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Television Media

Junkyard Wars Marathon 74

Posted by CmdrTaco from the smashing-things-up dept.
bigdavenyc writes: " The Learning Channel will be hosting an all day marathon of 'Junkyard Wars' episodes, starting at noon on Friday. This is a great show and this marathon has many episodes never seen in the U.S." Also worth noting is that Iron Chef is doing a marathon over Thanksgiving as well. I hope they make ice cream.
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Junkyard Wars Marathon More

Junkyard Wars Marathon

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  • Today's bit of useless knowledge: Iron Chef Italian (Kobe) did make ice cream once (actually, the Iron Chefs do it often, but this once sticks in my mind). He made (get this) FISH ice cream. The tasters hated it and told him so. He apologized. And promptly lost.
  • TLC has only been advertising the junkyard wars marathon for about 3 weeks! I'm dissapointed in Malda, for a big fan, he didn't get that up very quickly (although i suppose as a remeinder its well timed).

    I'm getting together some other local geeks who enjoy it to drink beer, eat pizza, and watch with me after school on Friday. Anyone in the Winnipeg area is welcome. Junkyard wars is fantastic show, and its about time that a purely entertaining show is on that involves contestants with a unique, not-purley-knowledge-based skill on rather the the usual gameshow or sports stuff (i'm not bashing hockey, just every other sport).


    -MR
  • The squid-ink ice cream is also quite a treat :) Nathaniel
  • The point of the show is education. That is best done when the parts are open for illustrative purposes.

    Building is the fun part. The test is interesting, but very nerve wracking. Lots of "hurry up and wait". On build day, you are just too busy.
  • "Why am I replying to this drivel?"

    Isn't that just the typical slashbot reaction to consider any post supporting Windows to be drivel. You're just another cow following the herd.

    "Microsoft windows originated with ease of use in mind."

    I would not intentionally choose an OS because it is harder to use. That makes absolutely no sense. I've found I can be much more productive and get a great deal more work done if I don't have to waste hours just trying to get my OS to work right

    "Linux originated as a hobbiest OS seeking to do things the most efficient quickest way."

    I don't need to compile my OS before installing it.

    "As such, Microsoft has grown in different areas - as has Linux. Linux, imho has a better base than Windows. ( I can't verify this obviously unless I go work for Microsoft... - it's just my impression )."

    That's right, you can't!

    "If you're a common everyday end user that wants something that's easy to use - go for Microsoft."

    If you're the type of person who enjoys limited functionality that's a pain in the ass to use, go Linux

    "Linux has been made substantially easier to use than when it first came out - in some areas it even excels over Microsoft, in others - not as much so. The majority of the power I see in Linux is that things are done in a logically coordinated fashion and the code is "tight"."

    If Linux excels over Windows in some areas, why haven't I seen any Linux emulators for Windows?

    "Your speed comparison on Quake makes several assumptions - all timing comparisons will. Quake runs faster, usually under Windows, as the result of the tight commercialization that Microsoft has done with Windows in terms of device driver software from hardware manufacturues. If you give it 2-3 years I would expect even more hw manufactures to start providing linux compatible software drivers."

    Even in software rendering, Windows beats the shit out of Linux in Quake performance. I cannot judge hardware acceleration because none of the video cards I have will work under Linux.

    "In sum, there is no right answer."

    You're just in denial.

  • They changed the name for the US market. As to "always", this was the first season a US team competed. Last years final was bikers vs bikers.
  • The robotic chef would never stop. Everyone knows that after eating oriental food, you always get hungry again a little bit later.
  • You would understand the idea of getting up at the crack of noon.

    I go to bed when the sun she rises, earlii in the morning...

    -dp-
  • If Linux excels over Windows in some areas, why haven't I seen any Linux emulators for Windows?

