Basically, every misgiving that you might have about the show is probably true.
Well that’s some bullshit, I can see why Adam got frustrated and refused to play along. I have to wonder how that request was structured, that it seemed more of a constraint than it apparently was. I can sort of see if someone asked “what kind of thing do they want?” and were told a Steve Jobs kinda presentation or something. I could see the producer trying to give a creative suggestion that they took too strongly and should have done their own thing.
That is the most important thing to remember in all this. All this is prefilmed. The producers have everything filmed, and pick and choose to craft the story they want to tell, emphasize the points they want to make. Was Adam fired before they crafted the episode for airing? The producers want to enhance the drama, not give a fair accounting of what actually happened.
Well, if the men’s team was edited as stated above, then likely the women’s team was edited just as much. Maybe parts of their program went better, but the producers aimed for the parts that made them look lost to frame all the boardroom antics and set up the surprise twist that the men lost.
Trumps the kind of jackass that asks everyone “I don’t think my hair looks that bad, don’t you agree?” On camera. So yes, when Trump gives you a strong hint, it’s important to take it.
This is true. Adam called them on getting judged by something other than the stated criteria. However, Adam is gone because he threw himself on the sword in disgust. He could have played along with Trump, named Andretti and/or Lou to go back to the boardroom, then either taken full responsibility or said to Trump “You obviously made up your mind earlier who you wish to fire. Get on with it.” Hell, he could have named Penn and Dee, gone back to the boardroom and then fell on his sword, with their blessing.
Adam: “Mr. Trump, here are the two people I brought back to the boardroom. They are representative of the men’s team. These two people are my strongest team members. There is no way I can recommend firing either of them. None of my team is at fault, all the decisions were mine, and I made the bulk of the presentation. If someone is at fault, it is me.”
That’s essentially what he did without doing the boardroom thing. If he wanted to remain, he could have left it up to Trump and expected Trump to fire Andretti for not stepping up when encouraged. He wouldn’t have had to make the argument himself, just give the option and shut up. Trump’s prejudice would have done it. But Adam wanted out.
Agreed, but I feel the same way about a lot of car model names.
And that takes some real doing! Trump is already a caricature.
My favorite part of the podcast is that when Trump asked Adam who he should fire, Adam replied he should’ve fired the producer that gave Adam the bad advice to do a Steve Jobs type presentation.
I guess my question would be who would be expected to be at the launch, members of the auto industry media or consumer focus groups. I would’ve assumed the former, which would have meant that the men’s approach, nail the specs, pronounce the name right, etc. was the absolutely correct approach. However, if it was more of a consumer oriented launch then maybe I could see how the women might be preferred. But still they didn’t know the answers to questions, mispronounced the name of the car, I just fail to see how other to explain it other than the Buick folks and Trump didn’t like the idea that Andretti wasn’t front and center
Per Adam’s version, when the producer was giving them team the challenge rules he threw in an off handed comment about a Steve Jobs presentation (this challenge was done within days of his death). Adam didn’t notice that part but Gillette did.
While discussing Adam’s original idea for the sketch they’d do, Gillette kept bringing up the “Steve Jobs presentation” comment so Adam went back and talked to the producer again, who confirmed that they should do a “Steve Jobs presentation.”
They got online and watched a few and realized that it was always Steve Jobs alone. So Adam put himself on stage. But they also knew at Andretti had to be prominent so they gave him his part.
Adam also said his first response to Trump when asked who should be fired was “the producer who told us to do a Steve Jobs presentation” and then was so pissed that he essentially quit the show by letting them know he was done and it got turned into the double firing.
Adam did also say that it was just a thing that got stuck in the producers head because of everything around Jobs dying but that the producer should never have been making any content suggestions, let alone wrong ones.
Penn Gillette called in an pretty much confirmed most of that (though Gillette has a show on Carolla’s podcast network so not entirely unbiased).
Just wanted to chime in that Adam’s podcast is worth listening to, especially if you want to pierce the veil of reality television and know what really happened behind the scenes.
I didn’t notice the edit during Ivanka’s speaking at the board room nor the applause when Lou wrestled Paul out. Even the laughs immediately after “you suck” were muted down a split second late. It’s very noticeable once someone points it out.
Penn Gillette is the man. He makes my girly bits all tingly purely with the power of his mind and his voice. Ok, his height, too, but it’s mostly the brain and the voice.
Penn is the only reason I plan to keep watching. If he gets eliminated there won’t be any reason to waste my time with this season. There’s no one else in this season’s cast that I care about.
I just watched it last night and it was very frustrating. I don’t even know why Buick, of all car companies, would want Michael Andretti to be the face of their brand. Maybe he would work for the Regal Turbo or something, but Buick does not make high performance cars. I would say if you thought a racecar driver should be the image of Buick, you probably don’t know much about Buick.
All that said, I agree that the men’s presentation was far and away better. I can’t see how you could say the wrong name of the car, play campy Debbie Gibson music (which was only almost outdone by the “you suck” gag), look *that *foolish during the Q&A and come away with a victory. I think even the women were shocked at that outcome.
Penn talks about the next two episodes some in his latest Penn’s Sunday School podcast.
