S34.E02: Patience Is the New Me

[Whimsy]

Quote

Teams explore the beauty of Austria and must learn a traditional wedding dance, yodel, and perform a song on alpine bells.

This is a 90 minute episode.

Original airdate 9/28/22

[Whimsy]

Sorry about the title name mix-up. We use TVDB.com to get our episode names and descriptions and it’s still being listed as the wrong episode name over there. 

[Guest]

A lot of admirable grace under pressure on display in this leg. There were plenty of opportunities/reasons for people to lose their cool, and I think the worst we got was Tim getting frustrated at the bell task. Even Dom took the missing hat non-check-in with a relative level of calm (loud huffing aside). A good show by everyone, I thought.

Abby's squeaks of delight continue to amuse me. And Will's dismayed little "oh no" when he realized she couldn't help him count his feet slapping moves while she was twirling 😆

[hendersonrocks]

I would have rather had Rex freaking Ryan stay on the race, that's how annoying I find Dom. She's going to lose her shit entirely at some point and it isn't going to be pretty - TBD whether that will be on or off of our TV screens.

Super impressive comeback from Claire and Derek and the cheerleaders whose names I don't know but absolutely nailed that dance. The top teams are all super likeable! Actually, they're pretty much all likeable (except for, well, see paragraph one).

[xcrayon2215x]

Marcus and Michael really stepped up tonight. I will miss Tim and Rex. Dom does get on my nerves but she wasn't as bad as last week. Derek and Claire had quite the crazy comeback.

[InDueTime]

First, I must say that was some beautiful scenery!

That was quite the comeback for Quinton and Mattie.

Tim and Rex tried but they just ran out of steam.

The Bells Detour must have been more difficult that it looked. I still would've chosen that over dancing in those outfits.

Speaking of which, I don't know why Dom and Rich (and other racers) didn't stick the hats into their backpacksuntil the Pit Stop. Unless there was a rule against it.

Also, Expedia points as a prize? Seriously?

Edited September 29, 2022 by InDueTime

[Lady Whistleup]

Oh damn. I admit I kind of enjoyed Tim and Rex. 

This whole episode is my worst nightmare. I cannot sing for shit and have a harder time singing fast little syllables. I would have been Claire, except 100x worse.

[Giuseppe]

Maybe a minority opinion, but I'm not a fan of these performance-based singing/dancing/reciting tasks that seem to be so popular now, and I especially don't like when basically all the tasks on a leg are of this nature. I get bored and restless watching them repeat the same lyrics/steps/whatever over and over and OVER, and when it comes with a silly song that's gonna get stuck in my head for three days, it makes me just want to change the channel.  I didn't mind the bells option so much, but overall I found this ep boring. I am ready to see some more grueling tasks.

Anyway.

[toodywoody]

I love having TAR back. I love the shake up of the placements.

The Brothers. Great job. The Husband and Wife, did fantastic. The Dad and daughter, amazing. 

The rest amazed me at not losing their shit. 

I'm liking this season so far.

I think last season with the 2nd chances that kept going to the same team is what made them think to not do any of the non elimination legs.

I'm waiting on fatigue to start showing in some of the teams, that always makes it interesting.

While I am glad self driving is back and my show is back. I do miss the airport drama and hope for it to return, maybe someday. I wish that it would be like the earlier TARs, but I understand we live in a different world now. 

I'm just so happy to have TAR back, it has always been my top reality show.

[PoultryDancer]

I like that it was 90 minutes. Given the chaotic, condensed nature of the premiere, this episode could breathe and get to know the teams more. And you actually saw driving and communicating segments rather than task-task-task. Very sad to see Tim and Rex go. Even sadder to see Travelocity go.

[anniebird]

Interesting that the first thing Dom did, when told she needed her hat, was lie - "It fell off when I was running. How can I find it if it's on the street?" Then when she was told that she couldn't check in without it, "I think it's in the car."

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, anniebird said:

Interesting that the first thing Dom did, when told she needed her hat, was lie - "It fell off when I was running. How can I find it if it's on the street?" Then when she was told that she couldn't check in without it, "I think it's in the car."

I don't think that was lying, but more of an initial "well my God, it could be anywhere" reaction. Then when she stopped to think, she reasoned (or hoped lol) that it was in the car.

[Lantern7]

That was fun. Great scenery, good racing, and Phil reminds us he’s the best reality host, at least on CBS. Like he’d ever sweat TJ Lavin.

