Top Gear America

I'm curious as to how this will work out, but I won't hold my breath... I hope the US version does not mean a politically correct version of the show....

 

the most recent one with adam carolla bombed. It just kinda seemed akward.

 

you and me both

 

I really want this to do well. I really do.

 

It will fail, it is hard to find a unique group that just work well together, and Top Gear (UK) found it. Trying to recreate that usually results in failure. About the only thing they have tried and had some success at was The Office. I am not a fan of that show on either side of the pond so haven't actually watched it. So you bring in Tanner Foust who is an ok drifter, Adam Ferrera who is not the funniest but kind of looks like Ham, and some nascar analyst. Typical following the leader, and not trying to produce something good, but just hoping that enough people latch on to make it work.

 

Woooooooooooooookeeeeeeeeeeeeee

 

http://jalopnik.com/5694780/first-drive-top-gear-usa?skyline=true&s=i

Sounds like it will get better as it goes along. Anyone else planning to watch it tomorrow?

 

Of Course. gotta give it a shot at least...

 

I'm going into this with low expectations. I hope I don't get disappointed.

 

im going to watch it, i dont want to have high expectations but top gear UK has molded a perfect show over many years. i know it will be hard for the US version to match this so fast but im just hoping (but cant really see) the hosts do the same kind of shenanigans that they do in the UK. i want to see amphibious car, spaceshuttle cars, bus racing, and making fun of cars, not just tire smoke and wow this is fast. good show idea mock up another show like they did with i want to say it was an evo 8 rally car where they raced it down a mountain with a pro mountain boarder. just thoughts

 

in my opinion the only way this will work is if by some act of god they find a group of people that work somewhat as good togeather as the uk crew. the crew is that makes the show

 

Of course I'll be watching it. I've been watching TGUK Season 1 all week to get myself in the mood.

Don't expect it to be a clone of the UK version, or to be nearly as good as current TGUK right out of the gate. But I think it'll be great, all things considered...



I've been watching the reviews and such quite closely. It sounds promising. Sounds like the 3 guys have the beginnings of the chemistry required to make this work. Great camera work, a track, some great cars. The writing and music need some work....but I think that about TGUK season 1....so I've got high hopes for the future, if it's given the chance.

 

It was surprisingly good, IMO.

 

Pretty much exactly what I was expecting. rough around the edges, but pretty solid. And IMHO better than Season 1 of TGUK....

 

C+ for effort....

 

yea compared to season 1 of uktg i think it has potential imo if they get rid of the moron fat guy with glasses cant member his name. he dosent seem to really fit in imo

 

watching it you can tell that the history channle has alot more funding than what BBC has.
for upcoming shows it looks good. they copyed soem of the best skits form the UK version which i was hoping that they will do something new. the car VS helicopter skit was done i think in season 9 of the uk. But i still thought that it was good.

+10000 on this

hes the actor/comic(Adam Ferrara) relief but i kind of agree with you so we will see next week if he starts to fit in
idk about Rutledge Wood(born in Birmingham, Alabama) is a roving auto racing analyst employed by Speed Channel he was to one that intviewed buzz. i dont know why but he just buged me for some reason
Tanner Foust is a professional racing driver, stunt driver, and television host. He competes in rally, drift, ice racing and time attack with multiple podium placements and national championships he has won 3 Xgames gold and was the first american to run in European Rally Cross Championship. I like him i thought he was good at talking about the cars and just help keep the show together

on a side note what did you think about the track?

 

of course they did! The vast majority of TGUSA's audience hasn't seen much, if any, of TGUK. Why not recreate some of the best bits done by the original?


I liked the track. Seems to work out pretty well. Although I'm extremely surprised at the results from the 4 cars tested this week. Not what I was expecting!

 

Rutlage is the guy i didnt like didnt mind the other 2

 

i agree i was kind of hoping for something new for the first ep of a new show but i still liked it

that viper ARC is such a bad ass viper its a viper that can handle i remember reading about it in car and driver i think at the start of summer. the viper hit 150 on the straight while the yellow lambo only hit 140 grated that speed is not everything in a race but that still a big difference in a 1min 22sec race

http://jalopnik.com/5694780/first-drive-top-gear-usa?skyline=true&s=i
so the thrid ep. is where the show really hits home and starts to get good.

they even say that Rutlage is a funny guy.....

