I remember an episode of "Get Smart" in which a mobster is on his deathbed and asks to be told that "My Mother the Car" is coming back. When he is asked why, he answers that "Going won't seem so bad." Allan Burns who created "My Mother the Car" also co-wrote that episode of "Get Smart."
That sounds like the kind of joke they'd make on "Sledge Hammer!" which actually survived two seasons but deserves an episode anyway, because it was amazing.
@zombiedodge1426 Sledge Hammer can always get a "Slightly Longer Than 13 Week Theatre" episode. That show broke so many conventions it was incredible. What can be said for ABC renewing the show despite low ratings and then moving it against The Cosby Show?!
I was going to say I would have thought it hurt his career, too. He was great in Coach. He played a loveably goofy dork well. Hey, between them, he and Dauber shared a full brain! LOL PS -- And I still can't believe Dauber (Bill Fagerbakke) is the voice of Patrick Star on Spongebob now! The guy's made a profitable, long-running career of playing idiots....
He played a similar role on Griffith's second sitcom Headmaster,which was cancelled in mid season and Griffith came back in The New Andy Griffith Show,a sickeningly sweet show.Both those shows should be in 13 Week Theatre.
He had two scrips in front of him one garunteed the other not so much Jerry took the garunteed and did my mother the car.. the other one he turned down?? Gilligans island
Ha, I was wondering when you'll tackle this. Great episode, I didn't even notice it didn't have a laugh track at first, and damn, Jerry Van Dyke's decision must be on the level of Decca Records rejecting the Beatles. Happy 50 episodes, here's to 50 more!
@@itiswhatitaintanditaintwha1427 Or replacement Barney Fife. Plus, "Hey, Jerry - this former Air Force Pilot is doing a 'Wagon Train To The Stars' thing and needs a ship's captain...No? Well, I heard Mary is doing a show where she'll play a single woman with this funny egoist as a news anchor...Really?'
@@shoresean1237 Not becoming the substitute Barney Fife had to be a wise decision. There was no way the public would accept a replacement for Don Knotts, as Jack Burns would find out. Now, Jerry Van Dyke as Gilligan... there's an intriguing idea. There's no telling how that would have turned out, but surely Bob Denver thanked Van Dyke profusely for his decision.
This series aired with a laugh track, but was removed when the show was released on DVD. The show also aired on Antenna TV in reruns for a couple of years.
I enjoyed this show when I caught it a few years ago in reruns. Not great, but not legendarily bad, either. I enjoyed imagining that Crabtree was a man who was having a nervous breakdown and imagining his mother's voice as a way of coping. I even cast Count Manzini as a psychologist who was trying to bring Dave back to reality by separating from his fixation with the car...
in the neon-lit darkness of the Near Future... "This is the 3rd time I've had to drive you out of a firefight with the Ultra-mafia! Between this and going to that questionable 'doctor' for those tech-interface modifications, I have never been so disappointed in you!" "*sigh* Yes, Mom." "Seriously, all this running around, doing shady jobs for whoever waves a few thousand credits! Why couldn't you have just settled down with that nice lady. What was her name? Oh yes, Jennifer. Why couldn't you have settled down with her?" "Mom, Jennifer Zynak is a CORPORATE ASSASSIN!" "Don't raise your voice at me! At least Jennifer has a steady job with actual benefits, including dental!"
I confess that I have a soft spot in my heart, and head, for those '60's sitcoms about magical weirdness. Bewitched, My Favorite Martian, etc. As a kid, I loved MMTC. I even built the model kit of the 1928 Porter. I watched MMTC & It's About Time every weekend when Antenna TV showed them a few years ago.
Fun fact: the term 'high concept' in the entertainment industry application was first used in the press by Aaron Spelling in 1972, probably getting it from ABC's Barry Diller. The term originally didn't refer to an outlandish or unusual series premise...ABC started doing sophisticated audience research in the mid-70s; such as testing series concepts in door-to-door surveys in key TV markets across the country where householders would rate TV series concepts with a score. The best scoring descriptions would be designated by the researchers as ‘high concept.’ The highest rated 'high concept' series would always contain a 'woman in jeapordy' theme. One such series concept called Harry's Angels which was renamed, debuting with an incredible 54 share in 1976. By the time it went to series, the TV movie for Charlie's Angels had been seen by 92% of the public they surveyed.
You must be thinking of that episode of "The Munsters" where Eddie trashes the set of the Zombo show. But the character is glad that it happened because he feels that he was meant for better things. ("Hamlet! Othello! My Mother the Car!") That segment was later edited from the episode. Also, Louis Nye played Zombo.👍
Pab...this is just about ground zero of my fascination with classic TV. Our household watched each and every episode of this show. I remember if fondly and to this DAY I can sing the theme song. Great episode bud.
I too watched the show when I was a young kid and can hear the theme song in my head. If I remember correctly, there was a show about “stop on a dime brakes“ where the car had the original brakes and because of “mother“ it was able to stop on a dime and they wanted to do a commercial about it. The things you remember.
17:20 FIrmly rooted like Flying Nun and Second Hundred Years. LOL Great job as usual. Like Plan 9 from Outer Space, this one does not even break into my Top 10 worst lists, but I agree with all your observations. Maybe it is just Jerry Van Dyke that gives it a special place in my heart. I even liked "Accidental Family,"" his next flop.
Even in the early 1970s we had shows like Nanny and the Professor and The Girl with Something Extra. Both were more subtle with their high concept. I read about Second Hundred Years once in the old Encyclopedia of Television Shows. What a confusing concept! A prospector gets frozen in ice, thaws out decades later like Captain America, his son is now a senior citizen and physically older than him, his grandson is the exact age as him AND the spitting image of him, he acts younger than his son AND his grandson...head...spinning...from...plot...twists!
As a fan of the show since watching it as a boy during its network run, and owner of the 'hero' car (the customized Norm Grabowski rod), I'm thrilled you chose to do a treatment of 'My Mother the Car'. Your doc is highly watchable and most interesting, exhibiting exhaustive research. The appeal of art and entertainment is largely a matter of taste, so opinions are bound to vary about this series and others. I feel MMTC incorporated production values and creative talent comparable to media entertainment of its type and time. I loved it then, and understandably continue to be a devotee. The car is a very interesting automotive specimen and tv artifact, one of a pair. (The Barris 'stunt' Porter also survives, in nicely restored condition.) 'Mother' is a challenge to maintain and conserve, is a beautiful antique car (in my opinion), and is fun to drive.
I consider Nanny and the Professor, which aired in the early 70s, to have a foothold in fantasy, so tv did delve into fantasy sooner than "several decades", IMHO.
