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Junkyard Wars Nominated For Emmy
abh writes " CNN is reporting on the Emmy nominations, apparently there is a new category for reality-based TV (such as Survivor), and none other than Junkyard Wars got a nomination." Junkyard Wars rocks - excellent recognition of good stuff. The Daily Show was nominated as well, and deserves it, IMHO.
And hire a real host. Both of those guys are annoying and not funny at all. They can keep the girl though. Maybe some nicer clothes though.
I agree with the fixed comment. They at least hinted that the boats needed a little tweaking to make them not sink immidiately. I'm sure that more often than not the teams are given off camera time after they call time but before the trials, and they only present the successful trials. Watch for odd changes in the angle of the sun, extra weld joints, and groggy contestants that were allowed to spend all night fixing their project.
That's not to say that the contestants aren't good engineers, but the show is trying to present them as superhuman engineers when they're typically not. By rigging the contest they're no more credible than Jeopardy contestants who get a little help from Alex during the commercials.
I'm a little disappointed that they get to submit parts lists. That's the only out and out lie that they tell; they say that contestants don't know what the challenge is until they hear it, and they make a big point of that. The rest they just let people assume.
On the shows when just Kryten is hosting it sure looked like just one day because they were filming at dusk and even at night.
Overall only slightly disappointed in this news.
Some food for thought:
I think you're missing the point of the show if you complain about the accuracy of the results: the show is less of a competition and more of an educational tool. The grand prize is a trophy, ferchrissakes! And maybe a peck on the cheek from Cathy Rodgers, if you're lucky... The real reward is in the informative animations and explanations.
That so-called "junk" can love, man.
On the middle day, at least for the submarine episode, they did a lot of safety testing and tuning. It would be extremely implausible for them to end up with neutral buoyancy by just figuring out the right volume for their weights without putting the things in water at all, and everything had to be checked out thoroughly.
They also radically changed the scoring system between what the teams were told and what the show had; I think they wanted to make the team with the sub that worked better win while making them worried. So it might actually be a bit fixed, but only by making the team which made the better device win, and probably even that can't happen in the ones with more qualitative tasks.
I think the PROS get to make the list, not the contestants....
You don't like Kryton? Are you crazy??
During one of the english seasons they had an american team on called NERDS. The have a website that I cannot remember at the moment. They kept a journal and gave a behind the scenes perspective. They said that The show is edited such to make it seem that they are running out of time while having a lot left to do. The website went on to say that for the most part they were pretty much done and that the editing was done that way to create suspence. That is why things seem to just apear towards the end. Don't forget this is 10 hours compressed into 1. There are going to be things that happen that will not be shown. I am going to try and find that website, it was actually pretty intresting reading.
Besides Junk Yard Wars, the only other good "Reality-Based" TV shows didn't even get nominated! Those being, of course, the PBS-produced The 1900 House and American High.
Executive summary:
In The 1900 House, a family is forced to live as did Victorian families did for a few months. Needless to say, the situation puts some strain on familial relations.
American High chronicled the lives of a bunch of kids at a High School in Anywhere, USA. Real kids, too, not Real World rejects. It was originally slated for a run on Fox, but Fox decided at the last moment that it wasn't for them. Perhaps this was due to the fact that it violated Fox's "all our shows suck" policy.
Both great shows. Both not even mentioned. A shame. PBS may be underfunded and underwritten, but they're still churning out solid content.
And yes, I am fully aware that the junkyard is stocked. They openly admit it on some shows. It is also obvious that the hosts offer design help to teams who may have things very wrong. And yes, they fudge a bit with the ten hour time limit. Who cares. What's left is an amazing look into the art of complex problem solving.
Watching the two champion teams (U.S.A.: The Long Brothers and U.K.: The Megalomaniacs) come up through the ranks one had the distinct feeling that they had a special ability--something Finns call sisu, a tenacity of purpose--that helped them triumph. Some of the contraptions were positively ridiculous, with the Megalomaniacs walking machine a prime example.
In spite of the pre-rigging of the shows, there are some amazing surprises, like when the Long Brothers used a pair of panty hose (donated by a female member of the opposing team) to cradle a raw ostrich egg for their junkyard rocket payload. By the way, it survived both launch and landing giving the Longs a clear victory.
Another element I enjoy is the feeling of good-sportsmanship between opponents. Teams often help each other get to the final test. When all is said and done there's a feeling that the fun is in the journey, not the victory. They certainly aren't going through hell for those Junkyard War trophies.
In short, Junkyard Wars is one of the best education programs I've seen in a while on the commercial networks. I look forward to it every week.
but I'm sure it worked fine before they smashed into the back of the other team. ;)
That would have been a neat trick.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, I love this whos it's heart breaking, although it does make sence in retrospect. ah well.
The NERDS, the American team in the UK series, tell about it on their website. It looks like they've got half an hour left and have barely even started, but in fact they "finished" early and were never in any danger of not having a working machine.
It is 10 hours compressed into less than 30 minutes(*) air time. It would be easy to show the first 25 minutes comming from the firt hour, and pack the last 9 hours into the remaining 5 minutes.
* Yes I know it's an hour show. That means about 43 minutes of actual material. Minus the final contest and the sketches, it's less than 30 for the building part.
It isn't. My co-host diligently converted past taped episodes to RealAudio, and I promptly lost the CD-R he gave me. I plead only partial stupidity - the CD-R was a blank, unlabeled one, and it got swallowed by my office. All the links on the past guest list are outside links (as you probably discovered).
And we're currently trying to get on the Clear Channel network. After years of fighting them, we decided to try joining them. Five points if you can name the source for our logo.
--
Evan
"$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
Hey, there's this new concept - not all replies are in direct opposition to your point of view. I knew you weren't saying the outcome is rigged, I just disputed your term "fixed"... it was very misleading.
Experts, Leaders, The Guys Showing The Team How To Build The Device. Does it really matter?
Yes, since the "experts" are the non-team members brought in for one show, and the "leader" is one of the people on the team. The expert provides specialized knowledge, and the leader organizes the construction.
It's a bit like looking at a car and saying: "Engineer, mechanic, the guy who puts the car together. Does it really matter?". I've seen experts that don't get their hands dirty, or come up with great *theoretical* ideas, and a good team leader will just ignore their plan and go with a simple, direct design.
Realistically, there are three experts - the Judge also makes comments, and the hosts will wander down and try to subtly warn teams of grevious potential problems.
--
Evan
"$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
I would decidedly not used the word fixed. The outcome is not predetermined.
the team leaders who built the crafts on Junkyard Wars.
Not quite. Unless that particular show was an extreme abberation, the team *experts* are the ones who stock the junkyard. In some cases (the underwater diver episodes, for example), there was no stocking whatsoever. In others (the rocket and steam engine episodes), the junkyard is stocked with pristine, new, tested parts. In both those cases, the reason should be obvious. I would seriously question the common sense of someone who is slapping together a high pressure steam engine in 10 hours and letting people ride in it. Safety is a concern. In the case of rockets, they were focusing on the body construction, not the propulsion, which are almost completely seperate aspects.
