(S05E15) Well, all right! I admit it, I was partial to Sean winning this season's The Apprentice. Although he was quiet during the early weeks he really stepped up to the plate after the herd had thinned out a bit. In fact, during the last two tasks before the final project, when he was teamed with Lee on Gold Rush, Sean really was a shining star.
Granted, Lee Bienstock was no slouch, either. For someone who I thought would be a 'hanger-on' to anyone who seemed to be a winner in Gold Rush (and, believe me, they were few and far between) he really came into his own when all of the chafe was sorted out. By the end of the series you could really see some newfound maturity in the young man. Pretty impressive for someone who had recently graduated college.
Well, now that we know who the winner is, let's go back in time and find out how our Tammy-loving Sean became Donald Trump's newest employee on The Apprentice.
We last left Sean and Lee in crisis situations. Sean's Synergy team, which was in charge of a World Wildlife Foundation benefit concert, had just become one short after Andrea rushed out of the Trump Taj Mahal to find out why she was coughing up blood. In the meantime, Lee and his Gold Rush team, who were working on a charity celebrity hockey tournament, were about to be brought to task by the director of the Leary Firefighters Foundation (the beneficiary of the event), who wanted to see a walk-through.
Turns out Andrea only had a burst blood vessel in her sinuses; emergency averted. So, it was back to business for Synergy, with Sean walking the commercial sponsor of the concert through some of his ideas, which included Donald Trump and a panda-suited lead singer of the Barenaked Ladies sitting in one of their cars. Needless to say, the panda-suit idea went right out the window. For Gold Rush, the emergency was not averted, as the charity director was unimpressed with Lee's ideas, including having Lenny meet the celebrity hockey players. Considering the fact Lenny mixed up Michael J. Fox with Jamie Foxx, I would be concerned as well.
Event time arrives for both teams and it seems that Gold Rush is carrying on its traditional losing ways. The team has another meeting with a representative of the Leary Firefighters Foundation and it does not go well at all. When the rep asks Lee how they would get actress Jamie Presley (My Name is Earl) out onto the ice when introduced he says, 'We put her in skates'. Synergy has its tensions as well, as Tarek expresses his disappointment with Sean's lack of visibility as the concert time nears and they almost lose the music CD of one of their sponsors.
I don't know if it was they way they edited the piece, or if Gold Rush was that inept, but it just seems that Lee's team members were junking his chances without him knowing it. Lenny was the liaison between the celebrities and his team, but was never to be found. People like Jason Priestly couldn't find their way to the locker room, and Jamie Presley had no idea what she was going to do or where she was going to go. Lee didn't meet Trump at the door, no one was bidding during the silent auction, and what the hell was Roxanne doing during all of this time? It just didn't seem like a very successful event (although the Leary Firefighters Foundation director thought it was).
Back in Atlantic City, things went as smooth as they could. Other than the lack of a particular sponsor's signage at the pre-concert party, all seemed to go well. Synergy earned more money for the WWF then they thought they would, and everyone seemed to enjoy the concert. Sean even met Mr. Trump on the heli-pad when he arrived. I have a feeling that Donald made his decision even before the live show.
In the first boardroom, Trump, Carolyn and George had some questions for Lee. Mainly, why the hell did he pick the team he had? They were all very curious as to his decision and Lee's answer really didn't satisfy them. As for why they thought they could be the next Apprentice? Sean felt that his maturity and years of experience would be a perfect fit for the Trump organization, while Lee thought that his spunky youth would allow him to go farther than Sean had.
Not much happened during the live boardroom, which was held at the Orpheum Theater in Hollywood (to promote the next cycle of The Apprentice, which is to be held in Los Angeles). The only item of interest, other than the announcement that Sean had won, was that he was in love with Tammy. Well, we kind of knew that already after several weeks of gushing commentary by Sean.
