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‘Fat N’ Furious’ season 3 to premiere next month
By GUY D’ASTOLFO
The Discovery Channel announced Wednesday that season three of “Fat N’ Furious: Rolling Thunder” will premiere May 2.
The eight episodes will air on consecutive Monday nights at 10 p.m.
“Fat N’ Furious” is a reality show that looks in on the crew at Boardman-based Christmas Automotive as it acquires dilapidated muscle cars from clients and restores them to racing condition – for a price.
As part of the cable channel’s block of automotive and speed programming, the show has found a solid niche among viewers by blending family-friendly humor, automotive know-how, and often touching stories about the car owners and their vehicles.
Boardman resident Tommy Christmas, the owner of the garage and the focal point of the show, said the new season will have some new turns.
“We have a lot of different cars this time,” he said. “We worked on a lot of Chevys when we first started, but we spread it out this time. There are a lot of different makes and models.”
The back stories behind the cars, and their owners, form the human element that adds conflict or gravitas to each episode. The upcoming season will build on this aspect.
“We’ve got some really down-to-Earth stories,” said Christmas. “They tug at the heartstrings. We’ve always had real stories, but it seems different this time.”
But some things won’t change a bit, said Christmas, citing the well-fed crew’s love of eating. The other members of the cast are Chuck Kountz, Andy Pivarnik and Steve McGranahan.
Shooting was done over the winter, once again at Christmas’ speed shop in a rural spot in southern Mahoning County. Some scenes also were shot at Mahoning Valley drag strips.
Christmas and his gang have become regular guests at the area’s many summer car shows.
They have a few scheduled early, including the second annual Burgers, Beards & Brews festival and car show June 3-5 in downtown Youngstown.