The Cherpumple, the turducken of the pastry world, is three cakes and three pies in one and takes about five hours to make. It's a cherry pie baked inside a chocolate cake, an apple pie baked inside a yellow cake, and a pumpkin pie baked inside a gingerbread cake. This is all piled up, covered in a ton of cream cheese frosting, and served to those with only two days to live. The best description comes from the San Francisco Weekly: "The resulting slices were art: They looked like wedges of Earth's strata and tasted like roadside diner." We know one-third of the three men, Adam Carolla, who will make up the Cherpumple that is Top Gear USA on the History Channel and Jstas has Gas! provides 3,000 calories of advice to the new show.
You know what? This honestly doesn't make me cringe.
Even though the History Channel's "history" is alot of fluff, they strive for accuracy. They also have a certain amount of integrity and as was said, the advertising budget is not car heavy.
I think this is a good move. I'd rather see the show on network TV just because of the larger audience but it'd also hobble the show to the point of unwatchable.
I think the History Channel big wigs don't have alot to lose here and would be more likely to loosen the reins on the direction of the show.
Besides, the budgetary considerations from the massive income levels that the Discovery Channel and it's siblings generate would create a large pool of funding to match the production value of the U.K. show.
I also think that while the U.K. show is great in it's own respect, I have to wonder if we really want to duplicate it with an "American" twist. I mean, if this is going to be Top Gear America, then let it be American. Don't try to copy the U.K. show exactly. The humor doesn't work here, we don't have the same road laws or even vehicles and we don't have the same types of audiences. The TG OZ show was pretty bad the first season. But the second season flowed much better because they stopped trying to be the British example and made the Australian example. Let's see the American example where we don't fall in to the asinine stereotypes and make the social faux pas of mocking and entire country's population over a few ill-conceived misconceptions about small, regional population of a massive country.
If they hit 3 key things of the U.K. show, they will be successful IMO. They need to allow creative/artistic license. The U.K. production is very creative and it keeps the show fresh and exciting. They need to allow the unabashed honesty. The U.K. show seems like you are hanging out with your friends because there are no pretensions of production apparent at all. They make fun of things, they make fun of each other and they tell you what they think, for better or worse. The History Channel needs to stay hands-off and just back up the show. They are going to tick people off and as a good friend of mine says "There are people out there who will be offended by that and they need to know ahead of time that I just don't care."
You can put anybody on that show and as long as you allow them to be real people, it will succeed.
Remember, anyone with a copy of the original TGUSA pilot can collect their $5K right here.