Top Gear Australia Perhaps Misguided In Hoping Being The Cause Of A Traffic Jam Will Lead To Even More Viewers
I was reading the letters published in yesterday’s Green Guide in The Age, and there seemed to be an overwhelming sense of disappointment over the Australian remake of the popular British program Top Gear. Having not seen much of the original show and not seeing any of Top Gear Australia, I’m in no position to judge (but hey, you are! Did you like it? Hate it? Let us know!), but I am fairly certain that bringing havoc to Melbourne’s roads probably isn’t the best way to win over potential viewers.
The boys from Top Gear Australia took to the swank streets of Melbourne yesterday morning for a spin in a tractor. Hosts Steve Pizzati and Warren Brown trundled along Chapel Street and Toorak Road to a chorus of honking horns from angry motorists banked up behind their $200,000 slow-moving farm machine.
Again, I don’t watch either version of the program, so I cannot be sure if it is typical motoring show behaviour to hammer home the important concept that farm machines do not go as fast as normal automobiles and have no place on public roads.
And hey, what do Green Guide letter writers know anyway, other than how to sook? Because the ratings for the launch of Top Gear Australia were top gear indeed.
The keenly awaited small screen petrol-fest is hosted by Charlie Cox and is rumoured to be costing $200,000 to $300,000 per episode. The show got off to a flying start when it premiered on Monday to more than 930,000 viewers – the network’s highest ratings for a locally produced program.
I suppose the real test will be next Monday’s ratings, eh?
Truly though, I trust you lot. Have you watched both versions of Top Gear, and if so, what are your thoughts? Guide me. Influence my opinion. God forbid I actually sit down and watch it myself (I’ll be busy viewing 90210 online, thanks for the tip off, Cas!)
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Comments
I’ve been a fan of the original show for about 2 years. Even though I am not a ‘petrolhead’ etc I have found it hilarious as the hosts have a natural rapport with each other which makes it enjoyable to watch. I did watch about 1/2 of mondays show of australia’s version. I went and read a book instead.
I’m going to give them a chance. Those boys have potential!
I would like thank you for the oportunity, Miss Jess, to suggest some possible enhancements however;
1. More chicanery, shennanigans, and buggery (any order of)
2. Tits!
3. Loooong, slooooow tracking shots of horses.
4. Tits!
5. There is no point 5
6. I think they could use the Australian/British rivalry to FULL effect Kate Ellis stylez.
I found the local version to be forced and clearly scripted, there wasn’t the natural flow and surprises that the British version has.
The ‘Clarkson’ of the Aussie series came across as a smarmy used car salesman who would wear a pinky ring. Did your mother ever warn you about a man who wears a pinky ring?
I too went off and read a book, so it will boost the Australian publishing industry if nothing else!
OK, so expectations were high and the Australian version was clearly a franchise. What was really distressing was Charlie’s (the blonde one’s) hair. That hair-sprayed backsweep wasn’t concealing anything except ego. And possibly delusion. He looked like a Trump tryhard but with a slightly less worse dye job. And a centre part.
Oh yeah. And the charm and charisma of a piece of dried-up roadkill. You know, like jerky but with less personality.
I _like_ jerky ;)
Charlie Cox is absolutely *appalling* as the host of the local version. He has all the charm and panache of a child molester. The other two aren’t quite so bad, at least they don’t make you squirm every time they look at the camera, but they do lack the same chemistry the UK cast have.
Really I don’t see the point of an Australian version. For one thing, once they’ve covered the Holden v Ford war and Toorak Tractors a few times, what else are they going to have to talk about? Our car industry is minuscule compared to the British and European market. Surely we won’t just see rehashed content from the UK show? (though I strongly fear we may)
Once the novelty has worn off, this is going to become a “watched it while I cooked tea” show, providing all the other stations have ceased transmission at that particular time.
I’m gunna give the guys a couple of weeks to see if they get a more natural commerarderie. Based on Mondays efforts, i am worried that the gooses at SexBeforeSleep have merely cloned the pommy version and come up with a bastard abomination!
What the comments so far fail to realise is that SBS is not making the show. It is made by Freehand Productions which is owned by BBC Worldwide. The BBC has absolute control over the format and content of Top Gear Australia. SBS has none.
To Alice, Top Gear UK is also scripted. So are the “surprises”. The original was not an overnight success and took years to get where it is now. Give the Aussie version a chance to find its feet.
Nope. Don’t give it a chance. It’s *painful*. And painful with gratuitous “Australianisms” sprinkled through. No sense of subversion. No sense of joy. The UK Top Gear is easily digestible by a broad audience because it’s really about the passion the presenters have for the cars. It’s NOT about the cars themselves, and it’s NOT just about the presenters themselves. The two have to work in concert or it’s a waste of time – and at the moment the Australian Top Gear is an outrageous waste of time.
Oh, and the attempt to use Charlie to clone Jeremy Clarkson is incredibly embarrassing, but to our country and surely to Clarkson himself.
Well put Maxwell.
To Brad, I do realise that the English version has a script, but the way that the three presenters deliver it has a charm and freshness, which is completely related to their skill, humour and as Maxwell put it, passion.
I am proof that it is not about the cars, I am not interested in cars, yet I love the English version of the show, and have done for years now.
Brad, we understand the points you make, but they are not mitigating. In fact if anything they simply go to show what poor casting has been chosen. Added to that is the fact that the show drips with inappropriate and unnecessary Australian jingoisms at every turn.
It’s obvious that the production standards and scripting are equally as high as the UK version, but the cast and settings simply aren’t pulling it off, or doing it all justice. It doesn’t help that Charlie comes across like the lecherous uncle at the family xmas gathering.
The show will improve once they ditch Charlie Cox. Freehand Productions need to move on this ASAP or they will have no hope of making a local version a big success. He is no Jeremy Clarkson. But he seems to think he is bigger than the great man.
I agree with Maxwell too. Top Gear has attempted to make itself the “Australian” Top Gear, implying that the producers seem to think that location somehow makes a difference. Location should be irrelevant – ratings already show that Top Gear is popular all over the world – producing a local version just doesn’t seem like a particularly lucrative thing to do.
The things that made Top Gear enjoyable were Jeremy, Hammond and Captain Slow. The fact that Top Gear AU is now testing out all the cars that Top Gear UK tested out in Season 11 (like the Nissan GTR) makes the local version completely pointless. Why watch a show that has all the old cars, and all the bad jokes?
Moreover, Top Gear Australia has resorted to a Ford vs Holden battle – two American cars battling it out for Australian market share. At least the new Top Gear is endeavouring to try something original… Oh wait.
Incidentally, Top Gear UK is actually non-scripted – the presenters decide themselves what they will say. Although, obviously, they plan what they are going to say before hand, and edit to a great extent:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4458926.stm
I assume that the same is the case for TG AU, hence the crap commentary. I would prefer it if Clarkson wrote the script for TG AU. Or maybe he could just present it himself.