US Top Gear premieres Sunday, 11/ 21, at 10/9c

a401cj wrote: Rabbit ears and PBS...that's TV for me. Rant over

PS3 + streaming netflix FTMFW

I watched with very low expectations. I was not disappointed. It was every bit as poor as I thought it would be. My time is more important to me, so I won't be watching again. But what do I know. I've never watched Dancing w/the "Stars", The Batchelor, the various Real Househoes of Wherever, or Survivor, but I guess plenty of other people do.

Adam was entertaining. (Shift Berkeley! shift Berkeley!) Tanner was lame and corporate. The bearded fat man was less interesting than watching fish rot. That dude needs to be canned like last week.

Aldrin was funny, they should have done that bit more. The Stig looked short, you know, like Tanner.

Biggest disappointment? They didn't say ANYTHING negative about ANY of the cars. The UK guys will rip on their favorite cars even, these guys were just spouting lines from the brochure. Plastic car is supposed to be a put-down?

Like a lot of you, I had low expectations. I guess that will make me a softie when I say the show was way better and more fun than I expected.

The hosts were a little stiff, but I would be too for the first show. All three exceeded my expectations, especially Tanner and Ruttledge. nd of course there's some overwrought Hollywood hype (I don't care what you drive, a Helicopter gunship will 'splode you before you can get away.) but all in all I enjoyed watching it.

I do hope they move beyond the OMG supercars. The Lamborghini bit left me cold, but it was good to see the Viper kill them on the test track.

I don't think I care if they have anything negative to say about the cars. I realize they keep their doors open thanks to advertising and the awful stuff can be "damned by faint praise." Besides, I'm not using a TV show to make buying decisions.

I will echo what many have said, banter was a bit dry, hosts seemed uncomfortable, viper bit was a bit drawn out.....

With that said, was I disappointed? Not really, first episode of a lot of shows doesn't really hit the mark. I'm hoping for the best but also being prepared for the show to be canned after a season or two.

My suggestion would be to not be afraid of pissing off advertisers. If one leaves there are others in line who can be sold on the idea of marketing their product to an audience with automotive interests. On that note I've noticed a few porsche commercials on History lately.

1) The US Top Gear sucks. Then again, Clarkson and May could make beans on toast enthralling, so maybe I'm not being fair.

2) Slightly off topic: thanks to the jive honkeys that cover motorsports, I had never before heard of Willy T. Ribbs. That man is outstanding. How can you fault someone whose webpage contains a photo of him driving an Indy car blended in to him brandishing a shotgun?

Slightly off topic: Didnt Willy T Ribbs kill a corner worker?

DukeOfUndersteer wrote: Slightly off topic: Didnt Willy T Ribbs kill a corner worker?

Yes, but it's more accurate to say a corner worker was killed when run-over by a car driven by Ribbs.

It happened during a CART event at a street circuit (Vancouver?) and the workers were responding to a local yellow at a slow, blind corner. While working on the stranded car, the worker stepped into traffic just as Ribbs was driving through at reduced speed. The worker's legs were caught under a rear wheel and the forward momentum of the car body-slammed him to the track surface. IIRC, the worker sustained massive head injuries and death was pretty much instantaneous.

A very sad day............

irish44j wrote: Hmm...this IRT Deadliest Roads thing actually looks more exciting than TG. Plus the chick is pretty cute. I may have to check it out.

Can't explain why, but it's actually really good.

Top gear was great! Give them a chance. The English Top Gear sucked in the beginning too.

fast_eddie_72 wrote:

irish44j wrote: Hmm...this IRT Deadliest Roads thing actually looks more exciting than TG. Plus the chick is pretty cute. I may have to check it out.

Can't explain why, but it's actually really good. Top gear was great! Give them a chance. The English Top Gear sucked in the beginning too.

Yeah, they had to get rid of one of the presenters to really kick it into high gear. Interesting enough, it was the fat guy...arched eyebrow

OK, I watched it

Despite some rough edges, I think the show was a promising first step. My biggest complaint is the weakness of the dialog and narration - each of the presenters could really use some acting classes. And while I can see why Tanner was chosen, I’m still trying to work out how on earth the other two presenters were selected to host the show. The producers totally should have interviewed the GRM crowd for casting

If you guys have ever watched the first season of 'new' Top Gear, from before James May was a host - the show was pretty rough, so I’m more than willing to ride out this season to see where the Top Gear USA guys take it.

I thought Buzz was the funniest person on the show last night!

I was watching the Walking Dead, maybe I'll DVR it sometime...

I thought it was ok. I agree the Viper segment could have used some additional editing... and maybe a 'News" section added. The Lambo segment was a bit of a snoozer...

It'll take some time for the hosts to develope the chemestry and banter similar to the UK version. However, this is typical of a lot of shows. It's sometimes interesting to watch later episodes of a long-running show and then see re-runs from the first season and notice how much the actors' portrayals of thier characters have developed.

It would not surprise me either if the US Stig turned out to be Foust... It kinda makes you wonder why they even bothered...

I'm really surprised at most of you guys.

Bottom line is that we now have one more car show than we had the day before yesterday. It's better than anything else I can remember being produced in this country. It didn't replace TG UK or any of the other shows. It's in addition to all the other shows out there.

It was pretty dang good for a first show. They still have to work the bugs out and find out what their target audience likes the best. They took a tried and true formula and stayed pretty close to it. Was it perfect, no. Was it good, yes.

What you griping about, you should be happy!

Tanner was the only bright spot in the host slots. He has been good on some other shows and terrible on another. When paired with doofus on his latest show he sucks (or maybe it's the show sucks so he gets tarred with the same brush), but that's the chemistry, editing and writing.

