December 3, 2012
I’ll be updating this blog every few minutes, so keep checking back.
American Chopper (Season 9)
The Last Build
In the series finale, the crews are under pressure to finish the 911, GAF and Venetian bikes. Cody goes after OCC with a revengeful prank as Chopper Live draws near. Sr and Jr find common ground in their relationship but are at odds over the new company.
This is not quite the end. There is still the 2-part build-off next week, which I will recap as usual. After that, not far down the line, I’ll do a short retrospective/recap of my coverage of the series, which I invite you all to jump in on and leave some comments.
And now, on with the show.
This week starts exactly where last week ended. (Jason: “I’m a real life industrial designer!” STILL FUNNY!)
“We had a good time with the R+D. We were able to blow stuff up.” -Senior, talking about last week’s outing to the shed shop, or whatever it was they were plugging last week.
This episode promises: Pranks, arguing, and disagreements. Hey, that’s how this show began! Anyway, Senior is frustrate that he and Paulie can’t see eye to eye on the bike. “It is starting to being back some of those old feelings… I’m at work at 7, he doesn’t come in until 11.” -Senior, and again, he said that way back in season one as well. anyway, for some strange reason, Senior keeps gathering his crew and telling them updates (“nothing is happening”) on the new business with Paulie. Why? Do they care? This has not affected them one bit, but Senior is trying to look good, like he is the victim, like he is the wounded party.
“Every business does business with a contract or agreement so we don’t have these problems.” -Senior
“I feel like I’m losing my mind.”-Paulie
They do a few minutes of the PJD build, a few minutes of the OCC build, then at 9:10 they go back to what every single viewer is dying to see- the preparations for the PJD demolition derby, where they will destroy the prank car OCC gave them last week.
And this was ALMOST IMMEDIATELY after Vinnie explained how little time they have to get the 9/11 bike done, and how fast they have to move on it. I guess Vinnie’s haterd of Senior, his refusal to work at OCC, won’t stop him from going with Cody to destroy two cars in their parking lot.
It wasn’t that impressive.
“It wasn’t the best prank.” -Senior, and he was right. It was pretty lame, despite Discovery editing it to show the same tepid crash six or seven times from about as many angles.
Paulie and Senior did one thing right. They decided to go out to dinner. The catch? No business discussed. Smart. I twent really well, just talking about whatever came to mind, and they both agree that they get along much better when business isn’t involved.
At about the midway point, the oft-ignored Venetian Bike was unveiled in Vegas. The build for this was largely ignored over the past few weeks. It was built by the OCC b-squad, and only rick went to the unveil. I said it before, the Venetian did not its money’s worth. Even Big Ass Fans got more promotion on the show.
Meanwhile, Paulie and the gang loaded up supplies and brought a truckload to Staten Island for disaster relief. I recognized the area.
The Memorial Bike was put back in shape and returned to NYC. Not to be too poetic, but there are worse ways the show could have ended.
As I write this, it is 9:47 and the American Chopper era is coming to an end. Senior is unveiling the GAF bike and there has been no indication that there will not be more shows. It seems that the decision to cancel was made without giving them the chance to do a real series finale. Of course, there are still two more shows, and two more chances to root against Senior in the build-off. While I more or less think that Paulie will win (people hate Senior and Jesse James is an ass) I would not be surprised if Fast N’ Loud won in a sort of passing the torch moment. I’m assuming they will all build bikes this time around, and as usual the vote will come down to a popularity contest.
It is now 9:51, after the break we get the last segment of OCC ever, though I would bet even money on some American Chopper specials down the road.
So how does the show end? At 9:55 Senior goes to PJD to look at the frame for the production bike, which he does not like.
“It doesn’t seem like we are good at doing business together.” -Paulie, right before they agreed to not work together for the sake of the relationship. That’s as close to a happy ending as this show could possibly give.
Mr. Blog's Tepid Ride 
Jesse James is a goniff
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I think the ending was the most honest segment of the show! I must commend Senior for actually listening to Junior for once. The prank was kinda lame, but it was excellent for PJD’s morale, lol!
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Yeah, especially Vinnie’s.
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Senior: “I never quit anything in my life.” I guess quitting on your family doesn’t count.
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That is sooooo true. Excellent!
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I think Senior wins buildoff. I mentioned this a year ago to you when Senior signed onto The Apprentice…OCC/Senior spent MILLION$ on his image…they even hired a crisis management agency to handle Senior’s image and OCC’s image..the Senior we see was molded and it worked. Kudos to OCC for fooling the public…But if it looks like a duck, sounds like a duck, etc. Even the ending last night, it just pains Senior to compliment his son..can’t even look at Junior in the face…kept staring at that stupid bike all the way up to the hug and walking out door. And Senior just showing up is just another example of his control and keeping his son on his heels — Senior wanted Junior to walk away from their parternership..now it will always be on Jr, not Sr. Just makes me sick and when he wins build off I am gonna start finger painting like Mikey! 🙂
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I hope you are wrong but you sound so right about Senior winning. I still think Fast N Loud but now I have doubts.
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I’ve come to the conclusion that the whole Paul1/Paul 2 production bike build was a “staged for reality TV” setup to pad the final episodes. Both Pauls are business persons running at least what appears to be successful shops. Business people would have sat down and decided there was a market for a bike they could sell at some price. Then they would have figured out the details like what motor they would use and what it would cost, what frame they would use and what cost, what tires and cost, etc. Then they would discuss how much custom detail Paul 2 could put on the bike,and what that would cost for each bike and finally what the production costs would be. Then Paul 2 would have gone to his shop and designed a bike around these specs. They would have agreed on when Paul 2 would deliver the bike and when production would start. All this phony crap about starting a new company never would have happened. It would be an OCC branded bike with a “designed by PJD” decal on it. There would have be a contract at the start that PJD would get a certain percentage of the profit on each bike.
One sure tipoff of the staging is that Vinnie is wearing the same Skilsaw T-shirt he wore last week when he and Rick met and talked. Either Vinnie has several Skilsaw shirts, Vinnie’s shirt is getting real ripe, or the “conflict” shots were filmed out of sequence. Also, Paul 1 is a very poor actor.
If you look at the scenes for OCC builds you see that Paul 1 no longer is involved in the design of a bike and the details of the builds to any extent. Paul 1 comes out, looks at the bike, says something to somebody, then goes back into his office. He doesn’t care that much about design any more.
So I think all the conflict and tension were staged. A “will Paul 1 and Paul 2 finally resolve their differences cliff hanger” scripted to put a positive end to the series.
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Totally true, I think, on all points.
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i have an idea for the show. senior is right but he has to make jr understand the need for joint company.my idea is a company called L.T.P. would be” limited tutal poduction” because if they build another bike toghthe they might go into production. they shpuld build two or three bike a year under that program i also liked seniors idea to make fuel injection now it would be jr turn to make a stab at there L.T.P bike !!!!
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