| | Top Gear - Should it be saved?Page 1 of 2 (1, 2) | It's the news Top Gear fans have been dreading - the show's boss has hinted that the show is coming to an end as ratings continue to slump.
Andy Wilman, executive producer of the BBC Two programme, also said that he fears the series is turning into a cartoon because the presenters were playing up their on-screen characters too much.
There is already a facebook campaign to save the programme but as a huge fan I am very reluctant to sign up as although I enjoyed the Bolivian special a lot of the charm and thrill of the show has been lost at the end of the last series and the current one.
I would rather they went back to basics and relied on the friendship and natural banter of the 3 and trying not to make it high octane or diversify and not just make it a car magazine programme but a more general magazine show.
The current incarnation is ruining the New Top gear format which has been going a long time now and is stale and needs reinvention or axing but not saving imo, what are yours? | |
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| Top Gear - Should it be saved?
Posted: 1/1/2010 10:24:43 AM | I saw a programme the other day and it was rated number one in the programmes of the last decade since 2000.
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| Top Gear - Should it be saved?
Posted: 1/1/2010 10:30:41 AM | I agree this current series with the exception of the Bolivian Special has not been that great... it's all become about the presenters and as you said the presenters have become characters in a comedy as opposed to a group of mates presenting a show.
I want Top Gear to be saved, however (and I might get a lot of hate for saying this), perhaps it is time to drop the Star in a reasonably priced car and fill that with a car review?
The show should all be about the cars and the challenges, dare I say it even bikes should be on the show after all these years too?
John | |
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| Top Gear - Should it be saved?
Posted: 1/1/2010 10:37:39 AM |
but as a huge fan I am very reluctant to sign up
Well with such lethargic fans I'm sure it's heading straight for the bin!
Mike Tyson became a joke when he tried to continue when he was past his bast and as a fan of his, in the ring anyway, it was sad to watch the decline. Top Gear is in decline and I would rather have brilliant memories than watch its demise. I am not lethargic just realistic. | |
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| Top Gear - Should it be saved?
Posted: 1/1/2010 10:48:34 AM | | I think the biggest problem with top gear is its become too predictable, they always show things going wrong and it is so obvious it's all been staged. | |
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| Top Gear - Should it be saved?
Posted: 1/1/2010 11:13:38 AM | When it started, TG reviewed the cars that you or I might buy, it reviewed bikes too at one time. It had women testers (who knew about cars and bikes, not who looked at the colour choices and whether there was somewhere to put the handbag!) and I remember one programme that looked at the safety of "Chelsea tractors" and showed that if one had a wish to keep one's children safe then the Vauxhall "something" was the only one that was as safe as a car.
Now, sadly, Top Gear has moved far away from its original format and intent, so far away that the independent TV channels have filled in the vacuum it left behind and I believe there is no way back for TG. The only presenter I have respect for is James May because he understands and looks at the mechanics of the vehicles, not just the speed and performance on a test track. But he is so overpowered on TG I prefer to read his Daily Telegraph column. He is Everyman, the man on the Clapham omnibus - or would be if he wasn't behind the wheel of a TG car!
I bought a Clarkson book on a 2nd-hand bookstall recently. It was from the 1980s. Then he had some sense. He complained about manufacturers adding buttons to make a car seem racy, he wished cars were all made to be reliable, he bemoaned the need to chase "speed" over safety and efficiency...
Ah, those were the days!
I can't see how TG, in these days of "Green" awareness and the credit crunch realisation we can't spend all we want on nonsensical cars, can go back to doing what it used to do so well without losing the viewers who do like the fast supercars and the silly adventures. Those who don't want that and don't have the nostalgia for the old days of TG will have found their auto-fix on the ITV / C4 programmes that do now what TG used to do best.
It's time for TG to hand in its licence, hang up the keys, throw away the starting-handle - oh, make up your own metaphors! | |
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okRob
| | Joined: 11/10/2009
Msg: 7 | |
| Top Gear - Should it be saved?
Posted: 1/1/2010 11:23:26 AM | | Top Gear is a classic but I have found myself getting bored of it. I really do not watch much tele. Top Gear is one of just a few programs. The only interesting bit of it these days is the challenges. Where they each buy a car or race a car against other transport over continents. The rest of it has me twiddling my thumbs. | |
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| Top Gear - Should it be saved?
Posted: 1/1/2010 11:44:52 AM | | i agree with the comment about the stars in the cars part of the show as who really wants to know about there latest promotions etc. maybe even change it to a viewer actually rating there own car and coming up with a debate as wether its reasonable or not? i cannot drive anymore due to meds, but still take a lot of interest in cars, but top gear has gone away from the man in the street and needs to be pulled back in. dont get me wrong i love watching a review on a zonda but dont see many of them around redditch. | |
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| Top Gear - Should it be saved?
Posted: 1/1/2010 11:45:55 AM | | I think it has gone from being about cars, and that is real cars that people are likely to buy, to a circus show with too much clowning around.......JC has got way too far up his own arse, and the more people bite the bigger his ego is going to get (if possible)......i think it is about time it went, and i was a long time fan of the show!! | |
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| Top Gear - Should it be saved?
Posted: 1/1/2010 12:31:03 PM | I absolutely love Top Gear and would hate to see it finish. Yes ok, it may not be about cars the normal working family can afford to buy but so what? We can see and test drive those any day of the week any time we want.
I just love to see what the team on TG are going to get up to next and Clarkson is just brilliant. I'd vote him in to power any day of the week  | |
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| Top Gear - Should it be saved?
Posted: 1/1/2010 12:39:00 PM | Should Top Gear be saved................................ yes.