Some final thoughts: I never understood the 90-minute finale setting for the end of the season. I guess they tried to emulate shows like American Idol but it doesn't really fit in this environment. There was just too much filler until we got to the hiring. Also, if you're going to have the fired candidates up on the stage with you, use them a lot more than window dressing. Finally, Brent cut his hair and looked thinner. Maybe he saw himself on TV and went 'Holy s*$#! I need to lose some weight!'
Kids, it's been fun, and I hope you enjoyed my reviews of The Apprentice, season five. Have a good summer.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-06-2006 @ 2:00AM
Richard said...
Can we please discourage anyone on The Apprentice from using the phrase "step up to the plate" ever again? Or anyone from saying it ever again, ever?
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6-06-2006 @ 2:11AM
tedz said...
Even after all the jokes, it still wasn't clear what exactly Pepe did for the final task.
Lee unknowingly picked the short straw with the Hockey event. The concert venue, being at the Trump Taj Mahal, was like home court, and the attendants seemed more apt to throw big money at the charities. No matter though, as the inclusion of the hapless Lenny, who helped to recruit and assemble Lee's team, was the deathblow.
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6-06-2006 @ 2:11AM
wondering said...
Where was Michael J.Fox?- I was really looking forward to seeing him or at least hearing some mention of him other than Lenny mixing him up with Jamie Foxx.
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6-06-2006 @ 2:39AM
Michale said...
lol i have been busy with school, and havent got around to watching the finale yet. Guess there is no reason to watch it now. Your usually pretty good about leaving this stuff till after the jump, although i guess enough time has passed that i really shouldnt bitch.
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6-06-2006 @ 8:11AM
Chris.B said...
During this entire Apprentice season, I didn't have a favorite person who I wanted to see win. I couldn't believe that Lee & Sean were the two finalists.But, on second thought,considering this season's group of potential apprentices... I can believe it. I didn't even bother watching the finale. When I saw that Lee allowed Lenny to influence him into who to pick for his group for his final win, I knew then that Sean had already won...And it wasn't that Sean had a "dream team" as he thought, it was as tedz (#2)said, " Lee's inclusion of hapless Lenny...was his deathblow ".
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6-06-2006 @ 9:41AM
LC said...
"Brent cut his hair and looked thinner. Maybe he saw himself on TV and went 'Holy s*$#! I need to lose some weight!'
If that's all he got out of seeing himself he is in serious trouble.
I don't even think it came down to the task on how Trump made his decision. He had to choose between a bright kid with no experience and a bright man who has had 10 years experience handling multi million dollar deals. It was a no brainer.
My favorite part was in the boardroom when Lee and Sean were (pun intended) trying to trump each other by touting their achivements and education where Sean ended it by saying "I was valedictorian".
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6-06-2006 @ 9:51AM
TaraFromJersey said...
I didn't watch the whole season of Apprentice, I caught a show here and there. I did however watch last weeks to see who was going down to the final two. I thougth Sean had iteasy and Lee just let him have it! Lee didn't say well I wanted to do the concert etc.. I didn't like Sean's cocky attitude last week,but i liked him better this weeek. altho I did expect him to win, I think the team he picked was good. Lee was just about who loves me? What? And You couldn't understand Lenny at all.. how funny was it that Carolyn almost keeled over and doed laughing and wet her pants when she saw Pepi was on Lee's team.. Poor Pepi!.. anyway I think the best man won, and I think its nice Sean found Tammy. A Fellow Jersey girl!
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6-06-2006 @ 10:13AM
Tammy said...
Okay, other than hearing how much the cars went for, did they say how much each team raised? The Leary Foundation is a good charity and has been around for years and this wasn't the first year of the celebrity hockey tournament either. So they should have had some big money in the stands as well. It was just obvious that Lee and his team knew nothing about sports or sporting events. Even I knew more about how to handle the announcing of the teams and stuff like that from watching All Star games and what not.
Lenny was a basket case. He was guessing on sizes of uniforms for people to wear. When Pepe said that some lockers had more stuff than others that didn't ring a bell for either one of them to figure out why. It was just mass chaos and I think it was edited to look better than worse on television.
