2261 replies to this topic

[Miss Alli]

Please corral your discussion of the CBS Insider videos here. Thanks.

[Mama Tiger]

And just who are you calling a ho, Miss Alli? (Just kidding!!)

[Gold Monkey]

Moving my response to Ambi's post from the Colin & Christie so I can expand on my defense of Brandon.

they've hung back at the travel agency, apparently dissatisfied with the fact that they didn't get as good a flight as Colin and Christie did.

I think that's a bit of a stretch as an assumption, considering all teams were rushing out of the travel agency knowing they were cutting it close. Brandon and Nicole could have just been last in line for getting the tickets and the paperwork together. They've run a smart enough race so far that I don't think they would take that risk.

I'm willing to bet Brandon would have been busy napping on the bus if the two teams' situations had been reversed.

I don't believe that. Not that Brandon would have done it out of the kindness of his heart (of course, neither did Colin), but Colin and Brandon have both shown that they understand some of the nuances of the race, including not instigating trouble with other teams or getting a reputation as untrustworthy, especially this early in the race. I don't doubt that, barring any stated agreements otherwise, the result would have been different if this was Leg 11 instead of Leg 4, regardless of who got to the bus first.

While the Insider videos are great, they still don't show us everything, like why Brandon and Nicole were the last to get their tickets or whether any agreements were made between the teams to hold the bus for each other.

Edited by Gold Monkey, Jul 31, 2004 @ 1:44 PM.

[Gold Monkey]

Sorry, Ambi, I didn't mean to imply anything by that comment. I know that's just you're interpretation of what's shown.

But taken at face value, the reason Brandon and Nicole are last out the ticket agent's office is because they were last out the ticket agent's office, not because they were trying to get a better seat.

From what the editors have chosen to show me and from I've heard from other teams about Brandon and Nicole, I don't believe that the presence or absence of an agreement makes any difference to them.

I haven't seen anything, on the show or in the Insider videos, of them breaking any stated agreements thus far. I also haven't heard any negative comments about them, on the show or in the Insider videos, from any other racers (besides Mirna's "we're lost because we trusted somebody" BS and really, c'mon).

[Tortolia]

If Chip's really a "Foo-foo" drink kind of guy, that would explain his look of joy at the vodka challenge.

Since Phil said in his diary that CBS shelled out for some top-shelf vodka, it was probably rather tasteless. Chip was likely expecting some cheap, nasty tasting vodka, and got something much better.

Good 'ol Chip.

[Sea]

[shallow]Phil looks extremely hot in his "Phil's Diary" video[/shallow]

[bluedevilblue]

Watching Bob & Joyce on the insider videos makes me wish they'd shown more of them during the episodes. I know they edit the show for arcs and they do a brilliant job of it, but B&J were a nice tonic to so much of the feuding, etc., that I wish I'd seen more of them while they were around.

[Mama Tiger]

Plus Phil is commenting on what actually went on the air, so it would make sense that it would be done after the Race is over and he's back home since the Amazing Editors probably didn't complete their work until well after everyone was home again.

[Gold Monkey]

Looking at the almost-missing-the-bus clip, when Colin goes to Brandon and Nicole's car to get them, he pulls two two big bags out of the back. Brandon, at the same time, has a big bag himself. Whose extra bag was that?

[Frenchteacher]

Plus Phil is commenting on what actually went on the air, so it would make sense that it would be done after the Race is over and he's back home since the Amazing Editors probably didn't complete their work until well after everyone was home again.

Really good point, Mama Tiger. It makes perfect sense to me now. I was really wondering where that beach was and why he was there twice. (The first time, I just assumed it was in Argentina or something.)

I LOVE the Insider clips. Although there seems to be an imbalance of Bob/Joyce and Brandon/Nicole clips, don't you think? Luckily, I don't mind seeing either of these teams. (Plus, I doubt we'll be seeing any more Bob/Joyce clips. Unless there are really big surprises this season....)

