American Hot Rod

I've seen a few episodes of this and thought in the beginning that it would be like American Chopper, but I was severely disappointed. I won't be watching it again, after the episode I saw last night. The people in this are one dimensional and the mechanic I saw last night spoke in the same monotone the whole time.

Comparing the two series American Chopper and American Hotrod, Boyd seems to have little or no interaction with work in the shop, unlike Senior who is always about the shop checking on the progress of projects and other bits and pieces. For people working with and designing engines, I find it hard to accept that in last nights episode for an Alumatub(?) they could make such a mistake as to mess up the dimensions of the manifold and have to have it welded to fill the gap. I just hope that the car was not going to a customer.

Also there doesn't appear to be the same interaction between the team, that there is on American Chopper. Everyone in American Chopper has no problem with lending their specific talents to a project if they are needed, or indeed giving a hand out when required. In American hotrod they don't seem to interact at all, though there was the play fight to settle a dispute between two team members, one of whom later parted company with the workshop. The fight didn't really serve to do anything other than increase the animosity between the two.

This series should be put out of our misery or come with a health warning.

I for one do. Its got none of the charm of American Chopper, in fact, it has no charm whatsoever. Boyd whats-his-face comes across as a royal douchebag, as do most of his workers. The remainder of the guys are either seen too rarely or just plain boring. As for the cars, maybe if they'd get a shop that did some more INTERESTING cars, like rebuilds of classic muscle cars, rather than the same looking cars each show then I'd be more captivated...however this is not the case.

If you can't tell by now, I really detest this show and hope to see it canceled to make way for something better than this trite piece of garbage.

Most people that have heard of American Chopper, you know, Paul Teutel Sr. And Jr. making Custom Bikes might have heard of this show, the show that is known so well in many ways as something like "It's just a ploy taking advantage from the success of American Chopper to get Money".

That is probably true, but this show is just a little fleshier, it has more to it. One thing, the second-worst thing about this Television show is the DRAMA. It's so scripted it's tedious. I mean, we just see them going on and on, not really building bikes, people get fired, and in between that they find some run-down piece of **** and rebuild it. It could be said that the reason for all of this trashy melodrama is because a Car takes so much longer to build than a Chopper, therefore they have to get people to bite, taking advantage of the oh so annoying Melodrama spawned from the evil known as Fox's reality shows.

What I mean by this show is that it is a hate it for it's knock-off, take advantage of success of American Chopper, and scripted melodrama, or like it for the fact they build cars. It won't last for the reasons of hating, but hey... it could... do... some good... some day... maybe... later.

It's pretty obvious that the producers of this show wanted to cash in on the success of 'American Chopper' by giving us a similar show for the car/hot rod fan.

What they failed to give us, however, are the things that make 'American Chopper' so watchable, e.g. the likable, highly entertaining 'characters' who work in the shop, their obvious love of what they do, the beautiful things they create and the (apparently) genuine personal and professional dramas that happen along the way.

As a result, American Hot Rod is nothing but a soulless shadow of the far superior 'American Chopper', and positively painful to watch. There is NOBODY on this show who is in any way likable or entertaining (Boyd, for example, hangs over the series like a soul-sucking, humorless black cloud), no-one seems to enjoy what they do (their every day on the job is a miserable slog), the things they create take WAY too long (in terms of screen time) and are at best ordinary and unimaginative and at worst horrible to look at (the 'Alumatub'? What the heck was that? The drawing was sleek and beautiful, the finished product was an ugly, stunted lump! What happened!?) and the obviously manufactured 'dramas' are just embarrassing.

Shows like 'American Chopper' and 'Overhaulin' are fun to watch, because they feature true artists (with soul, character and real passion) who obviously love doing what they do no matter what the deadline. Boyd 'Mr Misery' Cottington and 'American Hot Rod' both need a huge injection of personality to even get in the same ball park.

Unfortunately, with this crew, that's never going to happen. So until this show moves to another shop, stick with the Tuttles or Chip (the man) Foose...

Why on earth did Boyd dump his first wife for that Jo dame? All she does is walk around looking good and flirting with the employees. Example; when Charlie left, she had to have a closed door farewell session with him. I think Boyd should get back with his first wife, and let the young chick go. And in addition to booting her, he could get rid of those horrid floral shirts. I think that the show would be more interesting if they would just build cars, and dispense with the trite drama. What is the job of the new Black guy? What is his talent? Maybe comic relief? Many people don't like Boyd, but I think he was right when he fired blue bear and Mike.