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Has "Junkyard Wars" jumped the shark?
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Posted by: jradosh

OK, we're four episodes into the new Junkyard Wars season and no one has said anything about it. Here's my two cents...

I love the show and will keep watching it, but can't they think of anything new for a challenge? Sheesh, new teams building the same old contraptions. :rolleyes:

And why the American host instead of the Brit? This guy is a bland as Wonder Bread, and apparently he brings out the worst in my beloved Cathy :mad:

At least there's a team from my hometown (Arlington, VA) for me to root for. Go team!

How 'bout those MIT nerds... :p I'd love to see them up against the old team of Bowser & company ;) They were as geeky as the geeks on the Simpsons (maybe even more so).

[/done rambling]

J

Posted by: harvscar

10 minutes into the show I wanted to beat that little MIT geek. It was cool to see the Arlington County guys do well. The garbage sweeper show was one of the weakest I've seen, I ended up FF'ing more than usual.

Yes, the American host sucks.

Posted by: zaknafein

THe American series is unbearable IMO. I've got the first 4 eps of this season sitting waiting to be watched, I'll get to them sooner or later I suppose.

The Brits are great though. Far more innovative, and much better personalities.

Posted by: Rcrew

IMO, the first and only episode I watched 'jumped the shark'.

I haven't been able to bring myself to watch again. It was the pumpkin launching one, 'attacking the castle'. Nothing like I expected, and not enough about the actual device construction.

Posted by: HTH

quote:
Originally posted by jradosh
I love the show and will keep watching it, but can't they think of anything new for a challenge? Sheesh, new teams building the same old contraptions. :rolleyes:

How else do you make the world championship context between the winning UK and US teams fair? They always have a run-off between the winners of the two shows at the end of each pair of seasons.

Posted by: Breacagan

quote:
Originally posted by HTH
How else do you make the world championship context between the winning UK and US teams fair? They always have a run-off between the winners of the two shows at the end of each pair of seasons.

Isn't that what a World Series is all about? In the past, the American League champions and the National League champions won their pennants and berths in the World Series without ever facing a team from the other league--or playing by the other league's rules. I think it would be perfectly fair to hold a championship without keeping the two seasons on an even footing.

Frankly, I find repeats of these challenges boring unless someone comes up with an entirely new approach, which is rare. I also find the U.S. series anemic compared to its British counterpart.

Posted by: jradosh

quote:
Originally posted by HTH
How else do you make the world championship context between the winning UK and US teams fair? They always have a run-off between the winners of the two shows at the end of each pair of seasons.

Interesting point, but not 100% valid (IMO). If this "fairness" you speak of were really so important, then each competition in the first round would be the same. After all, it's only fair that the Geeks from MIT should have the same challenge as the Sewer Rats, etc, etc.

But you're right, they do seem to have the same challenges as last season lined up for the rest of this season (http://tlc.discovery.com/fansites/j...on_07_tree.html). I guess I missed this subtlety :rolleyes:

J

PS. to rcrew... there have been significantly better episodes than the one that caused you to give up. The remote-controlled smash-up car derby was excellent. If you can, try to catch that in reruns and maybe you'll get hooked :)

Posted by: ClutchBrake

The same old challenges are getting boring. So far I have FF'ed through most of the shows just to see the ending. If they don't come up with some new ideas my SP will being going bye-bye.

Posted by: HTH

They'll have a new set of challenges up for when Scrapheap Challenge has its new season. Meanwhile, I find it interesting comparing how the US teams choose to face the challenge as compared to the UK. (I'd rather see reruns of the UK show back-to-back with new episodes of the US than back-to-back new episodes of the US show, to aid in this comparison.)

Does the UK get to see US episodes of Junkward Wars rebranded as Scrapheap Challenge?

Posted by: TiVoPony

Yep, the same old challenges are stale.

And what's with this "confessional" camera stuff? Someone has been watching too much reality TV. It just doesn't fit. Yech.

Pony

Posted by: jradosh

quote:
Originally posted by TiVoPony
And what's with this "confessional" camera stuff? Someone has been watching too much reality TV. It just doesn't fit. Yech.

Yeah. Thanks for bringing it up... I totally forgot to complain about that new addition. :rolleyes: Definately a rip-off of that reality TV show where everyone's stuck in the house together (what was that called?).

(shyly admitting) thought I do look forward to the "confessions" of the home-town Arlington, VA "Pit Crew" next week. The promos made it look like there was some real contention on the team. They certainly are good ol' boys from Virginia... the next best thing to a Cockney Brit ;)

J

Posted by: MighTiVo

Cut the college kids, get some firemen, navy divers, a nascar pit crew, or some other groups that are more mechanically inclined.

