So I mentioned Orange County Choppers recently and how fake that show was...

[DanglingNutslots]

There was a big deal about the law suits against OCC a few years ago for non-delivery, broken frames, etc.
No point in testing OCC's Evo engines. That guy's complaint would be more with Harley Davidson.
Putting different fuels in and associating that in any way with OCC is moronic.
Those guys got rich and milked it as far as they could.
OCC is best left forgotten.

Not really. His beef wasn’t with Harley but with OCC putting such a lame ass engine in an $80,000.00 bike.

 

[getbent]

Matt's Off Road Recovery

Fab Rats


These are my two favorite shows. They are just youtube shows, but I really enjoy what they do, how they do it and how they work together and they are normal people. no fussin' just working on things...

I find the narratives are great and very fun...

 

[Alex_C]

For reality TV, junkyard wars was fun to watch.

 

[Ted Keane]

Reality TV isn't real??? What's next, pro-wrestling?

I heard a rumor of fake relic on guitars

 

[RodeoTex]

Not really. His beef wasn’t with Harley but with OCC putting such a lame ass engine in an $80,000.00 bike.

One might assume that before a customer laid out $80K they would specify, or at least know what they were looking at.

 

[Blazer]

For reality TV, junkyard wars was fun to watch.

I agree, although I watched the English version “Scrapheap challenge” more often.

I don't know if you saw the “Scrappy Races” special series but if you didn't here's the first episode, and you can go from there.

 

[Toto'sDad]

We have a TV but don't have a conventional source for it like antenna, cable provider or satellite provider. I don't know about it as a badge of honor as much as it being spending we don't care to do. Our other services the TV can play cost less.

I don't really dream of EVs as much as I think systematically and like better solutions. For examples, I've posted how the diesel UTV has been a good replacement for the pickup truck, how I'd like the convenience of full charge (filled up) from home. Also how good the state of renewables are where I live.

When we watch the cable shows and OCC characters cable TV or satellite was more the norm. Broadband cost more and WiFi was not as good. That show and others kind of worked when we had 3 kids in diapers.



P.S. It's not like we don't like series or to spend. I follow Internet content much like a series. We like to do adventurous stuff that adds up as does where we live.

We cut the cable and went to streaming on our TVs and computers going on three years ago. Put in a pretty good router, and with the internet connection speed we have, it's just like watching cable from anywhere in the house. We have literally hundreds of stations and programs to watch now. If we didn't already have enough channels, when we bought a modestly priced Samsung tv last year, it came with it's own set of channels (Samsung Network) around a 100 of them. That alone is pretty cool, because I can watch local news all over the country. I discovered I had a bunch of rewards points from several years coming, and those paid for the entire switchover, that was cool too.

 

[Toto'sDad]

My wife likes to watch HGTV for an hour or so when we retire in the evening. Most times, I just drift on off to sleep, but when I stay awake, I gotta think those are scripted. I see people looking at two million dollar houses, just putting basic figures together in my head, you'd need $400000 to pay down, payments would be in the neighborhood of ten grand a month, say $20,000 a year in taxes, another ten for insurances and such, plus a lot of them have HOA fees of $800 to $1000 a month you're talking some pretty serious money here. That's before you buy any groceries, cars, tvs or airconditioned dog houses.

 

[getbent]

My wife likes to watch HGTV for an hour or so when we retire in the evening. Most times, I just drift on off to sleep, but when I stay awake, I gotta think those are scripted. I see people looking at two million dollar houses, just putting basic figures together in my head, you'd need $400000 to pay down, payments would be in the neighborhood of ten grand a month, say $20,000 a year in taxes, another ten for insurances and such, plus a lot of them have HOA fees of $800 to $1000 a month you're talking some pretty serious money here. That's before you buy any groceries, cars, tvs or airconditioned dog houses.

I just helped my aunt get her gates fixed at her place. 10K for new motors etc and some other little things... I was doing some updates to her router and adding additional wifi (for the new gate motors) and she mentioned that her yard landscape dudes were up to 2200.00 a month. Her place is in the 3m range... it is expensive and makes me glad I have two good renters out at the ranch.

 

[unixfish]

Yeah, I got really good at adjusting valve clearance on my VWs. Required with every oil change at 3k miles. Kind of ridiculous, but these vehicles were originally designed for local driving. People might only need to do this service once or at most twice a year. Also I guess it doesn't get that hot in Germany so overheating wasn't as much of an issue. But those crappy heaters were not the best for German winters, I would think.

I still recall the smell of horsehair when the upholstery would get wet in my Dad's old white Beetle. I was around 7 or 8 when we had it so it was an early 60s model.

Germans had a different take on things. Back in the 70s, my father did a business trip to Germany. A colleague of his wanted him to ask the Germans why his Opel was so hard to start in the rain. Dad brought it up, and by chance, it rained one day when they went out for a lunch meeting. The German engineer opened the hood, took off the distributor cap, used a rag to wipe it dry, replaced it, got in the car, and the car started. To which he said "See? No problem!"

Perspective is a funny thing.

 

[NC E30]

Not really. His beef wasn’t with Harley but with OCC putting such a lame ass engine in an $80,000.00 bike.

Would you really want anything more than a stock engine on such an ill handling bike with questionable welds on the frame?

 

[NC E30]

The best build show to watch is Full Custom Garage with Ian Roussel. His builds aren't always road worthy, but he is a true artist when it comes to fabrication and there is no drama at all.

