Okay, that is EVIL. That is SERIOUSLY evil. I love it!!!

When is Mardi Gras this year? If it's at the end of January, then it might be a possibility since the mouth of the Mississippi (into the Gulf of Mexico) is close by, and the heavy traffic that time of year would drive the teams batty.
Otherwise I still think Atlanta remains a legitimate possibility.

Mardi Gras is always around Easter. It ends with Fat Tuesday which is right before Ash Wednesday which is the Wed. befor Easter. So March or April.

Ash Wednesday is 40 days before Good Friday, so 42 days before Easter.

Last year Ash Wednesday was the first week of March. This year Ash Wednesday is Feb 25, and Easter is April 11.

In theory then, the WRP folks could in theory wait if they planned to use New Orleans for a start, or for a finish. (TAR 1 was filmed on an early March-early April time frame), but I don't think they would wait until late February to start filming, until something unavoidable came up. They used a desert, a swamp, and two major cities and landmarks to start the Race, they haven't yet used a beach or a mountain. Geographically, they started in or near NYC, Miami, Las Vegas and Los Angeles. And the finish line has been in the west ever since TAR 1 (New York, San Fransicso, Seatlle, Phoenic). If they're trying to keep a balance of some sort, a srat and finish on the east coast, or a start in the northern US with a finish in the east coast would balance out the locations a bit.

Lent is 40 days long...Ash Wednesday is 40 days before Easter Sunday, not Good Friday.

Well, Mardi Gras is Feb. 24. Which actually might fit well with the end of TAR5 if they start in mid-January. But I'm not holding out any hope; too many people around -- and can you IMAGINE what the poor pixellators would face with camera crews showing up on Bourbon Street in front of crowds willing to bare their all for nothing more than a strand of cheap beads???

Mardi Gras Day is the 24th; New Orleans will be a madhouse for most of a week before that, and considering that TPTB have, up to now, arranged the Race so that it ends at a quiet time/day in the final city (early Sunday morning in Seattle, during the work-day on a Friday in Phoenix) I think that it's probably safe to assume that they won't be anywhere near New Orleans at Mardi Gras time. Unfortunately, since it would be [s]stressful[/s] fun. We'd probably see at least one 'lost a partner/crew guy in the crowds' incident.

Since I work right down on St. Charles (fortunately across from the Quarter), I am dreading trying to navigate just to get home from work in the evenings for the week leading up to Mardi Gras. And that's without having to keep track of three other people. I can only imagine what howling confusion it would be to deal with trying to stick together in that crazy crowd.

But it sure would be fun to have the race go through New Orleans one year during Mardi Gras, when it falls early in February!

Hmmm. Start the Race out on the levee, or at the Cafe du Monde in the wee small hours during Mardi Gras (after most of the crowds have gone, but they've got to pick their way through all the garbage and the die-hard partiers? Yeah, that could be fun. Although if they're going to use NO at all, they should require the use of the streetcars at least once.

What kind of detour or roadblock? Do they still do the bonfires on the levee?

I'm hoping for a northern start, but I think a more logical start is Stone Mt./Atlanta. - this would cover the east and a mountain. Of course, simply stating its a logical start point probably eliminates it, eh?

Is it summer yet?

My bad. I guess I've been lapsed way too long...

Anyway, it's never in Jan. which was my original point. If Easter is really early one year, it could work for an ending point but I agree with Mama Tiger that it's not very practical.

This idea moved to the meet market by the poster.
[s]OK, so I'm a neophyte...I've asked Miss Alli how to go 'bout doing this, but no response. I tried to launch a poll to ask all, but I can't. And I didn't find anything about polls in the online help. Sooooo.......I wanna find out who in the Cincinnati area (i.e. home of Lil from Survivor--more like the 'burb of Loveland, my hometown--and, no, no brush with greatness with her to date) would be interest in a TARCon at the final episode of TAR 5. Does anyone have any idea how to get this question some play in the forum? Much appreciated....[/s]

Take it to Meet Market, please. Among other things, we don't even know when the show's going to air, so it strikes me as very premature, but if you want to do it, take it to Meet Market.

Only problem with that is, they've become so efficient at cleaning the streets that it takes them about 20 minutes to polish the entire town these days.

