| Pimp My Ride | |
|---|---|
| Format | Reality |
| Created by | Bruce Beresford-Redman Rick Hurvitz |
| Presented by | Xzibit Tim Westwood Fat Joe Lil' Jon Chamillionaire |
| Theme music composer | Jeff Cardoni |
| Country of origin | United States |
| No. of seasons | 6 |
| No. of episodes | 73 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Bruce Beresford-Redman Rick Hurvitz Larry Hochberg |
| Producer(s) | Jennifer Colbert Tess Gamboa Joel Raatz Mark Ryan Brian York |
| Editor(s) | Brian York Mike Bary Stephen Baumhauer |
| Cinematography | Scott Sandman |
| Running time | 47 minutes |
| Production company(s) | MTV Series Development |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | MTV |
| Original run | March 4, 2004 – December 30, 2007 |
| External links | |
| Website | |
Pimp My Ride is a TV show produced by MTV. Each episode consists of taking one car in poor condition and restoring it and customizing it.
The original United States version was hosted by rapper Xzibit (one episode featured guest host Chamillionaire). Recently, MTV2 has begun airing episodes from Pimp My Ride UK hosted by DJ Tim Westwood, which features cars being customised in the UK, and Pimp My Ride International, featuring cars in central Europe, hosted by hip hop artists Fat Joe and Lil' Jon, as well as the related CMT series Trick My Truck.
Contents |
This show picked young car owners living in Los Angeles or elsewhere in Southern California and customised their vehicles at no cost to them. An episode of Pimp My Ride generally began with the participant showing his or her car off, and convincing MTV why it needed to be "pimped". After this segment, the host (normally rapper Xzibit, but occasionally guest hosts such as Chamillionaire) arrived at the participant's house, inspected the car himself, made wisecracks about the particular things that were wrong with it, and promised the owner a complete makeover of the vehicle.
After examining the car, the host took it to the custom body shop West Coast Customs (WCC) in Seasons 1–4; (replaced by Galpin Auto Sports (GAS) starting Season 5), where the shop team generally replaced most of the components and rebuilt the interior and exterior from scratch, and in special cases the engine too.
Each car was custom modified, tailored to the personalities and interests of the owners. For example, a Need for Speed: Underground fan had his car painted to look like one specially customized in the Need for Speed: Underground 2 game, while a bowler had a ball spinner installed in his trunk, and a surfer got a clothes dryer in the back of his Volkswagen Bus. Work usually includes new paint and accessories (such as racing car seats, a spoiler, short shifter, Weighted Gear Knob, LED head lights and tail lights, etc.) , chrome, tires and wheels, as well as internal electronics (DVD players, video games, and large TFT screens). While most changes were only cosmetic, and mechanical work was generally only done to enable the car to run, the show sometimes replaced engines. Both WCC and GAS are well-known for putting their own whimsical touches in their work, such as the aforementioned dryer, or an electric fireplace in the trunk of another vehicle. There was a lot of humor involved from the body shop team and Xzibit himself, much of it self-deprecating. A typical conversion takes about 12 days.
At the end of the show, the car is revealed to its owner, as well as all the details of the renovation and the custom features; in addition, the participant is usually given a gift somehow related to the car or the owner's hobby.
In 2006 the German Car Magazine "Auto Bild" had the opportunity to interview the WCC team. At first Auto Bild had to wait about three hours to get into the building and during the first interview with "Mad Mike" they were kicked out for no reason. After that, according to "Auto Bild", an MTV assistant who took a break talked to them because he thought they were new employees. He told them that the whole show was faked. The ideas for the conversions were dictated by MTV, and WCC just had to make them look real. He also told them that the gadgets just had to function as long as the cameras were recording.[1]
Much of the appeal of the show comes from the personalities involved. The WCC employees are a mix of outgoing personalities, such as:
After the third season, WCC manager "Q" announced that he would not be willing to take a role in the show anymore. Q cited a desire to expand the company's business with a customs shop in St. Louis, Missouri called Coast 2 Coast Customs. Ryan Friedlinghaus, the owner of WCC, was featured in Season 4 as the "lead" for discussions on what customizing will be done on the incoming cars
Beginning with the fifth season, the show moved to another garage, Galpin Auto Sports (GAS), as Ryan, the WCC Owner, moved his shop to Corona, California and said that he yanked the shop's participation because he thought the show was too gimmicky with its ugly duckling-to-swan TV format.[3] He has signed a deal with another television production company for cable channel TLC, where they made Street Customs, which is now out of production; it is said to have a more realistic portrayal of how a custom car shop really operates.[3] However, the show retains Mad Mike (who has quit at WCC and signed at GAS), now dubbed a "car customization specialist", but he retains himself as an electrician. The new cast includes the employees of GAS:
On only three occasions — all season finales — did the show not "pimp" the original automobile:
In all these instances, the vehicles of the participants were replaced with brand new cars, with extensive modifications made to customize each new car for the owner.
Pimp My Ride is one of MTV's most popular shows with nearly all of its worldwide viewers, and also in the US, where it is second place to The Real World (which is generally much less known outside of the United States). Country Music Television, also owned by MTV parent Viacom, has a show called Trick My Truck that operates on the same principle, but only customizes semi-trailer trucks.
