Word: geared
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...North Pole last year, Clarkson and fellow presenter James May sipped gin and tonics, earning a rap on the knuckles from BBC trustees. Earlier this month, in a segment designed to find out how hard life is for truckers, Clarkson, at the wheel of a truck, said: "Change gear, change gear, check mirror, murder a prostitute, change gear, change gear, murder. That's a lot of effort in a day." More than 1,800 people complained...
...Clarkson is key to Top Gear 's on-air attitude, but he and Wilman are also crucial when it comes to squeezing cash out of the brand. The men work closely with Global Brands, the BBC Worldwide unit set up last year to exploit some of the broadcaster's most marketable shows. Merchandising spin-offs - from Top Gear-branded cakes to video games - need the pair's approval long before the goodies hit store shelves. And rather than pay Clarkson and Wilman out of the cash that comes from TV licenses, BBC Worldwide last year took a stake in Bedder...
...also have universal appeal. Much more crucial: finding a cast as comfortable with cars as they are fooling around. Hiring the comedian, rally driver and TV DIY star used in the U.S. pilot took six months. "What you won't want to do is lose the essence of Top Gear, which is ... the independence of spirit, in which people can say things they absolutely believe in," says BBC Worldwide's Garvie...
...Leno, a fan of the U.K. show who turned down the chance to front the American pilot, wrote in Britain's Sunday Times newspaper in March. Garvie swats away the suggestion. "We haven't found that NBC or advertisers have put any pressure on us," he says. Top Gear's magazines, Garvie adds, "have the same attitude, and the manufacturers still advertise in their hordes." Says Wilman: "It's the only way it can work, that you have pockets of like-minded souls, doing Top Gear-y things." That means making fun, as much as making money...
...Read about Top Gear's success story...