Although the MIT land yaht was nice that dweeb drove me nuts. I think he must have been one of the early ADHD cases....

Posted by: ClutchBrake

quote:
Originally posted by MighTiVo
Although the MIT land yaht was nice that dweeb drove me nuts. I think he must have been one of the early ADHD cases....

Early? Heck, he looked 12 years old! I wonder how old he is.
I did find him annoying but he is the best scavenger I have seen.

Posted by: AndyK

BTW, the American is a Canadian.

JW has become a bit predictable, with the same old challenges over and over. The MIT challenge really showed off how the producers try to influence the show too. The boys didn't want to do a metal sail but the expert was adamant, almost too adamant. I thought it might be a way to insure a closer competition for the first all girl team....that back fired. It sort of answerers my question as to why any team would consider building anything with hydraulics even though hydraulics always loose. Every time I see a show where the team chooses to use hydraulics I think "haven't they watched the show?", but the expert is probably told to steer the team as much as possible toward the producers (Cathy?) choice of project.

Posted by: ClutchBrake

quote:
Originally posted by AndyK
BTW, the American is a Canadian.

Now that explains everything! :D ;)

Posted by: Worf

You guys do know that JW isn't a "reality show" but more of an educational show, right? It's goal is to teach people about science and engineering by using things that are thrown out in unique ways.

It's presented in a way that would be familiar to all of us (i.e., not a boring dry lecture), but show how practical applications of engineering. Remember, no one "loses" in JW, there are no prizes for winning (other than the JW trophy), etc. Plus, who's to say that the competition aspect doesn't attract other people?

Heck, while the junkyard/scrapheap is real, it's also fixed. The experts that will join the teams meet up with the JW producers to discuss their ideas. Then any special/wierd parts that a real junkyard might not have (not counting new store-bought items like rocket motors, etc) are seeded into the junkyard. Otherwise, it would be difficult to find items like R/C controllers, servos, etc in perfect working form (ahem, a model plane with working electronics?). However, the teams that participate certainly don't know what challenge they're getting.

If KISS really ruled JW, we'd see the same designs over and over and over again - i.e., both teams would tend to use the same idea, instead of offering two totally different ways to accomplish the same things. Or heck, how to experiment around - hand-cut propeller anyone? (A real "JW" will avoid hydraulics altogether (too finicky), designs based on old, well known ideas and simple machines (pulleys, levers, gears) rather than "experimental" ideas (all-metal sails), etc)

Posted by: GregF

for me I lost interest after about the third episode when I realized the parts for these machines were planted in the junkyard, making it a kind of easter egg hunt. And then there was even an episode where one team couldn't figure out an important part so they went to the other team and borrowed a part!

Posted by: ClutchBrake

It's kind of hard not to realize it is fixed when you have people rummaging through a junkyard and find a Pinto with a brand new AC Delco battery. I didn't know how fixed it was though until I watched the behind the scenes show. That did make it a little less interesting.
I, too, don't like it when they give stuff to the other team. If you trade, fine. Don't just be nice guys! That is what I liked about the MIT episode. That little ******* went out in the junkyard and brought back everything. When the girls tried to come steal it he freakin sat on it and wouldn't let it go. Part of the competition is having a good scavenger and not only getting what you need but what the other team needs as well.

Posted by: Otto

The confessional camera thing annoyed me at first, but thankfully they don't use it much. I'm far more interested in details of the construction that they quickly gloss over and skip. Like last week, they went straight from working out basic parts to big ass machine in like 5 minutes. I understand that it basically has to be a highlight reel, but show more construction and less jibber jabber.

That said, I'm hard pressed to think of good new challenges. I can come up with a few, but most of them don't fit the show for one reason or another.

And they need more "bodging" teams. People who actually do build random stuff from scrap. The UK teams seem far better in that respect, esp. the originals.

The fact that the yard is somewhat seeded doesn't bother me. Sometimes, for an essential part, you're simply not going to find it in a junkyard. But at least for most of the seeding they showed in the behind the scenes thing, it really was junk they were seeding it with, just very good junk. The rocket motor thing only slightly annoyed me, but to be fair, they do need a couple of mostly working machines at the end of the day. You ain't gonna build no working rocket in 10 hrs using a big chunk of tube and a bunch of gas. No, you'll build a big bomb that way. Which is an idea... winner is the one that makes the deepest hole in the ground. :D

Posted by: Worf

quote:
Originally posted by ClutchBrake
Don't just be nice guys! That is what I liked about the MIT episode. That little ******* went out in the junkyard and brought back everything. When the girls tried to come steal it he freakin sat on it and wouldn't let it go. Part of the competition is having a good scavenger and not only getting what you need but what the other team needs as well.