The latest one from the 12th is about atheism? Do you mean the one from the week before with Adam Corolla and Arsenio Hall?
Exactly.
For those of you who didn’t hear the podcast, Adam said the Lou & Paul bit was totally edited:
–The shots of the audience sitting in awkward silence were inserted
–The audience laughed during the bit, but it was edited it out.
–Clay making the “wrap it up” signal was from another part of the presentation
–Shots of Arsenio & Dee shaking their heads were inserted in. They weren’t even standing there when the shot was filmed live…
Even though I’m sure it’s edited just as tightly–I highly recommend the British version of The Apprentice. It’s with Sir Alan Sugar–no where near as annoying as Trump. And they actually do focus on the task & firings make more sense.!
Penn got ganged up on pretty good. I have to agree he can be a bit overbearing at times. He’s still one of the better players this season.
The women really had the claws out. I’ll be glad when Trump mixes up the men & woman.
Aubrey brought the bitch this week. I wanted to smack her.
Every time I see Lou I keep thinking they cast the wrong bodybuilder. Arnold would be so fantastic on this show. From everything I’ve heard he’s a master tactician. There’s a scene in Pumping Iron where he totally own Lou and gets way into his head.
I’m no surprised to see Tia go. I’d never heard of her except for a Bond movie when I was in junior high. She really has contributed almost nothing this season. They may not be likeable but Lisa, Aubrey, and Debbie are the creative ones. The rest are strictly worker bees.
First, some shallowness… this is the first CA episode I’ve watched on TV this season… the show is really beautifully shot. It’s a great example of what HD can look like. (Though I thought that bit looking at the pigeon’s ass was a little odd.)
Aubrey is really quite pretty… it’s a shame her personality doesn’t measure up to her looks and her intellect. She’s really a strong player, but her scorched earth tactics toward Tia were really unnecessary and in fact, an example of the trend that women on this show tend to eviscerate each other instead of coming up with some way to work collaboratively. She crossed that line far too many times where her apt or legitimate observations went nasty.
Dayana has nine lives. Unsurprisingly, she’s probably the least capable of all the contestants - she’s a young beauty pageant winner. The others surpass her in experience and breadth, so it’s not really her fault.
I want to like Lisa, but she can be terribly gruff at times - case in point, her meltdown about the women wanting to have starring roles. Dayana wants the role because she really can’t do anything else… it’s less about ego than she claims.
Man, I am so impressed with Clay Aiken. He is direct, upstanding, and honest. He took Penn on and deftly explained how his approach was harmful to the team. And speaking of Penn, I lost a little bit of respect for him. I think he handled the challenges from Clay poorly and more or less pouted. Clay was trying to clear the air and give Penn some valuable feedback about how he comes across to others. He really handled it well, and Penn essentially threw a strop.
Another guy I’m liking is Dee Snyder. Smart guy, straight shooter.
I’m glad for Lou that the men won. I think he finally stepped up, with all eyes on him, and performed quite well. I like how he was able to emerge from the fugue, unlike other “weakest players” in years past, like Dionne Warwick.
Agree on Clay. Has he been PM yet? (I missed the first couple weeks – Downton Abbey finale, then the Oscars.)
And Penn came across as a total jerk this week. In comedy, the point of brainstorming may be to destroy each other – in a business setting, the point of a brainstorming session is to never call someone else an idiot, because it discourages people from throwing out ideas. If an idea sucks, you leave it on the table and let it die, or if there’s something there you do an “and” build on it, not a “but.”
I’ve been able to watch the last couple episodes, but I always seem to miss the drama in the first half. As such, I didn’t really get to see Penn’s situation, or where the friction on the women’s team originated. With that, here are some impressions:
I really like Penn, and I like Clay. I follow Penn on Twitter, and he’s been very insightful and humble about this whole thing. Yesterday during the show he tweeted that while he’s been a great collaborate for years and years with Teller, he recognizes that he’s not the best at doing so with others. Self-awareness goes a long way, and it looks like he can see that he wasn’t all that aware during this task. Glad Lou won, because it gives Penn another chance.
Aubrey seemed to really bring out the attitude, but not having seen where it stemmed from, I have to say that it sounded justified. The clips I did see looked like those three really were the only ones working on the creative (though editing can do anything), and you have to make a strong case that there’s no reason to fire those with the ideas and get rid of the support staff. I think they’re worried that Trump is trying to keep his pet Miss Universe around as long as possible, despite her complete uselessness. Tia falling on the sword was weird - but I think she was just done with it all.
Wasn’t Dayana the one in the back of the van throwing out a ton of ideas? From the way that they showed it, no one wanted to even explore her ideas. They seemed to just dismiss them out of hand. I think Lisa nailed it when she said (paraphrasing), “She’s tall, beautiful, skinny. There’s a lot to hate.” The women are really reinforcing a bunch of bad stereotypes of women. It’s sad.
In one of his podcasts Penn warned that if you liked him in the first episodes to try and keep that in mind for the next few as he gets petulant and whiny.
Apparently a combination Clay trying to manage him, Lou trying to dominate a rare bigger man (Penn’s perception) and extreme sleep deprivation combined to make him behave in - his words - the least attractive way possible.
With two of my podcasts being on the show this season I know way too much about considering I’ve never watched.