***Official "The Amazing Race 4" Thread*** (1 Viewer)

[Luis Esp]

Why was the third team called "The Goats"?

 

[Andy_R]

The third team was called The Goats since they had goatees.

Of the final three teams, I'm glad that Chip & Reichen won. They played the game well and didn't need to rely on too many lucky breaks.

I did think they were in trouble when they told the cab driver to take them to the domestic terminal, but it turns out they knew what they were doing.

 

[Lee L]

I was pulling for David and Jeff, I can;t beleive they screwed up so bad.

All things considered, I don't dislike Chip and Reichen, I think they were a little over the top with the "speak English" comment, at least in the context it was presented with the editing. I just didn;t like them that much either althought they probably played the game pretty similarly to how I would have done it as far as not chatting the other teams up all the time.

None of the teams toward the end were as likeable as the clowns IMO.

I too hope for some more TAR's in the future. It is my favorite of all the unscripted shows.

 

[Mark Pfeiffer]

After John and Kelly missed the connecting flight, how did they catch up to Chip and Reichen? (I was in the kitchen and missed this part.)

This was the first time I saw the whole run of the show, and I thought it was very entertaining. I'd love to see a "behind the scenes" show because I'm curious about how they make it from a production standpoint (how many photogs they use, etc.). And with the plane tickets...maybe my memory is poor, but it doesn't seem like they would have had enough money to be buying them as often as they must.

 

[Jay H]

Jon and Kelly switched flights with another flight that arrived about an hour behind Chip and Reichen...

I was laughing too when chip went off the road. I was also laughing when John ran into the wall after locating the anchor!

Jay

 

[Jason Seaver]

Well, Jon crashing into a wall is funny slapstick. Chip & Reichen (and their cameraman and sound guy) could have gotten seriously hurt, though.

And with the plane tickets...maybe my memory is poor, but it doesn't seem like they would have had enough money to be buying them as often as they must.

The teams are given a CC for plane tickets, and plane tickets only - but those tickets have to be coach, and I believe that after the third race they instituted some rules on how many you can buy, after some teams spent several thousand dollars booking seats on every possible flight.

 

[Jeff Savage]

Woohoo I am so glad Reichen and Chip won! I was yelling at the TV screen when they said go to the Domestic Terminal instead of the International one. Turns out they actually knew what they were doing. For once they thought ahead..from getting the location of the anchor to getting seats right up in the front of the plane. They played the last leg almost perfectly.

For those of you who complain about the bunching up of teams the last show is a good example of TAR at its best. When it comes down to the small details that the teams pay attention to and a bit of luck the show is really fun! I really hope it comes back for another year.

Laters,

 

[MickeS]

I was hoping "the goats" would win out of the three teams left, but Chip & Reichen winning was OK too. I was REALLY happy that Jon & Kelly didn't win; not only was Jon very arrogant and mean-spirited (and not in a "it's a competition" way like Chip & Reichen, but in a school-bully kind of way) but they had lost TWO of the legs and would have been eliminated already if those two legs hadn't happened to be non-elimination.

I too was upset when C&R said to go to the domestic terminal, but it was cool they knew what they were doing.

Too bad the goats' gamble didn't pay off, it would seem to me that there'd be more flights from Sydney to Hawaii, but who knew.

Once again, the editing was confusing things. They edited it to make it seem as if J&K were right on the heels of C&R after the plane flight, when in fact they must have been at least an hour behind. It didn't make it more exciting, only more confusing. I wish they'd put some time indicator on the screen sometimes.

C&R were lucky to not hit the pole by the side of the road, and to not roll over, when the car skid. I found it funny when at the end Reichen said he always felt safe with Chip, since he had said earlier that he felt safer during the parachute-jump than when he was riding in the car with Chip.

The most likeable team was the clowns, I wish they would have been in the final three instead of J&K.

This was the first season I watched, I hope it wasn't the last. One thing I thought might have been fun would have been if they had made a "clip show" like they do with Survivor, where we get to know the contestants a little more. They could have shown us a little more of the interaction between teams between the different legs of the competition, for example.

 

[Jason Seaver]

If Buena Vista ever does DVD releases for this show, the bonus materials could be a potential goldmine - there's got to be a bunch of unused interview footage, people could do commentary tracks, and featurettes about the stops. I don't think TAR really lends itself to a reunion show, since the personal interaction between teams isn't what it is with the contestants on Survivor (with the exception of #2, which the producers must have considered a gift from the TV gods), but the tournament of champions could work - some teams already know each other, all have seen the others on TV, and if you make the challenges correspondingly harder, it could be very watchable indeed.

 

[Chris_Morris]

This was the first season I watched, I hope it wasn't the last.

I can't believe so many people have been missing out on this show. I remember watching the first episode of S1 thinking the show would be mediocre, and hard to get into, but by the end I was hooked, and have said since the first show, that this is the best reality show on TV.

Chris

 

[TheLongshot]

I believe Jon went in the buff because he mentions that he didn't want to get his underwear wet, at least that's what the editing showed...

That's what he said this morning on the wrapup in the morning show.

Surprised so many are on C&R's case. I thought they were the ones who were the most together and planned well for the most part. I actually was expecting The Goats to win, since it would have been highly ironic that the group that they weren't paying attention to might take it all.

And I actually still kinda like Jon and Kelly, even if they act like jerks every once in a while. Then again, I have a thing for redheads.

Too bad I missed it last night, but I'm glad Team Gay won.

Jason

 

[Lew Crippen]

Too bad the goats' gamble didn't pay off, it would seem to me that there'd be more flights from Sydney to Hawaii, but who knew.