That would be true if it was a real competition, but then again, given that teams have more than 10 hours to complete their machine (yes, they say only 10 hours, but at the end, they don't mind giving extra if it's needed)... plus well, who knows what else went on (I bet the part about the girls trying to take the extra stuff was 'scripted in' by the producers). In the end, they'd would've gotten it anyhow if they still needed it.

But yeah, I do admit it seems a little less interesting this season...

Posted by: doom1701

Didn't know they had started a new season...Is Tyler still the US host? Boring...

I'd say that the show needs to go on voluntary hiatus unless they can come up with some unique ideas for projects, and experts that will lead the team a little better. I gave up after the US finale last season (demolition machines shouldn't be large vehicles turned into battering rams).

Posted by: pmyers

oh God...don't get me going about those "Demolition" machines again.....I'm just now getting out of therapy.

They did the same fricken thing on one I just saw the other day where the teams had to drill holes to crawl through. At the end one of the teams drill stopped working and they just starting ramming the damn thing....ughhh!

Posted by: jradosh

quote:
Originally posted by pmyers
oh God...don't get me going about those "Demolition" machines again.....I'm just now getting out of therapy.

They did the same fricken thing on one I just saw the other day where the teams had to drill holes to crawl through. At the end one of the teams drill stopped working and they just starting ramming the damn thing....ughhh!

Yeah, fortunately that team still lost, otherwise I would have had to write a nasty note to Cathy! :mad:

J

Posted by: NFLnut

quote:
Originally posted by ClutchBrake
The same old challenges are getting boring. So far I have FF'ed through most of the shows just to see the ending. If they don't come up with some new ideas my SP will being going bye-bye.

I find myself FF'g to the end now too, then I delete. The SP may soon be deleted too. I think we're all just starting to get burned out on what was once an interesting show ince we can watch every episode.

Posted by: doom1701

I think maybe JW should (volunarily) follow the lead of "Millionare"--stop regular weekly broadcasts and instead move into specials. Run two hour specials (preferably with the British host) a couple times a year, showcasing a really cool and unique project.

Posted by: tedder

I agree with Otto. More bodging is needed. Tonight's episodes (hydrofoil, fire fighting boat) were really depressing. The emphasis was placed on the "conflicts", rather than the building.

On the fire fighting boat, they spent the last 1/3 of the show on the (lame) competition! Why not show us how they built the boats instead?

2 episodes, 4 junkyard vehicles, 1 that actually worked at all, 0 that met the design challenge. Ugh. At least we don't have to watch the MIT dweebs anymore.

-ted

Posted by: jradosh

I started this thread with the question "Has 'Junkyard Wars' jumped the shark?"

Now I know the answer, and it is a resounding YES. :rolleyes: That's my conclusion after watching last night's episode (Floating Fire Fighter). That one episode combined the worst of all the previous ones. My complaints in spoiler tags...

Spoiler Alert! (highlight to read)
- teams freely exchanging parts
- neither machine worked
- one team simply waited until the building practically burned itself out, then cheated by using a bucket (non-mechanical)
- one team cheated by extending their mooring line to bring them closer to the fire
- no rules were enforced (if there were any to begin with).

It's still better TV than most of what's available. I'll keep the SP. But it is not the show I once loved :rolleyes: :mad: :(

J

Posted by: Otto

Yeah, these teams suck. Rule 1: Machine must work, you morons!

Posted by: pmyers

last night's episode was extremely horrible. I just know that the producers said "psst...scrap team. The Geeks are all out of the garage. Go grab all of their stuff"

That was totally lame IMHO.

It wouldn't have been so bad if they were actually trading stuff: "hey we have this jeep engine that you need and you have a centrifigal pump that we need, lets trade"

The geeks were having to "trade" for the stuff that was rightfully theirs to start with.

They might as well change the rules to the following:

You will build whatever your "expert" wants no matter what
You will only grab stuff that will be used for your project
If you do grab something that the other team can use, they can take it
If your project doesn't work, resort to brute force and/or whatever it takes to accomplish the task

Posted by: IJustLikeTivo

Even worse, neither of those idiot hydrofoil even rose us one inch. Hell, if AGB could do it in 1915 these guys should be able to do it now. Maybe they needed to seed the yard better. Several shows back, there were some helicopter blades that would have made excellent foils and those engines were beyond pitiful. Better still, an expert who had never built one at all. Hell, if this is the best they can do then recycle the tasks where at least they could built a working machine. Last gripe. RULES, RULES , RULES. Neither fire boat used a mechanical means to douse the fire. Sounds like a chance for a new episode with the two teams that lost to these guys. WHy in the heck do you get to move on by cheating!!!!!