Weird bit of trivia but Captain Manzeni or however you spell his name from The Garbage Pail Kids Movie was a reference to THIS show. But you want to know the sad part? I like comedies that don't have a laugh track but the important thing to remember about shows like that is how they are paced. They are paced to not have those gaps and pauses where the laugh track/audience is supposed to react so things are always moving. In this case, it's very slow in places where it actually hurts the pacing. Granted, this show has led to a few spoofs over the years which I think is its best legacy. Also, I love the 're-imaging'; "My Mother the Car Minus Mother" Plus that horn? It sounds like something from a late era horror PS1 game. It sounds so UNEARTHLY. Edit: I wanted to ask if Chris Hayward was related to Andy Hayward, who is known in animation circles for being the head of DiC Entertainment.
They aren't related. They also spell their last name differently. (Chris Hayward and Andy Heyward.) Only connection is they both had big careers in animation.
1930 was (probably) the first year that a COMMERCIAL car radio was installed. I've got a 1923 high school yearbook from Denver, CO in which the senior class had their own "Radio Club", and one of the things they did was to wire a radio into a car's electrical system. So the car had an operational radio in it, but of course it wasn't built into the dash. 12V batteries are still used to operate radios to this day, so the above idea wasn't much of a stretch. It's likely that this high-school radio club of 1923 wasn't the first group to wire a radio into a car.
A little side trivia. You mentioned Jack Burns taking over the deputy role in Andy Griffith's show. Well Jack Burns would later team up with Mr. Manzini Avery Schreiber to form the comedy team of Burns and Schreiber. They would have their own short lived variety show. Maybe a show you might check out later for 13 week Theatre.
Burns and Schreiber predated this show. They met at Second City and we’re doing comedy albums together in the early 60’s. They didn’t get their TV show until 1973 but they were together before then.
I’m a Patreon subscriber, I already watched and want to say I LOVED IT! Won’t be spoiling what episode is about but it’s very worthy of being a “very special edition of 13 Week Theater.” That’s all I’m saying, much love Pab!
Avery Schreiber. I immediately recognized that face (especially the mustache) from bit parts in various movies and TV shows I saw growing up in the 70s and 80s. I didn't know his name until now.
My Mother The Car was screwed by timeslot too, in addition to being slated as bad. It was on Tuesday nights in the same 8pm timeslot against the final season of Rawhide on CBS (the one with Clint Eastwood pre film stardom and with Frankie Laine singing the theme) and Combat on ABC. Both the latter two shows were established as well to add.
Weird thing: Avery Schreiber later appeared on an episode of Wonderbug (officially a Sid & Marty Krofft production but it was actually produced by Ruby/Spears) ... in which he ... um ... hypnotized Wonderbug to turn EEE-VAL! Yes, with a swinging watch. He hypnotized a freaking car. And that may not be as embarrassing as his overacting here....
And to square the circle, Schreiber was the longtime standup comedy partner of Jack Burns, who took the role of The Andy Griffith Show's Warren Ferguson that Jerry Van Dyke had turned down.
Believe it or not, this show was a hit with the younger audiences. Demographic audience measurement was not as sophisticated then as it is now, and that audience was not seen as important.
May I ask that you consider doing one on Bill Bixby's series "The Magician?" A series that actually changed its format mid-season from Anthony Blake being a jet hopping magician to the manager of a Magic Club (With the actual Magic Castle being used for exteriors.)
Some good shows to consider; The Robert Guillaume Show, Police Squad and No Soap Radio. Another bad one, the My Mother the Car of the 1990’s, “Whoops!” There was also “I Married Dora which had a more memorable series finale than the actual show, Married With Children spin off, “Top of the Heap” which they tried to revise as Bobby and Vinny. I was born in 1972, and I have a great long term memory, (My short term memory, not so much.) so I have a long list.
This is terrific, a beautiful rundown of legendarily awkward show. I was hoping to see clips from the other TV shows that made jokes about it: “The Bob Newhart Show,” “Get Smart,” “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “The Munsters,” and maybe others.
Im rewatching this and I’m just like, Why didn’t they just make mom a modern car ? I watched the first episode on the old trio channel in 2003, and the pilot felt like it was two hours l o n g.
Great as always, for the future, I think your next UK show should be Moonbase 3. It had some of the best sci-fi writers in Britain behind it, including Terrance Dicks and Barry Letts, and James Burke of Tomorrow's World and Connections was a script adviser, but its turn towards more dark, gritty, realistic science fiction simply wasn't what viewers wanted, and like some of the others you've shown, it suffered the same fate as other pioneering shows, nobody knew what to do with it, so audiences just rejected it.
Would love to see a episode about "Fantastic Journey", the 1977 sci-fi series. The pilot was a lot of fun, and showed a lot of potential. But it was all downhill after that.
Also the tv version of Logan's Run and Otherworlds...all had similar concepts. People traveling to different locations, with different societies, trying to get home/a better situation.
My Mother the Car makes the perfect 50th episode and I enjoyed it very much. I have some episodes of this show and I don't think it's that bad (I've seen worse from the 1960s). At least it lasted the whole season. Check what ABC did in the mid 1960s, bomb after bomb after bomb!
Tell me about it! O.K. Crackerby! was a 1965 ABC sitcom starring Burl Ives. It was so bad and forgettable there's not even a Wikipedia entry about it! (Here's a link to an episode on UA-cam if you dare want to watch it: ua-cam.com/video/xi1vO9rlLww/v-deo.html ) EDIT: Somebody must have seen this post because there's now a Wikipedia entry for this show.
I've never actually seen an episode of "My Mother The Car", but based on the clips here, I need seek it out. The lack of laugh track gives Jerry VanDyke's performance a level of sincerity that I didn't think was possible from something so ridiculous.
The craziest thing about this show is that it's WAAAAAAY better than a lot of junk that's on T.V. nowadays. I'd rather watch this than Keeping Up with the Kardashians! Do yourselves a favor and watch the episode where Mother insisted on going to the drive-in to see a movie starring her favorite actor, Sonny Tufts. It's hilarious, trust me!
@@Laceykat66 It's About Time was on Antenna TV at the same time My Mother the Car was. In fact, they came on Sunday mornings back to back. You're right, Lacey, they were both about the same quality...and both of their theme songs were bangers! Ahhh, The Mothers-in-Law...that was an odd duck show if ever I saw one! Basically, I Love Lucy or The Lucy Show without Lucy or Viv. Someone posted a video of its theme song with custom lyrics that described that show PERFECTLY: ua-cam.com/video/ydsCxFWTxGk/v-deo.html
This was totally worth waiting for! Thanks for sharing this one! I saw one episode of this series on one of those rerun channels and I was stunned at how bad it was. There just wasn't anything remotely funny about any of it. Watching that car lot scene in your clip... yeah, I was thinking it looked like he was having a psychotic break. And the fact that an imaginary voice knows things that the person imagining it knows isn't really very convincing. I have to admit though, Jerry Van Dyke's performance is quite good, particularly in that initial car lot scene. Maybe that's why people were thinking Twilight Zone when there was no laugh track? It definitely feels either Twilight Zone or psychotic break...
Your so insightful and funny as well. I would love to see an episode of The Playboy Club, that NBC disaster that wanted to be like Mad Men. Plus, it has Amber Heard who’s in the news lately.
