Great piece on 60 minutes about the BBC show Top Gear.
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6987703n&tag=contentMain;contentAux
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6987703n&tag=contentMain;contentAux
Movie Theater Top Gear on 60Min
- Thread starter socalsheepdog
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Re: Top Gear on 60Min
I just watched it, is there a link for the full video? Couldn't seem to find it on the website.
I just watched it, is there a link for the full video? Couldn't seem to find it on the website.
Re: Top Gear on 60Min
Full video? The piece is 14:46 minutes with some more video below, what are you not seeing?
Full video? The piece is 14:46 minutes with some more video below, what are you not seeing?
Re: Top Gear on 60Min
<span style="text-decoration: underline">That</span> was a <span style="font-style: italic">great</span> segment. I thought it did an excellent job of encapsulating the show's appeal, its genius and its madness in 15 minutes.
<span style="text-decoration: underline">That</span> was a <span style="font-style: italic">great</span> segment. I thought it did an excellent job of encapsulating the show's appeal, its genius and its madness in 15 minutes.
Re: Top Gear on 60Min
What you have to understand about Clarkson is that he is the automotive Don Rickles. He insults everyone, regardless of nationality, creed, color, religion, political orientation or sexual preference. The only thing worse than being insulted by Clarkson ...is <span style="text-decoration: underline">not</span> being insulted by Clarkson.
To wit:
The BBC needs Jeremy Clarkson to be offensive
Without his outbursts, 'Top Gear' would very likely lose millions of viewers, argues David Quantick.
By David Quantick
Published: 6:36AM BST 27 Oct 2010
On Top Gear, Clarkson is expected to make "outrageous" remarks
I like Jeremy Clarkson. And not just because he once recorded a sketch about counterfeit dogs for a radio show I'd written. No, I like him because beneath all the bluster and provocation, he seems to be more bluster and provocation. In the weird Top Gear family – where James May is the posh mum and Richard Hammond the cheeky kid – Clarkson is the dad who says silly things and of whom nobody takes any notice.
This, surely, is the point about the latest controversy – in which Clarkson said a Ferrari "looked like a simpleton" and should have been called "special needs", for which the BBC apologised. On Top Gear, Clarkson is expected to make "outrageous" remarks, and we are expected to ignore them.
In his fight against what he sees as the PC BBC, Clarkson will carry on making jokes about black lesbians and disabled people, in the hope of angering someone who cares. But nobody does any more, except – rightly – those who seek to speak for the disadvantaged, and – wrongly – the dead hand of compliance, a BBC process apparently instituted not out of compassion for society's less fortunate, but out of fear of the corporation's critics.
By using phrases like "special needs" to describe a car, Clarkson not only upsets some presumably quite nice people, but also kills a thousand trees, as someone at TV Centre sits down and prints out a blizzard of forms for the long-suffering Top Gear production team to fill out. He's not speaking up for freedom of speech – all he's defying is some paperwork; a rebel without a clause.
Offence is oddly unbalanced in modern life. Rather than being something that political correctness and pressure groups have managed to outlaw, it's actually everywhere. Rap groups insult women every day. Comedians insult everyone. Art likes to repel to sell. And people vote for all this with their wallets. Life goes on, rude and crude, as Hogarthian and Rabelaisian as before.
Despite the worst fears of some commentators, millions of people in Britain are still saying exactly what they please, without fear of persecution or even prosecution. Is it, then, just on the BBC where people cannot say what they like until they've cleared it with someone in an office first?
Well, yes, as I said earlier, the dead humourless grip of Ofcom and compliance might make it seem – not least to Jeremy Clarkson – that if you have an opinion, you have to have it cleared by a thousand commissars. Yet a quick look at Clarkson's record suggests something quite different. He may have the odd remark – gasp! – removed from repeats on the iPlayer, but it's hardly having your collected works thrown into a bonfire.
Over the years, Clarkson's various one-liners, as typed up by BBC staff into scripts, then filmed, edited and transmitted, have caused all manner of alleged offence. But the point is surely that first, they were all typed up, filmed, edited and transmitted. True, Clarkson is a man whose inability to cleave to a liberal agenda makes the Duke of Edinburgh look like – well, the Duke of Edinburgh. But he isn't some rabid, racist goon: he's a seasoned broadcaster who repeatedly signs up for shows where he is allowed a lot of leeway and only censored after the naughty event
It's almost as if – surely not! – the BBC realises that a large part of the appeal of Top Gear lies in Clarkson's apparently untrammelled political incorrectness, which is as much part of his schtick as Gordon Ramsay's swearing, Graham Norton's outrageousness, or Alan Titchmarsh's jumpers. Censoring him at source would not only make no sense in the context of Top Gear (more a daft, long-running sitcom than a car show) but also cause viewers, and therefore revenue, to collapse. In the world of television, money talks – almost as loudly, and as freely, as its biggest motormouth.
