Tag Archives: American Chopper: Senior vs. Junior

American Chopper: Senior vs. Junior: Senior Reaches Out

26 Sep

September 26, 2011

I have been given no reason to believe anything the Discovery Channel shows on their commercials for American Chopper so I’ll just post the description from their website and we’ll see what’s what at the end.

Post-settlement, Senior tries to commission a painting from Mikey but gets mixed  signals from his son. OCC starts a build for a hybrid seed company and PJD works  on a modern build for a medical technology company.

Before you get too excited, there is no description for next week’s show but it is called Mikey’s Decision, so expect nothing to be resolved this week.

I think last week’s post covered the Senior/Mikey relationship pretty well so let’s just jump right in. But I will say this, no matter what else I and others say about Senior, he is making a move so give him a drop of credit.

The show opens and what are the odds of this? Two competing companies who make hybrid corn seeds have come to OCC to get a bike built. How many hybrid corn companies are there? Seriously, is this just a coincidence? But OCC can only do one and they pick a -get ready for this- father and son company, Beck’s Hybrids. And who went out to the seed place to do research? Jim who never seems to leave the office and Jason Pohl, who thinks it is funny or cool to say “motor-sicle.” The only other option is that he can’t say “motorcycle” properly and even I don’t think he’s illiterate. Annoying yes, ass-kisser yes, illiterate no. At any rate, OCC is going to build some sort of reverse trike that should look like it is ready to harvest corn. And in the “what are the odds of that?” category PJD just made a trike last week. But I am sure it is all a coincidence. OCC makes trikes every week, right?

PJD is building a bike for a medical research and supply company, Cepheid. And in a moment of TV history, we got to see someone stick a swab in Mikey’s nose for some sort of bacteria test. It was negative.

Cepheid makes medical technology, computerized testers and such, and the bike is going to incorporate some of their technology and the clinical look of the Cepheid products, charcoal grey and white, with some chrome. It would be clean and functional, with curves instead of edges, but as the build moved along Paulie was still poking around and trying to figure out what he wanted in the bike. Brendon and Vinnie were not totally sure what Paulie had in mind since, as usual, there were no plans or diagrams to work from and Paulie seemed vaguer than usual with his ideas. In fact, Brendon seemed to have a clearer idea than Paulie this week.

But unclear plans are also a problem at OCC. Jason saw that the frame wasn’t like the plans he made. Why? Because he didn’t take into account the way bikes are built and knew nothing about the structural integrity of the frame. And he had the nerve to say that the fabricators would have to work around it. Work around it? Why not make plans that are buildable to begin with? At least Mike Ammirati (and I think I spelled that right) had the balls to get pissed and curse at him. After Jason walked away, of course. He knows which side his bread is buttered on, and getting Senior’s pet angry at you is not a good idea.

Paul Senior got involved in the build by cutting pipe and some metal work, which you have to admit he is good at.

Senior said that “Mikey is persuaded easily” and blamed Paulie for keeping Mikey away from him. I do agree with the easily persuaded part, but I don’t think Paulie is actively keeping them apart, I think it is a case of Mikey wanting to fit in with Paulie so he goes with Paulie over his father. Senior did say that both of them “did some damage” and seemed a little more honest than usual. That might be because he was away from the shop, by the water with is wife. In front of the guys or in the shop he is all bluster and bluff, but he let his guard down a little and- for a second!- seemed human. After some thought, Senior decided to go to Mikey’s studio with no cameras. (About time!) Hopefully, they could talk about painting and his life and not get into anything with Paulie or OCC. If he came up with it himself, I think it is a very good move.

And for those of you who remember the late, lamented Gus, Senior played around with a younger dog of the same breed. I have  no clue if Senior already owned that dog before Gus died, but he showed more love to his dogs than anyone else on that series.

Meanwhile, in a feat of amazing timing, Senior showed up and missed Mikey by ten minutes.

Senior left his number with the receptionist and asked her to call him when Mikey came in, so of course Mikey didn’t want her to call back. (And neither did she.) Mikey, and here I think he is being a total tool, said that he wanted to take baby steps, like emails. Hey Mikey- YOU STOPPED ANSWERING HIS EMAILS! Remember when you were supposed to meet him for lunch and you didn’t show up? Remember when you made therapy a condition of seeing him and he went and you still wouldn’t meet him? GROW UP. (And his art? I still think it is a joke.)

But later on he did text his father to see if everything was OK (it was very unlike him to drop in without a camera crew, so maybe something was wrong) and Senior texted back that he’d like to paint with him. With about thirteen minutes left Mikey said he invited his father over to pick out some art. So of course they went back to the bike build.

During the build, Rick asked Senior how things were going with his sons. Senior, unusually, kept quiet. He was very subdued. If anyone had never seen this show, never heard about the feud, they would have a completely different view of Paul Teutul Senior than long-time viewers do. I wonder why the change?

After a long text exchange, Mikey waffled and finally said “I’m not sure what to make of this.” Man, just meet him. If it goes bad, you don’t need to meet him again. Just man up.

NEXT WEEK: Senior says about a text from Mikey “I feel like he is talking to a client, not his father.” Interesting point, too bad Senior says it to Jason.

