Tag Archives: American Chopper

American Chopper: Senior vs. Junior: Operation Reconciliation

27 Feb

February 27, 2012


OPERATION RECONCILIATION
Feb. 27, 2012
OCC builds a bike for Veterans Airlift Command and PJD finishes a bike for One Call Concepts. Then, more determined than ever to reconcile with Mikey and Junior, Senior invites Mikey to join him at a painting class.

Last week, Senior’s mother died and he was very upset by the lack of reaction by his sons. Vinnie was the lone person from the Paulie side of the divide to offer his condolences to Sr.

9:01- Jason walks into Senior’s office with drawings for a Veterans Airlift Command wounded warriors bike, with a Purple Heart theme. The way he explained it to Senior, it was like Sr. never heard of it before. Who is running that company? Or rather, who set up that shot for television? Anyway, I’ve said it in recent recaps, Jason is getting more and more freedom and independence in that company. That will be their downfall.

PJD is finishing up the OCC bike. No, that’s not a typo, they are building a bike for One Call Concepts. Forgive me for reusing their lame joke from last week.

9:05- we see Mikey’s Gallery of Bad Finger Paint Art. Mikey is announcing that he is losing weight to raise money for a leukemia charity. Good for him, quite honestly. Not only is he near-morbidly obese, he is 350 pounds,  but it is a good charity. Of course, does anyone believe Mikey will lose much? Anything?

So from 9:01 to 9:08 the show has focused on Jason and Mikey. Can it go anywhere but up from here?

Things take a turn for the better, when Rick, always a professional, takes us through the build of the Veterans Airlift Command bike. He certainly is not the only guy at OCC who knows bikes, but is there a better front man? Senior needs to take Rick along on some of the customer meetings to make OCC look good. I know I said Rick takes us through the build, but really, it was about 3 minutes of build. This is not much of a show about building bikes anymore. If Rick would grin like a moron, put stupid amounts of gel in his hair, act like a pampered obnoxious brat who knows nothing about bikes and insist on saying “motor-sickle” he’d get more screen time. Kissing butt should help too. (Not that I am describing any particular Jason around the shop.)

After the break, Rick took us through another couple of minutes of fabrication. From about 9:08 to 9:15, including a commercial break, the bike is nearly fabricated. And speaking of fabricating, it was pointed out that Jason’s design was nice to look at, very hard to build. The parts are heavy and hard to machine. Wouldn’t it be nice if someone who knew how to build a bike had some say in the design process?

Senior, in an attempt to reconcile, invited Mikey to come to his house and meet wounded veterans and an artist.  “I really do miss him.”

It isn’t a bad idea, they won’t be alone and there will be things going on to keep them distracted from their problems. I’m already on record as saying that Mikey is the bigger jerk here. No matter what wacko condition he put on a meeting, no matter what silly thing he had his father do, he always found a reason to chicken out. Even if the promos did not give it away, there is no way I’d believe Mikey would man up and go. He discussed it with Vinnie and of course, Mikey was suspicious and uncomfortable. (Really, anything to not go.) Vinnie advised him that it would be a strange situation and said Mikey should not go. I think Vinnie was wrong but if it was not Vinnie, it would be Paulie, or his blind assistant, or some random barking dog giving him a reason not to go. As my brother just said, Mikey refuses to get out of his own way.

And not only did he stay away, he didn’t even give his father the courtesy of a reply.

So the OCC crew set  up their easels and did their best to paint an eagle. Hey, an art project! This is perfect for Jason, the big “drawer” at OCC, right? Wrong, he wasn’t there. I guess he wouldn’t do so well without his computer.

Mikey, however, was right in his element painting in his studio with some children from the charity. If nothing else, he is great with kids. But when you consider that the kids’ art was about as good as Mikey’s, that tells the story right there.

Forty minutes in, and for a program titled “Operation Reconciliation” there has been very little attempt at reconciliation. And in teh next twenty minutes, don’t expect much more.

Just before the commercial break we saw the finished OCC Veterans Airlift Command bike and with an eagle head for the headlight and claws on the forks and a great paint job, it was a very nice bike.

The One Call Concepts also had a great paint job, by Nub as usual. Throughout the show I wasn’t too crazy about the bike but seeing it all together has started to change my mind. I like it, though I wasn’t too wild about the green.

At 9:57, we get Sad Senior, unhappy that his sons won’t talk to him. Don’t be fooled, last week he badmouthed his kids to Donald Trump and outright lied about how Paulie treated him.

