I like the UK version of Top Gear, but found the American spinoff to be rather childish and simpleminded.
Are the shows actually targetted at completely different audiences (i.e. different societal/educational levels), or is this just a product of stereotypes* and other perception-skewing biases?
Ideally, somebody who’s familiar with both American and British culture has seen both shows and can offer a perspective.
Top Gear USA suffers from the Nascar stereotype (that Nascar is for uneducated, dim-witted, rednecks), while the UK version benefits from British accents sounding more intelligent to American ears. I know that stereotype and that perception are not accurate reflections of reality, but it’s hard to separate fact from bias when it comes to opinions about entertainment.
I heard a comment about Monty Python once (may have been from Steve Martin); that they were stupid, but in a completely brilliant way. I think the same applies to the UK Top Gear. It’s an indescribable combination of dim-witted genius. They take some incredibly clever and creative ideas and then (and I’m convinced it’s mostly deliberate) make a complete shambles of them. I watch it and think to myself “I’d have never thought of that, but if I had I’d have done a better job.”
It may be that there’s something in British culture that nurtures and appreciates that sort of thing. Or it may just be that the American version couldn’t find the right people to pull it off.
Jeremy Clarkson has apparently been suspended by the BBC after a bust up with a producer. Given the earnings that Top Gear makes for the BBC worldwide, I doubt if he will be suspended for too long.
I’ve not seen the US version, but I’d doubt if you could replicate the piss-taking and camaraderie of Clarkson, Hammond and May.
I tried watching the American version but found it boring. On the other hand, I enjoy the original UK series, partly for the chemistry among the three leads. Also, they feature car brands and models not available in the US and the field trips are usually to some place interesting.
The place where the UK and US version really split, to me, is pandering. The UK version has ripped a new one in some very popular cars. The US one basically doesn’t even want to address actual makes or models for fear of alienating some possible manufacturer/advertiser. To keep away from possibly being offensive to someone the US version is not so much “dumb-ed down” and “bland-ed down”.
I have followed four versions of the show to some degree - UK, US, German and Australian - and by far the US one is just plain entertainment with little of the informational or interesting details included in the others. But then again, look at our sorry choices in cars (compared to the UK or Germany) and ---------- what did you expect?
The BBC version, is owned by the BBC and broadcasted by the BBC? So… maybe the influence of advertisers is not as prevalent? It could be just popular enough that they don’t need the associated auto-related ad revenue and use ad’s from other industries.
Whereas the USA version is going to need someone to carry and fund it. It’s going to be towards an auto-related audience which will mean auto-related ad’s.
There is also a temp difference between the two. USA is a little more drawn out between the parts and the UK is a little bit more snippy.
Top Gear started as a car show which became a comedy skit show with serious car talk in between. U.S. Top Gear started as a comedy show. It shows. It doesn’t take the car parts as serious and the camaraderie is manufactured and not developed over years. Adam Ferrara is a good stand up but he knows absolutely nothing about cars and can barely drive them. Basically its just very difficult for the copy to be as good as the original.
I assume that Wilman shares my low opinion of men as a class, but enjoys laughing at us for our limitations. Much (most? nearly all?) comedy–hell, entire careers (Will Farrell, Steve Carrell, and many, many others)–are built around what doofusses we are.
The BBC used to have a car show called Wheelbase which was a serious show about recent developments in the car industry. Top Gear started as a reworking of the format, but then it morphed into The Jeremy Clarkson Show.
