Historically it won't, actually, but the BBC is in the process of an old-boy-network backlash right now and is Making an Example. It's Clarkson's hard luck that he happened to commit an offense that would normally be hushed up by the network at a time when the network is under intense scrutiny for its long track record of hushing such things up.

Please note I'm not defending the man's conduct; simply noting that the BBC's longstanding hypocrisy regarding similar matters makes their very public aren't-we-virtuous, watch-us-kill-the-golden-goose-for-a-principle stance is more than a little nauseating. The whole thing is a sad and shabby business. The only person who comes out of it with any real honor is the guy who got hit, and what he's getting for his trouble is death threats on Twitter, proving once more that the Internet really isn't in humanity's best interest after all.

Do excuse me, the whole affair has put me in a bit of a mood.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Hamster's latest tweet seems to make it pretty final:

Gutted at such a sad end to an era. We're all three of us idiots in our different ways but it's been an incredible ride together.

I think it's safe to say that, whatever the Beeb's intentions, there's just no fixing this mess. If they push forward with renewing the show, it's gonna be without most or all of the talent, though there's been no word from The Stig.

--------------------------
CdrMike, Renegade Time Lord

That raises an interesting point, actually: Who owns the "Stig" character? The natural assumption would be that the BBC owns all the IP involved in Top Gear, but on the other hand, the Stig was specifically created by Clarkson and Wilman, and has appeared in a number of Clarkson's own DTV films.

If in fact the BBC does own the character, one wonders: If the cast does end up going elsewhere to make some form of knockoff, whether we'll see the test-driver equivalent of when David Letterman moved to CBS, and NBC wouldn't let him call the late Calvert DeForest's character "Larry 'Bud' Melman" any more. They couldn't stop DeForest from appearing on The Late Show, or even from playing exactly the same character... they just pressed the point about the name (which frankly accomplished nothing other than to make them look like petty chumps).

Ironically, Top Gear has been knocked off by its own cast on another channel before. When the original, not-funny version of the show was canceled in the late '90s, most everybody who was on it at the time (Clarkson had left it a year or two before, IIRC) packed up and went off to Channel 5, there to start making an identical program inevitably called Fifth Gear. Which, just to make the whole thing even more Ouroborian, altered its format a few years ago to be less of a magazine show about cars (Top Gear Mk I) and more of a wacky car adventure show with a Secret Headquarters for studio segments and bumptious hosts (Top Gear Mk II). I kinda liked Fifth Gear too (if nothing else, it had Vicki Butler-Henderson on it), but this reinvention... didn't work. It was awful. Textbook case study in Trying Too Hard.

Could be a moot point, given that at least one BBC exec is already hedging the corporation's bets about getting Clarkson back once the furore has blown over. Which, with modern society's goldfish memory, wouldn't require much of a time investment. Heck, they only do one Top Gear series a year nowadays and this year's was almost over. By next March, most of the world will have to check the Wayback Machine to even remember what this was about.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

I imagine that's something that any network/company looking to snap the three blokes up will have to bear in mind. Where exactly is the dividing line between what is BBC IP and what belongs to Clarkson and Wilman. If the Beeb really is serious about continuing the series, then there's going to be a godawful mess trying to transplant the original crew to a new series.

>Ironically, Top Gear has been knocked off by its own cast on
>another channel before. When the original, not-funny version
>of the show was canceled in the late '90s, most everybody who was on
>it at the time (Clarkson had left it a year or two before, IIRC)
>packed up and went off to Channel 5, there to start making an
>identical program inevitably called Fifth Gear. Which, just to
>make the whole thing even more Ouroborian, altered its format a few
>years ago to be less of a magazine show about cars (Top Gear Mk
>I) and more of a wacky car adventure show with a Secret Headquarters
>for studio segments and bumptious hosts (Top Gear Mk II). I
>kinda liked Fifth Gear too (if nothing else, it had Vicki
>Butler-Henderson on it), but this reinvention... didn't work. It was
>awful. Textbook case study in Trying Too Hard.