Canada's music network, MuchMusic, also aired the show until MTV Networks signed a deal with CTV, which resulted in MuchMusic losing their rights to MTV programs. MuchMusic's French-language sister station, MusiquePlus, airs the show subtitled in French under the title Pimp mon char ("char" is Quebec French slang for "car"). However in August 2008 MuchMusic regained their rights to re-air Pimp My Ride, but airing Season 5 and 6.
A UK version of the show launched on 26 June 2005, presented by the DJ Tim Westwood (famously known only by his last name). Carisma Automotive are the customisers for the UK version. The employees in Carisma Automotive are:
On 1 October 2008 also the Baltic version of the show was first launched. Highway nation was responsible for pimping all cars. Three vehicles were pimped in the Baltic version:
The German-language MTV Central has two adaptations of the show called Pimp My Fahrrad (English: "Pimp My Bicycle") and Pimp My Whatever. On Pimp My Fahrrad, [7]] the bike shop Elbcoast Psycles redoes almost the entire bicycle, usually leaving only the frame intact. While the show could be seen as a parody of the US original, it is also a tribute, using all the elements of the US show with a bicycle twist. As Germany's vehicle inspection is among the strictest in the world, getting a road permit for thoroughly customized vehicles borders on the impossible. (Similar rules apply in most of continental Europe.) It is hosted by German actor Oliver Korittke. In Pimp My Whatever[8] ElbCoast Psychles return once more to pimp anything from a bathroom and a doghouse to a birthday party or even someone's brother. Pimp My Whatever is hosted by MTV presenter Patrice Bouédibéla. Both shows are located in Hamburg. The original US Pimp My Ride is shown in English language with German subtitles.
MTV Italy also features a different version of Pimp My Ride, called Pimp My Wheels. Hosted by the Italian hip hop group Gemelli Diversi, Pimp My Wheels turns old rusty motorscooters or motorcycles into brand-new shiny vehicles.
Pimp My Ride is currently broadcasting in almost all European countries with Pimp My Ride International, a European version of the show where cars are pimped from all over Europe in the Netherlands at All Stoff. The show is hosted by Lil' Jon and Fat Joe.
A French version of Pimp My Ride has started broadcasting on MTV France on September 2, 2009. It is hosted by Ramzy Bedia, a French comedian.
MTV Spain created a version of Pimp My Ride, called MTV TUNING in Spain, presented by Spanish rapper Duo Kie, by pimping the most voted car on the list of cars at mtv.es resulting in more than 1400 videos sent to vote for on the website. The winner was a girl from Burgos with a Peugeot 309. The program was so successful that mtv.es has stated that they will do more chapters.[9]
Pimp My Ride is syndicated in Persian language on an Iranian music channel, Persian Music Channel PMC
Pimp My Ride is also broadcasting on MTV Arabia, the new MTV channel for the Arab world, although MTV Arabia didn't start the show from the beginning. Instead they started broadcasting the show from Season
An Arabic version has started broadcasting on MBC 1 called Dale' Sayaratak (Arabic: دلع سيارتك "Spoil Your Car"). A malt beverage manufacturing company "Barbican" sponsored this show and they also "pimped" the cars and showed them in their commercials.
MTV Brazil have started the Brazilian Pimp My Ride version, hosted by rock singer Jimmy London, from the group Matanza.
| Title | Region 1 | Region 2 | Extras |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Complete First Season | March 22, 2005 | February 6, 2006 | TBA |
| The Complete Second Season | November 26, 2008 | May 21, 2007 | TBA |
| The Complete Third Season | November 26, 2008 | TBA | TBA |
| The Complete Fourth Season | November 26, 2008 | TBA | TBA |
| The Complete Fifth Season | November 26, 2008 | TBA | TBA |
Since the show's debut, Pimp My Ride has been referred to numerous times by other television shows and comedic acts; several similar shows have aired on other networks. Other companies, including MTV itself, have spoofed the series on their own shows, acts, or television commercials.
As part of a 2006 advertising campaign, Volkswagen created a series of television commercials called VDub, starring Swedish actor Peter Stormare as an effete German engineer named Wolfgang. The ads were created as a parody of the Pimp My Ride TV Show. The three 30-second spots became something of an Internet phenomenon when popular automotive news website Leftlane News uploaded the ads to the video distribution service, YouTube.
Xzibit appeared as a guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live, and a sketch was shown called "Pimp My Bride". The sketch shows a typical bride forming into a lingerie-bearing bride, with an LCD screen attached to her back (which is very common in the MTV program itself). The sketch was filmed in the same style as the show, most notably the camera angles.
Additionally, due to his association with the show Xzibit has attained popularity as an Internet meme, whereby his picture is juxtaposed with recursive statements beginning with "Yo Dawg" and following the format of "Yo dawg, I heard you like Y-ing so we put an X in your car so you can Y while you drive", where Y is an action able to be done with/by X, like X=pool and Y=swim. One example is "Yo Dawg, I heard you like cars so we put a car in your car so you can drive while you drive." Xzibit isn't too thrilled with this trend,[10] however, he does find some of the pictures to be quite funny,[11] and even made an attempt at creating a joke himself, which went: "YO DAWG, I hear you can't hear, so I put a hearing aid in yo hearing to listen while you're listening".[12]
Viacom, the owner of the Pimp My Ride franchise, has made legal threats against a number of small business owners over the use of the words Pimp My... in business names. Businesses using the names Pimp My Pet and Pimp My Snack have been threatened with legal action for an alleged breach of a trademark owned by Viacom. The website Pimp My Snack is now known as Pimp That Snack.