Tag Archives: Junior’s Surprise

American Chopper: Junior Frustration

5 Nov

November 5, 2012

I will update this as the show progresses, so check back as the program airs for updated content.

American Chopper (Season 9)
Junior Frustration
With the Teutul’s new company seemingly at a standstill, Senior takes steps to initiate progress, sans Junior’s approval. Mikey provides much needed help to his busy brother, and PJD and OCC both stage unprecedented unveils.

Ah, just like the good old days.

“Are we playing good cop bad cop? No mind games?” -Jason, on his upcoming phone call to Paulie. This is a bad start.
“Jason’s a bit of a goofball… he just gets on my nerves.” -Paulie, who was visibly disgusted with Jason

Jason (with Senior in the background) called Paulie  to ask some basic questions about the design he sent over last week and Paulie more or less said ” you don’t know what means? Seriously?

“Innovative isn’t what you’re doing, repetitive is what you are doing.” -Jason, who obviously did not see 90% of the bikes he drew.

“I’d rather sit there and design at the lift than do drawings that often don’t work in 3 dimensions.” -Paulie, who obviously has seen 90% of the bikes Jason drew. Let’s be honest here- Jason is the kid who grew up tracing GI Joe comic books and got really good at drawing motorcycles. Paulie is the kid who started building GI Joe toys out of Legos and eventually got really good at building motorcycles. Who am I going to trust to design a bike? Easy answer- Paulie, because I’ve seen the shit Jason “draws,” with horse’s head, giant antlers,a nd of course the Build-Off bike that was not a bike but instead some flame-shooting sled that even hurt Senior’s back to lay on.

“I think before we get the ball rolling we should come up with some really cool nicknames.” -Jason, who was a TOTAL DICK during the call yet claimed that Paulie had an attitude. You know what, if I had a clown like Jason on the phone I’d have an attitude also. Put on Senior, not his little bobo.

Meanwhile, the Superbike build goes on at OCC. “It is a high-tech bike and the majority of it is over my head.”- Senior.

Senior called PJD himself and got a far different response. When an adult calls PJD on adult business he got an adult response. When a kid called PJD he got what Jason called “an attitude.” Hmm, what was the difference? Meanwhile, by mutual agreement, they put the commercial that Paulie was going to make for the OCC Cafe on the back-burner since they were both too busy. Honestly, I was more interested in that than the production bike.

It’s the grand opening of the OCC Cafe and the unveil of the Cafe Bike! It was also the debut (on tv, anyway) of Senior’s partner in the Cafe, Carlos Urbaneja. “You’re going to hear a lot from us in the future.” I bet the next we hear is that it goes out of business.

But more importantly, it is also the return of Mikey! With a short haircut! Paulie wants Mikey at the Cre8Play playground build. Not only is everyone from PJD busy, but Mikey will probably hang from the monkey bars and act all goofy. Mikey seemed happy to get back in front of the camera for a limited time. “I’m flattered anyone would want me back on the show.”

At about the half hour point, Vinnie called Rick to talk about the production bike merger. Neither had any idea what was going to happen, but Vinnie, as I’ve pointed out, is miserable about the thought of going to OCC. “I might have to take a stand on this one and say no.” “My deal when I started here (PJD) was that I wasn’t going back there (OCC).”

“He doesn’t want to come back.” -Rick, who also said “I think it is going to be a good thing.”

“So Mikey is coming instead of Paulie. Bit of a surprise.” – the disappointed Todd Lehman, founder of Cre8play. I’d be disappointed to.What kind of a message does it send that the man to whom you’ve given a ton of money not only can’t show up, but sends his brother who is not a builder and is no longer even associated with PJD? Meanwhile, count him in as, no surprise, someone who thinks a business deal with OCC is a bad idea. “It’s like a kamikaze mission.”

“I was wronged there. A lot of people were wronged there.”
“Evil things were done there, it is an evil regime.”
“They take advantage of you, in a bad way… over time, royalties and stuff like that.”
“It was a lot more than just leaving because you wanted to move on.”
“I’m not the only guy that got railroaded.”
“I don’t want to be forced to go over there, I’m not even willing to give it another try.”
“If I go over there, then I have to confront him (Senior.) I haven’t seen him in a few years, but I watch the show, and if he’s a changed guy then he’s just recently changed.”
“I don’t need OCC.”
(Are you going over there?) “I have to say no.”
“I thought things were going really well over here but my future is up in the air.
That’s all Vinnie, talking to Cody, and hinting at a lot of things I’d love to hear more about.