And yes, the corner of the junkyard that is the set is *very* "rich". Lots of working engines, lots of unpunctured batteries. Basically, it's real junk from the rest of the much larger junkyard tossed into the corner.
Also, in addition to the two days of filming, they used a 3rd day off-camera to finish up their hovercrafts.
Again, unless it was a very abberant episode, the had 10 hours in one filming day. The next day, they make sure the damn things work. In some cases, they just pull them out and play. In other cases, which they very clearly mention (something along the lines of: "We given both teams some extra time to make sure their /foo/s are up to the task"), they give up to a few hours. Almost always, it is at this point that they get some spray paint and paint their device in team colors.
It's important to remember that the point of the show is education, not competition. The prize is a wad of welded metal. The experts are generally chosen to present two very different ways of solving the problem and have had time to research the situation. The teams are thrown in with no knowledge of what they are going to build, and have to do the construction themselves. There is (in the British set, and presumably also on the American set) a large facility filled with stuff that you'd get from a Home Depot (a large warehouse style building supply store here in the states). It's behind the vehicle weighstation that's filmed in some of the episodes. That's where the paint, glue, screws, blades, etc all come from. They *have* run out of supplies, and the 10 hours ticked by.
Incidently, a few more details: they have an hour for lunch, tools down, debate on the blackboard encouraged. The clock stops when the host asks the people to explain what they are doing (as a result, the ten working hours often end at different times for the two teams).
I have almost all the episodes on tape, have interviewed Robert Llewellen for my radio show, and have exchanged emails with a few prior players. I am putting together rules for a micro version of the game for SF Conventions. It's one of the only television shows that have every caught my attention.
Sure, it's spun to be entertaining. They selectively edit and try to make sure things work; the point is to show how things work. But is it "fixed". No. The teams are genuinely out there trying to win.
--
Evan
"$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!" -- JRR "Bob" Tolkien
Don't know whether the first series has been shown outside the UK - the one with the same teams throughout and only the experts different - but in that, when they made hovercrafts, one never made it.
There has been at least that one total failure, as well as the merely embarrassingly poor like the rugby ball cannon or the gun which shot its own barrel, or the boat with outriggers on one side only which sank at the first bend...
Greg
(Inside a nuclear plant)
Aaaarrrggh! Run! The canary has mutated!
You're building a cool toy, and didn't provide a URL? C'mon, c'mon, c'mon. Let me see it!
:)
Seriously, any good links (yes, I could hit google, but I'm guessing that you have progressed beyond the sniffing butt stage of a new project, and have some good sites stashed in your bookmarks.)
Back on topic: there is a good site (lost the URL) by one of the teams that states how and why the stocking is done. Basically, they don't give *exactly* what the experts ask for. Typically something requires a bit of bodging. For example, the dragster with no forward gears in the tranny. Lack of props. Etc.
Why? Have you ever been to a junkyard? Most of the good bits are already gone. You will almost never find a working (or potentially working) motor in a junkyard. That stuff gets picked out (as do almost all of the usable bits) and the only thing the public can see and crawl over are bare carcasses. (Of course, if you read Car Craft or Hot Rod, the planet is covered with wonderful junkyards that you can enter, and find a perfect 455 Olds engine for a mere $25. As a matter of fact, according to them, there are so many 350 Chevy engines that you have to carry one away when you leave the junkyard. Maybe in So. Cal., but on the East Coast? Bullshit.)
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
Fortunately, the Emmy's (and Oscar's) are not always the popularity contest that the Billboard, MTV, People's Choice, etc. awards are. There is a chance (albeit slim) that Scrapheap Challenge could pull this off.
But, to be fair, isn't Road Rules the only original show in the bunch? Junkyard Wars (as I implied) is a re-edit of Scrapheap Challenge. Can't remember the geneology of Survivor, but that may be original as well. And shouldn't 'The Real World' have been included before Road Rules?
Still, it's nice to see a new category. I only wish they had never invented the animated series category. The Simpsons should have been up against comedies. Why separate it because it's animated? Of course, it probably never would have won, but it certainly contributes to the public's low opinion of animated shows.
A few other comments:
WB, why push a show that you are not going to have any more? Of course, UPN would love it, but it doesn't make sense to complain. Oh, and BTW, the reason you didn't get any nominations is because your network is full of repetitive drivel. Please don't tell me you think a 'very special episode of Seventh Heaven' is deserving of an award (and BTW, I watched it for several years, and have nothing wrong with the show. Nice, moralistic family 'drama'. But it doesn't do or say anything. It certainly doesn't push any boundaries or do anything in an exemplary manner.)
And yes, 'Catcher in the Rye' IS a dime-store paperback. Even at 16, I thought this kid was a whining sniveller. I don't know about anyone else, but even as a geeky teen, I didn't have that much time to be doing a bunch of navel gazing like good old Holden Caufield. Get over yourself, man.
(And let's not even talk about his 'odd' relationship and thoughts about his sister. I think I saw that on Jerry Springer a few weeks ago.)
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
Wish I had mentioned this in my earlier rant (message 30). Why the hell isn't this show reliably captioned? Why, why, why? It seems that the last British season is, but not the first US season (and the world series also was not captioned).
Battlebots is captioned. (Robot Wars UK is not). Are You Being Served is captioned. Fawlty Towers is not. Half the weird stuff on Sci-Fi is captioned (and what the hell is up with that show they put on at 8:00???) Why can't current episodes of Junkyard Wars be captioned?
Now, before anyone gets the idea that I'm one of those Deaf Community, ADA nuts, I'm not. My wife is hearing impaired, with a cochlear implant, effectively shutting us out of the 'Deaf community'. (Not to mention that she married a hearing man). And she watches JYW sometimes. Like... When it is captioned!! And she truly get's a kick out of it, but not enough to make time for it.
More important than my wife is the schools. If TLC wants to be in more, they are going to have to caption more stuff. Some school districts have requirements that captioning is available. And as others have pointed out, JYW is a not bad science/applied engineering problem.
Finally, that giant sledgehammer the Americans made was cool as shit. I really liked the British team (Hey, all those bikers? Can't go wrong) and I bet Nosh would have had a helluva good time bashing his own machine with the Americans killer sledge.
There's no problem a big enough hammer won't solve.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
Hey, mod this parernt up....I've never thought of this before. PBS was alwsys captioned, since TLC is basically taking over they should as well.
oh oh oh...where where???
I've spent plenty of time crawling around junk yards looking for elusive parts (like the suspension bits off a 78-83 Pontiac Grand Am, which had the coveted Delrin bushings that were unavailable otherwise, and usable Weber 40 DCNFs for a modified Fiat X1/9 and a stock Ferrari 308 gt4.)
I've found that running engines aren't all that common, although I admit I passed by the mundane stuff looking for the exotic...
"The future's good and the present is nothing to sneeze at." - Roblimo's last
Agreed. From all evidences, the show isn't fixed, but the junkpile is seeded to allow the show to concentrate more on *making* the gadget than hunting down the pieces for it, which would be pretty darn boring.
