Funnyman and automotive freak, Adam Carolla, brings you the ultimate car lovers show, featuring awesome cars, epic driving adventures and the best of automotive culture. Its the perfect mix of comedy, shop talk and eye candy brought to you by Adam and his co-hosts, Pulitzer Prize-winning automotive journalist Dan Neil; TheSmokingTire.com founder Matt Farah; and former NBA Champion John Salley. Premieres Wednesday, July 13th at 10pm ET only on SPEED.
On Spider at the 24 Hours of Lemons: "'Endurance' doesn't mean 'who's going to live the longest...'"
Apparently, that was the thing that impressed Clarkson about Carolla so much when he came to the taping of the first Top Gear USA pilot. Clarkson likes to write everything. He told Adam "I can't do what you do" RE improvisation.
I had to turn it off. It's boring. It's like the Best Damn Sports Show, kind of the same vibe, but not funny at all. I enjoyed the 24 Hours of LeMons bit, but everything else is just flat.
IMO, It was quite good and decidedly "American." I think the host chemistry is good (maybe sans Salley) and they have started out way better than TGUSA and TGUK(current formula).
My list of improvements:
-Drop the intro at the beginning. This may be a given after the premiere episode.
-Better UI for the 0-60 segment, you could hardly see the hosts. Maybe only 5 topics.
-Instead of the completely unnecessary "vs. plane" race, show us the Ford GT's 230 mph run.
-If there must be a "Game Show" segment, just make it audience member vs. Neil for $500 or something (Win Dan Neil's Money). I'm sure Jimmy would appreciate the homage.
-More time for the roundtable discussion on the road test car, the Ghost discussion was just getting interesting when they cut it.
-Rotate who does the rant at the end and leads the panel discussion.
Watched a re-airing of the first episode, I thought it was good. It felt a little dark, literally- the overlays were too dark, and the set was too dark, it seemed like it was trying to be "underground" when it didn't need to be. I'd also like to see more casual round table discussion, with guests, instead of several driving exotic cars segments. You get enough of those on the Top Gears. The biggest problem though is how unbearable hour long shows have become on American TV. Every 5 fucking minutes a commercial break, it ruins the flow of the show, discussions are never fully fleshed out, reinforces the hatred I have for TV nowadays.
I'm starting to sour on this show, unfortunately. For a program called "The Car Show", there's an awful lot of non-car going on.
Just to keep it quick, I'll list pros and cons.
Pros
-Ferrari
-4
-5
-8
-Italia
-Brian Johnson
-I appreciate the attempt to avoid political correctness(I counted 3 "black" jokes, one including marijuana, towards Salley, and the lines about possibly getting mugged and raped in
an NYC subway.
-Carolla is funnier than Ferrera.
-The girls trying to learn straight shift were semi-attractive to attractive.
Cons
-Goddawful pacing, they talked for like 5 minutes about the Italia, maybe 3 minutes with Dario Franchitti. Too many commercials.
Speed, I will personally find a way to pay the bills if it means the show can have less commercials.
The Italia segment was the most egregious offender. We didn't see Neil put the car through its paces on the track, just him knocking over and replacing a cone. And in the studio both Neil and the race car driver got cut off due to time issues.
-The cast hasn't gelled yet. Hopefully this problem will be fixed with time, but right now there's not enough chemistry.
-John Salley is still being underutilized. Please either let him add something worthwhile to the discussion or get rid of him. It's not enough for him to just be used as the butt of hit-or-miss black jokes.
-The whole "learning how to handle a stick
oh the innuendo
" segment was just a poorly conceived attempt to get hot women on the show. Normally I'm not on the whole flower power bus, but that was too terrible to not call out. And why the fuck were they using a 600 HP real-wheel drive monster like the ACR to teach them how to drive a manual?
-The whole picture segment. Was just a big unnecessary waste of time and a wee bit insulting. Speed, we're not all 13 year old teenage boys; taking Exit 69 to reach Big Beaver Road isn't subtle and isn't really all that funny anymore.
