| Sunday, July 27, 2008 |
07:23 - We'll give it a fair shake
http://www.autoblog.com/2008/07/27/top-gear-pilot-thats-a-wrap/
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Well, at least the studio audience seems to be bullish on the U.S. version of Top Gear:
Filming for the NBC pilot for Top Gear has wrapped. Speculation about the show's format and hosting choices has left Top Gear fans hoping for at least a decent representation of the popular British show. Some of those prayers may be answered , as NBC brought in a number of BBC folks, along with the original Top Gear producer, the assist in the pilot's taping. The show follows the BBC version's format, right down to the set details. Also, as noted earlier, the "star in a reasonably priced car" segment gets carried over. However, the driver might come as a bit of a surprise (a really awesome surprise, at that). The signature top-notch video production viewers expect is there, though it must be said that the geography of the United States offers a richer variety of visual possibilities than you might be accustomed to seeing on Jeremy & Co.'s show.
One key to the BBC Top Gear's is the camraderie between the presenters. As such, it's probably a little unfair to compare the Top Gear of today, 11 seasons in, to a crew just coming together for the first time. Still, Corolla, Foust and Stromer are off to a good start. Their interactions during taped segments were wildly entertaining, enough to distract the show's own crew members from their tasks. Each host fits into his own role, but not the exact molds laid out by Jezza, Hamster and Captain Slow. Corolla's razor-sharp wit is on full display. Causing at least one member of the audience to say, "That is the most funny Adam Corolla has ever been."
As I said earlier, for every The Office, there's a Whose Line Is It Anyway?. More of the latter than the former.
But I'm looking at it this way: Top Gear with Adam Carolla has got to be better than The Man Show without him.
What the hell. At least the studio seems to understand that it's dealing with some delicate chemistry here. I had a conversation with a haircutter a little while ago who professed to be a fan of good boutique-brand dark chocolates, and showed me a half-eaten bar of some chocolate he'd bought at Starbucks, rebranded from some unknown company obscured by the packaging; like most people, he was horrified when I pointed out that Ghirardelli is now owned by Lindt, and Scharffen Berger by Hershey. He went into a near tizzy over my related observation that Chipotle was a McDonald's property for three years; but I carefully explained that when these companies buy up smaller boutique brands these days, it's because they're trying to build up a portfolio to cover market segments, not because they're trying to impose a uniform, mass-produced product on the whole marketplace. Food companies in particular, and especially companies making things like chocolate, are acutely cognizant of the fact that the super-subtle distinctions in texture and flavor are precisely what makes one brand valuable over another, and the absolute last thing on their agenda would be changing the production process or even the staff at the factory of a chocolate company they'd just spent a bunch of money to acquire, entrenched fan base and all. Scharffen Berger isn't going to start tasting like Hershey's, any more than Chipotle burritos were ever in danger of tasting like French fry oil, as I continued to point out, to Mr. Hairdresser's great reflective relief.
So while NBC might have some internal forces pushing for some expedient liability-limiting measures in the formulation of Top Gear, somehow I get the feeling that they have a stronger sense than usual that it's imperative that they get it right—otherwise they might as well not have bothered investing in the show to begin with.
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Brian Tiemann