I suspect we're not going to see the Race go through any American cities -- except for starting and finishing -- for the simple reason that it would be too hard to keep things a surprise for the later airing of the show. I mean, even if the Racers aren't allowed to say what show they're on, you know that they'd run into enough people like us who'd do the 20 questions thing ("I know you can't tell me what show you're on, but I'm sure the trip you're taking is just amazing, isn't it?") that it would really create more spoilers than TPTB are comfy with.

But I still think if there's an American city they should go through, it's New Orleans. If for no other reason than nobody would look twice at them, probably (except, as I said, for giving the pixellators a heart attack if they were here during Mardi Gras) -- I mean, I've walked down Canal Street on my way to a business appointment and seen men wearing pajamas, with web belts that hold a sixpack of beer cans, and hardhats with plastic penises strapped to them, at 11:00 in the morning!

According to the TAR 1 Timeline assembled by Rinaldo, filming of the first edirion began on March 8, 2001 and ended on April 8, 2001. While TAR 2 and 4 followed a schedule where fliming occured from January to February, its always possible that the schedule could be pushed back and still have plenty of time for editing prior to a summer schedule whether at the beginning of May or later.
So as much as I would like to see an Atlanta start or finish, especially on Stone Mountain, I can see how the film schedule could fall back so that something like Mardi Grad was possible at the beginning or the end of the Race.

One thing to keep in mind though, unlike TAR 2, TAR 3, and TAR 4, teams would not necessarily have to use a taxi or private vehicle into or out of Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. They can always ride MARTA (subway)!
And yes, that is now the official name of the international airport in Atlanta. It is now named after two former mayors, not just the one. The airport was originally named for William B. Hartsfield, and the name was changed to honor Maynard L. Jackson afer he died in 2003.

And MARTA is a terrific way to get to the Atlanta airport, too -- I wish New Orleans had something like that. Except, of course, that digging in the ground is not exactly a wise thing around here....

I suspect that cities in the middle of the U.S. (or the "Filler," as a friend likes to call it) are probably less likely for use in TAR simply because it seems more logical to start from one coast and end up on the other. I just wish they'd run the race in reverse some time, head across the Pacific first and end up in Europe. Just to be different!

If they fly the other way round the world they will end up finishing the race when they start it. This is because as you fly west through the time zones you keep up with the time in that time zone. When we flew from Auckland (in New Zealand) to Brisbane (in Australia) we arrived in Brisbane at the same time that we left Auckland. It's a 3 hour flight and New Zealand is 3 hours ahead of Australia.

Just kidding!!!!! I know it doesn't work like that!!!! I think it is easier to fly east all the time when you fly around the world and that's why the race goes that way.

I once flew from Japan to California and arrived four hours before I left, so I understand the confusion. But it would be interesting to see the Racers tossed into stranger environments earlier on; going to Europe seems somehow tame. I'm thinking of Asia more than Australia or New Zealand, obviously!

I would like to see them do something different this year from past episode ones. I have always disliked the mad scramble for the prebooked flights. There seems to be a little too much of an element of chance involved. Instead, why not have the mother of all detours right off the bat? Make it something truly difficult and easy to screw up, like the tour of Sydney in year 2, or the bicycle assembly in year 3 in Switzerland....or better yet..something much harder. Then hand out the flights to them as they finish in order. Right off the bat we get to see who can perform under pressure...and teams in back will deserve to be there.

I think they do Europe early on because if you did Europe *after* the rat temple and the tiger pit and the shark walk and the under-ice swim, it would seem pretty tame and normal. On the other hand, I think it would be cool to do an east-to-west circuit of the globe; they could either skip Europe altogether, go from the east coast to a Western European city for one leg then onto South America and into Asia from there, or make a single stop near the end in a Part of Europe that is not very accessible. I noticed when I was in Eastern Europe that there are not many people at all who speak English (they were all learning Russian as their second language up until 15 years ago), and parts of Russia and the Ukraine were extremely remote.

Exactly. I like the fact that the race gets harder as it goes along. I also think they want to shed a few teams while the airfares are relatively cheap -- which may be part of the rationale for spoonfed flights in the first leg. Because we know the producers buy those flights at rock bottom. So while conceptually I like the idea of starting off in Asia and with more difficult tasks, I suspect we'll see the same pattern of progressive difficulty that has dominated previous seasons.

I do have to say that I hope they continue to go to Europe (being somewhat, perhaps obviously, of a Europhile myself), and I think it can continue to lend itself to challenges & new stuff. A bunch of us have pointed out the appeal of Eastern Europe, for example. But Europe doesn't necessarily have to be "easier" than other parts of the race. I'm sure serious challenges can be conjured up somewhere on that little continent. (Especially if they minimize their trips to France & Italy and go somewhere new.)

That said, I certainly hope we continue to see a wide variety of places from the rest of the globe, too. IMHO, the Season 1 & 4 trips to India have been among the best episodes ever b/c of the freakout factor.

Also, what's to say they can't skip north-south on the globe like they kind of did in Season 3, going British Isles - Iberian Peninsula - Morocco - Germany/Austria/ Switzerland before moving on.

And, while i'm on a roll, Canada's a good starting point, too; it doesn't have to be any less "exotic" than Mexico (esp. if they go to Québec, natch).

Ok, I guess I'm done.

Or Nunavut.

"A Detour is a choice between two tasks, each with its own pros and cons. For this Detour, racers will have to choose between mukluk and muktuk. And we won't tell them what either word means until they choose!"

Frenchteacher, I also hope they won't stop going to Europe on the first few legs.

It seems that TAR sends racers deeper and deeper into culture shock: Western Europe always feels a little like Bizarro North America to me, in the sense that the familiar still outweighs the unfamiliar, and most anywhere you go, someone speaks English (or French, or Spanish, or Italian, which are common second languages for North Americans).

I've never had the chance to go to Southeast Asia, but from what I've read and heard (and seen on TV), the unfamiliar is definitely outweighing the familiar for a North American, but English is still widespread. As racers move further east, the strangeness keeps growing and the knowledge of English (and other familiar languages) decreases. By the time the racers get back to more familiar ground (Australia, Hawaii), there are but a handful of teams left.

This move from the familiar to the completely befuddling and back again is part of the reason I enjoy the show so much. More objectively, I don't think it's likely to change because it makes the race progressively harder.

As for sending TAR to Canada, every time I hike or ski in Gatineau Park, I always think about how this would make a great setting for a task or two... What the heck, they can have the Pit Stop at Château Fossettes across the river. ([phil]This late twentieth-century low-end townhouse, situated within 20 miles of the nice part of town, is the pit stop for this second leg of the race.[/phil])

I'd say the odds are against it, since the reason they probably spent so much time in Europe in TAR 3 was that it was filmed in August and September. TAR 1 & 4 were filmed starting in January, and 2 was in March, and they spent much more time near or south of the equator. Since the app this time specified filming starting in January, I'd expect much the same. Parkas just don't make very good tv.

I'd love to see that - that'd deliver some great opportunities for culture shock, without leaving the continent. It would be amusing to watch an indignant Racer asking an Inuk the same question over (&over &over) and wonder why they weren't being answered... (factoid for the day: the Inuit will raise their eyebrows to say 'yes' and do this wrinkled-nose thing to say 'no' and some visitors don't clue in too quickly, making for some frustration and/or amusment, depending which side you're on.)



heh! That'd rank up there with the Korean octopi...

This whole conversation leads me to express why I love this show... look at what we're sharing about international cultures, and the show's not even currently on the air! I love reading all these guesses for where the show will lead. I hope TPTB read this to get ideas for future seasons. Because there WILL be future seasons.

Also, good call about the weather, tarsier. I didn't even take that into account. How foolish of me. (Especially when the weather is such a horrible feature in my New York life currently. Brrr.)

As a lot of people have noted, I'd definitely expect a lot more warm-weather racing this time around. We got a lot of Europe last time, specifically the Peggy Flemming type places it seemed. Also, there's a lot of teritory in South America and Africa the race hasn't covered.

That said... what about Montreal as a stop? I know it's northern, but it would provide both a cold weather destination, foreign language, along with a v. continental culture... eurotrash, bitter locals, et. all... maybe as a substitute for lots of time in Europe? They could fly into Toronto, run a bit and have to drive up?

Just random thoughts.

There are a lot of neat things they could do in Canada, but they won't. I'm guessing they want to spend as little time as possible in the US so as to decrease the chance of being recognized and "spoiled". That problem would be the same in Canada, so I doubt you'll ever see more than part of the first and last legs here, and that doesn't leave time for much.

At the risk of being redundant AND stating the obvious, the world is a big place. I think it would be a mistake to spend much time in any of the places they have hit over and over again - especially when TPTB have stated they are making changes to keep things interesting. I could do without much time spent in Western Europe as well as the final stretch involving detours/roadblocks in Hawaii.

