So, they're really going to do this? [Welcome to my perfumed garden]

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NBC are making a US version of Top Gear.

The main question on my lips is why? That and, which one's supposed to be James May, is he amusingly sexually ambiguous and does he have immaculate spanners?

I suppose it might be alright for those who think Top Gear's a show about cars but - WHY does American TV persist in doing this? If there's a great US show then a British TV company will buy it and show it in all its American glory. We rarely feel the need to remake said show in our own image (resulting in major FAIL). It seems no one listens to Jay Leno anymore.

I wait with baited breath for the eppy when they drive wrecks around Chipping Norton with... ??? painted on their...???

- and here my pre-coffee imagination is defeated. I'm trying to come up with slogans as offensive to middle-English sensibilities as 'Man Love Rules' apparently was in Alabama and failing. Maybe the Flist can help?

Music:: The blessed sound of the most holy espresso machine

Mood::

tired

location: supposedly working

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There are 28 comments on this entry. (Reply.)

I'm with you - Why?
It's a fabulous programme as it is, you can't recreate it.
Mind you, they still keep remaking great films and wonder why they flop...

Who wants em, who needs em?

But Top Gear? TOP GEAR is perfection that cannot be recreated by just following the formula because it's about *chemistry* and everyone knows what happens when you mess with chemistry (see X Files season 8, SG1 season 6 and etc etc etc...)

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I agree with you totally.
They shouldn't mess with perfection!

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Hmmmm in regards to insults perhaps if they went to Scotland or Wales and painted "Wales/Scotland is a nice part of England" on their truks?

Ooh yeah, that would do it. *g*

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NBC are making a US version of Top Gear

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

But it's true.

NBC; a station that clearly has no shame.

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Your referring to a network that has mostly reality based shows. We avoid it like the plague and they can't figure out why?
NBC used to have some of the most cutting edge programming on the air. I mean my God they had Saturday Night Live! What the heck happened to their brains (or maybe it was their you know... manparts).

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When I was in the US, NBC had some of the best programming - though UKTV is hardly free of reality shows - I think most of yours are remakes of ours (oh, the irony! *g*) perhaps they're all having problems with the gentleman vegetables?

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I feel your pain. Truly.

There's going to be an Australian version too.

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Well that just stuffed my night. It's blasphemy, that's what it is.

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::is sad::

I mean, WHY? None of this makes sense!

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Gawd, I just don't like it! The only thing in its favour is that it's being produced by SBS. It may stand half a chance, but still I'm a little doubtful.

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It will be awful. Trust me on this. TG without Clarkson/Hammond/May is like pencils without a sharpener - Pointless.

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See, no, they can't do that. It won't work, and it's against the rules.

Pillocks. *g*

You'd think so, wouldn't you?

There should be LAWS, dammit! Does no one remember Magna Carta? Did she die in vain?

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I'm so sorry. Undoubtedly this will be as screwed up as the US version of Life on Mars...

As far as a similar insult: How about "Tea Sucks"? :o)

I see where you're coming from but fear it will fail to impact.

'Undoubtedly this will be as screwed up as the US version of Life on Mars'
I just don't see the point, I honestly don't. ::shakes head in sorrow and despair::

'I'm so sorry.'
Well, unless you're personally responsible...
(You're not, are you?)

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Or Cracker! As much as I liked Robert Pastorelli he just wasn't Fitz after Robbie Coltrane.

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I never saw the US version of Cracker. Not very good then?

And in the spirit of fairness and balance, the UK version of 'pimp my ride' was just... ::has no words. No really. I don't::

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Not very good then?
Actually, I think it was. I am slightly biased toward the one I saw first and of course RC.
Some thing just don't translate well between cultures. I was horrified when they talked about making an American version of Ab Fab.
However. if Top Gear US develops it's own unique personality and doesn't try to be Top Gear UK it may well be okay. I mean really, it's about cars and the guys who have a love of them. What could possibly go wrong?...*erm Want a list?

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Thing is, I don't think it is - about cars I mean. It was once, but for years, now, it's been about C, H & M dicking around, the cars are increasingly incidental. If they can recreate that chemistry, it might be alright, but I doubt if they can.

I just don't understand why US TV has to remake everything, why don't they just show Top Gear? That's what the BBC would do with a hit US show.

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why don't they just show Top Gear? That's what the BBC would do with a hit US show.
The fact is they do show Top Gear. And let's face it NBC isn't the BBC, they want to make shows they air their own.
When I watch TG with some people, I spend much time explaining . And you do have to admit to quite a bit of US bashing. JC never saw an American car he liked and I'm pretty sure that attitude won't fly well in a market of Midwestern car factory workers they want to sell beer, ranch dressing and crackers.
I think they want to reach an American audience that would otherwise give it a pass. So, that said, would they want to try and market a European show featuring European cars? on European roads the audience knows and/or could care nothing about? or an American version featuring, people they know, all kinds of cars in the widely differing traffic and road conditions that exist and people here drive in? With the added bonus of humor they get.(Americans can be just as nationalistic as the next guy)and the fact is humor is cultural, what is funny one place isn't necessarily funny anywhere else. The experience of being American is uniquely American as is the experience of being British is uniquely British.
This is a car culture and the way to create a new audience for this type of show would not be showing them guys they don't get and don't know driving cars with names they can't pronounce and could care less about.
That fact is the TPtB, the ones that write the checks think it wouldn't be widely accepted.
Personally I love TG and ~~force it on~~ share it with every one I can. But some just don't like it and don't get why I do. Just like some people hate Monty Python and think it's stupid and infantile like The Three Stooges on LSD.
We all spend a lot of time bitching about demographics and TV programming but as far as they are concerned it's what pays the bills. Someone must be watching some crap is all I can say.
I really feel a train wreck of entertainment coming on, but what do I know? it could be the next American Chopper.
I have spent way too much time on this for who cares whatever reason trying to see both sides. The fact is, it's for a different audience that wouldn't know or care about the original.

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Well, unless you're personally responsible...
(You're not, are you?)

I don't think so, at least not if my bank account is any indication... but somehow I just feel compelled to apologize for my country's half-assed attempts to remake good British TV.

How about "The Doctor is a poofter?"... naw, on second thought, that's not going to work, either, is it? *G*

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Well, he probably is some of the time. *g*

I just feel compelled to apologize for my country's half-assed attempts to remake good British TV...
I don't understand why, when you have such brilliant stuff of your own, the networks feel this need to remake stuff from elsewhere. Over here we have mostly our own stuff, nicely peppered with a little bit of stuff from elsewhere. Unless NBC and their ilk are making Clarkson's (he's only joking, he doesn't mean it!) point that all Americans are fat and lazy imbeciles who can't cope with a foreign accent and some non US references...?

I don't understand. I want to, but I don't. (o:

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I'm with Leno on this one.

I watch Top Gear from time to time, it's on sporadically on odd channels. The thing I had to learn is that it's not just about the cars. The whole approach is essential and it won't translate. So sad.

TG without Clarkson, Hamster and Captain Slow is NOT TG imo.

But you should try downloading TopGear, if you can - all US versions are cut to ribbons and all the slashy-goodness removed. It's an outrage!

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May