We Are the Champions (2020) s01e06 Episode Script

1
To create her idyllic Garden of Eden,
Only the fittest survive,
and so it is for the
great American bullfrog.
This royal rumble for survival
has shaped the bullfrog
into the greatest pound-for-pound
leaper on Mother Nature's roster.
But in their quest for jump perfection,
a few elite bullfrogs have found an
even more powerful teacher than nature.
The great American frog jockey.
Go!
This is frog jumping.
Hopefully, the weather will clear up a bit
so we can enjoy what is? Left of the fair.
Cold. Yeah, a little cold.
Cold. Yours are a little warmer than hers.
Go, you're laughing a lot. Get serious.
Oh, man! That's a great
day to jump some frogs.
Okay, let's go ahead and get started
with the Calaveras Frog Jumping Jubilee.
You can train anywhere you like,
but if you want the fame
and glory that comes
with being the frog jumping
champion of the world,
it's right here, baby.
It's right froggin' here.
Angels Camp, California,
a.k.a., Frogtown, U.S.A.
Most small towns have
homecoming celebrations,
where everybody comes back,
and that's how it is at Frogtown.
On the third weekend in May,
all these frog jockeys
converge on Frogtown.
We're right at the top.
We're the? International
jumping frog jubilee, so,
we are we are it.
This is the oldest, biggest
frog jump in the world.
But, have no fear for these dear frogs.
They are treated like the
world-class athletes they are,
and protected by a set of guidelines
established by California's
Fish and Game Commission
for the safety of the amphibians,
for the legitimacy of the competition,
and for the love of Twain.
The competition was
inspired by a Mark Twain story.
It's awesome. Google it.
Much has changed in
92 years of competition,
but the rules? And regulations
have remained sacred.
You bring the frog It has
to be an American bullfrog.
You put it on a pad,
it jumps three leaps
There we got us a good jumping frog.
and we measure the distance.
Eighteen feet, nine inches.
The longest leaper gets a kick-ass trophy,
700 real American dollars,
and is immortalized on the
prestigious Hop of Fame,
alongside such greats as
"Weird Harold"
"Hill Billy Hopper" and,
of course, "Rosie the Ribiter."
Really,
Rosie the Ribiter is the record holder?
How could that be any better?
And, if anybody breaks
Rosie the Ribiter's world record,
it's a $5,000 prize.
You heard her right. That's $5,000,
pre-tax.
America, God bless it.
We don't know who is going to win,
but we know darn well
those competitors are
going to be back next year.
The human competitors, I mean.
You know, they'll probably
bring different frogs.
In life, as in frog jumping,
teamwork makes the goddamn dream work.
These are the Calaveras Frog Jockeys.
They're Frogtown royalty
and the odds-on favorite to win.
We've done well for a
bunch of dummies that
In a crazy sport
that you? Would? Never
guess it's as competitive as it is.
2012 World Champion, 2018 World Champion.
I love to win. I like being a winner.
Laura and I first met at the frog jumps.
I was probably 17.
Back then, he had a lot of hair.
And he was cute.
Laura leans over and says,
"We could do this,"
and off we went.
When we started, I
didn't think we would win.
Boy, did they ever.
Frog gold pumps through their veins.
Joe Kitchell,
Mike Nash,
Laura Kitchell,
me, myself, Riley Kitchell,
Morgan Kitchell
And I do believe there's
actually one more in there.
And if you think it's
founder, Jon Kitchell,
you'd be wrong.
Dead wrong.
Well, my trophy case is pretty empty.
It's a tough one to win.
That's what keeps us chasing it.
A hop, skip and jump away in Silicon
Valley are their great rivals,
the Gustine Team.
They are lead by
cyber-security sales expert,
Bob Fasano.
People ask, "Do you like toads?"
I don't really like toads.
Toads are small, little
toads with warts and they don't
They don't they don't jump.
I'm a jump guy.
I love frogs.
The Gustine Team has been
jumping for seven decades.
Winning is not just a family tradition,
it's a family responsibility.
The frog jump came into our
life through my father and uncle.
I grew up with it.
My brother won in 1978,
my father won in 1988,
I won in 1998,
and my son, Justin? Fasano,
recently won in 2017.
I mean, literally, I probably
have frog DNA in me.
I watched my dad win
in '04 when I was young.
And had a 12-year drought
where we didn't win again,
so, to bring that back to my family,
build on our team legacy,
and start to create my
own legacy, that was cool.
- Who's that?
- Bob.
This is the year Bob won.
You mean the video was just coincidence?
