I believe that idea was originally pitched, but the presenters (particularly Clarkson) didn’t want to live in the US long enough to produce a season. Seriously.
The BBC America versions are neutered; you need to torrent the real ones if you want the full experience.
Wow, you must have no sense of humor or interest in cars. Both of which are required for this board (the former more so than the latter) so please gtfo. The “real” Top Gear is absolutely hilarious. The dynamic between Clarkson, May and Hamster really makes the show. Throw in the brutal honesty that comes from having no advertisers to stroke-off, the Stig, and probably the most impressive list of test vehicles of any automotive show ever and you have an amazing recipe. You have to love that they test all of the cars with the same driver on the same course. And I Fin’ hate ‘celebrity worship’ and horseshit shows like TMZ yet they found a way to make me actually interested in a celebrity interview with the “Star in a Reasonably Price Car” bit. You need to watch some of the cool bits the presenters do too, the pieces they did where they turned cars into boats were particularly hilarious (1st time they did it: [ame=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzxuEOxYSLE”]YouTube - Top Gear: Car-Boat Challenge[/ame] and then when they did it again: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqw8QRUREqI&feature=related). Or when they made a ‘convertible people mover’ (aka ‘vert van). Or building affordable cop-cars in last Sunday’s episode. Or…
Well you get the point, they go beyond just testing cars and giving hard numbers. Then, on top of all that wonderful entertainment you throw in the “specials.” The Polar Special is one of my favorites, but the Africa and America specials are great too. The fact that aren’t required to adhere to a formula pre-approved by their advertisers and such opens them up to make some truly amazing TV. And they can say things like “oh cock” every 5 minutes.
And if you had any last doubts, they hate the Prius with a PASSION: [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PP6fe6i1vaY[/ame]
The US version will fail, miserably. First, they’re going to be busy suggin’ off whatever manufacturer throws the most $ at the program. Second, but perhaps even worse is I just can’t see the necessary dynamic and interplay growing between these 3 douches. Corola has his moments, but is largely just annoying. Foust was terrible on ‘his show’ and I just can’t see how anybody though he’d do better given another chance. And this other guy, WTF? Third, can you imagine them getting away w/ sinking some home-made car/boat things in the US w/o the hippies throwing them in jail? They’ll basically have their hads-tied trying to duplicate most of the original bits.
Oh well, at least we still have the ‘real’ version to torrent weekly.
-TJ