What you have to understand about Clarkson is that he is the automotive Don Rickles. He insults everyone, regardless of nationality, creed, color, religion, political orientation or sexual preference. The only thing worse than being insulted by Clarkson ...is <span style="text-decoration: underline">not</span> being insulted by Clarkson.
To wit:
The BBC needs Jeremy Clarkson to be offensive
Without his outbursts, 'Top Gear' would very likely lose millions of viewers, argues David Quantick.
By David Quantick
Published: 6:36AM BST 27 Oct 2010
On Top Gear, Clarkson is expected to make "outrageous" remarks
I like Jeremy Clarkson. And not just because he once recorded a sketch about counterfeit dogs for a radio show I'd written. No, I like him because beneath all the bluster and provocation, he seems to be more bluster and provocation. In the weird Top Gear family – where James May is the posh mum and Richard Hammond the cheeky kid – Clarkson is the dad who says silly things and of whom nobody takes any notice.
This, surely, is the point about the latest controversy – in which Clarkson said a Ferrari "looked like a simpleton" and should have been called "special needs", for which the BBC apologised. On Top Gear, Clarkson is expected to make "outrageous" remarks, and we are expected to ignore them.
In his fight against what he sees as the PC BBC, Clarkson will carry on making jokes about black lesbians and disabled people, in the hope of angering someone who cares. But nobody does any more, except – rightly – those who seek to speak for the disadvantaged, and – wrongly – the dead hand of compliance, a BBC process apparently instituted not out of compassion for society's less fortunate, but out of fear of the corporation's critics.
By using phrases like "special needs" to describe a car, Clarkson not only upsets some presumably quite nice people, but also kills a thousand trees, as someone at TV Centre sits down and prints out a blizzard of forms for the long-suffering Top Gear production team to fill out. He's not speaking up for freedom of speech – all he's defying is some paperwork; a rebel without a clause.
Offence is oddly unbalanced in modern life. Rather than being something that political correctness and pressure groups have managed to outlaw, it's actually everywhere. Rap groups insult women every day. Comedians insult everyone. Art likes to repel to sell. And people vote for all this with their wallets. Life goes on, rude and crude, as Hogarthian and Rabelaisian as before.
Despite the worst fears of some commentators, millions of people in Britain are still saying exactly what they please, without fear of persecution or even prosecution. Is it, then, just on the BBC where people cannot say what they like until they've cleared it with someone in an office first?
Well, yes, as I said earlier, the dead humourless grip of Ofcom and compliance might make it seem – not least to Jeremy Clarkson – that if you have an opinion, you have to have it cleared by a thousand commissars. Yet a quick look at Clarkson's record suggests something quite different. He may have the odd remark – gasp! – removed from repeats on the iPlayer, but it's hardly having your collected works thrown into a bonfire.
Over the years, Clarkson's various one-liners, as typed up by BBC staff into scripts, then filmed, edited and transmitted, have caused all manner of alleged offence. But the point is surely that first, they were all typed up, filmed, edited and transmitted. True, Clarkson is a man whose inability to cleave to a liberal agenda makes the Duke of Edinburgh look like – well, the Duke of Edinburgh. But he isn't some rabid, racist goon: he's a seasoned broadcaster who repeatedly signs up for shows where he is allowed a lot of leeway and only censored after the naughty event
It's almost as if – surely not! – the BBC realises that a large part of the appeal of Top Gear lies in Clarkson's apparently untrammelled political incorrectness, which is as much part of his schtick as Gordon Ramsay's swearing, Graham Norton's outrageousness, or Alan Titchmarsh's jumpers. Censoring him at source would not only make no sense in the context of Top Gear (more a daft, long-running sitcom than a car show) but also cause viewers, and therefore revenue, to collapse. In the world of television, money talks – almost as loudly, and as freely, as its biggest motormouth.
Re: Top Gear on 60Min
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Fred_C_Dobbs</div><div class="ubbcode-body">What you have to understand about Clarkson is that he is the automotive Don Rickles.</div></div>
That's perfect.
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Fred_C_Dobbs</div><div class="ubbcode-body">What you have to understand about Clarkson is that he is the automotive Don Rickles.</div></div>
That's perfect.
Re: Top Gear on 60Min
Been watching the show for years. I hate the way they are so down on American cars, we have some good stuff nowadays... but I still like to watch it.
Been watching the show for years. I hate the way they are so down on American cars, we have some good stuff nowadays... but I still like to watch it.
Re: Top Gear on 60Min
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: GlockandRoll</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Been watching the show for years. I hate the way they are so down on American cars, we have some good stuff nowadays... but I still like to watch it. </div></div>
Have you seen the episode where they take the ZR-1, CTS-V, and Challenger to the salt flats?
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: GlockandRoll</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Been watching the show for years. I hate the way they are so down on American cars, we have some good stuff nowadays... but I still like to watch it. </div></div>
Have you seen the episode where they take the ZR-1, CTS-V, and Challenger to the salt flats?
