Top Gear Revelation

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4G92Lancer

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Well, well, well...the penny has finally dropped.

http://transmission.blogs.topgear.com/2011/07/15/jeremy-and-andy-wilman-discuss-sundays-new-show/

Over the last few seasons, I thought that Clarkson, Hammond and May had turned into a bunch of feckless, bumbling idiots, but in actual fact, it turns out that they're just gearing to show to entertain children. Y'know, the 'petrolhead' demographic...:rolleyes:

Well played Mr Wilman. I look forward to the Top Gear magazine adding in a much needed 'coloring-in' section :mad:
 
4G92Lancer said:
they're just gearing to show to entertain children.
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If you had watched that video you would know they are not just gearing the show to entertain children. The coming episode might be, the last few were not. They're catering to many facets of the audience, covering children, petrolheads, mothers, horny HammondHeaven chicks, etc at once is hard.
 
I found the first 3 episodes very good and they are saying the next few are going to be better its a win win really. :)
 
I never thought they'd actually explicitly mention us. Anyways, teenagers in Minneapolis? I thought they'd probably make some lame joke using that voice Jeremy does when he's impersonating those people in the MG Rover owner's club.
 
4G92Lancer said:
Well, well, well...the penny has finally dropped.

http://transmission.blogs.topgear.com/2011/07/15/jeremy-and-andy-wilman-discuss-sundays-new-show/

Over the last few seasons, I thought that Clarkson, Hammond and May had turned into a bunch of feckless, bumbling idiots, but in actual fact, it turns out that they're just gearing to show to entertain children. Y'know, the 'petrolhead' demographic...:rolleyes:

Well played Mr Wilman. I look forward to the Top Gear magazine adding in a much needed 'coloring-in' section :mad:
Click to expand...

:idiot:

If you spent a little more time on here you would realise how things have gone in the last couple of years.

There was very negative reception generally both here and on the TG website about the quality of the show during season 14 and at the time Wilman in his blog responded by essentially saying " we are making the show we want to make and if you don't like it then that it tough shit!". Not sure that he was quite prepared for the backlash that resulted but certainly in season 16 and for the first half of the current run there is evidence that they have taken the criticism to heart.

17x01 really felt like a proper, well-made and classic episode of Top Gear to me, and while I haven't crunched the numbers I am pretty sure that bar specials it is the highest voted episode here for some considerable time.

Time was when 3 or 4 shows out of a 6 show run would feature pointless, predictable and scripted cocking about and many of us feared for the quality of the show and its future. We have one out of 5 so far (details of show 6 pending) and even then that will comprise no more than a third of the show at most.

What they have done this time is prove to me and a large percentage of members here that they haven't forgotten how to make Top Gear and more to the point they all appear to be enjoying themselves a lot more now that they aren't under so much pressure to be entertaining and they can do what they love. And since it isn't the backbone of the show any more I for one am quite looking forward to a bit of silliness and light relief.
 
You must spread some true words around before giving it to MWF again...
 
MWF said:
:idiot:

If you spent a little more time on here you would realise how things have gone in the last couple of years.

There was very negative reception generally both here and on the TG website about the quality of the show during season 14 and at the time Wilman in his blog responded by essentially saying " we are making the show we want to make and if you don't like it then that it tough shit!". Not sure that he was quite prepared for the backlash that resulted but certainly in season 16 and for the first half of the current run there is evidence that they have taken the criticism to heart.

17x01 really felt like a proper, well-made and classic episode of Top Gear to me, and while I haven't crunched the numbers I am pretty sure that bar specials it is the highest voted episode here for some considerable time.

Time was when 3 or 4 shows out of a 6 show run would feature pointless, predictable and scripted cocking about and many of us feared for the quality of the show and its future. We have one out of 5 so far (details of show 6 pending) and even then that will comprise no more than a third of the show at most.

What they have done this time is prove to me and a large percentage of members here that they haven't forgotten how to make Top Gear and more to the point they all appear to be enjoying themselves a lot more now that they aren't under so much pressure to be entertaining and they can do what they love. And since it isn't the backbone of the show any more I for one am quite looking forward to a bit of silliness and light relief.
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Spend more time here? I've been here since 2005!

Look, it seems most of you have missed the point entirely. The fact is they KNOW how to make a great car show (yes, this season has started well), but INSTEAD they choose to make a show primarly to entertain their children - and will admit as much.

I was under the impression that they'd just become a bit lazy, but it turns out that this stuffing around pretending to be 'ambitious but rubbish' was merely some weak farce intended to gain the approval of their offspring.

Degrading Top Gear to entertain 12 year old girls is like buying a muscle car and then painting a rainbow and a pink unicorn on the side so your daughter likes it - yes, the car is cool and yet also kinda ruined.

