Discovery Channel has a docudrama that follows people producing moonshine in the Appalachian Mountains, but is Moonshiners real? Fans of the docudrama on Discovery Channel have a question about their honesty, wondering if the Brown family really lived all the time in the Alaskan bush and if the struggles of the Gold Rush crew were staged or really happened. When it comes to Moonshiners, it is even harder to believe in many cases. The show premiered in 2011 and follows the lives of people in Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia, as they produce moonshine.
What really makes this hard to believe is that, throughout most of the series, these people conducted their business illegally. While the main focus was bringing viewers into the lives of the moonshiners operating their distilleries, the fact it was against the law made many people wonder how Discovery Channel was able to tell this story without law enforcement closing in. Shows like Alaskan Bush People have people trying to disprove the lives that the stars live. Meanwhile, Moonshiners doubters question the entire legality of the reality television show.
Law Enforcement Threatened Tim Off-Camera
The Cops Entered Tim’s Home To Question Him
The show wants viewers to feel like they’re getting a real look into the experience of illegal moonshiners.
In some Moonshiners bonus footage, Tim Smith admits that police officers tried to confront him about the show one evening when he was home. They brought stills from the show to “prove” that he’d been moonshining illegally. Tim remained calm, though. He said he invited them to come into his house and sit down since he was about to have dinner. Tim went on to say that the police had come to his house many times looking for moonshine but never found evidence, which is why he was never arrested (via Bourbon Blog).
Special Agent Jesse Tate Was Misled About The Show
He Didn’t Know They’d Be Making Moonshine
Special Agent Jesse Tate is one of the familiar faces from season one of Moonshiners. He worked for the Virginia ABC Bureau and appeared regularly throughout the first season. However, what makes Tate so interesting is that he never interacts with moonshiners like Tim and Tickle, two of the main characters in the series. It turns out that Tate was misled about the nature of the show. He had no idea that it was going to be depicting moonshine manufacturing or distribution.
Virginia Authorities Condemned The Show As Fake
The Crew Believes The State Is Just Mad
In the same press release where they claimed to be misled about the nature of the show, Virginia authorities slammed Discovery for airing a false, misleading show (via Fox News). After viewers kept asking why the state allowed the criminal activities to continue, Virginia said the show was not actually portraying illegal moonshining operations but was actually just a dramatization. They asked Discovery Channel to add a disclaimer, but their request was “overlooked.”
They claim that the state is just mad that they haven’t been able to catch them.
Tim’s Day Job As A Fire Chief Caused Problems
Some Fans Believed He Shouldn’t Have His Two Jobs
Once someone signs onto a reality TV show, they invite a certain amount of scrutiny into their life. Tim learned that quickly once viewers realized what he was doing during the day as illegal moonshining wasn’t the only source of income for Tim. When he wasn’t evading police offers to run secret stills, he worked as a Fire Chief of the Climax Volunteer Fire Department in Virginia.
Most people think of firefighters as upstanding members of society, so some viewers had issues with Tim going from an on-the-level job to operating something that was potentially harmful. For the most part, though, his audience doesn’t seem to care what he does during the day as long as he keeps promoting the TV show. Tim has also paid back his legal profession, creating his Fire 32 Moonshine as a tribute to firefighters across the country, and he also travels and visits many stations throughout the year (via FSF).
Popcorn Sutton Was Arrested In 2008
He Was Sentenced To 18 Months
His luck came to an end when he told an undercover officer that he had over 900 gallons of illegal moonshine that he was ready to sell. They weren’t about to let that stand, of course, and ATF officers raided his property in March. He was charged with illegally distilling spirits and possession of a handgun as a felon. Sutton pled guilty and was sentenced to 18 months in prison the following January.
Virginia Denied Tim A Legal Moonshine License
Things Are Now Free For Him To Sell His Moonshine
Tim no longer has to hide his moonshining.
Tim no longer has to hide his moonshining. He is now proudly able to sell his moonshine legally, which he hopes will aid him in his effort to preserve the traditions and culture surrounding moonshine. Climax moonshine is produced in Virginia, but it very nearly wasn’t. As Tim was starting up his distillery, rumors flew that the Virginia ABC almost denied him a license to produce moonshine legally. Whether they were angry that he’d evaded punishment for so long for “shining” illegally, or if they just didn’t think he had what it took remains unknown.
Tickle Had Political Aspirations
He Wanted To Run For Congress
The president isn’t the only reality TV star who had his eye on politics. Steven Tickle, a fan favorite on the show, also admitted that he considered going into politics. In 2012, there was a promo for Moonshiners where Tickle “ran for president,” but this turned out to be a lot closer to the truth than the show’s fans might have believed. Tickle said that he wanted to run for Congress in southern Virginia (via Washington Examiner). This was at the same time that his spinoff Tickle began filming for Discovery.
“I’m pretty serious about it because I’d like to take my status of what I’ve become on TV and be able to do some good with it. And that would be a place where I could do good with it, you know, look out for the man who I know who he is and he knows who I am.”
