For the record, Chip 'n Dale bought business class, not first class. But it was a really short flight, so there really isn’t a difference.
The “wives of professional athletes” thing annoys me too, but I have a feeling that the camera person (or whoever is filming) keeps asking them a question akin to, “so, how does being the wife of a professional athlete affect your gameplan?”.
Here’s my theory: They’re going to be finalists, as will Dave and Jeff (surfer hotties). Everyone gets x amount of screen time, and the producers/editors tend to spend that on the teams that are on their way out, this early in the race. We didn’t see much of the winners in the first season AT ALL until about 3/4 of the way through the race.
(Other aficionados who want to disagree with this – be gentle. I’ve got my money [literally] on Dave and Jeff this time, and am taking a great deal of comfort in the fact that we haven’t seen much of them yet.
Ya, I missed it last night too. I was waiting in anticipation for this thread to show up! 
I wasn’t happy with the elimination of Wheezer and Geezer. They were one of the teams I liked. At least the ATCs are still in it.
Oh, and what happened to the CLowns?? Have they been eliminated? I’ve forgotten who’ve left over the weeks.
Actually, Reichen & Chip did take it, by accident sorta. They walked so far into the wild that they wound up at the foot of the rappel where the Pit Stop clue was. They had to walk ALL THE WAY BACK UP to the Detour clue, and then rappel, before they could go on. Good thing they’re in physically good shape, eh?? They pulled a 5th place finish out of it. (And that would mean their car is still parked way the hell back wherever…hmm, wonder if that will come into play next week.)
For some reason I thought I saw Steve & Josh get to the rappel with the lead teams, but I must have been mistaken. I still can’t tell half the teams apart, especially the gay married guys from the non-gay, non-married (so they tell us) guys. I knew that would be a problem from day one. 
Still don’t understand why they didn’t explain WHY Steve & Josh fell so far back. It’s almost like they wanted it to seem like a cliffhanger between the ATC’s and whoever placed 7th – because when the ATC’s hit the mat, I had forgotten there were NINE, not 8 teams, this leg and I thought they were out, at first.
It looks like the next episode will go to Amsterdam, so on a micro scale the racers are not going East, yet unless they fly back to Carribean, South America, the will be going generally East, like previous shows.
Does anyone have a theory on why they go around the world in this direction? Four times seems to many to be a coincidence.
Oh and I forgot to mention…I wonder why we haven’t seen any deep rivalries/storylines beginning to build up yet? There was Chip’n Dale vs. Steve & Zach Osbourne, but now that Steve & Zach are out, that’s over. Even in earlier races, the “thread” they ended up following came into play very quickly – “Wil vs. the World” in Season Two, “The Flo Monster” in S3, etc.
I’ve taken to call the ATCs “Jason”, as in Voorhees. You know, just slowly trundling along while all the other teams are racing around in hysterics. And Jason still manages to catch up.
…although that theory is being put more to the test every episode…
Okay, I’m still missing something then. At the beginning of each leg, the contestants are given money that says, “You have $xxx for this leg of the race.” I assumed that this money was to pay for the train, cab, airfare, gas, etc. (It also made me wonder – what if they spent too much on the cab and couldn’t afford the plane ticket? They’d be screwed). But if R&C had the cash to pay for their standby business-class seats, no worries.
It sounds like from what you’re saying, however, that airfare does not come out of this budget. Is that true?
It seems that with most of the Asian cities the show has gone to, they throw the racers into an extremely hectic, crowded market, or an extremely remote jungle (as compared to the sites in Europe). Because of this, I would imagine that complications would multiply with more camera crews to dispatch for more teams. The fewer teams in that region, the less headaches.
Every team has two other people with them; a camera operator and a sound operator. Whenever they arrange transport, they have to get space for those two as well. (I think I saw in an interview that they have to pay for their taxi fare and the like as well.)
If you look the end of the credits there is a brief blurb about how teams have received time adjustments for “production reasons”. This is so they can let the camera person enter a building ahead of them to show them running in or the like. (For example, they film the team jumping into a car but the team then has to wait while the crew loads its equipment and gets in as well. Some info I have from one of the earlier teams says that the teams are always arguing with the producers about time credits, crew problems and the like.)
Every now and then you will see one of the operators during a shot. It’s funny to see some guy wearing headphones and carrying equipment standing in the middle of a couple of Racers.
As for the front seat/back seat split; the camera operator has to sit up front whenever possible in order to be able to film the driver. Otherwise all we would ever see is the back of the driver’s head.
