TGTV update: the foreign versions
Posted by Andy Wilman at 11:30AM on Wednesday 04 June, 2008 9 Comments
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.
Read the first part of Andy's TGTV update.
Andy Wilman is the executive producer of Top Gear.
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9 Comments for "TGTV update: the foreign versions"
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If the Aussies and Yanks get our Top Gear, does that mean we can get theirs? Three episodes in one week is a petrolhead's wet dream.
I'd like to see a Japanese Top Gear. Their perspective on cars in Japan is very unique. It's a world where power and presence conquers all, and there's no room for the Green Party.
That's why Evos look like Batman's dayjob vehicle and Subarus eat mountain roads for breakfast. And why the Skyline GTR is dubbed as 'Godzilla'.
Fantastic insight. I think you hit the nail on the head when you said that the US version has to be totally different from the present reality show arena. The right hosts are definitely the key to its success. I laugh out loud when I watch UK Top Gear because it answers the pointless car questions in my male mind...
Well, as long as TopGear US doesn't do a 1-hour UK special, I think it will all work out fine.
It won't be as good as the original, but then, what is?
My GOD is this GOOD or WHAT !!! LOVING IT.
I'm a really big fan of Top Gear and was horrified to find out that there would be a US version. I can give it a chance, but I don't think a US version will do the original any justice. It won't be as good, because I don't think you can find 3 guys that play off of each other as well as Jeremy, James, and Richard.
I'll watch it if it supports the Top Gear team in Britain, but I'll also faithfully be watching the original again and again and again....etc.
To be completely honest, I don't know if America (don't know anything about Aussie TV), has any idea how to reproduce the production values that Top Gear UK has...
Obviously the chemistry between the presenters is the biggest issue, but if they are just driving cars around saying cheap one-liners to ****ty southern TV rock music that is so typically done on other American car or travel shows, I think I might barf a little bit.
I'm glad to hear that US Top Gear is still in the works. As a Canadian, we get the best of both British and American culture over here, so it'd be pretty interesting to see what the Americans think Top Gear should be like.
I am from Germany. Unfortunately we don't have anything Top Gear here. Nearly everything in our motoring shows is about fuel economy, tax classes and the size of the boot. Sounds quite boring, huh? And I can guarantee you: it is!
Creating personality - that's what makes a show interesting; and you don't create it by copying.