In fact, I strongly suspect that in a couple of cases, the teams have wound up building something pretty much unanticipated by the experts, sometimes against their advice - Bowser's miserable rugby-ball launcher comes to mind.
BTW, a smaller scale version is a good idea - my son started doing this a few weeks ago with a bunch of popsicle sticks, wire, and bits of Lego Technic stuff. He wants a bag of surplus toy electric motors for his birthday next month. A Dad's *gotta* be proud of a son like that! (I do hope they do a kids version of the show, although I think they'd probably have a tough time dealing with 7-year olds, even if they do have a lot of bodging experience under their belts. (Oh, and thanks to the JYW/SHC crew for bringing that excellent word, "bodge" into American English.)
"The future's good and the present is nothing to sneeze at." - Roblimo's last
FWIW, here are some links to chat interviews with the Cathy Rogers and Robert Llewellyn about Junk Yard Wars/Scrapheap Challenge and how they set things up, how the heap is seeded, whether the teams even find all the good stuff, and the flexibility of "the last hour". These chats answer almost all of the questions and accusations thrown around elsewhere in this topic...
Channel 4 chat session with Cathy Rogers
Channel 4 chat session with Robert Llewellyn
There's even a Scrapheap Challenge video, for those of you in the UK, or with access to a PAL VCR. It reportedly contains some amusing out-takes.
"The future's good and the present is nothing to sneeze at." - Roblimo's last
I discovered Junk Yard Wars earlier this year, and it has since become a family favorite. Such a favorite, in fact, that my children (a boy, almost 7, and a girl, almost 10) both insisted that I set the VCR to record the JYW 4th of July US vs. UK challenge. Then when we began watching over at my folks' house and realized it was a *two* hour special edition, all plans for watching fireworks went right out the window, and we stayed put to see who could smash that Jetta the flattest.
The show is very well-done, and I think it's not only entertaining and funny, but one of the most educational shows on TV, teching basic physical and mechnical principles and reasoning seamlessly as an adjunct to the competition. Sure, the yard is occasionally seeded with stuff that would not typically be in a junkyard (propellers and a surprising number of running engines, for example), but that really doesn't detract from the incredible feat of inventing and fabricating a usable machine in only 10 hours. More incredible to me is how often very different approaches turn out to be quite closely matched when they compete.
This is truly one of the best shows on TV, and the only one my family watches on a regular basis! If you haven't checked it out, you owe it to yourself to do so, especially if you've ever harbored any leanings to be a mech hacker..
"The future's good and the present is nothing to sneeze at." - Roblimo's last
It's http://www.the-nerds.orgU :w ww.the-nerds.org/
I can't seem to connect to it right now, so here's google's cached page:
http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:bZ0Em0M02I
And the US version, of course, just had to have a more violent sounding name (it's a war, dude!)
Ever here of a VCR? Tivo isn't everything.
Come see my website.
http://come.to/streiff
im with you there... when parts start magically appearing when it comes competition time, you have to wonder if something is up.
I was under the impression that the (original) UK version was known as "Scrapheap Challenge".
Just to add further confusion Discovery Europe is broadcasting "Junkyard Wars" as "Scrapheap Challenge".
As I said in a previous post, both machines ALWAYS works, so I'm not surprised.
They do? Have you been watching the same show I have?
The shows have devices ranging from the functional but pathetic (Bowser's rugby ball crossbow, 2 sail land yacht) to the almost pathologically broken (Both the blimp and the plane on the radio-controlled bomber episode) to the so-bad-it's-embarrassing-to-watch (the Navy's amphib, which couldn't steer, float or move across water or land without the humans pushing/paddling.)
Eric
"Seven Deadly Sins? I thought it was a to-do list!"
if you found out that Jeopardy were rigged, what would you think?
Go watch 'quiz show' with ralph feinnes for the answer to this.
-Lx?
The shows have devices ranging from the functional but pathetic (Bowser's rugby ball crossbow...
My uncle and I theorize that Bowser is a plant. He's been on the show and lost both times, the second time in an incredibly embarrassing manner (rugby launcher). I suspect the producers seeded him in the competition so there can always be someone losing horribly.
-Lx?
In others (the rocket and steam engine episodes), the junkyard is stocked with pristine, new, tested parts.
;-)
Exactly, and if they ever go for my idea about "car-sized battle bots", they'd need to stock the junkyard with radio controllers and powerful servoelectronics.
Creativity with junk will be competing with crap.
And my favourite non-functioning machine: The Brother's in Arms' cannon that fired its barrel down the range.
B) Umm, I would kinda consider a sinking ship, or a dragster whose engine was attached backwards to both be pretty much total failures... _I_ would certinally think they were if I had been on the teams in question. Also the "bombers" episode where it worked out that the bomber to crash closest to the target pretty much took it also seemed like a pretty miserable (if hillarious) failure to me.
--
Remove the rocks to send email
On the whole, I find that I prefer Slashdot posts to twitter ones because I don't get limited to 140 chars before
>I am putting together rules for a micro version >of the game for SF Conventions.
A micro version of Scrapheap/Junkyard is effectively an old, but very similar UK TV series called 'The Great Egg Race', basically the same thing but on a smaller scale.
I don't know about sexiest (I find her rather annoying actually), but she certainly is a geek. She wears the same clothes in every single episode!
What is that outfit anyway? Is she an extra in a Mad Max movie or something?
>> each "sequence with an anchor" twice, once
>> saying "ScrapHeads", once saying "JunkYard
>> Wars".
Well, it's "Scrapheap" for one thing.
And if you watch the Robert Llewellyn shows very carefully, you will notice that he NEVER actually says "Junkyard Wars". And, in fact, occasionally you can catch him saying "Scrapheap". (Trust me, I have every single episode on tape).
You also occasionally can *see* the British name of the show, for instance in the one where they raised the car out of the lake, each car had "Scrapheap" painted on the side of it. (Also a banner with the show logo on the host truck in some of the remote challenges, and when trophies are awarded).
That's why they add those endlessly repetitive bumpers at the commercial breaks to remind you of the American name of the show, because the host doesn't say it.
Of course, this just applies to the ones that have aired so far. For the upcoming shows, they may well do something like you are talking about. I doubt it though, because it appears now they film separate American and British series, with separate hosts. Too bad, I really liked Llewellyn's style.
At least George Gray is out for the next series! I found him very annoying
Are you crazy? Of course there are people who know all of that stuff. Any good jazz musician has studied music theory, tone, pitch, chords, etc. for their entire life. But you're right, Britney and Christina couldn't have done it without those extra experts, which is why they *suck* and cannot be considered real musicians. And the music scene *is* the poorer for it. Bleh.
What are the odds that the presenters will "vote off" the losers in the category?
our survivors must build a hovercraft out of the surrounding flora and fauna. you have ten hours. begin!
And the 2002 winner of the reality tv emmy is.......... The Running Man Show!!!! Remember back to the early 80's where we all thought that the running man movie was written by a bunch of crack heads? Well, guess what: we're very near that now. I can't stand reality tv and I really don't think it should have it's own emmy.