Much like the US version, which I've seen plenty of advertisements on Hulu for but can't bring myself to watch them. If I ever feel the itch, I just spool up some of the old seasons of the original.

>Could be a moot point, given that
>at least one BBC >exec is already hedging the corporation's bets> about getting Clarkson
>back once the furore has blown over. Which, with modern society's
>goldfish memory, wouldn't require much of a time investment. Heck,
>they only do one Top Gear series a year nowadays and this
>year's was almost over. By next March, most of the world will have to
>check the Wayback Machine to even remember what this was about.

Would not surprise me that we're hearing in a year or so about how, in desperate need of a move to keep the show afloat, the Beeb lets him back in with a "very final warning."

--------------------------
CdrMike, Renegade Time Lord

BBC News reports today that they're planning to show the incomplete episodes later this year. In part, of course, this is perfectly understandable, as the films for the remaining three episodes had probably all been shot already (leaving only the host segments to be filled in on the Wednesdays before they were meant to air), and what the hell, the BBC paid for them. One wonders, however, if it might also be a trial balloon of sorts. I'd expect that a number of people in offices on the higher floors of Broadcasting House will be watching the response to same with great interest.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Between the way they're already making it clear that he's not been banned, the point of quoting from what is effectively a mea culpa on the part of Clarkson, and now this, I get the feeling the Beeb really is regretting the decision to let him go. At the same time, he's making noises that he's got something cooking for this summer, and there's still the tour dates for what was Top Gear Live, so there's no telling what's going on anymore.

--------------------------
CdrMike, Renegade Time Lord

"We'll definitely look at some women but it's not a driving priority."
*SNORK*

...!
Gott's Leetle Feesh in Trousers!

Also, here is James May's response to that.

---
"She's old, she's lame, she's barren too, // "She's not worth feed or hay, // "But I'll give her this," - he blew smoke at me - // "She was something in her day." -- Garnet Rogers, Small Victory

FiMFiction.net: we might accept blatant porn involving the cast of My Little Pony but as God is my witness we have standards.

As I noted on Twitter at the time, this is not only unacceptable behavior, but also, that report was a stupid thing for those users to get angry about. I mean, I'd watch that version.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

I don't know if you've noticed, Gryph, but the Internet is full of morons. (I'd watch it too; Sue Perkins is brilliant.)

Ebony the Black Dragon

"Life is like an anole. Sometimes it's green. Sometimes it's brown. But it's always a small Caribbean lizard."

Even by the Internet's standards, the Perkins fuffle was daft. It's a double shot of dumbspresso - one, for getting all het up about it in the first place, and two, it wasn't even true.

It's moments like that which lean me toward the "sure, destroy the Internet" ending of the original Deus Ex, just to link in with another thread elsewhere.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

My wife introduced me to the shows she did with Giles Coren, "The Supersizers Do..." and "The Good Life".

Brilliant. And she seems to be quite tolerant of Giles.

--
Geoff Depew - Darth Mephron
Haberdasher to Androids, Dark Lord of Sith Tech Support.
"And Remember! Google is your Friend!!"

I got the distinct feeling that she and Giles are pals from way back. Supersizers is brilliant and funny. (Perkins commenting on the amount of alcohol she's consumed during their week in the Jacobean era: "It's nine o'clock at night, and I'm already out of my face!") She was funny during "The Great British Bake-Off" as well. Frankly, I think she'd work well with May and/or Hammond; perhaps the Beeb will team them up on something less prone to attract dumbasses sending death threats.

Ebony the Black Dragon

"Life is like an anole. Sometimes it's green. Sometimes it's brown. But it's always a small Caribbean lizard."

Actually, I believe the Private Eye phrase is "tired and emotional".

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Indeed, it rather fits the theory that he'd reached burnout or was rapidly approaching it. In the course of a year, he had to deal with the death of his mother, the breakup of his marriage, the whole scare in Argentina, and then being told he might possibly have cancer. You can only put so much pressure on a man before he snaps.

--------------------------
CdrMike, Renegade Time Lord

Wilman's out too.

