You had to see the earlier episodes. It wasn't step by step how to, like the instructables. It showed the crew doing it, and you had to pay close attention.

It was depressing to watch such a dysfuncyional family. The father was angry and brutal towards his kids and they were pretty screwed up. The part about building motorcycles was interesting, the rest was just sad.

 

It was depressing to watch such a dysfuncyional family. The father was angry and brutal towards his kids and they were pretty screwed up. The part about building motorcycles was interesting, the rest was just sad.

And, just as sad, is that this is pretty much the common theme with "reality" shows. They make little to no effort to depict people or families behaving in healthy ways. The more dysfunctional the family, the better the ratings. While all families are "dysfunctional" in some ways and at some times, these shows leave a very distorted impression of the true reality of most famlies -- just as many movies that claim to depict the "reality" of this war or that profession or whatever.

I understand that "the public" is not interested in "boring" reality when they watch TV and that the producers of any entertainment product are aware of this and will cater to it. I'm just opposed to it being labeled and promoted as "reality" when it is almost always anything but.

I remember being excited when the original Survivor series was being promoted because I expected to see people with various background of survival training being placed in controlled survival situations and seeing how well their training served them. That's what all the promos led me to expect. I wasn't even to the first commercial break of the first episode when it was painfully obvious that it was nothing but a game show and I've never watched it since. After the whole "reality" show genre took off, I did some checking into the application packets that you had to fill out to be considered to be a contestant on these shows and it was not only clear that most (if not all) were game shows, but that they were fully scripted game shows in which the winners and losers were known from the very beggining of the shooting.

The only actual reality show I know of (although I've been told that there have been a handful of others) was American Fighter Pilot. It followed three Air Force pilots as they went through the training to qualify to fly the F-15. This was true reality in that it followed real people doing real things to obtain real outcomes -- and with the real possibility of getting injured or killed in the process -- and it only lasted two episodes. Goes to show just how much "reality" TV audiences really want!

I wasn't too fond of the editing style, but it was the editing style that was (and largely still is) in fashion. Coincidentally, the entire first (and only) season was filmed just before 9/11 and aired, on schedule, the year after 9/11. In the season boxed set, there were follow-up interviews with the three pilots (all of whom graduated) that were quite poignant because they discussed what for them was truly a very real possibility, namely of being ordered to shoot down an airliner full of civilians in order to prevent another stike of the kind on 9/11. These weren't actors or activists or politicians, but the people that would receive and execute the order and it was very, very clear that they had each thought long and hard about it knowing that they might have to be the person that would have to squeeze the trigger.

 

And, just as sad, is that this is pretty much the common theme with "reality" shows. They make little to no effort to depict people or families behaving in healthy ways.

I read that way back after they taped the first show of American Chopper, the family watched it and were ashamed and disgusted with how hateful they looked.... but agreed to let them show it.

After the first shows, fan mail came pouring in. Some was to tell the father not to take any crap off the kids and be tougher on them and some was for the son telling him not to take any crap off his father who acted like Hitler.

Anyway, they got positive strokes from the "support" and continued to act as awful as they had or worse.

Looking at the father, I know he does steroids so some of his rage may be chemical. The junior is probably also a crank head or worse, who knows. sad state of affairs, but normal families would be boring.

 

I read that way back after they taped the first show of American Chopper, the family watched it and were ashamed and disgusted with how hateful they looked.... but agreed to let them show it.

After the first shows, fan mail came pouring in. Some was to tell the father not to take any crap off the kids and be tougher on them and some was for the son telling him not to take any crap off his father who acted like Hitler.

Anyway, they got positive strokes from the "support" and continued to act as awful as they had or worse.

Looking at the father, I know he does steroids so some of his rage may be chemical. The junior is probably also a crank head or worse, who knows. sad state of affairs, but normal families would be boring.

And if the first show had shown a family calmly working together to build a fabulous bike the show probably would have quickly flopped. Audiences predominately don't care about substance and only want to see lots of drama. That pretty much applies to any form of entertainment. Probably less so to sports, where people do still want to see skilled performance, too. But if it came down to a game in which the best players played at the top of their ability but had no flash or show and a game in which moderate players played reasonably well but with a huge amount of flash and show, I suspect that the latter would capture the larger audience. For instance, consider the success and history of the Harlem Globetrotters.

 

This is why Mythbusters is the only show I enjoy today just as much as the first episode. It's a group of 5 people building cool testing contraptions all the while they enjoy themselves. And it's just that.

 

Brownout must have seen episodes of American Chopper that I didn't see. I don't like American Chopper because it never had any content about how to build anything when I saw it.

The way it's done on American Chopper is not a good description off how it should be done. At least from the perspective of some one who has/does do it. They never metal finished any thing they did. They don't even finish weld any of the sheet metal work. Their paint guy did all of the real finish body work and welding.


If any one wants to know how it should be done, have a look at the work of the guy's on MetalMeet.com

 

Looking at the father, I know he does steroids so some of his rage may be chemical. The junior is probably also a crank head or worse, who knows. sad state of affairs, but normal families would be boring.

Once Junior went on his own, he was focused and put together a good crew. They have very few problems and work well together. Many on his crew were people who left the old company because they couldn't work for Senior. Junior is getting his act together and I don't think he's on drugs. He made a decision early on to not promote drugs or any other substance dependency, and I think he legitimately lives up to what he promotes.


Senior is classic bipolar.

 

The way it's done on American Chopper is not a good description off how it should be done. At least from the perspective of some one who has/does do it. They never metal finished any thing they did. They don't even finish weld any of the sheet metal work. Their paint guy did all of the real finish body work and welding.

He was a real artist.

 

From someone who has never done any serious metal work, it seems that the OCC guys use the step drill and the hammer way too much.

 

This is why Mythbusters is the only show I enjoy today just as much as the first episode. It's a group of 5 people building cool testing contraptions all the while they enjoy themselves. And it's just that.

I liked Mythbusters much better when it was just mainly Jamie and Adam.

Those two are simply amazing of what they can fab. My favorite was when they tried to prove if men marching in unison could cause a bridge to fall. The built a bunch of short little robot soldiers complete with helmets.

 

And if the first show had shown a family calmly working together to build a fabulous bike the show probably would have quickly flopped.

There are several successful shows about groups who calmly work together to build cool stuff. A few examples:

There is "Fast and Loud" featuring Richard Rollings Dallas auto restoration and build shop. There is "American Restoration" about Rick Dale's restoration shop in Las Vegas. There is "Tanked" about two brothers-in-law who build insane aquariums. Sometimes, there is conflict, but it's never a feature of these shows. There are other shows too.

 

And why is it on most of these shows they are always fighting the dreaded "deadline"..

 

Just another reason to not watch them. The "imaginary deadline", the "trip from nowhere", just TV producer fictions designed for their target audience..people dumb enough to believe that kind of stuff.

 

Sure... nobody has deadlines these days

 

Hello,

I have no subscription to any cable or pay TV .
I hardly watch any TV programs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXCpYgd338U

Bertus