For those of you who haven't activated the Sci-Fi news Slashbox, a complete list of Emmy nominations in all categories is available here.
- W. Blaine Dowler
http://www.bureau42.com
Isn't this kind of like Sir Killalot being nominated for a BAFTA?
No, you're not the only American who thinks the British host is way better. Not only does he make cool sounds (he has to mimic any motor he hears) but his jokes are much better.
And just because it's called Junkyard Wars over here doesn't mean that we don't get the "UK with UK guys." I think I've seen about 3 seasons' worth (or are we in the middle of the 3rd season?) and there has only been 1 season with US guys.
Apparently, of the rich, by the rich, for the rich.
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
will there also be categories for the best new game show with stupid host and eerie sound and lighting effects and catch-phrase-turned-pop-culture-cliche? that's my final answer, hahaha ha ha!
-- music nonstop. techo pop. --kraftwerk
Have you seen Series 7: The Contenders? I highly recommend this to anybody interested in reality shows and how they will end up.. The Contenders show is about killing people. The show people just give randomly chosen people guns and the goal is to survive by killing all other contenders..
Bullshit? Fine, then I won't share where you can pick up disk brake Ford 9" rears for $55... :-)
-pf, on the east coast
Make affiliate bucks
I just wanted to post to clear up a few misconceptions about Junkyard Wars. First off the reason some are U.K. and some are U.S. is because seasons 1-3 were in the U.K. Only the last season (season 4) was U.S. I don't know whether or not there will be any more U.K. versions, but hopefully there will be more U.S. Also the female host Cathy Rodgers is actually the shows creator and producer. According to the Junkyard Wars website she was inspired after watching the scene in Apollo 13 where the astronauts had to build an air filter after junk that was lying around the space shuttle. Another interesting thing to note is the british co-host Robert Llewellyn was Kryton on Red Dwarf. Hope that clears some things up.
Where are we going, and why am I in this handbasket?
Works for software too -- do the simplest thing that might work, and just maybe the features will outnumber the bugs introduced!
"Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever." --Napoleon Bonaparte
Depends. Plenty of times when things went radically wrong due to crap gear (the number of engines failing under pressure is a matter of record). And in the first series, the shortage of kit meant that only one team got a hovercraft built, and that had to be pushed.
Compare to the American version. Full roll-cages in the dragsters and off-road buggies - that doesn't happen in 8 hours with scaffolding poles! Sorry, it's American dumbing-down in action again, I'm afraid.
Grab.
Sure, they'll have something. But there's many cases where it has to be towed to the start line and never moves, or (in the case of the bombers or the submarines) where the only movement is down like a stone, or where it travels a few yards and then sheds its engine. Having "something" is no guarantee of having something that works!
Grab.
That's the point though, not everyone can. The expert comes up with a base idea, and it's then up to the team to try and make it happen, given the limited and rusty materials available. And then to keep whatever it is alive long enough to beat the opposition! :-)
:-) There's any number of wrong ways of doing stuff like that, and when they involve ppl standing around them, riding on them or operating them, you'd damn well better have an expert on hand to make sure everyone survives! And the time limit (regardless of if they get "tinkering time" allowed the next day) is restrictive enough without the extra hassle of having to experiment to find a way of doing something. For the more dramatic programs (the gliders and rockets, for instance), there is literally no way they could have done it without experts on hand; they would have had to have given them a less technical task, and the programme would have been poorer for it.
Be practical here - no-one knows enough about tractor pulls, drag racing, hang-gliders, high-pressure pumps, steam engines and rocketry to be able to design one of each successfully in a day. It isn't possible. You could maybe find two teams in the world who knew about all those subjects, and then they'd be blown out bcos none of them knew anything about balloons...
Grab.
Grab.
Sorry. I'm just tired of people defending all the "brainless drivel" on television by simply acccusing this bit of brainless drivel better than that bit... Blah blah blah. All of it succeeds for its purpose: to distract by entertaining. As long as people are entertained, they think they are happy, and when something bad happens, they just distract themselves again to "make it go away".
Now, if I may, I think I'm going to run for Congress.
Llewellyn, by a long shot! For one thing, i dunno quite what it is, but I get the impression that RL is a person first, an actor second, and the guy who played Kryten third. His overall demeanor suits the show better and his rapport with what's-her-name (keep her!) is better. RL is apparently a genuinely funny man and it shows when he's talking but not to the camera. I just hope that someone, anyone, will get rid of the Zappa kid on Robotica. The guys on Battlebots are even far superior to him.
I remember in an episode where the goal was to build cannons, and one of the teams failed the first two times, then the third time succeeded but still lost due to not hitting the target :-P. Contestants getting 'help'? Maybe. Fixed? I doubt it.
________
http://www.rdfmedia.com/about/cathyrogers.htm
http://www.llew.co.uk/scrapheap/cathys-corner.h
Marine Research (The band she's in)
http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~queenb/index.
Is it good enough for me to shell out for cable television?
If it is, could someone tell me what channel it's on?
Who cares if key components are planted in the junkyard? The contestants do not win any money. They do not have dreams of becoming reality TV celebrities. They take time off work, fly off to who knows where and spend a full day welding and getting sweaty and dirty. They compete "for the glory." I relate to these people more than any of the 'pretty faces' on Big Brother or Real World.
Oh, wait, I forgot us in the US prefer totally scripted "reality" shows (if you think Junkyard Wars is scripted, whoo-wee!!) that make us yearn for the fake life that seemingly only the advertiser's products can deliver.
It is a really, really sad state of affairs... not that there are shows like "Survivor" and "Temptation Island", but that there are humans that take time out of their own lives to watch them.
==============
Department of Homeland Security: Removing the rights real patriots fought and died for since 2001
Well, what gets me is that no matter how badly a team falls behind in their construction, they always manage to finish just in time. I know that they are supposed to get tweak time the next morning, but they always at least have something to tweak. No one ever fails to get to the starting line.
:-)
There's a difference between having a badly designed entry and having *no* entry, and that's where things get fishy with this show. But I can't help loving it anyway
Actually, in some of the older shows, the host actually refers to "Scrapheap" in a way that makes it clear that it's the name of the show (ie. not just a generic term for a heap-of-scrap, or yard-of-junk).
Now the really funny bit would be if they filmed two versions of the US vs. UK special: one with the US winning, and one with the UK. Kinda like the two versions of Godzilla vs. King Kong (which really annoyed me 'cause I was always a Godzilla fan).
BTW, am I the only one (or only American) who thinks that the British male host was better than the US guy?
Hmm, I wasn't sure about this; it does look like english scrap, but I thought maybe the increased safety precautions on the US shows was due to our wonderful healthcare system (ie. cover the cost of the treatment by filing a frivolous lawsuit against whoever you can). Maybe this is too cynical; then again, I guess as long as they are Americans, they still have private insurance, so...
(BTW, if you don't know what I'm talking about, look at the shows with similar challenges. For example, UK drag racing: find an old seat, bolt on a crappy two-piece roll cage, and off you go. US drag racing: give both teams specialized racing seats with five-point harnesses, demand a full roll cage that probably doubles the weight, etc.,etc.)