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American Chopper: Senior vs. Junior: Downsizing

12 Sep

NEW! September 12, 2011

You might recall that earlier in the year, when news of the OCC foreclosure broke, both Senior and his lawyer claimed it was a normal business restructuring.

It is not. Foreclosure is the last step a bank will take. They go from modifying the terms of the mortgage to restructuring and through 10 possible steps until they have no recourse but to foreclose. Banks do not want to foreclose because that means the client has defaulted on a loan, has been unable to make a payment plan, or demonstrate a willingness to work on one. This is the most expensive and least profitable thing a bank can do. Banks do not like to foreclose and in this economic climate they will jump through hoops to  get a client on  paying basis.

Seeing as how Senior is looking to build a newer- and smaller- HQ because the bank is taking his old one, I have to wonder about how OCC is doing. I have no facts, no information, and I am sure the economy hit them very hard, but from all appearances, Senior is full of it when he says how good the business is.

Which brings us to this week’s show, called Downsizing.

PJD and OCC each have new clients. PJD got the big one, Epic Games. They gave Paulie carte blanche to go nuts on a Gears of War 3 bike for the upcoming game. They toured the headquarters and saw designs and game plans. OCC got Feather Free Zone, who wasn’t happy with PJD. They had a bad experience and weren’t happy with Paulie but they must have made Senior’s day when they badmouthed his son and what they claimed was Paulie’s lack of professionalism. But listen closely and you’ll hear that they just had their feelings hurt, they were upset they had to wait a few minutes and their “personal relationship with Vinnie” didn’t get them anywhere. (Of course, we only got one side of that story and no footage.) I admit that Paulie should have handled it better because there is no reason to not make a possible client happy, but they were complaining about Paulie being unprofessional? Saying what they did on camera was not professional either. And speaking of professional, Jason Pohl sat in and laughed like a monkey at the Paulie insults, so much so that he almost fell over in his chair. But in the end, PJD is making a Gears of War bike, and OCC is building a bike for a company most of you don’t know.

(And Best Buy got a nice plug when they set up PJD with a gaming system and the blue-shirted tech sat in on the gameplay.)

The Gears of War bike is actually a trike, covered in working gears, with a cable steering system. When Paulie starts the mock-up listen for his crack about the logo reminding him of when he fired Odie. BTW- have you noticed that since Senior rehired Odie we have not seen him? Since Senior is downsizing I bet he was the first dead weight to go.

As for the foreclosure, Senior blamed the economy, true, said they have to adjust, true, and said the bank is not willing to work with them. Bull. As I said, foreclosure is a bank’s last resort. Banks (especially after Pres. Obama mandated some finance changes) will go almost to the ends of the Earth to get a mortgage refinanced. (Have you seen all the bank failures and bailouts? They want your money.) I repeat: Foreclosure is a bank’s last resort. It costs them the most and gains them the least of all their options. Senior could easily have gotten a deal with them to keep his building with lower payments. Should we believe Senior that it is more cost-effective to build an entirely new building and move the operation? And why would a bank, in this economy, want that property? They will never sell it for what Senior must owe them. This is a depressed market. It is a net loss.

Senior either got cranky or smart, take your pick, and made Jason rework his design. Finally. And he took Jason around the shop to see what they had in stock because Jason, as we all know, knows nothing about motorcycles. He even brought in Rick (who he insincerly called “the Great Rick Petko” so Jason is either a snotty prick or he knows that the fans love Rick and hate him) to give him some pointers.

Rick was on the end of a totally uncalled for (and stupid) Senior insult about protective earwear, and as Senior walked away, Rick said “the things he says, no wonder everyone sues his ass.” Rick is the one guy Senior should not piss off. If Senior losses Rick there goes the one sane man and great worker he has.  Senior later came out to talk to him about it (maybe he realized how much he needs Rick) and Senior called him, half-jokingly, sensitive. Rick told Senior that he will push it too far and he’ll walk out the door. Keep your fingers crossed. And with the suits settled, Rick is back to talking to the guys at PJD. I’m not sure I believe it, or if it was serious, but Paulie said that Rick was talking to Vinnie about going to PJD. For lunch, at least. But in the end Rick didn’t show.

And as far as Mike Ammirati, Rick pointed out that, “as usual,” he screwed up the handlebars. This was just after Senior said they’ll learn from their mistakes and get the bars right the first time. How many years has been doing this? NOW they’ll get the handlebars right?

Near the end of the show, Senior called in the whole shop to tell them about the new developments. It was made out as Senior being a benevolent father-figure. One of the office flunkies said that Senior was “a millionaire who doesn’t need the shop, but he’s doing it for you to keep your jobs. He’s 62 and he should be retiring but he isn’t” (I paraphrased but that is more or less it.) Senior promised that no one was going to lose their jobs but I say just wait. But one thing I do believe is that no matter how badly the business is doing Senior is filthy rich.

Next week, Paulie unveils the Gears of War 3 bike at Comic-Con, and we all know that the show teases are often more hype than truth, but it looks like Paulie gets serious about hiring Rick and we hear a voice over of Rick saying “I’m gonna tell senior that I’m going to quit.” Senior must realize Rick is unhappy because, for the first time, he singled out Rick at an unveil and said “he’s the best.”

We’ll see if this goes anywhere.

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