One-third of American Top Gear, Tanner Foust, spent a day in the Lamborghini Reventon, and here's his verdict: "Thumbs up big girl!" The fractional bit of additional horsepower didn't mean much to him, but he did say the brakes were more capable, and, surprise, the car is quite wide and people like to stare at it. After six hours on Italy's B-roads, that basically sums up his impressions. Since he didn't have too much to say in print, we really do hope he's saving the zingers for the show...
Top Gear Executive Producer Andy Wilman is aware of the acrimony that surrounds the apparently not-dead-yet U.S. edition of the show, and makes a case on the Top Gear blog for both the Yankee and Australian spinoffs that are marching their way towards prime time audiences soon. Wilman points out that Top Gear's success is not formulaic like other shows that have been churned in different locations all over the world. May, Clarkson, Hammond and the Stig aren't generic slots on the show that can be easily filled. Plugging people into positions like "here's the guy who used to play in Journey, sitting next to the pop star, who's seated next to the jaded British record executive who's clearly having his time wasted while making enough to purchase a Veyron," won't hold water.
Not only can the hosts not be duplicated in a Dick Sargent/Dick York fashion, the shows themselves have to be aware of each other and find ways to fit around what the other is doing. So, the uphill battle facing the localized versions of Top Gear is finding the proper personalities (the Australians already have) who will genuinely fit together and have chemistry, while also getting those people to do and say things that are compelling without just repeating the schtick of the original in a different location.
Wilman acknowledges that those who know about the original Top Gear in North America are fanatics who won't stand for a watered down retooling. Just because there may someday be a homegrown version of TG doesn't mean they'll stop watching the original. One thing that's skirted by Wilman's post is the writing. It's been said many times that the unvarnished opinion that flies on the original won't work on an advertising-dependent network like NBC in the U.S. If the presenters aren't given good material or allowed to riff with leeway, the U.S. Top Gear is dead in the water regardless of the personalities on camera.
NBC's dubious attempt to duplicate the unique cachet of Top Gear with a Stateside spinoff has apparently come to a screeching halt. They couldn't even get it together on a cast, so the news doesn't come entirely as a surprise. The newly announced fall lineup doesn't save a seat for "Gear," though room is made in the lineup for that clunker of a retread that is Knight Rider. Seeing how much worse NBC has managed to make the campfest original Knight Rider, we're all better off without a watered-down, sucking-up, entirely neutered iteration of the original. Done before it even started -- we've all been spared by a mild outbreak of sense at a TV network.
NBC has officially purchased the rights to produce an American version of Top Gear, and seeing as it has one of this country's biggest gear heads on its payroll, it's a no-brainer that they would at least ask Jay Leno to host. In his most recent editorial for The Sunday Times, Leno recounts being asked by a corporate suit with practically no clue about of the hit British show to host the American version. It goes something like this. "Well, the network has bought the TV show... um... High Gear? Top Gear? Top Gear! Top Gear, yes. We know you like to build cars." Sigh...
Thankfully Leno turned down the offer, not because he's unworthy, but rather because he knows he couldn't do the show justice and because the idea of an American Top Gear is doomed from the start. Being part of the BBC, the original version is not reliant on advertising to stay on the air, so talking smack about a particular automaker and its wares is no biggie. As Leno notes, things work differently at NBC and any episode in which a sponsor gets lambasted would immediately be followed by what The Tonight Show host calls, "the meeting". And then, bye bye sponsors and bye bye show.
Rumors of comic Adam Carolla hosting the show have us optimistic, because he's a bonafide gear head and if anyone could keep it real about cars on camera, he could. Plus, his last name is phonetically identical to Toyota's little econo-sedan, which would be great fodder for ridicule by the other hosts, whoever they might be. The fact is, however, the task of doing justice to this great export from Great Britain is near impossible, and Jay knows it.
If you found the news that NBC had struck a deal for an American version of Top Gear promising, the latest speculation on candidates for hosting the show should have you salivating. The original British program on the BBC uses a mix of automotive journalists and television personalities to make the dynamic and beloved team of hosts. Since Clarkson, May and Hammond nixed the idea of hosting the American show as well, BBC producers then began interviewing American automotive journalists – um, I'm still waiting for my call – in an effort to imbue the new show with some "journalistic credibility", but Inside Line reports that the BBC called several of the candidates this week and told them they were taking a "celebrity direction".
The development has inevitably led to speculation over who NBC could sign to host the show, and like a racing team looking for a new driver, it all comes down to availability. Jay Leno's contract to host the Tonight Show, it has been pointed out, is set to expire next year, and his credentials as a certified car nut are unimpeachable. Another candidate is Jerry Seinfed, an avid Porsche enthusiast who's got a lot of time on his hands since his sitcom went off the air. Both are huge celebrities and genuine gear-heads with long-standing relationships with NBC. We also hear Scott Speed is available if they're looking for The Stig's American cousin... or a new Captain Slow.
