I love the BBC-Top Gear!

[RICHARD]

Brits have the right idea when it comes to TV.


I am totally hooked on a show called Top Gear.

I love cars shows and the sucky ones on Speed and Spike TV suck diesel exhaust.

I hate those stupid car auction shows too.... Like, who wants a Rumble Bee that was rebuilt with new parts and bondo?

--------------

I digress,

Top Gear is hosted by three guys (I still don't know their names) that do some pretty funny stuff on the show.

They do car reviews-by driving the cars into the ground-and they do not pull punches. They invite celebrities on they show and have them do a lap on a race track and they rank them according to their times!

They also do some wickedly funny challenges-one show was based on the idea that they could come to America, buy a car for 1,000 dollars (as opposed to renting one for the price of a two week rental) drive the car 800 miles and sell it when they got to their destination.

Another show had do with getting a trailer and going camping......they burned the danged thing down when they tried to cook a meal!

Great stuff when you are medicated and sick in bed.

If you love cars or anything motorized, you will love this show.

[Killearn Kitties]

So glad we are entertaining you Richard. I can just see you and Ed watching Top Gear. :D I think Randi's John used to really enjoy it too.

During the last winter Olympics they staged all the competitions, downhill, skijump, skating etc in cars. That was a particularly good programme.

[Pawsitive Thinking]

I still don't know their names

Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard "Hamster" Hammond

http://www.topgear.com/blogs/planettopgear/018-watching-my-crash/

[RICHARD]

Jeremy Clarkson, James May and Richard "Hamster" Hammond

http://www.topgear.com/blogs/planettopgear/018-watching-my-crash/


Who cares! ;)

I am entertained. :D

The have mentioned the celebs on previous shows and I have to go back and find them......


KK,
Thanks for reminding me....the Cat Olympics are a few months away....time to get ready! :D

[Killearn Kitties]

The have mentioned the celebs on previous shows and I have to go back and find them......
I remember two of your other favourites doing particularly well on the celebrity challenge - Simon Cowal and Gordon Ramsay.

[Muddy4paws]

Not sure if you know but you can watch the new ones from over here at www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer :)

[Suki Wingy]

I've seen the america one, it's great! I love how they got threatened with guns just for a few sayings written on a car. :rolleyes: One guy wrote "I'm Bi" on the hood and that just about killed the guy who had tyo drive it. :p :rolleyes:

[RICHARD]

I remember two of your other favourites doing particularly well on the celebrity challenge - Simon Cowal and Gordon Ramsay.

Not a fan of Cowal- But, I'd like to see Helen Mirren and Rick Wakeman! :D

[Randi]

KK, that's right John loved that programme and he got me hooked too. They're great guys! :D

Argh, I missed the one programme you mentioned, but they are re-running them now.

There was also one where they wanted to see who could get to a particlar place in London - starting from the South of France. Can't remember which car they drove (perhaps a Ferrari or Porche), but the other guy flew back in a small airoplane. I won't tell what happened in case you haven't seen that one yet.

Richard Hammond was in a nasty accident last year - or was it the year before? He almost didn't make it, but he's back on track now. :)

How many of them have you seen, Richard? Take this quiz! http://www.bbc.co.uk/topgear/hardquiz.shtml

[RICHARD]

How many of them have you seen, Richard? Take this quiz! http://www.bbc.co.uk/topgear/hardquiz.shtml

I have seen the Rent a car in America, the Shuttle, Farm tractors, Limo, camping and one other that I cannot remember. The new season starts on monday so I have to check that out.

One nice thing about our cable system is the On Demand feature. You can watch shows on certain channels anytime....They have the BBC but they change the shows every so often and they aren't in order.....Like Coupling, I got into it but they would jump from season to season -out of order- so I gave that up.

--------------------

I know that the opening theme song of the show is by the Allman Brothers, But am not sure of the name....If it is "Eat A Peach" there is an interesting story behind the song!

