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Monster Garage is an American television series aired on the Discovery Channel and hosted by Jesse James. Each episode was an hour in length and was conceived and produced (along with James) by Thom Beers.
| Monster Garage | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Created by | Thom Beers |
| Presented by | Jesse James |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 5 |
| No. of episodes | 80 |
| Production | |
| Running time | 42 minutes |
| Original release | |
| Network | Discovery Channel (2002–2006) Discovery+ (2021) |
| Release | June 23, 2002 (2002-06-23) – June 12, 2006 (2006-06-12) |
The show premiered on June 23, 2002 and concluded on June 12, 2006.
On February 24, 2020, it was announced that the series will be revived and premiere in 2020 on TLC.[1] This was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[2] It premiered on Discovery, Inc.'s new streaming service Discovery+ on launch day, January 4, 2021.[3]
A team of five people with mechanical, fabricating, or modifying expertise was assembled to modify a vehicle into a "monster machine." On the show this generally meant making one vehicle that could transform into another such as a PT Cruiser which could change into a wood chipper, or a school bus which transformed into a pontoon boat. Occasionally vehicles were modified so as to hide non-vehicular functions, such as a police car which doubled as a donut shop (built by a team of cops), or a Toyota Tundra which was modified so as to allow it to discharge a motorcycle at high speeds. Build teams who successfully completed their assignment were rewarded with expensive tool kits.
According to the show, the rules were as follows:
In practice, as the series progressed, some liberties were taken with the first two rules, at times becoming punchlines. In one episode, when a Chevrolet El Camino was turned into a Figure 8 race car, James discarded plans for a spoiler on the vehicle, sarcastically citing the first rule.
Starting with season 4, the winning team also donated a toolkit to a high school of their choice.
Host Jesse James claims to be the great-great-grandson of a cousin of the legendary wild west outlaw, Jesse James. Jesse G. James has both mechanical and metal fabricating expertise and is the founder, owner and head bike builder for his custom chopper shop, West Coast Choppers. Jesse said he liked monsters that went fast and did something. He preferred hard working build crew members. His favorite monster vehicles were the Ford Ambulance Wheel-stander and the Chevrolet Blazer Pikes Peak hill climber. One of Jesse's ambitions throughout the run of the show was to build a monster that could top 200 mph, which he was unsuccessful at achieving.
Announcing for this show was done by Brett "The Big Schwag" Wagner who later became the host of the Speed Channel show Pass Time.[4] He was very memorable for frequently shouting out "You gotta be kidding me!" during the tests of the "monster" vehicles and signing off most episodes saying: "The next Monster Garage challenge is JUST... AROUND... THE BEND!".[5]
With rules as strict as they were in the Monster Garage, there was a 1 in 10 monster build failure rate. When a team failed to complete a vehicle in time, it was destroyed by host Jesse James.
| Season | Episodes | Originally aired | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First aired | Last aired | |||
| 1 | 22 | June 23, 2002 (2002-06-23) | June 16, 2003 (2003-06-16) | |
| 2 | 20 | July 7, 2003 (2003-07-07) | April 19, 2004 (2004-04-19) | |
| 3 | 23 | May 10, 2004 (2004-05-10) | June 13, 2005 (2005-06-13) | |
| 4 | 10 | October 10, 2005 (2005-10-10) | December 12, 2005 (2005-12-12) | |
| 5 | 10 | December 12, 2005 (2005-12-12) | June 12, 2006 (2006-06-12) | |
A UK version of the show was aired in 2004 by Channel 4. The team always included a Hell's Angel known as "Cookie". There was a budget of £3,000. Only 3 days were used for the build. Cars often looked radically different from the production models. Challenges included; converting a Toyota into a lawnmower, a Lotus into a hovercraft, and an ice cream van into a riot truck. In one episode, the team sold the internal fittings of the car that was to be transformed (ARolls-Royce) to raise funds to convert it into a muck spreader.
The UK series lasted only 8 episodes.
MBI published Monster Garage videos, detailing the Ford Mustang lawn mower, Ford Explorer garbage truck, limousine firetruck, and the Volkswagen Beetle swamp boat.
The 2008 Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale auction included 42 of the surviving project vehicles.[6][7][8][9]
Invictus Games Ltd. developed a PC video game, based on the series. An Xbox remake was made by Impulse Games in 2004. Both games were published by Activision Value.
Inside Monster Garage, a book about the TV series, was published by Meridith Books.
MBI Publishing Company has published Monster Garage instruction books under the Motorbooks brand, including:
Monster Garage: How to Custom Paint Damn Near Anything, Monster Garage: How to Customize Damn Near Anything, Monster Garage: How to Weld Damn Near Anything were also sold together as Monster Garage Gift Set and The Big Box of Monster Garage (box set).
