Scrapheap
I just watched the final episode of the first year of Scrapheap (later Scrapheap Challenge). The program was originally produced for Britain’s Channel 4 television, and is being re-run on TLC in America under the name Junkyard Wars. (Watch out: they call both the original and the lame-ass US knockoff by this name. Here is a clue to tell them apart: look for a loud, obnoxious, dumb American presenter.)
Scrapheap was apparently a sleeper that built up quite a cult following in the UK. You can read about the premise through some of the links I’ve provided; it basically boils down to two teams each given ten hours to construct a given object from the materials in a stocked junkyard. I was turned onto the program by my friend Chuck in San Diego who had gotten his hands on two videocassettes from the second season, Scrapheap ‘99. Even by the second year, some of the endearing innocence was gone. For instance, the first year consisted of six contests, which made a tie possible. But to add the element of cutthroat competition, they made it seven contests for year two. While the episodes were fantastic, they lacked the freshness, the unassumingness, of the original. I became rather attached to the year one participants, and I am now thankful that I missed one of the six episodes (”Power Puller”) so I can catch it on a rerun.
It’s worth looking for. And even the American one is enjoyable; but try, if at all possible, to find those gems of the early episodes.
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