[Cincy'sMom]

Definately, going to have to check this show out. Soundslike something I coudl get addicted to (like I don't already watch enough on Speed)

[RICHARD]

I just saw the Helen Mirren episode and the best road in the world and saw the Buggati Veyron clip!


407 kph/253 miles an hour.

That made my heart sing......that car was ferocious!

CM,

It's a great show, sly humor and the best cars in the world.

P.S.

But all the camera shots are backwards.....the steering wheels are on the passenger side. ;)

[carole]

Richard we have that show down under too, my son is crazy on cars and loves watching it, i watched it with him once and was hooked, and i am not even into cars, it is a great programme, the british put out some really entertaining stuff, i love british Tv over anything else,even my own.ENJOY. :)

[RICHARD]

I just watched another episode. They used a Nissan truck to cross the English Channel. :D


I have never seen a TV show with so much charm and style.

Being a dumb male with an attraction for shiny, loud machines, stupid car stunts and the desire to fast, I cannot get enough.

I think that it's also a real treat that women can enjoy the show.

I was watching the piece on the car they were reviewing. I was so into the camera work and found myself transfixed-I started to pay attention to the way the clips are pieced together...The editing makes the car sexy, dreamy and really desirable....The shots of a car sliding thru a corner, rear tires smoking and the front tires pointing in a crazy angle made me hold my breath.

Clarkson, May and Hammond are funny, clever and brilliant...The car stunts are hilarious-made funnier by each one's persona.

Clarkson is the pompous know-it-all, May, a bumbling kind-hearted guy and Hammond is the little guy with the heart of a pit bull. They are the three friends sitting in a garage or backyard somewhere, drinking beer-talking cars and the next morning saying, "Well, it was a good idea at the time...."


There is one part of the show that I do not care for...

Imagine, getting paid to drive fast cars, making the tires smoke and sometimes destroying them...........

And never having to worry about cops. ;)

I want that job.

[Killearn Kitties]

:D That is the first time I have seen the words "charm" and "style" in the vicinity of Jeremy Clarkson.

[Pawsitive Thinking]

:D That is the first time I have seen the words "charm" and "style" in the vicinity of Jeremy Clarkson.

and, I suspect, the last....

[RICHARD]

Oh, come on the both of you. I was waxing poetic. :rolleyes: ;)

-------------------


Men go through stages in life.

Sports
Women
Cars
Houses
Power Tools and
Charcoal/propane grills...

These days, the woman that tells you how to drive is hidden in the dashboard.

[RICHARD]

The Africa espisode was too funny.

I had to walk out of the room. I almost didn't make the loo.

-------------

The Veyron racing against the Typhoon jet was way too much...

I noticed that the 'director's cut' on the On Demand channels of my cable has a few more minutes of program than the BBC broadcast on Monday night! :D

----------

Richard Hammond was doing a pitch for a show on the Nat'l. Geo channel....He is my hero!

[RICHARD]

Some American network has taken the TG concept and will bring it to the airwaves with Adam Carolla as host.

Another disaster milked from a perfectly good English TV show.

---------

I can handle Carolla in three minute bits and maybe once a month.
I am destroyed.:(

[Killearn Kitties]

Aww! Never mind, presumably you will still be able to get the original Top Gear? Online maybe?

Why do networks do that though? I don't think transplanted shows ever work. I wonder if one has ever been popular?

[RICHARD]

Aww! Never mind, presumably you will still be able to get the original Top Gear? Online maybe?

Why do networks do that though? I don't think transplanted shows ever work. I wonder if one has ever been popular?

They can have my BBC when they pry it from my cold dead hands!

American network TV sucks so badly it is not funny.

Brit shows are the best because you have to pay attention!

The accent, the terms and the references to people or events that make you
look for the joke!
-------

BTW, can you drown Joan Rivers in the Thames next time she is in town?

I started to watch the Graham Norton show- That dude is a riot. We could never get anyone like him on the airwaves because of the sponsors and the censors....

