Reminder: CSI Miami CART episode airs Monday at 10pm ET/PT on CBS

[Jay]

A murder is committed at the Miami Grand Prix!

They have a brief trailer here: http://www.cbs.com/primetime/csi_miami/home.shtml

Lots of shots of ASTJ, should be interesting! ...or at least better than the movie Driven.

[macdaddy]

Thanks, Jay.
But I've still got no VCR, and I gotta go to work!

[TheRob]

No VCR? What are you? Omish?

[macdaddy]

Had to miss Tracy on Letterman, too.
Maybe with my next paycheque...

[GP Racer]

So why the hell didn't CBS and CSI sponsor Team ASTJ for a race or two to drum up some interest in the show and give the team some badly needed cash? It sounds to me like a no-brainer! A big DUHHHH! to CBS!

Who's the marketing rep, the PR person, WHO'S IN CHARGE OVER THERE!!! I WANT NAMES!!! :confused:

[Tenoch]

That because CART was paying CBS and CSI Miami is doing fine without the champcars.

[Tailwind]

O.K. It should be over now. I had my wife record it for me so I can see it when I get home. Was it any good? I remember there was an episode of the "Pretender" a few years back that featured Champ Cars. As I remember that wasn't bad.

[Jay]

Are you being serious GP Racer? Any one episode of CSI Miami has 6-8 times the number of viewers of a single CART race, I don't think it needed any promotion...

Having watched it, I thought it was great promotion for CART. Though the focus was obviously the murder, and not the cars, I was very surprised by the detail in which they went into explaining the cars and the series - they explained very clearly what makes these cars different froma street car or erm...a NASCAR. Almost all of the fotage was authentic from the CART paddock and pitlane. And the little bit of made up footage was done a lot better than in Driven. The only two unrealistic things I noticed 1) Nobody in the pitlane/paddock had passes on (unheard of), 2) I've never seen a water hose like that on pitlane. That said, those aren't complaints, just little things I noticed.

In someways, perhaps that was a little extra from CBS for all of the bought airtime this year. A little bonus for the money if you will... whatever the case, great promotion!

[Liz]

Well, um, I would give it a 2 out of 5. The car footage was blurry and sporadic, the drivers were, let us say, NA$CAR types ... and Johansson is 100 times better looking than the aged bimbo who "ran" American Spirit team who stood by while her crew chief was sabotaging its car, who was with the (only) driver, "Jimmy Hutton", and ... well, I wasn't impressed with the way they presented Champ Cars. Amusing technical exposition, plenty of "hottie shots" ... Mi-Jack had a slimy Brit driver named Earnest and a stupid Brazilian driver named Paolo (with Size 13 feet) ... and we never heard anything about the rest of the field or what they might have been doing.

I've never watched CSI: Miami before and won't watch it again; it appears to be a cheap knock-off of the old "Mission Impossible" in a head on collision with "Quincy".

Two stars. Try again.

[Jay]

I think whatever you thought of the show(and I agree, the plot stunk), that was nearly a 1 hour, free (perhaps bonus) advertisment for CART to an audience 6-8 times larger than CART usually gets for its time buys, and mostly made up of non-racing fans (the people CART needs to reach most).. like the plot or not, I think the PR was priceless.

[Flatspot]

I'm sure that it is great for CART. I'm sorry to say I could only stomach about 10 minutes of the show before I had to turn the channel, ChampCars or not. I just hate network cop shows.

[brightline]

I think everyone's gotta keep this in mind. The average member on 10-10ths has more knowledge on Champcars and racing in general more than probably 1000 CSI viewers...easy. The show had to start from scratch (racing and champcar info) and build as much info in like 10 minutes as possible, which I thought was a lot. They talked about the cars running on methanol, pop-off valves, turbos, front wings, the excellent reliability of cosworth engines and had some nice scenic shots. Sure, they didn't show a lot of race action, but it was a murder, not a race recap. Also, they taped everything pre-race during practice sessions, so a lot of the action scenes were blurry as to not show empty stands from friday morning practice sessions.

I thought in terms of crime shows, which I like this was pretty decent. Great PR for CART.

[camcartfan]

I thought it was awesome how they explained the pop off valves, downforce, wing angles, pit stop procedures, etc. Although they weren't completely accurate, I thought they did an excellent job of explaining everything in layman terms.

I'm with brightline on this..you can't expect a Champ Car documentary on CSI: Miami! I see the same kind of complaints on one of my airline related discussion groups. Especially when the news reports inaccuracies relating to a specific aircraft. Nobody is as knowledgeable on certain subjects than it's enthusiasts.

Like brightline said, they also gave kudos to Cosworth. They used the Cosworth transporter in one scene as well. Name/Logo recognition is everything! I liked how they kept the name "Jimmy" for the main character because ASTJ had "Jimmy" banners all over the place. They kinda had no choice unless they were willing to constantly pull the banners down and put stickers over the sidepods. They tried to cast an actor that kind of looked like Vasser too. They also pointed out that sponsors dictate everything, not owners! I thought that was so spot on.

