New Top Gear

[Ar-Pharazon]

Well shit anyway.

Of course now the truth is out. He did hit a producer and was in a scuffle with him for 30 seconds followed by 20 minutes of verbal abuse. It's not acceptable in any job of course but Top Gear wasn't just any job and Clarkson wasn't just any staff member. It was be a massive loss for the BBC.
May and Hammond won't stay on and whatever Top Gear comes back next year won't be one i'll be watching. Sounds like sour grapes I know but i've been watching the show since the 80s with Clarkson. I loved the current Top Gear and spent many a night with a beer or two laughing my head off which I sometimes sorely needed to do.

I'm with you. As an American, I saw the UK version first and for several years, so I think the US version is completely lame and lacking any of the chemistry of the UK version.

I'm not sure I would have liked TG US even if I had never seen TG UK. I'm not really a "car show guy" for the sake of it.

 

[BigFoot]

^ Here's the problem with the US Top Gear. It's not really fun and entertaining the way the original is. And it's not really a proper car show for petrol heads either.

 

[MacLeod]

Well shit anyway.

Of course now the truth is out. He did hit a producer and was in a scuffle with him for 30 seconds followed by 20 minutes of verbal abuse. It's not acceptable in any job of course but Top Gear wasn't just any job and Clarkson wasn't just any staff member. It will be a massive loss for the BBC.
May and Hammond won't stay on and whatever Top Gear comes back next year won't be one i'll be watching. Sounds like sour grapes I know but i've been watching the show since the 80s with Clarkson. I loved the current Top Gear and spent many a night with a beer or two laughing my head off which I sometimes sorely needed to do.

I'll likely give the show a chance after all it's not fair to write it off without seeing it. That being said I have my reservations that it'll be as good.

 

[Australis]

TG AU is also pretty lame. Each of the blokes are OK, butt hey don't hgave that vital spark that makes it work, plus none are as articulate as Clarkson, which is vitally important.

 

[Brolan]

None of the TG clones have the chemistry the original had. That's why I have no confidence they can get back to the way it was.

 

[Lance]

Top Gear was around long before Jeremy Clarkson, and (in the right hands) I don't see why it can't be around without him as well.

Look up "Old Top Gear Episodes" on Youtube, and you'll see what the show was like back in the 1980s, before Clarkson came along: it was a serious magazine-style show in which a number of regular hosts had segments detailing topics of interest to car enthusiasts. Simple as that. In the 1990s, something like a whole decade after Top Gear began, Clarkson joined them as one of the hosts, but it still wasn't *his* format. He was just one of many presenters. It wasn't until the 2000s that Clarkson wrestled control of the show from everybody else, and turned it into what it is today.

As someone who actually remembers what Top Gear was like before Clarkson took control of it and turned it into the circus it currently is (albeit a highly successful and profitable one, I won't deny that ), I've always been a little pissed at what Clarkson did to the program. He traded the genuine integrity that it had before he came along, in exchange for lowbrow entertainment that could bring in the megabucks. The only remnant of the original show from the 1980s that still remains in 2015 is the road-tests, and even they have become a joke.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

Seems to me that the problem with the clones is that they try to force it to be like the "original" rather than finding their own way. What they need to do is allow the Clarksonless Top Gear become its own show rather than try to ape what it was.

 

[Starkers]

I haven't seen either the US or Australian shows, but aren't they really successful in their own right anyway?

I think the direction the show takes may depend on May and Hammond, if they were to stay the temptation would be to just slap someone like Chris Evans into the Clarkson role and carry on as before, but if it’s a case of all three leaving then the BBC might decide to radically change the format. There are risks either way to be honest.

I doubt the BBC would just kill the show given the revenue it brings in, but you never know…

 

[Brolan]

The reason Top Gear became so successful is the jokes. There are plenty of serious car shows like Motorweek in the US and Fifth Gear in the UK but none of them are greatly popular.

 

[Relayer1]

Top Gear was around long before Jeremy Clarkson, and (in the right hands) I don't see why it can't be around without him as well.

Look up "Old Top Gear Episodes" on Youtube, and you'll see what the show was like back in the 1980s, before Clarkson came along: it was a serious magazine-style show in which a number of regular hosts had segments detailing topics of interest to car enthusiasts. Simple as that. In the 1990s, something like a whole decade after Top Gear began, Clarkson joined them as one of the hosts, but it still wasn't *his* format. He was just one of many presenters. It wasn't until the 2000s that Clarkson wrestled control of the show from everybody else, and turned it into what it is today.

As someone who actually remembers what Top Gear was like before Clarkson took control of it and turned it into the circus it currently is (albeit a highly successful and profitable one, I won't deny that ), I've always been a little pissed at what Clarkson did to the program. He traded the genuine integrity that it had before he came along, in exchange for lowbrow entertainment that could bring in the megabucks. The only remnant of the original show from the 1980s that still remains in 2015 is the road-tests, and even they have become a joke.

Fair points, but considering Top Gear to be a factually based car show is a bit off the mark these days. It's an entertainment show with as much in common with Jackass as the old TG.