    *cough*VMWare*cough* ... *cough*WinLinux*cough* ... oh yes, you were saying?
    And don't give me any crap about how those aren't true emulators -- Wine and Plex86 running on Linux are hardly true emulators either...
  • They just have to cut out 6 minutes to make room for more commercials
  • Scrapheap has subtly different meaning in this country. Scrapheap has an implication that there is nothing that can be done with the stuff tossed on it. Junkyard implies that things will get picked over for re-usable stuff. Old cars are sent to the junkyard, not the scrapheap in american english. Bad political ideas get tossed on the scrap heap of history.

    As to War vs Challenge, I guess challenge wasn't exciting enough for the WWF crowd they wanted to lure.

    Personally, I like the UK name better, and if it needed translation, I would have been happier with "junkyard challenge". (besides junkyard wars pulls up to many star wars sites when you go ego surfing.)

    -dp-
  • I REALLY love this series, being a bit of a mad professor/MacGuyver myself. If anyone has a line on videos of the complete set, please drop me a line.

    Favorite episode? Probably the fixed wing gliders.

    TheGeek

  • But they made it on the same pile of junk that the British show used.
  • Thank God for that - I thought they would be dubbing over all the English voices!

    Grab.
  • Robot fighting started with Robot Wars in the UK back in 1995. I wish the shows would make it over here. They only have webcasts of a few previous events on their website. What I would really like to see is a BattleBots vs. Robot Wars smackdown. American Revolution Version 2.0.
  • Well I don't know about you, but if I had read about this marathon three weeks ago, I would have said "Wow, cool, I can't wait to watch that" and then promptly forgotten about it.

    Most people don't need a three week advance notice to plan their television watching schedules.
    --
  • Hey,

    If reality-TV amounts only to a second-rate step toward turning off the set and walking outdoors, that's a good thing.

    A cynical person would say reality TV is simply a way of producing TV cheaply, without the expense of skilled script writers / good actors / witty comics / knowledgable researchers that other shows require. All you need to get your show off the ground is a TV camera, a guy with a microphone and a bunch of loosers who will tell millions of pepople how they can't get a grip on thier own life simply for five minutes on TV.

    Cable TV with a thousand chanels is said to be in the pipeline. There isn't enough quality TV/filmage to fill that much throughput for a week, let alone several years, so I expect we'll see more low-quality TV like Jerry Springer in the future. That and the 'Friends 24-hour repeat channel'.

    Michael

    ...another comment from Michael Tandy.

  • Yes. These wonderful "nerd" shows are on so infrequently that this certainly is news. Especially when not one, not two, but THREE mega-nerd shows are all doing a marathon in the same week. That is cause for celebration. Many people outside of the US have satellite dishes and can get in on the fun as well. Sorry that you'll be missing out :(

    Thanks God for my TiVo!

  • Oh they do seed the scrap-yard (it's called "Scrapheap" then "Scrapheap Challenge" for most other countries). If anyone remembers the challenge to launch a rocket as high as you can, well - they found many widely scattered and unused £800 rockets... not very likely, now is it?

    Also watch for the use of things not from the scrapheap such as ducttape and the ocassional use of dismantled tools/equipment from the assembly area.

    Still, I don't want to introduce "bodging" to the troll vocabulary.


  • I don't know about Windows but the PC sure is not going away no matter what X-box etc... you decide to come out with. It is too versatile of a machine. I predict that Windows will probably maintain its market share for at least 10 more years before any other company will be able to supersede the dominance that Microsoft has over the whole computing world. Lets face it Windows and Microsoft pretty much have a monopoly and even with the governments intervention its pretty hard to destroy that kind of wealth and power. I think in the next few years if Microsoft is smart, they will begin to evolve their code so that it is similar to more efficient Operating Systems like Linux, FreeBSD etc... If they go this direction they might be around even longer than 10 years, who knows, but they are definately not disapearing anytime soon, no matter how much we all hate them.
  • can you see the British Navy vs. a gang of bikers in a contest to build an amphibious vehicle. Classic T.V.!

