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TAR 8 - On-line Articles
puddin:
this one thanks to Chateau
» More From The Star Ledger
8-legged race is 4 too many
Monday, September 26, 2005
BY ALAN SEPINWALL
Star-Ledger Staff
"THE AMAZING Race" has always been the reality show for people who don't like reality shows, with a premise so ingenious and simple that it didn't need the constant gimmicks other reality shows have to invoke to stay fresh. So why did the "Race" producers feel compelled to twist things up for the eighth season?
Instead of teams of two traveling the globe, now we have families of four. Some are nuclear families with a mom, a dad and small kids (the youngest is 8), while others include four siblings in their late teens and 20s and a middle-aged father and his three sons-in-law.
This causes several problems right away. First, one of the show's few flaws is that there are too many people to keep track of in the early episodes, and now the number's doubled.
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Second, past casts have featured all kinds of interesting combinations -- mothers and sons, siblings, husbands and wives, people who just started dating (and who usually break up during the show) -- while this group is more homogenous. There's a middle-aged man competing with his three sons-in-law, and a team of four teen and twentysomething sibs, but virtually every other group is a traditional nuclear family, with the only thing distinguishing them their ages and accents.
Also, a good chunk of the show's appeal has been as a travelogue, with contestants running through gorgeous landmarks around the globe. The two-hour family edition premiere (tomorrow at 9 p.m., Ch. 2) starts in Manhattan and then stays in Manhattan, then stays in Manhattan again, then features a jaunt down the Jersey Turnpike (where the smarter teams stop for directions at the Vince Lombardi service area), then stops in Philly before a jaunt through Pennsylvania Dutch country.
This may be the longest single stretch within U.S. borders in the show's history, and resembles a family car trip more than an exciting international race. Rumors have abounded that the teams will only get as far as Central America this year, probably to spare the younger kids (including an 8-year-old boy and 9-year-old girl) from the rigors of constant travel.
The good news is that certain parts of the show are tinker-proof. The challenges are still inventive and geographically appropriate (they have to buy hot dogs on 91st & Lex and race carriages in Lancaster, Pa.). And while the show has generally favored teams with greater strength or athleticism, it doesn't look in the early going like the teams with small children are at a significant disadvantage. (If anything, the kids prove useful during the carriage race, since they're lighter and easier to pull.)
Maybe in a few weeks, when the numbers have dwindled from 44 to, say, 28, and the contestants have gone somewhere that requires a passport, it'll be easier to tell whether the family idea should be repeated in the future.
But right now, it's disconcerting that the highlight of the premiere was the sight of two former contestants handing out clues at the hot dog stand and looking increasingly dismayed -- either because they think the new format is odd or, more likely, because only one person recognized them.
-- Alan Sepinwall
http://www.nj.com/search/index.ssf?/base/columns-0/1127710201243320.xml?starledger?colatv&coll=1
puddin:
What to watch Tuesday
TV's best reality show, The Amazing Race (CBS, Tuesday, 9 ET/PT), launches its Family Edition with a decent but less-than-amazing start that travels all the way from Brooklyn to Pennsylvania. The show has replaced its usual teams of two with teams of four, all family members. Only two of them, however, have small children.
Let's start with the good news. Tonight's premiere is free of the Rob-and-Amber-inspired, overly competitive ugliness that marred the last Race. Indeed, the 10 teams are cooperative, though you know that's bound to change.
As always, there is some internal bickering among the teams. But tonight at least, there are no scenes of parents screaming at kids the kind of race-inspired bad behavior that had been a pre-Race concern. In fact, instead of child abuse, what you get tonight is parent abuse, particularly from two teenage boys who scream insults and orders at their mom and dad pretty much non-stop.
