October 11, 2011 • 33 mins
From the General Lee to the Kit, the history of television is filled with iconic cars. Sometimes, these vehicles become as important to a show as the human actors. Learn about famous TV cars in this podcast from HowStuffWorks.com.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Go behind the wheel, under the hood, and beyond with
car stuff from how Stuff Works dot com. Hello everybody,
thanks for tuning in with us. My name is Ben
and I'm sitting here with our Maverick Auto editor Scott.
(00:21):
Are you gonna say hi, Maverick? I haven't heard that
one since the early days of the podcast. Yeah, yeah,
I thought I thought i'd bring it back. I'm a
little bit of a Maverick of introductions. Uh So, uh so,
we figured we would we would probably take it easy today.
You know, the weather is changing here in Atlanta. Um,
we've got some relaxing times coming up, hopefully some exciting
(00:42):
ones as well. Uh So, maybe maybe we can go,
uh just a little bit more relaxed here and talk
about famous cars of television. Oh that's simple. That's a
good one. I like that though. Okay, I do like
it now, I really do. It's a it's a good
topic because, um, and I think back to sitting in
front of television when as a kid watching you know,
(01:03):
the shows that I couldn't wait for the next scene
with whatever car was to come on, because, UM, to me,
that was that was exciting, that was you know. That's
why I tuned in in a lot of cases. Yeah,
and definitely iconic. But let's let's define it. I guess first,
what exactly do we mean when we say television cars. Well,
we're talking about um shows where the cars are really
(01:25):
the stars of the show. Um, they've almost been like
there's almost a persona to them that you know, you
you you become familiar with it. And they have names. Um,
you know, people refer to them as you know she
or um, you know, by the name of the car like, um,
well we'll talk about a few. I won't give any
away right now, but um, they become so ingrained in
(01:45):
that television show that if that car were to go away,
the show probably wouldn't be around. And there. Yeah, I
think that's a very good point. Their iconic too, Right,
there's some there's some things where quite literally, the vehicle
is the most recognizable part, right, instantly recognizable. A lot
of them, Um, you know you can you can see
them in a group of one other cars and you'll
be able to pick out certain vehicles that you're familiar
(02:08):
with from television. So why why are they important? Well,
I tell you kind of touched on this already, but um,
and I'll give you a couple of examples here right
out of the back. But um, remember the show Dukes
of Hazard generally of course, yes, of course, what would
Dukes of Hazard be without the generally uh canceled would
(02:29):
be just a bunch of guys out what are they
putting a fence posts out in the middle of nowhere?
And uh, you know, it just wouldn't be that exciting. Okay, Okay,
I agree with you, that wouldn't be that exciting. But
the plot of the two brothers and the sister Daisy,
you know, trying to stop the corrupt, the corrupt boss
hog and the sheriff, you know, and the terms of
(02:50):
their probation they can't leave the county. Okay, you're right.
It wouldn't have worked. It wouldn't it would have worked
without Every single show had a high percentage of the generally,
I mean, it was, it was. It was so prominent
in that show that if they took that away, I
don't think they would have had nearly the success that
they had. The episode would have been eleven minutes long.
Yeah that's right, Yeah, I don't. Yeah, strange show, I mean,
(03:14):
but I loved it a lot. It was really good show.
I liked the car, but I think without the car
the show wouldn't have lasted. In another example that this
is well, this is a huge one night writer. Oh yes, Kit, Kit,
see you know um old what was that a pontiac
trans am, um like an early eighties pontiacial exam. There
would not have been a show without Kit, really, I
(03:35):
mean that was the whole basis for that show is
that car. And this is another example where you know
that that is so key to that, to that that
episode of that series, rather that if it were to
go away there there just wouldn't be a program. And
you know, it's it really speaks highly of of Kit's
success that night Rider as a resurgence. Now I think
it returned to the screen. It did, and it's gone again.
(03:58):
Oh very rely though. I mean I'm not surprised that
you hadn't heard, because it was very recently canceled and
um um, I'm actually kind of surprised by that. I
thought maybe it would catch on again. But were you
watching it? I did not. I haven't. I didn't even
see one episode. But then again, maybe that's why it's gone, right,
how many people were watching? It was not bad time
or something guilty confession. I didn't watch it either. Um,
(04:19):
I guess you know, part of it might be that
I remember, being younger, I was so impressed with the
with the original night Rider because that's back before we
had stuff like that in real life. You know, it
was pre computers. Yeah, it really well, I mean really,
but it was you didn't really have. You didn't have
all the electronic gadgetry that we do now where he
(04:40):
could almost expect a car to do what get does? Um?
