Tag Archives: Nub

American Chopper: Senior vs. Junior: Mikey’s Decision

3 Oct

October 3, 2011

Last week, after Senior uncharacteristically low-key and slightly on the humble side (seriously, by Paul Teutul Senior standards, that is) reached out to Mikey, he was given the run around by his son as usual. So it all comes to a head this week, as The Discovery Channel leads us to believe, so we’ll see what Mikey’s Decision is tonight.

PROGRAMMING NOTE: Next week’s show is described this way on The Discovery Channel site:

Mikey’s Favorite Moments
From PJD’s first big unveil to bow  fishing in Louisiana, Mikey recalls his favorite American Chopper memories.  Relive the scary encounter between Junior and a lion in South Africa, as well as some touching family moments.

Yep, it is a clip show. So is the season over? I don’t know. But I can’t wait to see Paulie vs. the lion! Oh, and those “touching family moments.” How ironic is that?

But on to tonight. The builds continue on the Beck’s Hybrid corn and Cepheid bikes, but that’s not really why most viewers tune in anymore. I can’t say I’m crazy about the PJD Cepheid bike, but that’s because they are following the color scheme of the Cepheid components and they are going for a “clinical” look. (Paulie must have said that word a dozen times this week. Or at least it felt like that.) I think they are succeeding, but the bike isn’t to my taste. Not a bad bike, just not to my liking. Nub has been playing a bigger part at PJD these last few weeks, and that is a good thing considering how vital the paint jobs are to their bikes.

OCC, you may recall, is building a reverse trike, meaning that the two wheels are in the front and one in the back. They are also doing work with fiberglass, which they haven’t done in the shop before. Like Paulie’s bike, they are doing a nice job but it isn’t my type. If you’ve read these posts before you know I am not a motorcycle guy but I do appreciate the way they look and how they are built but these don’t do it for me, though I do see and appreciate all the work and tech going into it. It isn’t an insult to either team that I don’t like the bikes.

Skeeter, the grey-haired old man, is helping out on the hybrid bike and while he seems to know his stuff, he also seems to just repeat what Mike says. He comes across a sort of long-haired parrot. Nice guy though.

As the show opened, Senior again reached out to Mikey and asked to commission a painting- a Mikey Teutul original! He must really be desperate. Once again, the ball is in Mikey’s court. Mikey went to think it over in his studio and we were treated to him creating more art, and I’ve said it before, he’s about as talented as an entire kindergarten class. Hey, that’s a compliment- he’s not as talented as one kindergartener, it takes a whole Kindergarten class to equal him. Anyway (sorry about that) he said that his father didn’t want to discuss anything of substance and decided that he won’t see him. How does he know what his father will discuss? It doesn’t matter. He simply doesn’t want to- or is scared to- see his father and instead of admitting it he is making up reasons to put it on his father’s shoulders. Oh sure, Mikey could meet him anywhere and anytime, Senior will be there, but in Mikey’s mind it is all his father’s fault they won’t meet. I don’t often give Senior the benefit of the doubt, but he isn’t wrong here. And if Mikey goes to a meeting and Senior won’t discuss certain things or refuses to consider change, or whatever Mikey wants, then he’ll have a legitimate reason to moan. But right now Mikey is playing possum.

Later, Mikey asked Vinnie for advice on the Senior situation. Vinnie kind of pointed Mikey in the direction of getting together and Mikey, who goes however the wind blows, seems to move a drop in that direction. (But he also says he is going to take his time with it “that’s for certain.” How much longer is he going to wait?)  And good for Vinnie, who hates Senior, for putting that aside and telling Mikey the importance of having a family.

So Mikey emailed his father and decided it was too awkward to make a painting for Senior and said he “has a fear of his father because of all the chaos.” Finally! And I swear, I wrote that a few paragraphs back before Mikey said it, I swear. And the upshot is that he decided to keep the lines of communication open (email) but keep his father at arm’s length, which is just a cop-out.

Mikey’s Decision? He punted.

But at 9:48, any little sympathy I had for Senior was lost when he sat down with Jason for advice and explained the whole thing. To Jason! And what did Jason do? Giggled and laughed. Go back and see for yourself. Jason’s advice? Hire a private detective to follow Mikey so Senior can “accidentally” bump into his son. I wish a two by four would bump into Jason’s head.

Interestingly, Senior and the guys at OCC are responding in a back door way to what the fans who write in here and elsewhere say. Fans say that a lot is fake on the show, but no, everything is real. Steve (claimed he) sat at a ballgame and some fans asked him about the show. Senior claims that they have a negative public perception (true) and they have to move past it for business reasons (also true.)

“If he (Paulie) called me up today and said fuck it, let’s go fishing, I would. But there’ll be no talk about when I smacked him with the paddle whan he was seven years old. The only time he ever got hit in his life. I’m not going there no more.” Nice.

Senior keeps talking about “doing restaurants.” An OCC theme restaurant? What do you think about that?

And last week’s tease of Rick going to PJD? Not a whisper.

