Mamma a quattro ruote

I admittedly was VERY young when My Mother the Car was on (about 5), but I remember EVERY episode I watched. It's the only show from that era aside from Star Trek that I can remember watching with my dad. I think this show may be the reason I turned out to be a real 'gearhead' in later life! It took me YEARS to realize that there was no such car company as PORTER, and I actually spent years trying to find one! (I only found out it was a Barris Custom when I was 16.) I think if given the chance today, the concept would work (look how long Knight Rider lasted!) Jerry Van Dyke always gets a bad rap when this show is brought up...if I were shown a script for This show and Gilligan's Island, I would have chosen My Mother the Car also--it was more believable!

This hilarious, slapsticky show was probably expected to be a hit by the TV execs, based on the recent success of such movies as "The Great Race", "Those Magnificent Men And Their Flying Machines", and others. Somehow, viewers never caught on, and the show died quietly, becoming an instant industry joke. I'll never understand why, though. Everyone in it was funny, esp. Avery Schreiber as a Mack Sennett-like, mustache-twiddling, posing, crazy villain, always trying to steal the car, but never even getting close. This is one show I'd like to see in reruns.

VERY far from the worst TV show of all time. Granted that the ideas for stories probably would have grown thin had this series lasted any longer than three years or so. It did have it's moments of humor and it did last for 30 episodes which is a lot more than a lot of other real Turkeys!

Nothing bad said about this show is true. One of the shortest running TV shows? Nope. Many, many have been canceled after 13 weeks (a usual trial run), and many fine shows after six. There have even been a few after just one or two episodes! "My Mother The Car" ran for a full season...30 episodes to be exact, which is more than most shows give us in a year now days. One of the strangest concepts for a TV show? Nope. Do you remember these scenarios? A flying nun befriends a casino playboy, a sexy female genie lives with her astronaut "master," a sexy female witch lives with her ad executive husband, a family of vampires, werewolves, and their Frankenstein's monster of a father live in a middle class neighborhood, three gorgeous supermodels are detectives working for a playboy millionaire named Charlie...these are strange concepts! Not to mention talking horses, talking chimps, talking dogs, robotic cops, and comedies about dead people (from "Topper" to "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir," and my personal favorite, "Jennifer Slept Here" with Ann Jillian). Those are strange concepts! Do you remember "Pink Lady and Jeff?" "The Howard Cosell Variety Hour?" Now THOSE were strange concepts! One of the worst TV shows ever? Nope. Turn on your TV now and turn the channels. Point made. Jerry Van Dyke is funny, always has been, always will be. He hasn't changed his style of comedy at all. Ann Sothern was perfect as the voice of "mother" and I don't think her talent needs defending. What guy didn't have a relationship with his car in the sixties? It's called satire! It's just that not a lot of people watched. That's all. So goes programming, advertising, and the whim of the people. Now if Nick at Nite or TV Land will only have a "My Mother the Car/Jennifer Slept Here" hour I will die a happy person...and come back to life in a TV sitcom as a supermodel's bicycle seat...now that's a concept!

I was one of the writers for this series. I wrote one episode ("The Blabbermouth" was the title.) It is quite true that at the time the series was on the air, it was considered one of the worse sitcoms in the history of TV. However, over the years, MY MOTHER, THE CAR has achieved something of a cult status. It is broadcast every Mother's Day on TV Land.

I have always been proud of my contribution to this much-maligned and underrated series.