MAJOR bump, and a hijacking, for TAR 5 spoilers, if that's OK with Miss Alli. (It seemed to make more sense than starting a new thread.)

We have our first location sighting report of the TAR 5 production. Although the subject line refers to the flags, the post, made as a follow-up in the same thread, clearly refers to the racers. Timing does seem to be about right for the final legs, if they started the run in early- to mid-January




So, any Vancouverites out there who can confirm or deny, or who want to check with the "local radio station(s)"?

Hang on a minute...red and orange flags???

Both aesthetically and literally that doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. It's like putting royal and navy blue together on something and hoping they'll look as different as night and day.

The timing's way off as well if you truly mean "the final legs". The earliest a winter race ever started was 6 January 2002, the first day of TAR2. That race finished on Superbowl Sunday, 3 February. And TAR4 didn't commence until 18 January 2003, and finished on Valentine's Day as we know.

Therefore if this was on Monday near the end, the race would have to have started on around 23 or 24 December. Hard as I try, I just cannot see that as being viable for the producers, especially considering what air traffic is like at Christmas!

I can see Vancouver as being a possible stop near the start of the race, but as a number of posters have suggested somewhere in Quebec I find that more plausible unless they've begun on the West Coast again - deep freeze or no!

However, it's certainly nice to have this thread back again for the filming period. Whether or not any of the tales told here have legs or not, I agree with the above comment that TAR is one of the least-spoiled shows around...and how paradoxical is that?

It may be this company running it instead of TAR:
http://www.canadianoutback.com/amazingrace.htm

Well, like I said, the Subject: line was a hold-over from a much earlier post, so I'm not attaching a lot of weight to the fact that the colors are wrong.

As for the timing, the Monday before the posting date was the nineteenth of January...hold on. Why did I think that it was February already? Gah. I'm dumb. Or it was wishful thinking. Take your pick.

OK, how's this: Maybe they started in Seattle and decided to throw a bone to all the folks who've said "Why no Canada? We want Canada!"? and send them across the North American continent through Canada rather than letting them do that simple LAX to NYC jaunt that's such a piece of cake?

Frankly, as long as they are doing Jan/Feb runs, I expect we'll see them starting from the West Coast (or the South). The weather around that time of year in the Upper Midwest and Eastern Seaboard is just too unpredictable for them to risk a delay at the very start; that could throw the whole schedule back a couple of days.

Here's a wicked spoiler that I've shamelessly copy/pasted from www.weezerandgeezer.com



Edited only because you can apparently do spoilers inside quotes, but not vice-versa. Who knew? Just solving the mystery of why the quote tags weren't working, which was bothering me.

That would make me very happy, Weezer. Props to your old man.

motylik that is a neat organization you pointed at; I almost wish I was up in that area to take part in one of them. And they have a toll-free number on the bottom of the page, so I called, explained, and flat-out asked whether they had been running one this last weekend. Dave, sounding somewhat bemused by the question, said, and I quote: "No, we were not."

It may have legs.

And, very nice work, Geezer. Thanks for throwing us that crumb, Weezer.

Somehow spoilers make an airdate seem so much closer...

I was just as excited to hear it as you guys.

Let's do a quick review of TAR 4 spoilers.
Early on, there was the Toronto area spoiler. Proved to be untrue. And came from someone posting it on message boards.
During the filming period two spoilers emerged from the press. One, of the Racers in India that was correct on all fronts, and one that the final Racers were in Hawaii, which also proved to be correct. One additional non-English language spoiler later emerged from the Netherlands, in Dutch, which included photographs from a Dutch newspaper.

I tend to be very skeptical on message board origin spoilers, especially on TAR.
And as to the Vancouver spoiler, just remember that in 6 years (in 2010), Vancouver will host the Olympic Winter Games. So that could explain the activity that was see just as well.

Not sure if I"m allowed to post this here, but I'm so excited about that Canadian Outback company that does a Faux-mazing Race! I'm desperate to do it, I'm trying to rally a few friends. But we're in SF, so it doesn't seem like so long a trip.

While in sequester, there was some trickeration going on, and some people were accessing things they weren't supposed to access and other such against-the-rule things were going on. Anyway, we were following what spoilers were out there and we were blown away that India had been spoiled already. We laughed at the other shit. And some of us helped blow some of the bad ones out of proportion on various message boards (once we got back). The speculation is fun and funny. But take a lot of it with a grain of salt. Like this Canadian one. In my opinion (I have nothing from the inside to back this up), I think the race either started this week or will be starting damn soon, like within the next week. And I don't think they're going to Canada because Bert knows, like me, that you cannot trust those sneaky Canadians.