For next week, Discovery has not listed a description, only a title.

American Chopper: Senior vs. Junior March 5th, 2012
Rick’s News

Let the rampant speculation begin.

The commercial, however, told a different story. As part of the settlement, Paulie got the Black Widow bike. Next week he takes it apart, restores it, and makes one little change. The OCC logo? Gone.

We’ll get into it next week but he is making a mistake.

The Celebrity Apprentice: Week Two

26 Feb

February 26, 2012

On last week’s show, the men won the first challenge, led by Paul Teutul Sr.’s mysterious benefactor and his $305,000 donation.  The women went to the boardroom and Cheryl Tiegs got fired, thanks to her admission that “I don’t know if this is right for me.” Paul Sr. and George Takei butted heads and Victoria Gotti proved to be not so popular among her teammates. (Want the full recap of Week One? Click here.)

In related news, Paul Teutul Sr. unveiled the Trump Bike over on American Chopper, which is something of a sister show at the moment since both shows are filmed simultaneously and some of the activity surrounding Paul Senior is spilling over to the Discovery Channel. (You can get the complete American Chopper recap by clicking here.)

And now, Week Two!

“Every last one of ya’s is bitches!” Victoria Gotti to the women upon entering the lounge after the boardroom. The opening minutes  of the show are setting her up as the resident villan, a role she is clearly comfortable in. Let’s just say she did not come off too sweetly last week.

GUEST JUDGE: James Lipton of Inside the Actors Studio, who claims to be a Knight of the Republic of France
THE TASK: Put on a 12-15 minute show for Medieval Times

MEN’S PROJECT MANAGER: Penn Jillette, and he is a perfect choice. They are a man down this week, as Adam Carolla is hosting a wedding at his own home.
WOMEN’S PROJECT MANAGER: Lisa Lampinelli

Lisa’s idea is to do a Real Housewives of Camelot show, and of course they have a Real Housewife on their team. Who are they fighting over? Donald Trump. Not bad, but before she got the idea out she ordered her team not to interrupt her, which they did, so she chastised them, and they interrupted her, and she ordered them not to interrupt, and eventually her idea came out. Ought to be an interesting team dynamic.

Aubrey O’Day, last week’s comic relief, seemed almost confident and commanding this week. Debbie was a little jealous that she seemed to be second in command to Lisa.

Ever been to Medieval Times? It is a fake castle in which you sit stadium-style around an arena watching “knights” joust and sword fight while you eat food with your hands. Seriously, I’ve been there a few times and it is a lot of fun. The audience is encouraged to cheer and root for their section’s knight. And speaking of sword fighting, any comic book fans reading this? Lou Ferrigno with a sword was shades of Planet Hulk.

Penn was in charge for the men and who else could do it but him? He knows entertainment, he knows big-stage shows, he knows how to entertain an audience (OK, so does Dee.) . Am I going on about him too much? No, I’ve seen him in person and he is brilliant. And unlike the women’s team, he is planning to make every member look good. The women are already fighting, and none more than Lisa who is bawling them out for daring to talk. She better watch out, the women are practicing sword fighting!

“She was running the show like a tyrant.” Dayana about Lisa. She wasn’t the only one with a problem with Lisa. Victoria, who was made stage manager, thought she was marginalized into a tiny part. Lisa said the real actresses got the acting parts, but then she cast a Real Housewife to act, throwing that reasoning out the window.

During the rehearsal of the show, Teresa talked about what it is like working with real actresses, which once again makes me wonder why anyone would consider anyone from a trashy reality show a star. I get that the show is amazingly popular, but to call anyone of them from that show a star? Not in my book. Not that Victoria Gotti is any kind of star either. Nor a particularly good speller. She was spelling Medieval Times “Mid-evil Times.” And that was on a computer with spell check, and dozens of Medieval Times signs around her.

Paul Sr. brought one of his OCC bikes, a blue medieval style bike with swords and chain mail on it. I didn’t recognize it. Any of my American Chopper readers know which one it was? The men seem to be a pretty cohesive and happy team. Clay seems to be into the task, George was into the costume, literally, and everyone seemed positive and on-task. In other words, more or less the opposite of the women. Lou Ferrigno and Paul Teutul looked scary as knights, Clay seemed to be reliving his Spamalot days in his outfit, and Dee seemed comfortable as a woman.

