:eek: That was Phil who said that? I thought it was Ronald. Yikes.
Shirts, plural. There are at least two of them, plus some sort of a hoodie/pullover thing.
I wonder what the penalty is for taking business class? I mean what if you were in a situation where you could take business class or fall behind everybody by a full day? Would the penalty be disqualification? Woul dyou be forced to fly back and then take a economy class seat? Would they simply not let you fly?
Azaria came off as a real asshole this episode, I have to say.
I saw the same thing and wondered about it. On the other hand, Donald has offered to do some of the physical tasks before. If Nick rows as badly as the other teams, perhaps Donald took it over rather than have him make a hash of it.
I had a vision last night of Jen a couple of years from now. She’s gone on a date or two with a fellow, Nate having run for his life as soon as they were off the show. While on a date, she mentions to the fellow that she was on The Amazing Race once, only to never hear from the guy again. She wonders why he never called her again, while his buddies, who watched this season with him, congratulate him on his narrow escape! She’s not exactly doing much for her long-term dating prospects, is she?
Hmmm. Maybe we should do some re-pairing. Put Nick with Jen so they can both be useless together and put Nate and Christina together so two nice, competent people have a chance without being yelled at constantly. That leaves us with Ronald and Donald, aka “Dad and Grandad”. I feel sorry for Donald, but I figure he can take on Ronald without breaking that big a sweat.
The penalties (leaving aside the horrendous 24 hour penalty assessed in season 1) are generally geared to removing any time advantage gained by breaking the rule, plus a measure of punitive time. A Blondes of Seasons Past for instance drove to a Pit Stop instead of walking and got assessed the time saved plus 30 minutes (something like 42 minutes total). This is distinct from the rules for skipping tasks, which range from a straight time penalty for quitting Roadblocks (c.f. the four-hour penalty for the infamous Meatblock) to being required to go back and complete a skipped Detour task (c.f. the BQs who wandered into a Pit Stop by accident) to being made to return to pick up a missed clue (c.f. Chip & Kim among others at the casino). So the question is, what sort of advantage if any is it to take business class rather than economy? Would a team even gain any sort of advantage, other than perhaps being able to rest more comfortably on the flight and get extra bags of salted nuts? Or is the rule simply because CBS is cheap and doesn’t want business class prices eating into its TAR profits?
I wanted to reach through the tv screen and snap his tiny little head off.
He treats his sister like a child, and not only does she put up with it, she’s so submissive.
I guess being at the front of the plane would also be an advantage. I doubt money is the issue, I think they probably want a) to maintain a leve l playing field wherever they have the opportunity; and 2) create more flight searching drama, by artificially reducing the number of available seats.
While economy class can fill up pretty quickly, seats will generally be available in business class. Hence a team that wouldn’t have made it on a flight in economy class could still fly in business class.
Plus the TAR producers are too cheap to spring for business class. Remember that the contestants also have to buy two additional tickets for the camera man and sound guy.
As for the penalty for flying business class, well, Phil made Nate & Jen go all the way back to the clue box to find a proper mode of transportation. I think a team should have to fly all the way back to the starting airport and book proper economy class tickets from there.
While that would make for outstanding meet-Phil-at-the-mat drama (You are the first team to arrive. However, you violated the rules by flying business class instead of the required economy class. Therefore, you must fly back to your point of origin and redo the entire leg in economy), the reality is that forcing them to return would undoubtedly eliminate that team. I’d bet the production crew would stop them just before they board the plane and force them to go back and repurchase tickets, possibly/probably making them miss that flight.
I thought of that and then started thinking that any team could get on an otherwise full flight so it wasn’t really an advantage but then my head started hurting so I stopped.
I agree in principle but in execution it would be impossible. My guess is that it’s a self-enforcing penalty as we saw last night, with the team that broke the rule missing the flight to exchange the tickets. I wonder also if the penalty would have been different had Jen and Nathan’s “illegal transportation” been earlier in the leg rather than up to the Pit Stop. Although the Blondes of Seasons Past’s infraction was on the way to a Pit Stop as well.
It should be noted, since we’re dissecting the flight class rule at the moment, that they’re not forbidden to FLY business class. They’re only forbidden to BUY business class. If the airline decides for some reason to upgrade one of the teams to business class without assessing the extra cost on the ticket, the team may accept that upgrade. I believe this has happened 5 times in the history of the show (Rob & Brennan and Frank & Margarita from Season 1, Reichen & Chip from Season 4, Ray & Deana from Season 7 and Eric & Danielle from last season).
Hold on here, I think you need to 'splain this to me. I am new to the show, but I saw them get money for legs of the race. Also, they always buy two tickets, I have never seen them buy four. Frankly, airfair has to be the smallest part of this show’s budget, so I don’t really get that as a financial restraint, just a level playing field sort of thing. Am I way off base with that?
And thanks jayjay and zut for the explanation. I used a spoiler because it was in the prviews and people sometimes get testy regarding what’s upcoming.
They show them purchasing tickets, they never say how many. They have to purchase four tickets to accommodate the roaming producer and cameraman/soundman. Flights are purchased with a credit card which can not be used for any other purpose, including ground transportation.
Well, they actually often show them asking for two tickets, specifically, but they then have to buy two more for the producer and cameraperson, which is never shown in the show. They rarely ever show production people, which is a testament to both the camerapeople on this show and the editors. The only two times I remember seeing production people in-shot were during The Shove at the Brandenburg Gate and when the Brothers overturned their Rover in Africa.
Speaking of airport drama, I thought it ironic that it was easier to get out of Ouagadougou than it was to get from Vilnius to Dubrovnic (a mere 900 miles). Did somebody wind up making 4 hops? And/or going through Frankfurt (which looked way the hell out of the way?)
It should have been just get on the plane and go to Prague (via Czech air) or Warsaw (via Polish air) then fly into Dubrovnik.
The Czech air flight was late getting to Prague, so TK and Rachel had to connect through Vienna, but Nick and Donald had to get a plan through Zagreb.
Since Azaria and Hendekea bought the wrong tickets, they had to re-book, and were left only with a flight through Frankfurt. I’m amazed they were able to get within sight of another team.
I think that says more about Nick and Donald than A&H…
Thanks, do they have to wait for the camera and sound guy everywhere, too. Seems like pissing them off could cost you the race.
And frankly, for all the stuff they explain and explain every week, there is a lot of little stuff like the credit card and four seats that never gets mentioned.
It’s explained in “My Ox Is Broken” that they basically have to treat the production crew like children they’re responsible for: they can’t get more than 20 yards away from them unless the production people ask in order to get a better shot, they can’t go all day without stopping to eat because the crew has to eat even if the team thinks they can make better time without stopping, they have to make sure they have the production crew near them at all times. I think the team is responsible for crew transportation even for surface transport (train tickets, cab fare, bus fare, ferry fare).
And they’re not going to explain this stuff on camera, ever. It’s production talk, and the very last thing you’re supposed to be thinking about while watching the Race (or ANY TV show) is the nuts and bolts of production. It seriously impairs the narrative that the Amazing Editors have sweated over so laboriously.
Either you knew this off the top of your head which is scary or you spent who knows how long looking it up which is also scary.