It’s back! American Chopper. Only now we get Senior’s shop against Junior’s Shop.
Well, not exactly. Junior barely got a building rented last night. Then he cons Vinny into coming back to do all the work. That’s pretty weird since Vinny & Cody have spent 4 years creating V Force Customs. Cody wasn’t mentioned in last nights episode. That’s pretty weird since he’s directly effected by whatever Vinnie does. I’m pretty sure Cody has a partnership in V Force.
I convinced more than ever the drama is scripted. Senior made a snarky comment that no one has heard of Paul Jr. Designs. Well, that’s true. So why in the hell did Senior agree to a new AC series? :dubious: Several million people learned last night that there is a new Chopper business. Talk about free advertising. Without the series OCC would still be making bikes in a garage. Being part of a tv series guarantees Paul Jr. Designs some success. It’s like having a hour long infomercial every week.
I’ll watch some of this train wreck. I want to see Vinnie kick Pauls ass for sticking him with all the work. Vinnie & Rick were practically slaves at OCC. I seriously doubt Paul jr’s work habits have improved.
I don’t think the drama is scripted. A divided family that large it’s pretty hard to keep an act like that secret. Besides what senior is doing how he’s talking trash about his son publically is pretty low imo. I can’t see how any father would go along with that to thrash his son for ratings. The tension was always there in previous season between them.
The Gene Simmons show now that’s scripted its so obvious.
I’ve notice from the previous seasons senior was always a hothead, now all of a sudden in the shop since his son is gone. He’s all calm and cool. Everyone does what he says no questions asks.
I think he was intimidated by his sons skills and felt he was losing his alpha dog title, because his son challenged him in designs and questioned him. I mean look at the bikes they put out in that episode the designs were ok, but the paint jobs on the bike were down right tacky. Especially the bike for the software company, blue, yellow and neon pink ? wtf ?
Where’s Mikey fit into all of this, supposedly he’s also a bike designer and we got to see him take the reins of leading the design on the UM bike. Yet he passed the real work off to someone else. So Mikey gets his name out there as a designer(on paper) yet he farms out all the work? AC was fun a few years ago, but I’ve long since tired of Paul Sr’s rants. I won’t be tuning in much if at all.
It’s hard to tell from the V Force web site. I know they got two bikes built in the past 3 years. That’s not enough to make any real $$$. Especially for Vinnie and Cody to split.
Vinnie has a family to support. I guess being a Teutul slave is what it takes to pay the bills.
I guess we’ll eventually find out if Cody gets dragged into this circus. IIRC Cody and Paul jr. clashed on American Chopper.
The old man has always believed he was the genius behind the work. The workers just listened to him and then did it the right way. He has been a drag on the business since it became a TV show. He is all ego and no talent. He drove his kids away . He will kill the business eventually.
I’m wondering where the money came from to start a chopper shop? That 6000 sq ft commercial bldg must lease for serious money. They have to run air lines for the compressors, get the equipment and meet a payroll.
I know Paul jr. made a lot of money at OCC and from the tv show. But, even he can’t fund something like this out of his pocket.
Years ago, I looked at some rental places for a computer shop. Even in a crappy part of town I couldn’t afford even 1500 sq ft. Commercial rates are outrageous.
I stopped watching American Chopper a long time ago, but I got interested again after Discovery started airing reruns during my lunch break. I caught the new episode and last year’s season finale last night. The show’s gotten kind of depressing. They used to fight before but they still had fun too. Now it’s a show about a family that completely broke apart.
Jr. seems a little less egotistical that he was before, but Sr. gotten a lot worse. I know they edit it down a lot, but while everyone is talking about different stuff, all he does is talk crap about Jr. I get the feeling that the rest of the workers there are really uncomfortable with the whole thing.
Senior is an above average mechanic and Junior a great dreamer; but the dude is really lost to making the things he dreams move up and down the road. (That is why he needed Vinnie so badly) They (father and son) actually didn’t make a bad pair for 15 years or so and they grew a fairly good rep among custom bikers. Until the show came along and both became stars. The egos were always there but the tube gave them both an outlet to get out of control. Their bikes from 10 years back rocked to ride - the new ones are best just parked and looked at. Its one of the reasons they never got into any of the biker build-offs AFAIK.
As for things being scripted - yes and no. More like “managed”. The same basic film team has pretty much been around them from the beginning and knows how to push their buttons to get “great TV”. Like last night with Senior doing the ride-by and then the stop and shoot. With “his” crew filming Junior and “his crew” filming Senior and “his crew”. If you believe the producers and field directors weren’t burning up call phone minutes arranging that I got a mint condition Indian I would just love to sell you.
I was wondering about Mikey too. Paul Senior mentioned something about when Paul Junior got the shop he dumped Mikey; but when Paul Junior was talking to Vinny he said Mikey would be working there too. Senior said Mikey gained a lot of weight but he looks the same to me.
I’m rooting for Junior, I always thougth Senior was a blowhard. How could Senior expect his kids to stick around when he didn’t have any respect for them? How could Senior expect Junior to stick around after he brought that clown Jason in?
Well, not exactly. Junior barely got a building rented last night. Then he cons Vinny into coming back to do all the work. That’s pretty weird since Vinny & Cody have spent 4 years creating V Force Customs. Cody wasn’t mentioned in last nights episode. That’s pretty weird since he’s directly effected by whatever Vinnie does. I’m pretty sure Cody has a partnership in V Force.