Also congrats to the Daily show. I laugh my ass off watching that. They deserve to win.
--- http://homepage.mac.com/gregjsmith
Since the machines on Battlebots aren't even true bots (they are remote-controlled, not self-controlled) I think it is considerably less cool than Junkyard Wars, where at least the people actually use the right words.
I was under the impression that the (original) UK version was known as "Scrapheap Challenge".
Where's "Buffy"?
"The WB has some superb programming, and there's no reason why that shouldn't be reflected somewhere. It's tough to break through the consciousness of a significant body of professionals.", wittered an Emmy spokesthing.
More like, "There's a bunch of old fossils on the board who think Frasier is "kewl""
-- Free Luna!
It's pretty obvious the outcome of the show is predetermined, as stated numerous times already (pop this trunk here... oh whatdya know... a roll of tin foil). What I really hate about the show, is how they dumb down the technical side of the show to the point where they are often incorrect. As a person who has worked on engines, cars etc all his life, I can tell you most of the explanations of what the people are doing on the show is simply incorrect. Not to mention that a lot of the designs are just silly.
Be practical here - no-one knows enough about tone, pitch, rhythm, lyrics and music theory to be able to come up with a good album. It isn't possible.
Wow, I have to be totally offtopic and lose Karma, but I feel my religion compels me to, whatever my religion may be.
TONE: I'm a trained musician. I have no idea what the hell there is to know about tone. A guitar sounds like a guitar; a piano sounds like a piano. You don't have to invent the harpsichord to play music.
PITCH: Play an E on a keyboard (it's the white key right after any pair of black keys) and tune your guitar's low string to it. This did not take me six years at Harvard to accomplish.
RHYTHM: Study in this will make for very interesting music (try the album "Take 5" by Dave Brubeck), but most rock bands, even those considered "good", use some variation on a 4/4 "bass hat snare hat" beat, which can be taught to a monkey in ten minutes. I don't think Fiona Apple or Paula Abdul have ever used anything else.
LYRICS: Personally, I think "classes" in lyrics are bogus. Anyone who reads and who has some sense of creativity knows what kind of lyric is powerful to them and what kind of lyric is weak. And anyone can identify a throwaway lyric ("lollipop, lollipop, oh, lolli lolli lolli"), which the majority of the population can enjoy anyway.
MUSIC THEORY: You don't need to know music theory to be a successful band. Most songs are written in C or G, sometimes E, depending on the style; an average person can pick up all the chords in these keys in a week or two, and learn from a buddy, or the internet. If you want to write complicated, interesting rock, 2-3 years of music theory classes at a university wouldn't be a bad idea. If you want to be Beethoven, you need to go a little further, but most rock groups don't even *like* Beethoven.
One of the appeals of rock music is that it's music for the people, by the people. (This is, of course, as opposed to pop music, which is music for the consumers, by the corporations.) Given a year or two of casual study, anyone can write a song like "House of the Rising Sun". Whether it is "good" is more a matter of personal creativity and public opinion than anything else.
Keep in mind that only one member of the Beatles (and, for that matter, one member of R.E.M.) could even read music.
Also, keep in mind that many people are in love with what might be considered "bad" voices (Bob Dylan, Thom Yorke).
Anyway, this has nothing to do with junkyard wars - I just hate to see people being heretical.
"Beware he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he deems himself your master."
...before choosing a winner in the reality TV category!
/.'s own making a complete fool of himself on national TV. (And getting PAID for it - I usually make a fool of myself for free!)
Seriously, I do have an audition down there this week... so keep an eye out, and you might see one of
-The salvage episode, when one team's equipment pretty much fell apart.
-The cannon episode, when one team couldn't get their projectiles through their barrel.
-The amphibious vehicle episode, when a collision and a poor design caused one boat to take on water and spin in circles.
-The non-wheeled vehicle episode, when both teams had severe failures.
-The demolition episode, when the hydraulic arm broke a weld, was re-welded, developed a coolant leak that was solved by constantly pouring water in, broke a hydraulic fluid line, had that welded back on, and just barely lost.
-The bomber episode, when the airplane team couldn't manage sustained flight.
-The boat rescue episode, when the boat made from a bunch of barrels welded together flipped over after the first turn.
-The hovercraft episode, when the dual engine hovercraft was slow and unstable before crashing and being critically damaged.
I'm sure there are more I'm either forgetting or leaving out on purpose because the failure wasn't interesting enough, and I can't seem to see any but the first two episodes of the UK season 3...
I hate that show because I spend 45 minutes enjoying the chefs and the humor and watching the food get cooked and then its midnight and the food is done and they are eating it and I'm starving and only a 5 * restaurant gourmet meal will satisfy me at that point....
"This is where god would go if he wanted to get off blow!"
How about taking old PC Hardware building systems... and load testing for computer junkyard wars?
A good friend of mine was a five-time winner (and hence also championship contestant) on Jeopardy. I was in the studio audience while three of his games were being filmed. There was no help from Alex or anyone else involved. Not saying the same is true for all game shows, but Jeopardy seems to be pretty honest.
--
When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a skull.
He said that the experts know what the challenge is beforehand - they submit a tentative design and a list of critical parts - but the actual teams don't know until it starts.
In fact, if you go to the Channel 4 website you can see what appears to be the expert's design brief for each show; e.g.: The Airship.
Creativity with junk will be competing with crap.
While it may be true, Bobo resents that. He's built with junk, but he's definitely not crap.
Remember, to apply to get onto Junkyard Wars, you have to submit a videotape of you and your team explaining how a machine works. What better machine to explain than something built in the Junkyard Wars tradition?
You'll like Bobo. He's very strong. You can see him here.
Fire and Meat. Yummy.
My uncle and I theorize that Bowser is a plant. He's been on the show and lost both times...
Except for the first time he was one (tug-of-war dragsters) where his team won.
Anyways, if you want to get technical and metaphorical, Battlebots is about creating something new and unique, attacking it to test its flaws, and then fixing its mistakes or rebuilding it stronger. I know of no other "true hacker" spirit than that.
Magius_AR
In spring 2001 TLC showed an all-american show with american teams. It was filmed at the original scrapheap site in London. They had a final 2 hr episode with the winners of the 2000 british series.
There are 2 new series that are being filmed, or have been filmed at a new location in California. These are now separate for the UK and US markets, and will not cross over. There is a new host, a Canadian Tyler ??? (Can't find the last name right off hand). See This discussion for a photo
Fans are waiting impatiently for the new series to air in the fall!
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The result was pretty good though. At 15psi they blasted that pumpkin a long way! I would have loved to see them do a bore sight and blast the castle to smithereens. The scoring was a bit unclear, and they were running out of time, so they decided to go for the "glory shot" and try to lob one into the middle of the castle. The wind took it outside the target and they lost. The winners trebuchet landed one piece of a shattered pumpkin against the wall of their target, and won.
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Hopefully Robert Llewellyn won't forget about his post as laundry-bot and part-time science officer gig on Red Dwarf! I heard rumors that they are working around his schedule in Junkyard Wars, but I see new Junkyard Wars shows, not Red Dwarf shows or movie. Don't forget about us little people in cult sci-fi fandom!
