- Source: My Mother the Car
- Source: My Mother, the Car
My Mother the Car is an American fantasy comedy that aired for a single season on NBC between September 14, 1965, and April 5, 1966. Thirty episodes were produced by United Artists Television. The premise features a man whose deceased mother is reincarnated as an antique car, who communicates with him through the car radio.
My Mother the Car had an experienced production team with extensive comedy credentials: Rod Amateau (The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show and The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis); Allan Burns (wrote for Jay Ward and went on to create several critically acclaimed shows, including The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Rhoda, and Lou Grant); James L. Brooks (Room 222, Taxi, and later served as executive producer of The Simpsons) and Chris Hayward (produced and wrote for Barney Miller during its first several seasons).
Critics and adult viewers panned the show. In 2002, TV Guide proclaimed it to be the second-worst television show of all time, behind The Jerry Springer Show. TV Land's first day of programming in April 1996 included the series premiere as a collection of television firsts and rarities, billing it as "the strange but true...infamous series". Why My Mother the Car is remembered as "infamous" is puzzling, since other popular sitcoms of the 1960s also featured a fantastic gimmick: a talking horse (Mister Ed), a martian (My Favorite Martian), a beautiful robot (My Living Doll), a suburbanite witch (Bewitched), an obedient genie (I Dream of Jeannie), or a flying nun (The Flying Nun).
Synopsis
The show follows the exploits of attorney David Crabtree (played by Jerry Van Dyke) who, while shopping at a used-car lot for a station wagon to serve as a second family car, instead purchases a dilapidated 1928 Porter touring car. Crabtree hears the car call his name in a woman's voice. The car turns out to be the reincarnation of his deceased mother, Gladys (voiced by Ann Sothern). She talks (only to Crabtree) through the car's radio: the dial light flashes in synchronization with "Mother's" voice. In an effort to get his family to accept the old, tired car, Crabtree brings it to a custom body shop for a full restoration. The car is coveted by a fanatical collector named Captain Manzini (Avery Schreiber), but Crabtree purchases and restores the car before Manzini can acquire it.
For the rest of the series, Crabtree is pursued by the avaricious Captain Manzini, who is determined to acquire the valuable automobile by hook or by crook. In a running gag characterizing his shifty nature, Manzini (who resembles a 1920s silent film villain) always mangles Crabtree's name when speaking to him. "Now, then, Crabapple..." "That's Crabtree." "Whatever."
Others in the cast included Maggie Pierce as wife Barbara, Cindy Eilbacher (the sister of Lisa Eilbacher) and Randy Whipple as the kids, Cindy and Randy. Veteran movie and television character actors played supporting roles, including Bill Daily, Harold Peary, Byron Foulger, Bob Jellison, Sam Flint, and Willis Bouchey.
Production notes
The show was created by Allan Burns and Chris Hayward, who had better success with Rocky & Bullwinkle, The Munsters, and Get Smart (which debuted the same season). Aluminum Model Toys (AMT), a well-known producer of plastic model car kits, introduced a 1⁄25-scale kit of the Porter in late 1965.
The theme music was composed and conducted by Ralph Carmichael, with lyrics written and sung by Paul Hampton. It was used on an episode of Arrested Development also called "My Mother, the Car".
The show began with a black-and-white pilot, which was later refilmed in color. The pilot did not originally air, but has been shown several times on Canadian television. Network censors insisted that one particular scene be deleted where the car backfired.
= Car
=The on-set car, called a 1928 Porter Stanhope touring car, was a custom car, rebuilt by Norm Grabowski, from a 1924 Ford Model T, and later restyled by property master Kaye Trapp and Norm Breedlove. A stunt car, driven by a rear-floorboard-hidden driver, was built by George Barris, as a replica. The actual Porter Motor Company existed briefly from 1900-1901, and only made an automobile in the runabout style, not the stanhope or touring car style.
The on-set car used in My Mother the Car was, in 2016, located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada and owned by Dave Bodnar. The stunt car was once owned by casino giant William Harrah, who had one of the largest special-interest and antique auto collections of all time in Reno, Nevada. After Harrah's death in 1984, the auction catalogue advertised the car as having a carnation red body with white top and created from parts of a Ford Model T, a Maxwell, a Hudson and a Chevrolet. (The actual Porter Motor Company existed only in 1900-1901.) Harrah's F.R.P. is, since 1994, at the Seal Cove Auto Museum on Mount Desert Island in Maine. As of 2012, the stunt Porter is at the Star Cars Museum in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. On September 3, 2017, the car sold at the Dragone auction, part of the Historic Festival 35 at Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, CT, for $50,000.
Soundtrack
The series was scored by Ralph Carmichael with the lyrics of the title song by Paul Hampton. Sammy Davis Jr. did a cover version.
Cast
Jerry Van Dyke as Dave Crabtree
Maggie Pierce as Barbara Crabtree (née Netwick)
Ann Sothern as Mother the 1928 Porter (formerly Gladys Crabtree (née Brown))
Avery Schreiber as Captain Bernard Manzini
Cindy Eilbacher as Cindy Crabtree
Randy Whipple as Randy Crabtree
Paula Winslowe as Mrs. Netwick
Critical reception
A review of the show by John Sinnott on DVD Talk reported that although "the concept is pretty stupid" and that the show "has gained a reputation for being one of the worst shows to ever air on American TV," it is "actually not that bad," noting that "Jerry Van Dyke does a very good job," "the pretty and perky Maggie Pierce was also very good," and it "gives some decent laughs." A review of the show on Vulture described it as "the epitome of dated, stupid, campy, embarrassing, lowest common denominator television," that "any blatant attempts at comedy were not successful," and that this "prime example of hackneyed, brainless situation comedy did not have a laugh track for most of their episodes. This helped result in a lot of really tonally confusing work."
