Top Gear Foreign Editions
06-06-2008, 10:24 AM
#1
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 445
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Top Gear Foreign Editions
For the Top Gear fans:
http://www.topgear.com/blogs/planettopgear...reign-editions/
http://www.topgear.com/blogs/planettopgear...reign-editions/
You've probably already read a bit about our foreign versions of Top Gear. Yes, the colonies strike back, with America and Australia both prepping their own TGs.
Naturally in the press releases the BBC and everyone else involved - me included - will paint a lovely picture of these projects trundling along smoothly with everything falling into place as planned, but I tell you, making home-grown Top Gears is a sod of a job.
The big problem is the nature of the show itself. If you're setting up a foreign The Weakest Link or Millionaire, it's quite straightforward - you need to copy the set and more or less copy the structure of the show, get a decent Chris Tarrant or a fierce redhead and you're there.
But Top Gear is much harder because it's essentially about those three and the way they do what they do, rather than just what they do.
Sure you can get a hangar, make it look like ours, get a Stig and then hire three blokes to build amphibious cars. And you can tick off a list with words like "irreverent" and "non-PC" on it, but it still won't get you where you're going.
Our three really are as funny as they come across, and their relationship is as warm and yet as fractious as you see, and basically the TV show is the cameras catching something quite genuine.
Now obviously they came first so any new version is a conscious recreation, but it can still work very well as long as the chemistry between the three presenters is there. Top Gear abroad isn't about exporting a set and a thick racing driver in white, it's about exporting a tone, a take on life, and you don't need to look for a pedantic one who goes slowly, a small nutcase and a big gobby curly-haired one. You just need to look for three people who also have that Butch and Sundance friendship and can live it out through a love of cars.
So far the reaction to the Australian trio has been good, and I'm glad about that, and especially glad that it worked for the Aussies when they went out on a limb and looked for unknowns.
Two of them, Warren and Steve, are TV virgins, but I think they're a nice find. And they need Charlie's experience, because Top Gear Australia has its own set of obstacles ahead, the main one being that our three are already very popular down under.
The answer has to be to (a) alter the show to suit - so don't force the Aussies to do their own Cool Wall if you're going to watch Jeremy and Richard deliver a tour de force a week later, think of something else to do. And (b) each show must acknowledge the other one exists, so they can take the piss out of each other.
This is the exact opposite of perceived TV wisdom - Dancing With Stars in the US doesn't acknowledge the presence of Strictly Come Dancing - but it has to be the way forward for us; they're our mates over there messing around with cars, and vice versa.
In America the issue is different, because although our show isn't well known there, the ones who do know it are hardcore fans - particularly the peeps on Final Gear. They are very strict about our output and performances, and I noticed quite a few even slating us for Top Gear Ground Force. Actually I'm with them, because we're not great when we have to be performing monkeys, but it was a bit of a party piece for charity so you'll have to forgive us.
Now although Final Gear live in fear of BBC lawyers cos they always nick the show, I know that NBC would be as chuffed as nuts if they liked the US version, which is sort of an indicator as to how seriously NBC are taking the issue. Mostly networks just aim for the broad audience and forget the hardcore.
So will we satisfy the US diehards? Dunno, but partly it's up to them. If they just compare everything in the US show to what Jeremy, Richard and James do, they'll be disappointed, because those three did get their first and they are the bollocks at it.
If, on the other hand, they take Top Gear US for what it is - a bunch of guys, hopefully with their own proper relationship, just looking at car stuff in America, but in the Top Gear way - they may like it. And our version will always be there anyway.
As for hosts, we have Adam and Tanner. Adam is a force of nature, whereas Tanner is quieter, but he has a wicked, dry wit not many have seen yet. And, most important of all, he and Adam, as completely different animals, really bond in a way I couldn't have hoped for so quickly.
He's also unsullied by TV presenterishness, which is another bonus. So we're looking for that elusive third person, and the relationship is everything.
I keep telling the US BBC guys to forget the American Reality shows they know- Survivor, Apprentice - which are all based on arguments and voting, and instead think about the guys in Sideways, or Cheers, or Friends.