It actually makes a lot of sense—(Sydney is really pretty small 3–5 million depending on how you court), as is Australia (which means that there is not a large population base feeding into Sydney). Tokyo-Yokohama is really big, as is Japan. There is a substantial ethnic Japanese population in Hawaii, which helps to create traffic flow and Hawaii is a tourist destination for Japan.

If that is not enough, Narita is a major hub for airlines. That is there are a lot of people who fly into and out of Narita—that is it gets air traffic in addition to those for whom Japan is a destination. Sydney however is not a major hub in that sense (other than those who go on to other destinations in Australia or New Zealand (another population issue).

More flights can make a lot of sense.


On another note, I wonder why no team so far appears to carry a copy of the worldwide airline schedule with them. I’d throw out clothes in order to take that—and it is not really too big.

 

[Patrick Sun]

I think some people had a problem with C&R due to their gay martyr schtick. They had a "woe is us who are gay among the land of straights" attitude which rubbed some people the wrong way.

Their relationship didn't bother me, but their harping of how they thought they could be perceived for being gay got old fast. Just go out and compete, no one really cared about their intimate lives as much as they thought people did.

 

[Brian-W]

I think some people had a problem with C&R due to their gay martyr schtick. They had a "woe is us who are gay among the land of straights" attitude which rubbed some people the wrong way.

For my wife and I who watched, it was two things that made us hate C&R. The first was their high and mighty attitude towards others in the race. They were jerks to the other teams pure and simple. Yeah, some of the other teams weren't that much better, but C&R took it to a new level.

Second was the were the definition of an 'ugly American' when in foreign countries. The way they treated the residents in their home land, and belittling them for not speaking English I thought was not only inappropriate (and unwarranted), but showed what kind of dicks these guys were.

I wasn't fond of the final three teams, but seeing C&R win was a travesty.

I was a fan of the clowns...good attitude, good spirit, good team players, and great to those around them

 

[Jason Seaver]

I think some people had a problem with C&R due to their gay martyr schtick. They had a "woe is us who are gay among the land of straights" attitude which rubbed some people the wrong way.

Really? I never got that vibe off Chip & Reichen at all. They were standoffish at times, but I don't recall them ever using their sexuality (or how others thought of it) as an excuse for anything.

Monica and Sheree played the minority card more often than Reichen & Chip, for instance (and they didn't do it much).

 

[MickeS]

I didn't see C&R do the "gay martyr schtick" either, except for two comments in the final episode about how most gay men are portrayed in media as feminine and weak and that they were probably perceived that way, but they felt they proved that gay men could be as strong, masculine and competitive as straight men. Other than that I don't remember they talking about it much, except when Jon said something like "are you gonna let the gay guy beat you" during a challenge.



They didn't mngle and socialize, and they were very competitive. I didn't see them being high and mighty or being jerks.

As for their "ugly American" attitude, I don't get the complaints. IIRC, the cab driver told them he knew the way and that he spoke english. Then it turns out he can't speak english and didn't know the way. They had every right to be pissed off.

 

[Patrick Sun]

From my overall recollection of watching each episode this season:

Chip was somewhat of a competitive jerk at times in the early goings as sub-groups aligned themselves against the athletic teams (but it was due to their obvious athletic prowess/condition they were in vs. the other slow, unathletic competitors, not about sexual orientation which is how it seems C&R wanted to process that perceived resentment, to turn it into some fuel to beat the other teams), but somehow the vibe I got, at times, was that it was more about their relationship with each other (as they perceived the other teams having of them, and not necessarily the true perceptions of the other teams of them) than it was about who was strategically and tactically better at managing all the various tasks put before each team.

Reichen was able to hold his tongue (and focus on the task at hand) more than Chip, who frankly scared me in his blind intensity to finish first at times (I really thought they bought the farm when Chip spun their SUV off the road into the fields and not a telephone pole, thankfully).

Then, after winning the race, Reichen and Chip make that speech (along the lines of winning one for all gay men which wasn't really necessary unless they really felt they felt that somehow being gay put them at a disadvantage in a worldwide race, which it didn't). I rolled my eyes at their closing comments at that point. But for the most part, none of the other teams seem to care one way or another (then again, we only see so little of the footage shot for the race).

I mean, hell, you could have just titled this year's race:

The stupid things heterosexuals do to lose a race around the world!

All I'm saying is that sexual orientation had no bearing on who won or lost in this race, but for some reason, some teams feel the need to bring it up as if it did.

 

[Bob-N]

Yeah, I agree:

Wished team clown were in the last three and won.

J&K were biggots towards C&R. Major turn off.

C&R (along with the NFL wives) were indeed the ugly Americans whether or not they felt like they were shafted by the cab drivers or not. For peets sake, they're in another country, respect their languages and customs! It's that lack of respect that I felt throughout the last half of the race that turned me off.

The goats were the ones I was rooting for just to spite the other two teams. Of course, my luck ran out when my clowns bowed out last week.

Dunno if an all star 'Race would be as interesting. I like to see people's different reactions when put into those situations. Each team handles things/stress a bit differently. I would know what to expect if they pulled together teams from the previous races. However, I'm all for a new one with new teams like me and my wifey .

 

[Brian-W]

Bob, you summed up my sentiments exactly. Patrick also highlighted a lot of valued points.

C&R turned me off with their attitudes in other countries. Should foreigners come to the U.S. expecting us to understand their languages and cultures? Of course not, and the same could be said of the others.

And I too wanted the goats to win just out of spite against C&R and J&K (whiners!)

 

[Jeff Kleist]

C&R turned me off with their attitudes in other countries. Should foreigners come to the U.S. expecting us to understand their languages and cultures? Of course not, and the same could be said of the others.

See, that's what you're missing. The cabdrivers said they knew the way and spoke English. They lied

R&C were more respectful of the cultural things than most.