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Thread: Funny Top Gear prog reference.

  1. #26
    American Top Gear is painfully, utterly wretched. BBC Top Gear is one of my favorite shows- the one where Jeremy drives a 3-wheeled Reliant Robin and tips it over every 30 seconds is one of the funniest things I've ever seen in my life. Sure, most of the mayhem is staged but that doesn't make it any less entertaining. But I like James may's solo series even more, especially Toy Stories. It probably helps that we're the same age. Most of the toys had American equivalents- Meccano was Erector Set, Scalextric was AFX and so on.

  2. #27
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    "American Top Gear is painfully, utterly wretched. BBC Top Gear is one of my favorite shows"

    You are 100% correct sir. The US version is not even pitiful.

  3. #28
    Quote Originally Posted by trurl View Post
    American Top Gear is painfully, utterly wretched. BBC Top Gear is one of my favorite shows- ...
    Hear hear! I'm in the same boat. As much as I try to like the American version (although there are rare gems of hilarity), it just mostly doesn't cut it.

    When I saw the "cottage" that Jeremy had built into the back of a Mercedes -including the wood stove- I almost gave myself a hernia from laughing so hard when things started sliding around. "Regain control of the cottage!"

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?featur...dHEBo3UU#t=490

    I do remember hearing something about a dislike of Genesis by Hammond recently. Too funny.

  4. #29
    Quote Originally Posted by trurl View Post
    ...the one where Jeremy drives a 3-wheeled Reliant Robin and tips it over every 30 seconds...
    AHAHAH!!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQh56geU0X8

  5. #30
    Quote Originally Posted by Neptune View Post

    I do remember hearing something about a dislike of Genesis by Hammond recently. Too funny.
    It's been brought up on at least three or four occasions. One time, they were doing the news, and the topic of Genesis somehow came into the discussion, and Hammond stated flatly that he doesn't like the band. And as I said, that's why Jeremy keeps finding ways to play I Know What I Like at extremely high volume levels during their road trips, specifically to annoy Hamster.

    Oh, and one more I forgot: there was one episode, I think when Jeremy raced the marathon runner (and lost!) through London, they used The Forge Of Vulcan by Hawkwind as background music in one bit.

    The convertible people carrier (ie mini-van, for us Americans) was pretty funny too. I still can't figure out how they managed to set fire to a car wash with it.

    Jeremy trying to create a Jackson Pollock painting by firing paintballs out of the exhaust pipe of a race car was funny, also. "Right in the plumbs!".

    The Reliant Robin debacle was funny, as they was invariably a celebrity walking by just in time to help Jeremy get the car righted again. Who knew there were that many famous people in Sheffield.

    Of course, the other Reliant Robin piece was when James and Richard (almost successfully) attempted to turn one into a space shuttle.

    And the business with them dropping pianos on...what were they? The Morris Marinas, I think? I liked Richard's comment "You really only need one, as a warning from history, you don't really need a breeding pair".

    The race through Japan was good too:

    Richard: But I don't like fish!
    James: Well, then you've come to the wrong country, mate!

  6. #31
    Quote Originally Posted by GuitarGeek View Post
    I only watched the American version once, I think the first episode and it was just so...American, for want of a better word. The main host sounded like he was a game show host, or a local news sports commentator. And the attempts at comedy were typically sophomoric American style comedy. I just thought, what's the point?!
    That's the problem with almost every attempt to do an American version of a British show. They don't understand that part of the charm is the British-ness of it all.

  7. #32
    Quote Originally Posted by TheLongshot View Post
    That's the problem with almost every attempt to do an American version of a British show. They don't understand that part of the charm is the British-ness of it all.
    They used to be able to pull it off. Sanford And Son, All In The Family, and Three's Company were all based on British shows, and the Americanized versions were all pretty good. Or at least they were until they over stayed their welcome (as most American shows do) and started going south.

  8. #33
    And The Office was successful too, I thought- different and Americanized, but in a good way, a way that lent itself to more open-ended long-term development. But then you get things like an American Top Gear, or Dr. Who, or, god help us, the American attempt at Red Dwarf which was mercifully killed with fire in the womb. Talk about not getting it.

  9. #34
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    --the American attempt at Red Dwarf --

    Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggg ggggghhhhhhhhhh!!!!

