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Brakes may be off Top Gear show – Metro US

Brakes may be off Top Gear show

FAST CARS: Listening to the radio to get your news these days seems like such a quaint activity; you can’t help but imagine an avid radio-news-getter waxing their moustache as they attend to the wireless broadcasts, or blacking the coal grate. Sometimes, though, it would seem to be more efficient than the newfangled interwebs.

If you’ve been reading this column, you’re probably aware of the ongoing saga of NBC’s attempt to turn Top Gear, the hit British auto show, into a similar sensation over here, in which notable chapters have been devoted to Jay Leno firmly declining an offer to host the show, out of respect for the original and its host, Jeremy Clarkson, and a reasonable fear that NBC will ruin the show’s irreverent, freewheeling tone.

Earlier this week, I passed on Tim Goodman of the San Francisco Chronicle’s report that the show was on the back burner at NBC, perhaps even shelved entirely, but I spoke too soon, according to reader Charlie Fudge, who writes:

“Adam Corolla talks about it frequently on his radio show (it’s on right now at 971freefm.com – he just took a call about top gear asking how faithful they would be to the original … his answer:
‘Very’) “

“Tim (Goodman) mentions that ‘It would have to be filming right now’, (but) Adam’s been talking about his busy schedule for the last couple weeks including driving out to a former air force base in California to film the Top Gear pilot. No mention of it being dropped by NBC though.”

And so the Top Gear saga continues apace – more news soon, no doubt.

SECOND TIME’S A CHARM … OR NOT: Jericho fans will get their valiant – but ultimately futile – campaign to revive the show for a second season immortalized in a special feature on the second season box set when Paramount brings it out in June.

The featurette, Nut Job, will tell the story of the viewers who inundated CBS offices on both coasts with shipments of nuts to get their attention, a grassroots campaign that ultimately got the show renewed for a second season. Another bonus feature will show how the producers revived the series once the network changed their minds. Viewer ardor didn’t translate into ratings, and the show was canceled for the second – and presumably final – time last month. Also included will be the alternate cliffhanger ending shot on the hope that a third season would happen. A rumoured “Easter egg” included with the set features CBS’ programming executives chanting “I told you so” in mocking tones, while they knock down the show’s sets and bulk erase all of the footage.