The real problem tonight isn't the racers, it's the race track. What's missing is the joy of travel and discovery, of interacting with other cultures and seeing new sights. By this time in the last Race, we were already zip-lining through the mountains of Peru. Somehow, crossing the Delaware in rowboats and pulling Amish buggies over a Pennsylvania farm just doesn't measure up. If you want to amaze us, folks, you'd better get moving.
http://www.usatoday.com/life/columnist/criticscorner/2005-09-26-critics-corner_x.htm
puddin:
Anderson family competing in 'Amazing Race'
By Rick Bird
Post staff reporter
Photo courtesy CBS
The Linz family of Cincinnati is fielding a team of siblings in The Amazing Race: Family Edition. It includes, from left, youngest brother Tommy, Megan, Alex and Nick.
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Terri Linz, 52, of Anderson Township, says she briefly considered joining her children as part of their team for "The Amazing Race."
"It was a passing thought. But it passed very quickly," she said with a laugh.
"As I have said, I myself have been on an 'amazing race' for the past 28 years."
Terri and her husband, Tom, have raised seven kids - six sons and a daughter - with the middle four selected to compete in CBS' "The Amazing Race: Family Edition," which has a two-hour debut at 9 tonight on WKRC-TV (Channel 12).
The Linz family team consists of:
Nick, 24, a salesman from Buffalo, N.Y.;
Alex, 23, an emergency room technician now living at home waiting on medical school applications;
Megan, 21, a junior at Miami University;
Tommy (aka "Bone"), 19, a sophomore at Miami.
In tonight's debut, part of which was made available for review, viewers will see a couple of Cincinnati-related T-shirt logos worn by the Linz team.
Bone sports a bright blue "St. X" T-shirt and there is a shot of Alex with an orange "Who Dey" shirt.
Terri says her children borrowed the Bengals' fan chant.
"They call themselves the 'Who Dey' team. They were yelling that when they were racing."
Terri said her sons all went to
St. Xavier High School. Megan is
a St. Ursula grad.
Viewers will see an easygoing hometown team they can root for. The Linz siblings come off as a fun group, often wise-cracking and good-naturedly cutting up with each other.
They even manage to get a classic fart joke in the debut. They seem competitive, but not to the point where they are going to let the heated, grueling race stop them from enjoying the experience.
"I think they gave it their best shot. They are all happy kids and competitive kids, if that's the edge," Terri said.
The series, a three-time Emmy winner for best reality show, seems to have hit on a winning concept with the family edition, which features 10 four-member teams with everyone somehow related, instead of the usual two-member teams.
For example, there are several families that include mom, dad and their two kids; also, a widow with her three daughters; a father with his three sons-in-law and a father with his three daughters.
The Linz team is one of just two made up entirely of siblings.
Terri says the family was actually recruited when a casting scout noticed the Linz clan on a family vacation last Christmas.
"Life's luck," she said.
"We were all on vacation in Cancun over the holidays and we really had not done that for years. We were at the airport waiting to come back to Cincinnati and a casting director mentioned the show to them and let them be aware of it, so they pursued it."
After sending off a DVD entry, the four were invited to Chicago for interviews.
Later, they were informed they had made the show and given a date earlier this summer to be ready, but were not told the destination until they arrived at the airport.
"They didn't know until the last minute when we put them on the plane where they were going," Terri said.
"The security man looked at me and said, 'Where are your kids going?' I said, 'You know what? I really have no idea.' He looked at me like, 'What kind of mother are you?' "
In fact, they went to New York City where this edition of "Amazing Race" starts out.
With the family theme, the initial destinations in Tuesday's debut include some down-home, Americana locations.
Having the Linz siblings on the reality show gives tri-state TV audiences two local favorites to root for on both of CBS' long-running, highly rated reality shows this season. Maysville native Cindy Hall, who has lived in Naples, Fla., the past 10 years, is a contestant on "Survivor Guatemala," which debuted Sept 15. (Please see story on Page 1.)
Cincinnati has often been CBS' No. 1 market for "Survivor" and "The Amazing Race."
A Channel 12 spokeswoman says Cincinnati was the highest-rated market for "Race" during its last edition. It has been a perennial leader for "Survivor," although the Cincinnati market dropped to ninth in the second episode last week after leading the nation in the Sept. 15 debut.
Terri Linz acknowledges she was only vaguely aware of "The Amazing Race" and never has watched it. She has been amazed at how many fans of the show she has run into who are excited about the local team.
