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Ask 'Junkyard Wars Diva' Cathy Rogers
Junkyard Wars (and the British Scrapheap Challenge) have long been popular with Slashdot readers. Now Cathy is co-host of a new show, Full Metal Challenge, that also involves teams building strange machines out of this and that. Take a look at this 'Cathy' fan site (and possibly her less interesting official biography), then ask away. (Usual Slashdot interview rules.)
No one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public.
Flamebait flamebait flamebait. This is simply a stupid stereotype. Oh, and British shows always play to the HIGHEST denominator? ( weakest link)
Oh, there are a tremendous number of stupid British shows; no one's disputing that. And there are plenty of highbrow American shows, for that matter. But there exists a specific problem with importing foreign (British or otherwise) TV to America -- it seems that it always has to presented as Foreign And Literary And Important for the expensive-wine-and-public-broadcasting crowd, or dumbed down for the Budweiser-and-pro-wrestling crowd. What's missing is the middle ground.
The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
Just because he lifts weights, doesn't mean he's dumb?
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
from the FAQ on the website (one of the replies to this parent has the link) they say (paraphrase)"Not only do we plant working/semi working materials, but if a team is having problems we even hint at stuff they might not have found"
I guess the lawyers would say "Well, it IS a junkyard, but its a junkyard where things have been planted. So technically, it's not lying"
The worst offender is "Trading Spaces" which does not indicate during the show that there is an entire team of workers behind the scenes that compelete most of the actual painting, sewing, etc.
blockquote:
Once inside, I met the sewing coordinator. The very existence of the sewing coordinator was for a long time a closely-guarded secret. His name was in the credits, but they never referred to him on camera. The need for a sewing coordinator is obvious; any given episode features a huge amount of sewing, some of it very complex, and the homeowners and designers simply wouldn't have time to do it all themselves. The sewing coordinator, therefore, stays behind the scenes and makes sure things get done on schedule. Later in the day, after he had finished all his tasks and packed up his equipment, I caught up with him and asked why he was never shown on camera. He explained that it was a logistical decision. Each episode, he pointed out, already features eight "characters," and adding a ninth would be tricky. Makes sense.
this taken from This behind the scenes review
It wouldn't be so bad if watching that show hadn't empowered me and my wife to completely redo everything when we moved into our town house! We painted every room, we re-floored the kitchen and basement, we fixed up dry wall, changed lighting fixtures and took down all the ceiling fans, put up shelving and cabinetry... pant pant pant,
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
Have any (and if so, which) of the constructs ever made you fear for your own life? I'm surprised none of them have ever had a major meltdown that sent the crews fleeing the scene.
I agree. They need to have more challenges like creating a rocket, or a cannon. Or better yet, have each project somehow involve turning the other team's project back into junk, thus completing the junkyard cycle of life.
WWJD.... for a Klondike bar?