Wasn't Eddie Cibrian in that show? He knows about floundering shows- he was brought into the Aaron Spelling soap Sunset Beach, coincidentally from NBC, to replace Ashley Hamilton (yes, George's son, and who later released a song called Wimmin, co-written with Robbie Williams. Yes, that is the actual song title by the way). Not that Cibrian made a jot to the soap's ratings in the US (it was popular in Europe, including the UK), where it was dead last among the 11 daytime soaps at the time for the entire run. Not to mention he was brought into Baywatch Nights by David Hasselhoff midway through S1 to grab the Baywatch audience in desperation. Same reason why Donna D'Errico came in at the same time, to try to clone the success of Pamela Anderson. Well Donna was married to Nikki Sixx of Motley Crue at the time. To bring both Cibrian and D'Errico onto Baywatch Nights, Hasselhoff fired Lisa Stahl. (Gregory Alan Williams got the axe from S2 as soon as Maurice Hurley arrived, and he and Hasselhoff decided to take it down the paranormal path because of the massive success of a certain show starring Gillian Anderson, and I don't mean The Fall. Baywatch Nights S2 didn't even achieve the same success.)
@@thewkovacs316 Jerry was also on two of ABC's ill-fated TGIF sitcoms You Wish and Teen Angel between 1997 and '98. Ironically, they both came when CBS had its ill-fated attempt at replicating TGIF with the Block Party, which also included Meego (which was covered on 13 Week Theater a while back).
I've only ever heard about this show as a joke for bad tv, but never knew anything more about it other than the car. Never would of imagined it would be weirder than anything.
I saw MMTC in it' original run. I was so upset when it was cancelled. Maybe as a kid I had lower standards but even watching these few clips it still holds up for me. It was a supernatural comedy. Pure and simple. Ghostbusters anyone? I guess I'm also a fan of the very underrated Jerry Van Dyke!
It's really too bad NBC couldn't have preserved the music tv show Hullabaloo, which lasted just 48 shows - a season and a half - and was produced in color! But managed to perfectly preserve all 30 episodes of this weak show! Most of Hullabaloo exists only as poor quality black and white kinescopes. Only three episodes were preserved in color. Truly a shame, as many rare classic pop acts performed on the show.
Jerry Van Dyke was only 34 when this series came out, and his "mother" died in 1949- when his character would have been in his teens. Man, that's dark. How old was she when she died?
I actually sent Pab a link with episodes of that show. Julie Newmar was her usual fabulous self, but there were a couple problems: 1) The show was kinda sexist even for the 1960s (Julie Newmar was billed "As The Doll" instead of her character's name) 2) Bob Cummings, age 54 at the time, was too old to be playing the swanky bachelor part he was so used to. BTW, the masters of this show was destroyed in an earthquake during the 1990s. All surviving episodes were from private tapes.
"Everybody knows in the second life we all come back sooner or later..." Ok. What theology book was this pearl of wisdom derived from? Even those who hold to reincarnation might have a bit of trouble with the presumption shown here. Good thing so few saw the show, or they might have gotten in trouble.
Was the premise really anymore stupid than Mister Ed or I Dream of Jeannie. Gilligan's island was stupid, how could the professor make a radio out of a coconut but can't fix a damn hole in a boat?
Gilligan's Island is a show you have to watch with your brain turned off or you'll go crazy. Why did Ginger, Mary Ann and the Howells have so many changes of clothing for a three hour tour?! Why was Mr. Howell lugging around a suitcase full of cash?! How with modern navigation and air flight was there still an uncharted island less than three hours from mainland in 1964?! How come special guest stars were getting picked up from the island, but NO ONE ever thought to come back to an uncharted island, explore it and claim the land for themselves?! Who on Earth did Mr Howell buy the island from to build The Castaways hotel?! The mind boggles!
Believe it or not, the clothes were explained. In episode 2 or three a number of cheats full of clothes washed up on the shore. Gilligan’s Island didn’t get exceptionally stupid until “the rest” got their own credits.
@@PabSungenis Wow, I did not that...and I used to watch Gilligan's Island every afternoon when I was a kid. Thanks for the info! I'll have to give them credit: In the first season they tried to make things logical.
@@Quartzquiz333 FYI: The first season of Gilligan's Island was in black and white, so you don't see it as much. Same problem with Bewitched, where the B&W first season that you rarely see had a lot of very interesting commentary about racism by using mortal/witch as an analogy for black/white (sometimes explicitly!)
@@traceyrich When Gilligan's Island was shown on the Turner channels in cable the first season was colorized...and, man, it looked godawful! Gilligan and the other men looked like they were wearing stage makeup! Our local station only showed the color episodes of Bewitched and I didn't care for that show. It wasn't until I saw the black and white episodes on Nick at Nite that I appreciated it more.
Lots of shows looked ridiculous on paper but came through often based on the cast chemistry. GI was more or less a live action cartoon and I'm sure there were plenty of A list TV actors would have thought being on that show was cringeworthy! Plus no one thought of syndicated reruns which helped put various shows into the consciousness of at least 2 generations after going out of production.
I agree! I saw a couple episodes of this on Antenna TV and thought it was nowhere near as bad as people made it our to be. I've seen shows on Nickelodeon and made for syndication that were worse!
@@Quartzquiz333 "What a Dummy" was probably worse than this (and was defnitely worse than its first-run syndication wacky-sitcom in tandem, "Small Wonder").
@@pronkb000 Thank the Lord my market didn't air What a Dummy when it was on. I only saw one episode of that crap when I was out of town and it was one episode too many!
This is fantastic, one of your best episodes. I've watched them all, many more than once, but this one stands out. By the way, I would 100 percent watch a slightly darker reboot of My Mother the Car.
Another thing that's weird about this show is that the antique car collector is trying to get this 40 year old car. That would be like someone trying to get a car from the '80's now. Something that's 40 years old isn't that much of an antique.
we didn't miss an episode...it was awesome, for a 10 year old......I saw an interview with Jerry Van Dyke and he said he asked his brother Dick what he thought about it and Dick was all for it saying that fantasy shows were the big thing at the time and it was sure hit..... Jerry said that was the last time he ever took his superstar brother's advice......are you going to do one on Jerry's other ill fated show : "Accidental Family"... it seems like there was another short lived show, but I may be wrong.....I know he finally redeemed himself in "Coach.......
4/29/2024. Well, you are allowed to your opinion, but I love each episode. If UA-cam did not have it, I now have a safe favorite show. And I am a 72 year old man.
Somebody out there should write a fan fiction story about Dave Crabtree's late mother as a 1928 Porter having an auto erotic forbidden romance with KITT aka the Knight Industries 2000 from the 1980s cult series Knight Rider. It will be called MY LOVER, THE CAR.
The theme was the best part of this show.Avery Schreiber as Manzini was the best actor in the show.He actually got good reviews.One critic said the show was an insult to mothers and automobiles.
