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puddin:
Aiellos still in 'The Race'
By Donna Whitehead

Friday, September 30, 2005
Tony Aiello watched the premiere of 'The Amazing Race' Tuesday at Jimmy’s Pub with his family.
Mansfield resident Tony Aiello, his wife, Barbara and their children gathered at Jimmy's Pub Tuesday night to watch Tony and his sons-in-law compete in CBS' "The Amazing Race."
 
     The Aiello team includes his sons-in-law, Kevin Kempskie and Matt Hanson of Bellingham, and David Alverson of Providence, R.I.
 
     The Mansfield men made it through the two-hour premiere episode. They traveled through New York City, crossed the Delaware River, camped out and dragged an Amish buggy through the Pennsylvania countryside. They finished the episode in eighth place after getting lost on the way to Lancaster, Pa., but will still be in the race when the show's next episode airs.
 
     Those interested in following Team Aiello can check out the show at www.cbs.com.

http://www2.townonline.com/mansfield/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=337225

Chateau d If:
So, did they turn left or right out of the Brubaker Farm?

From the team sort link that's where they lose a lot.

puddin:
On the insider clip all they said was they were lost and had a hard time finding the Pitstop ..no details .
For Windows Media Player ~

http://cgi.cbs.com/vplayer/timeplay.pl?type=wmv&id=15466

puddin:
Amazing Race -- Family Edition
During this edition of The Amazing Race, we are keeping track of two families: the Bransen family of Park Ridge and the Godlewski family of Des Plaines.
Virginia Soto,
COMPARING THE BRANSENS AND THE GODLEWSKIS:

The Chicago contestants are seven blonde women and one white-haired guy. Four sisters in one family and three sisters in the other. Which means it's going to take a while for us to tell them apart (the fact that the Godlewski sisters all wore pink shirts throughout most of the show made things even worse).
Let's hope the two families last long enough to give us time to differentiate those seven ladies...

The Bransen girls are Lindsay (20), Lauren (22), and Beth (25). The Godlewski sisters are older: Tricia (26), Christine (37), Sharon (39), and Michelle (41). They also seem to come from different financial backgrounds: while the Bransens are seen playing croquet, the Godlewskis are shown playing pool. To make the difference between the two families more striking: Walter Bransen says his daughters will always be his "little girls." But when some of the conversation turns to the Godlewski sisters, you hear comments such as "silicone implants," "smokers," (both of these comments came from Mark Schroeder) "strong flirts," and the like.

During this first episode, the Bransens went unnoticed by almost everyone, except the hot dog vendors (Drew and Kevin from the first edition of The Amazing Race, who said after looking at two of the sisters that was one team they'd like to be on), and the Schroeders who did say the Bransens could be a tough team to defeat. The Godlewskis, on the other hand, were noticed by almost everybody and interacted with a bunch of people (some of the other families even came up with nicknames for them: the Weavers nicknamed them "the Desperate Housewives" and the Schroeders "the Pink Ladies"). The Godlewskis seemed to be not only respected but liked by most of the other contestants, who followed them when they could and even helped the Godlewski sisters build their tent when they arrived late at the Belmont Plateau.
THE BRANSEN FAMILY:

Lauren is identified by Lindsey as the weakest link, or as Lindsey puts it, the "girliest" of the three. But, says Lindsey, Lauren is also the most organized and positive of the sisters.

The three Bransen girls like to joke around and tease each other. They say they call their father "Waldur" and make him the object of their jokes. According to the father, they plan to have fun while participating on The Amazing Race (unfortunately, this may turn out to be their downfall; if you look at the scenery instead of the road signs, you are bound to get lost.)

