The Apprentice | Golden Skate

The Apprentice

JonnyCoop

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 28, 2003
Anyone else out there watching? I noticed during Apprentice 1 there wasn't a thread for it like there was with Survivor and some other shows, but maybe it was just because no-one started one? Guess I'll find out... :D

I like Pamela, but man, she's got a mouth on her and I think it's going to end up getting her fired. Actually, I thought she was rather amusing, but there's a fine line sometimes between "assertive" and "defensive and snippy" and as someone who often suffers from the latter syndrome, I know how far that won't get you in a setting like this..... :D :\ However, it takes some serious nerve to try and bite Carolyn's head off!

I cannot BELIEVE that once again the black woman is going to turn out to be The Crazy One. I find it impossible to believe that out of all the people who tried out for this show, they could not find ONE qualified black woman who actually has her neurons firing correctly. I realize this sort of thing makes for good "reality TV", HOWEVER, the apparent penchant for choosing only nutty black women for this show is rather offensive.

I think the idea of letting the winning project manager get an exemption from firing the following week if he/she is in the boardroom is a TERRIBLE idea. What if he/she REALLY REALLY REALLY messes up BADLY? Plus I think it defeats the entire purpose of everyone having to be on their toes all the time if you throw in something like this.

There is no way, if I walked into Donald Trump's personal suite, I mean, NO WAY, that I would physically be able to restrain myself from saying "Oh, my GOD!! TACK-A-RAMA!!!" :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

So far the only person on my "gotta go" list is Raj. What is WITH that wardrobe? And the CANE??? "Setting yourself apart" and "being an original" is all very well and good, but does he honestly think he can show up for work for Trump every day dressed like something out of the Great Gatsby? And having a pretentious wardrobe be a reflection of a pretentious personality doesn't add much either.
 

heyang

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
I love the Apprentice. I've been looking forward to it all summer. The only thing that tops it is Amazing Race, IMO.

Pamela had better learn some discretion. She could've easily insulted someone besides Carolyn in the observation room. She didn't know if any of those kids were children of people in the room and felt free to make comments about their appearances. Very unprofessional. I also felt that she didn't have much of a game plan.

I think Pam and Bradford got a lot of points for volunteering to be project managers. It's a lot tougher to be 1st in the game because you don't know people well enough to understand how to utilize their strengths and weaknesses.

Don't remember the name of the guy that was fired. However, he was acting as though this was Survivor where you want to be part of the 'team' and fly under the radar. This is a job interview - you gotta put yourself out there in a good way. Not surprised he was booted.

As for Raj, you have to admit that he stands out. His clothing style doesn't particularly bother me, but I feel as though he's and "I told you so" kinda guy. He objected to Mosaic, but couldn't sell a different idea. Better to keep your mouth shut about a petty disagreement.

I do admit that I don't think Mosaic is a good name for a 'company'. I don't particularly care for Apex either. Protege and Versacorp were a little more creative IMO.

I don't think we have another Omarosa on our hands this time. This woman seems to be another Tammy instead.

It seems like a lot of people are playing more quiet this time. I definitely did not learn much about most of the team members. I think there's 2 more people this time and the editing seems different. Hopefully, we'll see the candidates get better.
 

mpal2

Final Flight
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
I forgot that this was starting already. I'll have to remember to change the channel and watch it.

I actually wrote to the tv station about their choice of minority women for the first season. Like JohnnyCoop said, there has got to be better representation out there then the women they are choosing. My current supervisor would be a 100% improvement over the 1st season representatives. I would hope that the network is not deliberately editing stereotypes in but you never know. :\
 

merrywidow

Record Breaker
Joined
Jan 20, 2004
I really like this show but one thing I noticed last season was that there were very few black upper management people in any of the Trump organizations. I really wanted Kwame to win last season but wasn't too surprised with Trump's choice. As to Stacey, maybe she just had too much to drink? I think I'll hold my judgement on her for another week or so. Raj needs to dump his wardrobe fast. The Donald & his employees are VERY conservative dressers. Not a good way to score points with Trump.
 