  10. #35
    OH yeah, and not quite a prog allusion, but Jules Holland did tell the story of having Miles Davis on The Tube back in the 80's. Apparently, the show regularly had these ultra short interview segments, supposedly because the producers decided that the viewers had short attention spans, so the interviews would be like 60 seconds. So Miles is on, to promote a show of his drawings in London. Jules argues that Miles is one of the most important musicians of the 20th century, we have to give him more than 60 seconds. So the producers gave him 90 seconds to interview Miles.

    So Jules' first question is "Would you say there's a connection between your drawings and your music?". Miles' response? "Hmmmm, would I connect my drawings and my music? Mmmmm. Yeaaaaah, good question..." and goes like that, apparently thinking about how to answer the question, for the full 90 seconds.

  11. #36
    Quote Originally Posted by trurl View Post
    And The Office was successful too, I thought- different and Americanized, but in a good way, a way that lent itself to more open-ended long-term development. But then you get things like an American Top Gear, or Dr. Who, or, god help us, the American attempt at Red Dwarf which was mercifully killed with fire in the womb. Talk about not getting it.
    Not to mention Fawlty Towers.

    In return, the British attempted to remake Married...With Children and The Golden Girls. Neither lasted more than one series, with TGG remake actually pulled from the schedule half way through.

  12. #37
    There was an American version of Fawlty Towers? I don't remember...oh wait, did it have Bea Arthur in it? I think I do remember seeing that briefly back in the 80's. I didn't even realize it was based on Fawlty Towers until I later saw an interview with John Cleese where he was asked if he had any thoughts on why it failed.

    If by "American Doctor Who" we're talking about the mid 90's made-for-TV movie, I still have to see that again. I saw it originally aired, and I remember being put off by The Master being played by Julia Roberts' brother (remember when Julia Roberts' career first started and everyone was calling her "Eric Roberts' sister"...boy, that sure changed fast!). Other than that, I don't remember much about how good or bad it was. Unfortunately, the one time BBC America aired it during their "The Doctors Revisited" campaign last year, my DVR picked that evening to screw up and it didn't record. And I think they only showed it the one time. So I guess if I want to see it, I'm going to have to buy the DVD (oh, I'm sure there's way to watch it...ya know, on the internet, but I'm a big enough Doctor Who geek that I recognize the new assistant manager at work as looking a lot like Sophie Aldred, so it's not like I wouldn't have bought it anyway).

  13. #38
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    BBCs Top Gear has been one of my favorite TV shows as long as I can remember (NOT the History channel USA version, which totally sucked). Something that recently blew my mind was ONE WEEK before Putin invaded Crimea, they aired their quest to drive the length of the Ukraine, south to north.
    Not only did they drive three cars THROUGH the huge Russian submarine base under a mountain near Sevastopol in Crimea, but they filmed it with no resistance. Likewise playing the fools around ICBMs at an ex-cold war installation on the way to trying NOT to run out of fuel in Chernoble, north of Kiev. Entertaining, informative, great photography of places you'd never see otherwise... all with the irreverent humor that only Clarkson, May and Hamster seem able to pull off.
    BTW,
    As I had open heart surgery for a quadruple by-pass last week I missed Burma Part 2... I'm taking it easy now for a few months... so anyone wondering why the Nektar project site is still down... now you know, as this is my first post-op post on PE.... in fact this is the first time I've touched a keyboard in over two weeks..... MAN it's good to be alive!
    Mick Brockett.

  14. #39
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    Hey Mick !
    Good to hear you're OK ! (did you see 'your' thread over in the 'off topic ' threads ??)
    I sort of missed out on the Top Gear show for a while because I thought it was the old music show !
    I haven't seen the ICBM show yet, but if anyone could cause an international incident, it would be those guys

  15. #40
    So apparently the Zappa tribute was (apparently) left out of the US broadcast. Any of the Brits who saw it last week care to tell us what it was?

  16. #41
    Quote Originally Posted by trurl View Post
    And The Office was successful too, I thought- different and Americanized, but in a good way, a way that lent itself to more open-ended long-term development. But then you get things like an American Top Gear, or Dr. Who, or, god help us, the American attempt at Red Dwarf which was mercifully killed with fire in the womb. Talk about not getting it.
    The Office is one of the few exceptions where the American version was better. Course, that's probably because I have a strong dislike for Ricky Gervais, who I don't find funny at all.

  17. #42
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    Quote Originally Posted by TheLongshot View Post
    I have a strong dislike for Ricky Gervais, who I don't find funny at all.
    He's at least as funny as "the great" David Brenner was!

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