Welcome
to Leg . . . well, now, we don’t have The
Amazing Race to enjoy right now, do we (TAR 23 starts September 29!)? So, we (Toyouke, Auburnium513, me, and the
rest of us) were planning out our first bonus recap and thought, “Hey, we
should do a few more of these!” What we
noticed was when we were discerning the Most Memorable Task EVER, we kept
talking about the same teams over and over.
As a result, here are our picks for the 10 most memorable teams EVER. (click for more)
Now, I’m
going to use a little ranking system.
Putting together this list was extremely difficult because we thought of
at least thirty possibilities that we eliminated for various reasons. When considering these however, it comes down
to NINE criteria: whether or not the team was invited back as an ALL-STAR
(which includes TAR 11 All-Stars and TAR 18 Unfinished Business), the number of
TITLES that the teams were quoted with, the percentage of times the team made
the TOP 3 before the final 5, the percentage of times the team made the BOTTOM
3 before the final 5, whether the team made the FINAL 5, FINAL 4 and/or the
FINAL3, the LOVE we had of a particular team, and the HATE we had of a
particular team. Love and hate have been
rated on a 1-5 scale by your favorite recapper, using how old the episode is as
the tiebreaker in point ties. Everything else was given points as to whether
they occurred or not, and percentages were used for finishes due to different
teams competing in different numbers of legs.
So, without further ado, here’s what we came up with.
10) Teri/Ian:
Season 3 and Season 11: From episode 1 of
season 3, they were the team that you loved to hate. Ian had just given up smoking, so he was a
cantankerous old coot. And him
convincing Teri that she need to participate in the Scottish Games in Scotland
while arguing the whole time was a highlight.
But after that, Teri and Ian seemed to hit their stride, even working
their way through Deiselgate with relative ease, taking them to a second place
finish in their first season, with a lot of viewers hoping they’d come back for
All-Stars, which they did. (Toyouke: "Ian's French Foreign Legion hat
helped us coin the phrase 'asshat', so thanks for that, I guess.") Memorability factor: ALL-STARS; TITLES,
2; TOP 3, 31%; BOTTOM 3, 38%; FINAL 5 (TAR 3); FINAL 4 (TAR 3); FINAL 3 (TAR
3); LOVE, 2; HATE, 5 (because Ian was so cantankerous). A mid race exit in TAR 11 places them lower
than I would have otherwise ranked them.
9) Meredith/Gretchen:
Season 7: Who doesn’t love an old
couple? And Meredith and Gretchen were
one of the best. Long lasting and antic
filled, Gretchen came up with so many episode quotes when she opened her mouth:
“Do you need some mouth-to-mouth resuscitation?”, “I’ve been wanting a face
lift for a long time!”, “We have a bad
elephant!” In a season with huge
personalities (Ray/Deana, brothers Brian/Greg who I still see on YouTube from
time to time, boyfriends Lynn/Alex, and of course, Rob/Amber of Survivor fame),
Meredith and Gretchen’s go get it personalities made their fourth place exit a
hard one to swallow. (Toyouke: “Also,
everyone thought Meredith was the girl for some reason.”) Memorability
factor: TITLES, 5 (all from Gretchen); TOP 3, 0%; BOTTOM 3, 71%; FINAL 5;
FINAL 4; LOVE, 5 (because old people); HATE, 1.
8) Jet/Cord:
Season 16 and Season 18: The cowboys
giddyapped right into the hearts of America with their larger than life personalities,
their down-home humor, and their All-American good looks. The first team to get their own theme song
(Flight Time and Big Easy had one the season before, but only because they were
Harlem Globetrotters, and TAR just used “Sweet Georgia Brown”), they really hit
their stride in their season on Leg 3 in Argentina when they had to use cowboy
skills to lasso something. Then they
rode the fun all the way to a second place finish. TAR invited them back for season 18, but they
only made it half way through the race before being taken out in Leg 9 in Switzerland. Memorability
factor: ALL-STARS; TITLES, 3; TOP 3, 56%; BOTTOM 3, 31%; FINAL 5 (TAR 16);
FINAL 4 (TAR 16); FINAL 3 (TAR 16); LOVE, 5 (theme song!); HATE, 1. Plus hot cowboys.
7)
Uchenna/Joyce: Season 7 and Season 11: The first of four sets of winners on the list, Uchenna and Joyce shined
in TAR 7 with their easy going and hard working attitude. They were smart racers, and Joyce often
showed off her smarts in tasks (the artwork challenge in Chile on Leg 2 of TAR 11 is one notable
example), as well as her strength, as she shaved her head in India to win a
Fast Forward on TAR 7. But the key
memorable moment was at the end of TAR 7, when Uchenna and Joyce had to pay
their taxi cab before running to the finish line, after having been robbed of
all their belongings in Jamaica.
(Toyouke: “Another team who caused a rule to be created
because of their actions. Now it is stated in the offical rules that you cannot
leave your cab until you pay in full.”) Memorability factor: ALL-STARS; TITLES,
2; TOP 3, 53%; BOTTOM 3, 20%; FINAL 5 (TAR 7); FINAL 4 (TAR 7); FINAL 3 (TAR
7); LOVE, 5; HATE, 2.