Camera/Sound teams are rotated among the Race teams at each Pit Stop so no Team keeps the same crew for the entire Race.
(Not exactly related but an interesting tidbit; sometimes the producers use sound bites or even film clips from one leg in a completely different leg. Also, in any given episode the team that gets the most air time is most likely the one to be eliminated.)
That is correct. They have to pay for all other expenses – but the show is billed (or whatever) for airfare – coach only. I guess theoretically they could upgrade if they had the cash, but as I understand it, the money given is just about enough for actual expenses if they don’t spend it foolishly. That’s what the deal was with the father-son team last night; the son was trying to save money by taking the train instead of a cab, and that turned out to be a really bad idea.
Should’a previewed…
Correct. Phil explains this at the start of the Race (or, he did the first few anyway). The money they are given is to be used for everything except air fare, which is paid for by the show. The restriction is that they must buy coach tickets. (A few teams have managed to convince the ticket agents to upgrade them to first for free but they still bought coach tickets.)
I think that meals and lodging at the Pit Stops are also paid for by the producers but otherwise all other expenses must come out of the money they are given along the way. To the best of my knowledge no team has ever completely run out of funds but a few have gotten low enough to give them problems. (Then there was the time one player lost his wallet and all of the money in it, but that was a different issue.)
That was how I understood it. I recall when, but I’m sure they said the plane tickets are paid for from a seperate “account”. Ever notice how they are required to take certain specific flights?
That was how I understood it. I recall when, but I’m sure they said the plane tickets are paid for from a seperate “account”. Ever notice how they are required to take certain specific flights?
That was how I understood it. I recall when, but I’m sure they said the plane tickets are paid for from a seperate “account”. Ever notice how they are required to take certain specific flights?
Cool, Tri, a 25-minute triple post!
Well, not really, after the first leg. They seem to be free to take flights wherever they can get them.
I actually think Dave nad Jeff ended up by accident doing both part sof the Detour. They rapelled and then took a wrong turn at the bottom and somehow ended all the way back up at the top. They then took the easy path down to the box. At least that is the way it seemed to me.
And I agree that the editing in this episode was horrible esp with resct to the father and son team.
I think the NFL wives are ok, they certainly are good racers, I think it is more the product of the interviews and what they decide to show. I haven’t ever seen them mention they are the wives of NFL players during te race, only in voice overs and interviews. Although I suppose it could be like
“We’re the wives of NFL players, what’s the earliest flight you can get us on?”
“Excuse me, Miss, we are trying to find the Mozarthaus and by the way we are the wives of NFL players.”
“Taxi! Taxi! Quickly get us, the wives of NFL players, to the train station, pronto!”
“This (wives of NFL players) is (wives of NFL players) hard (wives of NFL players)!”
I notice each season that as the episodes progress I get more and more exasperated with the bunching up. I would love to see an episode where bunching didn’t happen. Now that this is the 4th season I’ve watched, I find myself talking at the contestants saying “Hey, stop sprinting everywhere - you know you’ll catch up to everyone eventually.” I’m finding it too penalizing.
Anyone else feel this way, or do you think the bunching helps the tension?
As far as the NFL wives go (very funny post Gangster Octopus) I hated them at first but they seem to be very fast learners, so I’m starting to root for them.
I’m bumping this because I just got home from out of town and watched the show (I DID remember to set my VCR, yay!) this evening so didn’t have a chance to comment till now.
First, Chip and Reichen parked in the wrong lot altogether, and hiked way down the wrong trail; they had to go back to their car and drive to the correct parking lot. So their car wasn’t left out in the middle of nowhere – they had to have it for the next leg.
To give them credit, the NFL wives’ mention of their status in this episode really was a necessary explanatory introduction to their following comment, namely, that they’re not used to doing things and making arrangements for themselves because someone else is always doing it for them. I’m liking them more as the show progresses; they definitely are quick learners. I see the blondes coming to blows soon, and the red-haired one and her boyfriend (fiance?) aren’t far behind. After the way she DEMANDED to do the next roadblock, it was fun on this one to see her have to do something she so totally hated doing!
I’m rooting for the ATCs because Papa Tiger and I have decided that after a year of getting in REALLY good shape, we should try out to be the Fat, Middle-Aged Married Couple on an AR in the future. So the longer the smart-but-feeble old guys hang in there, the better chance we have. But I think the clowns have a more serious shot at it.
And speaking of the clowns, they’re with Ringling Brothers, right? Anybody know which unit they’re with?