I’m still fixated on Glenda & Lumumba. They look to be great people and a lovely couple, but I keep making jokes about their height difference. They go for the dancing, I figure Lumumba is going to die after Glenda swings him around. I’m hoping that I can stop, but they make it so easy.

16 minutes ago, anniebird said:

Interesting that the first thing Dom did, when told she needed her hat, was lie - "It fell off when I was running. How can I find it if it's on the street?" Then when she was told that she couldn't check in without it, "I think it's in the car."

So lucky. I thought they would’ve been put to the side to wait out a penalty. Looking for the hat felt worse, especially because I figured Dom tossed her hat at the Roadblock. If you think about it, the Roadblock judges basically laid a trap. “You won! Let’s throw our hats in the air! We hope you don’t forget yours!” I get how Dom looks to be a Killer Fatigue burnout waiting to happen, but I’m okay with her now.

Great tasks. You can’t go wrong with yodeling in Austria, AND the teams had to stay in costume the whole time. If you were following T-Rex, it almost made up for them going for the bells. By the way, those guys were good sports. Neither of them keeled over, which is how low I set their bar.

Edited September 29, 2022 by Lantern7

[mertensia]

Rats! I wish Dom and what's his face had been eliminated instead of Rex and partner.

I feel for Claire;  I can't carry a tune either. 

I liked that the clue gave them no idea it would be yodeling.

I know I would have left the hat somewhere. Probably up in the meadow. Given it to a kid. 

[ApprenticeFan]

The Innsbruck visit was originally for TAR 33 before production shutdown until it was decided to keep it for this 34th season. It would have filmed for TAR 33 at the end of February 2020 between Luleå, Sweden and Kathmandu, Nepal.

The dancing Detour and yodeling Roadblock were initially part of the production from that season before planned to finish the leg in the Italian border.

Edited September 30, 2022 by ApprenticeFan

[Fukui San]

Unfortunately for Rex, his performance was more 2014 Jets than 2010 Jets.

All kidding aside, he was a good sport. 

Claire's struggles at the yodeling was hard to watch. Good for them for keeping supportive and finishing great.

Aside from all the pro dancers, I don't know how anyone else chooses the dancing over the bells. It was very intricate, particularly for the knee slapper's part.

All the attractive young dating couples are still blurring together a bit. Aside from the very tall lady. She stands out. But I hope that yelling "Boom Boom!" doesn't become an every week thing.

[GaT]

The episode was a good half hour too long for me, there's only so much yodeling, bell ringing, & Bavarian dancing I can listen to. I finally had to just start FFing.

[aghst]

Several teams came back from various parts of the leg.

The dancers and people used to performing thrived on this leg but the people who struggled allowed the order to flip on both tasks.

It was difficult for teams without music and dance backgrounds.

As someone noted, having all the tasks in the leg give advantage to people who had experience performing is somewhat unfair.

[PurpleTentacle]

Right street in the wrong city (and this time even country). An absolute classic and funny every time. Still glad that the Cheerleader could pull it out in the end. I like them.

Team BB really made up some time after the Jodeln. I don't think it was just the bells, I think they are really great at navigating. Something that helped Penn and Kim win last season. So I think they have a good chance to win it all, too.

Speaking of the Jodeln, I guess they were only looking for semi-correct pronounciation and keeping rhythm. Otherwise most teams would have been there forever. Because it was rough. Glenda slayed though. A little rough around the edges still, but overall great.

I would have hated both sides of the detour. I'm great at keeping rhythm... until I have to think about it. Then it goes out of the window. My gut knows how to, but my brain does not. At least the bells seemed doable. You just had to follow instructions and keep somewhat to the accordion. My horror leg would be one where dancing is a road block. Mark and Bopper, I still feel you.

[PurpleTentacle]

Oh I forgot: Great placement of the amazing bathmat. It's nice to have something other than "we put it in this park, on some grass" once in a while. A great hall of a castle is certainly an amazing option

7 hours ago, anniebird said:

Interesting that the first thing Dom did, when told she needed her hat, was lie - "It fell off when I was running. How can I find it if it's on the street?" Then when she was told that she couldn't check in without it, "I think it's in the car."

Look I don't love her either, but she didn't lie. At first she thought it fell off in the street, then she still wasn't sure but uttered her mantra "I think it's in the car" to persuade the universe for it to be really there (she is the type for that kind of mumbojumbo). Because otherwise she would have never been able to find it. Also really, that was the only place it could have been. If it had fallen off in the street, Phil would have not had them search for it. They would have just gotten a 15 minute penalty. But I'm not sure if they could think that far in that moment.

