Ripley's Believe It or Not! - Season 1

While scuba diving around an old shipwreck, Rip and Samantha have their yacht hijacked on the high seas above them by modern-day Pirates. After a harrowing time in a liferaft, they make landfall in Papua New Guinea - and are captured by mountain Pygmies. Locked in a pig cage, they’re fattened up - and Samantha remembers why. The pygmies are the world’s only “practicing” cannibals. Seconds before they are barbecued, Cyril crash lands in an ultra-lite, fulfilling the prophesy of Zona the ghost wind god. Cyril, the new god, must lead the pygmies, armed only with their warrior masks, on the recapture of Rip’s yacht.

When Rip and the BION team travel to Central Africa to collect tribal artifacts, they discover the Game Reserve has been losing elephants at an alarming rate! An elephant researcher, Scheider, says Nasilele, a tribal idol that is a lie detector, blinked its eyes, implicating a local boy. When the BION team are attacked by a rogue elephant, they discover a tracking device, planted by Scheider, is causing it to become enraged. When the idol blinks at Rip, he’s accused of poaching too! Sam discovers Scheider is controlling the idol with a remote control, it is up to Cyril, and his new found friend, the elephant to save the day! When the idol Nasilele indicates Scheider’s guilt, he escapes to the river. Rip gives chase, only to end up with Sam and Cyril, in the Jumpjet, saving them both from going over Victoria Falls. In the end, Rip discovers the batteries are missing from Scheider’s remote control. Did the Lie Detector really know Scheider was guilty? Believe it or Not!

Rip, Cyril and Sam travel to Cairo, Egypt to investigate the case of a woman put in a coma by the Curse of King Tut, after trying to buy contraband artifacts from the dead Pharaoh’s tomb. When Cyril finds a piece of a Tutankhamen fan, he has a friend analyze it. Meanwhile, a mysterious phone call leads Rip and Sam to the Valley of the Kings, where they are trapped in a tomb! Framed by the man in charge of Cairo antiquities, Mohammed Mahdi, Rip and Sam escape by posing as mummies! When Cyril’s friend is stricken with the same “curse”, Cyril discovers that an ancient mold is causing the coma symptoms. Tracing Mahdi’s cellphone signal, the BION team uncover a cache of stolen artifacts inside a pyramid. When Mahdi tries to escape in the desert, a sudden sandstorm stops his jeep, allowing Rip, Cyril and Sam to catch up on camels, arresting the thief. A check of the weather forecast reveals clear skies predicted. Was the sudden storm a freak of nature, or the Curse of the Pharaoh’s tomb? Believe it or Not!

When a young woman collapses in the town square of the Transylvanian town of Poenari, it is discovered she has a vampire bite on her neck! With everyone leaving town, the BION discover that a long lost relative of Vlad Dracula has recently taken up residence in the old Count’s castle. When Rip ends up bit and in a coma, and Cyril sprouts fangs, it is up to Sam, with the Vampire Killing Kit in hand, to deal with the new Count in the old castle. Long after the “Count” has been exposed as a fraud looking to scam some cheap real estate out of the frightened townspeople, Sam still can’t figure out why the butler didn’t appear on her video tape? Was he a real vampire? Believe it Or Not!

When Sam’s Uncle Paul, a caretaker at The Winchester Mystery House in San Diego, starts seeing ghosts, she must defend his sanity to save his job. At the greatest ghost house on the continent, the BION team discovers dozens of staircases that lead nowhere, and hundreds of rooms with no doors, all built by Sarah Winchester who believed she was haunted by the victims of her father’s famous rifles. When no ghosts are found, the trustees of the estate want Sam to force her uncle to retire. But Sam discovers a plot to turn the Mystery House site into a huge condominium development, and the trustees are unmasked for the frauds they are. Their escape attempt is thwarted by the ghostly appearance of an Indian that only Sam and her Uncle sees. Was it a real ghost, protecting Sarah’s home? Believe it or Not!

Rip, Sam and Cyril travel to China, to photograph “The Lama’s Skull”, an artifact said to protect all those “within it’s vision”. But when the skull goes missing, the Hu-Nan temple is immediately reduced to rubble and everyone in town is suddenly getting sick! When Cyril discovers a button from a military uniform in the ruins, it leads the team to sneak into the nearby army camp. There they discover General Ling has stolen the Skull in hopes of restoring his own failing health! Stealing back the skull, the BION team make their escape in a military truck, only to discover it filled with drums of toxic waste - the real cause of everyone’s sickness! In a showdown with the General, the BION team are amazed when the full drums are crushed by an army tank and yet emit no toxic gas! Was it the protection of the Lama’s Skull? Believe it or Not!