Yes.
This year, I think there is an extra
feeling that we are going to win.
If we did what we did last year,
and we just had a little bit more luck,
game over. We're gonna win.
You gotta catch the best frog.
The Gustine Team knows that catching a
champion frog is all about preparation
and location.
So, for the last 62 years,
they've been diving into
the same top-secret waters
of the [bleep] Canal.
That's right, the [bleep] Canal.
They leave no lily pad unturned,
with a tactical advance requiring teamwork,
precision, and 500 horsepower
of frog-catching chrome.
Hit it.
Catching frogs, jumping
frogs, training frogs
The whole thing, it's a process,
and it starts with catching frogs.
We have a driver,
and then you have a spotter,
and then on the back of
the truck, we have a catcher.
There's a replication
on the other side? Of
the canal, so, each spotter
is spotting at the other side of the canal.
This is a Frog Team Six operation.
And with so much family honor at stake,
they must secure the target.
There he is. Frog!
- Let's go, let's go.
- Left.
- Yeah, nice frog.
- Yeah.
If you think about legacies
that have been passed down,
the last four generations of frog jumpers,
we have been catching, training,
jumping, taking those same frogs,
and putting them back
in our same secret spot
for 60 years.
Breeding the top The best in the world.
When we grab those
frogs, you can just feel it.
They are the Michael
Jordan frogs of the frog jump.
- Yeah.
- There we go.
Twenty-footer.
The best frog of the night.
While the Fasanos execute a
Navy-grade frog catching force,
the Kitchells' approach is a little more
uncomplicated.
You guys know the
music to Gilligan's Island?
We catch the local frogs.
These other teams are
bringing up valley frogs.
Not fighting as much for
their lives as these frogs are.
Local frog, local team.
- Oh, I see one.
- Yeah.
We originally set out saying,
"Let's bring that championship back
to Calaveras county,
where we had a competition here in our
backyard and nobody was doing it."
They had told us nobody
from Angels Camp had won
in 50 years.
Fifty years is a long time.
What you know what?
Here's to the three of us and
another goddamn good year.
- Let's catch some frogs.
- Cheers.
It only takes one frog. You just need one.
I like them with longer legs.
Everybody's got their preference.
Athletic frogs, you can tell.
They got, like, an hourglass figure.
To catch the right frog and
keep the trophy? In Calaveras
requires patience
and an extra pair of dry pants.
Somewhere out in that rainy
darkness is their hero frog.
Anything over there?
Nope. Duck feather.
It's just really, really dark.
You better find a frog,
because we're sinking.
Like Jon said, "It just takes one frog."
We are starting to take on water.
And one long, wet night.
Got any duct tape?
I didn't bring it. I should have.
You've got to train the frog.
It's a gut check.
You either got it or you don't.
Sometimes people think you
got some sort of magical frogs
or a magical pond. It's not. Frog's a frog.
- Come on. Jump.
- Oh, yeah, that's a definite.
- He's I see him.
- Fast little frog.
Good job. That's a smart frog.
Come, bugger.? Might have been
He hit his head on the
garbage can, I don't know.
- That's a good one.
- Yeah, definitely going.
They are a unique creature.
These frogs have different personalities,
different mannerisms, and different looks.
You can After a while, you can get
to where you can identify frogs just
kind of like a cat.
Somebody once told me, "Jon,
when I die, I would like to come back
as one of your frogs,
because you'd get pampered.
You pamper them."
And we do.? We take very,
very, very good care of them.
Healthy frogs jump.
But when you lose as often as Jon does,
you have got to wonder,
"Is it the pampered frog,
the jockey,
or is it the? Schooling?"
For San Francisco Bay area frogs,
the finest institute of higher
learning is not Berkeley or Stanford,
it's the? Gustine Team's.
Croaker College.
Go! Go!
Fifteen.
No college admission scandals here.
This is a true meritocracy.
- Where should I put it, a 16?
- 16.
Of only the best and the bounciest.
High.
Basically, what we do is we've
taken a very large number of frogs,
we train these frogs, we weed them out,
looking at,
"Does this frog have
the ability to go 21 feet?"
- Go! Go! Go!
- Nice. Eighteen.
We mark down all frogs
that have gone plus-20 feet,
19 feet, 18 feet, 17 feet,
down to maybe about 15 feet.
Back to the pond.
You only get one frog in the final.
If you find that consistent frog
- Good one.
- you've got a winner, potentially.
That is a big frog.
Car.
Be patient.
Another car.
She was helping you with the horn.
