Friday, February 15, 2008

Vinnnie Quits OCC- I Finally Saw The Episode


We're out here in the Philippines and we get OCC on the Discovery Channel Asia where it's called American Choppers. I found out on the internet awhile back that Vinnie and Cody had quit, but I hadn't seen the episode. Well, last night it was on, so here's my take on the whole thing.

One, I'm glad there weren't bad vibes. -On camera. I mean the whole thing is like...wait a minute, no two weeks notice, no goodbye party? So, I mean, I'm not dumb, there's some kind of situation for sure. I was happy that senior said to Vinnie that he appreciates what he did there. It was strange how Vinnie said a warm "thank you" but didn't even turn around.

I had read on the internet that Senior said something like 'anyone can be replaced'. It sounded pretty cold. Watching the episode and his demeanor for that part, I wasn't too upset with him. He said he's been in business thirty years and he's seen good people come and go. That was nice. Then it was edited to the comment, "anyone can be replaced"...it was just Senior being philosophical, and really, I've seen the same thing in work places. Life tends to go on.

I like the show and will continue to watch it. I do wonder this, though:
Do the Teutuls have the right perspective on Vinnie's importance to the show? Now some may think, well, that's not important. The heck it's not. OCC is a tv show whether or not some may pretend otherwise. I wouldn't know these people unless they were on television, and their tv reality is woven into their business. We're not just flies on the the wall there...the choppers they make speak to their unique status as a TV SHOW: Bill Murray, Billy Joel, visiting Russel Crowe's house in Australia, the list goes on. The auctions for the charity bikes work well because OCC is a TV SHOW, it's not just because nubby does a pretty paint job.

So what I'm saying is while they're tooling around in the shop, they may want to believe that they live inside a reality in which Vinnie is just another tool, just another employee, some low man on the totem pole, or whatever. But guess what? That's not reality. The reality is that Vinnie was a cast member on a world wide popular tv show and people love him just as much and maybe even more than the other players. He actually built the bikes, you know, a lot of the time. And he's a nice guy, funny and all that jazz. He was straight man to all the chaos if it broke loose. Some view Vinnie as indispensable to the success of that show.

When this story broke, I found out about it because I got hundreds of hits a week on my blog here, people looking for information about it. Every week I still get people googling this even though the story has died down a bit. People love Vinnie, it's that simple.

Like I said, I'm not quitting OCC as a viewer, but I just felt the need to share my view on that whole thing. My best wishes to Vinnie and Cody as they start their new bike shop.

No comments: