Car television went plotz a few months ago with the sudden meltdown of Britain’s Top Gear. If only Jeremy Clarkson had first given a thought to old Woody Hayes or George S. Patton, two guys who accomplished a lot in life but are often remembered first (or second—certainly in the top five) for hitting an underling. You can scream and you can throw things, as Indiana’s Bobby Knight did, but as a leader in modern times, you can’t physically attack your people, a rule Knight helped affirm by getting himself fired for brutalizing kids. People got mad at the BBC for firing Clarkson; those people think life was better in the caves. As of this writing, rumors abound of Clarkson’s return on another show. In the meantime, TV land has grown a little dimmer for car folk. After its 2002 overhaul, Top Gear became the benchmark. It was lavishly conceived and cinematically filmed, ingraining so many memes into the car-video genre, from clouds scudding in fast motion to pounding choral music to the use of the pull-focus to liven up static shots. Everything else automotive on TV has mostly suffered in comparison, including its own American spinoff. Well, car TV’s big, bad T. rex may be down, slugged senseless and twitching, but there are still shows trying to match Top Gear’s standard but using very different funding methods. Recently, I took a ride to western Colorado to watch an episode being shot of a show with the amusing title of Shut Up and Drive. READ MORE ››
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