Want To Go Far? Go Together.

There’s an old advertisement that used to run for BBC America - the cable TV channel featuring the UK’s finest cultural export of late - when I was a young teen.

I don’t recall the narrator’s exact wording, but it went something like “Our food is bad, the weather sucks, and we lost our empire… but we still make some damn good TV.” And about television? They’d earned every right to brag.

Jeremy Clarkson had yet to be fired from “Top Gear”, and “Doctor Who” had been on a strong run with both David Tennant & Matt Smith at the knobs and levers of the TARDIS.

I didn’t really follow anything else the BBC had on offer, but for me - those two shows were plenty impressive on their own. The Top Gear crew, in particular, helped me laugh during some of the hardest years of my life.

Maybe more important, that show might’ve been the only thing my dad & I - who were always at odds - could connect over back then. In fact, some of the only happy memories of my early teenage years were sitting the couch & watching it with my family.

As the final episode of “The Grand Tour” (a sort of successor series to Top Gear on Amazon Prime Video) fades in the rear-view mirror, I’ve been looking back and watching some of my favorite episodes of Top Gear.

One thing that struck me about consuming media again after years had passed have passed is how many of a story’s themes & ideas I tend to miss or ignore when I’m focused on its narrative.

This is probably fine - good, even. There’s no shortage of shrill, preachy media being made today. Everything from CNN & Fox News to noted Giant Robots And Monsters Movie “Pacific Rim” has some sort of message they’re trying to sell you on with varying levels of subtlety.

I didn’t watch Top Gear because I wanted to think about what it meant - I watched it to laugh along with Clarkson, Hammond, & May’s hijinks & adventures.

Even so, when I think back on the underlying messages of that spectacular show - the wonder of adventure, the joy of irreverence, & the beauty of shared passions… I can’t help but think that I learned a few things along the way.

The most compelling theme - one I surely admired, without truly understanding - is the power of companionship.

For those who haven’t seen the show - watch it! - but the short version is that three men who are passionate about cars - Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, & James May - go on a wide range of automotive adventures, from driving to the North Pole, launching a Reliant Robin into space on a rocket, or turning their cars into boats to cross the English Channel.

The adventures they go on made for a lovely setting, sure, but what really made the the original show work where the copycats like “Top Gear US” and the new UK “Top Gear” series mostly haven’t is the irresistible dynamic between Clarkson, Hammond, & May.

Their chemistry as old friends & colleagues pours through the screen - and that’s all it takes! it’s just three funny guys who genuinely like each other, making people laugh and smile - all while living a life of adventure.

The Industrial Revolution - for all its wonders - has made it possible, and fairly easy, to live most of one’s life alone. There are no more barbarians you need to band with your neighbors to fend off - no crops you’ll work together to harvest if you want to survive the winter.

You can now go work at a job where you don’t have any friends, then come home and play video games (or watch Netflix or …) alone until you pass out for the next 40+ years.

This “single player life” is a tragically real option, even as it is a deeply & painfully unfulfilling existence for those who end up living it.

That’s why seeing a trio of men go live life together & build a life full of adventure together over the course of decades kindles has been so compelling to so many.

All good things must come to an end. The three presenters have gone their separate ways in the media business with the final episode of Top Gear successor series The Grand Tour’s “One For The Road” having aired on September 13, 2024 - more than twenty years after the first episode.

Even as that may be, Clarkson, Hammond, & May inspired me to embrace that ethos of companionship, to seek out & engage people I admire & appreciate, and to build friendships that will stand the test of time. Their work made the world a better place.

As anyone who’s taken a road trip knows, it’s not the road you’re driving that you remember - it’s the people you travel it with. Thank you for coming along with me.

Fritz Johnson, Signing Off