What's Wrong with "The Amazing Race 3"?
TV ClubHouse: Archives: What's Wrong with "The Amazing Race 3"?
Brenda1966 | Thursday, November 21, 2002 - 11:51 am     I enjoyed your article Ocean. I agree about the host. He adds absolutely nothing, and I think he takes away from the excitement of the contestants. Cooper and Probst are much better hosts. Tabby, I like the Duchovny idea! I'd watch him host a PBS telethon. Also, Tabby, there was a reality show race where they randomly paired up 4 or so couples and dropped them in the middle of no where. They had to find their way to NYC with no help. Did anyone else watch this? The name escapes me right now. |
Essence | Thursday, November 21, 2002 - 11:56 am     Brenda, are you talking about Lost? |
Tabbyking | Thursday, November 21, 2002 - 12:32 pm     i was just wondering how long before 'real' personalities and clashes would come out with 'strangers'. how long before ian said, "Darth! Come!" or how long before there was swearing and fighting going on. imagine a pierce brosnan guy paired up with the guy who played larry of larry, darryl and darryl... i never heard of 'lost', but someone mentioned it before when we had the idea of reality RV. maybe it was ahead of its time. i can't believe anyone would watch bachelor, no matter what it's up against. i would rather watch men race to change dirty diapers. call it 'daddy's duty' (doody) or something! |
Brenda1966 | Thursday, November 21, 2002 - 03:16 pm     Thanks Essence. Was it called Lost? I guess that must be it. I watched all 3 or 4 episodes. I think they edited down to only a few hours when they decided it wasn't going to be a hit. Thank goodness they didn't just leave us hanging! One thing different than TAR, they had to also get a seat on the plane/train for their camera person. That caused some problems. The show had great potential, I think the timing was just off. |
Djgirl5235 | Friday, November 22, 2002 - 08:00 am     Brenda - the teams from TAR have to get a seat for their crew as well - usually one camera man and a sound man as well on all transportation - that's why you always see the teams riding tandem in cars, the sound guy is beside the one in the backseat, and the cameraman in the front seat... |
Corriecat | Saturday, November 23, 2002 - 07:10 am     I read that article and didn't realize Ocean wrote it - guess I should check in here more often. I love the show but it could use some little changes to keep it fresh. It's not that Phil is so bad it's his lines. He says the exact same thing over and over. This far into the show the writers should be able to give him lines that don't repeat word for word but clue a new viewer in to what is going on. This group doesn't seem to use the time they have while waiting for much more than sleeping but that may be the editing. I miss Team Guido going to their favorite cafe, Cha Cha and Mary and Peach shopping and even seeing teams using the time to plot and plan. I get the feeling that casting this time did not get as many people that are fun to watch like Kevin and Drew, Cha Cha, the one that looked like Woody Allen or even Tara and Will so they are shifting the focus of the show more towards the race instead of the people and that's making it a little dull. |
Tabbyking | Saturday, November 23, 2002 - 09:12 am     maybe they could host an octagenarian amazing race! lol oldsters on 3-wheel bikes, using walkers to climb pyramids, snoring on the bus rides, saying to a ticket agent, "it's an emergency. our great grandson is having his sculptures featured at the louvre and today is opening night" in order to catch a flight. sponsors could be ensure and geritol. and an old phil can stand at the pit stop and have to use cue cards for his one line: "ethel and carlton, you are the......uh, bring it closer, i can't quite read it, uh, closer still...um, where was i? ethel, wake up, i am going to tell you...something. oh yeah, ethel and creighton, you----what? oh, why didn't you say it was carlton? anyway, ethel, you and that old bag of bones you call a spouse are team number 3. i guess that means 2 other teams came in first? gosh, (scratches head), i don't really remember that..." |
Lancecrossfire | Saturday, November 23, 2002 - 12:26 pm     I like Phil in the context of what AR is all about. It's a race from one place to another, and the outcome has nothing to do with the personalities of the contestents. That is the premise of the show, and how they use their host. Phil is really nothing more than an MC who stays out of the way as much as possible. It's completely different than Survivor or BB where who the people are and how they act is what really determines how they do in the game--so the host needs a personality as well--or theirs needs to be show, I should say. I would like to see the personal interactions between the teams diring the pit stops as well--however those intersactions have mothing to do with the race. Actually in the Mole, where we see very little of their down time, that is where the real game is played--the challenges we see are just the money gathering portion of the show. The thing with AR, if you show the people and develop who they are in that manner, there isn't enough time to show the various legs of the race betwen pit stops. So, we would miss more of the race to get a sense of who the people are. They try to show that during the race--sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Successes have been Kevin/Drue, the Guido's, Ian/Teri, Cha-Chas, and a couple others. Last week in the opening, I think they showed more glimpses of what goes on (interaction wise) at the pit stops than any other time. I liked it, beacuse it gave a sense of what goes on, but doesn't take away from showing what happens in the various stages of each race. |
Tabbyking | Saturday, November 23, 2002 - 02:10 pm     maybe it could be a 90-minute show? |
Lancecrossfire | Saturday, November 23, 2002 - 02:14 pm     Tabby, I certainly think it could be 90 minutes, however I wonder if the producers aren't willing to take that chance. No other reality show has gone for 90 minutes. BB is the flyer, with multiple shows a week, however it's a show that is going on while shown on TV. I wonder how many would watch AR if they made it 90 minutes and included some footage from the 12 hours at the pit stop? |
Lumbele | Saturday, November 23, 2002 - 03:34 pm     Lance, 90 minutes, 120 minutes - I'd watch it. But I would also expect some *real* info on the different areas they are visiting. No demand for a National Geographics sorta detail but definitely more about the routes, "landmarks" and regions they have hit than the present format allows. People who are less into reality/contest shows and more into travel/geography might also stop by and perhaps stay because of the fun of watching people trying to navigate the challenges. One fear about showing *too much* of the diff. personalities is the "soap opera" quotient. A fine line, but doable. |
Tabbyking | Sunday, November 24, 2002 - 10:33 am     i would also appreciate the real info on the locales. phil does give us some narrative, i.e., the highest place to bungee from when they were in new zealand; but i could stand to see some other points of interest. |
Ladytex | Monday, November 25, 2002 - 09:35 pm     That's why I like the idea of using the internet for more in depth pit stop features. That way those that didn't want to see it, don't have to, but it would be available for those of us who do. |
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