Tag Archives: Jason

American Chopper: Senior vs. Junior: Silent Treatment

17 Oct

October 17. 2011

Great, an episode about everyone’s least favorite guy on the show, Jason Pohl. Unless he gets shot out of a cannon or tossed into a volcano I’m not looking forward to this. That guy is insufferable.

Discovery is promoing that “Jason does the unthinkable.” Does he quit? Does he kiss Senior on the lips? I have no clue. I do not go on the net and look for information, I just take it as they air it. However, I do see the searches that lead to this site and since last week’s show there have been a lot of searches for “Jason pushes bike off lift.” So does he push a bike off the lift this week? Let’s find out.

In the first minute, Paulie says he has no plans to make amends with his father. No kidding.

Also in the first minute, Jason pushes a bike off the lift. BUT, he pushes a bike that was being torn apart, and as a joke. Or was it? The clip seemed like it wasn’t serious, but let’s wait and see it in context. OK, end of suspense. Jason is not getting fired.

DeKalb, a corn company that is celebrating its 100 year anniversary, is hiring PJD to build a bike and it will later be auctioned off for the American Red Cross. Yes, another corn company. A scientific corn company. A high-tech scientific corn company. The bike is going to be a sort of old-fashioned design with a skinny backwheel and a wood-style paint job, like farm crates. Paulie must have said “farmer” a dozen times in relation to the bike design.

OCC is working for Cell Buckle, who makes cellphone holders for bikes or cars or whatever. It is a piece of plastic. Later on Mike tried to sell it as a cool product, but it is a piece of palstic.

The Cell Buckle guys did just what Senior needs to make him happy- complained about his son. “Very greedy.” They thought JOe was arrogant and Paulie asked for too much money. Maybe yes, maybe no. They don’t have a huge business, it is a startup. But again, nice product or not, it is a piece of plastic.

Meanwhile, a group of Hawaiian fans (whom Mikey claimed were distant Hawaiian royalty) visited PJD and of course, they had to stick their noses in the Teutul’s business and ask Paulie about his relationship with Senior. I get that fans feel invested in the show and feel entitled to ask those questions since everything with the Teutuls is public, but does Paulie really need random people off the street asking him about his relationship with his father?

Back at OCC, Rick is building a fender on his own- not going by Jason’s plans- because, once again, Jason’s lack of bike knowledge made his plans unworkable, at least in part. When will this guy actually stop and learn what he needs to know to dow his job? OK, maybe he can be creative (and I would debate some of his designs) but if he didn’t kiss so much Senior ass he’d have been gone. How many times does he have to make a bad set of plans before there are repercussions?

“How do you like this bike?” -Senior to Rick
“Eh, it’s all right… It’s very generic.”- Rick
“I’m not unveiling that bike unless its hot.”- Senior
“I was a little taken aback. I take complaints personally. I try to adjust to make them like it.”-Jason

And then Jason started screaming and yelling like Senior on steroids and shoved the bike off the lift. “We’re starting over!”

And then he flipped out for real. He threw stuff around the office, screamed at Rick, and honest to goodness threw a temper tantrum. Screaming and yelling, throwing parts around like a gorilla, going seriously insane. I was sure he was fooling around at first, and senior stood back and smiled at Jason, but it quickly got serious and scary.

“You’re acting like Mikey!”-Senior to Jason

“He needs to get punched in the head. Let’s build some real bikes like we used too.”-Rick.

Rick went on to say that he’s not happy making bikes based on drawings and he liked the way things were done better when Paulie was around. And he was serious, he wanted to punch Jason in the head. He was steamed. Jason was throwing stuff all over the shop and made a wreck of the place. Remember when Paulie was fired and he stormed out? Same thing.

Senior’s response? “I’ll wait for him to calm down and talk to him.”

Even Mike was pissed. There was a lot of work in that bike and not all of it was getting trashed.

As for what happened to Jason? Nothing. Senior laughed and shook his hand. Hey, no biggie.

Here it is, simply. Senior NEEDS TO STOP LISTENING TO JASON, who knows nothing about building bikes and designs bikes that, with some exceptions, kind of look the same, and START LISTENING TO RICK, who is fixing Jason’s bad designs and telling Senior for weeks now that he isn’t happy with the way things are going there. Who is more important? Jason or Rick? One is a professional who knows how to make a motorcycle and the other is an illustrator. One draws unbuildable bikes and one builds bikes. HEY SENIOR- PAY ATTENTION TO WHAT RICK HAS TO SAY.

But I have to admit, this episode lived up to the hype. I only wish Jason got fired.

And back at PJD…
“Hey, we talk to Rick lately?”- Paulie
“He’s ticked off. Jason pushed a bike off the lift.”- Vinnie
“That’s enough to get him fired.”-Vinnie
“With all the fights and arguments I never had the nerve to kick a bike over.”- Paulie.
“Hopefully Ricker can come down here and…say hi to us.”-Paulie.