Somehow forgotten in all this is the bike OCC is doing for Big Ass Fans, whatever that is. If I were them I’d be a little upset since much of it is just taken from another bike they were already building for Senior and parts they had lying around the shop. Not sure they are getting their money’s worth.

NEXT WEEK:
YET ANOTHER DUMB BUILD-OFF, with OCC, PJD, Jesse James, the beards from Fast and Loud, and whoever else Discovery can shoehorn in. Probably the third mate from the Rambling Rose and one of the American Picker guys too.

American Chopper: A New Company

29 Oct

October 29, 2012

I am in the path of Hurricane Sandy. If I do not lose power, I will update this as the show progresses, so check back as the program airs for updated content.

The Ninth Season Premiere! I bet you had no idea that last week was the Season Eight Finale. Surprise.

American Chopper (Season 9)
A New Company
Senior and Junior start brainstorming the production bike, but the road is rocky from the start. First, the two bump heads when discussing design workflow. Then, when Junior leaves town, Senior hijacks control of the project.

Sounds like old times.  Paulie drags his feet, Senior takes charge, no one is happy, especially Vinnie, who likens working for OCC to a prostate exam. Why would he be working for OCC? Because that is where the bike will be produced.

“I want to get back to years ago, designing bikes on the lift, before we ever had anyone drawing pictures.” -Paulie, in an obvious shot at Jason. The OCC lawyer responded that they need the drawings for legal reasons. “You don’t build a building without drawings.” Well yes, but a motorcycle is not an office building. PJD now builds, and OCC for years built, just the way Paulie wants to do it. To be fair, as Senior pointed out, this is a production bike meant to be driven and must meet certain legal requirements. Which brings me back to my old point that OCC bikes are generally unrideable and only good (sometimes, when there are no antlers of horse heads mounted on them) to look at.

OCC, led by Skeeter, is still working on the high-performance sportsbike. Jim does a lot of the explanations for the camera, and he (plus Rick, as always) is one of the few OCC guys who comes across in a professional light. A little bland, but professional.

PJD is starting a build for Cre8play, a company that designs and fabricates heavy. Their stuff is very creative. Rachel came up with the idea of building a PJD playground instead of a bike. That kind of blindsided the guys from Cre8play. They came back with an idea for a quick unveil at a trade show. They need it to be done in a month.

As you can see from the picture, the project Paulie shook hands on tonight unveiled less than 2 weeks ago on October 16th. So American Chopper is (at least for that segment) only 2 weeks behind real-time.

9:26 is where the good stuff starts. That’s when Paulie calls Vinnie, fresh off his vacation, to tell him about the co-build. Vinnie’s face showed the whole story. PURE MISERY. “I always hoped they’d get back together as a family, not as a business.” Vinnie swore when he left OCC to never work for them again, and in the little interactions he has had with Senior in the years since, it is obvious he is still angry with Senior. “To be honest I am not happy about this.”

PJD starts on the playground, which will incorporate pieces up to ten feet long and need a lot of welding. In fact, it is really just a lot of steel work, like the old-days of Senior’s steelworks, which he later sold to his oldest son. How different from bike-building is doing the playground? They are using equipment that PJD hasn’t used since they fabricated their workbenches when the founded PJD.

Senior and his legal suit showed up at PJD with food from the OCC Cafe, for a sit-down about their project. Paulie wants to design and fabricate it at PJD, and build it OCC. Paulie wants to design it on the fly, but Senior wants to collaborate with the design. Senior wants it to be an entire collaboration. Not only does he want Jason in on it, but Senior wants to help design it too.

In the end, they seem to be leaning toward something similar to what they built together, just for a younger buyer.

“I don’t anticipate it going this smoothly in the future” -Paulie.

“I think Paulie is kind of draggin’ his feet a little bit.” -Senior, before he decided to get the monkey called Jason involved. “I’m gonna personally get this thing goin’.”

NEXT WEEK:
American Chopper (Season 9)
Episode 2
With the Teutul’s new company seemingly at a standstill, Senior takes steps to initiate progress, sans Junior’s approval. Mikey provides much-needed help to his busy brother, and PJD and OCC both stage unprecedented unveils.

Yup. Mikey’s back next week.