Austin's Oddities

Science Channel delves into Richard Garriott's cupboards

By Richard Whittaker, 3:02PM, Sat. Jun. 9, 2012

You always knew that Austin is full of the weird and unusual, and tonight the Science channel will be showing off some of its Oddities, including the amazing collection of the bizarre and baroque owned by famed game creator/cosmonaut Richard Garriott.

Oddities brings the owners of New York's Obscura Antiques & Oddities to a city to look for anything from mummies to Fiji mermaids (or, as we call them around here, the norms of interior design.) Tonight's show opens the doors on Garriott's famed Britannia Manor II and his astonishing collection of, well, collections: Everything from automata to crossbows to antique astronomical equipment. And just don't ask what's down in the cellar.

However, Garriott's cabinet of curiosities is not the only archive of the eerie under the camera tonight: The show also visits purveyors of carnival treats Big Top Candy on South Congress, and the uncanny Museum of the Weird on Sixth Street.

The Austin episode of Oddities airs tonight, June 9, at 8pm Central on the Science Channel. Check out the trailer below.

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