Why arent Top Gear specials 2 hours?

[Polish]

I mean, talking about the American special made me think, I'm sure they have a TON of footage from the American special and the Polar special. I would be absolutely delighted to have seen another hour of both the American Special and the Polar special. If any of you TG producers are out there, make the specials longer!

[Steve Levin]

They can't make them longer because the British can't keep their electrical systems operational that long.

Lucas -- the Prince of Darkness!



Steve

[Cobol74]

A bit like New York America then Steve:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3152451.stm

[fbc]

Andy Wilman's thoughts re the Polar special:

Originally Posted by Andy Wilman

... Afterwards I made my usual masochistic trip to the computer and logged on to Final Gear to see what our harshest, fairest, sharpest and most loyal critics had to say. I love the spirit of that gang, and they are superb at spotting where you've made a horlicks of things, but they seemed to like this one.

If only they'd known what a bitch it was to make. We came back from the Pole with over 180 hours of rushes to condense into one hour, and after about three weeks in the edit we started to go a bit mental.

Finding your way through the material was like trying to get out of that boulder field, so we sent a long rough version to Jeremy and he was superb at acting like a pilot flying overhead, giving us a great overview of where it was going tits.

Next I had the genius idea of making two versions, a 60 minute and a 90 minute, and we ploughed on down that path until we ended up with a 75 minute version that didn't want to go either way. Bollocks.

Eventually, we ditched the 90 because it was becoming a self indulgence fest, focused on the 60 and got our mojo back...

Source

[epp_b]

Why arent Top Gear specials 2 hours?

Because they're one hour

[BigDaveDogg]

Originally Posted by Cobol74

A bit like New York America then Steve:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3152451.stm

I was living in Michigan at that time...happened right while the Woodward Dream Cruise was going on.

[GraemeH]

Who's to say the BBC would ok that? I think for the purposes of easy scheduling and not having people turn off halfway through (attention span, having other engagements etc) the BBC would rather have two 1 hour episodes. Similarly they wouldn't want a 2 hour "story" to drag over two episodes seperated by a week, because a lot of people would turn off as soon as they started watching the second, had they not seen the first.

[Chambers]

I wouldn't want to sit through two hours of it. Would just make me tired and wouldn't want to watch it til the end. hour is plenty.

[fbc]

The other point worth making is the lack of ads - it terms of content shown, a one hour TG special is the equivalent of 90 mins of regular, commercial-ridden tv.

[nannocrob]

Originally Posted by Steve Levin

They can't make them longer because the British can't keep their electrical systems operational that long.

Lucas -- the Prince of Darkness!



Steve

Uhhmmmm. Aren't you in California? Blackouts.

[No Boss]

Originally Posted by epp_b

Because they're one hour

This. Now STFU and GBTW.

There have been several posts already about this.

[robybobey]

Originally Posted by Steve Levin

They can't make them longer because the British can't keep their electrical systems operational that long.

Lucas -- the Prince of Darkness!



Steve

The same goes for people in California, their electrical systems are on fire

[Steve Levin]

I think next time I'll have to preface some comments with <you must be THIS old to get this>

Ya'll are clearly too young to have been driving things like Triumphs, or Sprites, in the dark, with a switch optimistically labeled "lights."

Yes, I am old enough that I remember when my uncle bought a very cool, NEW, Triumph TR8 convertible. BRG and the whole smash. I loved that car. But it'd break down just sitting in the garage.

And the TR8 was, in most ways, more reliable than the numerous TR6's still sround when I was young.

Steve

[robybobey]

Originally Posted by Steve Levin

I think next time I'll have to preface some comments with <you must be THIS old to get this>

Ya'll are clearly too young to have been driving things like Triumphs, or Sprites, in the dark, with a switch optimistically labeled "lights."

Yes, I am old enough that I remember when my uncle bought a very cool, NEW, Triumph TR8 convertible. BRG and the whole smash. I loved that car. But it'd break down just sitting in the garage.

And the TR8 was, in most ways, more reliable than the numerous TR6's still sround when I was young.

Steve

I do get it, just thought I would reply with a little dig