Topic: So, what did everyone think?

[Rob]

Well, personally, I am disappointed. I think the headline should be "TAR Jumps the Shark".

I never bought into the whole deal that it was the counties they visited that made the show, but I do now. It was not exciting to watch them in the states!!

Just my thoughts, and I will have more tomorrow when we tape RFF Reality TV Radio - www.rffradio.com


Rob

[realitytvnerd]

I thought it was funny that they didn't think to have maps to start with unless they weren't allwed to bring them.

I for one liked the sister team that came in first this week and I liked the Weaver's. I think they would have done better if they had started building instead of trying the buggy pull first. Thankfully Mom didn't get hurt with the buggy.

And of couse some of the teams need to learn to communicate instead of nagging and yelling at each other.

[Christine_IN]

What? The teams will never leave the States??  I am bummed now. I used to live in Germany and love it when TAR goes to Germany!

[Pedaler]

I did miss the exotic locations.  It's kind of strange to look at my Rand McNally Road Atlas during the show and see exactly where Blue Rock Rd. is (page 87, Lancaster inset).  It looked quite easy to get to from Mount Joy, so it's kind of hard to understand the change in team placements after the detour.

But, overall.  I enjoyed the show.  The detour was a good one.  The Aiellos really dropped by choosing the buggy option and I think the Linzes will think a little bit longer next time before choosing a detour task.

I wonder what the rule will be concerning roadblocks.  (there better be roadblocks )

Oh,

as far as the Hotdog Vendors Chateaus' choice Kevin & Drew would be the Bomb

Kudos to the Francophile

[puddin]

Loved the confusion and shouting ...loved the Gaghan kids passing the Aiello's " We'll be coming around the mountain when we come .." these kids are good kids are I adore them . Loved how they jumped in to help the others with the tents .
Kevin & Drew.. cool ( good job Chateau )
Not the Race around the world that we love TAR for but I knew that in advance and am not disappointed , it still had me on the edge of my seat .
Was it me or did the in car camaras look funky ?

[rmax]

I liked it better than I expected.  I think the first episode of each season usually has way too much driving/getting lost, so this seemed par for the course.  As for the locations, I kind of liked the Americanization.  The respect most of the families (minus Ma Paolo "Can we speed this up?) at the flag ceremony was very nice.   The Gaghan and Black kids were awesome, and I'm sorry to see the Blacks gone.  Perhaps the Godlewski's screaming will get tiresome, but it was pretty funny to see (wonder if their Pink Ladies nickname will hold?  Apparently, they do have different colored clothing!).   I seriously "misunderestimated" the Weavers (of course, they do have the Lord on their side).  Kind of creeped out by the Rogers ("It's Biblical authority that the man is the head of the household"), and Pa Schroeder could be a bit of a "tool" so we'll have to wait and see.   I like the Bransens (Wal-"der", ha!) too.   The Paolo's win the Ray Romano Reality Family award.  Again, that could be entertaining, or it could get old fast.  Interesting that the strongest looking teams, Linz and Aiello, didn't fare so well with the buggy detour (I would have chosen that over building, shows what I know).  It was actually a pretty well-designed detour, when the "faster" task turned out to be not.

What was interesting to me was that we saw a lot of helping between teams, with directions (if you don't count getting lost together), and the tent-building.  I wonder if that will keep up.

Obviously, Carissa Gaghan is going to be the season's breakout star.  I hope they last a while.

[floridagirl]

I thought it was funny!  The Gaghan kids were priceless!  I found myself rooting for the Paolas to come in last.  I don't know how much longer I can stand the fighting.  Half the race last night is on their home turf and they come in 2nd to last!   I guess iI rooting for the Weaver's as that they are from Florida.  Being a Nascar freak,  I remember seeing in the news when the father died. 

I thought it was hilarious when the teams had already started nicknaming each other.  One team called the Ghagan's, "The Rugrats".  One team called the sisters, "The Desperate Houswives."

[Melissa]

I thought it was ok. Prob. not as good geographically as some of the other TAR seasons. However, there is a lot more going in terms of how many people they have to work with. I like the Aiello guys, and of course, the Linz family (they are from my hometown). I think it will be a pretty good season. I thought for sure the Paolos would go first.

*News Flash*I heard the Kaysar and Michael were supposed to be on an Amazing race season... anybody else heard this??

[PapaBear]

I also liked it more than I thought I would given the family format.  Watching the young kids get eliminated was pretty painful though.  I wish that the Black family had at least been given the opportunity to leave the country.  There are a lot of likeable teams, and only one that I dislike so far (pretty easy to guess which one that is).  I am so far pretty optimistic for this season.

[kerri]

i am still out on whether i am going to like this new format. it was a little too heartbreaking watching the black family children take that loss. there are children in this game and i can only imagine the impact losing can have on them. thankfully, their parents seem to be amazing and will help them deal with this but who knows how other parents will react. it also makes it very difficult for me to cheer against teams this season because of the young children element. that being said i have always been drawn to teams like the linz's and sort of wish that one of the brothers and the sister were on a normal season of the race so i could root for them!

[gingerman28]

Too bad nobody really knew how the streets in New York City are laid out. No one would try to go up the West Side Highway from SoHo to 91st and Lexington which is on the East Side. The quickest way would be right up First Avenue (one way, progressive street lights) Notted that the Paolos went all the way up the East Side (FDR) drive past Yankee Stadium instead of cutting across town on 96th Street and then up the West Side Highway directly onto the GWBridge.

Only two teams, Aiello and Weavers, seemed to stop and get correct directions on how to reach Washington Crossing State Park, and they were able to jump over 5 or 6 other teams!!

Now some interesting maybe:

Count the number of cars lined up in the parking lot: three gray and eight black = 11 When the Paulos leave, no cars are left.

This is the first TAR detour task that I can remember when the more physical task (Buggy) took much longer than the building task which was alot less demanding. The Linz Family fell from fourth to tenth and the Aiello Family fell from second to fifth. Only the Gaghans remained in the same position (third) but their buggy load was a lot less to pull!

Not sure my eyes are right, but when the Linz Family finally pushed/pulled their buggy back to the start line, it seemed to me that there were 8 completed mills in the field beyond.

Listen to Phil when he greets the teams. He first names the team on a voice over; then there is a pause and in an on-camera closeup he gives their position.  He easily could skip the "missing team" and clever editing could match the name with the actual new position in the order.  In any case, the last team was still the Blacks and he was shown together with them when he have them the bad news

One last note: the producers are still trying to give the illusion that this is a "race around the world" by including all those old previously seen scenes from the other TAR shows .

[puddin]

GMAN I'm going to stick my Tape in later and see what I can grab as far as Vidcaps !!

[banzai]

I found some frames with 11 cars

[puddin]

Oh BOY !!

[Mandoli]

Dang...so are there 11 teams or not?

[puddin]

Or were there 11 teams to start  :whsl:

[careybear]

I loved it! I am with you puddin!  {|

[banzai]

if we see 11 buggy, 11 mills, or 11 tents, then 1 team didn't make to the 1st day. Maybe they lost their passports or ....

1 of the mill is a model set so we have to find 11 tents or 11 buggy.

[gingerman28]

One thing that did come true as predicted by many, the team with the youngest members (the Blacks) was the first team to be eliminated. It was obvious that the two young boys just could not manage the paddling of the boat as it drifted way down steam and they lost a lot of time.  So are the Gaghans next?  Can the small girl (o.k she can run a 7 minute mile) hold up her end of the stretcher with a rather large hunk on board?  Or do the Gaghans opt for some other task involving flags (looks like the Weavers do)