What I assume that they had so much confidence in the show that it was done in full beautiful color? Usually a show I would assume they would not have confidence in would be shown in black and white
Most shows that debuted in 1965 were in color Ironically, I Dream of Jeannie was shot in black and white because the producers could not find a way to do Jeannie's smoke effect in color in a way that appealed to them. Pity, because for many years the first season was rarely shown in syndication because it was in black and white.
There were episodes of MMTC in which the car knew things that the JVD character could not have known. So it doesn't work as a psychotic episode. So there.
I'm not sure this is the worst TV show ever. My personal worst is Turn-On, a lame Laugh-In ripoff that was cancelled during (not after) its first and only episode. I happened to actually have seen it on its one and only broadcast. What a stinker! Also, it's legendary. How about a video about it? I understand that some affiliates pulled the plug before the episode ended, preferring to broadcast a test pattern for the remainder of the hour.
Wasn’t that great a show obviously, but really wasn’t as bad as its reputation suggests. It was a kid show after all. I know the owner of one of the cars, and had gotten a ride in it a few years back. Not half as slow as was portrayed in the show!
There simply are two types of people: those who love 60s TV, and those who don't. Having grown up in the 70s and watching most of this crap on syndication, I'm firmly in the latter camp. And I have to defend Jerry Van Dyke a bit: Gilligan DOES sound stupid. As does Bewitched, as does I Dream of Jeanie, as does almost all shows from the 60s, the worst decade of TV in history (and the movies weren't much better; at least before '68). You mentioned one of the very rare good ones: Twilight Zone. Maybe I'd include Route 66. But for me, TV really starts with Norman Lear and the general push for more realism starting around 1970. The comedies got funnier with less "concept", and the dramas got much tougher. Stuff like the show featured here does nothing to help change my opinion.
Watched it as a kid & thought it was no better or worse than witches,Jeanies,martians,or talking horses.At the time,I thought it was pretty good...better than some of the junk on TV now.
i was a kid and i loved this show....what the heck did i know about what was good and hands down...one of the best theme songs ever at this time, sitcoms were a mix of high concept and rural comedies all would be gone by 1971 btw, jerry was right...gilligans island was stupid and if he had chosen the be gilligan, his career wouldve ended up like bob denver's better to be in a bomb than to end up typecast and unemployable for the rest of one's life and jerry starred in another 13 week theater....accidental family
Jerry Van Dyke thought a Gilligan's Island, a show about a group of people stranded on a deserted island, was stranger than My Mother the Car, a show about a guy who owns his mother who's been reincarnated as a car. No disrespect to him (RIP), but, really, that was his thought process?
I don’t know why “ my mother the car” was considered so bad. At that time there was, Mr. Ed.,A talking horse, really? The flying nun? Bewitched, Gilligans island, mr. Terrific, it’s about time and a few others.
Nice job! THE MUNSTERS was created for CBS, not NBC. The show premiered on Sept. 14, not 15, 1965. NBC did give the show a full summer rerun schedule into Sept. 1966, so most of the episodes were broadcast twice.
I remember an episode of "Get Smart" in which a mobster is on his deathbed and asks to be told that "My Mother the Car" is coming back. When he is asked why, he answers that "Going won't seem so bad." Allan Burns who created "My Mother the Car" also co-wrote that episode of "Get Smart."
That sounds like the kind of joke they'd make on "Sledge Hammer!" which actually survived two seasons but deserves an episode anyway, because it was amazing.
@zombiedodge1426 Sledge Hammer can always get a "Slightly Longer Than 13 Week Theatre" episode. That show broke so many conventions it was incredible. What can be said for ABC renewing the show despite low ratings and then moving it against The Cosby Show?!
Well, at least it explains where the hell the Simpsons got the idea for Abe Simpson haunting a love testing machine.
"Tell her her rump's as big as the Queen's! And as fragrant too!"
Sadly Jerry Van Dyke’s (RIP) career suffered from this show for years, and it wasn’t until the series COACH in the late 1980’s.
I was going to say I would have thought it hurt his career, too.
He was great in Coach. He played a loveably goofy dork well.
Hey, between them, he and Dauber shared a full brain! LOL
PS -- And I still can't believe Dauber (Bill Fagerbakke) is the voice of Patrick Star on Spongebob now! The guy's made a profitable, long-running career of playing idiots....
Outside of his appearances on the Dick Van Dyke Show, Jerry Van Dyke has never been very funny.
He was on short list for the role of Tom Hagen in The Godfather,believe it or not.
He played a similar role on Griffith's second sitcom Headmaster,which was cancelled in mid season and Griffith came back in The New Andy Griffith Show,a sickeningly sweet show.Both those shows should be in 13 Week Theatre.
He had two scrips in front of him one garunteed the other not so much Jerry took the garunteed and did my mother the car.. the other one he turned down?? Gilligans island
Ha, I was wondering when you'll tackle this. Great episode, I didn't even notice it didn't have a laugh track at first, and damn, Jerry Van Dyke's decision must be on the level of Decca Records rejecting the Beatles. Happy 50 episodes, here's to 50 more!
"AAAAUGH! I COULD'VE BEEN GILLIGAN!!!"
@@itiswhatitaintanditaintwha1427 Or replacement Barney Fife. Plus, "Hey, Jerry - this former Air Force Pilot is doing a 'Wagon Train To The Stars' thing and needs a ship's captain...No? Well, I heard Mary is doing a show where she'll play a single woman with this funny egoist as a news anchor...Really?'
@@shoresean1237 Not becoming the substitute Barney Fife had to be a wise decision. There was no way the public would accept a replacement for Don Knotts, as Jack Burns would find out.
Now, Jerry Van Dyke as Gilligan... there's an intriguing idea. There's no telling how that would have turned out, but surely Bob Denver thanked Van Dyke profusely for his decision.
This series aired with a laugh track, but was removed when the show was released on DVD.
The show also aired on Antenna TV in reruns for a couple of years.
i bought it on dvd when it came out
I enjoyed this show when I caught it a few years ago in reruns. Not great, but not legendarily bad, either.
I enjoyed imagining that Crabtree was a man who was having a nervous breakdown and imagining his mother's voice as a way of coping. I even cast Count Manzini as a psychologist who was trying to bring Dave back to reality by separating from his fixation with the car...
You could totally do a cyberpunk reboot of the series with the mother uploading her consciousness into a self driving car
in the neon-lit darkness of the Near Future...
"This is the 3rd time I've had to drive you out of a firefight with the Ultra-mafia! Between this and going to that questionable 'doctor' for those tech-interface modifications, I have never been so disappointed in you!"
"*sigh* Yes, Mom."
"Seriously, all this running around, doing shady jobs for whoever waves a few thousand credits! Why couldn't you have just settled down with that nice lady. What was her name? Oh yes, Jennifer. Why couldn't you have settled down with her?"
"Mom, Jennifer Zynak is a CORPORATE ASSASSIN!"