Edited September 29, 2022 by PurpleTentacle

[Haleth]

The tasks were fun... for a little while.  But they sure got monotonous (no pun intended) after a few minutes.  I did love that they had to wear their costumes the whole leg and I loved the enthusiasm of the judges.  

Wow, teams are already not paying attention to their clues (bring your hats!).  But the worst I've ever seen was looking for the landmark in the wrong country.  That has to be a first!

I'm surprisingly sorry to see Rex and his very white teeth go.  I didn't expect him to be such a good sport about his own ineptitude.  

Most of the teams are pretty likable but I'm especially enjoying Glenda and Lumumba for their sense of humor and Linton and Sharik for their sweet relationship.

[DEL901]

I have to give Clair props.  She was naturally upset with herself at the yodelling, but she didn’t yell, scream or berate anyone.  She sucked it up, walked it off and kept trying.  Derek also kept his cool and didn’t pressure her.  Then they navigated their way to near the top of the pack, with a little skillful bell ringing along the way. 

[sugarbaker design]

9 hours ago, anniebird said:

Interesting that the first thing Dom did, when told she needed her hat, was lie - "It fell off when I was running. How can I find it if it's on the street?" Then when she was told that she couldn't check in without it, "I think it's in the car."

The universe is not going to like that.

2 hours ago, Haleth said:

The tasks were fun... for a little while.  But they sure got monotonous (no pun intended) after a few minutes. 

This episode did not need 90 minutes, it needed judicious editing.  I DVR'd it so I FFed through the map-reading (not good TV), the yodelling (painful to listen to) and the bell ringing (just damn annoying).

[Guest]

20 minutes ago, sugarbaker design said:

This episode did not need 90 minutes, it needed judicious editing.  I DVR'd it so I FFed through the map-reading (not good TV), the yodelling (painful to listen to) and the bell ringing (just damn annoying).

It probably didn't need 90 minutes, but I'm guessing that was handed down from CBS (same with Survivor) to fill in the three hours until the Love Boat show premieres next week. CBS didn't want to have to come up with something to fill the 30-60 minutes in between, so they probably told both shows to stretch the episodes out to 90 minutes. Unfortunately, it was bad timing for the Amazing Race for that to happen on a leg with so many repetitive tasks.

[Netfoot]

Claire scared me when she had such a hard time with the yodeling, but thankfully the team pulled off a great recovery.

T-Rex gave me the impression they were ready and willing to go.

You know how to make me hate you? Tell me that you will name your unborn child Pop-pop! Or Bam-bam. Or Doo-doo. Or anything infantile like that. 

I'm loving the race. Breathtaking vistas, interesting locales, entertaining challenges... But so many of the contestants are annoying. 

[iMonrey]

Quote

I'm not a fan of these performance-based singing/dancing/reciting tasks that seem to be so popular now, and I especially don't like when basically all the tasks on a leg are of this nature. I get bored and restless watching them repeat the same lyrics/steps/whatever over and over and OVER, and when it comes with a silly song that's gonna get stuck in my head for three days, it makes me just want to change the channel. 

I agree these types of tasks aren't especially interesting to watch. But they did offer great opportunities for placement shake-ups, so I'm on the fence. I don't like it when everyone pretty much leaves a task in the same order they arrived. And I'm really impressed that Claire and Derek managed to make up so much time going from 10th to 4th. Those are the kinds of races I like to see, even if those aren't my favorite types of challenges to watch.

And I think they should have made them memorize the yodels! Reading them seemed way too easy to me.

I would have done Bells Ringin' over Partner Swingin' - the latter seemed much harder, and the bells had the notes right there in front of them, it would only have taken me a few practices to do that.

Incidentally . . . When Phil was explaining Bells Ringin'? Those pants left little to the imagination. FYI: Phil dresses to the right. (I know, I must be a perve, but he walked right up to the camera and it was unavoidable to notice.)

Edited September 29, 2022 by iMonrey

[Fretful]

I know they weren't long for this race, but I didn't realize until the very end how much I really wanted T-Rex to stay and Dom to go.  I'm sure IRL she's seen as a very positive person, but here she just seems wound too tightly.  I can not tell you one thing about her partner- I kinda know what he looks like, I guess.

Otherwise, too many of the young and fits are blending together.

Pity the poor instructor who had to teach the twins to dance but couldn't tell them apart.  I noticed at the end that one of them had tied a scarf around her neck- maybe to help him out.   