How did the Bransens do? They were among the last to leave Fulton Ferry State Park in Brooklyn and they were the seventh team to arrive at the Eastern Mountain Sports in SoHo. Then, they were sixth to arrive at the "frank" (hot dog stand) on 91st between Park and Lexington (the father let one of the daughters drive on the way there and she proved quite adept, not letting the Weavers pass her as she drove). Despite this, they still arrived second at Washington Crossing in Pennsylvania (after the Aiellos). How did they manage such a feat? During this leg of the race, the Bransens stopped to ask for directions and to buy a map. BUT, since they asked for directions and bought a map at the beginning of the race and they ended up in sixth/seventh place, that couldn't have been it, or at least, not entirely. For some reason, the producers of The Amazing Race are not focusing their cameras on this family, so a lot of what we say about them has to be learned through deduction (if not downright guesswork). They might have been scared by their poor showing and decided to pay attention. Or they might have gotten good really good directions from whomever they asked. Whatever they reason, once they arrived at the river, the girls, obviously in better shape than their dad, told their father to "Hustle, Wally." (What happened to the "Waldur" nickname?) At the crossing, the teams needed to row a boat across the river to the New Jersey shore and retrieve a Revolutionary flag before returning to the Pennsylvania side of the river. The moment the Bransens got in their boat, however, they became stuck. The father jumped out to see what the problem was, which allowed the Aiellos to move far ahead of them. Still, the moment the boat became unstuck, the Bransens seemed to catch up, which means they must be quite strong physically. Unfortunately, after Lauren retrieved the flag and the Bransens began rowing again, they started losing ground to the Aiellos once more.
Maybe the girls had become tired from the physical exertion it took to row the boat that first time -- or at least Lindsay did, since she seemed to be the one taking the brunt of Walter's criticism. The girls told the father to calm down, and after the family finally made it back to the Pennsylvania side of the river (still in second place), they were instructed to drive 34 miles to Philadelphia and find Belmont Plateau, where they would be camping for the night.On their way there, the Bransens got stuck in traffic and they might have gotten lost again, making them come in fourth place, meaning they would leave the next day at 10:30 am instead of 10:00 am. The next morning, a heavy rain falling, they were told to drive 92 miles to Mount Joy, PA to the Brubaker Farms, where they would have to choose their first Detour, "Build It," or "Buggy It." The Bransens apparently got lost AGAIN. We were shown shots of them asking for directions and then we saw them arriving at the Brubaker Farms after the Linzes and the Godlewskis, both of whom left Belmont Plateau half an hour after the Bransens did. Once they got there, however, the Bransens chose to build the watermill (the most popular of the two Detour choices), and did well, finishing the Detour in fourth position. They then had to travel to the Pit Stop at Blue Rock Road and look for the twin, blue silos in the Rohrer Farm, a Mennonite farm in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The last team to arrive would be eliminated. As the Bransens left Brubaker Farms on their way to Lancaster, Walter mentioned that he thought they're going the wrong way. Lost again. Oh, well. The Bransens finally reached the Pit Stop in seventh place. The family hugged when Phil told them they were still in the race.

How do I think the Bransens are going to do? As is obvious from the recap above, the Bransens' problem is that they have a tendency to get lost when driving around looking for their next clue, a MAJOR roadblock on the way to getting a million dollars on a show like The Amazing Race. WHY they get lost is hard to tell since it wasn't shown on this episode. The producers must have thought it wasn't interesting enough. (I guess that means that when the Bransens get lost, they don't bicker amongst themselves the way the Paolos do; something to be thankful for.) Except for their second-place finish during the Washington Crossing part of the episode, the Bransens were in the middle of the pack most of the time, and most of those times they were either in sixth or seventh place, a very poor showing when there are only ten teams competing. In other words, their future at this point doesn't look too promising. The one ray of hope is that the family analyzed what they did wrong and came up with some ideas to change things for the next leg of the race. As one of the Bransen girls explained, they tend to get distracted watching what the other teams are doing (instead of forgetting about the other families and concentrating on the job at hand), and thus tend to stress out too much.

The Godlewski sisters think their main attribute is that they are going to be underestimated by the other teams. Everybody is going to think of them as dumb blondes and not pay attention to them. (Of course, this "We're going to be underestimated" mantra is something every reality show contestant seems to say at the beginning of every reality show.)

How did they do? From the very beginning, the Godlewski sisters showed that they were a team that had to be taken seriously.