Say what you will, but this is not what I expected of Top Gear. Kids have all kinds of shows designed to keep them entertained, so how about we leave the grown-ups car show alone? Is that too much to ask?
 
You May have been here since 2005, however your clearly have no idea.
 
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4G92Lancer said:
Spend more time here? I've been here since 2005!

Look, it seems most of you have missed the point entirely. The fact is they KNOW how to make a great car show (yes, this season has started well), but INSTEAD they choose to make a show primarly to entertain their children - and will admit as much.

I was under the impression that they'd just become a bit lazy, but it turns out that this stuffing around pretending to be 'ambitious but rubbish' was merely some weak farce intended to gain the approval of their offspring.

Degrading Top Gear to entertain 12 year old girls is like buying a muscle car and then painting a rainbow and a pink unicorn on the side so your daughter likes it - yes, the car is cool and yet also kinda ruined.

Say what you will, but this is not what I expected of Top Gear. Kids have all kinds of shows designed to keep them entertained, so how about we leave the grown-ups car show alone? Is that too much to ask?
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Do you seriously think they have made 17x04 to appeal to their daughters? If anyone has missed the point entirely it's you. These mini preview videos aren't intended to be taken that seriously. What they are saying is that one of the films in this week's episode is more likely to appeal to the child in all of us however there is still a twin track test and a SIARPC whom many of us have been craving for years. Add that to what we have seen so far this season and it is a quantum leap in terms of quality compared to, say, season 14.

If you are going to bitch about one segment amongst all that quality and take light-hearted comments from a web preview to heart then you are clearly clueless.
 
And here I thought the thread title was talking about a new Top Gear DVD. Hmph.
 
narf said:
If you had watched that video you would know they are not just gearing the show to entertain children. The coming episode might be, the last few were not. They're catering to many facets of the audience, covering children, petrolheads, mothers, horny HammondHeaven chicks, etc at once is hard.
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Eeek. Pandering to the largest possible audience doesn't end well. It's like those scary horror movies that are rated PG-13. I never waste my time. How scary can it be if it's possibly inappropriate for 13 year olds?

But anyway, this season/series has been a step in the right direction, but it's not over yet. Sounds like this weekends episode will be a step back, but we'll see.
 
You must spread more faerie dust and unicorns before giving any to MWF again.

I hate it when that happens.

Anyhoo. Lancer, you're taking Jeremy and Andy's video about the upcoming episode WAAAAAAY too seriously. Yes, there's going to be some cocking about this episode (and, personally, I'm looking forward to it), but this series has largely been about... wait for it... CARS (and I've enjoyed all of that, too), and the coming episode is still no exception -- as noted, there's a dual track test and a massive petrolhead as the SIARPC. I daresay for most of the boardies, S17 may turn out to be the best series of the show in quite a while.
 
Eeek. Pandering to the largest possible audience doesn't end well. It's like those scary horror movies that are rated PG-13. I never waste my time. How scary can it be if it's possibly inappropriate for 13 year olds?
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Well it hasn't done them any harm. Broadening it's appeal has brought Top Gear a large audience. Without that large audience with its mixed demographic, TG wouldn't be sold all around the world, there wouldn't be the massive financial return, there wouldn't be the huge (for the BBC) budget, there would be no Great Adventures, there would be no Top Gear Live, the presenters wouldn't have the fame and the clout that they have, so there would be no Toy Stories, or Engineering Connections or ManLab either.

It would've fizzled out long ago, and Final Gear would probably have gone with it.
 
There is a difference between making a product with broad appeal and pandering to the largest possible audience. It's like the Porsche 911. A lot of people like it. Men and women, the young and the old, everyone. But Porsche wasn't trying to pander to the largest possible group of people. They were simply trying to make the best possible product they could. A sports car that you could live with, that's all. No pandering, which results in stuff like the Cayenne and Panamera.

The thing is, back when TopGear restarted under it's current format, which was much more strongly centered on cars, it was still very popular. More and more people started watching and the audience grew fast, even though it was a *yawn* car show. But when the producers started analyzing their audience and the reasons they watched, low and behold, people liked the silly stupid parts of the show the most. Which makes sense. Those segments had the largest audience appeal. So that is what the producers decided to revolve the show around, the cocking about. I can't blame them for that. I just hope that they don't actually try to pander for ratings. The end results of such thoughtless money-driven decisions are never very good. I care more about the show making a quality product, than the hosts' salaries and ratings and future documentary jobs or whatever.
 
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As long as they don't make all their episodes for children, then I guess I should be happy with that. I like my episodes very car'y, but hey. Don't want to get into another argument over it.

The episode last week was really good.
 
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