JonnyCoop

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 28, 2003
Yeah, it was stupid of Bradford to give up his exemption, but I think Trump completely over-reacted. Ivana was a total disaster; I didn't really think so till she got into the boardroom and displayed such petty behavior. Oh well, she's not going to be long for that competition anyway; she's already got points against her and let's face it, in a close decision, that name is subliminally going to count against her. :laugh: [Tho where Trump gets off being so hostile about Ivana, his ex, I have no idea -- I mean, who screwed around on who???] And I don't know what was up with Jennifer -- she was fine till she got in the boardroom and wouldn't shut up when she could have gotten through the whole thing without saying a single word.

I don't think anyone that's been in the boardroom so far is going to win this thing. Pamela, Andy, Ivana, Jennifer, and Stacie all have points against them as far as I can tell.
 

mpal2

Final Flight
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
I was just thinking last night that maybe Kwame sabotaged himself last season by picking Omarosa. Why else would anyone pick that woman? :confused:

Maybe he knew that by coming in 2nd he would get all kinds of fantastic job offers, but coming in 1st would lock him into Trump's job. I kind of think that Kwame won after all... Go Kwame! :laugh:

Now for 2nd season, I'm really not impressed with anyone yet. I missed the first episode and maybe they just didn't focus on the people I would like for the 2nd episode. I just don't like this group as much so far.
 

heyang

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
Bradford's firing stunned me. This is a game. Kwame and others made lots of mistakes and were given 2nd chances. Sure, giving up immunity was dumb, but he could've just sat back during that task and done little since he was exempt. As it was, he seemed to be doing a great job of selling ice cream.. In Bradford's mind, it was a calculated risk - he performed well; so, why should have worry about being fired. But Trump has his vewpoint, too.

Ivana was an awful team leader. Their sales would have been worse if Jennifer hadn't gotten the idea to call the restaurants and distributors. Also, why didn't they sell ice cream where they were instead of just standing round?

Also, if this was the real world, Stacey would not be tolerated. Part of working in the corporate world is being able to work with others well even when you're not best buds.
 

Skate Sandee

On the Ice
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
mpal2 said:
I was just thinking last night that maybe Kwame sabotaged himself last season by picking Omarosa. Why else would anyone pick that woman? :confused:

He explained this in an interview. He knew Bill wouldn't pick her. And he figured out very quickly that the order of who was picking first ensured that she would end up on Kwame's team anyway. So he figured since he was going to end up with her no matter what happened, he'd pick her first to hopefully make her feel good and ensure her cooperation and hardest effort.

As for the firing of Bradford, that was not an overreaction at all! It was brilliant and absolutely correct on the part of Trump. He's got oodles of time to fire Ivana. But he really only had this one opportunity to get rid of Bradford to underscore Bradford's stupidity PLUS send a strong message to the other future project managers that are in the same position. Absolutely bang on right decision IMHO!
 

Johar

Medalist
Joined
Dec 16, 2003
What was the concensus on their ice cream products? The men had a doughnut one and the ladies had a red velvet cake one.
 

heyang

Record Breaker
Joined
Jul 26, 2003
I thought Mosaic's event was better based upon the clips. Their event seemed to go longer and would therefore attract more people. They just got a few people over and then other people would walk over to see what was going on and then more people, etc.

Mike Piazza was only supposed to be there for 1/2 an hour. Once it was over, people would just walk away.

I can only see Stacey J's ouster as getting rid of a disruptive force. Even if the failure of the task wasn't her fault, her presence would have been destructive long term. This was the 2nd week where they claimed having to supervise her contributed to their chaos. Now the women have to put up or shut up.

I am curious who Stacey J and Jennifer got those cases of toothpaste out of the warehouse in just that van. It seems as though SJ was responsible and she ignored the carton dimensions that the manager provided. due to editing, we have no idea how or when they transported the toothpaste. Did they take as much as possible and then go back the following AM to get the reminader?

I really thought Maria was the biggest reason for failure. She may have given the dollar value for the job, but the printer did say there would be overttime charges. She made no attempt to find out how much the OT would entail. Also, not accepting some blame did not hold her in Carolyn's eyes.

I am find it annoying to watch Thursday and then have to tivo Saturday's for the extra boardroom footage. The extra footage really does shed added light in some cases.
 

