SHOW: American Chopper

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Lucifers Angel
King For A Couple Of Days
Lucifers Angel
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June 30th, 2006 at 04:28am
I just love this show, i think the realtionship between Paul Jr and Paul Jr is brilliant they fight like cat and dog and they even throw things at each other but they also care about each other and amke people laugh, i love the bikes Paul Jr designs and in fact i have 5 models of them, (i WISH i could have the real thing),

here is a web page to go to, to have a look.

http://www.orangecountychoppers.com/

and here is a short bio about the programme and people:

American Chopper is a Discovery Channel reality television series produced by Pilgrim Films & Television Inc., and a video game published by Activision. This popular series is based around the founder of the company, Paul Teutul Sr., and his son, Paul Teutul Jr. a.k.a. Paulie as the two run a business creating custom motorcycles in their workshop, Orange County Choppers. The workshop is based in Montgomery, New York. One of their most famous bikes is the Black Widow Spider Bike.

The contrasting attitudes of the men and their propensity for sulking often lead to fiery but humorous verbal exchanges as they meet unusually short schedule deadlines for building distinct custom choppers.

Typically Paul Jr. works alongside fabricators and mechanics such as Vinnie DiMartino, Rick Petko, Cody Connelly (a BOCES student intern who left to attend motorcycle maintenance school, but has since returned), and Christian Helter to create dozens of custom motorbikes. Paul Sr. supervises the builds and has built motorcycles himself. Michael Teutul, commonly referred to as Mikey, appears and provides comic relief, though has been seen doing metal work now and then because one of his early jobs was working at Orange County Ironworks.

The show also documents their personal and promotional activities ranging from magazine photo shoots to family holidays and custom bike shows.

American Chopper has been on the receiving end of criticism from more traditional Discovery Channel viewers who point out that the show has nothing to do with the channel's theme of discovery and learning as well as being a low-brow show on a relatively intellectual channel. In response to this the new commercials that advertise new seasons (including American Chopper) have had promotional messages. American Chopper's message states, "Let's all discover...the vision."

Despite the criticism, American Chopper continues to be a highly successful and popular show on The Discovery Channel. In a behind-the-scenes episode, one of the shows editors noted that the show is edited using Avid.
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The Appeal of the show

Verbal battles - These occur mainly between Paul Sr. and Paul Jr. Since the premiere of the show the two have had endless arguments, mostly related to Jr.'s working pace, which Sr. considers too slow. Paul Jr. has also been known to arrive late to work, take long lunchbreaks and leave unexpectedly without informing his co-workers. Sr., however, has his own personality quirks; aside from the frustration he expresses over Jr.'s work ethic he is constantly critical of Jr.'s choices in design details, especially when a deadline for completion of a cycle is approaching. He also tends to get himself worked up over seemingly small problems (at least in Jr.'s view). They also bicker about design elements, production deadlines, travel arrangements, and whose authority a design team will recognize and many, many other subjects.

Blue collar work - The cast members are manual laborers who have become incredibly successful. The dialect they use definitively reflects this segment of society and they have often participated in leisure activities together. As a group, the crew have hunted pheasant, gone snowmobiling, fished for striped bass on the Hudson River and, in one of the earliest episodes, closed the shop for a few hours to go bowling.

Small business success - Although OCC itself started as a small business and was built and expanded by Paul Sr., it was not his first foray into this segment of the private sector. A few years before he started OCC he'd built a successful iron-working shop making wrought-iron fencing and other products. This business is now run by another of Sr.'s sons, Daniel. However, OCC is considered by many to be Sr.'s greater success because of the uniqueness of the cycles they build, his son's talent for original design ideas, the crew they've assembled and, of course, the television series.
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FANtasy Bike

During 2005, Discovery Channel ran a contest that allows each of the 4 finalists to win a OCC motorcycle, with features specified by the winner, by sending in video to express the reason of wanting a bike. The winners of the contest are (in episode order): Jeff Clegg (Corporal Punishment), Susan Morisset (female bike), Joseph McClendon (custom hog), Bryan King (trike). Each winner and the bike was made into a TV episode. 2 days were allocated for building each vehicle.


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Paul "Paulie" Teutul Jr. (born October 2, 1974) co-founded Orange County Choppers along with his father, Paul Teutul, Sr. in 1999. Teutul is chief designer and fabricator, and prior to that was head of the rail shop at Orange County Ironworks. He is also responsibile for designing the logo for OCC.

Paulie, along with his father and brother Michael Teutul, became celebrities when Orange County Choppers became the focus of a reality television series called American Chopper on the Discovery Channel in 2002. He has another brother, Danny who is the general manager of Orange County Ironworks. He also has a sister, Kristin, attending nursing school in Rochester, New York.
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Skill

While often criticized by his father (though some might claim this is largely part of the show) Paul Jr. is a skilled custom bike builder. He controls the design, color, style, and assembly during builds. Also, Paul Jr. is talented at working steel.

