Adam’s podcast mentioned Apprentice and said he’d talk about being project manager in tomorrows podcast. I’m curious to hear his side of it.
I’ll post a link when that podcast is online. I thought Adam had a good shot at going pretty far on Apprentice. oh well.
I say there’s no question you’re right. Trump (and probably the Buick people too) were bitterly, severely disappointed in Andretti because he did not step up to be manager, and equally (or perhaps more) disappointed in Adam because he didn’t make more use of Andretti.
At fist, I thought Trump was being an asshole little kid, making the men’s team pay because Adam wouldn’t play his stupid game and declined to name the two people he’d bring back. And even though Trump said that he was firing two people because of that, I think he lied. I think before he even got to the boardroom he had decided that he was going to fire both Adam and Andretti.
Um, yes, he sure sounded impressed. During the test drive, the camera is showing the car coming toward it, slaloming through the cones, and Andretti’s voiceover is clearly heard: (paraphrasing here) “I know cars, I know how a car is supposed to feel. This Buick handles really well. It’s the perfect car”. I’m sure I heard him say, in so many words, “It’s the perfect car.”
My wife said right then, “There’s their presentation.” Ok, so Andretti isn’t a performer. I was amazed that both Adam and Andretti kept harping on that. As Trump said, Arsenio nailed it: So what if he isn’t a performer, he’s a freakin’ race car driver, with a name that a huge number of people instantly recognize, even if (like me) they don’t ever watch racing. He didn’t have to perform or be slick or polished or anything. Just stand on stage say what he said during the test drive: “I drove this car, I know how cars should feel, and this is the perfect car.”
Just that, and I’ll bet the men would have won.
This reaked of producer involvement.
“Psssst…Andretti didn’t do great. And he’s boring. Fire him and keep the interesting people. Yes, even Lou. And certainly don’t fire Adam no matter what he does. He’s funny and we like him.”
By the way, Penn Gillette is on pace to win this thing. He yet to make a mistake and hit thought processes are clear and well explained.
Or is that how you get fired?
In a game show where Joan Rivers can “win”, all bets are off.
I agree that Debbie Gibson’s makeup is HORRIBLE. I mean, she’s a good looking woman. Why does it look like a 12 year old applies her makeup?
I think the men might have an argument to win if they didn’t squander Andretti’s fame and visibility. Yes, that was a pretty strong hint when Trump said that he thought they should have picked Andretti to be PM. And in reality, they were sunk from that point on. It’s not as if they couldn’t have done the exact same skit more or less with him as PM.
But I think Andretti was exposed for what he’s been thus far - an empty suit. Adam was right; it was way too Carola-centric. He might be a car guy, but he’s known for being a professional smartass, and that’s probably not going to make it for the Buick image. Or at least, it should have been broken up with more of the other team players. Arsenio should have had a larger role, for instance.
I will say the women’s skit made lemonade out of a bucket of piss. I don’t think they had much in the way of expertise, but they seemed to have a decent presentation. Aubrey continues to take one step forward and two back with her good ideas and suggestions… then her bitchiness in the CA confessionals makes it all for naught.
Ferrigno… I am so glad Penn, Dee, Clay, and Arsenio called his ass out for being a whiner. Man, there is a murderer’s row of great men left. Those four are top notch without a doubt. I guess there’s no way for Ferrigno to admit that he’s 110% out of his league. He’s Trump’s contestant-troll for this season.
Late Notice, but Adam Carolla is on Leno tonight.
IMO, the men lost for one reason, the Buick execs were very disappointed about not having Andretti be moor up front. Yes, the presentation by the men was better, but when they saw Andretti bring underwhelming they were thinking “This is bullshit.” Everything else kinds was irrelevant at that point.
That was kind of disappointing. I expected him to talk more about CA and less about the Trumpster’s hair.
I’m not sure. I think they lost it when they decided to emphasize funny over other things. Then again, Adam did list all the high-points of the car over and over again. I think that it is a lot to ask a car racer to be able to present well on a car.
It reminds me of Mitch Hedburg explaining what it was like to be approached on writing a sitcom.
“It’s like saying to a chef. ‘Hey, you can cook. Now, can you farm?’”
Adam and Penn Jillette discuses his Apprentice firing. Skip forward a bit and you’ll find it.
http://www.adamcarolla.com/penn-jillette-and-captain-sean-parnell/
I’ve never heard anyone pull back the curtain this far on Reality Show editing/storytelling before. Typically everyone has signed confidentiality contracts. Even years later, reality show casts can’t say much about how their show was really made.
Its great hearing more details from Adam. I’m going to miss his comments about the rest of the season.
Wow, I need to stop fast-forwarding so much. I did not realize Adam was fired, too.
Disregard my earlier comments about producer involvement.
Can anyone list some of the high points of their conversation? I can’t listen to it at work, but am intrigued.