 

ok i know its only the first episode but i wanna see some challenges! not just showing me vehicles

 

sound like 2weeks from know is the first real challange. its called whiskey runners i think.
they each get 1000 bucks to find a car and than do challanges to honer the bootleggers of hour past is what it sound like,
next week is where foust trys to teach a blind guy how to drift that idk is kind of another topgear uk bit but it might be good

 

if you take it as a standalone, it was pretty good. if you compare it to the original it was meh. hopefully the dialogue becomes a little more natural as the show progresses

 

Oh, I really hope they do a TG:US UK special. There's been a bit of flooding in Cornwall lately. Perhaps the TG:US lads should buy a dodgy motor from a cockney wide-boy, then see if they can make it as far as Cornwall, trying not to come a-cropper from Gatsos or pikeys, and sampling the wares from a selection of greasy spoons, burger vans and Little Chefs as they go.

 

........... in American please?


(Notice I didn't say ENGLISH)

 

rutledge seems like a d-bag, it was okay, camera shots in car were real shaky, commentary seemed like they were trying to hard imo

 

They need to go more in depth with car analysis in terms of specs and performance, cons & Pros...not the 0-60 crap. And yes, commentary needs more work...prolly a better voice. But nonetheless, TGUK set the standard really high. I don't think this will compare to it.

 

One think that I like about the TGUK is that the camera's are handheld or on a boom, giving you a felling of being there. TGUS Most the shots I noticed were done on a tripod (even could see them in some shots). Also looks like the need to add Gopro to their list of sponsors and get good camera's in the cars.

 

Just watched it. The dialog was so forced, you could tell they were reading from cue cards.

I'm going to hold out final judgement till the second episode, but the British are just more funny I guess.

That whole Viper, helicopter thing got a little old.

When is TGUK back on?

 

I have never seen the original UK show and I hope to never see the American version again. I want my 60 minutes back. This looked like it was thrown together by a high school AV class with a big budget (to obtain the vehicles and set up the test track). The audience HAD to be paid for their participation...there is no way that many females would have shown up for that taping unless they were giving away Louis Vuitton bags.

 

well TGUK is on all toinght starting just a half an hour ago on BBC (and for future info its on all night long starting at 8 on BBC every monday) and ya the dialog seemed like it wasnt coming to them naturally it was very forced as stated before. ill give it time but they need to step it up a bit. im not seeing this crew working together well though, i think they need a change.

 

I hear the hosting gets better around the 3rd episode, so I would reserve judgment until later in the season

 

No cable, no BBC . And TPB hasn't had many of the season 15 episodes up.

Any one else notice that American shows spend a ridiculous amount of time recapping after commercials? Maybe it was just that I was watching it with the commercials removed, but I felt like I watched most of the show twice :/

 

........... in American please?[/QUOTE]
OK, I'll give it a shot. Of all the challenges that have gone before, the best chance the TG:US team has for a bit of trans-atlantic retribution is to go to the UK, and embark upon a journey much like the TG lads did from Miami to New Orleans.

Cornwall is an area in the south west of the UK. It is very rural, and is largely populated with the British equivalent of red necks, colloquially known as 'yokels'. Going here would allow the US hosts to explore the misconceptions that yokels have of America. Cornwall has also suffered a natural disaster recently, in which literally tens of hosues have been slightly flooded. FEMA has been told to stay clear; we're perfectly capable of screwing up the relief effort by ourselves, thank you very much.

The journey would need to start in a place almost as terrifying as Miami, so it would have to be London's east end. The only car dealers around that part of town are camel hair coat wearing rip-off merchants who will gladly sell you a car that was probably made from two very broken ones before a bit of paint and a polish were used to hide the join. Throw in a tail-light warranty, a faked MOT certificate (think emissions testing as was, but much more strict) and you have a recipe for lots of smoke filled breakdowns, and the opportunity to reward any terminal breakdowns with a ride in a Morris Marina.