Brit TV is written well and funny - you have to be cerebral to get it...The exception was the guy that did the 'silent slapstick humor"- I forget his name........ugh.....I am getting old!


BENNY HILL!!!!!

Maybe I am not as old as I thought.

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Anyway, they'll take the ideas of the original TG and make them not funny....
I guess it will last a few shows before the purists revolt!:D

And I will be there carrying the flag!

[Killearn Kitties]

I look forward to you being revolting! :D

I HATED Benny Hill - I was very young when he was on certainly and my parents didn't watch him, so I have probably only seen him a couple of times, but it was more than enough.

I suspect Joan Rivers could be hard to hold down.

[RICHARD]

I suspect Joan Rivers could be hard to hold down.


Rivers?

Grab her by the hair, If you grab a body part it may fall off, God knows what is stapled or sewn on!

[carole]

Richard i am in a 100 per cent agreement with you, i love nearly all British Tv, over american or own kiwi stuff, which believe me there are only maybe one or two kiwi show's worth watching, i heard Joan Rivers was thrown off Brit tv for a rude comment which was not bleeped out because they did not have it on the show, about our very own Russell Crowe , yes folks he is originally a kiwi not an aussie, they always pinch our stars and market them as Aussies. lol.

As for Benny hill, i also hated him, stupid man, dirty toilet humour.

One exception i must say i was a fan of The apprentice, i watched the british version and have to say i preferred the american one.

I have just watched army wives, and i have to say i am a fan already.

[RICHARD]

Richard i am in a 100 per cent agreement with you,



LOL, where do I send the check?;)

Rivers used to do the red carpet at awards ceremonies, she'd interview the stars and I guess they finally got tired of her rudeness and attempts at humor.

American TV makes me want to tear my hair out. We have the best facilities to produce top notch entertainment, yet we always go for the passing gas jokes and laughing at old people, go figure.

----

KK,
you met me in person, you know I am revolting!:eek:

[Oggyflute]

It's a great show, and I manage to watch it most weeks. I still shudder though when I see the clip of Richard Hammond crashing that jet/drag car.

[RICHARD]

It's a great show, and I manage to watch it most weeks. I still shudder though when I see the clip of Richard Hammond crashing that jet/drag car.

Dude,

I just got goosebumps thinking about that because the National Hot Rod Assoc. just lost a racer yesterday trying to qualify a car at a race.

THe jet cars are hellaciously fast-If you have seen one in person, you know!
When I go the the airshows they have done a demo of semi-truck, the motor end of an articulated lorry, that goes the length of the runway.

The driver that was killed yesterday had his engine blow up at the .25 mile mark and never got the chance to hit his chute, he got to the end of the run and hit the wall past the run off area. Those cars run at around 300mph/500kph.
:(

[Miss Z]

:D That is the first time I have seen the words "charm" and "style" in the vicinity of Jeremy Clarkson.

Just what I was thinking! I can't stand the man. Especially all his 'I-don't-care-about-the-earth-good-riddance-to-polar-bears' bravado. That's just being overly arrogant. Sometimes I wonder what an impression countries like the USA get of the British male when our exports seem to consist of Jeremy Clarkson, Gordon Ramsay, Piers Morgan and Simon Cowell! ;)

Top Gear is still a very well put together programme and I have to admit I do watch it rather religiously. The Stig is awesome.

[RICHARD]

Sometimes I wonder what an impression countries like the USA get of the British male when our exports seem to consist of Jeremy Clarkson, Gordon Ramsay, Piers Morgan and Simon Cowell! ;)

Top Gear is still a very well put together programme and I have to admit I do watch it rather religiously. The Stig is awesome.

I'd like to believe that Clarkson's bravado is all T.V. macho....As with other celeBRITies their attitude is what got them on the tube.
I like GR....PM and SC are two of the biggest AHs on the planet.

