I knew it wouldn’t take long for the Australian version of the show to devolve into the typical “OMG Fords v Holdens!!!11!!1”.
I don’t know what it is about so many Australian petrol-heads (although I know there are exceptions) that made them look at all the cars in the world and bypass the Porsches, Lamborghinis, Ferraris etc etc - all the many different types of exciting, beautifully designed cars that there are in the world and go “An easily obtainable, middle-of-the-road, simplistically designed Holden Commodore/Ford Falcon that you see hundreds of on the street everyday is what I will focus my attention on. Also, I will establish a bitter rivalry with those who choose whichever model I do not choose and then I will buy vast amounts of merchandise emblazoned with the logo of the marque of my choice. And I will watch auto races, living and dying with the success of my marque against the opposing marque - in cars that are practically identical.”.
They are the most boring, commonplace cars you could possibly imagine. Sure, if you want one, get one. They’re affordable and easy to run. But I will never understand the passion for them or the rivalry between them. I just can’t imagine being so profoundly taken by them that I would think it was worth even mentioning, let alone arguing about it.
Anyway, back to the topic at hand - did anybody not directly involved in the making of the show genuinely think this was going to be a good show? It was awful and embarrassing, as I expected it would be.
I don’t have any great problem with the show. But the success of the original rests entirely on the amazing charisma, pretend rivalry, and genuine camaraderie of its hosts. You can’t compete with that winning combination, and these guys ain’t got it. Not even a little bit. It’s all forced, staged, and uncomfortable.
As I’ve said before Top Gear is arguably the best TV show I have ever seen. It is about a subject that doesn’t interest me at all (I don’t care about flash cars or follow motor sport) and I watch it every week. Why anyone would try to emulate it has me beat. There have been dozens of Aussie car shows over the years, I think there are 2 on each weekend at the moment, I never watch any of them.
I and hubby are both as far from petrol heads as you can imagine. But we both will (would) sit down and watch Top Gear on a regular basis, because it was good TV.
We tried to watch Aussie Top Gear. It just didn’t take. It was almost embarrassing, they were just trying so hard to be UK top gear. It could have been watchable if they took the premise & ran with it in their own direction, but instead it’s just a poor carbon copy. We won’t be watching it again.
I’ve been wondering pretty much the same thing ever since I stepped off the plane from NZ all those years ago. Ford and Holden both make very good family cars and if you were to look up “Six one way, half a dozen the other” there’d almost be a picture of a Ford Falcon and a Holden Commodore as an illustration.
You don’t see Toyota and Mitsubishi owners getting that clannish over cars, nor do you see entire sections of motoring magazines devoted to the great Nissan Vs. Mazda debate.
The ironic thing is that neither Ford nor Holden are even Australian brands- Ford for obvious reasons, and Holden has been owned by General Motors since the 1930s…
Probably not - SBS has spent $10 million on this sucker, for the first eight-episode series, and they’re gonna want whatever advertising money they can screw out of it to try and recoup at least some of the investment.
I don’t know that I’d be betting on a second series though; while the first episode rated okay, the second one got somewhat hammered. First ep got nearly a million viewers, second one down to 674,000 or so, which is a big fall.
SBS has to take ratings into account, even if they’re not as desperate for a ratings point as the commercials - advertising does make up a huge chunk of their budget and, if the viewers go, then so will the advertisers. Rockwiz got a chance to hang on and bed in because it’s a relatively cheap show to produce; Top Gear is ferociously expensive, so its margins are that much thinner.
Top Gear Australia was destined to be fucked from the start. A bit like American attempts to recreate the subtle genius of Minder, or - as I read i the paper yesterday - Australia’s Kath and Kim.
Some things just don’t translate. That fact doesn’t bother me, but what does bother me is the fact that if it’s blindingly obvious to armchair critics such as us, then why are the professionals making big bucks in the industry not getting it?
Since the first time I saw the SBS ads for presenters for Top Gear Australia (“Do YOU have what it takes?”) presented in a Channel Ten-style under-25 way, I knew it was doomed (though I’d have guessed it was doomed even without seeing those, just on the idea itself).
Only Americans can do Seinfeld.
Only Australians can do Kath and Kim.
Only the Brits can do Top Gear.
If this is obvious to us mere mortals, why don’t the TV industry honchos get it?
Too right. And yet you wouldn’t believe* the amount of people I’ve heard express belief that either one or both is an Australian-made car. Most of the rabid Ford people I’ve suffered through conversations with have never even heard of Henry Ford - let alone of the geographical origin of the brand of car they so cherish. The logic seems to be:
“I’m Australian.”
“I like Fords/Holdens.”
“Fords/Holdens are Australian! Hooray for the car that I like for no reason!”
I had an American lecturer at Uni last semester who said that when he first came to Australia someone loaned him a Holden for a while and it had one of those ubiquitous bumper stickers that read something like “I’d rather be dead than driving a Ford.”. He didn’t get it so he asked the owner about it, but whatever explanation was given was unsatisfactory and he asked the class to enlighten him.
We explained. He was dumbfounded. He asked if Holdens were special in some way or maybe rare. Nope. Are Fords really bad cars then? Nope.
He couldn’t wrap his head around it. He was amused mostly, but there was some shaking of the head.
I have to confess - this thread has exposed a pet rant of mine. I’m finished now. If I feel the need to say more I will start my own pit thread.
*In reality I’d bet that you would.
I know people in the Aussie TV industry and from what I can gather they have nothing but contempt for the viewing audience. They are largely Eastern Suburbs wankers and think that anyone living west of Norton Street is intellectually disabled.
Fuck, I must be living in the past. I keep thinking it’s still Cleveland Street.
Funny though, this ol’ conservative’s bread and butter is academic wankers who submit interviews for me to transcribe - one of them was saying how she’s worldly and all because “my kids go to an inner west school”. Uh-huh. I’m supposed to have visions of Balmain in the 40s or something?
I think if they had charismatic hosts, then an AU Top Gear is eminently doable. I just don’t think they thought it through properly, or cast it right.
The UK version took years to get it where it is now, but had great presenters to carry it through the lean times. The AU version is trying too hard to get it right straight away and don’t have the presenters to carry it.
That’s exactly it; had it been allowed to develop its own character and style, then the results might have been much better. I can’t imagine it does the hosts any good to be so trammelled; it’s got to be a stifling sort of thing.
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