I made a comment to Mom along the lines of ‘Hey, he’s good for something after all!’ Actually, Wally is cool since he’s made it this far. I’d have thought he would have keeled over awhile ago, so he’s making up for the not being able to run fast.
He’s doing rmearkably well on all the high places things too, for someone who doesn’t like them.
Something tells me Wally’s lack of physicality has been grossly exaggerated by the Editors.
Wow, four legs in a row in Arizona, Utah, and now Wyoming…can we see just a little bit more of the U.S., please? I’m sick of looking at those giant pimples. 
Somebody needs to buy a portable generator for those stupid cameramen. How did they power their cameras before this race, anyway? Or did we just never hear about all those drained taxi batteries?
I guess next week is a recap episode, followed by a 2-hour finale in two weeks?
Psst - see post #2. 
I missed the previews (got a lot of rain and had to go check the basement for water). What were they like?
I also think the Weaver’s balloon pilot hated them. That was pretty funny.
I also think Wally’s supposed ineptness was played up in the beginning, either by him and his girls, or by the editors. He’s been doing just fine. You don’t get this far be being that unable.
Oooo, a TBC episode! I love these! If I was king of the world, all the TAR episodes would be to-be-continued. No rest, no Pit Stops, just keep going and going and going. That would be awesome. And instead of elimination, they’d just pack up Phil and the crew right after the second-to-last team arrives, leaving only a single remote-controlled camera to record the reactions of the the last-place team that arrives to find no clue, no Phil, and a long hike home from whatever God-forsaken part of the planet they find themselves in. God-forsaken like Utah, I mean, which has no natural beauty to speak of; a fact which reminds me that I’m not king of the world, since the Weavers are clearly still in the race, so let’s handicap each team’s chances, shall we?
The Back Seat Report
"Over the River and Through the Woods…" - or, songs, happiness, and lots of familial love.
The Linzes (holding steady): Yeah, they’re in last place, but they seem fairly philosophical about it, and it is through no fault of their own. So what is it with these production errors? Did they not figure out what they did wrong last episode? Clearly, if the Linzes or even the Godlewskis get eliminated next, they’ve got a reason to bitch. Anyway, the Linzes seem to be far less affected by stress and fatigue than the other teams. A less charitable person might remark that they’re not quite bright enough to be affected, but I’ll only say that they’re not wasting much time on squabbling. I’m uncertain why they didn’t pick the coal Detour, since that seemed tailor-made for them, but it’s not clear that would have gained them any time.
"Daddy’s driving right now, hon." - or, a little tension and impatience, but still far from the breaking point.
The Bransens (up from “almost there”):
The Bransens are something of a stealth mode edit, which makes me wonder if they’re destined to take it all. Sure, we know Wally’s slow, and he thinks his daughters are a bit daredevilish, out there with their bare knees and all, 23 Skidoo! But that’s about all we know about the team, and they seem to keep plugging along fairly competantly. Anyway, decent leg this ep; let’s see how they pan out.
"Are we almost there yet?" - or, some whining and dissent, but no more than you’d expect.
The Godlewskis (down from “Daddy’s driving”):
OK, Killer Fatigue is definitely starting to show with this team. When you spend more energy pointing fingers and complaining about your teammates than actually doing the task, you’ve got an issue. They’re still showing flashes of competence, so I’m not ready to write them off completely, but if they wind up competing for last place next episode, they’re apt to self-destruct.
"Dad… Janie’s on my side again!" - or, conflict, bad feelings, things just not going right.
The Weavers (holding steady): I don’t know if they actually thought about it, but their choice of the coal Detour was sound strategy: when you’re last, and all the other teams are working on Detour A, that’s the time to gamble and take Detour B in the hopes that it’s faster. That paid off for the Weavers, as did the Roadblock, so they’re sitting pretty. Still, I hesitate to move them up in the rankings, because once things start to go wrong (and they will!), I think the Weavers will just lose it.
"Dad… Jimmy made poopy-pants in the back seat." - or, near disaster, and a whole lot of clean-up required before getting back on the road.
