6.6 /10 1 Votes
7.3/10 TV Country of origin United States Running time 42 minutes First episode date 6 December 2011 Narrated by Jeremy Schwartz Language English | 5.8/10 IMDb Genre Docudrama No. of seasons 6 Original network Discovery Channel Network Discovery Channel Number of seasons 6 Cast Jeremy Schwartz | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Original release December 6, 2011 (2011-12-06) – present Similar Bering Sea Gold, Bering Sea Gold: Under Th, Southern Charm, Property Wars, Swamp Loggers Profiles | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Moonshiners is an American docudrama television series on the Discovery Channel that dramatizes the life of people who produce (illegal) moonshine in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. The series dramatizes their liquor production efforts, law-evading techniques and life. There have been claims by local officials that the show is not what it portrays to be. Virginia authorities have stated that no illegal liquor is actually being produced by the people depicted in the show. The Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) said in March 2012 that, "If illegal activity was actually taking place, the Virginia ABC Bureau of Law Enforcement would have taken action." They also said that they had requested for the producers to add a disclaimer to clarify that the show was only a dramatization, "but the request was overlooked", and the show's producers, Magilla Entertainment, have stated their documentary content is real.
Contents
Portions of the show that feature Marvin "Popcorn" Sutton were taken from a documentary film by Neal Hutcheson. Hutcheson's documentary was filmed in 2002 and released the same year with the title This is the Last Dam Run of Likker I'll Ever Make. In 2008, a version of the documentary that was edited for television was broadcast on PBS and the Documentary Channel with the title The Last One, and it received a Southeast Emmy Award in 2009. Sutton was arrested in 2007 by ATF agents in Cocke County, Tennessee (led by Jim Cavanaugh of Waco siege fame) for illegally distilling liquor and possession of a handgun by a felon, and was sentenced to eighteen months in jail in 2009. He subsequently committed suicide, apparently to avoid serving the federal prison term, and because he had been diagnosed with cancer.
The show's first season premiered on December 6, 2011, and its second season premiered on November 7, 2012. Season 3 premiered on November 3, 2013. Season 4 premiered on November 4, 2014. Season 5's premiere date is November 17, 2015.
Moonshiners ball 2015
Season 6 (2016–17)
Season six started on November 15, 2016.
Cast
Key: indicates a season in which a person appeared
Spinoff
In May 2013, it was announced that, in addition to renewing Moonshiners for a third season, Discovery Channel would be purchasing a spinoff about Steven Ray Tickle, to be called Tickle. The series premiered on August 13, 2013.
Theme song and introduction sequence
The theme song for the show is Steve Earle's "Copperhead Road". The intro montage introduces the cast members, and also shows some of the difficulties they face while making the moonshine. From season 5 a new theme song was selected, Bleeding fingers's "Livin' outside the law".