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Paul Teutul Sr., (born May 1, 1949), is the founder of Orange County Ironworks and Orange County Choppers. Teutul, who continues as owner and CEO of Orange County Choppers, works along with his sons Paul Teutul Jr. and Michael Teutul, who became celebrities when Orange County Choppers became the focus of a reality television series called American Chopper in 2002. He also has another son, Danny, who is the general manager and owner of Orange County Ironworks, and a daughter Kristen, who attends nursing school in Rochester, New York.
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The Temper

Teutul has built a reputation for being a hard-nosed businessman and having a short temper. He is often seen on the phone with a vendor or service company demanding faster results. No detail about the running of his shop can escape his eye and he has no compunction about letting his employees know when something displeases him. He is also something of a neatness freak, often shouting (at least in the earlier episodes of American Chopper) about the disorganization and cleanliness of the shop.
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Past

In few episodes of American Chopper, Teutul has made references to past abuse of drugs and alcohol. He has stated that he was a frequent marijuana user and, according to him, "had basically done any drug around." He feels that his alcoholism influenced his two children Paul Jr. and Michael to experiment as well.

During an episode in which Mikey interviewed OCC's staff for the Web site, he asked his father, "What is your best memory?" to which Paul Sr. responded, "Becoming sober." Additionally, he has mentioned having "missed out" on most of his children's childhood.

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Michael "Mikey" Joseph Teutul (born November 26, 197Cool is the youngest son of Paul Teutul Sr., and younger brother of Paul Teutul Jr., co-founders of Orange County Choppers, the focus of the Discovery Channel reality television series American Chopper.

Mikey became a celebrity when he began working for O.C.C. as a secretary and custodian (or as Mikey would gleefully say, "I answer the phone, and take out the trash."Wink, acting as comic relief for the show. His presence also seems to have a calming effect on his father, who almost never shows the same sort of frustration he feels for Paul Jr. Mikey is often able to antagonize his father with little consequence, perhaps in the ancient tradition of being the youngest family member and therefore allowed to get away with behavior his older siblings would never have.

He is now a major and popular part of the show and now appears at promotional events for O.C.C., as well as continuing working for the family business in his new job as a webmaster.

He is also known for his poor driving skills, as he demonstrates in the series on one occasion where he managed to drive his father's truck into a pond while showing off for a friend, and another where he again fails the driving portion of his motorcycle license exam. He also backed up a truck hitting his father's SUV, and damaging the bumper.

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there you go tell me what you think of the show and the people, like i said i just love everything about it, the people, the tempers, the humour and most of all the bikes, they have done bikes for people like, Will Smith, Ewan Mccgregor (SP), and Steven Tyler from Areosmith.
Sara.
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June 30th, 2006 at 05:25am
Canadian Chopper is much better.
Still I love both of them
Lucifers Angel
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June 30th, 2006 at 07:55am
Dead Disco:
Canadian Chopper is much better.
Still I love both of them


nooooo american chopper is better!!! i think its ace all over, Palu Jr makes me laugh the way he talks to his dad. Laughing Laughing
Lucifers Angel
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June 30th, 2006 at 04:55pm
doesnt anyone like it??
fight fair?
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July 9th, 2006 at 11:05am
I sometimes watch it with my brother.
They fight so much. xD
basket_case o_o
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April 14th, 2007 at 12:37am
Mikey Teutul rules the show.
the Vinnie and Mikey bike episodes were the bestest.
and the Mikey Special, where Vinnie and Mikey went on thei're road trip, and they caught lobsters!!

that was awesome.
Bittersweet World
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April 14th, 2007 at 07:55am
I used to love it.

It is shit as hell now.
basket_case o_o
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April 21st, 2007 at 05:28am
Grenade Jumper:
I used to love it.

It is shit as hell now.


what makes you say that?
Lucifers Angel
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April 21st, 2007 at 03:24pm
i still love it, but i wish they wouldnt keep showing re runs of the shows though! i have been given the dvd set and various other stuff by friends!! so i'm all choppered out!!
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April 22nd, 2007 at 03:05am
Lucifers Angel:
i still love it, but i wish they wouldnt keep showing re runs of the shows though! i have been given the dvd set and various other stuff by friends!! so i'm all choppered out!!


hey that is so cool. are there any special features on the DVD? what're they like?
Bittersweet World
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April 22nd, 2007 at 01:15pm
basket_case o_O:
Grenade Jumper:
I used to love it.

It is shit as hell now.


what makes you say that?


They've sold out man.
Lucifers Angel
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April 22nd, 2007 at 01:18pm
basket_case o_O:
Lucifers Angel:
i still love it, but i wish they wouldnt keep showing re runs of the shows though! i have been given the dvd set and various other stuff by friends!! so i'm all choppered out!!


hey that is so cool. are there any special features on the DVD? what're they like?


they have the makingof the series and what its liketo work for them, but nothing to special, i bought my son a toychopper from american chopper for xmas but i ended upbuilding it, Embarassed
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