[choclatechip45]

As a Jets fan who couldn’t stand Rex Ryan I’m glad he’s gone. I will say he was a good sport throughout the race.

Tasks were a bit boring but I was impressed that the cheerleaders did not get eliminated. Glad Claire and DX survived!

[Fukui San]

5 hours ago, Haleth said:

I'm surprisingly sorry to see Rex and his very white teeth go.  I didn't expect him to be such a good sport about his own ineptitude.  

He’s had years of practice!

Boy, I’ve missed making fun of Rex Ryan. 

[PurpleTentacle]

45 minutes ago, Netfoot said:

You know how to make me hate you? Tell me that you will name your unborn child Pop-pop! Or Bam-bam. Or Doo-doo. Or anything infantile like that. 

To be fair, they said it was just a nickname. And as long as the child is still a baby, I think an infantile nickname is okay. Though to pick out a nickname before that child is even sired, let alone born, seems weird. Apart from the general weirdness, what if one of you has just blanks in the chamber? They both aren't the youngest. That seems like a setup for karmic retribution.

27 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

Incidentally . . . When Phil was explaining Bells Ringin'? Those pants left little to the imagination. FYI: Phil dresses to the right. (I know, I must be a perve, but he walked right up to the camera and it was unavoidable to notice.)

Well at least we have more imagination left than with Jeff Probst.

[Fukui San]

8 minutes ago, PurpleTentacle said:

To be fair, they said it was just a nickname. And as long as the child is still a baby, I think an infantile nickname is okay. Though to pick out a nickname before that child is even sired, let alone born, seems weird. Apart from the general weirdness, what if one of you has just blanks in the chamber? They both aren't the youngest. That seems like a setup for karmic retribution.

Well at least we have more imagination left than with Jeff Probst.

Also their insistence that their first born will be a son. Not sure that’s up to you, bub. 

[Tango64]

I was amused by how the blonde bell ringing instructor had such a look of exasperation after one team (football coach and buddy?) were taking so long to get it right. Then she had to go sit down for a while. Funny. 

(And yes, I was watching her because she was pleasant on the eyes.)

[RockShrimp]

2 hours ago, iMonrey said:

I would have done Bells Ringin' over Partner Swingin' - the latter seemed much harder, and the bells had the notes right there in front of them, it would only have taken me a few practices to do that.

To be fair, if the Bells task really didn't mention the accordion it was probably a lot harder than it looked, learning to play a rhythm or melody and doing it while something else is playing a different part is different.

I do wonder if the teams could have switched "gender roles" at the dancing, since the men's part looked harder and more intricate and some of the women were more trained. The same gender teams got to choose, so why not everyone.

[Netfoot]

3 hours ago, iMonrey said:

I know, I must be a perve, but he walked right up to the camera and it was unavoidable to notice.

And yet, strangely, I failed to notice...

[Grizzly]

How much stuff is in the car that it took Dom more than 3 seconds to find the hat?

[J-Man]

1 hour ago, RockShrimp said:

I do wonder if the teams could have switched "gender roles" at the dancing, since the men's part looked harder and more intricate and some of the women were more trained. The same gender teams got to choose, so why not everyone.

It was interesting that neither of the male-male teams chose the dancing option. I wonder if either of them would have bailed if they'd found out they had to dance together. Or maybe the clue indicated that was going to be the case.

[Skooma]

4 hours ago, Fretful said:

I know they weren't long for this race, but I didn't realize until the very end how much I really wanted T-Rex to stay and Dom to go.  I'm sure IRL she's seen as a very positive person, but here she just seems wound too tightly.  I can not tell you one thing about her partner- I kinda know what he looks like, I guess.

Otherwise, too many of the young and fits are blending together.  ...

Yeah as a Pats fan I was rooting for Rex to stay in.

I agree about having all these couples teams on the race.  They are just meshing together in an endless glop of boring mactors.  I can take BB Couple who have been, yodeling aside, very competent and Short Guy & Tall Lady (and a possible future Boom-Boom) because of the humor.   But that is enough.  Two couples is pushing the limits of my "patience."

As for all of the others I can't tell them apart.  I know one of them has Rainbow Hair Woman but have no idea of her name or any other name for any of those totally boring, generic couples.  One team ID'd themselves in an interview segment as from Alabama.   I swear they just snuck into the race starting in Leg 2.  In fact it seemed like the number of couples doubled this leg. 

And yes again I hate at least 80% of all couples teams ever on TAR.  Especially the younger ones with no real life experience to make them in any way interesting.  Why did TAR drop the ball so badly with this cast?