The PJD guys- Paulie, Vinnie, and Mikey, brought up an interesting point. Over at PJD there has been no fighting and no stress. Over at OCC Rick is getting pissed and Jason is blowing up. What does that tell you?

NEXT WEEK:

American Chopper: Senior vs. Junior
Communication Breakdown
Mikey and Senior both say they want to  meet up, but go back and forth about the conditions they will meet under. OCC  uses every last minute to complete their bike for US Biker Law. PJD unveils their bike for Dekalb.

For a second I was sure that was a repeat but it isn’t, PJD is still working on the DeKalb corn bike. So one more time we get to see Mikey jerk his father around. Wonderful. And again, Mikey tries to get Senior to go to a therapist. Are they sure this isn’t a rerun?

American Chopper: Sr. vs. Jr.: Two Weddings and No Fun At All

19 Jan

January 19, 2011

I normally begin with a discussion of the bikes but since the show virtually ignored them this week I will too, except to say that OCC had more trouble than you might expect with some standard front end parts. In fact, the only interesting thing about the bike build was at the end, when they unveiled it at an OCC road show. What do they do at an OCC road show? They build a bike on stage. I fail to see the appeal, unless they decide to accurately recreate the bike building experience- Senior yelling at random audience members, the OCC crew throwing things into the crowd, and lots of intermissions.

Spring is in the air, though this aired in winter, and it is wedding time. Last time it was Paulie, this time it is shaved orangutan Jason Pohl. Who would marry him? I am not sure since the guilty party has not appeared on camera, but I have my suspicions.

Anyone remember Escape From the Planet of the Apes? Remember the outraged Bishop when Zira referred to Cornelius as her husband?

Senior, for some reason, feels like Jason is a son to him and frankly, they deserve each other. How much does Senior love Jason- bought a new suit for wedding, WITH SLEEVES! It was his first new suit in forty years. He even got married in a sleeveless tux, so this is something special.

Speaking of “special,” no one on the show is more “special” than Mikey. When he heard that Sr. was going to Jason’s wedding (which, BTW, Paulie did not) he took it as a personal affront that Sr. would go to Jason’s and not Paulie’s- nor his, for that matter. Yes, I must have missed this, but at some point Mikey was about to be married and then it all fell apart. I don’t know who was at fault, but I figure that his bride must have sobered up and realized she was about to marry Mikey Teutul and go the hell out of Dodge.

But that wasn’t all from Mikey this week. Following his moving out of his art studio he moved back in with mommy and daddy- I mean Paulie and Vinnie. Not only did he set up a little art space in the shop, but he also planned to run sprints up and down the shop.
The busy shop.
The busy shop filled with expensive equipment.
The busy shop filled with expensive equipment which he broke.
Couldn’t you see that coming?

Paulie this week got a new customer, Faro Technologies, who was one of Sr.’s vendors. I don’t get why they went to Paulie (Senior suspects they poached him, and I think maybe he’s right.) because, let’s be frank, Paulie has nothing to offer, but they did and sent him a prototype mechanical arm. What does it do? I don’t know but it looked pretty cool until Mikey broke it. Paulie’s reaction? He screamed at Mikey, called him an idiot, and told him to get away from everything and never touch anything again.

At this point it may be helpful to remind you that I am talking about Paul JUNIOR, not Senior. Hmm, I wonder where all that anger came from? And judging by some of the other things Paulie had to say about Mikey, I wonder if Senior isn’t right about Paulie just using him against his Senior.

And by the way, Paulie, great mechanic that he is, told Mikey (of all people, Mikey!) to “glue it back together.” This is an expensive prototype on loan to them. I hope that Crazy Glue works!

Regardless, things were moving right along at PJD. Vinnie and Odie-Who-Is-Not-Cody started on the Faro bike and got as far as two minutes in when they realized that Paulie had not drawn up any plans. Paulie explained that he had them in his head, which is the worst place to keep them for a variety of reasons. Brendan, who seems to be the only guy who can fabricate in the entire country, flew all the way in from California to work on the bike. How hard up is he for work? How bad is the fabrication market in California that he would leave his pregnant wife at home while he flew to New York to make a fuel tank? Is there no one east of the Mississippi who can hammer some sheet metal?

Odie-Who-Is-Not-Cody had an idea about the bike’s design, to which Vinnie replied “nothing you say will be used.” GOOD FOR YOU VINNIE! He said he was only kidding, but you know what Shakespeare said: “Jesters do oft prove prophets.” That was in King Lear, another guy who didn’t quite get along with his kids. Let’s see how this tragedy ends.

In the end, there is no winner here. Unless you count Iron Horse magazine, which interviewed both Senior and Junior and got a lot of free plugs on the show this week.