I'll stick around to see the next couple of episodes to see if the pacing issues can improve
I'm starting to sour on this show, unfortunately. For a program called "The Car Show", there's an awful lot of non-car going on.
Just to keep it quick, I'll list pros and cons.
Pros
-Ferrari
-4
-5
-8
-Italia
-Brian Johnson
-I appreciate the attempt to avoid political correctness(I counted 3 "black" jokes, one including marijuana, towards Salley, and the lines about possibly getting mugged and raped in
an NYC subway.
-Carolla is funnier than Ferrera.
-The girls trying to learn straight shift were semi-attractive to attractive.
Cons
-Goddawful pacing, they talked for like 5 minutes about the Italia, maybe 3 minutes with Dario Franchitti. Too many commercials.
Speed, I will personally find a way to pay the bills if it means the show can have less commercials.
The Italia segment was the most egregious offender. We didn't see Neil put the car through its paces on the track, just him knocking over and replacing a cone. And in the studio both Neil and the race car driver got cut off due to time issues.
-The cast hasn't gelled yet. Hopefully this problem will be fixed with time, but right now there's not enough chemistry.
-John Salley is still being underutilized. Please either let him add something worthwhile to the discussion or get rid of him. It's not enough for him to just be used as the butt of hit-or-miss black jokes.
-The whole "learning how to handle a stick
oh the innuendo
" segment was just a poorly conceived attempt to get hot women on the show. Normally I'm not on the whole flower power bus, but that was too terrible to not call out. And why the fuck were they using a 600 HP real-wheel drive monster like the ACR to teach them how to drive a manual?
-The whole picture segment. Was just a big unnecessary waste of time and a wee bit insulting. Speed, we're not all 13 year old teenage boys; taking Exit 69 to reach Big Beaver Road isn't subtle and isn't really all that funny anymore.
I'll stick around to see the next couple of episodes to see if the pacing issues can improve
Finally got around to watching ep2. I think it flowed batter than ep1 at least, but still a long way to go.
Dropping the game show was a great idea, let it never return.
Pacing is going to suck regardless, but maybe TireRack will step in with an exclusive sponsorship and save the day. I still hate the HUD for 0-60, needs to be redesigned to leverage the huge display they have in the desk to show the image.
Use a crawl to cover the little factoid. There's absolutely no need to show the list of upcoming topics at all.
I'm fine with there being a Dan Neil test drive, then group in-studio discussion, but give it sufficient time and if you need the owner to make the points, the hosts are useless. Put the owner's words into one of the hosts mouths and go with it.
I like that they chose a car with a racy clutch to show how easy it is to learn stick.
One humor bit per show, please. I know Adam's the lead, but build his bits into the car segments. How much better would Adam have been on the subway than Ezra Dyer. Keep the writers on the other side of the camera.
My ideal:
- 0-60 (panel discussion)[6m]
- Behind the Wheel bit (any/all hosts)[15m]
- Race driver interview (Farrah + Salley/Neil, no Carolla)[8m]
- Test Drive (Neil-led, panel discussion)[15m]
- One for the Road Rant (Carolla solo)[2m]
They can expand these smaller bits (1-mile runs, Chicks learn stick) into Behind the Wheel segments instead of cramming them in to the limited time each week.
Con:
Dropping to 30 minutes makes the segments feel very rushed. They could easily fill another 20 minutes without feeling long.
The Equus review was clearly edited down from a 3 car comparison between it, the LS, and the S550. They could've done accel tests and fit/finish commentary on the Mulsanne & 62S.
Pro:
Losing John Salley is a positive. He added nothing but anecdotes about his friends/family.
Better focus on a single theme (this week luxury cars, next week old vs new muscle cars).
No forced NFL/NBA/NASCAR interview and no slot car racing.
No rant from Adam at the end, no dumb game show segments.
Tighter 4 topic Zero-60.
Neutral:
Good commercial alignment (TireRack, Forza 4, FastFive on blu-ray)
Still need to work on the HUD elements for Zero-60.
Still have the desk and its unused monitor.