Not really, but you know, at least tell you where
to go? Yeah, exactly, we had no There was no
navigation systems and cars there wasn't. I mean, cars didn't
talk to you. And eventually cars started to talk to you.
I mean there are vehicles that had had a voice. Um. Now,
of course we've got navigation system We've got a lot
of very sophisticated electronics that do a lot of the
(05:03):
things that Kit did back then. Um, not to the extreme.
I mean we don't have I don't know, shark repellent
or whatever. You No, I didn't. That was I think
it was Batman, but that was yeah, well that was
on his belt. I and I you know what, I'm sorry,
I don't want to get too much of it into it,
too much of a tangent. It's so, yeah, I do
know a little bit about Batman. But the one thing
(05:25):
that I think is worth pointing out, especially in defensive
Night Rider. Uh, there's a very interesting argument to be made,
or at least as something to think about. Has that
series influenced in some ways the research and innovation that
have come about in real cars today. That's a tough question.
(05:46):
I don't know, because it was so outlandish some of
the stuff that that he would do. Um, there's no
way to measure it. No, No, I I have to
say I don't think so. I mean gave people high
expectation for future cars. It really did, because even now,
I mean, here we are, how much longer, we're twenty
five years later, and you know a lot of that
(06:07):
stuff is not around. We don't have um you know,
I don't have any great examples of what, you know,
some of the fantastic technology that kid had, but um,
we we just don't have it. It's kind of like
the flying car thing here about flying cars and you
know they're gonna happen. They're gonna happen, And yes, it
takes forever. It takes forever and around. But um, I
don't know if that really molded anybody. Maybe there's some
(06:28):
designers out there that are looking back at hold episodes
a night writer and trying to decide what to do next.
You think so maybe the on Star folks they started
the company. Maybe, Oh, no offense to you guys if
we're listening, If you're listening, but if that is the case,
please write to us. Of course. Yeah, and of course
you know the series it was a springboard for Hasselhoff
and his singing career. Oh that's right, looking at me
(06:50):
like a kidn't really, No, I was just I'm surprised.
I'm surprised that a that you would bring it up
and be that I would also know. And then I'm
supposed to say, because everybody says this huge star in Germany. Yeah,
congentulations big in Germany and wishing the best luck there
in Germany. As I'm gonna I'm gonna get you know,
(07:13):
I'll see some more EXAs TV cars. Okay, we can
do that. Yeah, we've got a bunch of them here. Um,
let's see. Everybody's gonna have their own favorites. Of course, sure,
I've got a shortlist here that you know, we can
go through just real quickly and you can you know, okay,
and on these if you want. We've already talked about generally,
remember Boss Hoggs Cadillac, same show. Yeah, if the horns
(07:36):
on the front, Yes, and a giant cat like I
think must have been long. I saw a reproduction of
that one. Yes, I knew it looked vaguely familiar, and
it was not until I saw another example. Um is
back when my family and I used to live in Tennessee.
So cool, Yeah, that's pretty neat. Somebody took a took
their own initiative to to do that and to put
(07:56):
the horns on the front. And we can only hope
they add a problem with somebody who had a reproduction
of the General? Was it anybody wearing a big white
suit with a cigar stick in his out of his mouth? There? No,
it was actually parked so we didn't get to see
you parked outside of the grocery. Was hoping for the
full on gosh, well we can we can dream what's next?
(08:18):
Uh night? Right? We were talking about kid um about
the A Team Van. Oh, the A Team Van. Now
you know what I think I stole that one from you.
I didn't mean to do that. You were excited about
this one ahead of time. I know this is so lame.
I know what that van is. Just it's a nineteen
eighty three gmc G series cool and so that's I
think that might be the only time on this show
(08:39):
that I actually knew something beforehand. The and the reason
I know is because I was telling you earlier about
this custom van thing. Oh well, Scott, I'm really thinking
you liked it on the black van didn't have a
red stripe on it. Is that ahead? Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah,
and uh yeah, I've really been thinking about that. But
we're just gonna we're gonna leave that for a later show.
(08:59):
What was you know? I was never an A Team fan,
so I didn't I didn't really get into the A
Team van at all. Um, the original Batmobile would be
doing this program a great injustice if we didn't mention
the Batmobile, the original Batmobile, because that's the one that
was on the television show. We're not talking about the
movie Batmobile. We're talking about the original Batmobile. And there's
(09:20):
kind of an interesting story that goes along with the
original Batmobile. Um, it was a Lincoln Futura concept car
that Ford showed at a you know auto show. Um,
it was handbuilt in Italy and it cost them I
think it was something like two fifty dollars to build
this car or somewhere in that neighborhood. And it was
(09:41):
never it wasn't produced. It was it was you know,
the concept cars left alone. Of course, George Barris, who
is a custom car builder in California, bought the car
from Ford for one dollar one dollar, and he of
course went to town on this thing. I mean he
might you know, he made it into what is now Batmobile.
So if you saw the the original car, if you
(10:02):
ever you can google this, you can look up to the
the original car would look like when George received it.
And then of course we all know what the original
Batmobile looks like. Or if you don't check it out,
it's really cool. But that to me, that's that's just
one of you can spot that car instantly. I love it.
I've seen a few reproductions of it, um, you know
on display full size. Yeah, yeah, there's there are a few,
(10:25):
you know, replicas made. Um. But yeah, it's an interesting car.
I think it's one that sticks out in a lot
of people's minds. Yeah, I would, Yes, I know it's
I know how ridiculous it is. And you know, honestly, Scott, intellectually,
I understand that the things that car did on television
are not things that a vehicle can do in real life.
(10:47):
But I still want it. That's that's that's all part
of it. That's the that's the you know, television excitement.
You know that they can they can do that with it,
and um, I don't know that that's part of just
what makes them, what makes them treating to us. You're
a lucky man them West. Right, Let's see, I've got
the Ferrari Daytona Spider from Miami Vice. Oh yes, yep, Yeah,
(11:08):
that was a cool and I think that was actually
a corvette. That's what I heard, isn't It wasn't a
true for weird because it looked like, yeah, it looked
like a Ferrari, well a corvette that they had, you know,
Hollywood magic, you're the expert. And then I guess the
following year, um, Ferrari actually came through with a real
Ferrari for them, so that they had an authentic Ferrari
(11:31):
for their show. Um, and that was a white Ferrari
test Rosa. So Crockett and Tubs there cruising around Miami.
Crockett Tubs, you remember them. Okay, they were cruising around
Miami and a test Rosa for a while, a white
test Rosa, and and you know what, for one episode
that car was black, but after that point they painted
(11:51):
it white. Yeah. I mean they had the white paint
thing going on in the way they dressed anyway, spent
a lot of night time shots. Is what I heard
is that they he didn't show up as well. Oh,
one episode was black and didn't work out so well,
and they painted it and from that point forward was white.
It was the kind of show where you didn't have
to explain that that just happened. And let's see Star
(12:14):
Skin Hutch, Star skin Hutch. Is that ferraris No, no, no, no,
it's a Ford Grand Torino. Yeah. What am I thinking?
It's from? You know, seventies? I think, um, yeah, the
white one with the red I'm sorry, red one with
the big white angular stripe. Awesome car. I mean that's
also in the movies. You probably a lot of listeners
(12:35):
have probably seen the movie that was out recently with
Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller. But in the television show,
those cars were great. I've watching them slide sideways around
the city streets. It was pretty cool. Um another Ferrari
from Magnum p I that's the one I'm thinking about. Yeah, yeah,
on Hawaii. Pretty cool. I was always excited when that
(12:56):
car came on because at the time, that was, you know,
the latest Ferrari, and I just love looking at it,
you know, because he didn't where I was at the time.
I was young, NOSSL. I didn't see many exotic cars,
and that was one of my sticks out in my mind. Yeah,
that's pretty that. I actually remember that as well. I
don't I don't want to um date myself, but I
got one for you. You're ready. Yeah, okay, remember that
(13:20):
GELOPI in the Beverly Hillbillies. That's a TV Yeah. I
was one of the grannies rocker on the back. Yeah, yeah,
and I think I guess it's I'm not saying that
the absence of that car would mess up the show,
but it was the intro. No, no, it would mess
up the show man. Yeah, because that that car was great.
