American Chopper: The beginning of the end

So last night, via DVR, I watched the season 6 premiere of American Chopper, the episode where Sr. fires Jr. There were two bike builds, one for the NHL and one based on the B3 bomber for Northrop corporation, the company that makes them.

We start off with Sr. talking to the workforce about tough times and that layoffs may need to happen to trim the fat away. Mikey is right there, who basically just does PR work and is the comedy relief for the show, wonder if his job is in jeopardy. A weak attempt at foreshadowing.

Next, the bikes, never got a good look at the NHL bike, Sr. and Jason Pohl (computer geek who designs bikes and for some bizarre reason is out in the shop helping to build them) put them together, Sr. is eyeballing things and cannot figure out things are not level. Jason gets Jr. to help who is using a laser level to work things out. Sr. calls him a know it all and claims that things do not have to be precise. Kind of wondering what the NHL who spent at least $100,000 for that bike would say after seeing that.

Then we have the big moment where Sr confronts Jr. about coming in constantly late and waves a one page contract at him showing where he needs to be in at 7 am. Chief designer and fabricator who owns 10% of the company and his contract is one page? And it is filled with what time he is supposed to be working at the shop? There have been shows where Jr. is at the shop till one am finishing bike builds. Sr. comes and goes as he pleases, but that is okay, he is the boss. So after a few minutes of screaming, Jr. gets fired and storms out.

Gee, I wonder if a lawyer would be able to help Jr. sue for unfair dismissal. Mikey comes to his Dad and in a moment of extreme clarity asks, did you think this through?

Then Sr. sits with the OCC brain trust to discuss how that can sell dealerships internationally and bring some new money into the company. They sit in front of a map and draw circles around countries like South Africa saying we have a lot of fans there, let's sell dealerships to that country. Gee, I kind of think it takes a tad more to sell dealerships than that effort. Especially since you just fired your chief designer who made your brand so popular that a demand for your bikes was created.

Oh, they have a big European tour coming up, through England, Scotland, and Ireland. Not really sure I would call that European, but hey OCC must know what they are doing.

The B2 bomber bike is next on the show, the first bike Jr. did not have anything to do with. Rick and Jason came up with a really neat looking gas tank, too bad the soap opera took so much time, would have been nice to see how it was made. But you know, you can tell Jr. was not involved with this bike build, the tank looked great, but the rest of the bike did not fit with that tank. It did not have the sleek clean lines that Jr. would have insisted on.

Next week the Teutuls are going to a therapist to iron our their problems. So less bike stuff and more comedy soap opera. I do have to say I am curious to see how this ends up.

Do I believe Jr. is fired and no longer associated with OCC? No. Do I believe he really wants to start his own business and be his own boss? No to the first part and yes to the second part. For the most part, he is his own boss with OCC until we get these BS melodramatics to boost the ratings.

American Chopper was good when it first started, you had guys like Jr., Vinnie, Cody, Rick, and Christian working on bikes, showing how design, fabrication, and paint came together. Sr. and Mikey would do some comedy, sometimes Sr. would get together with 3-4 other guys and build a bike. That was okay. Now Vinnie and Cody left to Vinnie's V-Force Customs to do his own thing. You have a computer geek who has no clues of what to do in the shop, building bikes. Now Jr. is supposedly gone.

Discovery Channel saw the writing on the walls, ratings were starting to decline, but still good enough for their sister channel TLC. Now this show is ready to be cancelled and the Teutuls with OCC to go back to the obscurity from which they came.

Oh well.