Exclusive: New ‘American Chopper’ Trailer Released

Discovery Channel’s American Chopper is back with a new trailer for its upcoming season after five years away from screens across the country.

The father and son duo of Paul Teutul Sr. and Paul Teutul Jr. are reviving their hit show with the new season starting May 28 — but before then, American Chopper fans should check out the trailer for the upcoming season in the video above.

In the trailer, fans get a glimpse into the high-pressure jobs the father-son duo are expected to complete in the upcoming season, as well as the still raw relationship between the two.

“It’s been almost a decade since we worked together,” Teutul Sr. said in the trailer.

“Me and my father are continuing to work on our relationship. I just think it’s going to take a while to heal,” Teutul Jr. says.

Despite high tensions and tense personal relationships, the stakes are higher than ever. “Failure is not an option,” Teutul Sr. can be heard saying at one point.

American Chopper first debuted in 2002 and ran for six season seasons through 2010 across 165 episodes, first on Discovery Channel and later on TLC.

American Chopper: Senior vs. Junior, the show’s spin-off, ran for another four seasons and 70 episodes, ending in December 2012. The duo originally worked together for Orange County Choppers, which Teutul Sr. started in 1999 by manufacturing custom motorcycles as part of his steel business, OC Iron Works.

The spilt between father and son wasn’t the smoothest transition. Teutul Jr. was fired by his father in late 2008, but return to the shop within months as a contractor. He officially left the family business in April 2009, starting up his own design company, Paul Jr. Designs.

In retaliation, Teutul Sr. attempted to buy out his son’s 20 percent share in the company, leading to a lawsuit. Teutul Sr. won the original lawsuit, but Junior won his appeal and was allowed to keep his share in the company until a fair selling price was agreed to.

Paul Jr. Designs officially opened in April 2010, spawning the American Chopper: Senior vs. Junior spin-off.

Celebrities who own custom made-motorcycles from the Teutuls include Will Smith, Bill Murray, Jay Leno, President Donald Trump, Lance Armstrong and Russell Crowe. Sports teams such as the New York Jets, New York Yankees and Kansas City Royals have also had custom bikes made by the famous duo.

Fans were thrilled over the Teutul family reunion in March when a sneak peek into the upcoming season aired on Discovery.

The show started off with Teutul Sr. speaking to his other son Mikey, who told him the best person to talk to about getting a new-front end on a bike would be Teutul Jr. The show cut to a phone call between the two, where they agreed to meet at the Orange County Choppers shop. Teutul Sr. admitted that the two haven’t been close since he started raising a family and left the shop to run his own business, Paul Jr. Designs.

Later in the episode, one of Teutul Jr.’s workers gets contacted by someone who owns one of the bikes the father and son duo made back in 2005. Known as “The Yankee Bike,” the custom-made ride was decked out in New York Yankees colors and was signed by dozens of Yankee players.

However, in the years since it had been created it had been poorly maintained and was a broken version of its former self. Teutul Jr. then decided this was be a perfect restoration project the two could work on together.

“Someone like malous-ly [sic] destroyed this thing,” Junior said when his dad came to see the bike at his shop.”What I had in mind was restoring it completely, but even more importantly I was hoping that maybe you and I could do this as a restoration project. I don’t know, just to try and have something to do together.”

“Yeah, I mean we could do it right here,” Senior said.

Teutul Jr. was overjoyed that he gets to work with his father again on something.

“For me it’s huge,” he said in a confessional. “The Yankees Bike in some way represents our relationship in how damaged our relationship has been. What an opportunity to actually physically repair this and at the same time hopefully begin to repair our relationship. And I think it’s something we really need. It’s something I need, I know that.”