Tag Archives: Rick Petko

American Chopper: Senior vs. Junior: Cadillac Build-Off Part 2

6 Jun

June 6, 2011

For those of you who missed part one, here is a quick recap:

Cadillac approached both OCC and PJD with the idea of building a bike for charity. It is being billed as a build-off because one of them will be chosen as the better bike. PJD seems to have the edge because they have a pair of brand new Cadillacs in the shop and are using them as a template and for parts. OCC has a fairly average Jason Pohl design. Senior spent the entire episode telling blatant lies about Paulie and outright insulting him, and then decided that he should meet him in person and make up. And oh yeah, get those shares of OCC Paulie owns. Response to last week’s show is pretty consistent. Emailer’s agree that Paulie has the better bike and that Senior is a jerk.

This episode, like so many before them, just served to show what a jerk he is. He went on and on about how “paranoid” Paulie is, to the point  that he became obsessed with it. He actually believed that Paulie hired spies to take pictures of OCC’s bike. So to prove… I don’t know what he wanted to prove, he and his partner-in-stupid Jason Pohl dressed up in cammo gear, covered themselves in leaves, and crawled commando-style through a vacant lot to Paulie’s fence and hung a sign to tease him.

Paulie never even mentioned it.

More and more, the main draw of this show is Senior’s idiocy. It stopped being about the bikes long ago, and it isn’t even about the lawsuit anymore since it only rated about three minutes of screen time. Here’s the update: They are close to a deal.

However, it wouldn’t be fair of me to not mention something nice. Some kids from the Duchenne’s charity visited. Duchenne is a type of muscular dystrophy and the bikes will be auctioned off to help that charity. Some of the kids visited OCC where they designed a bike with Sr. and Jason Pohl. The kids left with copies of the blueprints they designed. Those guys are jerks, but that was a nice moment.

The kids also visited PJD where they painted with Mikey. Mikey had the line of the night. A parent said to him “you’re an artist too?” Mikey replied “I call myself that.” Nice! No one else does.

The centerpiece of the show was not the disappointing unveil but a competition in which OCC and PJD each raced Cadillacs and compared times.

Senior: “I think we smoked it.”

In fact, Senior had the slowest time and Paulie, everyone else from PJD, and the rest of OCC all beat his time. And he’s the big car collector and “risk taker,” which he must have said about half a dozen times. The fastest time was from an OCC guy we never saw before, named Storm. I think they brought in a ringer. The winning team? PJD, and Senior was visibly upset.

At the unveil, Senior and Junior were together for the first time with each other’s bikes. Paulie’s was far better. They drove out simultaneously and stopped, facing each other. Paulie pulled a power mover. After a pause, he lowered his bike to the ground, no kickstand. The crowd roared. Senior had a surprise too. His had a hidden gas tank and what everyone thought was the tank actually hid a nitrous bottle.

Neither said much, though they did fist bump, and you could see that each crew liked and admired some parts or features of the other’s bike. PJD’s bike was mostly favored by Caddy designers, particularly one who said “I’m the rear engineer.” That’s an interesting title. There was also plenty of love for the OCC bike too.

Which bike was better? I say it was Paulie’s. It was low and long and had great sleek lines. The rear looked like a Caddy rear. Senior’s was nice, not great.

As Dandydan wrote here in response to last week’s blog, all the OCC technology (which Senior bragged about again) just makes their bikes less impressive. And Rick Petko said on the show this week “There’s tons of chrome and paint, more than we’ve had in a long time.” How long? Since Paulie left?

But you all want to know who won. I have to tell you…

… no one won. It was a bullshit ending. They gave a website so the fans could vote on the bikes. No winner was declared.

To see the bikes and bid or vote, go to www.discovery.com/auction I hope that link works for you because as of this writing the site is overloaded.

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American Chopper: Senior vs. Junior: Judgement Day

9 May

May 9, 2011

Shortly before the show began I saw, on another channel, a new Dr. Pepper commercial with Paul Sr. as the head of a motorcycle gang. He threatened to beat up a poor schlub who could only tell him that “Dr. Pepper tastes like Dr. Pepper,” which I guess is their new catchphrase. If  I were the guy, after Senior threatened to hit me I’d tell him “touch me and I’ll own your valueless company,” which is appropriate because that valueless company is a main focus of this week’s episode.

The bikes this week are easy to describe because none of them were finished yet when the episode ended. You may consider that a drawback, but on the other hand there was no Jason Pohl so it was an overall win.