Oh dear, Lord Hall. That's not gone well.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Probably more important a loss than Hamster and Slow. I know Clarkson sold out his interest in the show to the BBC awhile back...not sure about Wilman though. If he didn't, it could get weird.

-VR
That's not a resignation letter...<Brandishes envelope>...THAT's a resignation letter.
"They copied all they could follow, but they couldn't copy my mind,
And I left 'em sweating and stealing a year and a half behind."

Very not well. Slow just came out with his own Sunday Times op-ed yesterday, revealing that the lads had already planned out the end of their era, preparing to sign three year contracts that would have allowed them time to roll everything up and turn the reins over to a new generation or just allow the show to ride off into the sunset. He'd even gone ahead and special ordered a $317,000 Ferrari 458 Speciale to celebrate.

Whoops.

--------------------------
CdrMike, Renegade Time Lord

Oh, he's all right. He's done a couple of documentary series about 18th- and 19th-century transportation technology, the titles of which I can't think of right offhand. Impenetrable Northern accent, very enthusiastic about his subject - has a habit of saying things like, "These guys, they - they was the boys, wasn't they?" about Industrial Revolution ironworkers and whatnot. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Dunno how much of a bombshell it is...I mean, they 'overheard Andy Hillman'.
But, he's left Top Gear, why would he be discussing who will take over? And with Jay Kay of all people? Sure, he's been on, 4 times no less, but the last was in 2008?
Now, they might be entirely right, but the reason for finding this out seems rather...peculiar.

...!
Gott's Leetle Feesh in Trousers!

What's really going to happen? I don't know. We'll see.

...!
Gott's Leetle Feesh in Trousers!

--
Unable to save the day: File is read-only.

They've said since this mess started unfolding that they were going to release the films that had already been shot for the unfinished part of Series 22 as soon as they could - which makes sense, since they'd already paid for them - and both BBCTG's official Twitter and BBC News' entertainment & arts webpage teased same a few days ago. I haven't watched the link above, but I suspect that's what you're seeing there.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Yeah, that's what I've been hearing for days, that it is basically what they whipped up with the footage shot, sans the typical presenter spots that would be filmed in-studio weeks later.

--------------------------
CdrMike, Renegade Time Lord

--
Unable to save the day: File is read-only.

Which, as Clarkson notes in the Chris Evans interview, means that the British public has payed for them. So, not showing them would probably be grounds for a bit of public annoyance.

...!
Gott's Leetle Feesh in Trousers!

Having just watched these, they're...well, not very good to be honest.

--
-Pasha
"Don't change the subject"
"Too slow, already did."

I haven't watched it yet, but Wilman's quoted in a Guardian article about the finale, saying something that rings quite plausibly: "The films are good but they were never designed to carry this burden of being the last thing you’ll ever see from us on Top Gear."

This is especially trenchant considering that, according to I think May, they were designing something that would've been meant to carry that burden, next year. This is just what would've been a couple of mid-season features being repackaged into a grand finale they weren't meant to be. That's almost inevitably going to fall a bit flaw, particularly with the shattering awkwardness of the zombie links sequences such a format requires.

I'm not sure I'm going to watch it. I have a copy, but... I may just file it, so that my series set is properly curated, and... get to it some other time. Maybe even some other year.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

The second part was probably the funnier, that often being the case with races.

It's somewhat ironic that among Clarkson's last words in the second film (not _the_ last words from him) were "I hate working on Top Gear."

--------------------------
CdrMike, Renegade Time Lord

Do let me know, would you?

...!
Gott's Leetle Feesh in Trousers!

Not stoked about Evans. My mum listens to his BBC Radio show and every time I'm back home I get to hear his unending stream of baby boomer-pleasing witless twaddle. Fuck he's annoying.

For more, let's go to the BBC: Ex-Top Gear hosts' Amazon show to be 'very expensive'

I wonder if they'll tone down the 'damned americans' rhetoric any.

--
-Pasha
"Don't change the subject"
"Too slow, already did."

I'd take the position of if their smart they wont. First, its not as bad as it could be, and second, to me it wouldn't be the same without their occasional digs.