"Don't raise your voice at me! At least Jennifer has a steady job with actual benefits, including dental!"
I'd buy that for a dollar!
To be honest, I would watch that.
@@tainteddeer4026 That sounds like fun. We could do WAY worse. Heck, we already ARE.
I always said MMTC was a remake of Mr.Ed, and Knight Rider was a remake of MMTC.
I confess that I have a soft spot in my heart, and head, for those '60's sitcoms about magical weirdness. Bewitched, My Favorite Martian, etc.
As a kid, I loved MMTC. I even built the model kit of the 1928 Porter.
I watched MMTC & It's About Time every weekend when Antenna TV showed them a few years ago.
Please tell me that somewhere out there is a fan edit using Twilight Zone music, especially for that scene with the family members' zoom ins.
Fun fact: the term 'high concept' in the entertainment industry application was first used in the press by Aaron Spelling in 1972, probably getting it from ABC's Barry Diller. The term originally didn't refer to an outlandish or unusual series premise...ABC started doing sophisticated audience research in the mid-70s; such as testing series concepts in door-to-door surveys in key TV markets across the country where householders would rate TV series concepts with a score. The best scoring descriptions would be designated by the researchers as ‘high concept.’ The highest rated 'high concept' series would always contain a 'woman in jeapordy' theme. One such series concept called Harry's Angels which was renamed, debuting with an incredible 54 share in 1976. By the time it went to series, the TV movie for Charlie's Angels had been seen by 92% of the public they surveyed.
FWIW, the Munsters was on CBS, not NBC.
The character in show was David,not Steve.
You must be thinking of that episode of "The Munsters" where Eddie trashes the set of the Zombo show. But the character is glad that it happened because he feels that he was meant for better things. ("Hamlet! Othello! My Mother the Car!") That segment was later edited from the episode. Also, Louis Nye played Zombo.👍
Pab...this is just about ground zero of my fascination with classic TV. Our household watched each and every episode of this show. I remember if fondly and to this DAY I can sing the theme song. Great episode bud.
I too watched the show when I was a young kid and can hear the theme song in my head. If I remember correctly, there was a show about “stop on a dime brakes“ where the car had the original brakes and because of “mother“ it was able to stop on a dime and they wanted to do a commercial about it. The things you remember.
17:20 FIrmly rooted like Flying Nun and Second Hundred Years. LOL
Great job as usual. Like Plan 9 from Outer Space, this one does not even break into my Top 10 worst lists, but I agree with all your observations. Maybe it is just Jerry Van Dyke that gives it a special place in my heart. I even liked "Accidental Family,"" his next flop.
Even in the early 1970s we had shows like Nanny and the Professor and The Girl with Something Extra. Both were more subtle with their high concept.
I read about Second Hundred Years once in the old Encyclopedia of Television Shows. What a confusing concept! A prospector gets frozen in ice, thaws out decades later like Captain America, his son is now a senior citizen and physically older than him, his grandson is the exact age as him AND the spitting image of him, he acts younger than his son AND his grandson...head...spinning...from...plot...twists!
@@Quartzquiz333 I totally forgot about "Girl with something extra," and I liked that show. Thanks for the memories.
@@Laceykat66 Thank you as well. You obviously have good taste!
_(screeching brakes) (thud)_ "Mother! Oh god! Blood! Blood!"
We are forgetting the importance of My Mother the Car. It was the the precursor to Knight Rider and KITT. Hah. Great content as always, Pab.
I was thinking the same thing
Replacing KITT with Mother might also be pretty entertaining.
The Brady Bunch variety hour?!? That was a clunker!
I wouldn't say this was the worst sitcom ever; I think there's a competition for that spot between "Small Wonder" and "She's The Sheriff"...
How about Shirley's World?
As a fan of the show since watching it as a boy during its network run, and owner of the 'hero' car (the customized Norm Grabowski rod), I'm thrilled you chose to do a treatment of 'My Mother the Car'. Your doc is highly watchable and most interesting, exhibiting exhaustive research. The appeal of art and entertainment is largely a matter of taste, so opinions are bound to vary about this series and others. I feel MMTC incorporated production values and creative talent comparable to media entertainment of its type and time. I loved it then, and understandably continue to be a devotee. The car is a very interesting automotive specimen and tv artifact, one of a pair. (The Barris 'stunt' Porter also survives, in nicely restored condition.) 'Mother' is a challenge to maintain and conserve, is a beautiful antique car (in my opinion), and is fun to drive.
I consider Nanny and the Professor, which aired in the early 70s, to have a foothold in fantasy, so tv did delve into fantasy sooner than "several decades", IMHO.
Weird bit of trivia but Captain Manzeni or however you spell his name from The Garbage Pail Kids Movie was a reference to THIS show.
But you want to know the sad part? I like comedies that don't have a laugh track but the important thing to remember about shows like that is how they are paced. They are paced to not have those gaps and pauses where the laugh track/audience is supposed to react so things are always moving. In this case, it's very slow in places where it actually hurts the pacing. Granted, this show has led to a few spoofs over the years which I think is its best legacy.
Also, I love the 're-imaging'; "My Mother the Car Minus Mother" Plus that horn? It sounds like something from a late era horror PS1 game. It sounds so UNEARTHLY.
Edit: I wanted to ask if Chris Hayward was related to Andy Hayward, who is known in animation circles for being the head of DiC Entertainment.
They aren't related. They also spell their last name differently. (Chris Hayward and Andy Heyward.) Only connection is they both had big careers in animation.
1930 was (probably) the first year that a COMMERCIAL car radio was installed. I've got a 1923 high school yearbook from Denver, CO in which the senior class had their own "Radio Club", and one of the things they did was to wire a radio into a car's electrical system. So the car had an operational radio in it, but of course it wasn't built into the dash.
12V batteries are still used to operate radios to this day, so the above idea wasn't much of a stretch. It's likely that this high-school radio club of 1923 wasn't the first group to wire a radio into a car.
A little side trivia. You mentioned Jack Burns taking over the deputy role in Andy Griffith's show. Well Jack Burns would later team up with Mr. Manzini Avery Schreiber to form the comedy team of Burns and Schreiber. They would have their own short lived variety show. Maybe a show you might check out later for 13 week Theatre.
Jack Burns would also later end up on ABC's 1980-82 sketch comedy show Fridays.
Burns and Schreiber predated this show. They met at Second City and we’re doing comedy albums together in the early 60’s. They didn’t get their TV show until 1973 but they were together before then.
As a kid, I always looked forward to seeing Burns & Schreiber on variety shows like Ed Sullivan.
I’m a Patreon subscriber, I already watched and want to say I LOVED IT! Won’t be spoiling what episode is about but it’s very worthy of being a “very special edition of 13 Week Theater.” That’s all I’m saying, much love Pab!
Avery Schreiber. I immediately recognized that face (especially the mustache) from bit parts in various movies and TV shows I saw growing up in the 70s and 80s. I didn't know his name until now.
