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The Top Gear Megathread! Mark II

I have fallen in love with Top Gear. Unfortunately, as a "fat and uncivilized" American; I can only watch it on BBC America, Netflix, or by pirating the episodes. I have watched seasons/series 1-7 in the past five days, and I cannot understand why we here in America are not capable of creating quality programming like Top Gear.

-Don
 
Dmac77 said:
I have fallen in love with Top Gear. Unfortunately, as a "fat and uncivilized" American; I can only watch it on BBC America, Netflix, or by pirating the episodes. I have watched seasons/series 1-7 in the past five days, and I cannot understand why we here in America are not capable of creating quality programming like Top Gear.

-Don
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Top Gear America (though just named Top Gear) will begin airing on the History Channel soon.
 
Fizzoid said:
I wonder if Ben will be going out in a similar fashion to Perry McCarthy now?
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I suspect so. He's burned his bridges with the show/BBC pretty effectively. So the speculation will start on who the new Stig is. Perhaps the BBC will revert back to the original name that Perry McCarthy refused to use: The Gimp.
 
Hmm. Were I a more cynical man, I might think both parties saw that a well-publicised court case would gain a fair bit of publicity for both the departing Collins' book and for the show itself, who will now very publicly get a shiny new MK III Stig in.

But I'm not that cynical obviously, so I don't think that...
 
Jaffa Cake said:
But I'm not that cynical obviously, so I don't think that...
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If you were a little more cynical you'd think how many t-shirts, toys etc the BBC have sold over the last couple of years with the white Stig on them. They can re-sell to all those people with the new Stig colour.

Maybe it'll be the pink Stig (Sabine Shmitz who has been close to the show). A female on the show might help balance it out somewhat...
 
robbieduncan said:
If you were a little more cynical you'd think how many t-shirts, toys etc the BBC have sold over the last couple of years with the white Stig on them. They can re-sell to all those people with the new Stig colour.
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Funnily enough, I was thinking the exact same thing when the story first broke.

As you say, the BBC have put out a load of Top Gear merchandise over the past few years and most of it features the Mk II Stig in one way or another – it's a great marketing opportunity for them, in much the same way that Doctor Who's Daleks have sprouted a load of different colours. Same toys, different paint jobs and the tills are a'ringing.

And of course, if we're even more cynical we could point out that HarperCollins is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, who of course also own a number of British newspapers including The Sun and The Sunday Times.

Funnily enough, those are the very same newspapers that Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson is a longstanding columnist for…
 
Isn't this the same way Mccarthy was outed, in an autobiography? Something similar I thought. I hope they kill off the white stig in an epic fashion, I loved when black stig died.
 
Dmac77 said:
I have fallen in love with Top Gear. Unfortunately, as a "fat and uncivilized" American; I can only watch it on BBC America, Netflix, or by pirating the episodes. I have watched seasons/series 1-7 in the past five days, and I cannot understand why we here in America are not capable of creating quality programming like Top Gear.

-Don
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My thoughts exactly. Even though the show isn't exactly "smart", much of it goes way over the heads of many people I've watched with.

American TV is the baby food of the industry.
 
robbieduncan said:
Who says she has to? The program format is getting a bit long in the tooth. Time to shake it up in an attempt to drag it out for a few more years!
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She wouldn't be a 'Stig' then.

Problem is that the format is now completely driven by the Clarkson/May/Hammond relationship. It would be risky to throw someone else into that mix.
 
Jaffa Cake said:
Meanwhile, the BBC have lost their court case to protect the Stig's identity...
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I can't believe they've attempted to "protect" something that has been well known for years. :rolleyes:

Given the waste of the BBC, one could perhaps be forgiven for thinking that they should spend their "uniquely funded" budget on more productive endeavours?
 
iGav said:
I can't believe they've attempted to "protect" something that has been well known for years. :rolleyes:
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Indeed, he was outed on these forums over 2 years ago!

Is it really an autobiography, or an authorised biography with Ben's input which HarperCollins have then decided to re-write? If the former, then he's out same as Perry but surely the BBC have known about it for a while therefore who was The Stig in the most recent series?

If the later, not really his fault and he might be retained. But then again did Ben not want to leave a while back to go racing sports cars in USA?

robbieduncan said:
Maybe it'll be the pink Stig (Sabine Shmitz who has been close to the show).
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You know I was wondering if she was Herr Stig (the Stig's German cousin with a mullet) when they were in Germany a couple of weeks back.
 
OllyW said:
It's serious, Ferrari recall all 458s made this year!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11156782
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Auntie said:
Do you own one of the 458 models? Have you experienced any problems? Send us your comments?
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:p :p :p

Fuzzy14 said:
Indeed, he was outed on these forums over 2 years ago!
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Oh, he was outed on these forums before that. ;)

But there were rumours going back to the parachute episode in 2004, and it was all but officially confirmed when Hammond had his crash in 2006.

It's really never been all that much of a secret at all to be honest.

Fuzzy14 said:
Is it really an autobiography, or an authorised biography with Ben's input which HarperCollins have then decided to re-write?
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Amazon suggests that Ben is the author, which I suppose is supported by the fact that Ben was also at the High Court for the hearing.

Fuzzy14 said:
You know I was wondering if she was Herr Stig (the Stig's German cousin with a mullet) when they were in Germany a couple of weeks back.
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I don't remember the German Stig having tits?
 
iGav said:
I don't remember the German Stig having tits?
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Some people have said the same about Sabine ;)
Sabine-schmitz-Huelser.jpg
 
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