Was Trump ever introduced to the crowd at the hockey game? He looked pissed when he left. All they did was put him on a seat cushion that said reserved. Granted, it didn't look like there was any other seating there but they didn't make a fuss over him at all. Sean had him coming out in the car and talking to the crowd at the concert. You have to play up to Trump's ego too when you are on this show.
Also, why the heck does the winner have to run off to get in a car each time? Can't they film them both in a car before hand and use which ever one wins at the end. We had 3-5 mins of filler until Sean got in that car.
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6-06-2006 @ 10:18AM
MrsEldubya said...
Notice how Terak never had anything nice to say about Sean? Sure he did a good job organizing the VIP Party but all he did was whatever the sponsor told him to do and he is the one who didn't put up any Pontiac signage in there. I think Terak was a tad jealous that it was Sean and Lee left.
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6-06-2006 @ 10:31AM
Bigp42 said...
In regards to your comment about weight loss, according to Wikipedia, Brent claims he lost over a hundered pounds on a diet he created.
See respectively:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brent_Buckman and
http://www.brentbuckman.com/
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6-06-2006 @ 11:19AM
Smeagle said...
I don't care what the reason was, he committed to the show and Lee only participated in 14 weeks of competition as opposed to Sean's 16. The right person definitely won.
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6-06-2006 @ 1:03PM
Misty said...
It seems like past years' finales have featured more discussion of the final task than last night's did. I can't help wondering if Trump almost felt sorry for how very badly Lee's event went, and decided not to beat him up with it, since it was clear who was winning.
And for the person who asked, Michael J Fox was playing on one of the celebrity teams. They showed him briefly in his hockey uniform.
Misty
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6-06-2006 @ 2:47PM
Angela said...
HA! LC, that totally cracked me up...I had to instant replay TiVo to hear it again it was so funny.
Also, did anyone see during the credits when Trump was talking to Lee and you could definitely read his lips as he said "Call me next week," and then either said "I've got something for you" or "I'll put in a good word for you" something along those lines. It definitely surprised Lee because you could see his facial expression thinking "yeah, thanks Mr. Trump" and then a quick raised eyebrow and more enthusiastic "Really?! Thank you, sir."
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6-07-2006 @ 7:07AM
Celeste said...
Everything about Sean was OK except his ridiculous puppy love for the personality-free Tammy--that alone should have lost him the title.
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6-07-2006 @ 12:35PM
Will said...
My question is why Trump did not ask Sean if there should be a co-winner like he asked Randal from last season? It was obvious that Trump could have went either way with his choice.
His kids and George could not decide. The fired contestants was nearly split. Carolyn was the only person to say both were good but Sean was the better leader.
Sean and Lee was by far a tougher decision than Randal and Rebecca. Rebecca brought nothing to the table during the competition but her beauty, which Trump liked.
The used the fans vote to bail him out.
Also Randal did not get a car at the end of the show when he won.
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6-07-2006 @ 12:51PM
MrsEldubya said...
FYI - Sean was on Regis today and said he has not proposed to Tammy. That in the final board room filming Mr Trump kept asking him are you going to marry her and he would say no and finally Trump asked are you love her and he said yes, Mr Trump I am. It was just editing. He is in love and they are dating but that's it.
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6-07-2006 @ 12:57PM
John Hesselbrock said...
This year's Apprentice was the worst group of applicants for a job I have ever seen. With over a million applicants to choose from, these were the best of the lot? The Apprentice ought to get a better pool of contestants for next year. Being a former multinational corporate business owner (now retired), I wouldn't have hired anyone of them. They were all terrible. But, Donald did get the best of the worst. Hope Sean works out all right for him.
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6-10-2006 @ 12:42PM
Kathleen said...
Richard (#1): I think "at the end of the day" is a phrase that should be retired too.
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6-11-2006 @ 11:10PM
Gordon said...
I really didn't think Lee was qualified at all the be the apprentice. It was pretty clear even with the editing and frankenbiting that he was not as qualified as Sean.
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