Avery was in the popular Doritos commercials. From Ms. Harper Stacey.
My choices would be "Salvage 1" and "Monty", two shows that had little in common (except for their short tenure.)
My Mother The Car was screwed by timeslot too, in addition to being slated as bad.
It was on Tuesday nights in the same 8pm timeslot against the final season of Rawhide on CBS (the one with Clint Eastwood pre film stardom and with Frankie Laine singing the theme) and Combat on ABC. Both the latter two shows were established as well to add.
It didn't get any better by mid-season as January '66 ABC debut a minor 2 day show called Batman
Really enjoying 13 Week Theatre. You need to do a video on one of the most notorious short-lived series of all-time: Turn-On.
That one will take a lot of work.
Weird thing: Avery Schreiber later appeared on an episode of Wonderbug (officially a Sid & Marty Krofft production but it was actually produced by Ruby/Spears) ... in which he ... um ... hypnotized Wonderbug to turn EEE-VAL! Yes, with a swinging watch. He hypnotized a freaking car.
And that may not be as embarrassing as his overacting here....
And to square the circle, Schreiber was the longtime standup comedy partner of Jack Burns, who took the role of The Andy Griffith Show's Warren Ferguson that Jerry Van Dyke had turned down.
Believe it or not, this show was a hit with the younger audiences. Demographic audience measurement was not as sophisticated then as it is now, and that audience was not seen as important.
I'm sure reviewers had fun with this show.
"Lemon"... "Clunker"... "Low mileage"... "Junkpile".
The type of “religious” audience who opposes ghosts and monster movies also don’t believe in reincarnation DUH 🙄
May I ask that you consider doing one on Bill Bixby's series "The Magician?" A series that actually changed its format mid-season from Anthony Blake being a jet hopping magician to the manager of a Magic Club (With the actual Magic Castle being used for exteriors.)
"My Favorite Martian" was another of those type of sitcoms in the 1960's.
Some good shows to consider; The Robert Guillaume Show, Police Squad and No Soap Radio. Another bad one, the My Mother the Car of the 1990’s, “Whoops!” There was also “I Married Dora which had a more memorable series finale than the actual show, Married With Children spin off, “Top of the Heap” which they tried to revise as Bobby and Vinny. I was born in 1972, and I have a great long term memory, (My short term memory, not so much.) so I have a long list.
I was born in 1974. I was a sheltered child. I watched lots of T.V. I real lots of books about great and terrible television shows. I can relate.
This is terrific, a beautiful rundown of legendarily awkward show.
I was hoping to see clips from the other TV shows that made jokes about it: “The Bob Newhart Show,” “Get Smart,” “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “The Munsters,” and maybe others.
I'm so glad you covered the punchline that is My Mother the Car.
Im rewatching this and I’m just like, Why didn’t they just make mom a modern car ?
I watched the first episode on the old trio channel in 2003, and the pilot felt like it was two hours l o n g.
Great as always, for the future, I think your next UK show should be Moonbase 3. It had some of the best sci-fi writers in Britain behind it, including Terrance Dicks and Barry Letts, and James Burke of Tomorrow's World and Connections was a script adviser, but its turn towards more dark, gritty, realistic science fiction simply wasn't what viewers wanted, and like some of the others you've shown, it suffered the same fate as other pioneering shows, nobody knew what to do with it, so audiences just rejected it.
I don't think viewers rejected it because it was dark, gritty and realistic, I think it was because it was really boring.
@@christopherhowarth9801 Yeah, it was definitely that too.
Would love to see a episode about "Fantastic Journey", the 1977 sci-fi series. The pilot was a lot of fun, and showed a lot of potential. But it was all downhill after that.
Great idea. I also loved "Fantastic Journey" and was disappointed when it had been cancelled.
it came out on dvd, i have it
Also the tv version of Logan's Run and Otherworlds...all had similar concepts. People traveling to different locations, with different societies, trying to get home/a better situation.
@@tamaraclaw i have both of those on DVD , Otherworld is a bootleg.
A future episode should be done on 1992's "Covington Cross".
Loved that show and was disappointed it didn't continue for longer than it did.
My Mother the Car makes the perfect 50th episode and I enjoyed it very much. I have some episodes of this show and I don't think it's that bad (I've seen worse from the 1960s). At least it lasted the whole season. Check what ABC did in the mid 1960s, bomb after bomb after bomb!
Tell me about it! O.K. Crackerby! was a 1965 ABC sitcom starring Burl Ives. It was so bad and forgettable there's not even a Wikipedia entry about it! (Here's a link to an episode on UA-cam if you dare want to watch it: ua-cam.com/video/xi1vO9rlLww/v-deo.html )
EDIT: Somebody must have seen this post because there's now a Wikipedia entry for this show.
I've never actually seen an episode of "My Mother The Car", but based on the clips here, I need seek it out. The lack of laugh track gives Jerry VanDyke's performance a level of sincerity that I didn't think was possible from something so ridiculous.
Can you please do a 13-week theater on Lil Bush?
Or Trey Parker and Matt Stone's That's My Bush?
The craziest thing about this show is that it's WAAAAAAY better than a lot of junk that's on T.V. nowadays. I'd rather watch this than Keeping Up with the Kardashians!
Do yourselves a favor and watch the episode where Mother insisted on going to the drive-in to see a movie starring her favorite actor, Sonny Tufts. It's hilarious, trust me!
I agree Alfonzo, this show was no "worse" than "It's About Time" or "The Mothers-in_Law."
@@Laceykat66 It's About Time was on Antenna TV at the same time My Mother the Car was. In fact, they came on Sunday mornings back to back. You're right, Lacey, they were both about the same quality...and both of their theme songs were bangers!
Ahhh, The Mothers-in-Law...that was an odd duck show if ever I saw one! Basically, I Love Lucy or The Lucy Show without Lucy or Viv. Someone posted a video of its theme song with custom lyrics that described that show PERFECTLY: ua-cam.com/video/ydsCxFWTxGk/v-deo.html
This was totally worth waiting for! Thanks for sharing this one!
I saw one episode of this series on one of those rerun channels and I was stunned at how bad it was. There just wasn't anything remotely funny about any of it. Watching that car lot scene in your clip... yeah, I was thinking it looked like he was having a psychotic break. And the fact that an imaginary voice knows things that the person imagining it knows isn't really very convincing.
I have to admit though, Jerry Van Dyke's performance is quite good, particularly in that initial car lot scene. Maybe that's why people were thinking Twilight Zone when there was no laugh track? It definitely feels either Twilight Zone or psychotic break...
I remember James Avery being in Doritos ads in the 1970’s.
You mean Avery Schreiber. James Avery was the voice of Shredder on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Uncle Phil on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
This sitcom could work by today's standards, with most sitcoms not using a laugh track or an audience.
Yeah the bizarre humor and no laugh track would fit in great in modern television
Love the brain twist moments. We fellow reviewers often have moments like that...
