That's what over 350,000,000 viewers a week say when they watch Top Gear on the BBC. This show has become one of the most watched shows this generation. Top Gear is so popular in the UK, you can't wear a shirt with The Stig on it without someone walking up to you making a reference to the show.
I personally have been watching Top Gear for 5 years now. I remember first watching the show on the Discovery Channel when, for not even a year, syndicated Top Gear late at night. I was flipping through the channels one night and I saw this...
So, after they drowned, burnt and smashed this little truck, they then got the brilliant idea of strapping it to the roof of a building that is about to be demolished. This is what happened next...
I was instantly hooked. Over the past 5 years this has become my all time favorite show next to The Sopranos.
Now though, over here in the USA, we want our own dose of Top Gear.
Enter Top Gear USA and it's hosts Rutledge Wood, Tanner Foust & Adam Ferrara (shown in photo). The show will follow the general set up and delivery like the BBC version and will have the same segments like "Star In A Reasonably Priced Car". The US version even has it's own Stig to take fast cars around their test track to get the best lap time as possible. You would believe that us Americans can't screw up a classic show like Top Gear, right?
You would be very wrong. Watching the first episode of the US Top Gear made me more sad than happy. Why? It's the simplest answer and quite frankly my only complaint.
These three guy's...
What makes the BBC's Top Gear so entertaining are the three gentlemen in the above photo: Richard Hammond, Jeremy Clarkson & James May. They have something the US hosts don't have, chemistry.
Chemistry is what holds a show together and either makes or breaks your show. Top Gear's production value (yes, the US version too) is some of the best on TV. The way they film a car, it makes these amazing machines look like pieces of art. If you can make a Reliant Robbin look great, your doing something right.
Back to the topic at hand. Ferrara, Foust and Wood have taped several "test" shows and have been spending time together working on this show for several months now. I didn't get that vibe from watching the first episode. It felt like they just met each other that day.
The first episode had their introductions, then immediately went to a film piece where they raced a Dodge Viper against an attack chopper. Astronaut Buzz Aldrin was the "Big Star, Small Car" guest. They finished the show driving around in 3 different Lamborghini's to see who's was best. While the production value was excellent (it should be, the producers of the BBC version helped produce this show), the hosts themselves are what made the show, quite frankly, boring. Tanner Foust didn't have an ounce of personality and was serious the whole time. Rutledge Wood yelled "DUDE! THAT'S AWESOME!" so many times, he reminded me of Phillip Seymour Hoffman's "Dusty" character from Twister (no, that's not a good thing).
Adam Ferrara was the saving grace of the show. His interview with Buzz Aldrin was a little shaky, but Aldrin was a mute most of the time anyway. Adam made a few jokes during the show that made me laugh, but I have a feeling the History Channel is making him bring all the humor to the show and have him be "The Funny Guy". In the BBC version, all three hosts had a share of humor and worked together to share humor off of one another. I just hope that by the end of the season we see some of that with the US hosts.
One more thing I'm not so sure about with the US version, the sponsors. The BBC version doesn't have commercial sponsors. Therefore, Clarkson can say quite frankly whatever he wants to say about a car without costing the BBC money, as shown in this clip, where he reviews the Mercedes Sl65 Black...
The US version however, does have sponsors. When they review a car they are not happy about, they can't say it's not a good car, for fear of losing sponsors. Jay Leno was in talks to host the US version, but he declined for this very reason. I'm not a fan of Leno's show, but he does know A LOT about cars, engines and racing. In another lifetime he was also a stand up comedian, so he can deliver a funny line along with a serious car review. He would have been the PERFECT host for this show. Unfortunately, corporate America is very sensitive and I'm almost certain Mercedes, Ford, Chrysler and other car makers won't buy advertising time on Top Gear if Jay Leno say's their car is absolute shit.
My verdict: Top Gear US has potential to be just as good as the original BBC version. The production value is already on par with the BBC. The only problem with this US version is the hosts themselves. If they get some chemistry between each other, this will be excellent. I'll watch the first season to give it a true shot. For now, based on this first episode, I'll stick with the UK version. If you never saw Top Gear before, you may like this US version (which airs 10pm EST every Sunday on The History Channel). You'll either like it, or hate it. If you wish to check out the UK version, they air episodes all day every Monday on BBC America. "60 Minutes" did a segment recently on Top Gear and what makes it so good. I couldn't have said it any better myself...
To finish this post, here are some of my favorite Top Gear moments...
Written by: Hammy
Twitter: @HammyRadio
