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.
We reported yesterday that both NBC's Fall 2008 and Summer 2009 lineups will not include the U.S. version of Top Gear, but that doesn't mean the peacock network isn't keeping the show as a feather in its multicolor plume. There's a section on NBC's website for primetime shows being developed for the 2008-2009 season, and one page is devoted to Top Gear USA. We found its description intriguing. The show is described as three friends performing outrageous challenges and stunts through the "crazy transformations" they make to their cars. Sure, that's one aspect of the show that Clarkson, Mays and Hammond built, but what about the new car reviews that are hilarious, real and informative, as well as featuring the best cinematography on television anywhere in the world? Also, we find it funny that the U.S. cast of hosts, whoever they may be, are described as being "friends". The British hosts are of course BFF, having done the show together for years now, but we doubt the American hosts will have the same rapport right out of the gate. Regardless, if a U.S. version of Top Gear does happen, it won't air anytime soon.
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.