Personally speaking (I've never learned to drive, let alone owned a car) I love the current format and would have about as much interest in it being more serious as I do with 5thh Gear - none whatsoever.

It's popular because its fun. Informative isn't a requirement...

 

[hux]

Apparently, Louis Theroux's new documentary series is being bumped up the schedule due to Top Gears removal

So you Top Gear fans can now enjoy an episode about pre-teen transgender children.

The world just became a better place

 

[Saul]

I remember old top gear quite well and it wasn't half as interesting as the new top gear. The cars I wanted to see were the cars they reviewed now. Fast, sexy cars . Old Top Gear was often boring and bland until Clarkson appeared and shook things up with his outspoken reviews which also got him in trouble back then.

 

[Squiggy]

Look up "Old Top Gear Episodes" on Youtube, and you'll see what the show was like back in the 1980s, before Clarkson came along: it was a serious magazine-style show in which a number of regular hosts had segments detailing topics of interest to car enthusiasts. Simple as that.

Which are none of the reasons why current Top Gear was popular.

 

[CorporalClegg]

I'd rather sit through a lecture on the dos and don'ts of proper Victorian social etiquette than watch an episode of old Top Gear.

 

[Squiggy]

I'd rather sit through a lecture on the dos and don'ts of proper Victorian social etiquette than watch an episode of old Top Gear.

Old Top Gear (TG Prime?) was closer to a Victorian social equitte close than nuTG.

Remember that Ford Fiesta review?

 

[Lonemagpie]

Hammond and May have both suggested on social media that they won't be returning, so whatever series we get next year won't be Top Gear as we know it. So much of what it was depends on the interplay of that trio...

The BBC is also apparently trying to figure out what to do with the pre-filmed bits of the final three episodes. What they *should* do is just air them as a special or two. What they more likely *will* do is release them as DVD/BR exclusives and make the fans pay again...

 

[Starkers]

That’s the weird thing, whilst they’ve cancelled new episodes they’ve still been showing old episodes on BBC3

 

[Lance]

Look up "Old Top Gear Episodes" on Youtube, and you'll see what the show was like back in the 1980s, before Clarkson came along: it was a serious magazine-style show in which a number of regular hosts had segments detailing topics of interest to car enthusiasts. Simple as that.

Which are none of the reasons why current Top Gear was popular.

Indeed, and I didn't claim otherwise. I admitted that the current format is popular, and there's no question that the reformat in 2001 saved the show from obscurity (it certainly delivered it to a mass international audience!). But what I was actually suggesting was that the format is more flexible than people think. Yes, the Parkson/May/Hammond trio have made Top Gear the massive money-spinner that it is. But that doesn't mean they're the only ones who can host it. The fact that Top Gear already existed for nearly a quarter-century before these three guys ever became the hosts of it is proof of that.

I just think the whole internet "OH NOEZ, TOP GEARCAN'T GO ON WITHOUT CLAKRSON!!!!1!!" backdraft is a complete over-reaction. Of course it can.

EDIT:

What they need to do is allow the Clarksonless Top Gear become its own show rather than try to ape what it was.

Absolutely. They need to think of Clarkson's departure as an opportunity to rethink the show. If they simply tried to replicate lighting in a bottle with a new team, then I think they'd be flogging a dead horse.

I'm not suggesting going back to a serious-style magazine program like it was before 2001. But maybe, just maybe, they could incorporate something like that into the more light-hearted fun stuff. But do it in a jazzy modern style. No reason it couldn't work.

Whatever they do, it needs to be different.

 

[Janeway7trulv]

Hammond and May have both suggested on social media that they won't be returning, so whatever series we get next year won't be Top Gear as we know it. So much of what it was depends on the interplay of that trio...

The BBC is also apparently trying to figure out what to do with the pre-filmed bits of the final three episodes. What they *should* do is just air them as a special or two. What they more likely *will* do is release them as DVD/BR exclusives and make the fans pay again...

I reckon, negotiations will commence as we speak to have Hammond. Clarkson and May reunited in another car show on a different channel. I do not believe it will be the ending of the duet. We need these sort of car programs and who can do it better than them. I absolutely adore the show . I even attended the show in Birmingham a couple a years back - which im hesitant to add was a pile of shit. Not worth a cent of the £150 expenses i paid to see them

Saying that though. I think the boys are absolutely comical together and it is a tremendous shame the airhead Clarkson couldn't see passed his bloody d!ck to then go f!ck it all up for the rest of the boys. I can not even fathom how darn selfish he is. He had received so many warnings over the years but yet he kept pushing and pushing..

Funny how he jumped at doing another show for the BBC without no consideration for what he did to his peers . The fact he accepting it without hesitation and did not refuse anything from the BBC unless it included Hammond and May , is a disgrace in my book

 

[auntiehill]

Because, however clever or entertaining he was/is, at heart, he's a giant, hateful, asshat, and will always be a giant, hateful, asshat. Asshats don't consider other people in their decision-making, because, to them, other people don't matter. Really shouldn't surprise anyone that he continues to behave the same way. He's a DICK, and everyone knows it.