Next week’s show, which they claim is “all new,” is a clip show focusing on Mikey and is followed by the premiere of American Guns. You guys are on your own with that show.

An “all new” clip show. Well, technically, but…

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American Chopper: Senior vs. Junior: Gears of War

19 Sep

September 18, 2011

Last week PJD was hired to create a Gears of War 3 bike. The tease for this week is that Paulie is looking for help and wants Rick Petko to leave OCC and work for him. Over at OCC, Senior has been meaner than usual and Rick has been talking about how unhappy he’s becoming and hinted he may leave.

This week, brought in some students from Wyotech to work for free- I mean learn from hands-on experience in the shop and I can’t wait for Senior to snap one of them in half. “Everyone here is so laid back,” one of them said. Is he in for a rude awakening.

BUT WHO CARES? THE CADILLAC RESULTS ARE IN!

Vinnie: “We smoked it.”

Mikey and his legally blind assistant brought in snacks and had a mini-celebration and the PJD crew was happy but if it was me, there’d be some serious trash talking.We’ve known the results for weeks but because they film in advance it took these months to catch up. Frankly, after the hype Discovery originally gave it, I expected the build-off results to rate more excitement than a couple of minutes and a bottle of soda. But don’t hold your breath for Senior’s reaction, they don’t show it.

I can tell you all about the Gears of War bike, but since it was already unveiled at the San Diego Comic Con, here it is:

The comments on this blog (especially after the Cadillac bikes) sometimes get split between people who know motorcycles and watch for the bikes and those who don’t really know bikes but watch for the characters and drama. All I have to say is that this build had nothing to do with building a bike but everything about getting noticed by video gamers, comic geeks, and pop culture. As a bike it may run like crap and handle like a rock, but this bike is just about looking cool, like it rode straight out of Gears of War. And those pictures do not do it justice because Nub did an amazing amount of detail work on the paint and it isn’t lit up. And as it rides the guns rotate like they are firing.

In the middle of everything we got a montage of Mikey and he discussed via voice-over his thoughts on not having his father in his life. What it boiled down to is that he was sad his father doesn’t have his family, but he is satisfied with the peace and quiet in his life. My opinion is that he is entitled to his feelings but maybe he should have thought of it before making his father go to a therapist and live up to dozens of conditions before never meeting with him, which I am sure he never really intended to do anyway. He really jerked his father around. Now he is saying that he isn’t ready to meet his father and that Senior has “to prove himself” over a long period of time. Love Senior or hate him, Mikey needs to realize that his father is who he is and that he probably won’t change. He has to stop waiting for his father to “prove himself” and work on a way within himself. Mikey needs to learn how to deal with Senior differently. Should Senior change too? I think so, but Mikey is the one who is having trouble grasping the reality of the situation, and he needs to separate the problems between Senior and Paulie from the problems with Senior and Mikey. Honestly, the answer has to be within Mikey. Over the years, at least with the cameras running, Senior had a much better relationship with Mikey than his other sons. And of all his kids, Senior seems to be most willing to meet with Mikey. Just get it done, guys.

Why did I spend so much time on that? Because next week Senior talks about reaching out to Mikey and says Paulie is keeping Mikey away from him. Is there new drama about to unfold?

We have not seen much of Mikey’s personal life or his art lately. (And I don’t miss the art.) Mikey and Vinnie had lunch together and Mikey admitted he has had a few slips, a couple of drinks, but overall he is doing well with his sobriety.

And speaking of losing people, Rick joked about leaving OCC, and he once actually talked about it with Senior. According to Rick, Senior said “I can’t really tell you what to do, but don’t.” I can totally hear Senior saying that.

However, it is serious to PJD. Vinnie and Paulie both want him at PJD, which is having a little trouble finding good people to work for them. But despite the way they teased the episode, it is clear that Rick is going nowhere and has no plans to do so. (Seriously, did we expect otherwise? I can’t imagine that Paulie could match what Senior must be paying him.)

Senior and the bank came to an agreement, and to listen to him it was the bank that blinked, not him. Sorry, I don’t believe it, OCC had much more to lose than the bank. But wither way, OCC is staying put. Which is too bad because as someone commented here, it would have been great if PJD bought the building.

The Wyotech bike was all red, with chrome accents, and built (thought they didn’t fabricate the parts) by the students. And yes, Senior took a few shots at Paulie talking about how much more they knew than he did. I liked it. It rode very low to the ground despite having a very high gas tank. Like many of the OCC bikes it didn’t look too comfortable to ride but it did look good. And again, Senior complimented Rick. Maybe he really thinks Rick will be leaving. (I don’t.)

The Cadillac Build-Off was high-profile and got both companies a lot of attention, but I think the Gears of War bike trumps it. It brings PJD to a new audience, but more importantly, an audience who will buy PJD t-shirts and hats, and to any company, merchandising is the real name of the game. And the crowd you find at Comic Con are ready to shell out money for anything cool. This Gears of War bike is definitely cool.

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