topgear

ABC's newest stunt game show Crash Course looks exactly like the kind of show that bloggers and critics watch just so they could put their "Suck Extinguishers" to good use.

And yet 45 minutes of TV viewing later, I'm not even feeling the need to break the protective glass. On the surface, it appears to be just another reality/game show with typical contestants having their ids scared for life for cash and/or prizes and most of it is just that.

And even though it met those stereotypical expectations, I still didn't hate it. Part of me actually kind of (gulp) enjoyed it. Did I just swallow my brains along with my pride?

Cross promotions are not a new concept to TV heads, but this one cooked up by the folks behind the CW's Vampire Diaries deserves a Peabody Award. As Brad mentioned earlier today, The Vampire Diaries is being cross-promoted with the American Red Cross in which the show is hosting its own blood drive.

What a great idea and a great cause! Just think of the other charitable promotions this will inspire other shows to tackle.

Richard Hammond, the diminutive co-host of BBC's Top Gear bottomed out this weekend when he banged up his retro super car in a traffic accident somewhere along the wrong-side roads of the U.K.

Hammond was driving his Morgan AeroMax -- a concept super car built to look like a 40's roadster. Except it packs a BMW V8 and tops out at 170 mph. That's a picture of one over there. It sells for north of $120,000 in the U.S.

Hammond -- who co-hosts the hit car show with Jeremy Clarkson and James May -- had a run in with a Nissan on a roundabout and suffered damage in the thousands of pennyfarthings range -- or whatever backward play money they use over there.

The new season of Top Gear, the wonderfully politically incorrect car fest from the U.K., is set to premiere on BBC America Monday, August 17, 8:00 PM, ET/PT.

Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May return to upset the delicate sensibilities of every bloodless turnip who ever surrendered to the dull wheel of a Prius with their endless passion for the world's most beautiful four-wheeled consumers of fossil fuels.

Long-time fans of the irreverent auto show will note that this is the final season for the Suzuki Aerio as the test vehicle in the "Star in a Reasonably Priced Car" segment. A collection of TV actors, athletes and government officials take the Aerio's rickety wheel in its final laps.

There is nothing inherently wrong with turning a TV series into a video game spinoff. It can fill in the gaps between seasons to quell the viewers' hunger, let audiences explore characters from new perspectives and even give the more hardcore couch potatoes some much needed exercise even if they only burned 1/100ths of a calorie solely through their thumbs.

The problem is video game developers pick TV shows that should never even become a travel sized board game. Developers have given the greenlight to games based on shows like American Idol, Desperate Housewives and even ... Grey's Anatomy?!? I hope that last one was a first-person shooter.

There are far better shows that offer far more entertaining elements for a kick-ass video game. These are the shows that should be next in line for a pixelated re-treatment.

It's easy to forget in these troubling times that America isn't the only country that's feeling the tight, constricting pinch from the claw of the economic lobster.

This is a GLOBAL economic meltdown. Everyone is feeling that pinch and looking forward to the day when they can grab that lobster by the antennae, throw it in a boiling pot of water, rip off the tail, sprinkle it with butter, pepper and herbs and serve it in a roll with a side of waffle fries. Damn I'm so broke and hungry.

The British Broadcasting Corporation, however, has an interesting way of dealing with their economic problems. Instead of trimming at the bottom, they are aiming their gardening shears squarely towards the top.

It seems that just about anything Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson says will get him into trouble. That's not hard to do when your mouth has more horsepower than your brain.

Then again, that's what makes Clarkson so enduring and funny as a television presenter. Anyone can stop filtering themselves. It takes a special kind of talent to completely shut down any logical capacity you have for careful thought and charge ahead with the speed and recklessness of a teenager on crystal meth. Then again, crystal meth would explain Britain's dentistry problem.

The BBC host called British Prime Minister Gordon Brown a most dubious name during a speech in Australia. That's our Clarkson.

Television is a mysterious world full of ... um, mysteries. Mysteries like what was Rebecca's job when she started working at Cheers? Who puts the mother in How I Met Your Mother? Has anyone anywhere in the universe ever voluntarily watched an entire episode of According to Jim?

One of your idiot box's biggest mysteries has been answered, sort of.

The Daily Mail of London revealed they have unearthed the true identity of The Stig, Top Gear's "tame racing driver."

The announcement of the death of the remake of one of the world's most beloved car shows, Top Gear, was followed with an obvious reaction. Practically everyone who had heard of the original BBC show celebrated its passing with the same fervor as the Ewoks when the Death Star exploded.

It's a natural reaction. It's hard not to assume that once we Americans get our grubby remaking mitts on something, we're bound to mess with it too much and screw it up. We've done it too many times to count. The last three Fawlty Towers remakes were the combined equivalent of the sinking of the Lusitania, only with a lower body count.

But just like anything in life, there were pluses and minuses to us Yanks getting our own Top Gear. Now that NBC has ensured that we won't get one this season, here are the lovers and haters of what could have been the second greatest car show that may never be.

NBC had planned to bring the popular BBC and BBC America car show Top Gear to us yanks. Instead, NBC has decided to cut its brake cables in the middle of a brilliant power slide.

The official Top Gear blog announced that NBC won't air their US version of the show as a mid-season replacement in 2009.

This means the show and their hosts, Adam Carolla, Eric Stromer and Tanner Foust, are up to grabs for the highest bidder like a drug dealer's impounded Cadillac Escalade at a municipal car auction.

Car enthusiasts, take note: The British series all about cars, Top Gear, is coming to America. That's been previously announced, but today we can share the news that Adam Carolla, Tanner Foust and Eric Stromer will be teaming up to host the new NBC incarnation of Top Gear. It just so happens that I was watching Top Gear on BBC America yesterday and it's a fun show; it's not too techie-car show, it's more about the chemistry among the three hosts and the fun, goofy challenges they do that involve cars.

Yesterday's show, for instance, pitted a one host in a Mercedes Benz SUV driving from London the the airport versus one host on a super bicycle, another in a speed boat on the Thames, and The Stig -- an anonymous test driver -- making the trek via public transportation. It was pretty funny, especially since the car lost!

The BBC plans to set up three YouTube channels that will feature short clips of BBC content. Two channels will be focused on entertainment, while one will be a news channel.

One of the entertainment channels will feature trailers and short videos related to BBC programming. There will be no advertising on this channel. It's main purpose will be to drive traffic to the BBC's website, which in the future may include full episodes of TV programs for streaming and download.

The other entertainment channel will be advertising-driven, and will include 3-6 minute clips of material from the BBC archives. Clips will include content from Top Gear, The Mighty Boosh, and nature programs.