IJLT

Posted by: ClutchBrake

I'm not watching again until the British episodes return. I hate to say it, but the Americans tend to suck.
Last night's episodes were the worst I have ever seen. The MIT geeks were annoying but by god they were good scrappers. They made a successful ploy be getting all the good scrap and then the other team just takes it by force.
I hate the Pit Crew's Frank more than I hate any of the MIT Geeks. His rationale was that they had something he needed, and since they weren't expressly guarding it, he had a right to it. What a worthless human being.

Bye-bye Junkyard Wars, hello Monster Garage! How could you not like a show where the goal is to take a 1990 Mustang GT convertible and transform it into a lawnmower. All this done on only $3,000 and the vehicle must appear stock. My favorite Jesse James quote, "Mowing the grass at 100 mph rules. Doing anything at 100 miles an hour rules, for that matter."
There will be four episodes and they start Sunday night on Discovery.

Posted by: harvscar

It really was sad to see the guys from Arlington County be such rat bastages. Thank God for TiVo's FF, I can watch 2 1-hour crappy shows in 10 minutes, that's the only thing saving this SP.

Posted by: Lp_cx00

Okay , this is to everyone. I think that the new american Season is much better than the last season .(the british one) Yea here in the U.S. we're pissed off about some things but we still luv the show ! I mean yea we want them to change some things . Also the season your watchin right now , they had NOOOO idea that they were reapeating the same challenges from last season . They filmed this after 9/11 , even a day after. So don't be mad at the teams , not even the producers.Also the American teams will do stupid stuff and mean and funny things . Like stealing things from the other team , well that's us ! Imagine how hard it is to be in charge of a British version, a American version , also upcoming is Junkyard Dogs(kids version) , and Full Metal Challenge .... All being produced by Cathy . So just let us yanks fight for no stupid reason , that's what we do best , and just give the show a break!

Posted by: JetMeister

quote:
Originally posted by ClutchBrake
The same old challenges are getting boring. So far I have FF'ed through most of the shows just to see the ending. If they don't come up with some new ideas my SP will being going bye-bye.

Hey, plenty of people have suggested a lot of good challenges but they seem a little unwilling (or just very slow) to pick up on some of them.

Personally, I was kind of hoping they'd go for the jet-powered vehicle challenge which would involve the teams building their own jet engines from scrap and attaching them to some kind of small vehicle for a 1/8 mile race.

You can check out my home page at http://aardvark.co.nz/pjet to see that this is quite a viable challenge and I'm sure it would be pretty damned exciting, not only during the constructional phase but also during the racing.

Standing beside a home-built jet engine (turbine or pulsejet) when it's running sure wakes up your senses :-)

Posted by: pmyers

Just when I thought the floating firerig episode was the worst....they go and run last night's Hydrofoil episode........peeeeuuuuuu!

Am I right in that both "experts" had never built one before? I know the one guy said that and the other had won some award for building "personal" powered crafts.

I did actually enjoy when the team captian told the "expert" off at the end though and at least they did trade parts instead of just stealing them.

Posted by: HTH

Seems that their running of two episodes a night is a plan to get them over with quickly.

Posted by: AndyK

I used to savor every episode, now I find I'm FFing through them. Very sad!. BTW, there's something wrong in a contest when the team who's device works (somewhat) is penalized in favor of the team who's machine totally failed. Because the geeks applied some water, their house burned out slower. Total failure shouldn't be rewarded and JW has most certainly jumped the shark! I think for me, time has run out on this sp.

Posted by: zaknafein

Well, I pretty much agree with everyone. The Americans are just awful. Dump the US series and go back to just the UK guys. I long for the days when it was The Brothers in Arms v. Anne Sanders and company.

I don't know how they think they can just do the same challenges over and over again and expect us to watch. If you don't have any new ideas, don't bother filming a new season. Not only are they recycling the challenges, but the people they have doing them are failing miserably. If this week's eps don't get better, I'm going to have to suspend my viewing until the new British series is on.

Posted by: JetMeister

I wonder how well SHC and JYW rate?

You'd think that if they rated well then there'd be other production companies willing to step in and use the same format to produce a better show -- or would the licensing rights kill them?

It would be a shame to see either series die through a lack of creativity on the part of the producers.

What about a "Scrapheap/Junkyard Viewer Challenges" series, where there's a coin toss and the winners of that toss have to pick, on competition day, from a list of (say) 10 challenges submitted by viewers.