Re: Top Gear on 60Min
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: GlockandRoll</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Been watching the show for years. I hate the way they are so down on American cars, we have some good stuff nowadays... but I still like to watch it. </div></div>
such as.......
havent found a american car that can hold a candle to my bmw
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: GlockandRoll</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Been watching the show for years. I hate the way they are so down on American cars, we have some good stuff nowadays... but I still like to watch it. </div></div>
such as.......
havent found a american car that can hold a candle to my bmw
Re: Top Gear on 60Min
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: 1shot2kill</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: GlockandRoll</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Been watching the show for years. I hate the way they are so down on American cars, we have some good stuff nowadays... but I still like to watch it. </div></div>
such as.......
havent found a american car that can hold a candle to my bmw </div></div>
You're absolutely right, according to consumer reports there isn't a single american brand that needs as much repair and maintenance.
Audi, BMW, and Mercedes Benz are among the worst automakers overall.
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: 1shot2kill</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: GlockandRoll</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Been watching the show for years. I hate the way they are so down on American cars, we have some good stuff nowadays... but I still like to watch it. </div></div>
such as.......
havent found a american car that can hold a candle to my bmw </div></div>
You're absolutely right, according to consumer reports there isn't a single american brand that needs as much repair and maintenance.
Audi, BMW, and Mercedes Benz are among the worst automakers overall.
Re: Top Gear on 60Min
James May has a cool show about toys on BBC America. Stuff that he grew up playing with. One episode he gets kids to build a 1:1 scale Spitfire.
James May has a cool show about toys on BBC America. Stuff that he grew up playing with. One episode he gets kids to build a 1:1 scale Spitfire.
Re: Top Gear on 60Min
Think I have watched all the seasons, love it. IC guys is good from the bbc, as well as the series of sweatshop shows.
Think I have watched all the seasons, love it. IC guys is good from the bbc, as well as the series of sweatshop shows.
Re: Top Gear on 60Min
I love to watch Top gear. We'd catch it every week it was on when living in the UK plus watched all the old shows too.
Yes, they do slam us Americans / American products but that's all part of their show. They aren't the only folks in the world talking smack.
Another good show to catch from over there is 5th Gear with Vicki Butler Henderson (VBH).
Todd
I love to watch Top gear. We'd catch it every week it was on when living in the UK plus watched all the old shows too.
Yes, they do slam us Americans / American products but that's all part of their show. They aren't the only folks in the world talking smack.
Another good show to catch from over there is 5th Gear with Vicki Butler Henderson (VBH).
Todd
Re: Top Gear on 60Min
I'm very impressed to hear that Cameron Diaz has Jeremy Clarkson on her "to do list", hahahaha...
I'm very impressed to hear that Cameron Diaz has Jeremy Clarkson on her "to do list", hahahaha...
Re: Top Gear on 60Min
Love the show, and love the high brow humor. I also love all the digs clarkson makes towards the bbc, and british government as well, like any good comedian no one is above ridicule. And as far as them ripping on american cars, well yea honestly they are right in most areas. This iksnt car and driver they aren't talking about the most reliable every day commuter. I bet the bugati veyron breaks down at a much higher rate than my 2007 impala will. But the fact is when you really look at say a corvette you see ikt is blazing quick and a lot of car for the money, but compared to an M5 BMW, the vette lookslike the designers were told they had to use these preexisting parts wheather it made sense or not and that nearly no time was spend to really finish off the details, and that has been true of most american cars for decades. Ill never forget years ago my father had a 1997 grand am and a 1998 accord. He popped the hoods. The pontiac looked like the car had been pieced together with scrap parts, cables and tubes bunched and placed with electrical tape. The accord looked finished and thought out. Cables were proper length neet and organized it look like a type A super anal retentive engineer designed it, the pontiac looked like well as they would say on top gear some fat bloak pieced it together
Love the show, and love the high brow humor. I also love all the digs clarkson makes towards the bbc, and british government as well, like any good comedian no one is above ridicule. And as far as them ripping on american cars, well yea honestly they are right in most areas. This iksnt car and driver they aren't talking about the most reliable every day commuter. I bet the bugati veyron breaks down at a much higher rate than my 2007 impala will. But the fact is when you really look at say a corvette you see ikt is blazing quick and a lot of car for the money, but compared to an M5 BMW, the vette lookslike the designers were told they had to use these preexisting parts wheather it made sense or not and that nearly no time was spend to really finish off the details, and that has been true of most american cars for decades. Ill never forget years ago my father had a 1997 grand am and a 1998 accord. He popped the hoods. The pontiac looked like the car had been pieced together with scrap parts, cables and tubes bunched and placed with electrical tape. The accord looked finished and thought out. Cables were proper length neet and organized it look like a type A super anal retentive engineer designed it, the pontiac looked like well as they would say on top gear some fat bloak pieced it together
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