    One of the coolest things about the show is that one side has vertually no idea what the opposition is building. From just the previous life experiences of the members of the group do you get a unique perspective on how to reach the common goal.

    Not once did the cast of survivor attempt build a canon.

  • His eggplant gelato went over well though (no, realy).
  • Now if I could only cobble together a TIVO to capture this marathon for me using only parts laying around my apartment, I'd be in business...

    lesseee, some twine, a 486/66, bubble gum, a linux distro, gin and juice, cue cat & convergence cable... that oughta do it=P

    E.

  • HAHAHA! Linux is in no way "more efficient" than Windows. Why don't you back up your drivel with facts. Here are some for you:

    Most programs that are available for both platforms run faster on Windows (Quake)

    People say Windows is too bloated. There is a reason for that: Windows has support for hardware made in the past two years. According to RedHat [redhat.com]the space required for their latest release is: "1620 MB for Server, 450 MB for Workstation , and 120 MB for Custom Install" This is similar to the amount of diskspace Windows uses, only windows offers a lot more features.

    Unless you've actually used Win ME or Win2K, don't even try to call Windows unstable. I have boxes running both and they are rock solid

    Linux is always in beta.

    It doesn't matter anyway, because anyone who defends Evil Microsoft instantly gets (-1, Flamebait) This is my opinion, but I can back it up with solif facts.

  • Apparently they're making a series in the US, and then the US winners will play the UK winners.
  • Junkyard wars is a ripoff of battlebots? Junkyard wars is actually worth watching, and has nothing in common with battlebots...unless you consider Iron Chef a ripoff of Richard Simmons. Come on!

    Often wrong but never in doubt.
    I am Jack9.
  • No-one here has picked up on frob. Abreviateing a vehicle was a good expression though.

    You do realise that you are probably the only people ever to win a race in a reliant car don't you?
  • And the reason you didn't submit the story yourself, since you've known about it for a long time, is.. ? Rob "CmdrTaco" Malda isn't the only person allowed to submit stories, y'know.
  • I hope they make ice cream.

    It's kind of funny, you know, they already did. The ingredient of the day was squid, and one of the chefs (the challenger, I think) made ice cream with it -- squid ink ice cream (yum). I think they did it with broccoli, too.

    -Forager.

  • have really done well lately. Robert Llewellyn hosting Junkyard Wars and all. I last saw Lister hosting a show called Robot Wars.. I guess that job really was more appropriate for Kryten, but anyway.. what happend to the Red Dwarf movie?

    Been ages since I heard something about that... growing impatient here.
  • As a Brit, I would normally side with Brits in a US v UK contest, but I am a nerd by choice, and a Brit by accident of birth, so this wasn't such a hard choice.

  • I can appreciate changing the title to fit American terminology, but how do you Americanise the rest of it?

    I can think of one example: In the episode where they had to build a crane (lift?) to rescue two underwater minis.. As an american it didn't have the impact as, say, rescuing a VW bug, or a honda civic or something I'm more familiar with than a mini. Just an observation..

    Shayne

  • I've seen Junkyard Wars.

    I like it.

    However this article is not about what Junkyard Wars is (which would be equivalent to reviewing a book), it's publicizing that a certain TV channel is going to show something (the equivalent of saying that book publisher X is going to put out a new edition of book Y).

    It's news, but is low-level, localized kind of news - i had the idea that Slashdot wasn't only for small comunities (even though most comments/news seem to be US-centric)

  • RJ, respect dude. I've got a couple of mates who may be up for the next series, now we just need to get some serious welding practice in.

    But an "Americanised version"?!?!??!? The mind boggles! I can appreciate changing the title to fit American terminology, but how do you Americanise the rest of it? Does everyone have their voice dubbed over then with American actors?

    If so, this seems a supreme act of arrogance from the producers. "Hell guys, no-one'll watch this if they reckon it's just a bunch of faggot limeys. Let's wipe 'em over with some good ol' boy accents. But leave the chick - she doesn't do much 'cept eye-candy, so she can stay." Correct me if I'm wrong, but...