Well, your fingers weave quick minarets; Speak in secret alphabets;
std::disclaimer<std::legalese> sig=new std::disclaimer; sig->dump(); delete sig;
... is in armchair quarterbacking the designs. I love sitting there yelling at the TV about some stupid design decision they're making.
On the July 4th car crusher episode, I was craking on to my wife about how the hydraulic system would bend the frame of their crusher. Happily for the Yanks, it did.
And on the diving bell episide, I was screaming "No, no, you idiots! Those bellows will NEVER generate the air pressure that you need!"
And I loved that pumpkin chunkin' trebuchet design. Too cool.
-S
--- What parts of "shall make no law", "shall not be infringed", and "shall not be violated" don't you understand?
I like the show regardless of the seeding of the junkyard and the hosts talking to the teams to fix major technical flaws.
What I REALLY want to see is either A) a team not finish their project (or at least not celebrate when they barely finish it), B) a design totally fail when it is time for the competition.
Once again I have no problem with the seeding of the junkyard with cars and compressors, but it does take away some of the more innovative engineering tasks. Of course if a team had to perform a major overhaul on an engine they would require more than a couple of hours.
"Fixed" means a winner is decided before hand. Think Don King. What you mean is the competitors get a little help. Some people might argue this is crap and ruins the spirit of the show, but would you like to see a couple of hovercrafts that didn't work? Or just 1 that worked? Of course not, and because TLC needs some ratings as well as a cool show, the junkyard is seeded.
P.S.- I've also heard that in Britain there are laws about the quality of parts, so, (let's take the rockets, for instance) the engines are certified and seeded in the junkyard.
No sig for you.
Appears quite interesting... Author is listed as Robert Llewellyn, hopefully not ghostwritten...
Now if only they'd show the first season episodes on TLC sometime soon...
"You can take our lives, but you can never take our Flerbage!!!!"
IIRC, on one episode where they were building an off-road buggy, one team had to abandon an engine that was too far gone to be saved and ended up having to go back out to scrounge up another one. In a later episode, one team planned ahead by bringing back two engines in case one didn't work, thus saving a trip.
Combine Junkyard Wars with Survivor and have them build their housing, transportation, etc. out of "select" rubble, then fight over meager resources, similar to the plot of a Mad Max movie. The theme of the competition? When one team loses or their contraption fails, the entire team gets voted off and the remaining teams can battle for the engines, etc. that once belonged to the losers for their next project.
"It looks like the Bodgers are gonna have a go at an old green monochrome monitor while the Megalomaniacs came up with an old radar screen that was once used in the terminal at London's Heathrow airport..."
A while later, one team member is picking himself up off the ground, dazed and confused, with smoke coming from his now frazzled hair: "Well, they don't call it a flyback for nothing!"
After they're done assembling them: "That's a nice crisp picture of Rimmer on the Bodger's set, but he looks a wee bit on the sick side, kinda green... And the Megalomaniacs have... no horizontal or vertical output, just a blip on the center of their screen?" The team leader replies: "Oh, that's the Red Dwarf coming in for a landing..."
You get the picture. (Or you don't. Instead you see sparks and smoke coming out the back.)
Kryten, unpack Rachel and break out the puncture repair kit.
A VCR is a primitive analog recording system used for capturing video at low resolution with significant signal degradation on a rust-impregnated mylar ribbon. It's what people who don't care about engineering choose for time-shifting television programs.
And, yes, Tivo *is* everything. If you don't own one, you would not understand. My VCR has been on a total of one time in the last seven months: When I received a VHS video with my new car.
Unlike Battlebots, women aren't just window-dressing. In fact, Cathy Rogers, who created the show and co-hosts it, it both insightful and intelligent, (not to mention attractive).
If you don't watch it, start. If it's on at inconvenient time, tell your Tivo to record it. If you don't have a Tivo... well, then you are probably not the type of person who would really enjoy the show anyway.
Yeah... I clearly remember the time when some guys were trying to built a RC balloon to drop a bomb. They couldn't find a plastic good enough for the envelope. Then they found a complete brand new roll of Millar (just perfect), in trunk of an old car... Yeah...
Also, both machines ALWAYS works... At least a bit.
Keep in mind that this is TV entertainment, not a real competition.
Nobox: Only simple products.
As I said in a previous post, both machines ALWAYS works, so I'm not surprised.
Nobox: Only simple products.
Keep It Simple, Stupid.
It seems to me that it's always the simplest machine that wins. Insightful...
Nobox: Only simple products.
For those of you actually wondering about the difference between Junkyard Wars (US, with US guys) and ScrapHeads (UK with UK guys), well, there isn't any. It is just the same show, with two different names for each border of the big pond.
TLC basically broadcasts both (they even had a super finale US vs UK (US won) for the Fourth of July). Sure they change the male anchors between the two.
I'm basically thinking that they shoot each "sequence with an anchor" twice, once saying "ScrapHeads", once saying "JunkYard Wars".
Nobox: Only simple products.
It wasn't a suprise at all. Why would TLC have the U.S. lose on its birthday?
So climate's changing. So what? It has always changed. The big news would be if it wasn't changing. - Dr. Philip Stone
I think Junkyard Wars would be much better if it weren't rigged (junkyard stocked in advance with useful parts, etc.) Yes, it would be difficult if not impossible to make these great machines without providing parts, hey could still make it an interesting show by simplifying the assignments (have the contestants make less complicated machines) or by being more up front about the rigging (give each team a working engine and other necessary parts at the start, and say exactly what they have been given)
Here in Holland it is on the Discovery Channel
I'm not sure what you are eluding to, but TLC is a Discovery Network channel. As a matter of fact, the TLC site is under Discovery.com.
"The guide is definitive, reality is frequently inaccurate."
Must the fascination with redefining the term "hacker" with a positive connotation govern moderation criteria as well?
To say Battlebots is only about destruction is silly.
I think it is kind of stupid how they get experts on whatever kind of thing they are trying to build to design the machines for them. Anyone can build something. The real challenge is designing the machine to build.
Sure, Junkyard Wars is cool, but the new season of Battlebots is cooler.
All of the arena hazards got a 5x (yes, five times) improvement in motor power (they didn't look all that wimpy last year, but they're positively rocking this year), and the saws and hammer were improved to increase destruction capability.
The contestants have clearly been improving their bots, too. They're heavier and stronger.
And when the saws or one of the bots flips a 300-lb contestant 10 feet into the air, it's massively cool.
I give it 10, maybe 20 years before the show turns into a live-action MechWarrior. Probably with a tie-in to Junkyard Wars, if everyone's smart.
The only degradation year-to-year: they changed spokesmodels and now it's that plastic-surgery disaster, Tracy Bingham. Hey! She weighs maybe 100 lbs, she's half-lexan, and she's got the brains of a remote-controlled car; maybe the plan is she should get in the arena! See how far she'd fly off the kill-saw...
--Blair
"Claimer: I'm not connected to the show in any way except via my eyeballs."