Especially SC, He is scum of the worst kind. Why? He sucks the talent out of people for his own good and when the 'talent' goes away so does he.

I had heard about the voting on American False Idol and thought about all the .99 cent calls that the people make......

Of that, how much does he get?

___________

Check it out....When you go the the dictionary and see the definiton of a Lamprey, Cowell's pic is there!

[Killearn Kitties]

This has nothing to do with Top Gear, but touches on Jeremy Clarkson's dislike (OK, deap-seated loathing) of environmentalists. We have a genealogy programme which traces the ancestors of well-known people who participate in the programme. Jeremy Clarkson did one a little while ago. One of his ancestors on his mother's side was the founder of an enormous industrial empire for the time. At its height, it had several factories in the north of England and two warehouses in central London. It manufactured 3000 different products and exported them round the globe. They employed 15,000 people, had their own railway station and by the 1870s were using telephones to communicate with each other. Their most famous creation was the Kilner jar (family name was Kilner), a screw top glass jar with a rubber seal that was used to store jam and preserves.

Jeremy Clarkson has always been fascinated by engineering and industrial history, so was keen to find out more about that branch of his family. He also wanted to know where his millions went. He knew from his mother that the Kilners had a car very soon after their invention, so they were obviously very wealthy. He couldn't understand how a business that big could simply disappear.

So can you imagine his annoyance when he discovered that one of the reasons for the failure of the business was due to a court case. They were taken to court in 1871 by a local landowner who claimed that the smoke from the chimneys was killing his trees and crops. He won his case and the company was forced to invest in highly expensive gas-powered furnaces. It was one of the first environmental cases in British legal history.

The Kilners survived the court case and the business went on, but eventually went under in the 1930s. I think Jeremy is now convinced that his dislike of environmentalists is genetic. :D

[RICHARD]

This has nothing to do with Top Gear, but touches on Jeremy Clarkson's dislike (OK, deap-seated loathing) of environmentalists.

The Kilners survided the court case and the business went on, but eventually went under in the 1930s. I think Jeremy is now convinced that his dislike of environmentalists is genetic. :D

Thanks for the information!

It does make sense.

--------

Here in the U.S. the name of the jars we have for canning and storing food isn't Kilner..

The company name is Ball, I guess "bollocks" had too many letters to fit across the jar??

[RICHARD]

I love Top Gear.

I find mysellf laughing like an idiot when I watch the show.

Tonight, the trio tried to get cars packed with camping gear....

Jeremy Clarkson was putting stuff into a Volvo station wagon and he closed the tailgate on something that blew the back window out.

I laughed because I saw the same thing in a gas station parking lot around Christmas.......

I was at a stop sign and was watching a man secure his Christmas tree in the rear of a Jeep Wagoneer.

He was adjusting the tree in the cargo compartment, took a step back and pulled the rear window down on the tree trunk that was sticking out just enough to make the rear window explode onto the gentleman and the area next to the gas pumps.

I almost rolled down the window to taunt the poor fellow, but, I felt bad for the guy and prayed that someone would buy him a new rear window for his wheels in keeping with the spirit of the season,....:eek::confused:;)


p.s., I also wondered that line of B.S. he would tell his family....

"The guy at the tree lot broke it, but I told him not to worry, Our insurance would cover it!"
;)

[blue]

I cant watch Top Gear, no TV. Will Top Gear be covering King of the Hammers next week?

If dessert and rock racing intrests you I can PM you the link when the live coverage starts.

[Catherinedana]

I've never seen this show but I do love British TV. Especially the old stuff and the cop-type shows (particularly the ones with Robson Green and the "Morse" episodes).

Is this on BBC America?

[RICHARD]

You can watch some of the segments here....

http://www.topgear.com/uk/

and it does show on BBC America!:)

[carole]

Richard my son went to the show when they came here, said it was really good,think they are back here this month for another show, i cannot view it anymore as they put it on prime and I cannot pick it up,alas, still i must say it is very enjoyable and funny for sure.