    Grab.
  • yet another ice cream appearance in iron chef: asparagus battle, iron chef japanese morimoto makes asparagus ice cream. panned by the judges... especially the fortune teller. ~db
  • my wife made fun of me for watching "battlebots", and after seeing "junkyard wars", i figured out why. we BOTH watched the scrapheap challenge for several hours. one of the best ideas for a tv show in a long time. it's natural for 10hrs of construction time to be edited down to an hour. the show flows very well, all the participants are interesting in some way, and it's not dumbed down or turned into mechanical porn the way battlebots is being presented. i mean, i love bill nye, but he can't pull the show up from the sensationalistic gutter the announcers have fallen into. MORE SHOWS SHOULD TREAT THE VIEWER THIS WELL!
  • Thank-you for the extremely insightful reply. How do you compete? I'm a mechanical engineer by trade but somehow I managed to become the CEO of this webhosting company. Anyhow, myself and my partner (Vice President) would be interested in competing. I've built two go-carts from basically nothing when I was 17 and literally can build anything when given the challenge.

    Nathaniel P. Wilkerson
    Domain Names for $13

  • ROB! (Score:5)

    by Daveamadid ( 200369 ) on Wednesday November 22, 2000 @02:48PM (#605992) Homepage
    What self-respecting Iron Chef fan would say that the marathon is over Thanksgiving, when in fact it's over New Years! [foodtv.com]
  • I was thinking a battlebots rip off, but these guys got it going on. I will be watching it for sure.

  • Luckily both those articles were posted on slashdot a few days ago here [slashdot.org] and here [slashdot.org]

  • In the next junkyard wars... (Score:5)

    by Chrome Octet ( 252326 ) on Wednesday November 22, 2000 @02:56PM (#605995)
    Honda engineers vs. Sony engineers to build the first REAL "Iron Chef" and set it loose on Tokyo. POW!

  • Junkyard Chef? (Score:5)

    by FlamingLaird ( 245347 ) on Wednesday November 22, 2000 @02:56PM (#605996)
    Why not combine the two ideas? The Chef has to make his own Quisenart out of junk, and then cook a scrumptious meal with the secret ingrediant: Potato Peals and three week old Cabbage

    All Spelling mistakes are my own, and not those of my employer or of the public school I attended

  • ahhhhh.... it's all so clear to me now.

    I take it all back. Good slashdot. Good dog.

    BillyZ

  • Bah! (Score:1)

    by 6e7a ( 256012 )
    I watched this show once and became impatient waiting for them to stop building and try out their ideas! Is this how the shows always go?
  • I was thinking along those lines. What they really need is a Computer Scrapheap Challenge where they get thrown into a place full of old computer parts, and get asked to make a computer that can do a certain task, that would be pretty sweet and educational to boot!

    Mike :-)
  • Why am I replying to this drivel?

    Usually don't get dragged into these things but as, usual the "debate"/argument/fuss that is constantly raging on Slashdot about pro/against Microsoft is because of a fundamental differance.

    Microsoft windows originated with ease of use in mind.

    Linux originated as a hobbiest OS seeking to do things the most efficient quickest way.

    As such, Microsoft has grown in different areas - as has Linux. Linux, imho has a better base than Windows. ( I can't verify this obviously unless I go work for Microsoft... - it's just my impression ).

    If you're a common everyday end user that wants something that's easy to use - go for Microsoft.

    Linux has been made substantially easier to use than when it first came out - in some areas it even excels over Microsoft, in others - not as much so. The majority of the power I see in Linux is that things are done in a logically coordinated fashion and the code is "tight".

    Your speed comparison on Quake makes several assumptions - all timing comparisons will. Quake runs faster, usually under Windows, as the result of the tight commercialization that Microsoft has done with Windows in terms of device driver software from hardware manufacturues. If you give it 2-3 years I would expect even more hw manufactures to start providing linux compatible software drivers.

    In sum, there is no right answer.

