Tag Archives: Rick Petko

American Chopper: Senior vs. Junior: Communication Breakdown

24 Oct

October 24. 2011

The problems in the Teutul family were always serious, but from a viewer’s point of view, they were fun. No matter who was at fault, most people tuned in to see the fights and the screaming. Now that the fighting has ended and the war has become a cold war of silence, the show is not as much fun to watch. It has become more serious, less fun, a lot more sad, and a bit pathetic. While the characters are the same, the fun is gone from the show in most respects.

This week is promoted as another one where Mikey tries to get Senior to go along with a lot of rules, conditions, and restrictions before meeting with him. As I’ve said before, I am on Senior’s side. He has reached out, he has seen a therapist, he did everything Mikey asked but Mikey always made up another excuse not to see him. Mikey needs to man up. He is totally unable to live in the real world and one day when there is no show and no brother to pick him up, reality is going to slap him in the face. He has a rude awakening coming.

Anyone ever watch the Chopper Aftershow? I never bothered.

This week, PJD continues the DeKalb corn bike and OCC starts a build for U.S. Biker Law. It is a web site of lawyers that specialize in motorcycle cases and they want to commission a 9/11 bike from OCC. You might remember, I showed you PJD’s 9/11 bike right here. OK, PJD and OCC both do trikes, both do builds for corn companies, and both do 9/11 bikes. Coincidence?

No.

And I had a laugh when Senior showed up at the firehouse with the Fire Bike that Paulie designed.

Mikey visits, yet again, a therapist and what does he want? He wants things for his father to do. Not any help for him, but for Senior. Mikey keeps trying to get his father to change instead of trying to learn how to get past it and help himself. I am losing respect for him by the second, and I didn’t have much to begin with.

And what kind of therapist is this guy? You can’t diagnose a man sight unseen. He should ethically not be involved. And he said that Mikey was “well” and “has tremendous strength.” Where, his stomach? He is a mass of denial with no coping skills. Anyway, the doctor agrees to do a three-way therapy session with Mikey and Senior over the phone. I’m sure his medical degree is printed in crayon.

Senior, wisely, says no. Hey, he already did that! Remember, Mikey? No matter how much Mikey says he doesn’t want to talk about the past, he keeps bringing up the past. Senior never has. Mikey is still running from it.

Senior tells Mikey he wants to talk face to face, no more texting. But Mikey likes texting. It is safe. He can tell his father what he wants without talking to him, without hearing him, without seeing him, without dealing with him in any but the most impersonal way. It is cowardly.

Senior thought back to the old times with Mikey and (he’s not a good actor so this was real) got a little choked up at how much he missed his son. He called Mikey to set up a meet and only got the voice mail. Was Mikey screening? I wouldn’t put it past him.

Oh, wait, after the commercial break we see that Mikey was screening. Coward. And he called that a small step forward because they were “communicating, at least.” Well, no, not really. Senior was trying to communicate, Mikey was avoiding it. I swear, I am a better therapist than the hack Mikey went to. But probably so are you. And your dog.

At ten minutes after nine, we see the new lunatic, Jason Pohl, helping to lift the bike onto the lift. No hard feelings after last week, I guess. And again, Jason’s design has nothing to do with reality. He blames the client, but as Senior and Mike told him, it comes down to geometry. As usual, he knows nothing about bikes. Get rid of that guy! And now this is Mike’s week to get pissed at Jason because Jason was acting like Mr. Know It All. And worse, he ran his mouth in the shop and Jason got pissed at Mike!

“He better learn this ain’t Jason County Choppers.”- Mike
“Jason’s getting touchy about his designs.”- Jim
“There’s always an issue in the 2D to 3D transition.” -Rick, on the problems of turning a flat picture into a three-dimensional bike.

Time to fire this guy, Senior, before you give him 20% of the company too.

The bike has an odd, three-piece split tank with strange (but pretty cool) mounts. I just wonder what made it a 9/11 firemen tribute? It had nothing in the design to relate to it. That must be why the Fire Bike got so much screen time this week.

As for the PJD DeKalb bike, as usual it is Nub’s paint that is making it really work. It looks old-fashioned, with faux-wood paint and dark a green tractor colored frame. There is a real 1950’s vibe to it. Plus it runs on corn ethanol. When Paulie took it out on the street and I got a good look at it, I really liked it. Nice job.

Next Week, American Chopper takes  a break for Halloween.

American Chopper: Senior vs. Junior
Top Ten Bikes
Senior and Junior reveal their all-time  favorite bikes including OCC’s St. Jude bike, PJD’s first ever client build for  Geico and a shared favorite between father and son.  

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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?

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