I convinced more than ever the drama is scripted. Senior made a snarky comment that no one has heard of Paul Jr. Designs. Well, that’s true. So why in the hell did Senior agree to a new AC series? :dubious: Several million people learned last night that there is a new Chopper business. Talk about free advertising. Without the series OCC would still be making bikes in a garage. Being part of a tv series guarantees Paul Jr. Designs some success. It’s like having a hour long infomercial every week.
I’ll watch some of this train wreck. I want to see Vinnie kick Pauls ass for sticking him with all the work. Vinnie & Rick were practically slaves at OCC. I seriously doubt Paul jr’s work habits have improved.
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DUDE! paul jr is the backbone of both shops.without JR, THEY WILL BUILD JUNK!!
I’ve never watched American Chopper, but I used to watch American Hot Rod from the same production company. Neither is actually “scripted”, but you could definitely see the producer and director pushing the deeply flawed people on screen towards their worst impulses, like a scrawny runt on the sidelines urging his big, tough friend to “hit him harder!”. Boyd Coddington couldn’t have been half as incompetent as he appeared to be in the show and ever have gotten his business off the ground in the first place, let alone kept it around.
I gave up on American Hot Rod and started watching Overhaulin’ instead. Chip Foose appears to be a genuinely nice guy and is astonishingly talented. I can live without the soap opera aspects.
Paul Senior just can’t resist making digs against Junior and Mikey. Monday on the show, Senior and the OCC crew spent time on the Hillstrands’ boat, the Time Bandit, to get inspiration for a Deadlist Catch bike. Although the hour was exclusively about OCC and Junior and his shop weren’t featured at all, Senior made a comment from out of the blue (or maybe responding to a question from the director) that Junior and Mikey wouldn’t have appreciated coming out to Alaska. He basically called them spoiled wusses and said they have no sense of adventure. Really classy, Senior. :rolleyes:
My biggest gripe against Sr is how he fucked Cody over when he made a big deal about the “Cody Bike” being for Cody, then after the cameras were off, basically told him “Nope, we just did it for the show, it’s not your bike. Sorry, kid.”
Sr. is an abusive fucknugget on his best days. Even when he and Jr were still speaking, he treated Jr and Mikey like they were simply there for him to verbally abuse.
And is it just me, or do you folks get the feeling Sr’s new girlfriend might have something to do with the feud continuing? I mean, if he marries her and all of the kids have been cut out of his will [assuming they have been, I don’t know], she’ll get everything. Then again, it could be just me.
Kopek, you’re right. I’ve had several friends at work who are serious motorcyclists who have said the newer bikes that OCC built are pretty but not that great to ride, that the old school ones were rideable.
The head to head build off between OCC and Paul jr. Designs starts with the next episode.
They both are to build a bike inspired by Cadillac. Both bikes auctioned for charity.
You know, I had given up on on this show when it moved to TLC, but Sr v Jr pulled me back in. I never really liked Junior back in the day, but he’s clearly matured a lot since leaving OCC. Senior on the other hand has just gotten annoying. You get the feeling that everyone at OCC gets pretty uncomfortable when Sr starts taking jabs at Jr, because it’s basically “laugh or be fired.”
They don’t really hide it. They had a behind the scenes episode this season, which was really interesting because both sides have their own complete crew, including producers, and they rarely communicate with each other. There was an incident in the first ep where Mickey was on the radio, and Senior’s producer told him about it, which led to a huge over-the-radio confrontation. Now Junior is ridiculously paranoid about people leaking info to the other side.
Yeah, that just came out of nowhere. It seemed really odd, seeing as on all those other specials they did (UK, Australia), it was generally Senior who was reluctant to do stuff.
That’s not his girlfriend, that’s his wife. They got married a few years before the whole split happened.
I’m pretty pumped. I hope PJD does a lot better (of course, if they do Senior will make excuses about it). OCC bikes have just gotten horribly gaudy over the years, with ginormous tanks and OCC logos plastered everywhere.
enalzi, I didn’t know Sr had gotten married. Hmm…still makes me wonder about her. Of course, I’m probably 110% wrong about her and she’s trying to get Sr to mend fences with everyone. I don’t think I could live with an abusive douchebag like that for long…or not without heavy medication.
Nice start on the Cadillac bikes. Been a long time since the show has focused this much on the fabrication. Reminds me of the very early seasons.
So far, I’m liking both bikes. Hope Paul Jr. goes with the white flake paint. Vinnie, Nub both say it looks great up close.
OCC is going more for bling and speed. I’ve seen Diamond cut engine blocks at bike shows and they are incredible. Running that bike off nitrous will give it some impressive speed. I wonder how far that bottle will get them? A mile? 5 miles?
Interesting contrast in styles. Paul jr. is lots of hard work and design details. OCC is relying on a bling engine they bought, and speed.
Both are nice looking bikes, but I’d say PJD’s looks a lot more “Cadillac” than OCC’s bike. I’m getting really annoyed with all the “They don’t have the tech we have” talk from OCC. I understand it from Jim, since he’s the engineer, but for everyone else it’s like saying “I have a more expensive camera, that makes me a better photographer.”
They showed what color Jr. went with in the preview:
That Odie kid was terrible. Icould never work with a jerk like him, nor would I put up with his mouth. Then he goes back to senior, blame Jr. and says he quit. Did he forget bout the cameras? Or is he just stupid.