Even though the Gaghans were the first to pack up their car at Fulton Ferry State Park in Brooklyn on the way to Eastern Mountain Sports in SoHo, and the Godlewskis were among the last, next time we saw them, the Godlewskis had already caught up to the Gaghans and were driving behind them (the Godlewskis got stuck at a light the Gaghans managed to make). How did they do it? Well, in one instance, we see second (from the top) sister Sharon, 39, driving the wrong way in a New York City street. (To be fair to Sharon, she might have been following the Weavers and not have realized the mess she was getting into.) They also got a map (smart move), and ended up leaving the store in fourth place. Then they arrived at the frank in fourth place, showing that once they move up, they can keep their momentum. At the hot dog stand, Christine was the one who got the clue. The sisters all said they had been very lucky, and at this point, we hadn't seen enough of the show to know if this was true or if they were just being polite. We could tell, however, that they Godlewski sisters were very excited about their chances by the way they talked about New York and about how much they loved the place and how much fun they were having (if they had been dispirited, they probably wouldn't have liked the place that much). After leaving the hot dog stand, the Godlewskis managed to find the George Washington Bridge quite fast. They were now in second place. It's after crossing the bridge that the very capable Godlewski sisters lost track of where they were and got lost (the Chicago plague, we're going to call it, even though the Godlewskis, unlike the Bransens only got lost once). Fortunately for the Godlewskis, the Schroeder family had been following them, so the Godlewskis didn't panic, feeling that if this was an elimination leg, there was still a chance they could make it. (Unbeknownst to them, the Paolo and Linz families were lost, too.) When the Godlewskis reluctantly told each other that they were going to have to turn around and leave "the scenic route" (as the sisters called the road they were on), the Schroeders asked them if they were lost. The Godlewskis admitted to them that they were. The Schroeders, furious, decided to take off and go their own way. It was late by the time the Godlewskis arrived at Washington Crossing. Sharon got all wet retrieving the flag and had to rinse her shirt. By the time the Godlewskis arrived at Belmont Plateau, it was dark. Just about everybody helped the Godlewski sisters set up their tent, and they ended up in eighth place and got a starting time of 11:00 am. The sisters thanked the other contestants for their help by offering them chocolate chip cookies. The next morning, when they left for the Brubaker Farm, the Godlewskis were followed by the Linzes. In the end, it proved beneficial for the Godlewskis, since it was the Linzes who found the farm (it was the Godlewskis who found Mount Joy, though). The Godlewskis once again had moved up in the standings, from eighth to five. By the time they finished the Detour they were in second place. The Godlewskis bickered amongst themselves over the quickest route to take to get to the Pit Stop. Ultimately, their quarreling worked, as the Godlewski sisters stepped onto the mat in first place, screaming and cheering wildly (Phil asked them if they always talked over each other). Phil informed the sisters they had won $20,000 for their victory, which meant even more shrieking and cheering.

How do I think they are going to do? I think this first episode shows that the Godlewski sisters not only have great tenacity, but also have an incredible capacity to move ahead in the game. At the Fulton Ferry State Park, they were among the last to leave and yet immediately they moved to the front of the pack. After they got lost finding Washington Crossing and were again at the bottom of the pack, again they immediately moved up and managed to finish first, an INCREDIBLE feat. I think that the Godlewskis are THE team to beat in this competition.

A little aside: I heard someone say that the way the Godlewski sisters praised each other and kept telling the one doing the driving, "You're doing great!" could be as annoying as the Paolos fighting. I don't think so. The Godlewskis went from last to first, so obviously they weren't lying when they praised their sister's driving skills. And they were caught on camera bickering as well, so it's obvious these girls mean what they say.
ABOUT THE AMAZING RACE IN GENERAL:

Phil Keoghan has guaranteed us (the viewers) some "good entertainment" in this edition of The
Amazing
 