No one this week.
"ALL RIGHT, I’M TURNING THIS CAR AROUND RIGHT NOW!" - or, out of the Race and on their way home.
The Paolos: Brought their love of family. Out!
The Gaghans: Brought their detection skills. Out!
The Schroeders: Brought their direction skills. Out!
The Aiellos: Brought their luck. Out!
The Rogerses: Brought their patriarchy. Out!
The Blacks: Brought their kids. Out!
Next week: Must be the last elimination. Root for your favorite team! Or is it a clip show?
[sub]Props to Mullinator.[/sub]
What were the Bransen girls giggling about pertaining to their dad? Was he dozing off, or was he reading, or something else?? (damn 13 inch tv on the other side of the room…)
That really sucks with the Linz’s. So a tv camera lost it’s battery, they lose first place? How is that fair? Why don’t they carry extras in the car, it’s freakin’ big enough. Or place them at various stages in the legs. So we don’t get to watch the Linzs tell a fart joke here or there, I’m sure we can miss an hour or two of footage. Most of the in-car stuff is kinda boring anyway.
Question, do the Desperate Housewives ever shut up?? I’m starting to feel bad for Crissy, they’re always picking on her.
After listening to the Desperate Housewives bitching and complaining at the RR roadblock, I couldn’t help but wish to see the Paolo’s again and see how they would have handled it. That would have been so funny.
IIRC, that’s the second time this has happened this race.
What’s weird, I believe in the past that if there was a production error that caused you a delay (as opposed to something like “Your car breaks down on it’s own”), you were given make-up time. Yeah, if your car breaks down, you lose the time until they can get you a new one, but if the cameraman delays you (or they have to do a reshoot or something) you got make-up time.
I don’t like this variation on the rules…it allows a cameraman to sabotage a team.
So I didn’t get home until 9:25 last night and missed Ma effing Weaver confront the Linzes. Was it at all exciting?
Course not. They confronted as they were walking towards them, Ma asked if they were sorry they wasted the yield on them.
One of the male Linzs said no, we thought you were right behind us.
Weavers walked away gloating, and continued to gloat for a while.
Linzs shrugged it off.
Much ado about nothing.
I think the Linzes got a 15 minute time credit. Everyone was bunched at the overnight campsite and Phil said they’d leave the next morning starting at 8:00 in 30-minute intervals. Which would mean the Linzes would leave at 9:30, but I thought their time stamp said they left at 9:15. Still completely unfair especially since there did not appear to be any way to pass another team at the Roadblock, but at least they did make up the time on the third place team because of Old Faithful.
Now me, if I were the Pink Ladies, I would have argued that since they saw Old Faithful as they were driving in, they should have gotten their clue right away instead of having to wait the 92 minutes.
Nothing last night was at all exciting. Pretty much the previews summed it up. The Weevils were last to eave the Pit Stop and everyone got bunched waiting for the hot air balloons. When the Weevils pulled up they started yammering about how cool they were because they got a good night’s sleep in a real bed, and then Mama Weevil lit into the Linzes about “wasting” their Yield. “Are you sorry you Yielded us? Are you sorry you wasted your Yield?” “No, not at all” was the response from the Linzes, along with a number of mutterances along th lines of “she’s such a psycho.”
This is a bit more detail about the ‘confrontation’ between Weavers and Linzes.: http://www.cbs.com/primetime/amazing_race8/show/ep10/index2.shtml
and from page 6:
Beginning at 8:30 am, departure times would be 15 minutes apart. With the Bransens arriving moments later to what they dubbed “The Tree of Hemorrhoids,” the race for the 8:30 am departure was underway. The Bransens, with Wally at the wheel, nabbed the 8:30 am spot while the Weaver family arrived in second place. With the Godlewskis securing the 9 am departure in third place,* the Linz family settled for a 9:15 am departure after a production problem caused them to fall into last place. ** *
Wow, we could have had the first Race matricide or – what do you call it when you kill your son? Son-i-cide? Anyway, arming the Paolos with heavy sledgehammers might have been a wee mite dangerous. Unless, of course, Papa Paolo just used the sledgehammer on Marion and DJ;he could probably flatten them with a single blow one-handed, so I definitely would have paid good money to see that!