OCC was hired by Trans Am Depot to make three bikes, each based on a classic Trans Am. TLC seemed to be using this show as a tryout for a Rick Petko spin-off, “Rick Petko Explains It All” since Rick explained everything about the bikes this week. He probably got more airtime than anyone over at OCC this week, and that’s a good thing because he has more credibility and professionalism than anyone else in that shop. And while I am kidding about the possible spin-off, I could see TLC hiring him to host some kind of mechanical show.

PJD was hired by CrankyApe.com to build a pair of bikes. One would be a custom job and another would be one they bought from the CrankyApe website, refurbished, and will be sold on auction. CrankyApe is an online auction site that sells used, refurbished, or bank seized bikes. The second bike would be an example of what you can do with their bikes. Paulie brought in Cody to work on it. Once again, Cody showed himself to be more professional than most of the older guys on that show. CrankyApe went tp PJD because they once had a bad experience with OCC. About five years ago they called them up and “didn’t get the time of day” from them. Paulie, however, called them right back. Score one for Junior.

It isn’t all easy for PJD. Once again, Brendon was a little dissatisfied with the way things were done there.
Brendon: “No drawings again?”
Paulie: “Who’s gonna draw them?”
Brendon: “You.”
Is it any surprise that Vinnie says there is a lack of direction at PJD? “Daily as we go we figure out what we want to do.” He is too much of a professional to say it but he clearly doesn’t like working that way.

Another thing Vinnie doesn’t like is Paul Senior. Though you almost never hear it mentioned, the people on reality shows do go home and watch their shows at night. Vinnie came in and was really disgusted with an episode from last season. You may recall that a group of kids visited first OCC and them PJD and Sr. gave one of them a picture to bring to Paulie. Vinnie was just sick of how Senior never missed a chance to bad mouth Paulie to any passing stranger. I’m curious if Paul Sr. watches the show and what he thinks of himself. Would he complain that they edit out all of his reasonableness? It just reminds me of Bin Laden sitting in his bedroom watching himself on TV.

Senior and his wife went to Mikey’s gallery of awful art on a day Mikey wasn’t there to see the art. Mixed in with the finger paintings and pictures of the GEICO gecko, Mikey had a few pictures based on his relationship with his father. One of them was a crying man with the title “Remember When Daddy Loved Us?’ Another was a picture of a frowny face with the title “Sad Dad.” Actually, the frown may have been Sr.’s moustache, it had the same droop. “I don’t necessarily get some of his art,” Senior said. He’s no prize either. When ordering as part he needs immediately, Senior got confused between the A.S. and the A.P.

Upon hearing about his father’s visit, Mikey ran right to Paulie so Paulie could tell him what to think. For all of Mikey’s BS about reconciling with his father, after Senior went out of his way to see his art Mikey still won’t talk to him. He is weak-minded and doesn’t know what he wants. I think that somewhere he’s afraid that getting back with his father will make Paulie mad at him. Mikey has hitched his wagon to Paulie for better or worse.

Mikey, BTW, is huge. Whatever weight he lost awhile back has returned with a few more pounds besides. This week he was wearing an artsy scarf, a sport coat, and shorts. He is also doing his epic beard man impression by not trimming his wild growth.

The big news is the decision in the OCC/Paulie lawsuit. The court unanimously decided 4-0 in Paulie’s favor. This means that Paulie is in no way obligated to sell his 20% of OCC, so if Senior wants to buy it he has to make Paulie a real offer based on something besides his phony $0 valuation of OCC.

Sounds simple, right? Well not if you are a lawyer. Senior’s lawyer spun it so that “the case has not been won or lost either by us or by them.” Right. Senior was trying to force Paulie to give him his share of OCC for nothing. Now that won’t happen. Paulie wins. And of course, Senior entirely blames Paulie for the lawsuit by not selling him the shares in the first place. The whole point of Paulie wining the suit is that Paulie never had to do that. Senior was always in the wrong!

Totally coincidentally, I am sure, Senior decided that it was time to make up with his sons. So who did he talk to? His lawyer. That’s the problem right there. Somehow, the reconciliation and getting his shares from Paulie have become intertwined in Senior’s mind.

Those of you might recall that the commercials that aired before the season began said the build-off is coming, and the current commercials say that the only way to settle things is the way they began, with the build. So far, we have no idea what they are talking about.

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