http://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/chrome-underground/about-the-show.htm I cannot believe this kind of garbage got a green light to spend money.
And in keeping with the current boredom around chez Curmudgeon I have seen a few episodes of Austin Speed Shop. I am once again reminded of why I dislike Jesse James. What a tool. I don't care that it's mostly manufactured controversy, if he's half that big an ass in real life I wouldn't tolerate his crap more than 5 minutes.
Huh, I wonder if you can really make good money going Chrome Underground stuff, or if it's staged like Storage Wars & friends.
I could blend right into any South American ghetto 
Reality television sucks. It's all been played out so many times already that I wont even give a new show a chance. The biggest part I hate are all the "Wanna-be's" that spring up every time a new show comes out.
Actually, watching "Wheeler Dealers" was a big leap for me after "Powerblock Television" and all the "Custom Crap" shows we get here... (glad I did though, that's a nice, refreshing, show)
And get off my lawn!
People jumped all over me when I suggested that reality TV shows were staged, and fake. The description of that show is just sad.
I am ever so glad I don't have cable any.more
If your going to be home a lot, sign up for Netflix.
Drama:
Dexter, Weeds, Breaking Bad
Fun, Stupid:
Trailer Park Boys
Documentary:
Muscle Shoals
So,so much more:
Zomby Woof wrote: People jumped all over me when I suggested that reality TV shows were staged, and fake. The description of that show is just sad.
You are just trying to create false drama right? 
I mean, WHO would actually jump on you for calling reality TV fake!?! (unless you are talking about 1995)
I did catch a bit of this Chrome show... it was obscenely bad. I really had no idea what was going on and why everything was so dramatic (BAM, editing!)
I do have to say, I think the Garage Rescue (or something like that) show does seem to be pretty reasonable (only seen one). It seems to lack the drama AND the ridiculously short full restorations... which of course means, it will not last. 
Yeah, I probably will Netflix at some point. I have Breaking Bad on DVD (yeah I know, olde skool technology, go ahead and laugh) but sometimes I just channel surf a bit. I watched WD on Velocity a few times along with Garage Rescue (which is IMHO very dumbed down; seriously, a whole night to remove the exhaust from a Datsun 240Z? Who wrote THAT idiocy into the script?), saw that Fantomworks show (which, while dumbed down etc at least has some variety and does offer a glimpse into the true work needed in a resto) tuned in again last night and nearly vomited at the Chrome Underground show.
The best car-reality show IMO was "Madhouse". At the time, it was said that the cameras played up the drama, but having watched lots of races over the following seasons of Bowman Gray Stadium on Youtube, it is very evident that is just how those guys are :crazy.
Zomby Woof wrote: People jumped all over me when I suggested that reality TV shows were staged, and fake. The description of that show is just sad.
those would be the same folk that swear that "wrastling" is real 
Discovery Channel:
Time is running out
Money is tight
Tempers are flaring
Those phrases compose the script of the entire show-list. All the writers do is ad a noun to the end to create a new show.
Crab
Gold
Hot Rod
Reno
Whatever
i like Jesse James... respect his work ethic and the skills that he's built up over a lifetime of building stuff... he might be a bit of an shiny happy person, but most people are and i watch him to see him build cool stuff out of chunks of steel and not talk about his feelings over a triple mocha frappe or whatever stupid names people have given to coffee these days..
Curmudgeon wrote: Garage Rescue (which is IMHO very dumbed down; seriously, a whole night to remove the exhaust from a Datsun 240Z? Who wrote THAT idiocy into the script?)
Have you never had a night like that in the shop? Seems more realistic than the shows that claim a fully functional hot rod was built over night (or over a weekend, or a week even).
The TV guide description of the show sounded promising so I turned it on. After a couple minutes of some guy driving a Mustang on a road in Mexico where danger lurks at every turn, I shut it off.
dculberson wrote:Curmudgeon wrote: Garage Rescue (which is IMHO very dumbed down; seriously, a whole night to remove the exhaust from a Datsun 240Z? Who wrote THAT idiocy into the script?)Have you never had a night like that in the shop? Seems more realistic than the shows that claim a fully functional hot rod was built over night (or over a weekend, or a week even).
Those "hot-rod" shows would be the ones responsible for my first major failed project. I bought a 240z out of a field when I was 21 and started at it hell-bent for leather. Those shows made it look so damn easy, and when my finishes didn't come near as quick/cheap as they made them sound my motivation hit a brick wall.
In hindsight it's easy to say "duh kid, what did you expect?" but that ALL I ever saw on TV. They pulled a dirty engine out, bought a shiny new one with lots of parts from their advertisers, and sprayed paint everywhere and it always turned out perfect. "Wham bam, thank you ma'am" all you needed was a car, a garage, and lots of money and you TOO can have a project like this.
The never tell you what happens when the machinist breaks it to ya that the third set of heads you pulled from the junkyard are cracked, or how bad rust can be but still hold body paneling to the car, or about all the little nuts/clips/clamps/hoses/consumables/etc that can completely KILL a poorly planned budget.
The Z ended up going to the junkyard. I still feel guilty about it (hence my hatred for powerblock ) but I learned more from that dead car / empty bank account than I ever did from television programming.
Ah well, now I know better and I'm still buying projects.
I had it on briefly last night, as they were recovering some car at the police impound. It made Operation Repo look like a NPR documentary. I'm insulted discovery thinks we're that dumb.
dculberson wrote:Curmudgeon wrote: Garage Rescue (which is IMHO very dumbed down; seriously, a whole night to remove the exhaust from a Datsun 240Z? Who wrote THAT idiocy into the script?)Have you never had a night like that in the shop? Seems more realistic than the shows that claim a fully functional hot rod was built over night (or over a weekend, or a week even).