Chico Was Allegedly Arrested For A DUI
He Managed To Get Off With Just A Fine
Popcorn Sutton wasn’t the only member of Moonshiners who had issues with the law for something other than the illegal moonshining the group is so notorious for. In 2015, Chico was allegedly arrested for a DUI in Knott County (via Troublesome Creek Times). The report says that he drove his vehicle into a crowd, after which the officer made him take a field sobriety test…which he failed. No one was hurt, but the officer still said that Chico shouldn’t have been driving and ordered him to appear in court.
Josh Owens Lost His Trailer In A Fire
His Fans Raised Money To Help Him
Before he was a moonshiner, Josh Owens used to be a professional motorbike and motocross racer. He still rides his motorcycle on the show with his dog, Cutie Pie. Many viewers admitted they loved Cutie Pie as much as the human members of the show. Josh was coming back from a motorcycle rally last August when he discovered that his trailer had caught on fire. Josh described the event on his Facebook page.
“I am truly exhausted. It was very emotional time watching the trailer burn and not being able to stop it. The most important thing is that my crew , myself and others around were not hurt. The items that were lost in the fire are all replaceable.”
The Show Was Supposed To Be About Legal Moonshine
Things Changed Because It Would’ve Been Too Boring
There’s one question that almost everyone has after watching an episode of the Discovery Channel reality show: Is Moonshiners real, and why are they not arrested? It seems like if you’re being filmed making illegal moonshine, they would probably get in trouble for it. The producers had the same thought, so the show was supposed to be about legal moonshine production. It seemed too risky to make a show about illegal moonshine production and not get everyone involved in trouble.
Moonshiners’ Production Company Is Known For Creating Deceptive Content
It Makes It Hard To Believe In Moonshiners
Some people still aren’t convinced when asked if Moonshiners is real. If they pay attention to the production credits, the production company might be one reason why. Moonshiners is produced by Magilla Entertainment, a company based in New York. They’re responsible for several popular reality TV shows currently dominating the airwaves — but they’re also behind a lot of deceptive “scripted reality” shows.
- Moonshiners is produced by Magilla Entertainment, a company based in New York.
Tickle Has Been Arrested At Least Three Times
His Charges Include Public Intoxication, Possession Of A Handgun & More
Tickle hasn’t just been arrested once, but at least three times (via Chatham Star-Tribute). First, he was arrested for public intoxication, then he was arrested for possession of a sawed-off handgun, which a police officer found in the front seat of his car. After that, he was arrested again for probation violation, after he admitted to drug use. Tickle’s probation officer testified that she issued a major violation report for failure to abstain from the use of illegal drugs. The judge revoked his original three-year sentence for the shotgun and made him serve five months of active time.
Tim Experienced His First Raid At Five Years Old
He Got An Early Look At Law Enforcement Crackdowns
Although he’s been lucky enough to keep his criminal record clean, star Tim Smith is no stranger to law enforcement crackdowns, either. He learned the consequences of being caught early. He experienced his first raid at five years old when police officers were investigating his father. Smith explained in an interview that when the police showed up, he had to try and hide the illegal moonshine from the authorities.
“I was about five-years-old when my dad first got raided… I was running around, trying to hide the moonshine myself, before the agents came into the room where we had the moonshine stored. It was my first raid, in which my dad was arrested in possession of moonshine.”
That’s a lot of responsibility to place on a five-year-old, and it left a big enough impression on him that he still talks about it to this day. Since that time, Tim said he was always trying to go straight and find a way to make moonshine legally. However, as Moonshiners shows, that was easier said than done and he spent most of his life hiding things from law enforcement agencies. “That’s the way the mystery of moonshining is. Nobody knows what’s going on, we just know something is going on.”
Sutton Ended His Life Before The Show Premiered
He Took His Own Life Before The Show Premiered
Popcorn Sutton never did serve the months in prison that he was sentenced to for illegally distilling spirits and possession of a handgun as a felon. Casual viewers may not have realized that he died by suicide years before Moonshiners ever premiered. The clips the show uses are from an obscure documentary filmed in 2002 that cemented his place as a bootlegging legend. Sutton wasn’t willing to serve time in jail. Instead of reporting for his eighteen-month prison sentence, he died by suicide via carbon monoxide poisoning just days before his sentence was supposed to begin.
Discovery Won’t Say Whether The Show Is True Or Not
The Mystery Is Part Of The Fun
Is Moonshiners real or is some of it staged for the cameras? Discovery Channel refuses to reveal its secrets. Fans who are curious about what they’ve just watched might scan the credits for a small-print disclaimer admitting that everything is not as it seems. They wouldn’t find anything, though. However, there is one thing that might be a hint. Discovery Channel lists the show as a docudrama, which means it is not a pure documentary, and it does use dramatization to tell its story. Even so, Discovery refuses to put a disclaimer in the credits.
The cast isn’t about to say anything, either — mostly because they can’t. They’re contractually obligated under non-disclosure agreements not to get specific about what is or isn’t true on the show. They’ll talk about how Moonshiners could be getting away with showing illegal activity, or say that they’re all illegal moonshiners in real life, but don’t outright confirm or deny that some scenes might be staged.