Yes, it should be more about car that people can actually afford, but thats boring. Would you rather see an £15k family hatchback or a £250k hypercar on a sunday night? Its a program aimed at blokes, so cars & just generally messing around with cars is perfect.
however, for all you ladies that like Top Gear, thats great. Finding a lady that likes it would be perfect for me. | |
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| Top Gear - Should it be saved?
Posted: 1/1/2010 1:32:34 PM | | NO WAY should Top Gear EVER change! It's brilliant and I find it hard to believe that it's in a ratings slump, given how hard it is to get tickets there or the size of the Stigs fan club alone! | |
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J47_SW
| | Joined: 6/16/2007
Msg: 13 | |
| Top Gear - Should it be saved?
Posted: 1/1/2010 2:13:46 PM | Personally I'd still like them to show us the hypercars, supercars and also cool developments like the Hydrogen Fuel Cell, Biofuel racing engines and all that jazz, and I'd also love to see more challenges.. and cross country and continental episodes.
HOWEVER
What bothers me is that the show is drifting towards being too big for it's own boots and becoming very narcissistic.
Yes I do enjoy it when Jezza is self opinionated and Captain Slow is a bit doppy, but lately they have all been playing up the part to the point it is terribly hammed up.....and speaking of which Hammond is the worst of them all!
If they were to tone that side of things down a bit, drop the stars in the reasonably priced car (unless they were to actually race! )
Oh and bring back Caravan Conkers!!
John | |
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| Top Gear - Should it be saved?
Posted: 1/1/2010 2:18:20 PM | | Of course Top Gear should be saved. It's a car programme that has interest to people who don't give a monkeys about cars but love the entertainment value. | |
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| Top Gear - Should it be saved?
Posted: 1/1/2010 2:48:06 PM | Top Gear is major TV entertainment, not a Car review show.
It is to motoring what X Factor is to music.
It has evolved over the years into a Men Behaving Badly in cars. It's live-recorded format,and indeed its latest studio format in the round, is compulsive to those fans....but probably doesn't do a lot to shift car sales or change peoples minds.
Perhaps it is in need of a presenter change,but then the chemistry would not necesserily be there for the idiocy of the challenges.
Hammond is developing his "youthful" look to identify with kids and his science focus, so will not have to worry about his future, .........
The big question is , do you let an institution carry on with slowly declining numbers, or do you try to come up with something fresh........the opposition havn't managed it yet....5Th Gear and others are pale imitations | |
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| Top Gear - Should it be saved?
Posted: 1/1/2010 4:51:27 PM | When it started, TG reviewed the cars that you or I might buy
Yes, and it was dull, turgid shite that died a well deserved death because no-one actually wanted factual reviews when they were faced with them. Chris Goffey was able to put viewers to sleep doing reviews of sports cars ffs 
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| Top Gear - Should it be saved?
Posted: 1/1/2010 5:01:42 PM | I remember when Clarkson started as Tif Needel's sidekick, and knew absolutely fek all about cars, having previously been a presenter on something like "South Today"
It has become a caricature of itself IMO.
And they have "developed" the careers of the presenters Hammond does Total Wipeout, and other stuff, as does James May. This has been done by all the channels. The presenters are their products, and they eventually start to believe their own hype.
Wasn't there some dispute about the pay disparities between the three of them recently?
I can't believe my TV license fee is being used to destroy cars every week. It must cost a fortune for those stunts! And it all seems a bit self-indulgent to me, it was funny the first time, but once you've seen a car being dropped from a crane a few time, it loses it's appeal.
Times change....
I have always thought that Clarkson was a tw@t....
Good riddance! | |
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| Top Gear - Should it be saved?
Posted: 1/1/2010 5:20:40 PM | I LOVE Top Gear.
I think it is funny, silly and quite informative.
I love the stars they have on there in the reasonably priced car..
I would hate it to stop and will go and sign any online thingy to keep it.
Been loads of episodes that have had me literally laughing out loud. So what if it is indulgent and uses our licence fees. It isnt the ONLY show on the BBC that is a bit daft and i for one bloody enjoy it!
And yes, it was voted the top show of the noughties out of everything else on the box. | |
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| Top Gear - Should it be saved?
Posted: 1/1/2010 6:24:58 PM |
I remember when Clarkson started as Tif Needel's sidekick, and knew absolutely fek all about cars
Really? Given that he started his motoring journalism career in the regional press and was much in demand by both the EMAP and Haymarket publishing companies by the mid 1980s, that's quite amazing.
On the OPs point - saved? Due to its global syndication Top Gear is one of the most watched programmes in the world and a big money spinner - so I can't see anyone dumping it. But UK viewing figures are a good litmus and the format had become very formulaic and a bit tired. So expect a revamp - after some careful research - no one's going to risk messing up this cash cow until it's been fully milked out. | |
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J47_SW
| | Joined: 6/16/2007
Msg: 22 | |
| Top Gear - Should it be saved?
Posted: 1/2/2010 3:54:43 AM | As sad as this sounds I cannot imagine Sunday evenings without Top Gear forever.
And on that bombshell hopefully tonight's episode (which is the last in the current series) would not be the last...
John | |
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| Top Gear - Should it be saved?
Posted: 1/2/2010 5:41:33 AM | They didn't save TOTP....................time to bury the dead I think ...and I'm a member of 2 car clubs and as people have said TG has sweet f.a. to do with cars anymore!!
If you're into the formulaic 3 Stooges type comedy, then Top Gear is for you..........let's face it, it has more comedic value than most of the cringe making comedy currently wheeled out. | |
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| Top Gear - Should it be saved?
Posted: 1/2/2010 7:12:29 AM | It's the irony and tongue in cheek look at things is it's appeal, how many times have we watched it and said WOW......what else on tv gives you this.......monarch of the Gelnn, eastenders? or any of the countless same format shows we are subjected to....
SAVE IT...... | |
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