Amazing Race 3/1: "I'm Not Wearing That Girl's Leotard!"

[jayjay]

@Robot_Arm

I really expected a bunching point at the gym, with T & V on track to be the only team to get there before it closed for the night.

The earliest flight got into Bucharest at midnight. That gym was still open and had kids (LITTLE kids) practicing. Either they take their gymnastics damn seriously in Romania or the whole milieu was staged by the producers.

(I’m not saying it wasn’t a real working gymnasium, just that the producers arranged for it to be open and for people to be there very, very late)

[jayjay]

@corkboard

Overall, I thought it was a pretty shitty turn of events for any team, much less those two who were alreay sort of starting to unravel, for the hoops they had to jump through to complete the task to have failed. It’s not like missing a flight; if you’re designing a task, the task itself should work right. It would be as if the balance beam had broken in half so the remaining teams wouldn’t be able to complete the gymnastics- it would be a crappy way to come in last.

Did they have the option of going up and getting another coffin? Even if they didn’t, no other team lost their key like that. I think it was a function of Victor getting the panic-rage he did, and practically throwing the coffin down the hill. I was sort of surprised he didn’t end up under it at some point.

[Robot_Arm]

@jayjay

The earliest flight got into Bucharest at midnight. That gym was still open and had kids (LITTLE kids) practicing. Either they take their gymnastics damn seriously in Romania or the whole milieu was staged by the producers.

(I’m not saying it wasn’t a real working gymnasium, just that the producers arranged for it to be open and for people to be there very, very late)

I saw kids when Phil was doing the Amazing Explanation of the Roadblock (which was probably filmed earlier), but I only remember seeing the instructors once the teams arrived. I wasn’t looking all that closely, though. Do you remember what time Tammy & Victor’s original flight was supposed to arrive?

When I was writing my last post, I almost said there wasn’t a bunching point this episode. And I don’t think there was one last leg, either. Then I remembered the train to Transylvania. I’m not sure if that counts, though. Usually the waits are long (to make sure they get all the teams) and unavoidable. This was relatively short; from the gym at midnight, and wasn’t the train at about 6:30? When was the last time the Producers could have tinkered with the scheduling? Maybe the non-standard wait at the previous Pit Stop was intended to prevent anyone from getting on a train the previous day. Still, seems like a relatively long period of pure racing.

[jayjay]

@Robot_Arm

I saw kids when Phil was doing the Amazing Explanation of the Roadblock (which was probably filmed earlier), but I only remember seeing the instructors once the teams arrived. I wasn’t looking all that closely, though. Do you remember what time Tammy & Victor’s original flight was supposed to arrive?

Don’t remember when the original flight would have arrived. But I do remember that when Mike and Mel got there, there was a girl (maybe 10 or 11) practicing, because Mike had the title quote “I’m not wearing that girl’s leotard!” And I just remembered that the demonstrators were kids…Mike high-fived the boy who demonstrated the parallel bars for him when he (Mike) finished that routine.

[borschevsky]

@jayjay

I think it was a function of Victor getting the panic-rage he did, and practically throwing the coffin down the hill. I was sort of surprised he didn’t end up under it at some point.

This was another example of something I enjoy about this show - the “second mistake” syndrome. People get off balance when things aren’t going well, and it throws them off for the rest of the tasks. Without the flight problem, I bet Tammy would have breezed through the gymnasitcs, Victor wouldn’t have been in such a rush to miss the signpost, and they wouldn’t have been so out-of-control moving the coffin.

They only stayed in the race because another team made another common mistake. There’s no real point in making an all-or-nothing gamble like the connecting flight at this point in the race. You’re basically betting a small time advantage (I think they said 25 minutes) against just losing the race. It’s much more about avoiding big mistakes than about producing big successes.

[jayjay]

@borschevsky

This was another example of something I enjoy about this show - the “second mistake” syndrome. People get off balance when things aren’t going well, and it throws them off for the rest of the tasks. Without the flight problem, I bet Tammy would have breezed through the gymnasitcs, Victor wouldn’t have been in such a rush to miss the signpost, and they wouldn’t have been so out-of-control moving the coffin.

It obviously doesn’t help when you’re a) a control freak and b) a major drama queen. And Victor is BOTH…he reminded me of every stage-mom I’ve ever encountered, fictional and real, when he was “coaching” Tammy at the gymnastics. Then the “please forgive me I’m pathetic” tears when he finally had to admit that he was wrong on the trail. Then the “I’m a martyr! I must do this all by myself to make up for my bad behavior before!” with the coffin. It was like a classic control freak Killer Fatigue breakdown unfolding in perfect order before our eyes. And we’re only on the 3rd leg!

[muldoonthief]

@Robot_Arm

I saw kids when Phil was doing the Amazing Explanation of the Roadblock (which was probably filmed earlier), but I only remember seeing the instructors once the teams arrived. I wasn’t looking all that closely, though. Do you remember what time Tammy & Victor’s original flight was supposed to arrive?