No experts or allowed -- just the teams.

This would be far more entertaining I suspect,

And, instead of just giving everyone 10 hours to do their build, allow them up to 20 hours but award penalty points for every extra hour the slowest team takes once the first team has finished. Teams would then be faced with the choice of building quick but sloppy, or taking their time to build better and hope that they make up the points in the final competition.

And why not offer some detailed photos, diagrams and other material on the web so that viewers can go and find all the details that might have been missed in shooting.

There are plenty of ways that you could get the show back on its feet -- all we have to do is steer the producers away from their recent infatuation with negative personality clashes rather than the projects and the positive side of team-work.

Or I could be completely wrong -- it happens a lot ;-)

Posted by: AndyK

Finally, a end to a lame season with a lame ending. Sportsmanship, we don't need no stinkin sportsmanship.

BuBye Junkyard wars SP, it was fun while it lasted!

Posted by: FlashingTwelve

That really was a stupid final. That challenge was dumb last season because the ring was too small, and they did it again.

Maybe what the show needs is 3 or 4 teams duking it out

Posted by: harvscar

Ugh, what a hollow victory.

Spoiler Alert! (highlight to read)
I thought I'd enjoy the hometown team winning, but I just feel embarassed. Since we only saw the edited portion I wonder how much of an ass the pit crew guy Scott really was. I thought we were going to see some fists fly.

If only Tyler had been in the ring...

Thank God it's over.

Posted by: HTH

Well, there's still a Junkyard Wars Bloopers & Trashy Outtakes coming up after a marathon of 2001 episodes, July 4.

Posted by: doom1701

Well, last night's was the only episode this season I've caught. Not as bad as some of the things I've heard, but still not Junkyard Wars. The teams are taking this WAAY too freakin seriously. The Miami Gearheads had the same problem last year.

Maybe if they do the remote control car challenge again, they'll learn from this year's almost dead cameraman to do it in a demolition derby arena, rather than just in an open circle.

Of course, if they do it again, I probably won't see it anyway.

Posted by: HTH

The next seasons of the two shows will likely share another new set of challenges.

Posted by: jradosh

quote:
Originally posted by harvscar
Spoiler Alert! (highlight to read)
I thought I'd enjoy the hometown team winning, but I just feel embarassed. Since we only saw the edited portion I wonder how much of an ass the pit crew guy Scott really was. I thought we were going to see some fists fly.

Well, I for one was finally happy to see someone... anyone... get upset about the taking of other team's parts. Sheesh, is this going to happen in every episode now??? At least Scott thought it was wrong, and that makes him right (IMO).

And I'm happy for the home team, even though they didn't deserve to be there based on the floating fire fighting farce :(

J

Posted by: harvscar

Well the geeks were mad about their parts getting taken too, they just weren't big, strong guys who could fight over it. Scott thought it was wrong because it happened to him and it wasn't him doing it to someone else, I just saw a bully acting out and it affected the happiness I had for the team winning, just my humble l'il opinion. I will agree with you that they didn't deserve to be there.

Posted by: HTH

Well, if they have learned anything from this season, it should have been to seed the junkyard with more than just two of the critical items.

Posted by: barclay

Or just tell the teams beforehand not to hord parts more than absolutely necessary. I'm not 100% sure, but I swear the British teams never did this, and it was never a problem. It almost seemed that all the American teams were hording what they could for no good reason.

I still remember the episode with the air ballon vs remote controlled plane. It was the first time I said something like "hey! what's that roll of mylar doing in the trunk of a car?" It's obvious the need to seed the junkyard, but lately it seems almost as if they start with the working parts, and just add some junk for the atmosphere.

Posted by: Otto

Bah. That car battle was super lame. Moron on the red team didn't have the brains to let off the brake, as far as I could see. Either that or they forgot to put in a way to disengage the brake.. Or it broke in the first round and they never fixed it. I dunno.

Posted by: jcbeckman

quote:
Originally posted by HTH
Well, there's still a Junkyard Wars Bloopers & Trashy Outtakes coming up after a marathon of 2001 episodes, July 4.

Trashy "outtakes"? Could there be something trashy they actually cut???

I didn't mind recycling the challenges as much as the hoarding, stealing, and what seemed like a large number of machines that just didn't work at all, yet the contestents weren't disqualified. The "experts" in some cases seem to know less than *I* do about this stuff (and I'm not very mechanicly inclined, but I *have* watched the older shows!). There appear to be no rules. In other forums, I have read that some of the stealing was actually the producers' idea! All in all, this has been a disappointing season.

I agree with others that I'd rather see more construction details than the "conflicts" with the teams (within and without!).