Yesterday, The Learning Channel appear the quick cancellation of "American Chopper." The concluding episode will air tonight at 9pm Eastern.  Over the six-twelvemonth run of the bear witness, I watched almost every episode — purely for the dearest of seeing Paul, Jr.'southward designs come up to life in metallic — merely the ane, universal, totem taken away from the plan is the horrible reality of an alcoholic father who is envious of his sons and sabotages them at every turn week after calendar week and year afterward year.  The constant threat of physical violence, coupled with emotional and verbal abuse, makes Paul Teutul, Sr. one of the almost despicable men in the history of reality television every bit he not simply strangled, simply castrated, his virtually beloved and most talented son, Paul, Jr.

What makes a father hate a son so much?

Jealousy.  Vanity.  A abysmal pit of cocky-loathing that can never be filled.

Sure, Paul, Sr. hasn't "had a potable" in many years, just he even so behaves like a drunken bully:  He's a "Dry Drunk" and he loves every moment of his never catastrophe rage.  He yells and screams and throws things in childish tantrums edged to give him his mode.

If you do not bow down to the father, then the father volition kill you and it was that threat of real violence that propelled "American Chopper" each week and likely fueled the ratings.  You lot always hoped, in the end, that Sr. would somehow see the light and the error of his ways and just back off his boys a trivial bit to let them live costless and exhale well.  It never happened.

The dandy in the boy always erupted in the father to punish the prodigal sons, and every single family fellow member who worked with Sr. ended up ostracized or fired.

The emergence of Paul Sr.'s new married woman on the television set prove to replace the loss of Paul, Jr. in the cycle shop this season, was a foreboding that not fifty-fifty TLC could ignore based on Paul Sr.'s, established upstanding habit of action:  The wife replaces the son in the circle of violence, and the wrath of the father becomes the fury of the husband, and we are merely moments abroad from an assault on her considering she completes the cycle of abuse.  Paul, Sr. will annihilate her in situ, and on TV, but as he destroyed anybody else who stood with him.

Information technology seems ongoing public kid corruption was acceptable to Discovery/TLC for the vi year run of "American Chopper" — but the threat of the gathering tempest of spousal abuse only gets a few ane-60 minutes episodes earlier finding the producer'due south axe.

Orangish County Choppers was built on the dorsum of Paul, Jr.'due south successful motorcycle designs and while everyone at OCC knew that — Paul, Sr. refused to admit in public that the magic and spine of the business was his son and non him.

I guarantee you Paul, Sr. knows in his gut that Paul, Jr. is the better human being and more talented than he is and that fact gnaws his gut more whatever rotgut ever could — but instead of accepting the necessary divinity of a son walking in a father'south footfalls, this begetter prefers to poison the route alee past first firing, and so suing, the starshine son:

The Orange County Choppers' Paul Teutul Sr. filed a lawsuit in country Supreme Courtroom in Goshen against his son, Paul Teutul Jr., for what could corporeality to millions in damages. The cadre argument is over how much Senior should pay Paulie for his share of the company, headquartered in the Boondocks of Newburgh.

In an explosive episode that aired at the beginning of season half-dozen of TLC's "American Chopper," Paulie was fired from the company. In real life, as role of the termination, Paulie agreed to sell his 20 percent ownership to his father, according to the suit.

Since then, the two have been unable to compromise on how much that share is worth.

"It's sorry it's come to this," Senior's lawyer, Richard Mahon II, said.

Because the ii could not agree, Senior is asking the court to appoint an appraiser to value the company. The suit besides asks for an injunction disallowment Paulie from engaging in competitive business activities and interfering with the visitor'due south relationship with suppliers.

The fact of human living is that children are built-in to supercede their parents and most fathers would wallow in the success of their sons — but not Paul, Sr.  He sees his sons as competition and he is set to destroy them.

Instead of retiring and letting the son get the godhead of the family empire, the father prefers to burn downward the business organization to leave behind simply the ashes of what was once almost a great customs of family unit spirit and friendly creativity.

Mikey Teutul is the virtually tragic son.  He is the buffoon who couldn't continue a job except for being daddy's Jester.  While Mikey was always ready to crack a joke or try to keep peace in the family — nosotros knew his spirit was crushed past his begetter in babyhood and we were only seeing the overweight and unhappy trounce of the dormant man.

This season, we learned Mikey, like his father before him, is a drunk.  Mikey, with the assist of Paul, Jr., entered rehab and wanted to become a stand-up comedian.  We who watch the show know that Mikey'due south comedy routine is just another bomb in the overlong way station of his failures.

Some drunks become dry and turn to brittle rage while others wither from the inside out with no way of condign someone on their own terms.  Nosotros mourn the living life of Mikey Teutul, and we root for his success, only we also know he will never discover peace until he buries his calumniating father.

As "American Chopper" ends this evening, we must now have what we always knew from the offset, simply could never quite confess until now:  There will exist no lasting forgiveness or reconciliation in the Teutul family.

That realization leaves us empty and tarred and we wonder why we invested then much promise with so little return.

The lesson in "American Chopper" isn't a pleasant one.  Nosotros've been taught past the show that sometimes the bully wins and sometimes the expert sons are betrayed past a male parent's unrestrained cravenness — and while that lesson becomes a alarm against our naive yearning — nosotros still can't assistance only feel there had to be some other fashion, a less kleptomaniacal path, a different method of thinking that could've saved Paul Teutul, Sr. from himself and salvaged the vivid promise of the sons he created and then systematically destroyed before our eyes for vi long, unforgiving, years.