Think about the celebration of failure in The Simpsons, because Top Gear is not just about cars, it's also about celebrating that massive Black Hole of Pointlessness that is the male mind.
Andy Wilman is the executive producer of Top Gear.
Naturally in the press releases the BBC and everyone else involved - me included - will paint a lovely picture of these projects trundling along smoothly with everything falling into place as planned, but I tell you, making home-grown Top Gears is a sod of a job.
The big problem is the nature of the show itself. If you're setting up a foreign The Weakest Link or Millionaire, it's quite straightforward - you need to copy the set and more or less copy the structure of the show, get a decent Chris Tarrant or a fierce redhead and you're there.
But Top Gear is much harder because it's essentially about those three and the way they do what they do, rather than just what they do.
Sure you can get a hangar, make it look like ours, get a Stig and then hire three blokes to build amphibious cars. And you can tick off a list with words like "irreverent" and "non-PC" on it, but it still won't get you where you're going.
Our three really are as funny as they come across, and their relationship is as warm and yet as fractious as you see, and basically the TV show is the cameras catching something quite genuine.
Now obviously they came first so any new version is a conscious recreation, but it can still work very well as long as the chemistry between the three presenters is there. Top Gear abroad isn't about exporting a set and a thick racing driver in white, it's about exporting a tone, a take on life, and you don't need to look for a pedantic one who goes slowly, a small nutcase and a big gobby curly-haired one. You just need to look for three people who also have that Butch and Sundance friendship and can live it out through a love of cars.
So far the reaction to the Australian trio has been good, and I'm glad about that, and especially glad that it worked for the Aussies when they went out on a limb and looked for unknowns.
Two of them, Warren and Steve, are TV virgins, but I think they're a nice find. And they need Charlie's experience, because Top Gear Australia has its own set of obstacles ahead, the main one being that our three are already very popular down under.
The answer has to be to (a) alter the show to suit - so don't force the Aussies to do their own Cool Wall if you're going to watch Jeremy and Richard deliver a tour de force a week later, think of something else to do. And (b) each show must acknowledge the other one exists, so they can take the piss out of each other.
This is the exact opposite of perceived TV wisdom - Dancing With Stars in the US doesn't acknowledge the presence of Strictly Come Dancing - but it has to be the way forward for us; they're our mates over there messing around with cars, and vice versa.
In America the issue is different, because although our show isn't well known there, the ones who do know it are hardcore fans - particularly the peeps on Final Gear. They are very strict about our output and performances, and I noticed quite a few even slating us for Top Gear Ground Force. Actually I'm with them, because we're not great when we have to be performing monkeys, but it was a bit of a party piece for charity so you'll have to forgive us.
Now although Final Gear live in fear of BBC lawyers cos they always nick the show, I know that NBC would be as chuffed as nuts if they liked the US version, which is sort of an indicator as to how seriously NBC are taking the issue. Mostly networks just aim for the broad audience and forget the hardcore.
So will we satisfy the US diehards? Dunno, but partly it's up to them. If they just compare everything in the US show to what Jeremy, Richard and James do, they'll be disappointed, because those three did get their first and they are the bollocks at it.
If, on the other hand, they take Top Gear US for what it is - a bunch of guys, hopefully with their own proper relationship, just looking at car stuff in America, but in the Top Gear way - they may like it. And our version will always be there anyway.
As for hosts, we have Adam and Tanner. Adam is a force of nature, whereas Tanner is quieter, but he has a wicked, dry wit not many have seen yet. And, most important of all, he and Adam, as completely different animals, really bond in a way I couldn't have hoped for so quickly.
He's also unsullied by TV presenterishness, which is another bonus. So we're looking for that elusive third person, and the relationship is everything.
I keep telling the US BBC guys to forget the American Reality shows they know- Survivor, Apprentice - which are all based on arguments and voting, and instead think about the guys in Sideways, or Cheers, or Friends.
Think about the celebration of failure in The Simpsons, because Top Gear is not just about cars, it's also about celebrating that massive Black Hole of Pointlessness that is the male mind.
Andy Wilman is the executive producer of Top Gear.
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post