Bill Goldberg hosts a new...
Bill Goldberg hosts a new reality show on Spike TV called Bullrun. According to the press info, "It's like The Amazing Race with cars." Mike Alsop and his daughter Morgan competed in the show with Morgan's modified '02 Trans Am.
First there was Burt Reynolds in a Trans Am, and hundreds of thousands of T/A owners wanted to make that their reality. Next, there was David Hasselhoff in a Third-Gen Trans Am and hundreds of thousands of T/A owners wanted to make that their reality. Then came reality TV, which puts a group of people in amazing but far-fetched situations to film them for all to see. Now there's Spike TV's new series for 2007, Bullrun, which includes a real '02 Trans Am and a real-life father-daughter team racing across North America against prize-hungry competitors for the grand prize of $200,000.
Hosted by football star, wrestling great, actor, and car collector Bill Goldberg, Bullrun recruited Mike Alsop and his daughter, Morgan, both of Lafayette, Indiana, to be the Trans Am driving team. Mike runs Mike Raisor Pontiac, one of the largest Pontiac dealerships in the country, and his daughter has just graduated from Purdue University. With Morgan's '02 WS6 Trans Am, the team raced 4,800 miles in front of TV cameras over a grueling, nonstop 21-day-straight, 12-competitor race. All this excitement premiered on March 13, 2007, and airs every Tuesday night for 10 weeks straight.
HPP interviewed Mike Alsop regarding the Bullrun series. We wanted to know all about the Trans Am he and Morgan raced in the show, what it was like to race for TV cameras against a Lamborghini and a Lotus among others, and how his genetic-phrenetic racing team fared against danger and challenges and lived to talk about it.
HPP: Have all the episodes for Bullrun been filmed?
Mike Alsop: Yes, but they're still being cut together.
HPP: Where did the race start and where did it end?
Here, the Bullrun T/A is parked...
Here, the Bullrun T/A is parked in its numbered stall awaiting its next challenge. Check out the yellow-paint transfer on the driver side of the bumper cover.
MA: I can't tell you specific cities at this point, but the race started near the Canadian border and finished near the Mexican border.
HPP: What was the filming of Bullrun like?
MA: The way the production company filmed this was so incredible. They had vans following us with cameras-sometimes one, sometimes two, sometimes three-a helicopter following us, and three point-of-view (POV) cameras in the Trans Am. So everything we did was documented. And the way they filmed it, it looks like a movie. It's very impressive.
HPP: When we hear you speak in Bullrun, is it scripted or spontaneous?
MA: We had three POV cameras on us inside the car at all times. We were on live microphones 24/7. There was nothing scripted about it. They hear everything. I don't know what it looks like because we've not seen anything, but there's nothing scripted. Everything you did was on your own as long as it was within the rules.
This moody scene was captured...
This moody scene was captured during production of the show.
HPP: Who were the toughest competitors you were up against?
MA: They asked me not to talk about specifics, but there was nobody there who was a piece of cake. Most of them were in tune with their automobiles. There were some great-and some phenomenal-cars. Judging by the skills of the participants, it wasn't their first race. They knew how to drive.
HPP: What was it like working with Bill Goldberg?
MA: It was crazy. The first day I ran into him, we were doing a photo session. He says he got tired of beating up skinny guys. I didn't even know what to say. But as time went on, he was really a great guy. He loves cars, and he really has a passion for what we did with Bullrun.