It was definitely filmed earlier. When Phil was in the gym explaining the task for the cameras, there was bright sunlight coming in through the windows. It was the middle of the night when the Racers arrived.

[Cowgirl_Jules]

@corkboard

We were watching last night on Tivo, but the picture was pretty low-res because we only have a standard-res Tivo which doesn’t record the HD channels. Anyway, at one point during the Tammy & Victor key incident, one of them says something like “now we’ll never find the key with all of these leaves”, or something along those lines. At that point the camera sort of zoomed in a little on one spot along the path, as if to say to the viewer there’s the key, right there!, and the cameraman found it before they did.

But as I said, our picture was too grainy to see if it was the key. Does anyone remember that, and was it the key?

I did watch it on HD, and I remember them zooming in. I knew that’s what they were trying to show, but no, I couldn’t see the key either.

[Fiver]

@zut

Exactly! I noticed that, too. I’m like, “why, exactly, do we have lower expectations for deaf people? Are they fundamentally weaker or stupider than non-deaf people?”

Well, he is fundamentally more deaf than non-deaf people, which must be a handicap or it wouldn’t be called one, but the point is still well-taken. I didn’t see the first Race Mirna the Little Person participated in, but I saw her on the All-Star race, and I don’t remember Phil saying a word about her stature or how it affected her choices or chances.

[Just_Some_Guy]

@AlsoNamedBort

I wanna see a season of Amazing Race where there’s a team of former AR cameramen. They’d probably end up finishing two days before everyone else, bunching points and all.

One of them would say, “I have no idea where to go!” and then they’d spin around really quick to catch where the camera man was shooting.

[David_B]

@Robot_Arm

I’m almost surprised there aren’t allegations of tampering by the Amazing Producers.

Oh, there always are such allegations. Trust me. No matter what you might think would be the most ridiculous thing to claim “conspiracy” about, you can bet that somewhere, somebody is claiming it.

And corkboard said:

Anyway, at one point during the Tammy & Victor key incident, one of them says something like “now we’ll never find the key with all of these leaves”, or something along those lines. At that point the camera sort of zoomed in a little on one spot along the path, as if to say to the viewer there’s the key, right there!, and the cameraman found it before they did.

But as I said, our picture was too grainy to see if it was the key. Does anyone remember that, and was it the key?

I remember it because I was wondering why the cameraman was shooting there as well. I reran it on TiVo several times and never saw anything. I figured the key *must *be there because there was no other reason for us to see that patch of ground, but I sure couldn’t find it.

[Kylede]

[quote=“Robot_Arm, post:43, topic:487886”]

I saw kids when Phil was doing the Amazing Explanation of the Roadblock (which was probably filmed earlier), but I only remember seeing the instructors once the teams arrived. I wasn’t looking all that closely, though. Do you remember what time Tammy & Victor’s original flight was supposed to arrive?

QUOTE]

DOes anyone realise, Phil can film his “Explanations at the Roadblock” any number of ways

1. Have an advance crew film the exteriors, and then greenscreen phil in at a later time.

2. Have Phil do the explanation AFTER the pit-stop…and then edit it in the correct order.

[Just_Some_Guy]

@Kylede

DOes anyone realise, Phil can film his “Explanations at the Roadblock” any number of ways

1. Have an advance crew film the exteriors, and then greenscreen phil in at a later time.

2. Have Phil do the explanation AFTER the pit-stop…and then edit it in the correct order.

Except they don’t do 1 in the production of the race and 2 is impracticable this time due to the extended travel. Besides, if you watch the production video at CBS you can see that that Phil really is at that gym probably about six hours ahead of the other racers.

[levdrakon]

@zut

Exactly! I noticed that, too. I’m like, “why, exactly, do we have lower expectations for deaf people? Are they fundamentally weaker or stupider than non-deaf people?”

I don’t think it’s lower expectations. It’s different expectations, or perhaps complete ignorance of what to expect. The average viewer, unlike us all-knowledgeable Dopers, probably has never interacted much with a Deaf person. Let Luke negotiate tickets in a foreign airport and argue with cab drivers and let’s see how much longer it takes. He could do it of course, but I think it’s great people at home get to see what it might be like for him. His verbal skills seem pretty good for someone deaf since birth, but from what I understand he doesn’t lip-read much.

It’s kinda cute how he’s all crushing on the redheads, and wants to help them all the time. I just hope he can ditch them when it comes down to it.

Now, Chip & Reichen saying they want to prove gays can do it, was silly. But this show is all about teams proving they can do it, even if it’s kinda lame.

I think that’s why there’s a ban on alpha males. “We just wanted to prove a couple good looking athletic buff guys can do what other people do” wasn’t cutting it.