Except for Arrested Development (which now has Ally McGraw Disease–it’s dying before our eyes, and becoming more beautiful and precious the closer to death it gets), my favorite TV show for years has been The Amazing Race. Earlier today, Season One came out on DVD; tonight, a new edition kicks off with a two hour episode on CBS.
I’m a little worried, but for the first time the format is being really shaken up. The previous seven races have all featured teams of two. The new show, however, has various family-related teams of four. There are less teams, but a lot more people, ten teams for a unit of forty participants. I trust them not to muck the show up, but still, it’ll be interesting to see how this works out.
The oddest thing is that some teams are all adults, and others have small kids, including a girl of nine. How the contests will work with such disparate teams is a big question. I guess I’ll find out later tonight.
Weirdly, when I visited the show’s CBS site, I learned one family (a middle-aged dad and three foxy daughters) are from Park Ridge IL, where I lived as a kid and have been working for the last ten years. Then, the next family was from next door in Des Plaines (not Des ‘Plains’, as on the site)!! I moved to Des Plaines before Jr. High, and lived there for about twenty years plus, so I’m in a quandary as to which team to root for. I guess both until one is knocked out.
Don’t miss this show. It’s great.