Hawaii's a perk for the racers, to help them forget their ordeal in Asia. Gotta have Hawaii ;-)

Durr to me... good point there. I often confuse my "good ideas for the Race" with "good ideas for a vacation for me."

That said, on the race application, they ask where you'd most like to travel, and most not. I said behind the iron curtain, red square and moscow specifically. At semis, the CA seemed interested in my wanting to go there... could this be a hint as to a pending Race destination?

Does anyone remember if they've gone to any communist euro states? When does the race route actually get decided? I know the producers take your phobias into consideration during casting; "If your fear of heights is so bad, what will you do when we make you jump out of a plane?" Do they also consider your ultimate destination when casting?

Is it bad that I'd like to see a cross-over between the Amazing Race and WildBoyz (the MtV show with Steve-O)? It seems that those guys go and do a lot of random, strange, animal-related detour-like stuff that would make hilarious and tense challenges for the Racers. JMO.

Well, let's see. I think there were three teams in TAR1 from the New York area, and I think TaraWill had lived in San Francisco, but I don't think any of the teams in the last two seasons had any Seattle or Phoenix connections. As to considering destinations when casting though, I can't believe it was coincidence that Ian's race went to VietNam.

Right, Tarsier. It was the beginning of his redemption arc for me. His obvious enjoyment of the place and its people (even when he was hollering things in badly accented Vietnamese) made his cranky asshattiness a little easier to take.

Also, getting back to whether or not TAR5 will have a next to last leg in Hawaii, I wonder. I think they did a casting call in Honolulu, and if they end up there again, that's a bit too much advantage.

I don't know if this has been discussed but there is an obvious Asian country that has not been used: Japan. The Olympics were held there back in 1998 and it looks like there could be some neat detours/roadblocks that could come out of there.

But things like this are bound to come up periodically. They used that park in Flushing even though Frank/Margarita know it intimately. Tara & Wil were acquainted with Thailand, too. And let's certainly not forget that Team Guido lived in Paris for two years. So some kind of familiarity is probably going to come up, and I doubt they'd skip Hawaii just because they did a casting call there.

I think it's been mentioned in a few articles that production feels that Japan is too expensive.

Not from the racers, I hope; judging from past seasons, bragging about your
home-field advantage is a jinx.

Really? I hadn't heard that...

[ducks]

If they don't go to Japan b/c it's too expensive, that's kind of a shame. Because they do need to cross that ocean at some point, and we're running out of non-redundant options. Tahiti? "Teams must find this house where Paul Gauguin lived...." And of course there would be two Gauguin houses, and one team would get it all wrong, and then -- ok, carried away.

i thought I had understoof that it was not just the prohibitively high expenses, but also the logistical difficulties in Japan in getting permission for the things they would need to do.

Could well be - I was posting from memory. Yeah, not the wisest thing to do.

Now that you all mention it I too remeber reading or hearing something abour Japan being too expensive. That's a shame. Seems like it would be an interesting choice. Oh well. I too like Canada and getting the race in more of South America and Africa instead of Europe and Asia would be a positive change. (although there is probably a lot of area that is unsafe in Africa)

The recent decision by the Brazilian government to fingerprint American tourists probably rules that country out from the race. Article Here.

But Chile would be amazing, and Argentina looks to have settled down from their president-a-week period of a few years ago. And the Incan ruins in Peru would make a great leg of the race.

I was watching something on the Panama Canal yesterday and it struck me that it would be really cool to see the racers go through it. Perhaps they could combine it with another one of those container crane challenges like they did in Hong Kong?

Having just seen Lost in Translation, Japan would seem to be a great and safe choice, if they can work out the logistics and the costs. (It's hard to imagine that the costs could be significantly greater than Switzerland and the logistics more difficult than China).

Costs are a strange thing. Didn't I read here somewhere that the most expensive task they've had to date was the champagne/waltz roadblock in Vienna? It would seem the cost depends a lot more on what you do (and for how long) than where you do it.

That's an interesting thought. We assume that producers would want teams to be in fairly stable regions. But then again, India has come up twice. I know it's not exactly a war zone or anything, but given political climates (w/ Pakistan, for example) and given the safety of women in certain situations there, it was kind of a big deal. Plus, there were the teams who approached the North Korean border. I guess my point is that even with certain political tensions, there are probably a lot of safe places in South America and Africa waiting to be utilized. I'm really looking forward to hopefully seeing new locales.