Im going to bring the whole story over cause I'm sick of going back and forth
Behind the Scenes of "The Amazing Race 8--Family Edition"
The Amazing Race is my favorite reality show on TV...and I must not be the only one--the show just won it's third Emmy for "Best Reality Show." Imagine my excitement last April when I thought I heard rumors of "The Amazing Race" coming to Huntsville! I was at the annual Great Moonbuggy Raceat the U.S. Space & Rocket Center(USSRC) and happened upon a conversation between Al Whitaker, Media & Public Relationships Manager, and a couple NASA employees. I thought I heard the words "Amazing Race"--but when I questioned Al, he vehemently denied my eavesdropping skills.
When "The Amazing Race" comes to a town, everything is hush-hush, $10 million confidentiality clauses are signed, everyone locally connected to the event is sworn to secrecy, and, in the case of Huntsville, they come in the middle of the night and leave quickly the next day.
Episode 3 featuring Huntsville and the USSRC will air on CBS on October 11, 2005.
The Challenge: The Centrifuge...
Al Whitaker now wishes to apologize to the local media for having to steer them wrong. He first learned about CBS's interest in bringing "The Amazing Race" to Huntsville back in February. At first, the network wanted to film AR during the Great Moonbuggy Race and contacted NASA, the sponsor of that event. When the idea for the Moonbuggy Race was scrapped, NASA officials suggested the show talk to Whitaker about bringing the Amazing Race to USSRC. After a tour of the site, "The Amazing Race" people decided that a ride in the Centrifuge would be a great task for the teams. The Centrifuge is a small two-person capsule on the end of a revolving arm. The faster the arm spins, the more G-force created upon those inside the capsule. It's identical to what NASA and the Navy use to train their pilots and astronauts. Sponsored Links
The Amazing Race
The Centrifuge is designed in such a way as to not exceed 5 G's for safety purposes. The machine makes people feel like they weigh 4 times more than they actually weigh and pulls your flesh back and exerts pressure on your chest. Whitaker spent time during the show explaining to the teams what they would feel and giving out the clue when their task was finished. Alex Hanna was in charge of actually strapping the contestants into the Centrifuge.
Eight Suburbans...
The teams were expected to arrive at the Space & Rocket Center sometime in the afternoon of July 11th but were delayed because of weather conditions. Eight black Suburban SUV's were parked at the Huntsville Convention & Visitors Bureau awaiting the teams arrival. Employees at the Visitors Center and the Parking & Public Transportation Department didn't know what was going on. The cars were parked in their parking lot after business hours and were gone shortly after the workday began the next day. The first teams did not arrive until about midnight and the last team came in around 4-5 a.m. If you're familiar with Huntsville at all, you know that if you look anywhere in town at night and see the Saturn V rocket lit up at the Space & Rocket Center...so it was probably easy for the teams to find where they were suppose to be going.
The Teams Explore the Space & Rocket Center
In the meantime, USSRC had parked all their tour buses end-to-end to block the view of the Space Center from public view and help with the privacy issue. Whitaker said that finding the Space Center wasn't the hard part, finding Ed Buckbee Building where Aviation Challenge is located on the grounds of the USSRC. After the Centrifuge, teams had to go to Rocket Park and perform some tasks, then go inside the Space Museum and use the computer to do some tasks. The finishing line and the host Phil Keoghan waited at the Astrotrek Building.
12-Hour Mandatory Rest...
Afterwards, the USSRC catered a meal for the more than 90 people involved with the show--teams, cameramen, sound technicians, production crew, and, of course, Phil. The teams were required to take a mandatory rest of 12 hours at the Huntsville Marriott , conveniently located next door to the USSRC, where word is that the whole west wing was rented to them so that no one would know they were there or talk to them or disturb them. Of course, the whole hotel was sworn to secrecy, so there's "no comment" from the staff.
Teams Leave Huntsville...
The teams started leaving Huntsville around 11 a.m. the next day. The photos in this article are all from the USSRC...not all teams were filmed and so no conclusion can or should be made as to who got eliminated on this third episode of the show. Whitaker refused to sign the $10 million confidentiality clause because it would make him responsible for all the USSRC employees involved with the event and he didn't feel he could control that. At that point, it was too late for CBS to turn back on the deal, so they went ahead without the signed contract. Watch Huntsville on October 11th on CBS as "The Amazing Race" scrabbles through the Rocket City!