I would love for him to explain what he meant by that. As people have noted before, The Amazing Race is a show that did not become a hit with the fans until the fifth season, when some changes took place. As Phil himself said, "If there was a weakness to The Amazing Race in the beginning, it was that there was nothing nasty about it, because trainwreck TV works. But people are now turning towards shows like The Amazing Race. It is doing better now than when it was launched -- it's huge." To make a show work you need "colorful" characters. People like, well, "Boston" Rob Mariano. Except The Amazing Race didn't want to bring "famous" or "well-known" people. "People like to see fresh faces. They like to watch ordinary people do extraordinary things," said Phil in an interview to MSNBC. So what did the The Amazing Race producers do? They brought on people like "hardcore and aggressive" Mark Schroeder (their "ordinary" answer to Rob Mariano, I guess), and the Paolo family (their "ordinary" answer to a train wreck). I really think the producers have missed big with their casting choices for this edition of the The Amazing Race. "Boston" Rob might have been cocky. He might have been rude. But he also had a lot of things going for him. He could make things happen. He was a winner. The Paolos are losers. Kids insulting their parents? That's what you call "good entertainment"? Sorry, Phil, but you need to get yourself a new dictionary

http://chicago.about.com/od/newspapersradiotv/a/092705_race.htm

puddin:
'Amazing' family reflects


By EMILY BROWN
ebrown@potomacnews.com
Tuesday, October 4, 2005


Even though they still squirm and grimace watching their one and only episode of “The Amazing Race: Family Edition” or one of the many interviews they’ve done since, the Blacks of Woodbridge are thankful they had a chance to show their family the world, and the world their family.

In a competitive show, which sends 10 teams of four related persons on an international scavenger hunt for $1 million, the Blacks left a muddy footprint on viewers with their understated but clearly visible unity.

“I just think it’s refreshing to see a family that loves each other,” said Kimberly Black.

They may have been the first to leave, but the Blacks - Reggie, 42, Kimberly, 40, Kenneth, 11, and Austin, 8 - were also the first to walk away with life lessons.

An overwhelming outpouring in the last week has won the Blacks plenty of national and regional media attention, a free meal in an airport and letters from well-wishers across the country.

“The best thing about all of this is it teaches the boys you get rewarded for doing the right thing,” said Kimberly, a fifth-grade teacher at Douglas MacArthur Elementary School in Alexandria.

Before the show’s 30-day taping this summer, the family talked about teamwork, supporting one another, following directions and doing the right thing, she said. They also prepared to say goodbye to their 2-year-old Jordan, as he stayed with his godmother through the taping.

During taping, they never knew if they were in first place or last, said Reggie, a math teacher at West Potomac High School in Alexandria. They underestimated the speed of the race and tried to stay cool - maybe too cool, he says now - and focus on the task at hand.

The race took them through New York’s Soho Village and onto Pennsylvania. They rowed against a strong current in the Delaware River, they found a campsite in Philadelphia. Because of their positioning, seventh at the time, the family had a later starting time in the morning.

The next day they raced to Mount Joy, Pa., where they opted to build a working water wheel over pushing each other a mile and a half in an Amish buggy.

The choice was suited for the family, they all agreed. Austin, a fourth-grader at Douglas MacArthur, liked the idea because it was life-size, not a table model. Kenneth, a Beville Middle School sixth-grader, said he likes to dig.

“They had the eyes for it, believe it or not,” Reggie said. “They engineered it, we just put it together.”

There was never a point in the race where they thought they were finished, but their effort came up short when they were the last team to arrive at a farm in Lancaster, Pa.

“I was really disappointed and sad,” Kenneth said. “We sent Jordan away for a long time and I was sad because we were the first ones out.”

Viewers never had the chance to see the family’s drive and competitiveness, added his father. The family takes Tae Kwon Do classes together at Jhoon Rhee Institute in Woodbridge.

But since the show last week, fans have had an opportunity to hear from the Blacks through countless television, radio and print interviews, including a dozen radio interviews in three hours Monday morning.

Last week they watched the show’s premier episode crowded around a hotel TV in New York City so they could be in the city for a CBS “The Early Show” interview the next morning.

The Blacks felt pretty special: a limo to the airport, a flight to New York on short notice, a downtown hotel room. In the show’s seven previous seasons, none of the first five eliminated teams were interviewed on the news the next morning, Kimberly said.

Then again, everything about their experience with reality television makes them feel pretty special.

“It was a rewarding feeling to know you represented your family and your hometown and you did a good job,” Reggie said.

http://www.potomacnews.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WPN%2FMGArticle%2FWPN_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031785432926&path=

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