Topic: TAR behind the scenes: Oral History of TAR 1 (from Reality Blurred)

[redwings8831]

This is a must read.

https://www.realityblurred.com/realitytv/2021/09/amazing-race-season-one-oral-history

[Kiwi Jay]

Oh this is amazing. Thank you for posting this Redwings - I hope you are keeping well.

I miss the Race terribly. I pray there is a way to safely film the remainder of Season 33 in 2022. I'm sure you are some of the only people who truly understand the feelings I have been having - missing the adventure, the culture, the challenges, the sleuthing. And most of all, the history. All that came before.

I have been feeling very nostalgic of late. It seems incredible to me, to have memories of watching the Race on New Zealand television at eight-years-old, and getting this thrill of excitement at seeing ordinary people, racing around the world against each other, competing in challenges that involved our incredible world, in a race for a million dollars. And then a few years later, discovering Reality Fan Forum, and seeing all these sleuths following racers in real time, uncovering photos of teams at airports, on the racecourse, at pitstops. I believe it was Season 10 at the time, and I still have vivid memories of my first look at our beloved Team Kentucky, David & Mary, in some of the airport photographs. Lyn & Karlyn and Dustin & Kandice were also there. I felt immediately I was home. This was a place to share my excitement and love of this show.

Oftentimes, I think it's silly to look at the Race as I do. But it really has been a part of my life since I was a child. I'm now almost 28, and I don't really know where any of us would be without it. It sounds dramatic, but it is such a special part of my life. I've made some good friends with former Racers and other fans like you on RFF, and share in all the excitement of the Race on this forum.

I think I speak for all of us when I say, I hope The Amazing Race can make a safe return in 2022, and long may it continue on television!

On a final note, I want to agree entirely with Andy Dehnart from Reality Blurred. He is also a big fan of the show, and we completely align. I would love to see more flight/ticket booking drama and a little more 'ordinary people' from all ages 20-70 on the show again. I feel that has slightly drifted in recent seasons. In saying that, I'll take TAR no matter what! I also cannot deny that reminiscing over this pandemic has made me realise I would love to see teams from early seasons (Dustin & Kandice, Charla & Mirna, Joe & Bill, Rob & Brennan etcetera) back again - would be a huge thank you and nostalgia trip for us fans who followed these epic teams in the first 15-odd seasons of the show. Add in a few 'big name' newer teams (Justin & Diana, Becca & Floyd etc) and you're off and racing.

Keep well everyone!

[Pi]

What a fascinating read! It's incredible to think about how many people had to have faith for this adventure to even begin, let alone continue for over two decades now. Trial-by-fire often doesn't work in the TV biz, but they made it work. Just phenomenal.

[LandonM170]

This was an amazing read, and I am so happy that I love this show has much as I do. Race is a show like no other, and I am happy to call myself a super-fan of this show! It still is hard to believe this all happened and it is crazy how much of season 1 was on a fly. I can't believe the final city wasn't picked until a week before the finale and how the top of the World Trade Center could have been the finish line, I mean the finish line could have been at the World Trade Center like that just is crazy to think about how that would have been 3 months before a horrible day. I think there is a very small chance season 34 could go back to a late 10s - early 20s type of format where mostly flights are picked however you can go and see if there is a better one since some of the people think that is what really made the show so amazing.

[georgiapeach]

This was an amazing read, and I am so happy that I love this show has much as I do. Race is a show like no other, and I am happy to call myself a super-fan of this show! It still is hard to believe this all happened and it is crazy how much of season 1 was on a fly. I can't believe the final city wasn't picked until a week before the finale and how the top of the World Trade Center could have been the finish line, I mean the finish line could have been at the World Trade Center like that just is crazy to think about how that would have been 3 months before a horrible day. I think there is a very small chance season 34 could go back to a late 10s - early 20s type of format where mostly flights are picked however you can go and see if there is a better one since some of the people think that is what really made the show so amazing.

Agree! Except with Covid there is ZERO CHANCE of self picking flights or various routes. I think all flights will be planned well ahead and possibly assigned or chartered.

[theschnauzers]

The show did lose something with very little self driving (stick manual transmission) and self booking flights. Quite a few early seasons were affected by those two skill sets, and I miss those as elements of the Race. As to the long range effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, I think that’s harder to predict. It’ll affect 33, and presumably 34 and 35, but we can’t assume that things might get back to something closer to pre-pandemic international travel after that. No one knows.

[tarflyonthewall]

My gut feeling is self-driving (or self-cycling, or self-walking or whatever) is going to wind up being how they solve the logistics of travelling between destinations without exposing anyone to Covid. Like, "avoid crowds" has been the show's bread and butter for years, first because of the security risks following 9/11 and then because of spoilers when the show was at its peak. At worst we'd probably get a situation like the Palawan island-hopping leg in TAR5, with the teams taking boats for the day and the show ensuring all of the drivers test negative to avoid the contestants (who will have to be vaxxed for legal reasons, obviously) causing asymptomatic spread in a location where there aren't many cases.

Flights are probably harder, but I imagine - especially with South America, Africa, and Oceania essentially closed for different reasons - that long-distance overland travel might be a solution. Like they could absolutely rent a couple of coaches to ferry the teams from, say, Brussels to Vienna and then to Belgrade, and just set it up so the top half get the early bus and the bottom half get a bus that arrives 45 minutes later.

The bigger issue, I suspect, is going to be getting a route production is happy with. It's probably going to wind up involving new countries production doesn't have experience in (it feels like we might get at least a couple of legs in eastern Europe where the show's barely touched before, a situation that usually results in underwhelming legs), or countries they've visited very recently in the race canon (maybe Cambodia again?), or countries they've avoided for whatever reason (eg, "not exotic enough" Canada). And all of that is fine - given the circumstances, I don't think many people would honestly hold it against the show for doing a third of the season in the former Yugoslavia, for example - it's just how do you do it in a way that comes together and feels like a normal season of the show?

It feels weird to say, but the show already has the solutions to the logistical issues and has shown it can deploy them effectively without ruining the race (and indeed, in a lot of cases, making the race better). It's just the solutions are the things the show's kind of moved away from over the years in an effort to streamline the thing and get Phil's #12Legs21Days hashtag to happen, and bringing them back will require production to truly think about what the race actually is in a way they haven't really done since about TAR12.

[georgiapeach]

Actually I think we will see almost ONLY self driving with the addition of navigation instruments. No more asking strangers for help. And a much extended filming time to account for required entry quarantines.

JMO

[theschnauzers]

Actually I think we will see almost ONLY self driving with the addition of navigation instruments. No more asking strangers for help. And a much extended filming time to account for required entry quarantines.

JMO

The problem I see with that is the length of quarantines entering each country. There are countries with three week period s, others with two, and for a nine country race that would add 18 to 27 weeks,. That just ain’t practical. It’ll have to be countries that avoid quarantine periods or not more than a week, but with less impediments if fully vaccinated. But even that won’t help unless the US gets off the international travel red list with COVID-19 case counts. That, to me is the biggest barrier to restarting production.

[LandonM170]

Actually I think we will see almost ONLY self driving with the addition of navigation instruments. No more asking strangers for help. And a much extended filming time to account for required entry quarantines.

JMO

I would LOVE THIS! I loved the early seasons having 8-9 self driving legs!