 

[unixfish]

The best build show to watch is Full Custom Garage with Ian Roussel. His builds aren't always road worthy, but he is a true artist when it comes to fabrication and there is no drama at all.

I disagree. His dog is a drama queen!

 

[Hank-Frost]

I couldn't stand OCC, just due to the fake drama. I used to watch The Great Biker Build-Off which had less scripted drama. I really hate reality TV in general. As much as I like guns and gunsmithing, the couple of gunsmith reality shows that were on a few years ago were just unwatchable.

The only reality show I like is Ink Master and on that one I fast forward through the fake drama scenes and just watch the tattooing and tattoo critiques. Sadly, it seems to have been cancelled during COVID-mania.

 

[imwjl]

My wife likes to watch HGTV for an hour or so when we retire in the evening. Most times, I just drift on off to sleep, but when I stay awake, I gotta think those are scripted. I see people looking at two million dollar houses, just putting basic figures together in my head, you'd need $400000 to pay down, payments would be in the neighborhood of ten grand a month, say $20,000 a year in taxes, another ten for insurances and such, plus a lot of them have HOA fees of $800 to $1000 a month you're talking some pretty serious money here. That's before you buy any groceries, cars, tvs or airconditioned dog houses.

I just helped my aunt get her gates fixed at her place. 10K for new motors etc and some other little things... I was doing some updates to her router and adding additional wifi (for the new gate motors) and she mentioned that her yard landscape dudes were up to 2200.00 a month. Her place is in the 3m range... it is expensive and makes me glad I have two good renters out at the ranch.

The property taxes and how public goods get paid for varies across our country and home values can make that really painful. The reality and fix up shows make a lot of living scenarios appear more attractive than they might really be.

Our big property tax bill was totally worth it for raising 3 kids but might be a very different story in retirement. Still, I'm not sure there could be too much relief for quality of life in retirement. My mother's moved to our municipality where a retirement/seniors apartment complex still has to pay for that. If she didn't live where everything is close and easy would be other expenses.

Overall I don't think reality shows or things romanticized drive up prices as much as the economy having enough people with enough income to just do what they want. Now our ages are where I see people have left expensive places for various reasons. It hasn't really dropped the home or ranch pricing.

 

[StrangerNY]

I like Iron Resurrection. Nobody yells at anybody, and they do some real good, tasteful work. And Amanda's pretty easy on the eyes.

Roadkill Garage is pretty good, too, although I'm surprised those guys haven't killed themselves with some of the crazy builds they do.

And we still watch reruns of the Foust/Ferarra/Wood iteration of Top Gear. That show produced some of the funniest TV I've ever seen. This segment still cracks me up every time I watch it.



As for OCC - we went to the NY Auto Show a few years ago and wandered into the bike section (which I don't think even exists any more). OCC had a booth with 2 or 3 bikes on display, and standing in the middle of it was Sr. This was after the show went sideways and they all split up.

I was surprised to see how small Sr. actually was. Just looked like some little old dude with a big mustache.

- D

 

[Flat6Driver]

New thread topic for TDPRI flexing: who stopped watching TV first

LOL how true!

Storage Wars was ridiculous the only time I watched a few minutes of it. Contrived drama and multiple camera angles while they “bid” on storage units. Then, when they won a unit and supposedly opened it for the big reveal, I saw that the show had already put in lighting in various places inside the unit so the cameras could get better shots. Pawn Stars? Clearly staged, and he always has experts a few minutes away that know these arcane tidbits of information on whatever is brought in.

It's on the History channel so you're supposed to learn something from those experts.
Plus, what's up with those three guitars:

Those Guitars On Pawn Stars...

...why don't they fall off the shelf? ...why don't they ever sell?

www.tdpri.com

 

[StrangerNY]

Plus, what's up with those three guitars:

A few years ago I was in Vegas to photograph a concert, and a friend and I got in the car and drove around town. We actually found their store by accident and decided to go in and check it out.

They had a MIM Tele and a Les Paul Studio hanging on the wall in the store. I couldn't believe how overpriced they were - they were asking vintage guitar prices for a couple of run-of-the-mill production guitars.

I'm sure someone eventually bought them so they could brag that they got them from the Pawn Stars store.

- D

 

[NoTeleBob]

In the book "Man in the white suit" written by Ben Collins, AKA The Stig, from the UK motoring show Top Gear, he detailed that it was scripted to hell and back. But that unforeseen occurrences were usually left in since it made for often hilarious scenes.

He himself was told by the director of the show to ignore the script and just do his own thing, which again made for hilarious scenes and situations.

I thought all that was clear just watching it. They weren't expecting people to believe it was all spontaneous. But it was still a great show due it the personalities of the hosts.

A bit different than Reality TV, where they play their roles as if they are "real life".

 

[Telekarster]

A bunch of grownup male attention whores bitching at each other for an hour is not even remotely entertaining.

I killed my TV in 2007 and have not had one in the house since then. I'm a much more productive and happier person because of that.

Same here man. I think we got rid of ours about 2009. I actually met someone once years ago that was actually a producer (or something like that) for one of these reality TV shows. He told me that the "argument and fight scenes" of these sorts of shows are scripted to boost ratings, and create buzz in the media/internet for the show i.e. it's all a bunch of hogwash