When the Golden Helmet of Ur is stolen from the BION HQ, Rip, Cyril and Sam follow its tracking device to Kuwait City, in the Middle East. There, Rip receives a mysterious message from Dun Inanna, an old friend of Robert Ripley’s, that leads to him being stranded in the desert! Meanwhile, in the ruins of the ancient city of Ur, a ghost of the “Wandering King” commands the last Bedouin tribe to leave! When Sam and Cyril arrive looking for Rip, they discover Dun Inanna has been dead for decades, and are held captive by the Bedouin leader, Humbaba. With the help of Humbaba’s sister, Shireen, Sam and Cyril unmask the ghost - Humbaba wanted to scare his own tribe off the oil rich land of Ur. In the desert, Rip is saved by a man claiming to be Dun Inanna, who leads him to Ur, where he discovers Shireen framed her brother in a bid to be tribe leader. An old picture of Robert Ripley and Dun Inanna reveals the same man Rip met in the desert! Was he the ghost of Robert Ripley’s old friend? Believe it or Not!

When Rip’s old college professor, Dr. Sullivan, searching the Amazon for a million year old dinosaur egg, falls ill, the BION team rush to South America. The unexpected arrival of gruff Paul Hacken, a former fellow student of Rip’s, has Sam and Cyril suspicious. His vision obscured by friendship, Rip leads the two faced Paul to an ancient temple deep in the rain forest, where they find Dr. Sullivan suffering from food poisoning. When the million year old dinosaur egg is found in the temple’s subterranean chambers, Hacken reveals he’s stealing the egg and blowing up the temple! Rip, Dr. Sullivan and the BION team receive some unexpected help in recovering the egg from the “long lost” tribe themselves! The sound of huge footsteps reverberating through the forest leaves the BION team wondering - does the mother of the egg really exist? Believe it or Not!

When the two daughters of an old friend of Cyril’s receive Turkish Love Charms, they are mysteriously swept away by Whirling Dervishes. Rip obtains a “real” love charm from a Gypsy Woman, who agrees to lead the team to the secret mountain top village of the Dervishes. There, while Sam and Cyril pose as buyers of charms, Rip attempts an escape with the two girls, only to be thwarted by the youngest sister, Turkan. Unable to marry her Dervish boyfriend ahead of her older sister Mahta, Turkan arranged the kidnapping and a double wedding! Rip’s attempts to delay the wedding result in him taking the place of the missing groom. When Sam falls under the spell of the real Turkish Love Charm, she declares her love for Rip! Cyril arrives with the father, Mohammed, to stop the wedding in time. Was Sam just trying to delay the wedding, as she claimed, or under the spell of the Turkish Love Charm? Believe it or Not!

When the statue of the Toltec Raingod is stolen from a Global Warming conference in Mexico City, the BION team gives chase in the ARV, only to be side-swiped by the sudden appearance of a tornado! Legend has it, the Raingod causes weird weather when it’s moved. Battling a hurricane, the BION team tracks the statue to the ancient Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza. But when they try to airlift it from the great Sun Pyramid, they are double crossed by tabloid newsman, Steve Sanchez, who stole the statue to create a sensational news story, unaware of the consequences. The BION team have to fight off both Sanchez in his helicopter, and the storm of the century! The moment the statue is returned to Mexico City, the hurricane stops! Was the strange weather the fault of El Nino, or the Raingod? Believe it or Not!

When a jar believed to contain anti-aging cream of the Pharaohs is stolen from a Ripley exhibit, the BION team travels to Moscow. Sensitive about his impending birthday, Cyril is especially interested in the legendary cream. With help from Detective Yuri Renko, security camera footage is matched with mug shots and the thief is tracked to the mansion of the aging industrialist, Rasilikov. Cyril uncovers some old photos of Rasilikov that show miraculous changes in age at the same time other jars of the cream went missing! A chase into Gorky Park ends with Cyril saving the elderly man from the icy waters of the Moskva River. When the jar turns up empty, Rasikilov claims the cream was just a myth. But when Rasikilov appears the next day, looking miraculously younger, the BION team wonders - did the Pharaoh’s cream really exist? Believe it or Not!

Diving in mini-subs off the coast of North Carolina with famed treasure hunter Bill Robinson, the BION team digs up a shield belonging to the ancient order of the Knights of the Crusades. When a rival group of treasure hunters plots to take the Knight’s treasure for themselves, Bill winds up in the hospital when his oxygen tanks fail, and a planted chest of fake gold coins causes the BION team to be accused of fraud. Returning to the dive site, Bill and the BION team discover the rival group is searching for the Holy Grail! Rip gets his hands on the grail, only to have it drop down an abyss! While Sam leads the treasure hunters away in a wild goose chase of mini-subs, Rip descends deeper into the abyss, only to give up when his equipment cracks under intense pressure. Did Rip have his hands on the world’s most famous artifact? Believe it or Not!