"I'm finding neighbors, an old past friend, or a teacher who are saying, 'I saw your children are going to be on.'
"I've been blown away by so many people telling me it's one of their favorite shows."
Now Terri is gearing up for the emotional roller coaster ride any parent might expect to experience when their kids are on national TV: Will they live up to expectations?
"These are four very different personalities, so I think it's going to be pretty crazy," she said.
"I hope I'm not hiding wearing sunglasses when I walk around Cincinnati."
http://news.cincypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050927/LIFE/509270343/1005
puddin:
'Amazing Race' trekker has St. Petersburg ties
By CHASE SQUIRES, Times TV columnist
Published September 27, 2005
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CBS's The Amazing Race: Family Edition will feature a local rooting interest, but Tampa Bay area viewers might not even know it.
Among the family teams charging off across the globe in a race for a million dollars will be Linda Weaver of Ormond Beach and her three children, Rebecca, 19, Rachel, 16, and Rolly, 14.
But Weaver wasn't always a Weaver, and she wasn't always from Ormond Beach. Her mom, Lois Draper, said Weaver was raised in St. Petersburg and graduated from Northeast High School. Back then, she was Linda Scarbrough, one of Draper's four daughters, along with older sister Marcia and younger sisters Debbie and Marti.
Draper said her daughter is forbidden by CBS from doing interviews, but the network confirmed her identity.
In tonight's season premiere, airing at 9 on WTSP-Ch. 10, the Weaver family provides one of the most exciting moments, an encounter with an Amish buggy.
Weaver, 47, was widowed in February 2004 when her husband, Roy, was run over while picking up debris from the racetrack during an IPOWER Dash Series race at Daytona International Speedway, where he worked. She and her children discuss his death onscreen and share their religious faith; Weaver prays aloud twice during the first episode, asking for divine aid.
Draper said she isn't surprised to see her daughter on the show.
"She's such a vivacious type person, a daring type person, she'll try anything," Draper said. "I'm thrilled to death about it, but she can't tell me anything about how it comes out. Not a thing."
CBS cut short the preview episode mailed to critics in advance of tonight's airing, to keep the ending secret, but the Weavers were doing well leading up to the close.
Draper, who now lives in North Carolina, said her daughter moved from the area shortly after she was married 20 years ago.
* * *
One coincidence on Amazing Race highlights the continued underrepresentation of minorities on network reality shows. The only black family selected to compete is the Black family: Reggie and Kimberly Black, of Woodbridge, Va., and their sons, Kenneth and Austin. When any family is onscreen, producers identify them by posting the family name prominently in the lower right corner of the screen. So every time Reggie and Kimberly get screen time, viewers are reminded they're the "Black Family."
Ironic. Perhaps they could be identified as "the only black family."
http://www.sptimes.com/2005/09/27/Columns/_Amazing_Race__trekke.shtml
puddin:
Ormond family begins 'Race'
Staff report
Last update: September 27, 2005
The "Race" is on for an Ormond Beach family.
Linda Weaver, 46, daughters Rebecca, 19, Rachel, 16, and son, 14-year-old Rolly, are contestants on the latest season of "The Amazing Race," which premieres tonight at 9 on CBS.
They are the family of Roy Weaver, a race track worker who was killed in an accident last year at Daytona International Speedway.
On the CBS Web site (www.CBS.com), Linda Weaver said she hoped the experience would "alleviate some of the heartache" the family has experienced.
The Weavers will compete against nine other families on "The Amazing Race." This "family edition" is a new twist for the popular show, which sends teams on a mad dash across the globe. The first across the finish line nets $1 million.
The Weavers have declined requests for interviews, citing confidentiality agreements that most reality show contestants are required to abide by. Simply put, they can't tell anyone how they fared.
Patrons of the Rockin' Ranch, where eldest daughter Rebecca tends bar, will gather to party, watch the show and cheer the family on, starting at 7 p.m. The Rockin' Ranch is at 801 S. Nova Road, Ormond Beach. For details, call (386) 673-0904.
http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/Entertainment/Headlines/03SceneTV01092705.htm
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