    Get over it.

    Get on with it.Shut the **** up - I'm tired of reading all this mindless drivel - Everyone sounds like children saying My Os is Better than Your Os.

  • If someone puts down a piece of (fictional) literature and turns on the Discovery channel, this is a good thing?? No way. "Educational" programming is rarely very educational, compared with the average class at the local community college. The examples of "real life" channels that you mention are hardly encouraging. The History channel doesn't have half the breadth or depth of a good book on the subject, and the right-wing hacks on Fox News wouldn't know reality if they sat in it.

    The popularity of 'reality' shows indicates that television is so poorly written, and so uniform that anything vaguely novel is seen as the next big thing. Then everyone else tries to copy the new idea, and people get bored of it until the next novelty comes along.

    I would feel optimistic if people showed less interest in "Cops" and more in good fiction.

    --

  • interesting perhaps, but it'd be like the video game championship way back when: they actually managed to invent something that was more boring to watch on TV than bowling.

    The only way to make it worthwhile would undermine the entire purpose: you'd have to have folks standing at the builder's elbows all the time asking "what are you doing now?"

  • The only thing missing from this show is a geek element. True, it does involve gadgets, but they seem to be the kind of gadgets that big, sweaty greasy mechanic guys would enjoy, not the kind of gadgets that Slashdotters would enjoy.

    I dunno, I'm a 'geek', I write code for a living and wear shirts that say things only a hardcore nerd would understand,
    but sometimes playing around with 'big iron' (in the most basic sense) is fun too.
    Especially when it involves 'hacking' a piece of equipment to do something it was never intended to do.
    (Which is exactly what goes on in 'Junkyard Wars')

    Just because you're a computer geek doesn't mean you can't have interests outside of computers.
    Hell, sometimes it's nice to have a break *from* computers, especially if you work with them all the time.
    --K
    ---
  • [Quoted]
    I can appreciate changing the title to fit American terminology, but how do you Americanise the rest of it?
    [/Quoted]

    See all of those half-wrecked land-rovers? Left-hand drive, the lot of them! :-)

    And maybe there are some other small changes. The "Build a cannon" episode could be changed to "Build a fully-functional attack helicopter, with chain guns, air-to-ground missiles, and nuclear capabilities, and at the end of the day, you can take it home with you!"


  • I've seen "Who's line..." a couple of times live, once was during a recording and the other time was a spinoff tour of comedy clubs with a lot of the TV regulars. I can promise you that it is all improv - no scripts or teleprompters. What is done is editing. If you go to a filming there will be maybe 1.5-2 hours of footage shot. This is edited down to 30 mins by taking out (a) the blank silences and (b) the unfunny jokes. So yes it is all real, but not every line really hits the spot.
  • > "Linux originated as a hobbiest OS seeking to do
    > things the most efficient quickest way."

    > I don't need to compile my OS before installing > it.

    You don't have to compile Linux either, you've obviously not used it so how does that make you qualified to make these claims? You just have the choice to compile the kernel if you want, something you don't get with windows.

    > That's right, you can't!

    It's certainly a more stable base though.

    > If you're the type of person who enjoys limited > functionality that's a pain in the ass to use,
    > go Linux

    All you are doing is deplaying your obviously
    ignorance. You've never actually used Linux have
    you? There's more functionality than I could possibly need, and that's just with a default install. You compared install sizes, but Windows contains barely any functionality compared to a standard Linux distribution.

    > If Linux excels over Windows in some areas, why > haven't I seen any Linux emulators for Windows?

    Try VMWare. Anyway, emulators run applications not Operating Systems.

    > You're just in denial.

    There's no denial about it, Linux is just an enjoyable operating system to use. I for one like having multiple desktops, something all window managers offer as standard. It just makes working so much more efficient. These OS pissing wars are silly, just use what you like. I used Windows for years but switched to Linux as I consider it vastly superior. It's a lot less crass prone and much easier to work with. You have so much more choice, you can live entirely in a point and click desktop world if you like or the CLI (which is actually use unlike the awful one that comes as standard with Windows). You can dig as deeply into the system as you like, down to the kernel source code should you wish, or just remain a user and do web browsing, word processing, mp3 playing, cd burning or whatever. All things that come free with a standard distribution.