What would have happened if Michael had test drove the Buick and thought, “what a crappy car.” Should he still be expected to get up and essentially endorse something he doesn’t believe in? That is one reason I think he was hesitant to take the lead, he might have been thinking in the back of his mind, “I can’t be the PM and sponsor a car by Buick I know nothing about.” It would be like forcing Emeril to endorse a restaurant he had never eaten at.
Yeah, I felt the same way. Very manipulative, very tacky.
My point was that the Buick execs sat through that presentation, they sat through the men’s presentation, they then evaluated those presentations, and made the call they liked both but thought the women’s was better. So after that, there’s no grounds for them to turn around and threaten Trump and CA with comments about how the women’s team risks their brand or whatever. From what they had to go on, they approved.
“Brand Messaging” is more than just mispronouncing the car model name one time. It’s conveying the feel of “Buick” and getting the audience to connect to the car and the car manufacturer. Of course, I’d have been rubbed wrong by the tacky turn to “my mother was in a car accident”, but that’s me.
Team Forte’s presentation was humorous but not confrontational. They engaged the audience. The men’s team started with a weird bit with Adam getting oddly nervous, which he managed to recover okay, but then had rough bits with Paul yelling “You suck!” which didn’t do anything, and Lou dragging him out of the room, which didn’t help. I totally didn’t get the “reflection” message, but then neither did some of the team members, and I came in late to the program.
I don’t think the women’s team was a total fail, they had good elements and the audience was happy. I don’t think the men’s was a total fail, they had good elements and the audience seemed happy. I think at the end of the day preconceptions got in the way of evaluations on the merits.
You know what, I can believe that about Trump. He decided when they didn’t go with his preconception that he wanted to fire them both, then came up with a justification. Or maybe he wanted to fire Andretti, but when Adam refused to bring anyone back to the boardroom with him, he decided to fire them both. The thing is, I can believe just about any of this about Trump. “Integrity” is probably the one thing I can’t believe about him.
Sounds reasonable.
The men were discussing how their presentation would be done and Adam wanted everyone involved. One of the producers told them to do a “Steve Jobs” type presentation. Adam initially didn’t hear the instruction but Penn did. So the men ended up doing a type of presentation that they didn’t want to do. Adam and Penn agreed that he absolutely nailed the Q&A part which lasted 10 minutes but the only part that they showed two questions, one of which was the blond at the end. When he got hit for not having more involvement from the rest of his team, he was pissed because he was just doing what the producer told him to do. That’s the main reason that he didn’t want to name anyone else. He was through with it.
Adam claims one of the Producers asked for a Steve Jobs type presentation. Adam was going to ignore that and do something like the women’s team did. Penn kept reminding Adam about the “Steve Jobs” presentation and some of that was shown. Although his name wasn’t mentioned in the episode.
That’s the reason Adam ended up doing a solo presentation. It wasn’t ego or him wanting to take over. It was him following the Steve Jobs order that Penn felt should be followed. If you’ve seen any Apple Presentations, Steve always did them Solo and was very much the guy in charge.
Adam claims his Buick Q&A was ten minutes long and almost flawless. Adam clamis he had memorized a lot of information on the car and gave a very technical presentation. They only showed about 2 minutes of it in the episode and gave the impression he was mostly doing a comedy act.
It’s fascinating to hear how what happened got cleverly edited into a totally different story line. Those reality show writers are really good at that.
This may have been the week Celebrity Apprentice jumped the shark.
1a) Let’s assume the Buick execs honestly liked the women’s presentation better. That should tell you how out of touch they are.
1b) Let’s assume the Buick execs honestly liked the men’s presentation better. That means the outcome is rigged.
Trump has always been the sort to let you know how he would have performed the task. As soon as the men chose not to do it his way, they lost no matter what the outcome was.
Carolla got fired for saying out loud what was on everybody’s mind - that they were being judged on criteria other than what was given. Andretti should have had more face time. Yeah but I thought it was about who had the better presentation. Carolla called them on their BS and so he’s out.
Trump rarely listens to the Apprentices but it was so obvious he had made up his mind. The men could have made the presentation 100% Adretti and Trump would still have been talking about him not being PM. Even when the men said it was about the show, Trump ignored them.
That being said, I’m glad Andretti’s out. He has done nothing during any of the tasks.
Verano is a stupid name. It is Spanish for Summer and they wonder why English speakers confuse it with Verona.
All in all, this week was Trump being a caricature of himself and even the drama was not entertaining.
Based on Carolla’s comments about how misleading the edits are, I don’t think that we can draw any conclusions whatsoever about the quality of either presentation.
It’s good to have confirmation that the reaction shots are just edited in without regard to what they’re reacting to. He said that several of the reaction shots were by people who weren’t even in the room during what they were presented as reacting to.