Before or after 9/11/2001?
Gotta disagree with you there. The way I see it, they went from three wins to competing with freakin’ Mirna & co. about who got to stay in the race.
The nature of the task may have made it more-or-less random for them to end in in last place instead of second-to-last, but if they’d been truly superior racers, they wouldn’t be fighting for bare survival at the end of the 4th leg. Things went sour for them way before they arrived at the letterbags.
Oh, and I’ll keep the show on my list of guilty pleasures. I don’t care about whoever is in front so much, but I do enjoy watching the spectacle, some of the drama is entertaining, and the scenery is almost always mindblowing.
Yikes. Growing up, ‘ginch’ meant underwear.
Some others have remarked about how unfortunate this whole thing is — winning the first three legs in a row, and then being basically disqualified for a rather bizarre rule about spelling that doesn’t really seem very TARish at all. TAR isn’t a spelling bee.
Maybe the show could do a Rupert-type thing, and just give Rob and Amber a million dollar check. It could be done at the end of the race, but we’d have to hope for winners who can be gracious enough not to hog the spotlight while Rob and Amber are being honored. By that, I mean they shouldn’t be celebrating in the background or anything. They should be paying attention as the check is awarded. I don’t think it would be out of line for Phil to thank Rob and Amber for their willingness to participate in the race, and extend them an invitation to return next season.
After. All but Season 1 of TAR took place after that. Season 1 was filmed before, but premiered after it.
After. I only had carry-on (not much of that either), and my connector with the same airline was late.
I’m genuinely curious as to what teams you think were superior to Rob and Amber. I’m hard-pressed to think of another team who placed as consistently high as they did. In 16 legs they finished 1st seven times and 2nd three times. I’m not arguing that they’re the Best Racers Ever but by any reasonable criteria they’re easily “superior.”
My reference was from an old novelty song by Connie Stevens and Edd “Kookie” Byrnes caled “Kookie, Lend Me Your Comb.” Nothing to do with underwear.
If this is a joke, I’m not getting it.
I checked over at IMDB, and Phil is not listed as one of the Producers, so leave him out of this one. 
Sure it does. Just about every episode that doesn’t feature rope climbing features a challenge where every picky detail has to be right. This one didn’t depend upon a knowledge of proper spelling, either, as you suggest, just an ability to copy the letters off the map they were given. The directions told them they had to get it right, but Rob thought he was too smart and didn’t need to, didn’t he?
I also don’t wonder if they gave the guy at the Detour instructions to the effect of “when they are correct, give them the clue”, and he was the one who decided that spelling counts.
FWIW, I figured out who the “best” racers are based on how they placed on each leg of their race and averaging that out by the total number of legs:
S9 Eric/Jeremy - 1.69 (6 Firsts, 6 Seconds, 1 Fourth)
S6 Kris/Jon - 2.17 (4 Firsts, 4 Seconds, 2 Thirds, 2 Fourths)
S1 Frank/Margarita - 2.38 (3 Firsts, 6 Seconds, 1 Third, 2 Fourths, 1 Fifth)
S7 Rob/Amber - 2.42 (4 Firsts, 3 Seconds, 3 Thirds, 2 Fifths)
I’d say that makes Rob & Amber one of the best teams on TAR.
As a matter of fact, I don’t have a life.
Good-bye, Romber…I’ll miss you guys. Yeah, they had way more than their 15 minutes, but what a ride they had! Dang it, now I have to pick another team to root for.
I was very amused when Amber lied to Charla & Mirna, they fell for it, they called her on it, she lied to them about lieing to them, and they fell for it again! Then karma reached out and whapped Rob & Amber really hard.
True, it was bad luck there at the end. But as someone else pointed out, Rob & Amber should not have been fighting for 7th, they should have been fighting for 5th.
To all the teams that attempted the sign post, I remind you of one of my racing tips: Take five seconds, five minutes if you need, and do the task right. So many tragic moments on the race could be avoided if you just made sure you were following directions properly.
Some people have been speculatiing whether the NELs were manipulated to keep the race interesting. I think this proves they aren’t - certainly a eam that is disliked and winning would be given a second chance if that were the case, just for the ratings factor.
Personally, I’d’ve been happy to see either of the last two teams go. And when Charla (or Mirna - the tall one) was doing her whine about her teamate’s shortcomings, I just wanted to smack her. As I recall, Mirna (or Charla - the short one) did most of the physical roadblocks during their first race.
StG
Nice tin hat ya got there. You honestly think they would have raced again against the same couple had that been true? :rolleyes:
Mirna is the tall one. On the first race she did two Roadblocks, ribbon roping (chasing down a calf) and digging for a scarab. Charla did four: eating caviar, eating an ostrich egg, eating chocolates and going down an Egyptian shaft after puzzle pieces. Someone mentioned in a previous thread that they had a pre-race agreement that Charla would do the eating tasks and Mirna would do the physical tasks.
So far on this race Charla’s done one, solving a scrambled-letter puzzle, and Mirna’s done two, the mail sorting and hauling fish.
In last night’s episode, they were outraced by at last 3 teams.
Then they should still be in the race. Their dropping 6 places can’t just be ascribed to the random nature of the last task. Not to belittle them - they are excellent racers - but I’ve begun to suspect that they’ve been having a bit of a lucky streak as well.
Ah, it’s morning in America again (just watched TiVo).
It’s not so much that I’m glad Romber is gone, tho I am.
It’s that now I don’t have to hear Romber fans, at least not after this thread dies, go on about what a superior competitor Mr. “I’ve-Never-Come-In-First-Place-At-The-End-Of-A-Reality-Show” Rob is. They won the first three legs through skills typical of the Race, they lost the fourth the same way. They deserved their place in the All-Stars, they earned their departure just as surely. Bon Voyage!
What’s with all the whining about the remaining teams? I’m loving the hell out of this season so far. First, it was simply because I knew everyone’s name before leg three, unlike usual. Now, they’re making me recall that everyone in this race (save for Charla&Mirna and Dave&Mary) is a top 4 finisher. We’re in for some serious competition still.
Has anyone checked out the website lately? I was trying to find an updated Leaderboard. Apparently they have video from Sequesterville, now. They call it “Elimination Station”. Don’t have time to watch at the moment. Good night!
Are you sure about that? I’ll have to rewatch, but I thought that they were at a cab stand. Any new cab coming in might be one that had been specifically called, or just one returning to the cab stand.