“Brain, no, stop trying to make this make sense. Beain? No! Bad brain!”
Great research!
Your so insightful and funny as well. I would love to see an episode of The Playboy Club, that NBC disaster that wanted to be like Mad Men. Plus, it has Amber Heard who’s in the news lately.
Wasn't Eddie Cibrian in that show?
He knows about floundering shows- he was brought into the Aaron Spelling soap Sunset Beach, coincidentally from NBC, to replace Ashley Hamilton (yes, George's son, and who later released a song called Wimmin, co-written with Robbie Williams. Yes, that is the actual song title by the way). Not that Cibrian made a jot to the soap's ratings in the US (it was popular in Europe, including the UK), where it was dead last among the 11 daytime soaps at the time for the entire run.
Not to mention he was brought into Baywatch Nights by David Hasselhoff midway through S1 to grab the Baywatch audience in desperation.
Same reason why Donna D'Errico came in at the same time, to try to clone the success of Pamela Anderson. Well Donna was married to Nikki Sixx of Motley Crue at the time.
To bring both Cibrian and D'Errico onto Baywatch Nights, Hasselhoff fired Lisa Stahl.
(Gregory Alan Williams got the axe from S2 as soon as Maurice Hurley arrived, and he and Hasselhoff decided to take it down the paranormal path because of the massive success of a certain show starring Gillian Anderson, and I don't mean The Fall. Baywatch Nights S2 didn't even achieve the same success.)
Two I’d like: A Year at the Top with Paul Schaefer and the 1976 adaptation of Ball Four.
Oh well, he would rebound again in Coach 24 years later.
always felt bad for jerry....they tried and tried to get him a starring role in a sitcom and it never worked
he was always great as a second banana
Coach ended up taking over the time slot for a short-lived show on ABC called Chicken Soup, which starred Jackie Mason.
@@thewkovacs316 Jerry was also on two of ABC's ill-fated TGIF sitcoms You Wish and Teen Angel between 1997 and '98. Ironically, they both came when CBS had its ill-fated attempt at replicating TGIF with the Block Party, which also included Meego (which was covered on 13 Week Theater a while back).
@@tristansanchez2875 definitely want 13 week theaters on both those shows!
@@tristansanchez2875 I actually liked Teen Angel
I've only ever heard about this show as a joke for bad tv, but never knew anything more about it other than the car. Never would of imagined it would be weirder than anything.
I saw MMTC in it' original run. I was so upset when it was cancelled. Maybe as a kid I had lower standards but even watching these few clips it still holds up for me. It was a supernatural comedy. Pure and simple. Ghostbusters anyone? I guess I'm also a fan of the very underrated Jerry Van Dyke!
It's really too bad NBC couldn't have preserved the music tv show Hullabaloo, which lasted just 48 shows - a season and a half - and was produced in color! But managed to perfectly preserve all 30 episodes of this weak show! Most of Hullabaloo exists only as poor quality black and white kinescopes. Only three episodes were preserved in color. Truly a shame, as many rare classic pop acts performed on the show.
Jerry Van Dyke was only 34 when this series came out, and his "mother" died in 1949- when his character would have been in his teens. Man, that's dark. How old was she when she died?
If you close your eyes Mancini sounds like Newman from seinfeld
My Living Doll with Julie Newmar should be an entry…it actually was a decent show with a very appealing Julie Newmar
I actually sent Pab a link with episodes of that show. Julie Newmar was her usual fabulous self, but there were a couple problems: 1) The show was kinda sexist even for the 1960s (Julie Newmar was billed "As The Doll" instead of her character's name) 2) Bob Cummings, age 54 at the time, was too old to be playing the swanky bachelor part he was so used to.
BTW, the masters of this show was destroyed in an earthquake during the 1990s. All surviving episodes were from private tapes.
@@Quartzquiz333 Yes I have the surviving episodes on DVD. I am a huge Julie fan so I had to get them
the first ten episodes are on dvd
Thank you!!!
There are FAR WORSE tv shows than My Mother the Car. Anything from today beats this show by miles!
Pretty much every reality show ever made and lots of Disney/Nickelodeon sitcoms would fall under this category.
I love how there wasn't a "so what happened" to this
There was nothing promising (other than maybe Jerry van Dyke) about this show. It fell apart in the early pre-production stages.
"Everybody knows in the second life we all come back sooner or later..."
Ok. What theology book was this pearl of wisdom derived from? Even those who hold to reincarnation might have a bit of trouble with the presumption shown here. Good thing so few saw the show, or they might have gotten in trouble.
I can just imagine if the Hindu population was greater at the time, there would be protests before the show even began!!
A talking car? How ridiculous!
KITT: Am I a joke to you?
Was the premise really anymore stupid than Mister Ed or I Dream of Jeannie. Gilligan's island was stupid, how could the professor make a radio out of a coconut but can't fix a damn hole in a boat?
Gilligan's Island is a show you have to watch with your brain turned off or you'll go crazy. Why did Ginger, Mary Ann and the Howells have so many changes of clothing for a three hour tour?! Why was Mr. Howell lugging around a suitcase full of cash?! How with modern navigation and air flight was there still an uncharted island less than three hours from mainland in 1964?! How come special guest stars were getting picked up from the island, but NO ONE ever thought to come back to an uncharted island, explore it and claim the land for themselves?! Who on Earth did Mr Howell buy the island from to build The Castaways hotel?! The mind boggles!
Believe it or not, the clothes were explained. In episode 2 or three a number of cheats full of clothes washed up on the shore.
Gilligan’s Island didn’t get exceptionally stupid until “the rest” got their own credits.
@@PabSungenis Wow, I did not that...and I used to watch Gilligan's Island every afternoon when I was a kid. Thanks for the info! I'll have to give them credit: In the first season they tried to make things logical.
@@Quartzquiz333 FYI: The first season of Gilligan's Island was in black and white, so you don't see it as much. Same problem with Bewitched, where the B&W first season that you rarely see had a lot of very interesting commentary about racism by using mortal/witch as an analogy for black/white (sometimes explicitly!)
@@traceyrich When Gilligan's Island was shown on the Turner channels in cable the first season was colorized...and, man, it looked godawful! Gilligan and the other men looked like they were wearing stage makeup!
Our local station only showed the color episodes of Bewitched and I didn't care for that show. It wasn't until I saw the black and white episodes on Nick at Nite that I appreciated it more.
I can't blame Van Dyke for turning down GILLIGAN'S ISLAND.
Lots of shows looked ridiculous on paper but came through often based on the cast chemistry. GI was more or less a live action cartoon and I'm sure there were plenty of A list TV actors would have thought being on that show was cringeworthy! Plus no one thought of syndicated reruns which helped put various shows into the consciousness of at least 2 generations after going out of production.
Also, Gilligan’s Island benefited from amazing chemistry among the actors. Swap any of them out and it doesn’t work. (See the original pilot.)
