LAST EDITED ON 09-26-11 AT 10:33 AM (EST)

For notes on leg construction, task design, course layout, camera work, and the other elements which go into the actual assembly of the Race. (This is not for commenting on Racer actions unless said actions were directly caused, influenced, or sabotaged by Production.) It's sort of a behind-the-scenes GUFU with occasional positive notes, and it's one thread per season. Sort of like how it's one elimination per standard mat.

Um...

...this isn't going to be a very positive opener, is it?

Slap Double-elimination on the next leg shatters the stone around the last original commandment of the Race: On all legs but the final one, thou art fine unless thou comest in last. Now you're dead if you're next-to-last? Where was this rule when Dandrew was sliming about? Sure, it may be good for five seconds of drama, but Racers need something they can count on, and violating your own structure this badly takes out all ability to rebuild trust. Tell you what: how about on the leg after the next, you eliminate the team that comes in first? Third? No, how about everyone who reaches the mat spins a wheel and if it lands on Bankrupt...

Slap 'And here we are reporting from Los Angeles, the only city Racers ever seem to leave from.'

Slap The opening task basically broke down to 'Grab umbrella. Check with Phil. If wrong, grab different umbrella and repeat.' How about making the teams actually unscramble the destination once they had the proper rain shield? By sending them on their way as soon as they had the right one and outright giving them the destination in the car video, this turned into a pure luck-based randomizer. (Admittedly, given some of the teams, they'd still be there... but that's Casting's problem.)

No hand movement For now, I choose to believe that a Twitter network of TAR fans got that passport to the airport. But don't push your luck.

Slap Did anyone mention leg funds? Ever?

Slap I'm all for nightmare clues that require actual brainpower to figure out, but it helps if they're in a language the Racers can read. While only one team managed to turn 'Look up' into a waking nightmare, virtually everyone had issues with sorting out a myriad of red-and-yellow signs to spot the one they needed -- which they couldn't make any sense of without local assistance, and therefore, no brainpower required. (Imagine the chaos if there had been a right-color billboard advertising an amusement park.) This at least partially left the teams at the dubious mercy of luck -- again.

Oh, and convince me the guy in red-and-yellow boxers wasn't a plant.

No hand movement The Roadblock should not have been that difficult to complete -- but again, that's Casting's problem more than it is Production's. But I suppose it would have been too much to ask for the monk to say "Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha... NO!"?

Shrug Did anyone else feel like the rowing challenge was half a Detour where no one took the other option? (Tell me they all completed the course on one try. I could use the laugh.)

Slap A Hazard is a Speed Bump is a 'We're Still Trying To Work This Out.'

If we had a casting slap thread, it would be up to twenty posts by now.