An interesting story came out of Romulus, Michigan yesterday when city officials rescinded on and earlier agreement with the people behind the Street Outlaws TV show due to safety concerns that arose after there was some conflict between what the television production crew told the city government and what a racer told them. Essentially, the root of the issue began when the producers of the show told the city that all of the action was fixed and that there was no “real” racing happening on the show.
Apparently OK with this information (and whatever payment the production company was dumping into the coffers), the use of a country road was granted to be used as the “set” for the filming of said episode. Some time after that agreement was made (again, on the premise that the racing wasn’t racing at all but a fixed situation for TV) a racer piped up and said that as far as he knew, the racing was going to be real and that he had signed a waiver to compete. City officials were quickly spooked by the prospect of promoting street racing on their own streets after maintaining a robust program in the area to knock it out. They also go freaked when the producers version of what the show would be did not lineup with those of the racer.
Shortly after getting word from the people who would be “competing” on the show that they felt it was a legit race, the city pulled the plug on the whole thing saying that it was an activity that they did not want to promote. While we can understand Their change of heart when they thought it was going to be “real” racing going on, we’re not sure why they said yes in the first place, unless it was just too big a pile of cash to say no to….until the potential PR nightmare unfolded and they walked.
Click here to see the Michigan TV news story, complete with video about this interesting Street Outlaws development
ALL “reality tv” shows are staged. Maybe they can move the show from Romulus to Remus??? Roman chariots would be more fun to watch anyway.
The reality of this is most likely that the bureaucrats in Romulus who first agreed to allow the taping had to come up with a “cover story” after higher ups and the media started making a big stink.
Of course, they’re not real, illegal street races, but that doesn’t mean that the outcome is “fixed.” Is racing on a closed road really any more dangerous to the public or less “controlled” than say the Chevrolet Detroit Belle Isle Grand Prix? Does it really send any “message?”
That being said, the news report was ridiculously hysterical . . . and the Wayne County authorities are apparently complete morons.
Is “street racing” really the biggest, most dangerous crime concern in the Detroit area? Really? How about seizing some heroin and crack instead of race cars? What about solving some of the huge, near-third-world numbers of Wayne County murders, rapes, robberies, arsons, assaults, burglaries . . . and busting some organized gangsters . . . instead of wasting resources feeding on street racers . . . .
One more thing . . . I’ve dealt with enough city and local government bureaucrats professionally to know when they’re not telling “the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth” . . .
When their mouths are moving! Just sayin’
My thoughts on it are; it’s filmed on a legally closed course for television. Doesn’t sound like a legit street race to me, especially with waivers signed by the drivers.
True street races are wide open roads with no rules attached aside the racers’ senses of fairplay, random course layouts and the chance of getting arrested. Romulus has nothing to be scared of.
On a side note; all reality TV is rigged in some way. Heck i worked for a trucking company that was going to host Ice Road truckers, but turned it down when they were told the show was scripted, so History Channel went to Carlisle. The only reality TV i can stomach watching these days are Pawn Stars, American Pickers and American Restoration because hey, if I’m gonna watch this stuff, i may as well learn a little bit too.
Let’s be clear on what “scripted” means . . . .
Every video production / film company who shoots “actualities” tends to have some idea beforehand what generally is going to happen and how they intend to edit it into an entertaining program.
For example, setting up to shoot a football game assumes that the end product will be a televised/taped/filmed contest generally according to the rules of football, involving pre-selected opponents.
A news crew shooting an interview typically has preconceived notions about the questions they are going to air and even the point-of-view they are trying to show.
Those expectations and production planning don’t make these programs “scripted.”
Most certainly “reality” programs preplan situations and even obstacles which will likely result in interesting conflicts, expressions of emotion, and which can be edited into attention-grabbing narratives. That’s not really scripting either.
“Scripted” means that all of the material details of the event, including the outcome and how the outcome is achieved are predetermined.
where they planned to race was less than 1/4 a mile from a subdivision the noise level alone would have made the switch board at the police station Blow Up ! the city of Romulus is run by a bunch of IDIOTS!!!
there are dozens of roads that could have been used to (stage ) scenes
there is a noise abatement area 1 mile away where all the homes were bought & torn down the road could have been shut down to film and no one would have known and the city could have used the production money instead of running the worst speed trap in the county like they usually do
What? NIMBYS in Romulus?
I love it when I hear the infamous “Street Outlaws” crank out a “test hit” (or maybe even a race) just up the road from the secretive “Midwest Street Cars” shop in the middle of the night . . . . Sweet dreams!
Street Outlaws is a joke. Totally staged and fake.
Well lets look at this for a minute. Did you ever notice that no matter what happens in any of these so called “reality” shows, the camera is always there ?? When they’re going through the woods, in the middle of the night, looking for Bigfoot, and they can’t figure out why they haven’t seen it, well maybe it’s because the camera and lights are always rolling, the same with Street Outlaws, it’s fake and scripted, and those guys are paid very, very, well to be on the show!!!! So if anybody thinks that these shows are real, then you’ll believe that I have just caught and captured the one and only unicorn, and it’s tied up in my back yard !!!!!!
p.s. I’m only charging a dollar for people to see the unicorn !!!!!
You have a unicorn? My girlfriend wants to ride one!
Thus show may not be entirely real, let’s face it no reality show is. However signing a waiver does not make it a faked race. These cars are super fast and licensed legal. Romulus is stupid to give up the money. Think of the future tickets they missed and let face it the majority of the police’s job is money collectionfir the municipality they support.
I am not watching this anymore. Is that hard to utter a sentence without half the words being bleeped? Apparently not. My sister moved to Oklahoma a few years ago, why I have no idea, and has told me a lot of the people are not real swift. Here’s your proof.
its amazing that they always win.why dont they show chicago,when ‘big daddy dave driving what is basically a ‘rental car’.admittedly a somewhat fast rental car,got his ass handed to him by a mid sixties duece.now i live somewhere in northern il.,have been very active in the local & chicago street racing scene for more years than i care to admit,& i have to admit have never seen timing lites at the end of our local’street’.also up here wen also usually run a full quater mile also(i guess if the okc boys ran a full quater what wud they be going at the end-225 mph???,hahah