Everybody wants to know how real is the discovery show Moonshiners. Because it has been well established now that all reality shows only pertain to being real until a specific degree.
However the premises of the show seem pretty legit. it follows the lives of a group of men and women from the Appalachian Mountains who try to make a living by producing and selling moonshine that is illegal, so they have to do it hidden in the deep forest canopies.
Moonshining is a long-standing tradition in the Appalachian states that are Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia, dating over 200 years back. So, it is true that the cast members are legit moonshiners from the region.
However we found a lot of people debating on twitter questioning the portrayal of the Moonshining scenario and lack of reality included in the long-running series.
Many people have stated with certainty that the show is fake or as one particular gentleman wrote on twitter that not only is it fake but staged, scripted. Edited.
But we can’t just take his word for it, so we have done some research and sadly we would have to conclude that a lot of the show is actually scripted and staged.
For beginners Moonshiners are produced by Magillah Entertainment and it is a production house that has a reputation for producing questionably real reality shows.
“Long Island Medium” and “Beachfront Bargain Hunt” are also produced by Magillah Entertainment which is also both very popular but once again have a lot of skepticism on the reality aspect inside them.
Then, of course comes the argument that if whatever was documented and Moonshiners was legit, then how come law enforcement not arrest the cast members already and use the show as evidence.
Many sources like “Distractify” have argued that law enforcement will not be able to take legal action against the show or its cast members entirely on the show. They made it sound like perpetrators have to be caught red-handed in order to arrest or charge moonshiners.
We are not experts in law but we are pretty sure that they are not as basic as moonshiners haven’t been caught in the act to be brought to justice.
While moonshining is not that serious and offense, season after season of Moonshiners claim to be the accurate depiction of illegal moonshining culture in the USA.
it is a serious question on the face for the police and the rest of the justice department which are shown to be completely powerless in combating this issue, especially with a show also incorporating the police perspective on the show every now and then.
Virginia police department broke their silence in 2019, claiming that the show was fake and that was the sole reason they have been allowing the cast members and the show to run their business.
While we know that Moonshiners is not 100% authentic and real but a significant part of it is honest documentation. There is no way that actual moonshiners would go to such extreme lengths and not produce some illegal moonshine.
The show does not like to talk about one aspect of the cast members, which is that a lot of them also have a legal moonshine business, Sugarland’s Distillery is a liquor company that has been partnering with multiple co-stars from the show to mass produce their moonshine, rye and distribute them legally.
Sugarland Distillery is based in Tennessee but reached far outside of the Appalachian area and all around America.
They started with Mark Ramsey and Digger Manes’s Apple Rye Moonshine and soon were incorporating all kinds of moonshine with our co-stars Mark Rogers, Steven Ray Tickle, Jim Tom Hendrick and Patty Byan.
Furthermore, almost all other cast members also have other legal distilleries that they work with or produce moonshine legally on their own. “Life and Style Mag” even said that Tim Smith and Steven Tickle are actually licensed dealers.
That does not mean they have completely given up on their life as outlaws though. Tickle once famously quoted “it’s non-taxed, that’s pretty much the only reason it’s illegal.”
Speaking of tickle did he get arrested?
Yes he was; but that had nothing to do with him being caught red-handed dealing moonshine in fact he has been arrested multiple times in his life and never for that reason.
Similarly his good friend Digger has not been arrested even a single time for moonshining. therefore it can be concluded that Moonshiners is not completely fake but there a majority of it is still based on true moments but only documented under slightly manipulated and over exaggerated conditions.