[Mama Tiger]

Phil is on the beach at Santa Monica. I recognized it instantly. (From the trash barrels, if you want to know; I used to go there all the time when I lived in Lalaland.) So I figured out it was post-production interviews just from that, without seeing more than the first one.

[Masem]

I LOVE the Insider clips. Although there seems to be an imbalance of Bob/Joyce and Brandon/Nicole clips, don't you think? Luckily, I don't mind seeing either of these teams. (Plus, I doubt we'll be seeing any more Bob/Joyce clips. Unless there are really big surprises this season....)

Image of Bob and Joyce returning as a so called Ghost Team, Bob with a "DIE JERKS! purple bandana on his head

Thank goodness TAR is so NOT Survivor.

[lyric]

According to the editing, they've hung back at the travel agency, apparently dissatisfied with the fact that they didn't get as good a flight as Colin and Christie did.

That's a reasonable thing to be dissatisfied about, although I assume they also went along with the group reasoning that Colin and Christie deserved the early flight because of their assistance in scoring the express bus tickets.

If hanging back at the travel agency had any impact on the fact that they did indeed eventually get a better flight through that travel agent, then they helped themselves. Name of the game.

And meanwhile what is Colin doing? I'm glad you asked. He's busy telling Chip & Kim and Marshall & Lance to keep the bus from departing...

Colin's behavior struck me as especially absurd because I'm willing to bet Brandon would have been busy napping on the bus if the two teams' situations had been reversed.

I would have had no problem if Colin had quietly boarded the bus and left Brandon and Nicole to fend for themselves in boarding on time. That's also perfectly acceptable race behavior to me.

One thing I'm fairly certain of is there was no way in hell Colin was going to let it get to a point where he could actually miss the bus because he was out there waiting for another team. So maybe it was just more of his "butter them up" strategy, where he is looking for ways to help other teams early on so if he needs help from them later, he's more likely to get it. He wasn't risking much, since he knew his early flight should put him ahead of the teams bunched on that bus once they arrived in Buenos Aires.

I don't hold it against teams who play selfishly and put their team's individual needs ahead of their alliances. That can backfire on you, but in general you have a great chance of controlling the outcome in this game by minimizing your own mistakes and focusing on doing your own thing. Alliances tend to have real drawbacks as a race strategy.

I think playing unselfishly and wanting to go out of your way to prove to the other teams that you are most interested in "playing fair" is all well and good, but equally risky if you let it get in the way of helping yourself first. Dennis would probably attest to that.

Edited by lyric, Aug 1, 2004 @ 1:33 PM.

[iMissEthan]

There seem to be two different types of Insider clips. One type has music added, and seems to be an edited segment that they chose not to use in the episode later in the process. The other type is basically unedited footage, usually of one team or one person, with no background music. This type was probably discarded as not for the show earlier in the process than the first type.

Personally, I like watching both types, although I think the second type gives us a more accurate impression of an event.

[Symmetrically]

I've just finished watching a few of the insider clips of Mirna & Charla, and near the end of an earlier clip where they're trying to catch a taxi (and Mirna is complaining that "this country" doesn't have any taxis) Charla offers Mirna a full bottle of water. Mirna complains that she can't drink because she has cow's blood in her mouth as she cracks open the bottle (it sound to me like it's still sealed) and takes a huge swig. She abruptly spits it out and to me it sounds as though she says something like "Mirna, there's gas in this!" If that's what she actually says, what the hell is that about? Is she saying that a new bottle of water is contaminated with gas? I know that it's ultimately unimportant, it just struck me as odd somehow.

Also, I've finally seen the Joyce/Bob and Charla/Mirna bag-touching non-incident and I'm heartily disturbed to know that the snide mimicking of "dis-GUST-ing" from Lance (or Shmance) was exactly what was going on in my head. I hate it when I'm in synch with people I hate.