I love TAR but I really dislike half the teams this season.  Last season was so better with the casting.  What happened this time around.  Did casting just sit around and let these mactors' agents hand them these teams instead of actually doing real casting?

Edited September 29, 2022 by Skooma

[Skooma]

Just now, Lucas Rowan said:

Rainbow Hair Woman is Dom of the team Rich & Dom.  Her boyfriend is the non-Derek Asian man.  Alabama couple is Abby & Will.  The two couples are the first two Hispanic couples of the race.  Luis & Michelle are the firefighter and his wife, who is a backup dancer for Pitbull, and Aubrey & David are trained Latin dancers.

Thanks but I will forget them by next Wednesday and I have no desire to even learn the names of those teams.  I appreciate your write-up up-thread about who did what and that someone actually learned their names but none of them interest me personally. 

[Fukui San]

There's a couple with two hot dancers, there's a couple with one hot dancer, and a couple of hot cheerleaders. Hope that helps!

[iMonrey]

Quote

Rainbow Hair Woman is Dom of the team Rich & Dom.  Her boyfriend is the non-Derek Asian man.  Alabama couple is Abby & Will.  The two couples are the first two Hispanic couples of the race.  Luis & Michelle are the firefighter and his wife, who is a backup dancer for Pitbull, and Aubrey & David are trained Latin dancers.

Every team has some identifiable moniker: Team Big Brother, Team Twin, Team T-Rex, Team Military Bros, Team Jamaica, Team Newlyweds, Team Cheerleader, Team Motivate (or Team Rainbow Hair), Team Childhood Sweethearts.

Everyone except Luis and Michelle. So he's a firefighter and she's a backup dancer? I'm not sure what their "hook" is. Team . . . Married? I mean, so what?

[seacliffsal]

Never thought I would say this, but this episode did not need to be 90 minutes long in my opinion.  Waaaay too much of the yodeling task.  I laughed at the team on the right street but in the wrong city and wrong country.  Was glad they were able to stay in the game as I like them.

Really interesting that Dom went on and on about her hair while driving in the car and then was the only one to show up at the mat without her hat.  Showing off her hair?  Or did she really just forget her hat?  Oh, and I agree that she just made up the "lost it in the street" excuse as she was driving the car and her hat was in the back seat, so, yeah, she took her hat off rather than it fell off (IMO).

It will take me a while to keep everyone straight and learn names.

[Hera]

I really liked this episode. I can see the point of the people who said that the performance based tasks were a little boring (and hard on the ears in the case of the yodeling and bells), but I think the judging was largely fair, with the usual leeway given to teams who have had many tries. I liked the design of this leg a lot because it rewarded challenge performance and navigational ability. The race sometimes struggles to manage this—some legs have totally random placements because of a needle-in-a-haystack challenge, or tasks are so straightforward that they end up being first in, first out.

On the Roadblock, I could tell from the practice round that Glenda was going to kill it. She was the only one of the racers who seemed genuinely able to yodel.

While I thought Tim and Rex were fun, I was glad Quinton and Mattie (the cheerleaders) made it through. I was on the fence about them until I saw how well they took finding out their mistake about the location of Grünwalder Hof. There was no finger-pointing, just them laughing at their reading comprehension failure. I think they must have had further trouble with navigation that we didn't see because they said they left the Roadblock about 15 minutes after Claire and Derek, but it seemed like their arrival at the Detour clue box wasn't that soon after Claire's and Derek's. Quinton alluded to this when they checked in.

14 hours ago, Fukui San said:

Aside from all the pro dancers, I don't know how anyone else chooses the dancing over the bells. It was very intricate, particularly for the knee slapper's part.

I think the knee slapper's part looked harder than it actually was; my suspicion is that it was more about keeping to the rhythm and counting than remembering a complicated set of moves. But Bells definitely would have been my choice too. I think it was easier for the teams who did Bells to know when and how they screwed up, and that's useful for correcting on your next try. I felt sorry for the tall blonde instructor at Bells, since it seemed like she had to sit there for ages listening to teams not get it.

4 hours ago, Fretful said:

Pity the poor instructor who had to teach the twins to dance but couldn't tell them apart.

That made me laugh. One of the twins had the realization, "Oh, this is confusing." I suppose if you grow up with an identical twin, you learn early on to anticipate that kind of thing and how to head it off, but since these two didn't, they're having to learn how to deal with that now.

16 hours ago, anniebird said:

Interesting that the first thing Dom did, when told she needed her hat, was lie - "It fell off when I was running. How can I find it if it's on the street?" Then when she was told that she couldn't check in without it, "I think it's in the car."

