My Mother the Car

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.

I was about 10 when this show was on, and I watched as many episodes as I could.

That said, I ROTFL in a "Get Smart" rerun I saw a while back. The bad guy is dying and:

Max (reassuringly): "Help is on the way."

Bad guy (in great pain): "I'll never make it, but do one thing for me."

Max (compassionately): "What?"

Bad guy: "Tell me 'My Mother the Car' is coming back on TV."

Max (with a puzzled look): "Why?"

Bad guy: "Then I won't mind going so much."

That pretty much summed up the opinions from the rest of my family when I tried to watch this show.

You have to wonder at times why people would sign on to appear in a show like My Mother The Car. What could possibly have attracted someone like Ann Sothern to have in her resume the role of the voice of an antique car?

This TV show which actually ran for a full season has Sothern recently dying and coming back to earth as the voice of a 1928 Porter which her Jerry Van Dyke owns. The family name was Crabtree and not only did the car with his mother's voice speak to Van Dyke, but it spoke to no one else. I guess we didn't want word to get out that the Crabtree Family owned a talking car.

Someone knew something was fishy with this car. The villain of the show was Avery Schreiber who was hatching schemes every episode to get the Porter. But he was as effective as Mr. Bluster on the old Howdy Doody Show. Who wouldn't want a talking car?

In fact the show was 10 years ahead of its time. When Knight Rider premiered we had a talking car with William Daniels's voice. But it was a state of the art futuristic new car which housed a computer which could do all.

So the concept was bought with different packaging.

Did anyone EVER ask Ann Sothern how she got into this show.

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.