  • i was just thinking...
  • Anyone know the reason for the name change? In the UK, this is called Scrapheap Challenge.

  • Watch, in the Spirit of Social Optimism (Score:3)

    by cribcage ( 205308 ) on Wednesday November 22, 2000 @03:04PM (#606009) Homepage Journal
    I enjoy the "Jukyard Wars" programs, and optimistically think that they signal good things for the current state of television. Sure, people are finding entertainment in bottom-feeding reality-TV shows which dress up soap operas as "adventurous social experiments"; but there has also been a growth in recent years in the popularity of other reality (i.e. non-scripted) television programs.

    In short: If reality-TV amounts only to a second-rate step toward turning off the set and walking outdoors, that's a good thing. If reality-TV indicates a trend toward a decreasing social interest in fiction, and a greater awareness of "real life" (as the Learning, History and Discovery Channels grow -- not to mention MSNBC, CNN, and Fox News), then that's a great thing.

    crib
  • No! We must pit the power of decaying technology against the skills and power of the Iron Chef! We will equip Iron Chef with a Black and Decker electric carving knife and a REALLY BIG TURKEY BASTER and unleash him on the innocents of Junkyard Wars.

    Surely, two things will be accomplished: great TV moments will be created, along with a delicious entree of roast muffler with a garnish of minced gasket in a light Skydrol dressing.

    The Iron Chef sez: "I AM THE IRON CHEF! BRING IT ON, JIVE TURKEYS!"
  • The thing is: Here at Slashdot, we have a time travelling machine. We got your two messages, then went back a few days, and gave credit to other people for it. Sorry about the mix-up, but we discovered that if you give someone credit for something they havn't yet done, they tend to be very "weirded out". Thank you and have a great day!

  • Scripted vs. Unscripted (Score:3)

    by NatePWIII ( 126267 ) <nathan@wilkersonart.com> on Wednesday November 22, 2000 @03:16PM (#606012) Homepage
    I admit after watching this program I was pretty impressed. However, just how unscripted is this program, I mean I watched the episode about the tractor pulling and one team just happened to find 4 brand new ATV wheels in this "junkyard". That was a little bit for me to swallow if you know what I mean. Got to admit though, this show is a lot better than half the trash they've got on the TV these days. That and BattleBots are my two most favorite, I think though that the BattleBots need to have like a 10 minute round vs. the current 3 minutes, its just not enough time to trash another robot.

    Nathaniel P. Wilkerson
    Domain Names for $13
  • Of course the wheels were left there on purpose. The junkyard was built specially for the show and is seeded before each episode begins, ensuring that it actually contains enough parts to successfully accomplish the challenge. That's why there just happened to be a crashed plane in the junkyard on the flying machines episode and a bunch of working auto engines in the power pullers episode. The point is to see how the teams come up with solutions to the problems, not to make them play MacGyver.

    -Mars
  • Sounds like an excellent show that would receive a broad audience.... if it ever showed up here in Australia.

    The problem is we get banal 'reality TV' shows about people digging up a garden or living on an island, but there is nothing to satisfy the raging geek in a typical /. reader.

    Oh, Robot Wars was shown once but apparently the ratings flopped badly.

    Can anyone record these shows and post them on a web page to download? People outside the USA are missing out!

    -- A pox on ye sigs!

    CPU Burn In - Testing software [cpuburn.com]

  • He is a genius! (Score:3)

    by Pope Slackman ( 13727 ) on Wednesday November 22, 2000 @05:36PM (#606015) Homepage Journal
    There was one where a chef soaked a fish liver in liquor, then covered it with chocolate and served it with ice cream.
    The "ohgoddoihavetoeatthat" looks on the taster's faces were just great.