<whisper>Here in Holland it is on the Discovery Channel... </whisper>
Snake_dad (desperately holding on to his karma...)
karma capped
I'll crawl back under a rock now :-)
karma capped
...deserves an award for the parody of Iron Chef that they did a while back..
Charlie Sheen was hosting, and was 'American Bachelor chef', and he was challenging Iron Chef Japan (?) played by Horatio Sans... The theme ingredient was Shark heads, and Sans infused some rice with Eel farts (they were 'a little salty').
it was by far the funniest thing I've seen on television in months.
A: None. The Universe spins the bulb, and the Zen master merely stays out of the way.
The fact that Junkyard Wars was included means nothing. Survivor is going to take the award, regardless of it's (lack of) merit. This entire reality TV trend makes me ill... in 15 years people won't even know what real is.
A: None. The Universe spins the bulb, and the Zen master merely stays out of the way.
Mod me a troll? what garbage...
i may be pessimistic, but you can't possibly think that Survivor, Big Brother, or Temptation Island isn't going to get the award.
the whole reason that this category EXISTS is to placate CBS w/ Survivor, and now that they've created the category, do you think they're going to have a sudden bout of artistic integrity?!
this is a garbage category, and in the grand tradition of hollywood, the 'best reality tv show' will be awarded to the most popular show. which, despite it's following here, is not junkyard wars.
A: None. The Universe spins the bulb, and the Zen master merely stays out of the way.
Yes, the British show "Scrapheap Challenge" is relabeled by TLC as "Junkyard Wars." Until the recent all-US version, that's all Junkyard Wars was. But TLC's ratings for the relabeled Scrapheap Challenge have been terrific, so they contracted with RDF Media and Cathy Rogers to produce an all-US version of the show.
And yes, Robert Llewellyn (the British host) is much better than George Gray (the American host). I find it amusing that two cast members from Red Dwarf have jobs as gameshow hosts. Craig Charles (who plays Lister) hosts the British show Robot Wars while Robert Llewellyn (Kryten) hosts Scrapheap Challenge/Junkyard Wars UK.
Apparently, British viewers got to see the US vs. UK championship back in December 2000. I'd discovered that website months back and studiously avoided reading too much on there because I wanted to be surprised by the outcomes of the shows.
By the way, the first season of the all-US version of the show was shot in England at the same junkyard as the British version. The second US season will be shot at an American junkyard in California (and is probably being filmed right now).
"the only out and out lie that they tell; they say that contestants don't know what the challenge is until they hear it"
The experts submit the lists of materials. It is quite possible that the contestants (i.e. the other three people on the team) do not know in advance what the project is.
*** Where are we going? And what's with this handbasket?
"Another element I enjoy is the feeling of good-sportsmanship between opponents. "
I think we saw more of this in the UK version than in the US version of the show. IIRC, there were a couple of teams that were rather disrespectful to the opposition.
*** Where are we going? And what's with this handbasket?
Check out:8 :w ww.the-nerds.org/on-seeding.html+&hl=en
http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:3Sa9bLOTFk
Here is the text of the article:
Seeding the scrapheap
People have noticed that this junkyard is pretty unique in the breadth of its contents. The usual cry is "its fake". Here is a discussion from someone that has climed the Canning Town piles, in search all sorts of things. The short answer: It is part of a real scrap yard, and its contents are tailored by adding and removing items, to the particular challenge. This tailoring doesn't decrease the challenge significantly.
First off: it helps to understand the purpose of the show -- its stealth science education - tricking 10 year old kids into watching an explanation of how a wing works. They sit thru the mini-lectures bcause they get rewarded afterwards with a shot of someone making precision adjustments with sledgehammers. When chosing challenges, its the education that drives the choice. The competition is partly to make it addicting, and partly to give the kids the idea that actually designing and building something might be a lot of fun.
Yes, this is a "rich" junkyard. There are all sorts of neat things to find. And unlike some, there is a lot of stuff that isn't metallic. (usually its construction debris -- the plywood we found had clearly been a concrete form in a prior life) -- Its mostly what you get, when you don't have the yard workers picking over the good bits. The set was a corner of a real working scrap yard. On the other side of the wall, there are cockneys in hydraulic claw loaders, tossing cars thru the air. You have to wear a hard hat when you go to the bathroom. (its out by the truck scales). When stocking the yard between episodes, the random lumps of steel plate are just dumped over the wall from what they have sitting around. But yes, they will add extra stuff to make it possible to complete building a machine.
The basic rule for seeding: If its not possible to safely improvise a part with the time and tools provided, they will provide something that can be pressed into service. It will require some ingenuity to make it work, it will never "just bolt on". If there are specific safety regulations, the relavant parts will always be provided. For example, things like safety valves, regulators, and gas tanks will be planted, and will have their certification paperwork sitting in the directors briefcase. (and if we happen to find such a part that isn't one of the known good ones, they don't let us use it) A good example: The propellor that the navy crew hacked up was provided. Any propellor they could make in the time they had (no time for glue to dry to laminate) would not have been safe to run up to speed. Another example was the tank and regulator used by the Dipsticks submarine - The tank had a current hydro test, and the regulators used were new.
But: Just because they give you a part, that doesn't mean its clear sailing. For example the wheels in the tractor pull. Sure they were there, but none of the differentials in the yard came close to fitting the bolt circle. If you wanted to use them, you had to make it work.
And this brings up another point: That same helpfull crew that hides essential parts, can just as easily remove them. They made sure that there wern't matching differentials for those wheels. In the fire fighting boat episode, there wasn't a pump to be had. Both teams had to make a pump. And not just a wimpy one, the burning shed was supposed to be 50 feet away.
*** Where are we going? And what's with this handbasket?
It's better to think of the setting as a large pool of raw materials, tweaked to better present solutions to a given problem, rather than as a junkyard. It was clear to me early on it wasn't a junkyard when they "found" a roll of mylar in a car trunk. However, it made for a good show and allowed a nifty design to be finished, so I sputtered for only a moment. Also, much of the setting is not rigged for each show. On the UK episodes of Junkyard wars, Which season I don't recall, there is a plane that is progressively gutted for parts over seveal different shows. Essentially, it seems they keep the same pool of resources, adding in new bits appropriate to the current task so the show's projects can be completed and played with.
If you think they are overacting, then you haven't been subjected to Robotica yet. Ahmet Zappa is probably the worst host I have ever seen. He is purely a distraction from any kind of educational value the show might otherwise have.
It would also be rather nice if they had real robots instead of glorified R/C cars (IMHO).
-----
Bow before my sig, for it is good.
to accept an Emmy, weld it into an obscene gesture, and spray the audience with oil. For an old A-team addict, the show is my crack cocaine.
"Get them before they get....
Coach
Perhaps the world's greatest tragedy is that ignorance is not impotence.
Cathy, of course, is bright and lovely. A treat. p-Coach-
Perhaps the world's greatest tragedy is that ignorance is not impotence.
Just another possibility...
I actually suspect that the aforementioned set of experts is a bigger influence on the choice of machine.