@@MegaMagicdog Sort of an irony since they bought it back in 2 cartoon forms courtesy of Filmation. Lost in Space anyone?
So it’s become the TV version on Garfield Minus Garfield comics.
In the 60's TV gave us Witches, Genies, Martians, Ghosts, but a haunted car was too much.
Is that Harry Nillson singing the theme song?
No, he did Courtship of Eddies Father.
It's an underrated show! There are at least 50 shows worse than this! Jerry Van Dyke did get Coach many years later!
I agree! I saw a couple episodes of this on Antenna TV and thought it was nowhere near as bad as people made it our to be. I've seen shows on Nickelodeon and made for syndication that were worse!
@@Quartzquiz333 "What a Dummy" was probably worse than this (and was defnitely worse than its first-run syndication wacky-sitcom in tandem, "Small Wonder").
@@pronkb000 Thank the Lord my market didn't air What a Dummy when it was on. I only saw one episode of that crap when I was out of town and it was one episode too many!
@pronkb000 "Simon and Simon" was worse than this show, and it was on the air for like seven years.
This is fantastic, one of your best episodes. I've watched them all, many more than once, but this one stands out. By the way, I would 100 percent watch a slightly darker reboot of My Mother the Car.
I'd like to see an episodes on Bridget Loves Birney and The Judy Garland Show.
MMTC has Avery Schreiber in it. Can't be all that bad.
Another thing that's weird about this show is that the antique car collector is trying to get this 40 year old car. That would be like someone trying to get a car from the '80's now. Something that's 40 years old isn't that much of an antique.
This show was like 30 week theater!
l have this on dvd. it lasted a whole season
If she died in 1949, how could she come back as a 1928 car?
The car model is 1928. Her spirit is her. She is not the car. Her spirit was in the object being a 1928 car/object.
My Mother the Car was my favorite! (I was 7 years old).
The only laugh I got out of this is when we couldn't hear Mother. Now that's a show!
we didn't miss an episode...it was awesome, for a 10 year old......I saw an interview with Jerry Van Dyke and he said he asked his brother Dick what he thought about it and Dick was all for it saying that fantasy shows were the big thing at the time and it was sure hit..... Jerry said that was the last time he ever took his superstar brother's advice......are you going to do one on Jerry's other ill fated show : "Accidental Family"... it seems like there was another short lived show, but I may be wrong.....I know he finally redeemed himself in "Coach.......
CBS had the Munsters. My Mother The Car was perhaps worst . Show. Ever
Rod Amateur u mean
4/29/2024. Well, you are allowed to your opinion, but I love each episode. If UA-cam did not have it, I now have a safe favorite show. And I am a 72 year old man.
Somebody out there should write a fan fiction story about Dave Crabtree's late mother as a 1928 Porter having an auto erotic forbidden romance with KITT aka the Knight Industries 2000 from the 1980s cult series Knight Rider.
It will be called MY LOVER, THE CAR.
This show's biggest legacy is likely inspiring jokes on The Simpsons and Arrested Development.
The theme was the best part of this show.Avery Schreiber as Manzini was the best actor in the show.He actually got good reviews.One critic said the show was an insult to mothers and automobiles.
What I assume that they had so much confidence in the show that it was done in full beautiful color? Usually a show I would assume they would not have confidence in would be shown in black and white
Most shows that debuted in 1965 were in color
Ironically, I Dream of Jeannie was shot in black and white because the producers could not find a way to do Jeannie's smoke effect in color in a way that appealed to them. Pity, because for many years the first season was rarely shown in syndication because it was in black and white.
Probably because NBC was the "Living Color" network. Being owned by RCA at the time had a lot to do with it.
There were episodes of MMTC in which the car knew things that the JVD character could not have known. So it doesn't work as a psychotic episode. So there.
What about Bewitched?
I think this inspired the idea of KITT in Knight Rider ...
I'm not sure this is the worst TV show ever. My personal worst is Turn-On, a lame Laugh-In ripoff that was cancelled during (not after) its first and only episode. I happened to actually have seen it on its one and only broadcast. What a stinker! Also, it's legendary. How about a video about it? I understand that some affiliates pulled the plug before the episode ended, preferring to broadcast a test pattern for the remainder of the hour.
Wasn’t that great a show obviously, but really wasn’t as bad as its reputation suggests. It was a kid show after all.
I know the owner of one of the cars, and had gotten a ride in it a few years back. Not half as slow as was portrayed in the show!
The show had a laugh track when it was on tvland In the early 2000's. For some reason the laugh track was cut out of the dvd
Awesome cold open!!
It felt weird doing it at first, but for this show it works.
Why oh why did this exist? And I could at least imagine the clips shown as better with a laugh track.
There simply are two types of people: those who love 60s TV, and those who don't. Having grown up in the 70s and watching most of this crap on syndication, I'm firmly in the latter camp. And I have to defend Jerry Van Dyke a bit: Gilligan DOES sound stupid. As does Bewitched, as does I Dream of Jeanie, as does almost all shows from the 60s, the worst decade of TV in history (and the movies weren't much better; at least before '68). You mentioned one of the very rare good ones: Twilight Zone. Maybe I'd include Route 66. But for me, TV really starts with Norman Lear and the general push for more realism starting around 1970. The comedies got funnier with less "concept", and the dramas got much tougher. Stuff like the show featured here does nothing to help change my opinion.
Watched it as a kid & thought it was no better or worse than witches,Jeanies,martians,or talking horses.At the time,I thought it was pretty good...better than some of the junk on TV now.
Even a laugh track wouldn't have helped. Haul 'Mother' to the junkyard!
i was a kid and i loved this show....what the heck did i know about what was good
and hands down...one of the best theme songs ever
at this time, sitcoms were a mix of high concept and rural comedies
all would be gone by 1971
btw, jerry was right...gilligans island was stupid and if he had chosen the be gilligan, his career wouldve ended up like bob denver's
better to be in a bomb than to end up typecast and unemployable for the rest of one's life
and jerry starred in another 13 week theater....accidental family
7-24-2024. It may be terrible to you, but I watch the show. Fun and zero bad stuff.
Jerry Van Dyke thought a Gilligan's Island, a show about a group of people stranded on a deserted island, was stranger than My Mother the Car, a show about a guy who owns his mother who's been reincarnated as a car. No disrespect to him (RIP), but, really, that was his thought process?
TV Guide once named My Mother the Car the second worst show of all-time behind The Jerry Springer Show.
Baby Bob was #14 on that list. My Mother the Car was infinitely better than Baby Bob!
I don’t know why “ my mother the car” was considered so bad. At that time there was, Mr. Ed.,A talking horse, really? The flying nun? Bewitched, Gilligans island, mr. Terrific, it’s about time and a few others.
Nice job!
THE MUNSTERS was created for CBS, not NBC.
The show premiered on Sept. 14, not 15, 1965.
NBC did give the show a full summer rerun schedule into Sept. 1966, so most of the episodes were broadcast twice.