[ot]Yeah, that company sounds interesting - I wonder if they're protected from copyright infringement because they're in Canada? It's pretty blatant - they copied the graphics and everything.[/ot]

I'm with theschnauzers - history does not favor that spoiler.

With regard to WeezerTAR4's little tidbit (and by extension, Geezer's!) - surely if you were going through your medical checkups and innoculations in preparation for being on the show, the producers would mandate a specific person or people?

It just strikes me as odd that you'd simply pop into your local GP for such a thing, even if you were being deliberately vague about your intentions.

If it does turn out to be correct, though, all I can say is...about bloomin' time!

Thanks, Josh, for the father/daughter possibility. I really wish they would have two parent/kid teams. I think the dynamics would be better.

I agree that the Canada thing doesn't seem likely. Do an "Amazing Race" google sometime and see how many Canadian local "amazing races" there are. It's scary. It's like if the Canadians aren't allowed on the show they will, damn it, fight back and create dozens of their own "mini-amazings" so take that JB, Moonves et al! Hah!

And I agree with Chris. The Race is either on right now or there are some people huddled in a hotel somewhere hours away from finding out the world is waiting for them too. Getting chills just thinking about it.

the schnauzers, don't forget that the Kota Kinabalu sighting came from Usenet first, too. The description of one person was off (no dark-framed glasses) but aside from that it was solid.

And I can see that you'd be allowed to use your own doctor for the medical checks. (S)he's already got all your records and history.

I remember doing that, and talking mad trash about you and me.


They have a Dr on staff, but for the majority of the stuff (immunizations, physicals etc) we went to our own Dr. It'd be too much of a hassle for them to assign specific doctors to people all over the nation.


As far as the show filming, I've had it confirmed from two seperate sources that it started this week.

Which would make sense that filming did because Monday was a federal holiday in the US, and thus, lighter traffic, etc., to the first airport. (Fewer people, therefore fewer chances of being photographed at the airport. Although that didn't work the last time at LAX.)

Aaack! Vancouver sighting shot down in flames by the original poster.

I don't know if anyone has already said this, but the Amazing Racers have been spotted running around Vancouver, BC recently. I'm just so happy to think another season is on its way. I love this show so much!

Psssst...Corbybond...look at the post right above yours dude.

Man, Vancouver is going to be the little city who cried wolf of TAR if this keeps up. What to believe? What's the real skinny? Augh!

I'd be willing to bet Josh's left testicle that Vancouver will not be a location on the Race.

Vancouver popped up all the time last season too. Those guys have to stop with their clone mini-races. They are a threat to humanity I tell ya!

I was about to say the same thing SttrayCat. I remember all the reports of racers being seen around Canada before the starts of TAR's 3&4. The mini-races are meant to either throw us off the trail or build up our excitement. As if we aren't excited enough!

Heck, CBS probably encourages those AR rip-off Canadian races. They like to see us squirm as we try to figure out the real cities vs. the Canadian cities who cry wolf (tm Red Targetter).

Watch Vancouver become the city that cried wolf. Sure, now it's a decoy, but for TAR8 (you know, because there WILL be one) it'll probably be the first destination, and none of us will believe it.

hehe. That's because we are feeling so ignored. Come on... come to YVR already!

Yeah! Come to Vancouver, allow Canadians to enter the race and watch me win due to that slightly unfair advantage of knowing my hometown! *grin*

It didn't work for me.

When I took the train from Philly to NY last Thursday there were big TAR shades of red and yellow banners (no lettering or pictures, like Philly typically has on it's street banners) outside the entrance to the Zoo. I didn't have a good enough look to see if there was any activity (trucks, vans, etc.) that might suggest amazingness. But I did get that little heart bump of excited surprise and hope.

I'm sure they weren't here. And yet, we are such a TV/film production center now, with two series filming entirely here and movies here all of the time, that it would be a relatively easy thing for them to start here.

I wouldn't put it past them to stage false starts in multiple cities, though.

BoDiva, maybe their first task was to attack the new Real World house Philly is getting very shortly! Actually, the first task is usually just getting to the airport---maybe it's one of the "new twists" by having earlier tasks. But, wasn't last Thursday (Jan. 22?) Chinese new year? Was there any Chinese new year celebration near or at the zoo for the year of the Monkey?