I think Phil gave them a hint when he told them, "I think you're gonna need to go back and check," and I think she correctly interpreted that as him saying that the hat was somewhere findable, which at that point, could have only meant the car. If it had actually fallen off in the street, they probably would have had to wait out a penalty rather than go back for it.

[Colorado David]

I'm not liking these singing challenges....some people abs cannot sing, and adding its a foreign language and the moves required is asking a lot of non-professional performers. 

I'm liking the cheerleader team, good energy and good attitude and I don't get the feeling they will backstab or sabotage anyone.

[Netfoot]

17 hours ago, tracyscott76 said:

I don't think that was lying, but more of an initial "well my God, it could be anywhere" reaction.

I think she was telling porky-pies in the hope of some leniency from Phil. How can you expect me to find a hat that could be literally anywhere in the whole town?

Little did she realize Phil has his operatives in place! He knew she had left the hat behind and where, before she'd got ten feet from the car! Never try to pull the wool over the eyes of the all-knowing Keoghan!

[Browncoat]

This was a fun leg!  

What is rule #1 of TAR?  READ THE CLUE!  Then you won't be searching Munich for something that is in a whole other country.  Good on them for making up all that time, though.

The dancing reminded me of European Vacation, costumes and all.  Less slapping and punching, though.  

It would be hard to get the tempo of the bells down if you're practicing in a quiet space without the accompanying accordion.  

I'm not yet attached enough to any of the teams to be sad when one gets eliminated.  T-Rex really were good sports about it all.

[Giuseppe]

3 hours ago, iMonrey said:

Everyone except Luis and Michelle. So he's a firefighter and she's a backup dancer? I'm not sure what their "hook" is. Team . . . Married? I mean, so what?

Well, a long time ago in a galaxy far far away, this show used to emphasize the relationships as opposed to the "hooks", lol. I mean, season one I didn't know Lenny and Karyn or Paul and Amie were both "model" teams until well after the race since they were both just labeled as 'dating' or 'engaged'. And it was just fine because they focused on the relationship instead of whatever unique occupation or claim to fame each team had (at least IMO). Now admittedly, the "hook" teams began appearing in earnest along about season 4, but I still appreciate teams who don't seem to have one.  That said, Luis and Michelle have made like zero impression on me yet, haha.

Edited September 29, 2022 by Giuseppe

[springbarb]

7 hours ago, Fukui San said:

Also their insistence that their first born will be a son. Not sure that’s up to you, bub. 

I found that oddly off-putting. Like, you're not even pregnant yet! It's one thing to say in a talking head that they want to have fun and win money because they want to start a family soon, but weird to be at a task and yelling "This is for Boom-Boom!"

[dgpolo]

2 hours ago, Browncoat said:

It would be hard to get the tempo of the bells down if you're practicing in a quiet space without the accompanying accordion.  

Not only quiet but they had earplugs in.

[One Imaginary Girl]

Was I the only person appreciating that photo of younger Linton?

[Skooma]

1 hour ago, Giuseppe said:

Well, a long time ago in a galaxy far far away, this show used to emphasize the relationships as opposed to the "hooks", lol. I mean, season one I didn't know Lenny and Karyn or Paul and Amie were both "model" teams until well after the race since they were both just labeled as 'dating' or 'engaged'. And it was just fine because they focused on the relationship instead of whatever unique occupation or claim to fame each team had (at least IMO). Now admittedly, the "hook" teams began appearing in earnest along about season 4, but I still appreciate teams who don't seem to have one.  That said, Luis and Michelle have made like zero impression on me yet, haha.

I think you mean Frank from Frank and Margarita.  He indeed was a working model at the time.  I never heard Margarita was though so I don't know about her. 

But Karyn was a practicing lawyer and Lenny was into some technical field like video editing or camerawork or something like that as I recall.  I mean neither remotely looked like a model anyway though Frank did.

I totally agree Paul & Amie were into modeling at the time though never as big as the more super-professional ones later on from the Wonder Twins (TAR3), all of the models on TAR4 and, to a slightly lesser degree, the models/mactors on TAR6.  The Wonder Twins were so likeable the show went down the rabbit hole with the models the following season and haven't recovered yet from that wrong turn.

Also talking about older TAR as bad as it was that the one team was in the wrong country it can't top Flo & Zach searching for a clue where they started in Geneva and a person they asked for help told them not that they were in the wrong city or country but rather they were "on the wrong continent."