TG canned, but not for the reasons you've been told

http://www.autoblog.com/2009/02/06/clarkson-top-gear-usa-canned-viewers-just-dont-get-it/

It seems Americans "just don't get it".

I wonder if Americans just didn't get it with Adam Carolla? I know I wouldn't.

If I'd never seen the original, yeah I would have gotten it.

I just don't see a US-produced version of the show comparing to Top Gear. BBC's Kitchen Nightmares is great, Fox berkeleyed it all up.

(cut and pasted from what I said on another forum about this same article)

I agree w/ Clarkson. Top Gear in its true form is WAY too intelligent for the general American viewing audience.

a) the interest in cars isn't there

b) intelligent humor doesn't work on network TV in a lot of cases

c) corporate sponsors would make it impossible to say anything negative

Intelligent? TG?

No, the low brow aspect is what's so good about it.

carguy123 wrote: Intelligent? TG? No, the low brow aspect is what's so good about it.

Sure, the "let's break stuff" element is lowbrow, but I think the humor/wisecracks can be VERY highbrow at times. Clarkson says some really witty stuff (as does May, for that matter).

Compared to the stuff on Spike and Speed, it's Shakespeare. That show is WAY too intelligent for the LCD American audience.

honestly, I think we are better for it being canned

Which end of the brow is intentionally misleading viewers about crank versus wheel horsepower?

I kid, I kid... sorta. Top Gear is like The View for men. Entertaining but not to be taken seriously.

gamby wrote: I agree w/ Clarkson. Top Gear in its true form is WAY too intelligent for the general American viewing audience.

Well, once you translated it to American English, it would sound like this:

"This car sucks. It really, REALLY sucks. The designers had a pact with the devil in which the devil designed it and the designers popped off for a quick beer. We're going to compare it to situations that it was not designed for and frankly 99% of the potential owners could not care less about, but we're arrogant enough to believe that our opinions are relevant."

carguy123 wrote: Intelligent? TG? No, the low brow aspect is what's so good about it.

Clarkson is a genius at playing a moron.

So it is kind of like britcoms, alot of people just don't get it.

Sure you have the low brow Montey python, but there is no way you could create an american sitcom about a retirement home with the same briliance and sutbulty(sp?) as you have in Waiting for God

sorry to flounder

Subtlety

I know, it is a weird word. kinda like vacuum.

carguy123 wrote: http://www.autoblog.com/2009/02/06/clarkson-top-gear-usa-canned-viewers-just-dont-get-it/ It seems Americans "just don't get it". I wonder if Americans just didn't get it with Adam Carolla? I know I wouldn't.

IMO, the last American copy of an English show to do justice to the original was "Sanford and Son".

Here's the original show:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/steptoeandson/

the office..

kath and kim....

Friends was a lose and more clean version of Coupling..

It can work.. They just gave up cause of $ and clarkson is trying to continue his american "hating" ways to stir up publicity in the UK. I work with tons of brits.. Hell I was at a party last night were folks were putting branston pickle and HP sauce on cottage pie(which is cottage pie because its made with beef instead of lamb)..

I'm very happy that it has been cancelled. This show never would have worked here. Why did we need an American version when the U.K version is so good?

Kath and Kim SUCKS!...wasn't that an aussie show though?

the office is really good, but the BBC version is better.

coupling is also way better than Friends...and I was a friends fan.

I think Life on Mars turned out okay, but again, the BBC version is still better. Although, a big part of the reason I watch that show is to see the old cars, and old British cars are somewhat more interesting to me than old American cars.

Sucks. I was hoping to hear Adam Corolla rife on some crap cars and blow some stuff up.

Focus group audiences suck too. Bastards, had to ruin it for the rest of us.

carguy123 wrote: I wonder if Americans just didn't get it with Adam Carolla? I know I wouldn't.

That was my issue. However much a carguy Adam was, his TV "personality" is somewhat of a jacakass, IMHO. At least for a program like this.

E-

alfadriver wrote: That was my issue. However much a carguy Adam was, his TV "personality" is somewhat of a jacakass, IMHO. At least for a program like this.

But on The Man Show that was funny!

Xceler8x wrote:

alfadriver wrote: That was my issue. However much a carguy Adam was, his TV "personality" is somewhat of a jacakass, IMHO. At least for a program like this.

But on The Man Show that was funny!

Funny. Or at least funny sometimes.

But I think it's lowest common denominator humor would be very much lost on some of the crowd they should be trying to attract with TG. Or, just as bad, IF Adam went more to the original TG humor, IT would have been lost on some of the move overs from The Man Show.

Car guy, yes, just a bad fit for the character he has as a personality....

E-

But on The Man Show that was funny!

+29

gamby wrote: (cut and pasted from what I said on another forum about this same article) I agree w/ Clarkson. Top Gear in its true form is WAY too intelligent for the general American viewing audience.

He's joking, right? I mean, even the Great Clarkson can't have his head that far up his ass?

I've watched hours and hours of Top Gear, and I've never seen anything remotely "too intelligent" for the general American audience. I agree that an American-produced version would not be good, but it has nothing to do with the original being "too intelligent" for American audiences.

That E36 M3 pisses me off. And:

ignorant wrote: Friends was a lose and more clean version of Coupling..

Except for the fact that Friends predates Coupling by a good 6 years. So let's more accurately call Coupling a "dirtier and funnier version of Friends." There was an American version of Coupling which was, predictably, awful - but it was made long after Friends was canceled.

alfadriver wrote:

carguy123 wrote: I wonder if Americans just didn't get it with Adam Carolla? I know I wouldn't.

That was my issue. However much a carguy Adam was, his TV "personality" is somewhat of a jacakass, IMHO. At least for a program like this. E-

And how is this in ANY way different than Clarkson?

Which part of the show is suppsoed to be beyond my inteligence? The part where they shoot cars at camper trailers or where they time celebrities in a sedan? The only problems I have is that they can't drive on the correct side of the road and they seem to make up names for things like bonnets and caravans.