In reply to carguy123:

+1 I couldn't agree with you more! Yeah, it's not the best show out there, but how many other car shows are any better? At least this one has cars that also turn right, has the possibility to show cars that aren't super-cars, and is at least attempting to be entertaining.

Speed Channel is mostly NASCAR and when its not its "Dangerous Drives" and NASCAR Cooking and NASCAR Talent ...are you kidding! I don't want to debate whether these shows are worth watching or not, but for a channel devoted to speed and cars .... this is the best they can do to fill their time? Give me a break.

Was it UK TG quality, no... to be expected, I thought the camera work was pretty spot on compared to UKTG, the writing was not as good, and lets be honest the other two guys besides Tanner are NOT drivers... yet.... I can see potential, I can see hang ups due to the difference in funding, I will continue to watch though, and i DVR "The Walking Dead" as well, you should watch it!!!

carguy123 wrote:

irish44j wrote:

carguy123 wrote: the vibration was more a factor of the car and suspension rather than a camera issue itself.

IDK....I've never noticed that much vibration on TG UK in-car shots, and they test the same kind of stiffly-sprung cars at the same kinds of speeds..

And they've had years and many episodes to correct the problem. I'm betting it won't be like that in many episodes. Technical problems don't last long in American TV.

That's the kind of problem that should be corrected before production. I think it's safe to assume they did some test runs with in-car....why they let it through to production in the first place is the real question....in-car audio/video is not even close to being a "new" technology in television.

dsycks wrote: some other dude who is not near geeky enough to fill James Mays shoes.

He's plenty geeky. But the problem is that he isn't "car-geeky" but more "comic shot/Dungeons&Dragons geeky"

I liked it, more than I expected to. Sure its not up to current UK standards. But it was good, seems to have a strong American influence which is what the show needs, not a clone of the UK version. The cinematography was bad at times but there were moments of really good stuff, a few shots made me say nice! I personally don't care for that Ferara guy, my guido (the jersey shore kind) meter pegs sky high on him. Carolla would be a good replacement, if the show catches on maybe there will be some host upgrades in the future. The other 2 hosts are good, they just need some time to get into a rhythm and find their places in the show. 40 minute show vs 1 hour show is disappointing and it seems rushed at times but 1 hour just cant be done here. I would have liked to see at least 2 minutes of news but they are taping the studio segment too far ahead of air dates for it to work, news is always several guaranteed laughs on the UK version. I like their test track more than the one in UK.

Overall I was very impressed by what they produced. It could have been really really bad. It was better than any motor trend tv or whatever US car shows came before it. I will continue to watch and support the show. Oh, i hope they keep replaying it at 11pm so I can watch Brewmasters also.

Sofa King wrote: In reply to carguy123: +1 I couldn't agree with you more! Yeah, it's not the best show out there, but how many other car shows are any better? At least this one has cars that also turn right, has the possibility to show cars that aren't super-cars, and is at least attempting to be entertaining.

IDK, a car show that isn't enjoyable to watch isn't an improvement over "no car show" in my book. That's like saying "Hey, the Hyundai Excel was a lousy car, but it was better that they made a lousy car than no car at all and having one less model on the market!" (yes, I'm sure there is someone on her who thinks that the Excel was the bees knees......if that's you, please note that it is a random example, lol, and do not take offense!)

"seeing cars" isn't the point of TG though....I can go drive around and see expensive/high-performance cars all day long in this area, or drive an hour to Summit Point and catch whatever club is running that day. I watch Top Gear for the entertainment aspect, the dialogue, the skits, and the way the HOSTS REACT to the cars. A Lambo on TV is boring just driving around town or sitting there when someone not named "me" is inside of it. The TG hosts are there to make the car more than just a car...to make it have personality matching theirs or to be a "mirror into its soul" so to say. To make fun of the silly nuances found in supercars. To adore (tongue-in-cheek) the performance accumen of a Fiat Uno. That's the main problem here - the TG-US hosts not only have seemingly no personality, but they also don't have British accents, which by default make even the most boring discussion more entertaining. And they just seem to use the cars as lifeless appliances rather than something with a "soul" that needs to be examined. Which, of course, we know is the case with all cars ;)

Soul-less automotive discussion is already out there all over youtube, Car&Driver, Motortrend, etc. If TG-US is going to be more of the same corporate shill, I don't think it's "better than no car show."

All said, I will watch again next week. Some of the previews for the season looked pretty entertaining....so I'll let it remain to be seen if the entire skits are as cool as the really short snippets make them look.

Good show, but the missing element was comedy. Rutledge's attempts at humor were beyond lame, Tanner didn't even attempt what he knew he couldn't pull off, and Adam just came off as an angry New Yorker (what NY native ever knew anything about cars?) with a foul mouth. I agree that the lineup could use a shakeup, starting with Adam C. for Adam F., and anyone else that actually possesses a sense of humor and can use it on camera. Maybe Tim Allen?

Leno, Allen, Carolla.

boom...ratings gold, would get it on a real network, would bring in viewers who are not as much into cars as comedy and get them interested. Then leak that the Stig is Jimmy Johnson and all the NASCAR people will turn out. ratings gold. Then make a point to get "JDM" and "EDM" models on the show as much as possible and all the teenage fanclub will turn out. ratings gold.

I was expecting it to be dreadful. I was pleasantly surprised. The opening bit seemed a little wooden, but it did seem they loosened up a bit as the show went on.

Despite my usual offense a curse words in general, I couldn't help but laugh as the show bleeped out the f-bomb each time the Jersey guy shifted.

Methinks they need to work on the interview skills a little bit too.

Overall, I haven't cancelled my DVR scheduling for the show. Hopefully they mature in their roles a little bit as time goes on.