If everything was as drama-free as you say, I’m almost glad I missed it. And I’m glad I’m not the only person who thought riding a horse in hot pants had to chafe a little.
They were not given any time credit. Their departure time was always supposed to be 9:15.
Bransons 8:30
Weevils 8:45
Godlewskis 9:00
Linzes 9:15
I wanted the Weavers to give thanks to St. John Henry.
My son was hoping that, for the first time in 10,000 years, Old Faithful erupted after 10 minutes.
IYAM, it’s simply a convenient fiction, aka a lie.
There has been much discussion in past threads about various production errors and how they affect the official times in the race. We have also seen in past seasons the occasional breaking of the fourth wall to reveal production issues, such as the goofy brothers rolling their jeep in Africa, injuring their cameraman.
So I don’t really think there would be a battery draining without a little footage of it, at the very least from the cameras of other teams as they whiz by.
I think a production error or editing needs or failure to get a signed release from someone or excessive swearing/familial abuse prevented the airing of footage of some intervening task that upset the order, and the producers needed to account for the change-up somehow.
BTW, if you haven’t yet had the chance to check out RADAR magazine (essentially the successor to the late, lamented SPY) find the current issue, the one with Angelina Jolie’s freaky hair on the cover, and read the tell-all behind-the-scenes article on how real “reality” television is.
No mention in it at all of TAR, except possibly circuitously by mention of what the uncredited writers on these shows call “Frankenbyting”: in any reality show, if you hear a person speaking off camera or facing away or at a great distance, the high likelihood is that they are not saying what you’re hearing in the context of what you’re seeing. I’ve certainly seen plenty of moments on TAR where I suspect Frankenbyting occurred.
Hey…where’s rockle? Was she gettin’ lucky again?
While there’s no description yet, and no official announcement has been made on the CBS website or anywhere else, next week’s episode is titled “The Amazing Race Family Christmas Card”. That alone just screams recap/clip show. (Unless Christine Godlewski finally goes completely nuts and starts shouting meaningless words at random.)
Well, I’ve watched every episode of every season many times, and they’ve never shown actual footage of a production error (except for the brothers’ Africa wreck, which was a unique case.) It’s my understanding that time credits for production errors happens all the time, but are never stated in the show unless they affect team rankings, or (in the case of this season’s dead batteries) can’t be hidden by editing. Same goes for time penalties, btw.
It appears that the Producers have decided to interpret this rule as “the car breaking down through no fault of their own”, which earns the team a replacement car (or battery) but NO time credit is given “for this unlucky event.” I think that’s stupid, since the rule’s supposed to cover blown radiators, flat tires, and other unforseeable events, not amateur camerapeople. Thankfully, due to NEL’s and various bunching points, neither team has been disadvantaged by this ongoing problem…yet.
LOL…I thought exactly the same thing, when they could see the World’s Largest Ground Fart in the distance. 
Was I the only one thinking when they saw the scenes for next week’s episode…
The Weaver’s get pulled over by a cop and my first thought is
[Chief Wiggum]Where’s your Messiah now, nyeh?[/Chief Wiggum]
Omigod, GO. I was thinking of that line, and that there must be some way to apply it to the weavers. That’s just perfect.
As soon as the Linz’s disappeared, I knew we had a non-elimination leg or two-parter in the making. When it happened, my wife told me to stop looking so smug
TAR often mucks around with the sound. I’ve noticed it many times over previous seasons.
And we know the producers often chop out roadblocks and challenges-- my favourite is the ‘go buy silly hats’ challenge when Chip & Kim and C&C went to Alberta. If you check out the official website, you’ll often see photos of events that never make the screen.
But I think the problem with this season is a new camera setup. Usually they have a cameraman in the car, but I think this time their trucks are rigged with two fixed cameras sitting in the front right seat.