Some people say that
frog jumping is just luck,
but the frog jockey is
the most important part.
Not over-jockeying the frog,
not scaring the frog so he turns.
Some people blow on a frog.
Some people scream
as loud as they can at the frog.
All of those things matter.
If I were jockeying a
frog against a layman,
the same frog, there is no question
I'm gonna out-jump that person.
Surprisingly enough, science
agrees with Bob Fasano.
When you think of a frog, you
think of spectacular jumping.
On average, we found that
bullfrogs could jump three feet.
Only three feet? Ha!
A pro jockey can jump
at least six or seven.
Here's how.
It seemed that the frog jockeys
had come up with an elaborate,
ritual series? Of steps
that was just dialed in perfectly
to get frogs to jump maximally.
We think that most of the
skill comes from the jockey.
But there's one magical
element science can't explain.
The frog knows the will of the jockey.
The will of the jockey.
This mysterious will must surely run strong
in the new generation of
the world-record holding team.
Go.
Beep, beep, beep, beep.
Or maybe not.
We're still learning the
whole science behind it.
Go, go, go. Go.
We're still quite young
in the frog-jumping years.
Most of the people
are, like, adults, so, like,
we're basically the
only, like, kids out there.
Our team is named
the World Champion Frog Team, because
we currently have the world's
record for the frog jump
that we've had for over 30 years.
While they set the world
record 30 years ago,
as a team, they have not won
since cargo pants were a thing.
Well, we haven't been real
strong for the last couple of years.
Go, go, go.
But, know what?
That record has been
standing for over 30 years.
With every year that Rosie's record stands,
the frog world grows more and more
obsessed.
Especially one man.
I was here when Lee
Giudici set that thing in 1986,
and I thought,
"That record, that's like the big
bomb. That's the big banana."
He may be the biggest
loser in frog jump history,
but, in Jon's mind, only
three hops stand between him,
the world record, and
amphibious immortality.
Winning it is great, but,
my dad wants? His first
win to break the world record.
Every kid dreams about,
you know, hitting the big home run
in the bottom of the last inning,
or hitting that shot at the buzzer.
You think we've got trash talking
going on now, you get that title
Woo doggy!
"Woo doggy," indeed.
Jon is confident this is his year,
but he's going to have to
go through Bob Fasano,
determined to be the first on his team
to win that elusive world championship
three times.
This is our 65th year
entering the Calaveras County Frog Jump.
It's a long family tradition.
I want to go out there and three-peat,
so we can really say
we are the best in the world.
But, let's face it,
the Kitchells and the
Calaveras County Frog
may stop us.
With the Calaveras team,
it's a little bit of country,
and with us, it's a
little bit of rock 'n' roll.
And, as everybody knows,
you can't like both.
You gotta win the damn thing.
Let's load those little babies
up. You guys about ready?
Yep.
Game seven. Game day.
On game day, we treat
the frogs like athletes.
Let's get some of that here.
We look at water temperature,
how long they're in the water,
how you prep the frog.
You know, it's all to get the
most out of a particular athlete.
Everybody's nervous.
They keep running back and forth.
You won't find a competitive frog jockey
that isn't trying to win.
- Feeling good?
- Good.
I'm going to stomp your ass.
Get out of here.
This is the only place
that you can win a world
champion frog jump.
You got one shot at it.
All right, we'd like to thank all of you
for coming to the 91st edition
of the? Calaveras Frog Jumping Jubilee.
Underneath this carpet is solid concrete,
so you're gonna see
people lay out their bodies,
and they may only go home
with your applause, okay?
Only the 50 best frogs and jockeys
get to jump for the big prize.
Ladies and gentlemen,
first up, from the Gustine Frog Team,
we have Frank Fasano
with his frog,
"Johnny Too Bad."
It's one jockey,
one jump.
Once chance to go for broke
or croak.
Go! Go! Go!
Sixteen feet, two and a half inches.
Next up, from the? World
Champion Frog Team, Bill Guzules
with "Soggy Pickle."
"Ribbit DeNiro."
"Fear the Leaper."
When you only get one chance
Here we go!
Laura's gonna set this frog.
Go! Go! Go!
Oh!
even champions can fall.
Get him out there. Get him out.
Come on, frog.
Ten feet, one and a half
inches. Ten, one and a half.
Woo! Yeah!
Oh, that was way up here.
Oh, shit. Are you kidding me?
One by one, they fall.
Come on, frog. That's gonna
be a disqualification on that.
Until only the greatest jockeys are left.
The big frogs.
All right, up next we have
Riley Kitchell with "Snafu."