Gatsos are speed cameras. They're *everywhere*. I hate them.

Pikeys are itinerants, usually from Ireland or Romania. You may know them as gypsies. Their best film role to date is 'Snatch', although I'm not sure if Brad Pitt was really *that* believable. Whenever these people arrive in a new town, crime rates tend to spike.

Greasy spoons are just anonymous, non-chain cafes that tend to specialise in fried food and large cups of tea. Burger vans are the same, with the added advantage of being mobile, but the cups tend to be polystyrene. Little Chef is the most well know franchise greasy spoon in the UK, with *ahem* restaurants dotted along most of Britain's roads. My own favourite there was 'The Olympic Breakfast', but I went off it when the EU told them they couldn't serve it with black pudding any more. Bloody killjoys.

I'm stashing *that* little nugget away in the evidence locker :biggrin:

Seriously ? Then you need http://www.finalgear.com/

I see the 720p torrent is out, so I think I'll d/l that later. Right now, I'm keeping an open mind. If you think back to the first season of Top Gear TNG, they had some fat bloke doing used car buying advice. James May didn't show up until the second season, and even then it took a few shows for them to really start to work like we're used to seeing.

For those of you suffering from withdrawal symptoms, might I suggest you ask Santa nicely for this... http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=467128533&pf_rd_i=468294 (but only if you have a region free DVD player).

Stuart.

 

I want to see Faust take that evo down the ski hill, that looks pretty sweet. They did score huge points when they drove that lambo in the dirt, that was awesome.

Who do you think the Stig is? Ken Block?

 

ya next weeks might be good im waiting until the first challage which is week 3

 

I am a big fan of the original TG on BBC. I was excited to see an American version. And I must say I am pleasantly surprised. It will only get better. The Brittish guys are funny because of the accent and because we don't see that type of personality on all tv shows. Plus, those guys have been working together for years now. Go check out their first episode, it's nothing special. The best part, I believe, is that the American version will have guests/celebs that we actually know. Give the American version a chance! I look forward to more of it.

 

I remember that one. I remember the guys running the Vette were pissed during the Drift section because the kid they had driving had never even done donuts, so he was worthless at it.

I also kind of enjoyed the show they had where they had a bunch of drivers in Spec Solstices. It's just a shame that most of the racing all happened on the same circuit, so it got a bit samey. But they had to wrench on their own cars, too, so it was a proper team effort.

I just got done watching the first TG:US, and to be honest, I thought they did a creditable job for a first stab at it. Hopefully, they'll find their feet, and it'll get more polished as time goes by. They're never going to replicate the TG:UK Three, and it's totally unrealistic to expect that. So, I'm up for giving them a chance. It might take them a season or two to get it right, assuming it doesn't get canned before then.

Stuart.

 

So i've been also doing a lot of reading and it sounds like by ep 3 they finally get things a little more ironed out. I just watched the 2nd show of TG:UK and boy, it was horrible. TG:US was better then i expected, but I had very low expectations. I'll give the show 3 eps before I fully make up my mind. I think the "comedy" guy Adam is worthless. I actually found rutledge funny. Tanner is almost too serious business, but I think he might get better as time goes on. Personally i'd love to see them replace Adam with Jay Leno. Also.. "Big star small car" ? wtf, call it what it is. Like I said, there's some things to iron out, but until TG:UK starts back up again I'll make do with this. Who knows, maybe it will get better

 

i agree tanner is too serious but it was funny to see the others make fun of him, Adam i think does suck and i would have never thought they should use jay but that could be an idea 9though prolly expensive) and rutledge i think is just a whiner and really doesnt know what he is doing. im really trying to firgure out who is supposed to be the lead, like on UK. i want to say its supposed to be Tanner but that Adam guy was doing the interview and did alot of the introducing?

never seen it but now i want to!

 

oh ya and lastly, dont get me wrong he is a great guy and all but why would you have your first "big star" as buzz aldrin? i dont know if adam was flustered or buzz was but it seemed like a very short very awkward interview they had. it seemed like showing his lap was the best way to get away from the awkwardness at the time.