Grant Imahara would be leaving the show.

Kari Byron, Tory Belleci, and Grant Imahara, former MythBusters stars, led the Netflix show White Rabbit Project, which premiered on December 9, 2016.

On November 15, 2017, sister network Science Channel revived the series with new hosts Jon Lung and Brian Louden, who were selected via the competition spin-off MythBusters: The Search.

The series concept was developed for the Discovery Channel as Tall Tales or True[6] by Australian writer and producer Peter Rees of Beyond Productions in 2002.

Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman are the original MythBusters, and initially explored all the myths of the series using their combined experience with special effects.

The series had two interns, dubbed "Mythterns": Discovery Channel contest winner Christine Chamberlain and viewer building contest-winner Jess Nelson.

The list of myths tested by the series is compiled from many sources, including the personal experiences of cast and crew, as well as fan suggestions, such as those posted on the Discovery Channel online MythBusters forums.

If that fails, they attempt to expand the circumstances to the point that will cause the described result, which often reveals that the claims of the myth are objectively ridiculous or impossible to achieve without specialized training or equipment.

Methods for testing myths are usually planned and executed in a manner to produce visually dramatic results,[26] which generally involves explosions, fires, or vehicle crashes.

During the "Outtakes Special", they specifically stated that while they are, in fact, very thorough in testing myths and repeat experiments many times in many different configurations, it is simply impossible to display the entire process during a program.

Paranormal concepts, such as aliens or ghosts, are not addressed because they cannot be tested by scientific methods, although one exception, pyramid power, prompted Adam to comment, "No more 'oogie-boogie' myths, please" and state at a tour show in Indianapolis in 2012 that it was a mistake.

The program generally avoided experiments harmful to live animals, though in one episode, they bombarded cockroaches and other laboratory insects with lethal doses of radiation.

The book MythBusters: The Explosive Truth Behind 30 of the Most Perplexing Urban Legends of All Time (ISBN 1-4169-0929-X) gives a list of a dozen myths that are unlikely to be explored, although four were eventually tested.

To their surprise, the seemingly unlikely legend proved true, but the material was so easy to obtain, and the resulting explosion so powerful, that the production team decided allowing such information to reach the general public would be irresponsible, instead electing to destroy all footage of the experiment and agreeing never to speak of the incident.

After the reproduction was shown to defeat both fingerprint scanners, and although the chemicals used during the etching process are never identified, the narrator still hints at an important step having been edited out and discourages viewers from trying it themselves.

Brand names are shown when integral to a myth, such as in the Diet Coke and Mentos experiment or Pop Rocks in the first pilot episode of MythBusters.

The Diet Coke and Mentos experiment is also an outlier regarding their safety warnings, as Savage and Hyneman stated on-air that this myth was perfectly safe for viewers to replicate on their own.

On March 20, 2009, the town of Esparto, California, was shaken and windows were shattered by a blast created by 500 pounds (230 kg) of ANFO during filming of the myth "Knock Your Socks Off".

[44][45][46][47] During the airing of the experiment on November 11, 2012, the Build Team apologized for the accident and explained that they suspended testing after it occurred to assess damage and start an investigation.

[48] Knight asserted that he had previously organized a team of "MythBusters" and had used the name continuously since 1988 in relation to pursuing myths, ghosts, monsters, goblins, and other such mysteries in an offbeat manner around the world.

[51] A parallel action, relying on the same three books and a collection of short television appearances, was brought later that year in the Chancery Division of the High Court of England and Wales.

[63] On October 19, 2007, in Sydney, Australia, a teenager named Julian Shaw pulled a fainted middle-aged man off the railway tracks near a train station to safety below the platform.

[72] On October 18, 2010, President Barack Obama, as part of the White House Science Fair, announced he had taped a segment of MythBusters and would appear on December 8, 2010.

In the episode, they do not want to harm a real cat, so they took a Build A Bear carcass, stuffed it with ballistics gel, shot it with a 20-foot barrel steam cannon, then made a scatter plot of the remains.

They test-fired some of the weapons in the Red Jacket shop, then watched as the staff retested a myth busted by the Build Team in 2008, that a propane tank could explode when hit with a bullet.

[needs update] The show and one particular episode (involving the myth of a cigarette being able to cause a fire when thrown into a pool of gasoline) was credited with helping to free a man from prison.

In April 2018, Adam Savage was announced to be returning to the franchise to host and executive produce a new spin-off, MythBusters Jr., with a 10-episode first season, which premiered in December 2018 with a sneak-peek episode, and the series officially starting January 2, 2019.

[88][89] In 2021, an automotive-focused spin-off was produced called Motor MythBusters, with original Build Team member Tory Belleci being joined by Faye Hadley of the All Girls Garage series and professional race car driver Bisi Ezerioha.