I have a question about spoilers, which I guess is mainly directed to Miss Alli. I know that spoiler tags aren't supposed to be used in the spoiler thread. Once it gets close to the time of the race, and during the race, I avoid the spoiler thread because I like to be surprised. I am enjoying this thread now, since it really isn't much more than speculation at this point, and even if a city or two were revealed, it wouldnt bother me.

But if you recall, before the last race even started, the MAJOR spoiler about two African-American women winning the race was published. And even tho that spoiler proved to be false, it kind of jaundiced my viewing for the first half of the race. So...I was wondering...for the time being, if someone is going to divulge something of that enormity, could that be labelled as such, and spoiler-tagged? Once it's closer to the actual race time, of course, that wouldnt be necessary.
If not, I understand...but maybe you could give this consideration for now. Thank ya kindly!

Nope. If you don't like spoilers, don't read the spoiler thread. If you want speculation, hang out in the speculation thread.

WeezerTAR4 what city are you from? Vancouver is a relatively small city and easy to navigate if you're from there. I can imagine if you're from somewhere like LA, even if you're a native, you'd never see the entire place.

The race in the home town has a history of not helping.
Frank and Margarita from New York: came in second in New York
Wil and Tara (mostly) from San Francisco: came in second in SF
Derek and Drew lived in Miami: almost got eliminated first episode in part because they were late getting to the Miami airport and got on the last plane
Weezer and Geezer as noted.
Team Who also from LA and got to airport late, got on last plane, got on last bus in Milan, one of last teams in first leg of TAR4.

What I'm saying is that it didn't work for me in that we didn't win. I know my way around L.A. well enough to have been one of the first teams to the airport (although we still missed that stupid tram.) What I was getting at though is that even if they start you on your front porch (which they might as well have done for me) it doesn't mean anything once you set foot on that first plane.

If it's the first leg, I can see how it might be harder to use it to your advantage, but if they threw in Vancouver somewhere in the middle, someone like me could use it to gain some ground if I needed it.

BTW: figured out who you are now! (Little slow today)... loved you guys. Great job. Did you have fun? TAR is such a great show.

Didn't work for the Guidos (Paris) or Wil and Tara (Bangkok). And the final cities bit was already mentioned regards Frank and Margarita as well as Wil. I think what happens is it works against the home town team because they think it will give them this great advantage and they get all over confident. Right, Guidos?

The probability a home town team will get any advantage is slim I think. It doesn't take rocket science for the other teams to hail a cab or ask directions. OTOH a home town team will get into thinking too much about all they can do. Frank imagining how he'd mislead Rob and Brennan is a good example of this. Home town teams tend to get all over-revved about going to their "city" and out think themselves imho.

True I guess. But I have been to both Paris and Bankok, and Vancouver is a much easier city to get around and naviagte-- then again, I don't LIVE in either Bankok or Paris. I do agree with the overconfidence factor though.

It would be wonderful to see Vancouver featured. It's such a beautiful city.

Sadly, it means nothing, as those flags have been up there for quite a long while. In fact, the very first time I noticed them was when I was on the way to TARcon, of all places. Also, the flags are inverted versions of the TAR flags -- the yellow and the red have swapped places.

And even though I know it means nothing, I'm still creating scenarios in my head now where I'm walking to work in the morning and I get plowed down by two smelly people and a camera crew. A girl can dream, can't she?

Sure, that's your dream. Myself, I'm still dreamin' I'm one of those smelly people. WHY DIDN'T THEY PICK ME!!

(You might want to take that question to the Meet Market...)

Spoilers? Anyone? :)

YEP! We think the biggest mistake is overconfidence (our mistake...DUH!) and the biggest disadvantage is lack of sleep! (fatigue, whatever)

I've heard a few things that lead me to believe that the race has not yet started, but will be in the next few days. So I'm raising the Race Alert Level to Orange. Be vigilant y'all.

So which info is accurate. Chris' alert or Josh saying he heard the race started last week? Maybe Bert volunteered to pay for Josh's wisdom teeth bill in return for a misinformation campaign? Can we start a paranoid conspiracy theory that Chris is actually Jerry Brunkheimer on these boards?

I'm just saying, keep your eyes peeled.

Why not both? Maybe the pre-race Week started last week and this week they are moving out to the airports for the first leg.

Pre-race *week*? I figured a couple days at most. How long is it between the time they fly all the teams to the departure city and the time they start the race?

Hey, I'm new to the bord. I was just wondering if anyone knows when the next Amazing Race airs?

It was nearly a week. The PTB crammed nearly 6 hours of productivity into 5 and a half days of sheer boredom. Thank God Dave brought his PS2.