    Nasty stuff like that is the reason to watch Iron Chef!

    --K
    ---

  • Seeding - a particpant opens his big mouth (Score:5)

    by rjnerd ( 143758 ) on Wednesday November 22, 2000 @05:42PM (#606016) Homepage
    First off: it helps to understand the purpose of the show -- its stealth science education - tricking 10 year old kids into watching an explanation of how a wing works. They sit thru the mini-lectures because they get rewarded afterwards with someone making precision adjustments with sledgehammers. When chosing challenges, its the education that drives the choice. The competition is partly to make it addicting, and partly to give the kids the idea that actually designing and building something might be a lot of fun.

    Yes, this is a "rich" junkyard. There are all sorts of neat things to find. And unlike some, there is a lot of stuff that isn't metallic. (usually its construction debris -- the plywood we found had clearly been a concrete form in a prior life) -- Its mostly what you get, when you don't have the yard workers picking over the good bits. The set was a corner of a real working scrap yard. On the other side of the wall, there are cockneys in hydraulic claw loaders, tossing cars thru the air. You have to wear a hard hat when you go to the bathroom. (its out by the truck scales). When stocking the yard between episodes, the random lumps of steel plate is just dumped over the wall from what they have sitting around. But yes, they will add extra stuff to make it possible to complete building a machine.

    The basic rule for seeding: If its not possible to safely improvise a part with the time and tools provided, they will provide something that can be pressed into service. It will require some ingenuity to make it work. If there are specific safety regulations, the relavant parts will always be provided. For example, things like safety valves, regulators, and gas tanks will be planted, and will have their certification paperwork sitting in the directors briefcase. (and if we happen to find such a part that isn't one of the known good ones, they don't let us use it)

    But: Just because they give you a part, that doesn't mean its clear sailing. For example the wheels you mentioned. Sure they were there, but none of the differentials in the yard came close to fitting the bolt circle. If you wanted to use them, you had to make it work.

    And this brings up another point: That same helpfull crew that hides essential parts, can just as easily remove them. They made sure that there wern't matching differentials for those wheels. In the fire fighting boat episode, there wasn't a pump to be had. Both teams had to make a pump. And not just a wimpy one, the burning shed was supposed to be 50 feet away.

    As to engines, yes, there is sample bias. What happens in a conventional junkyard, is that if a car comes in with a running engine, the engine is pulled and sold. Only dead engines are put out into the yard. As a junkyard owner, you don't want someone wrecking a $200 engine to get a $2 part. In this yard the teams are those yard employee's that have the job of pulling the good ones out. Teams get their engines from the same places people that sell used engines get them -- from cars whose owner has decided to artfully customize his vehicle with the help of a tree, broadside.

    Yes, this is TV, and they do have to make sure they have two machines, with at least one of them likely to complete the course, and the other at least able to fail in an instructive way. The shows cost close to half a million dollars per episode to make, and the producer is betting that money on half a dozen amateurs. But they do have a surprisingly light touch. We did have ample opportunity to open fire at both feet.

    The time limit is pretty real. You get an hour tools down for lunch, and credit for the time that the hosts spend disturbing you. If nothing else, a second day of a film crew adds a lot to the price. And they may only have the test site for a specific day, so you really do have to finish on something like on time.

    I can assure you its not scripted, what happens is up to the contestants. The teams really did find out what they had to build that morning, on camera. The producer has been very suprised at what the teams made sometimes.

    Now perhaps if I hadn't found the 'heap first, I might have given battlebots some thought. But its not the same kind of challenge -- The problem solved is the same one each time. If you need a part (except during the match) you can just order one, and it will arrive in a couple of days. You have as much time as your advance planning allows.

    But: The thing that really annoys me about battlebots, is the attitude of the hosts when discussing something technical. The clear message presented is: "you aren't expected to understand this". Junkyard has the exact opposite purpose.