[Liz]

But really -- what a Memo Moreno moment with "Mi-Jack Team Genet" being a nice poke at Walker Racing ... and when was the last time you saw the "pit" (which was the paddock) crew lifting weights in the open during a race weekend? Or any other time? Didn't they have to change the engine in Jimmy's car? For a group who were touted as engineering graduates, they seemed remarkably indifferent to a teammate's death, too, and snowed no curiosity about what happened. Why didn't a "MIT Graduate" know enough to plunge his hands into a bucket of water (which are everywhere in the paddock and pits)? Or pull off his gloves? Why didn't anybody notice him screaming? And who was that dumpy NA$CAR doctor who stood in for the Simple Green Safety Team and left the poor dead mechanic lying on the tarmac because "He's going to the hospital so we can say nobody ever dies at the track"? When even non-racing people know about Zanardi and how CART gave him back his life?

Oh, I know I'm being picky but I hate blaring inaccuracy.

[Jay]

I"ll probably never watch another episode of CSI Miami - the show stunk. But, all things considered, they did a much better job of portraying CART than I *expected*.

One thing to keep in mind (at least from my point of view) is the generally low quality of most 'big-rating' American prime-time TV shows... look at what was on other channels and earlier in the evening that also received good ratings - utter trife filled with beautiful people, poor acting, bad jokes, "family" shows that are about as interesting as paint drying...and finally the corny murder mysteries and dramas.

This is why I was quite surprised that they actually went into quite a bit of detail on how these cars work and tried to make people understand the race cars - some parts even sounded like a promotion for Champcars. That's why I'm willing to let the things Liz mentioned slide.

[indycool]

The portrayal of our sport, particularly in the safety area, to people who don't understand it is a severe damage to us all.

[Tenoch]

The main problem I had was the drivers attitude towards their teams, and crews. Furthermore CSI Miami is the modern version of that show we all know and love Miami Vice.

[The Treester]

I agree with ya Jay, the free, "not", airtime was priceless! Also the technical explanation of the cars was interesting too! My favorite was seeing the vent guy for our team in ALMS, Go DOC! We were fortunate to use Team Rahal Engineer Stand during our sessions and we shared the same pit location with Mi-Jack during the race weekend. Therefore I saw a lot of the CSI:Miami during the weekend.

Unfortunately I went to sleep before the end last night, who did it? Also I was wondering if I made the scene with the GT-40, oh well maybe next time!

All in all it was nice to see the CART during Primetime against Monday Night Football.

The size thirteen was a bit to much! It's hard enough to adjust pedal locations for a 11!

[The Treester]

let us all not forget that it's just a t.v. show. it's only entertainment! if ya want a doc on open wheel racing, watch super speedway on dvd! if want a typical american entertainment in its simple form of open wheel racing, watch driven!....

[EBTM]

I couldn't watch the program last night, but here in the office I have a friend who is very, and I mean VERY difficult to please with anything, and he liked the show, the explanation and he told me that it was an interesting plot. So, that tells you a lot of why the show was like that. It was very attractive to viewers who are not even racing fans...

So if a lot of people got a nice note on the cars, I would say it is a good exposure of the series to a whole different market.

[thebear]

Originally posted by EBTM
I have a friend who is very, and I mean VERY difficult to please with anything, and he liked the show, the explanation and he told me that it was an interesting plot. So, that tells you a lot of why the show was like that. It was very attractive to viewers who are not even racing fans...

The series is done to a formula known as a "Police Procedural", supposedly to mirror actual police operations. Unfortunately, they missed on that as well. Why weren't various `suspects' advised of the fact that thay might wish to have legal representation before answering questions? The taking of a swab from the `crew chief's' allegedly acid stained hand without a search warrant would not hold up in any court, nor would questioning him without informing him of his "Miranda rights".

[camcartfan]

ASTJ Crew Chief (the fat AJ Foyt looking guy) did it. He did it because the victim saw him (AJ look alike) tinkering with the engine the night before qualifying.

You guys make me laugh! It's just a TV show! I grew up in Burbank where they film 99% of this stuff, so I was exposed to it my whole life. If you want a factual portrayal, watch documentaries on A&E or Discovery.

[The Treester]

Thanks camcartfan. It seems typical for a CSI plot!
I guess I didn't miss anything!

[Jay]

If average joe-shmoe, who's never seen a Champcar race in his life liked it, it was hit IMO.

[jjspierx]

Originally posted by camcartfan
ASTJ Crew Chief (the fat AJ Foyt looking guy) did it. He did it because the victim saw him (AJ look alike) tinkering with the engine the night before qualifying.

Ahh...wrong you are grasshopper. It was the driver who tampered with his own engine and that had nothing to do with the murder. The victim saw the crew chief loosening the front wing, to creat turbulence and make the car handle like ****.