With The Amazing Race: Family Edition just wrapped up and a new ninth Race Season lurking not too far around the corner — broadcasting in February 2006 — I thought this just might be the perfect moment to tie something like this together: Interview outtakes. I can assure you I've always considered it — ever since I interviewed Amazing Race Season One co-winner, Brennan Swain, and realized I couldn't quite fit all his words into the article I had eventually concocted. This article will serve to release some of that pent-up anxiety. 

By David W. Taylor (Email The Author) 
Reality Reel Media
12.19.05

So, dear reader, until the final Amazing Race interview from my Family Edition trilogy (the Schroeders, the Gaghans, and the... TBA) — to be published sometime just around the New Year — I thought these select unpublished quotes from Elise Doganieri (co-creator The Amazing Race), Brennan Swain and Kevin O'Connor (Amazing Race 1), Jonathan Baker (Amazing Race 6), Brian & Greg Smith (Amazing Race 7), and, the Schroeder and Gaghan families (Amazing Race: Family Edition) would hopefully help bridge any unbearable lull in both your anticipation and mine. 
 
Elise Doganieri - co-creator The Amazing Race: 
The ending of The Amazing Race, the First Season... 

"The ending was incredible because, of course, as you know, Frank & Margarita lived pretty much where we finished the Race which we didn't even realize when we laid this thing out. And they were so sure they knew the fastest, quickest way and started to tell the driver which way to go. They landed in Newark, New Jersey, so you never know if somebody knows how to get to Queens... it's a bit of a drive. 

"But I think the thing Frank & Margarita were thinking was, We'll avoid all the traffic — we're going to go over the George Washington Bridge and come up over the Tri-Borough. And what happened is they landed at sunrise on a Sunday morning. There's no traffic in New York City that early in the morning. 

"And I think Rob & Brennan, they got in their taxi and they went through, I think, the Holland Tunnel. They went right across, zipped right through Manhattan and next thing you know they're in Queens. But they were so close because literally Rob and Brennan got on that train pulled away and that's when Frank & Margarita ran up the steps." 

9/11 and struggling back... 

"The unfortunate events of 9/11 on everyone's lives did take a toll on everything. We didn't know if people would want to even watch a show where people would be traveling around the world in planes. But there was a core group of fans that did watch... 

"And we started to build a fan base. And as you may know, we've had the biggest numbers we've ever had in the history of the Race. We had 16 million for the Finale of Season 7. And so... who knows where this might end? 

"We do still have an incredible amount of people who want to be on the show who are interesting characters. We just get so many wonderful tapes. I wish we could put 50 contestants at the start of the Race."