[fimo]

It's been discussed in the Charla/Mirna thread that it is carbonated water, and not still.

[Symmetrically]

Christ, of course; I should have realized. I'm sure that carbonated cow's blood is way worse than flat cow's bloods. Thanks, fimo, I didn't want to bring insider stuff into the racer threads.

[Archer83]

Moved this over from the Bob and Joyce thread:

Have I said already how much I love these two? The Insider videos might just have cemented the love, between Joyce struggling not to lose it when Bob misplaces the money and Bob's taxi-flagging skills(His hand does not come down! Not once!)

And his attempt at Russian. At least that's one team that does not expect everyone in this world to "Speak English!"

From the Charla and Mirna thread:

Their 'Bargain Hunters' Insider video was somewhat ChaCha-esque but as Zron said:

Replace "a standby ticket" with "a travel agent" and we could be talking about ChaChaCha going from Hong Kong to Australia. Sadly, Mirna is not a fabulous as Danny or Oswald.

[jpgr]

Joyce struggling not to lose it when Bob misplaces the money

See, and this made me cringe and was the thing that tempered my Bob/Joyce love. She just kept talking and talking and talking while he was looking. Shut! Shut! Shut!

I'm sure it's just a personal thing, but when I'm struggling with something like that (if I were Bob), I hate when someone is trying to tell me what to do or to "encourage" me. I know I screwed up. I know what I have to do. Shut up and let me do it! I can't think with somebody babbling at me.

OTOH, the taxi hailing thing was comedy gold! And it was cute how they tried to speak Russian to the taxi driver.

[iMissEthan]

Yeah, as much as I enjoyed the relationship between Bob & Joyce, she does come off as very frazzled in this clip, and other times too.

[Frenchteacher]

But Joyce is really adorable when she's frazzled. The clip where she & Bob wrestle with the twins' hi-beams CRACKED ME UP. Love her. It was great to see Bob wrestling with "Meenya zavoot Bob." I wonder if they would've attempted counting in Russian while looking for walkie-talkies in Tunisia.

Yeah. I think I need a time-out.

[psychopenguin]

Regarding Phil's diaries, you can tell that they were done after the race. In the one from this week he seemed positively loopy to me - like he was trying to remember any extra tidbits he could add and failing miserably. And forgetting things as well - he had to ask off camera if it was vodka they gave the racers.

He's still adorable though.

ETA: I knew it had to be shot somewhere around lalaland. Anywhere else and you'd have people coming up and snooping around the camera, like they do when the local news crews go do stories in a crowd.

Edited by psychopenguin, Aug 2, 2004 @ 10:08 PM.

[Slowhatch]

I agree that he's talking from "crib notes"--finished video he's seen. Phil is always racing to stay ahead of the teams so I doubt he witnessed some (or any) of the stuff he's talking about. As for the location, all he has to do is walk out the back gate of his office/condo complex and he's standing on SM beach. The shirt and the 5 o'clock shadow are the same in each video so the whole set may have been shot in one or two evenings.

[Archer83]

See, and this made me cringe and was the thing that tempered my Bob/Joyce love. She just kept talking and talking and talking while he was looking. Shut! Shut! Shut!

I think, on his part, Bob didn't help the situation. At one point, I think Joyce said something like, "Alright, you look for it. I'm not going to say anything else." And then Bob comes back with something like, "You agreed that I should be the one to keep the money." which just sent her off again. I think she did good with the, "Check your pockets." and stuff, because... Well, it did turn out to be in his coat pocket. Only at the end, when things were fine did she finally really let go and started chiding him about keeping the money where she told him too and that she didn't need to be anymore stressed than she already was. I think she really was doing her best in that stressful situation not to make it any worse by losing it.

I thought it was cute. They might not be Dave and Margaretta sweet, but definitely much better than Teri and Ian in terms of being nice to each other and way better than some of the young dating couples. Can you imagine Alison and Donny in that situation?