Yeah, I have had those kind of nights. I also saw where the guy Sawzalled the original exhaust in half and then dragged it out on camera inside about 90 seconds, man if he couldn't get the rest of the fasteners off within 45 minutes then he needs to take his pecker pullers off of tools.
The 'built it in a weekend' shows typically don't get deeply into just how long, the announcer just intones they are running out of time. On Fantomworks if you check the backgrounds when they bring cars in/out of the shop they will show big swings in the weather outside not to mention a guy might be starting on something wearing long sleeves and a hoodie 'cuz it's cold, then button things up wearing Levis and a T shirt.
The power steering on the Avanti crap was overblown for sure, though. If the guy couldn't fit the whole EPS under the dash and maintain steering shaft alignment through the headers he shoulda been sent somewhere he couldn't do any more damage. That and the guy having the fit about the 12v gennie on the straight 8 Buick, even I could see that was a pretty simple project. Oh, well; gotta manufacture controversy.
aircooled wrote: </ I mean, WHO would actually jump on you for calling reality TV fake!?! (unless you are talking about 1995)
It was about 15 years ago.
My (otherwise pretty smart) grandmother BELIEVED in pro rasslin', I kid you not. You did NOT make rasslin' jokes in her presence!
novaderrik wrote: i like Jesse James... respect his work ethic and the skills that he's built up over a lifetime of building stuff... he might be a bit of an shiny happy person, but most people are and i watch him to see him build cool stuff out of chunks of steel and not talk about his feelings over a triple mocha frappe or whatever stupid names people have given to coffee these days..
You and me can be friends. I'm in the same boat. I don't care if he's a dick or not, he's not faking it for anyone. When Monster Garage went off air he flat out said "This isn't fun anymore" on the last episode, and quit. That's legit to me.
As far as "car" shows- I still like Fast and Loud. Rawlings is a dope, but it's kinda funny and it's hard not to get sucked in by that lunatic. Plus his buddy Dennis is kinda neat. And has a lot of money. And his secretary is pretty decent to discuss politics with....
mndsm wrote:novaderrik wrote: i like Jesse James... respect his work ethic and the skills that he's built up over a lifetime of building stuff... he might be a bit of an shiny happy person, but most people are and i watch him to see him build cool stuff out of chunks of steel and not talk about his feelings over a triple mocha frappe or whatever stupid names people have given to coffee these days..You and me can be friends. I'm in the same boat. I don't care if he's a dick or not, he's not faking it for anyone. When Monster Garage went off air he flat out said "This isn't fun anymore" on the last episode, and quit. That's legit to me. As far as "car" shows- I still like Fast and Loud. Rawlings is a dope, but it's kinda funny and it's hard not to get sucked in by that lunatic. Plus his buddy Dennis is kinda neat. And has a lot of money. And his secretary is pretty decent to discuss politics with....
yay!! Minnesota bff's!!
i also liked watching shows like American Hot Rod, Overhaulin', and American Chopper for the first couple of seasons.. after that, they all became more about fake drama and deadlines than they were about showing how the professionals design and build high end stuff.. Overhaulin' was the least offensive of the bunch, but the "pretending to be a cop at the impound lot" schtick grew extremely old after a while. the new episodes are ok, but mostly because they got rid of the "build it in a week" thing and just allow it to take however long it takes... and Chris Jacobs barely every breaks out his cop voice...
my current favorite car related show is on what used to be the Powerblock, Extreme Offroad... some episodes are blatant advertiser cash grabs, but every once in a while he shows how to build some really cool stuff and packs a lot of neat stuff into a 22 minute show.. just the sheer amount of fab work that went into the rock crawler was amazing. and to make it relevant to the interests of the GRM crowd, they are currently doing an older Focus up as a rally racer. one whole episode was dedicated to him building the roll cage to NASA specs- from scratch. no bolt in prefab roll cage here- he started with a pile of tubing and built a cage and showed how to do it.
back to Jesse James: overall, i was a fan of Monster Garage, but the best episode they did was the one where he was working with a bunch of old time street rodders to build something, and they made it blatantly obvious that they weren't really working on a one week schedule, even as the announcer kept hyping up the looming deadline... it was obvious that he had a ton of respect for them, and them for him, and that whole episode was a labor of love..
Jesse James, in the Austin Speed Shop series, spends most of his time jerking around and bitching at the people who do the real work, like mentioning taking two weeks to go out and play with potbellied pigs/shoot weapons. Maybe that's the producers who do that but he seems to enjoy playing that part just a little too well.
I just saw him bitching about the guy who hand built the nose for the Circuit of the Americas monstrosity and instead of congratulating him on a well made and well fit piece of sheet metal his response was to bitch that he took too long, then mimicked him (the fab guy) as a slow robotic type. Maybe to some people that's a work ethic, not to me. It's just being a dick. Again, maybe it's the producers but he seems to enjoy it a little too much.
At the end of that show he says it was '99% them, 1% me' but I don't for a moment believe he really feels that way.
JJ doesn't build E36 M3 except discord. I wouldn't raise a finger to help the azzhole.
Too bad this show is off the air. it was the only one I could stomach:
And it was guuuud. The Crazy Horse resto was amazing, especially considering he did all of the rust repair himself.
In reply to tuna55:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0h0a535Q4o1xtCvGLnL7Ng
If he has teaser vids up it's still going, just on youtube. I'm subbed, but I haven't watched anything in a while.
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