-Coach-
Perhaps the world's greatest tragedy is that ignorance is not impotence.
The challenge the show has is to continually come up with interesting challenges that people will want to watch. Nobody'd tune in to watch the 7th episode of two teams building skateboards.
-Coach-
Perhaps the world's greatest tragedy is that ignorance is not impotence.
While I'm sure that they do give them some extra off-camera time where necessary, the fact is that they DO show unsuccessful trials.
While I'm sure we're not seeing everything that goes on, it's still true that not all of the machines work.
-Coach-
Perhaps the world's greatest tragedy is that ignorance is not impotence.
The show is about the science and mechanical engineering and competing designs. Hopefully the audience learns why hovercraft hover and the contestants can come up with machines that actually work. (by the way, sometimes they work VERY little; remember the "torpedo" speedboat that flipped and sank in the second turn of the first lap?)
The producers could force the contestants to only use stuff from an unstocked junkyard, but the chances of them ever (much less in 10 hours) coming up with a serviceable machine that does much of interest is pretty slim.
There's only so many times you can build "a car". If you want to do skyrockets you have to have some kind of usable rocket propulsion; which you're not going to find in the average junkyard.
-Coach-
Perhaps the world's greatest tragedy is that ignorance is not impotence.
I'm sorry man, Bobby is a freak. George may not be the best host, but our British friend tries WAY to hard.
Even if it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, you can't be sure until you see the RealDuck
Back on topic: there is a good site (lost the URL) by one of the teams that states how and why the stocking is done.
The NERDS (New England Rubbish Deconstruction Society) had a site at http://www.the-nerds.org/, but it seems to be out of commission.
You can still see google's cached copy here.
Promote proofreading. Don't mod up sloppy posts.
First a Peabody Award and now two Emmy nominations... Jon Stewart and co. will have to stop claiming all those fake "World's Best Golfer" awards and start listing the real ones.
I'm glad to see one nomination is for the writing... the writers on The Daily Show show deserve special recognition.
-Geoff
Praise "Bob"
You're building a cool toy, and didn't provide a URL? C'mon, c'mon, c'mon. Let me see it!
:)
Well, for fear of swamping my meager 1Mbps connection, here you go:
http://www.ryanwright.com/hover/
Plenty of pictures for your enjoyment. The project is 1.5 years in the making and should be completed by next summer. That is, if I don't run out of money again.
-Ryan, with the unoriginal sig
I would decidedly not used the word fixed. The outcome is not predetermined.
...
Thank you for the clarification. It certainly adds new clarity to the situation, considering my last statement, "What isn't rigged is the outcome: It's a real competition with real winners and losers."
Unless that particular show was an extreme abberation, the team *experts* are the ones who stock the junkyard.
Experts, Leaders, The Guys Showing The Team How To Build The Device. Does it really matter?
But is it "fixed". No. The teams are genuinely out there trying to win.
(sigh)
-Ryan, with the unoriginal sig
Yes, the show is fixed. Not too long ago, they built a couple of hovercraft on Junkyard Wars. I am building a hovercraft of my own (a real one, not made out of junk) and have spoken with both of the team leaders who built the crafts on Junkyard Wars. Basically, they submitted a list of necessary parts to the producers, who then stocked the yunkyard. Also, in addition to the two days of filming, they used a 3rd day off-camera to finish up their hovercrafts.
:)
If you'll recall, one of the guys carved a prop out of a piece of "old" burnt wood - yes, he really did carve that prop from scratch! But the wood wasn't old. It was a brand new piece of wood specifically selected for the purpose, and the Junkyard Wars crew burnt it for them beforehand.
So yes, the show is rigged, but you have to give them some credit: How could you possibly have entertainment otherwise? They certainly wouldn't be able to build most of what they do if the junkyard wasn't stocked. What isn't rigged is the outcome: It's a real competition with real winners and losers.
-Ryan, with the unoriginal sig
We're not talking about Survivor dope, it's Junk Yard Wars. It's one of the few shows on TV that has something to do with using your brain. Maybe you should watch it before commenting, or running for Congress. By the way, the country is going to hell because of pseudo-intellects who dabble in politics like others dabble in watercolors.
They deserve any recognition they get, one of the best shows on TV. That's not saying much since most of the stuff on is brainless drivel, which some of the lame posters probably like.
Seems like the Emmys are really scraping the bottom of the barrel this time. Man, it's getting harder to find good TV shows nowadays, isn't it?
Being a smartass is a much better thing than being the alternative.
A good friend of mine was a five-time winner (and hence also championship contestant) on Jeopardy. I was in the studio audience while three of his games were being filmed. There was no help from Alex or anyone else involved. Not saying the same is true for all game shows, but Jeopardy seems to be pretty honest.
As a former contestant (I came in 2nd, got a trip to SF), I can confirm this. US game shows are STILL reeling from the quiz show scandals of the '50s, and go to great lengths to prevent any "contamination" of the contestants.
Now, back on topic. I don't think the OP was saying that Jeopardy was rigged, he was using the concept of rigged Jeopardy as an example.
Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
While it's sometimes obvious that they've seeded useful bits around the junkyard, in one way the show appears to be anything but fixed.
Is it just me, or do the U.S. teams seem a lot more dependent on their experts ("what *is* a hovercraft?" comes to mind)? It makes me wonder if this is post-1950s game show laws coming in to play: they can't propose challenges based on what the contestants know.
...laura
Keep in mind that this is TV entertainment, not a real competition.
Exactly. While part of me would like to see some failure, most of me just wants to be entertained. Besides, what good is a hovercraft race if only one can hover?
"Genetic engineering lets us fix god's horrible, horrible mistakes...like German people."
"I strongly urge both the faint of heart and the faint of butt to leave the room at this time."
- Strong Bad
1. the producers encourage different approaches, it makes the show more interesting. however the team captain is free to IGNORE the expert, as bowser did in the football-slinging contest.
2. did you see season 1 of JYW with robert? all dressed up mad-max style and doing "singin' in the rain"? puh-leeze. george gray wasnt NEARLY that annoying.
I personally enjoy the show, and have watched the episodes from England and the US. Some of the "projects" call for unique type items that you would never find in a Junkyard, so they have to plant them. I mean, if you really expect to find model rocket engines in a Junkyard..then you got some problems. Overall, I like watching the teams themselves, and I think the "hosts" could do with a bit of de-actifying, they seem to overact and overhype certain events. Thats about the only thing that bugs me, but I can supress the urge to slap my roommate just from the sheer cool factor of the show.
-- What it is, jive-turkey!
its still the best show ever.
transfer.to/twelve
"Fixed" is such a relative term. As for seeded parts, yes. In order to even have a show they would need to do so: - no junkyard has a working engine...they're pulled immediately for resale. - some parts you just don't find in a junkyard (rocket engines, steam boilers ... with certification)
But that doesn't stop me from being able to enjoy the show with my son (who may actually learn something in the process.)
I 100% agree. Why not ditch the tournament format and each show have 2 teams made up entirely of experts on the subject, and let them actually design, find, build... Having the experts tell the team exactly what parts to find and exactly how to put them together is just stupid.