# The Amazing Race - 4.4.10 (open spoilers) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 5, 2010, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amazing-race-4-4-10-open-spoilers/534968 "2010-04-05T02:01:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2010, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amazing-race-4-4-10-open-spoilers/534968/21 "2010-04-05T14:34:15Z")
> [@In\_Winnipeg](#): > > It would make more sense to give the teams some sort of itinerary of things to do/places to go over the four or five days and just let them all at it. At the end of that time (or three shows) they could then bunch up for the next leg of four or five days, and then repeat it once again before they found out where the final destination was. Mind you this would mean no prize every week and less Phil (not that that would be necessarily a bad thing). They did something closer to this on the first two, maybe three races: there were NO spoon-fed plane flights and everything was “you’re on your own”. The tasks were still in order (you had to do task one, decide if you wanted the fast-forward (which was on every leg and then task two before getting to the mat.) This made for some freaking _great_ races but 1. It also cost the amazing producers a fortune as people would make idiotic (and presumably costly) travel choices. The team that decided to fly from (say) Argentina to (say) South Africa by way of New York then London. It’s apparently expensive from a production standpoint when teams are all spread out and you have to keep all your tasks/pit stops/etc open for the trailing teams. 2. The producers have the (wrong) idea that viewers don’t like seeing a team fall hopelessly behind. They’re incorrect, but they’ve only ever allowed two teams (first and..um..fourth–Team Guido and some surfer types?) season to screw up so badly that they were in the final three but didn’t cross the finish line. Ever. Frankly, I think it’s hysterical and I’d like to see more of it but we never will. 3. Fast Forwards mitigated this a lot: if you fell hopelessly behind, you could decide when it was advantageous to use the FF–and it was a part of your strategy-use it too soon and you won’t have it when you need it. Use it too late and someone else might also go for it. The problem was FFs were way, WAY expensive–you had to set up one extra task on each leg–a task that no-one might use. 4. And it led to some terrible (boring) airport drama. Because there were no spoon-fed flights, there was an episode or two where like 4 teams were stuck in Poland(?) trying to get a flight…um…anywhere, really for like 4 days. While the other teams were merrily two countries ahead. There simply weren’t any flights to be had at all. Watching teams go slowly insane as they’re stuck in the airport might make an interesting episode of Big Brother, but it’s not really racing as such. Things got so out of hand that we saw the second-most blatant episode of producer cheating ever. One team was like 2 days ahead of the next two or three and that group was a day ahead of the people still stuck in the airport. The first task was “take a boat across this large lake/bay/sea whatever” (not pilot it, just sit in it and be shuttled). Despite the fact that the sky was a perfect clear blue, the first team was “delayed” like 18 hours because of “bad weather”. Heh–the producers didn’t even try to find a plausible lie to let the second group of teams catch up with the first team so there’d be SOME kind of race left. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2010, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amazing-race-4-4-10-open-spoilers/534968/22 "2010-04-05T14:34:17Z")
> [@In\_Winnipeg](#): > > “Misty”? You mean “Windy”… :smack: Yeah, that. Although the thought of some pianist in a bar somewhere being asked, “Play Windy for me” is amusing… ---
**Author:** ![Saltire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saltire/32/553_2.png) [@Saltire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saltire)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2010, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amazing-race-4-4-10-open-spoilers/534968/23 "2010-04-05T14:40:26Z")
Watching Brent and Caite is painful. While he’s got more drive, I’m starting to believe she’s the smart one. Did anyone notice his misread of the temple clue? “Carry giant license sticks,” indeed. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2010, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amazing-race-4-4-10-open-spoilers/534968/24 "2010-04-05T14:42:15Z")
At the end, did Steve say doing TAR with his daughter was better than his World Series ring? Who is Steve, and when did he win the World Series? Or did I mishear? ---
**Author:** ![Saltire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saltire/32/553_2.png) [@Saltire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saltire)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2010, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amazing-race-4-4-10-open-spoilers/534968/25 "2010-04-05T14:49:40Z")
Steve is a Major League coach of some sort. According to his bio, he’s with the Cleaveland Indians now, but was with the Phillies in 2008 when they were in the Series. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2010, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amazing-race-4-4-10-open-spoilers/534968/26 "2010-04-05T14:51:18Z")
Yes, he’s the manager who took the Phillies to the Series a couple years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2010, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amazing-race-4-4-10-open-spoilers/534968/27 "2010-04-05T14:52:44Z")
I don’t think Louie’s health running on the stairs was really as big a hindrance as the editors made it seem. It sounded like they just took one sound bite of him coughing/gagging and replayed it over and over. It was exactly the same each time. ---
**Author:** ![corkboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@corkboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corkboard)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2010, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amazing-race-4-4-10-open-spoilers/534968/28 "2010-04-05T15:06:00Z")
It sounded like smoker’s hack. ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2010, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amazing-race-4-4-10-open-spoilers/534968/29 "2010-04-05T15:17:49Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Yes, he’s the manager who took the Phillies to the Series a couple years ago. Third Base Coach. Charlie Manuel was the manager. The Phillies won the World Series that year but they fired Steve Smith anyway after the season. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2010, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amazing-race-4-4-10-open-spoilers/534968/30 "2010-04-05T15:20:31Z")