Episodes
Release
In the United Kingdom the series debuted on ITV on 8 November 1965.
Ownership status
The show's current owner is Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which bought United Artists in 1981.
Home media
TGG Direct released a DVD box set of the series on 12 November 2013. It contains the 30 episodes that aired, but not the unaired pilot. The laugh track has been removed for the DVD set.
All 30 episodes were available for viewing on Hulu. The show is also available on MGM's YouTube channel.
Syndication
Antenna TV began airing episodes of the show on September 19, 2015.
References
External links
My Mother the Car at IMDb
"My Mother, the Car" (also titled "My Mother The Car" on the season 1 DVD and "My Mother, The Car" on Disney+) is the seventh episode of the first season of the American television satirical sitcom Arrested Development. It was written by supervising producer Chuck Martin and directed by Jay Chandrasekhar. It originally aired on Fox on December 21, 2003.
The series, narrated by Ron Howard, follows the Bluths, a formerly wealthy, dysfunctional family, who made their money from property development. The Bluth family consists of Michael, his twin sister Lindsay, his older brother Gob, his younger brother Buster, their mother Lucille and father George Sr., as well as Michael's son George Michael, and Lindsay and her husband Tobias' daughter Maeby. In the episode, Lucille feels unloved by her children and attempts to pin her car accident on an amnesiac Michael. Buster begins a relationship with Lucille Austero, and Lindsay is unpleasantly surprised when she finally visits her father in prison.
Plot
Michael (Jason Bateman), fed up with his mother Lucille (Jessica Walter)'s extravagant spending, says she cannot throw a lavish birthday party for herself. But when Lindsay (Portia de Rossi), prompted by Lucille, suggests a surprise party, Michael agrees on the condition that Lindsay visit George Sr. (Jeffrey Tambor) in prison. At the prison, no one notices Lindsay, so she goes shopping for an outfit to wear for tomorrow's prison visit. Meanwhile, George Michael (Michael Cera) finally starts to overcome his crush on Maeby (Alia Shawkat) as they sneak into an R-rated movie, but a trailer plays for a French movie about love between two cousins called Les Cousins Dangereux, and George Michael decides to get a fake ID from Gob (Will Arnett) so he and Maeby can see the movie.
Meanwhile, Michael drives Lucille to her surprise party, but nobody else shows up. Lucille is hurt, so Michael arranges a second surprise party, insisting that all his siblings be there. When no one shows up for that one either, Michael and Lucille bond, both feeling unappreciated by their family. Feeling sorry for her, Michael lets Lucille drive, even though her license has been revoked for multiple accidents and reckless driving. When Lucille sees a man riding a Segway, she assumes it is Gob and decides to "give him a scare." The car crashes and Lucille drags an unconscious Michael into the driver's seat so that she won't be blamed. Michael had hit his head on the giant rock Buster (Tony Hale) had left in the backseat and suffers short-term memory loss. Worried that Michael will regain his memory of the accident, Lucille insists that he recover in her apartment, and she bribes their family doctor to give him fentanyl, which Lucille says is children's aspirin.
Next door, Buster, who is secretly dating Lucille Austero, also gets injured when, from Austero's balcony, he spies his mother on her own balcony and jumps through the window to get out of sight. Meanwhile, George Michael tells Gob about Michael's accident while asking for the fake IDs, and Gob decides to take the family yacht to South America for the summer. Lindsay continues to visit George Sr. in prison, and grows increasingly frustrated that none of the inmates take note of her sexy outfits. On her third visit, George Sr. begs her to stop, revealing that he had been paying off the inmates with gold Krugerrands to behave in Lindsay's presence, but her repeated visits are bankrupting him. Michael remembers seeing "Gob" on the road and trying to scare him, but still thinks that he was the one behind the wheel, believing his motivation was because of his affection for Marta (Patricia Velásquez). Feeling guilty, he calls his brother and tells him he can live on the yacht. Gob realizes that Michael has been duped by Lucille, and cancels his escape plans. With Gob's help, Michael remembers the truth, and they confront Lucille, who admits her guilt and says that she was afraid of losing Michael's new-found respect and admiration.
= On the next Arrested Development...
=George Michael and Maeby attempt to watch Les Cousins Dangereux while Buster and Lucille Austero also try to watch it, and Michael rear ends into Gob.
Production
"In God We Trust" was directed by Jay Chandrasekhar and written by supervising producer Chuck Martin. It was Chandrasekhar's first directing credit and Martin's first writing credit. It was the seventh episode of the ordered season to be filmed after the pilot.
Reception
= Viewers
=In the United States, the episode was watched by 6.42 million viewers on its original broadcast.
= Critical reception
=The A.V. Club writer Noel Murray called the episode "something of an oddity for Arrested Development", but saying it's "funny enough". In 2019, Brian Tallerico from Vulture ranked the episode 33rd out of the whole series, calling it the "first Arrested Development episode that isn’t utterly fantastic".
Notes
References
External links
"My Mother, the Car" at IMDb
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