During the rehearsal, George ad-libbed, which was a problem because A- he was not funny, and B- he was messing up Clay’s lighting cues. Worse, however, was when Dee’s horse got spooked and he hurt his finger on the saddle. It might be broken. He needs to go the hospital, but it is nearly showtime! What will he do? Commercial break.

Commercial break over. What did he do? He put ice on it.

The men’s show began with Michael Andretti on horseback and Penn and Arsenio (that’s what they called themselves) getting the crowd hyped. George announced the knights: Lou on horseback vs. Paul Sr. on his bike for the honor of Lady Dee. They fought and Lou did something that must have put a smile on Paul Junior’s face and slew Paul Sr. Lou won the “Lady” and rather than kiss Dee Snyder he slew himself.

The women’s show started and Lisa on the mic was scary. She yelled. Loudly. The point of the microphone is that you do not need to yell. The women’s show was pretty much just a medieval catfight with swords, and I am sure a certain segment of the male audience was totally digging it, especially when one of the women had a (pixellated) wardrobe malfunction.

Yeah, it was sort of like Xena, but much, much worse.

“I felt like a real actress.” Teresa, describing how she felt when flipping a table in the arena. Sheesh.

Although the crowd seemed to love it, the women’s show seemed really stupid. The men got it right.

The boardroom began at 10:08.

Trump wasted no time getting the friction going, asking victoria what she thought of Lisa as project manager. Victoria didn’t attack, not yet, but she was clearly not a happy camper.

Victoria: “I was really hurt and disappointed because I did not think it was sending a good signal to the other girls.” Yeah, that was it. A real team player that Victoria.

The men all rallied around Penn. Paul and Arsenio said he was phenomenal, and Lou said he was excellent. George called him a Renaissance man. Who was the star? Lou said “the team is the star.”  But if they lose, who will Penn bring back? After some deliberation, Lou and George. Why? I am not sure. Penn couched it in such a way that he was somehow complimenting them as he picked them.

Lou: “I an insulted.”
Penn: “It is (insulting) and I am sorry for that.”

And in a magic moment, Lou out-talked Penn and left him near-speechless. Penn admitted he was wrong and had nothing coherent to add. He seriously backtracked from his position. I really need to re-watch that scene later, but my best guess is that the women are going back to the boardroom. But if I remeber nothing else from this week;s show, it will be Penn folding like a cheap suit and asking Lou to forgive him. I give Penn a ton of credit for being a gentleman and admitting he was wrong, but he had zero strength of his conviction.

Who would Lisa bring back? Victoria (duh) and Dayana. The women- and bear in mind that the winner or loser was still not announced- started fighting about the concept and who should get fired, with the majority blaming Lisa and Aubrey since it was all their idea and none of the other women were allowed to talk.

THE WINNER: By audience vote: Men (558) Women (363) The Men win! $40,000 to Opportunity Village, Penn’s charity.

The men left and the women continued to blame Lisa. Hard to argue, since I thought the concept was lousy to begin with. Except for possibly Victoria, the women all worked hard. It was pretty clear that the women wanted Lisa out, and it didn’t help that Lisa was such a bossy pain on this task.

Clay, looking at James Lipton on the monitor: “They don’t fight like this on Inside the Actor’s Studio!”
(Speaking of James Lipton, he didn’t add very much sitting in for Ivanka this week.)

Don Junior pointed out that when he visited the women, no one had a single complaint about the show or their tasks, and wondered why all this was suddenly coming out.

Who would you fire? Patricia picked Victoria, Aubrey picked Dayana, Dayana picked Lisa.

Lisa brought back Victoria and Dayana.

The commercial break hit at 10:52 and I am hoping that Dayana gets fired for no other reason than to keep the Lisa/Victoria feud going another week.

BTW- at 10:59 that boardroom fight was still going on and I realized that the show was scheduled to go to 11:08.

And what else happened at 10:59? Lisa Lampinelli started to cry. Angry tears, but tears nonetheless. I did not expect it to her. She said the theme was not why they lost and even Don Junior backed her up, saying that  the theme “seemed to be one of the winning points with the audience” and he also pointed out that when he arrived to check on the women’s team, Victoria was not there after getting pissed off and leaving in a huff. James backed Lisa (in a bizarre theatrical way) and said he was impressed with her passion.

Who would Dayana like to see on the team going forward? Lisa.

YOU’RE FIRED: Victoria. (And rightly so.)

NEXT WEEK: A task involving Ivanka’s fashion line, and Ivanka picks the winner.