Peaches1972

Rinkside
Joined
Jan 30, 2004
I read some where

I am curious who Stacey J and Jennifer got those cases of toothpaste out of the warehouse in just that van. It seems as though SJ was responsible and she ignored the carton dimensions that the manager provided. due to editing, we have no idea how or when they transported the toothpaste. Did they take as much as possible and then go back the following AM to get the reminader?

I heard this on one of those TV show like Extra or Entertainment Tonight:

There was an incident of someone hiring a homeless woman to carry the boxes of Crest toothpaste. The woman vomited and passed out.


I think Stacie hired the homeless woman and Trump was pissed about it. He was determined to fire Stacie. it seems.
 

mpal2

Final Flight
Joined
Jul 27, 2003
Yep, it was a woman in her fifties and she was hospitalized. Trump kind of had to fire Stacey after that fiasco. A supervisor isn't supposed to kill the employee after all. Although I think someone forgot to mention that to my company when they put my supervisor's supervisor in charge. That woman could suck the life out of anyone without understanding why everyone hates her.
 

JonnyCoop

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 28, 2003
Well, Jennifer C. was definitely an easy choice to make -- if I were Carolyn, I would have found her whole attitude and decision-making process re. who to take into the boardroom downright offensive. One of the reasons women have had such a difficult time getting ahead in the workplace is due to the perception that they make decisions based more on emotion than business reasons, so what does Jennifer do but exactly that?

Much as I hate to say it, though, I have to say that IMO the large majority of the women on this edition are complete train wrecks, not nearly as good an overall group as on Season One. I like Pamela (and I feel sorry for her having to walk back into that snake pit next week; she's been lucky to have avoided a lot of BS by being on the men's team), I think the remaining Jennifer might have possibilities, and I think Elizabeth is underrated -- but as for the rest of them, the less said the better. That being said, however, when it comes to the men, though they are performing well as a group, as individuals I see no particular standout or for that matter, even an interesting personality. Except ironically for Bradford, who was a standout in both departments IMO and is now history....

I think it would have been interesting to see what would have happened had Maria gotten fired last week instead of Stacie, given that this restaurant challenge would have appealed to Stacie's area of expertise.

I also think Sandy should have been taken into the boardroom with Jennifer, but I would have had an issue had that happened and she would have ended up being the one being fired (tho Jennifer was such a disaster I couldn't possibly see that happening). It's rather a squirrely proposition to fire someone for the basic reason that their taste in decor isn't up to snuff, and let's face it, where on earth does Donald Trump get off firing someone for having "bad taste" in decor?? I mean, have you SEEN that apartment???? :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
 

JonnyCoop

Record Breaker
Joined
Dec 28, 2003
PAMELA, YOU ROCK!!!

I LOVED it when she gave her "All right, b****, the BS train is leaving the station as of RIGHT NOW" speech!! It's a shame things turned out the way they did, because unfortunately I do have to agree with Trump's decision since no-one else really really screwed things up. (And the fact that they didn't I think reflects quite well on Pamela).

But I have to admit to being completely fascinated by the dynamics on the women's side -- it's amazing how they can be so squabbly and backstabbing, and yet at the same time unified enough to gang up on whoever they perceive to be the Outsider. (Elizabeth, watch your back 'cuz you're next). Stacie J. was completely on the mark when she said that those women seem to need an outsider and once they don't have one they'll go after each other. I realize that this is a COMPETITION, everyone out for themselves, but come on here. There's a much better way to go about this, and I think Jennifer may be onto it. The Maria/Ivana/Stacy axis has GOTTA GO. Stacy especially. She was pretty much in the background for the first 3 weeks, but boy, once she started talking, she hasn't SHUT UP since.....
 

hrmsk8ngnutt

Final Flight
Joined
Jul 29, 2003
JonnyCoop said:
Stacy especially. She was pretty much in the background for the first 3 weeks, but boy, once she started talking, she hasn't SHUT UP since.....
Jonny - you are so on the mark about little Stacy. I think she took the reins from Jenn C who just wouldn't shut up in the board room.

BTW, I can't wait to see the men's team on QVC this Monday. I checked the QVC website and they will dedicate the 10 PM ET / 7 PM PT hour to 'The Apprentice'. Here's a link: http://www.qvc.com/asp/frameset.asp...f&nest=/pguide/show_search.asp&dd=/pg_nav.asp

Herm (sk8ngnutt)
 
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