“American Chopper” is a popular reality television series shown on Discovery Channel. It is based on the business of the Teutul family, which manufactures custom-built motorcycles. Pilgrim Films and Television Inc. are the producers of this show. “American Chopper” is also the name of a videogame from Activision. Paul Teutul Sr. started manufacturing custom-built motorcycles in 1999, and set up Orange County Choppers (OCC) with headquarters at New York and production facility at Montgomery. The company’s first bike, the True Blue, made its debut at the 1999 Daytona Bike Oktoberfest.
The TV show “American Chopper” made its debut in September 2002. The show revolves around the constant verbal arguments between Paul Sr. and Paul Jr., father and son, while comic relief is provided by Michael Teutul popularly known as Mikey. They always fuss over deadlines, design team, design elements and various subjects of a similar nature. Along with their fabricators and mechanics, they design and assemble dozens of custom motorbikes based on a particular theme or specification. The most renowned OCC chopper is the “Black Widow Spider Bike.”
Today, “American Choppers” is a very successful TV show with ordinary blue collar workers as the cast members. They use the typical dialect adopted by this stratum of society. The cast has gone fishing on the Hudson River, hunted for pheasant, gone bowling, and even driven snow mobiles. The United States Air Force commissioned a $ 150,000 ten-foot-long “Raptor Bike” designed after the F/A-22 Raptor jet by OCC. Their other famous theme choppers are the Comanche Bike, the Spiderman Bike, and the Fireman Bike, which was made in memory of the firemen of New York City who died in the line of duty after 9/11. |
