American Chopper Group

Jesse James American Chopper Jesse James Chopper American Chopper Modification

Thursday marked the final episode of American Chopper, ending a six year run on Discovery and TLC.

This past season has been a disaster. Sr and Jr's split in the first episode pretty much killed the series. These two idiots let their tempers and egos kill one of the most successful 'reality' franchises ever built. Since that first episode, we've been bored to tears by Jr's attempts to start a design firm on his own, Sr's attempts to convince everyone the split wasn't his fault, and Mikey's attempts to become an artist, a musician, a stand up comic, and a recovering alcoholic. Just horrendously boring. The only thing that kept any interest was waiting for the inevitable reconcilliation that would ge the three of them back together. It never came.

Orange County Choppers narrowly avoided bankruptcy last year. They had to layoff a bunch of employees and cut back on operations and expenses. I seriously doubt it will survive this. What Sr and his 'business' people don't seem to grasp is that without the series, OCC is just a collection of pretentious egos, folks who have a much larger opinion of themselves than the motorycle buying public does. The rest of the 'chopper' world doesn't think much of them and their products. Their 'production' choppers don't sell very well - too high priced. Their merchandise sales have nose dived through this past awful season.

The 'business' people who pushed their way into OCC convinced Sr that he had to expand, he had to become worldwide, he had to franchise the OCC name even more than it had been. This was a disaster ... combined with the economic downturn, a new multi-million dollar world HQ, and the on-screen split between the principle characters, OCC was put in a very bad business position. Heck, they even opened a Ducati dealership inside OCC's headquarters, a move that thoroughly alienated the American V-Twin public.

Sr sued Jr after their split, claiming his right to buy out his son's interest in OCC. The only mention of this during the series was footage of Jr at OCC signing the papers - though there was no explanation of what was really going on. OCC was sued by multiple former employees, all of whom contended they were owed a lot of money for their appearances in the show.

OCC was a garage shop operation when American Chopper started back in 2004. The dynamics of the family's relationships were the keystone of the series, against a backdrop of building outrageous cycles. The series and Teutel's popularity skyrocketed - instant celebrities, tons of money, everyone telling them how great they were, worldwide recognition and adulation. It went to their heads, and they all became primadonnas.

Sr made a ton of money on American Chopper. Without the series, he wouldn't have gotten that money. Jr made a bunch of money from his American Chopper and OCC as well. He may very well thank his lucky stars that he was forced to sell out, before the company goes under. Mikey and the other folks who appeared in the series don't appear to have benefitted from the series or OCC's popularity.

I've seen reports on the internet that TLC cancelled the program. I also heard Mikey on a radio interview last week saying that negotiations were still ongoing, and that if all three parties could agree to do the series there would be a 7th season. If he believed that, he was crazy. There is no way TLC would pony up the bucks for the three of them when there is no story to tell anymore.

The final episode didn't really have any deep meaning. It was pretty clear that the participants were not counting on it being the final show in the series.

You gotta feel sorry for the family. You've got a dad who now doesn't communicate with three sons at all (third son Danny only appeared in one episode - he runs Orange County Ironworks, the company that spun off OCC). All that fame, all of that money - what good is it if a father won't even talk to his sons?

Too bad. It was entertaining for the first few years. Later on, it was just a lesson on how egos and money can destroy a family.