> [@Lamar\_Mundane](#): > > Third Base Coach. Charlie Manuel was the manager. The Phillies won the World Series that year but they fired Steve Smith anyway after the season. Whoops! Shows how much I know about baseball…I had assumed he was the actual top coach person thing. ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2010, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amazing-race-4-4-10-open-spoilers/534968/31 "2010-04-05T15:27:08Z")
Possible bad news for TAR if the cops win: [http://www.wpri.com/dpp/news/amazing-race-cop-louie-stravato-linked-to-drug-probe](http://www.wpri.com/dpp/news/amazing-race-cop-louie-stravato-linked-to-drug-probe) ---
**Author:** ![Gordon\_Urquhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/db5fbb/32.png) [@Gordon\_Urquhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gordon_Urquhart)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2010, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amazing-race-4-4-10-open-spoilers/534968/32 "2010-04-05T15:29:52Z")
Already answered upthread. ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2010, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amazing-race-4-4-10-open-spoilers/534968/33 "2010-04-05T16:45:02Z")
Down to five teams, and IIRC, there has been no fast forwards. At least none that were shown. I’m rooting for the cowboys, and then the detectives. I don’t like the other three teams. Just how much faster was the Flag on Head detour vs the Steps detour? Jet/Cord were wandering aimlessly trying to find a taxi while the other teams were well on their way to the temple. ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2010, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amazing-race-4-4-10-open-spoilers/534968/34 "2010-04-05T16:55:07Z")
If you look at the tide for the guy who sent the luck-boat off to sea, you can see that he was barely up to his knees (and Jet/Cord just barely got his boots wet wading out). By the time the next few teams finished, it was above his knees (and they got wet up to their knees. By the time Allie/Steve were there, it looked like the water was almost shoulder high and she got soaked. So–an hour or so faster to do the flag detour, maybe with like a 4-6 hour gap between first and last? ---
**Author:** ![PoorYorick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2010, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amazing-race-4-4-10-open-spoilers/534968/35 "2010-04-05T17:02:06Z")
One of the things I like about the cowboys is that they are true to their roots (cowboy hats and all) without being total idiots. Being from Oklahoma myself, I sometimes get tired of the let’s-point-and-laugh-at-the-rubes schtick. In contrast, the couple from Kentucky a couple of seasons past were sometimes painful to watch. Also, they’ve proven that bull riders can be excellent athletes. ---
**Author:** ![lorene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/65b543/32.png) [@lorene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lorene)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2010, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amazing-race-4-4-10-open-spoilers/534968/36 "2010-04-05T17:28:18Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > At the end, did Steve say doing TAR with his daughter was better than his World Series ring? Who is Steve, and when did he win the World Series? Or did I mishear? When he said that, my husband said to me, “He has a World Series ring? Did he…steal it?” He was genuinely perplexed. As to whether Caite or Brent is the dumb one…yes. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2010, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amazing-race-4-4-10-open-spoilers/534968/37 "2010-04-05T17:58:51Z")
> [@Fenris](#): > > If you look at the tide for the guy who sent the luck-boat off to sea, you can see that he was barely up to his knees (and Jet/Cord just barely got his boots wet wading out). By the time the next few teams finished, it was above his knees (and they got wet up to their knees. By the time Allie/Steve were there, it looked like the water was almost shoulder high and she got soaked. So–an hour or so faster to do the flag detour, maybe with like a 4-6 hour gap between first and last? So you think the poor guru just had to maintain the same spot for several hours as the tide came in? I assumed he moved further out for each racer just to give them a hard time, and didn’t actually spend all that time in the water. ---
**Author:** ![MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c0e974/32.png) [@MPB\_in\_Salt\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MPB_in_Salt_Lake)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2010, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amazing-race-4-4-10-open-spoilers/534968/38 "2010-04-05T18:03:10Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > So you think the poor guru just had to maintain the same spot for several hours as the tide came in? I assumed he moved further out for each racer just to give them a hard time, and didn’t actually spend all that time in the water. Maybe he wanted to see what Allie looked like with wet clothing up to her chest plastered to her body… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2010, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amazing-race-4-4-10-open-spoilers/534968/39 "2010-04-05T18:27:36Z")
> [@muldoonthief](#): > > So you think the poor guru just had to maintain the same spot for several hours as the tide came in? I assumed he moved further out for each racer just to give them a hard time, and didn’t actually spend all that time in the water. . No–I think he went out to approximately the same point each time, since going out further to give later racers a “hard time” would be cheating. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2010, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amazing-race-4-4-10-open-spoilers/534968/40 "2010-04-05T19:22:24Z")
> [@lorene](#): > > I love the cowboys. I just do. Same. When one of them went back to shake the swinging guru’s hand, I died. They’re adorable. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amazing-race-4-4-10-open-spoilers/534968.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-amazing-race-4-4-10-open-spoilers/534968.md?page=3)