    Anyhow, my web page has a lot more detail about the shows, the other teams, etc. For those that watched it in July, there will be 4 new to the US shows. (the two second season shows that they skipped this summer, land yachts, and mileage marathon, and the first two of the third year, Demolition and bombers) If you watch no other, watch the demolition show. Three Yorkshiremen with accents so thick they need power tools to cut, build an articulated claw that eats brick walls. (thats at 8pm)

    The marathon schedule is here. This is the kickoff to regular weekly showings. The rest of the third season will run three shows a night on Wed in [discovery.com]December [discovery.com]. They will follow this up with an "americanized" version of the show in Jan/Feb. Yea all the accents (except for Cathy) are American, but they used the same crew, pile of scrap, and challenges. Didn't water it down at all. The only thing I will miss is Robert (aka Kryten) as host.

    Our shows aren't part of the Marathon, but they will be shown in December. Monday we had 300 MIT community members in 10-250 for a sneak preview of the Steam Race car show. Much mirth was in evidence, and the reaction to my presenting the hosts a copy of the Hackers Dictionary, bordered on deafening. We had to call questions at 45 minutes.

    Instead of thinking about "that was planted", work on your welding chops, and think about two others that would be a good balance to your skills. Its great fun to watch, but if you think that you have what it takes to compete, DO IT. Everyone I have talked to that has done a show, with without any hesitation, accept an offer to do another. If they called me today, my reply would be "is there room on tommorow mornings flight?"

    -dp-
  • Actually the crashed out plane was there as set dressing. They were suprised when the expert decided to use bits of it.
  • Want to be joined by a participant? (my place is too much of a mess to have folks over) When they start repeating, I have some tapes of stuff that won't otherwise get shown here...
  • nah, whose line is definately improv when you do improv for your entire life, it isn't as hard as it looks it's all a matter of being mentally prepared
  • I expect Crash to chime in at some point. This is extreme sports for nerds. Hell thats what we named the team... Especially modern computing gear, there isn't a lot of room for semi-skilled modification. The clocks run to fast, there is too much circutry in private label single purpose packages, etc.
  • common vocabulary.

    Besides bodging is a fine word, I think it fits nicely into the hack, tweak, etc continuim.
  • IIRC, they do some 'seeding' of the junk pile beforehand with a few objects that are necessary,
    but possibly not in the random junk...
    I think it's a pretty reasonable thing to do, and doesn't really detract from the fun.

    --K
    ---
  • As far as I know it is pretty much unscripted however since it is public television it does follow certain guidelines, I'm also sure that there is a lot of cutting and editing of the raw recordings themselves.
  • What are you talking about, its slated for Thankgiving, I watch that show almost every night.
  • Bad idea, why? because the last thing you want to do is make your viewers sick. Ratings would kill you in the first month unless you can target the type of audience that enjoys watching past episodes of Jerry Springer. Who know maybe you would get an audience...
  • I've had this thought myself.. Like in the tractor pull episode where each team just "happened" to find a fully running engine and four inflated tires... Or in the flying machines episode where the one team found a relatively untorn tarp. Who the hell puts tarps in a junkyard?!

    The conspiracy theorist in me also wonders about Who's Line is it anyway.. During most of the scenes they are staring HEAVILY at the camera as if reading off a telepromptor. I'm sure SOME of it is improvised, but I highly doubt the whole show is as they want you to believe. That said, it's still IM(ns)HO the funniest show on TV, scripts or no scripts.

    Shayne

  • This seems like a cool idea for a show, I have never heard of it before.

    The only thing missing from this show is a geek element. True, it does involve gadgets, but they seem to be the kind of gadgets that big, sweaty greasy mechanic guys would enjoy, not the kind of gadgets that Slashdotters would enjoy.

    I think they need to come up with some kind of computer related contest, such as trying to program a kick.rom file for an Amiga using nothing but an aold Apple II...or maybe running a web server off of an Atari 800 (although that has already been done.)

    Other wise...cool!

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