Come on, baby.
Don't rush him. Don't rush.
I'm not.
For Riley Kitchell, there's
one simple path to victory.
Go on, Kit.
Become one with the frog.
All I hear is my name get called
Riley Kitchell.
Everything else gets blurred out.
Even when a crowd
stands up and starts yelling.
I don't hear a thing.
Go! Go!
- Go! Yes!
- Oh, look at that jump.
High five.
That's a pretty good
jump, ladies and gentlemen.
Eighteen feet, four and
three quarters of an inch.
Goddang it.
Next up to jump, we
have the legend himself,
Bob Fasano.
For most frog jumpers,
winning a world championship three
times is nothing short of a pipe dream.
For Bob Fasano,
it's destiny.
Winning the frog jump is
like hitting a hole in one.
Some people golf their entire life
and they never hit a hole in one.
Let's go.
I feel fortunate enough to win two
holes in one, and I want to win three.
Little bitty hops.
Well, I just made that mistake.
Didn't wanna go with that frog.
Looks like Riley Kitchell will
be holding on to that top spot.
Yes!
Up next, we have Jon Kitchell.
Jon has lost every frog
jump for the last 37 years.
Thirty-seven years.
What do you think?
We'll go with it.
Thirty-eighth time's the charm.
When my son and I were talking,
I'd help him any way I can
Any of my teammates, help them all I can,
but I will step right on their
throat on the way by to win it,
as they would, too. If they're not,
they're in the wrong business.
Jon Kitchell with his frog,
"Dennis Hopper."
I like this frog.
Break the record!
Twenty-one feet, five
inches, three quarters.
That is the distance
between Jon and his dream.
Jon's first jump has a solid seven feet.
A promising start for the perennial loser.
Jon's second jump is
an incredible nine feet,
and only 71 inches now stand between Jon
and history.
If that frog goes straight,
The world record,
the Hop of Fame,
and $5,000, pre-tax.
Oh, come on!
Dang it!
Oh, man. Oof.
Froggin' A, dude.
Froggin' A.
Maybe 39th time's the charm.
Seventeen feet, two and a quarter inches.
I may be the best that never was.
My eyes are bad.
Who has that top jump up there?
I don't know, I can't spell it.
One day, you will have
one of these buckles.
Just not this year.
Everybody goes in with the mindset of,
"I'm gonna win this thing,"
but in the back of your mind, you're like,
"Oh, man, if that actually wins,
my name's gonna be
embedded in the sidewalk."
I'm gonna have to change
my phone number after that.
With Riley leaping into the lead,
the only thing standing between him
and another Calaveras
Team trophy is this
12-year-old.
We have Logan Busch
with "The Webbed One."
Two years ago, I think I got 13th place,
and I thought that was really good, so,
my chances are
average.
This is the final jump.
All right, Logan's gonna set that frog.
That probably took
over the lead right there.
Who was that?
That little kid?
Eighteen feet, six.
Eighteen feet, six inches.
No matter how many frogs you catch,
no matter how hard you train,
no matter how many times
you step up to that lily pad,
some years, victory is just out of reach.
Our winner this year,
Logan Busch.
That's always been a dream,
walking out there and getting the trophy,
and having the plaque on the walk of fame.
The whole experience, it's just a blast.
On one thing, winners and losers agree:
Today's competition was
"ribbiting."
Those kids were good.
They knew what they were doing.
And my hat's off to them, because it's
This is a tough thing to win.
It's it's very difficult to win.
Next year.
We're coming back next year.
On our side, it's a bit
of the agony of defeat.
You know, we work hard, we play hard,
we come here to win,
but it's just so much bigger than that.
It's that family unity.
We were all together,
we all had a great time,
and we're gonna talk
about it all year long.
The frog jump could? Go
either way, it doesn't matter,
because it's more than just a competition.
It's a family tradition that
It really bonds us.
That's part? Of the reason why
we've been here for 62 years.
Gustine Frog Team!
The Calaveras County Frog Jumping Jubilee.
We're going to get all our frogs,
we're going to take them back
to where we caught them from,
wish them a great year,
and tell them we'll be
back next year to do it again.
We are professional frog jumpers.
Should it be in the Olympics? I don't know.
A group of toads is called a knot,
a group of frogs
is an army,
a group of frog jockeys,
that's a family.
And family knows
whether you're in first place
or dead, stinkin' last,
it doesn't matter.
Ultimately, we're all on the same team.
So, when any of us leap,
we all leap,
because we're all at
that lily pad together,
and because we
are
the champions.