Graveyard Carz is a reality TV show created by Mark Worman. The show has been airing on the Velocity channel since 2012 and focuses on Worman and a rotating crew of mechanics as they take on the challenge of finding old, decrepit Mopar muscle cars and restoring them to their former glory. The cast's motto is, “it's Mopar or it's No Car,” so that should be a telltale sign of where their automotive loyalty lies.
Updated March 2023: Currently in its 15th season, the Graveyard Carz continues to thrill its fans. The fans of the classic Mopar muscle cars restoration show religiously watch as new episodes drop while they look forward to the next. However, with directors increasingly adding scripted scenes to their reality shows for more thrill, drama, and fun, the Graveyard Carz is surely not exempted, and hence, we’ve updated this article to shed more light on the real and fake scenes we discovered in the awesome show.
Worman got his first car on his 16th birthday. It was a 1970s Dodge Charger with a Burnt Orange paint job and a 383 two-barrel engine. Clearly, that car left an impression on young Worman since he's now restoring muscle cars from the same manufacturer on TV. It's not without reason that he's known as the "Mopar Guru" in the car resurrecting circles.
No matter how rusty and derelict these Mopars are, and regardless of how much time it will take, the Graveyard Carz crew will find a way to put these broken cars back together again. It takes roughly 100 days to produce one 13-episode season, and the cast will often plan a "reveal" to a car's owner once the car has been fully restored. However, there's some debate about some of what's featured on the show. As with all reality shows, scripted parts often abound, which has led people to ask what is real, genuine, actual, and sincere, and what is fake, rehearsed, altered, or scripted.
Read on to find out some of the more real and more fake aspects of Graveyard Carz.
What's Fake About Graveyard Carz: Too Much Editing And Scripting
Unfortunately, there is a lot of fakery going on in the show. This certainly isn't unique to Graveyard Carz though, as every reality TV show has more than its fair share of make-believe. In the past, the production team has admitted to editing some scenes for increased dramatic effect, and they even admitted to going as far as actually scripting some of the scenarios and situations. Many different factors go into how the film crew gets the shot and portrays it on camera.
With a reality series, excess footage is immediately available, and this needs sorting through in order to puzzle together what becomes the final product. There might be several hours of footage for each scene, while the final product we get to see on the show is only three or four minutes long. It goes without saying that the production team will use the most relevant and interesting footage for the episode, but they will also include whatever material supports their agenda for the series or episode.
The production team believes that a reality show's story is probably 80% in the editing, and they don't really know much about what the final product will look like story-wise until they're done editing. They aim to get as much mileage as possible out of a very limited number of complicated restoration jobs, and they also want to understand the personalities on the show enough to highlight their interactions at work. The producers note that a cast member's true personality is what's often portrayed on the show, but producers and editors push them along in certain situations.
As an example, there might be a certain cast member who's quick to react to a situation, so the editing teams will create a scenario where they inform everyone of a staged incident, except that one person. Doing this will create a scene around the blissfully ignorant cast member and their reaction to it. There's no doubt that these moments are very much scripted, although the production team insists that those scenes are still natural and realistic because the cast members retain their genuine personalities.
What's Real About Graveyard Carz: Arguing And Drama
Unfortunately, when it comes to a lot of the arguments and drama, much of that has been very real, according to Mark Worman. On reality TV shows, just like in actual reality, personalities will sometimes collide head-on, like the show's Daren Kirkpatrick and Josh Rose. Many viewers are Mopar fans or classic car fans in general, and they are quick to note the constant squabbling and backbiting on the show, particularly in the early seasons with the first cast. By season 4, Daren Kirkpatrick and Josh Rose departed, much to Mark Worman's delight, as he referred to them as the “Clinker Twins.”
After their departure, Worman claimed he felt energized and refreshed, ready to breathe new life into Graveyard Carz with a new cast. Having those two around was taking a serious toll on Worman, and he has revealed that those heated sessions were definitely not fictional drama. “Daren and Josh made me miserable and that was reflected in everything I did,” Worman said. “They were complete lunatics. None of the arguing you saw on the show was a shtick. It was very real bickering and daily negativity.”
He also said that their inability to work together was affecting their overall activities in the workshop and the show as a whole. After their departure, Worman and Royal Yoakum remained on the cast of Graveyard Carz, joined by Alyssa Rose and auto painter Will Scott.
What's Real About Graveyard Carz: Restorations And Body Shop
Graveyard Carz does feature actual car restorations, and the shop they use, Welby's Car Care, is a very real repair shop in Springfield, Oregon. The makeovers the cars undergo are 100% legitimate and time-consuming, such as the Little Dead Wagon.
Welby's Car Care is where the show films and Worman bought it years ago, all the way back in 1985 to be specific, to turn it into his body shop. It was once a factory where Worman was doing janitorial work in his teens. The crew's restoration, research, and documentation of Chrysler vehicles, such as the 1967 Plymouth GTX, that was aired on the Graveyard Carz, is research they have done and actual work they have performed on the vehicles.
Every part and component used for these restorations is OEM (original equipment manufacturer), a company that produces parts and equipment that another manufacturer may market. The process to find all the necessary parts is long, complicated, and very real. But the finished product is a solid car that has transformed into factory specs.
In another iconic yet real moment on the show, the team filmed the incredible moment they had to unveil the most expensive Mopar B Body in the world to its owner. The amazing car is the most valuable Mopar ever featured on the Graveyard Carz. Owned by Brett Torino, a highly successful real estate guru, business leader, and philanthropist with a car collection estimated at $30 million, the car in question is a 1970 Hemi Coronet R/T four-speed convertible.
Impressively, the classic Mopar is one of two ever built. Torino loves his car, as he had a lot to say about it at the reveal. Finished in a custom mixed Deep Burnt Orange Metallic paint color, this rare 1970 Hemi Coronet R/T featuring the immaculate job done by the team, is another testament to the restoration prowess of the Graveyard Carz crew. Furthermore, it's a real part of the show that makes the scripted moments quite forgivable.