6) BJ/Tyler:
Season 9: Oh, the hippies. In an otherwise mediocre season with all of
the classic stereotypes and our first long lasting old couple in a few seasons
(Fran and Barry), BJ and Tyler provided smiles and a wonderful energy throughout
the season. With some hilarious
quoteable moments (“Herculean effort for some Herculean dudes.”) and a zest for
the race, they quickly became a fan favorite, especially after they were robbed
by Phil. Twice. (Toyouke: "Fan favorite? I hated them. T-tow my ass.") Memorability
factor: TITLES, 3; TOP 3, 83%; BOTTOM 3, 17%; FINAL 5; FINAL 4; FINAL 3;
LOVE, 5; HATE, 3.
5) Kelly/Jon:
Season 4: The red headed diva and the
goofball made for some memorable television that already gave us Reichen and
Chip, whose chyron listed them as a married couple, David and Jeff (Team Who?),
Millie and Chuck (The virgins) and more Fast Forwards than you could throw a
stick at. But these two were always good
for a laugh and enjoyed themselves on the race.
Jon and Kelly managed to title quote every episode from Leg 9 on, and did
it with flair (“Hit My Face!”, “Such a nice pheromone smell to you.”). For them, running neck and neck with Millie
and Chuck in Malaysia
and almost being eliminated still goes down as one of my all time favorite
legs. Memorability factor: TITLES, 5; TOP 3, 43%; BOTTOM 3, 29%; FINAL
5; FINAL 4; FINAL 3; LOVE, 4; HATE, 3.
4) Eric/Danielle:
Season 9 and Season 11: OK, so here’s the
deal. They weren’t really a team. And that is one of the key factors to making
them memorable. Danielle raced with her friend
Dani on TAR 9, and Eric raced with his friend Jeremy, where they took second
place to the Hippies. But then on TAR
11, they were apparently dating. And no
matter how much yelling I did at the screen made them go away. They finished first in one leg: the last one,
and prevented all-female team win from occurring for another six seasons (sorry
Dustin and Kandace!). As a result, as
much as I try to erase them from my mind, they will not go away. Memorability
factor: ALL-STARS; TITLES, 2; TOP 3, 44%; BOTTOM 3, 44%; FINAL 5 (TAR 9,
TAR 11); FINAL 4 (TAR 9, TAR 11); FINAL 3 (TAR 9, TAR 11); LOVE, 1; HATE, 5.
3) Flo/Zach:
Season 3: Oh, Flo. A title quoter if there ever was one (“You
Always Just Forget About ME!”, “Why did you have to take your pants off?”), and
every derisive comment seemed to be directly aimed for her sweet, charming best
friend Zach, who essentially dragged her across the world. Things came to a head in Vietnam, when Flo’s
meltdown over having to paddle a circular boat led to their second
non-elimination and put them in position to finish the race as the first co-ed
team to ever do so. And they did. (Toyouke: "The first episode of TAR I watched involved Flo. As you can see I was hooked from then.") Memorability
factor: TITLES, 5; TOP 3, 71%; BOTTOM 3, 0%; FINAL 5; FINAL 4; FINAL 3; LOVE, 4; HATE, 4.
2) Oswald/Danny:
Season 2 and Season 11: Team Cha Cha Cha
does just that over two full seasons of the race, only ever missing out of
three of the twenty-six legs that they would run over the course of two
races. And why did they do so well? They had great game strategy that they never
really shared with anyone, which allowed them to always look fresh and fabulous
in the morning. They managed to rarely
fight, always have fun in every task, and always encourage their teammate in
all of the tasks. Being snarky always
helps, and this is the team with the most title quotes ever. All in all an enjoyable memorable
journey. Memorability factor: ALL-STARS; TITLES, 6; TOP 3, 60%; BOTTOM 3,
7%; FINAL 5 (TAR 2, TAR 11); FINAL 4 (TAR 2, TAR 11); LOVE, 5; HATE, 1.
And the
most memorable team ever?
1) Charla/Mirna: Season 5 and Season
11: And now for the opposite side of the coin. Schmirna managed to bicker their way across
the world. TWICE. And every time was a train wreck to
watch. Charla, as you may recall, is a
little person, and brought her not so little cousin Mirna along for the
ride. And whenever Mirna was too tired,
whether it was hauling a side of beef, getting dressed up in a suit of armor,
eating chocolate, whatever, Charla was there to drag her teammate through. After a mediocre finish in TAR 5, they
somehow managed to last the whole season of TAR 11, only to get beaten by the
fake team. Memorability factor: ALL-STARS; TITLES, 5; TOP 3, 33%; BOTTOM 3,
47%; FINAL 5 (TAR 11); FINAL 4 (TAR 11); FINAL 3 (TAR 11); LOVE, 3; HATE, 5.
And
that’s our list! What would you add or
delete? Let us know! We’re working on some other lists that
developed from thinking about this one, so stay tuned. We’ll see you next time on the Amazing Race
(TAR 23 premieres September 29, 2013)!
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