(13:41):
I love that. You know what, do you know what
it was? Uh? Do you have a guess or do
you already know. I can guess, but I'll probably be wrong.
Was it a Model A? Was it a Model T?
Was it a model of any sort? Um? So bad
it was, but it was not afford It was a
and I see it was an early nineteen twenties Oldsmobile. Oh,
(14:03):
Oldsmobile flatbed truck that was of course customized to make
it look like, um, one of the vehicles from I
don't know, like you know, the from the migration, the
migration to the West. You know, um, really really rough boys.
It was always dusty and dirty, and of course it
had Granny perched on the back and her rocking chair.
That was. That was a great car. I love that
one and one that um. In that same era of
(14:27):
of television, there were a few cars that I love.
These cars. These were the Adams family cars and the
Monsters cars. Oh man, yeah, they were wild, Yeah, they
were crazy. The Monsters had these unbelievable hot rods that
were they were so cool. They had, you know, the
big exposed engine in the front of the big V
eight with the pipes. Um. They had They had something
called the Monsters Coach, which is their their family car.
(14:49):
And it was really long, um, stretched out hot rod
car really cool and look like um, look like a
stage coach really on, you know with the V eight um.
And then Grandpa Monster had a drag car. Do you
remember this one? Yes, his own ride. Yeah, and do
you remember what it looks like? One distinct feature? I
(15:10):
mean it was a he's he's a vampire. Okay that
I remember that he had a car, but I was
quite young when no, no, no, it was a coffin.
It was a coffin. It was a huge coffin. And
it was called dragula. I feel, you know what, I
feel so dumb Scott because I remember seeing it, but
(15:30):
I don't remember having put together that that was obviously
a coffin. Yeah, and that's his car. I mean it
makes sense. He's he's a vampire. That's his coffin. He
drove that. It was it was a um, just unbelievable
sports car or not sports car, a hot rid room.
I'm going to get such a hard time about this
because yeah, it's obviously a coffin. Wasn't The second I
(15:50):
said it, you your your face went blank, like I
knew that you knew it already. So tangent. I think
you'll enjoy this, just to show you how how much
of a and tit this is of an expert. I am, um.
Just four months ago it occurred to me that the
main ingredient in soy sauce was soybeans because it's in
(16:13):
the name. Was tangent. But yeah, it's a tangent. So
I'm just saying it's it's not unknown, but I understand,
so okay, I'll be honest with you too. I always
liked the Monster Cars better than the Adams Family cars,
but I never really I always enjoyed the Adams Family
the actual show more so, and I wish they would
(16:35):
switched cars. I think you're right, I actually like both.
I thought that they're pretty good. I just remember the
limo from the Adams Family, the big family vehicle with
Larch driving. His head was always sticking above the windshield,
loving that scene. That was, you know, whenever they showed
that that was really cool, I thought, yeah, that was
that was a pretty good way. It was like seven
and a half feet tall or something. Is huge. But
we already I think we already touched on this another podcast,
(16:56):
the other Adams Family car cousin It because yeah, bubble car. Yeah, yeah,
it wasn't a nice um mes Schmidt. Yeah, at least
in the movie he did. Did he have it in
the television shows where as well, you know what I
want to say, No, I don't know, I'm not I'm
not in the movie he did have a measure schment.
(17:17):
We just recently talked about him. You're right, so yeah,
that's a good connection. Man. Hey, I'm just I'm just
here to hang out and I promise you my list
is ending very soon. But um there's one that this
this one for me. This is right up there with
a batblo bill in the generally and you may not
even remember that. Maybe you do. I don't know the Coyote.
(17:39):
You know what the coyote is from where Hardcastle and McCormick.
You don't remember that. I'm unfamiliarous. So it wasn't all
that great. Maybe at the time I thought it was
all right, but I was in it to watch this car.
It was. It's called the Coyote, really cool sports car.
It was made from a Manta Montage and they're real
(18:00):
sleek looking cars. I mean it's kind of a bubble.
It's kind of a canopy looking design. Um supercar design
really really cool and very forward thinking for its time.
UM they're still around. I mean you can still get
a Manta Montage and they had they built it on
the Coyotes. That was the name of the car, the Coyote. UM.
It was built on UM Dolorean for the second and
(18:24):
third season, so it changed a little bit. They changed
the vehicles. So, okay, I going doors because the Delirian
had going doors, so they changed it between the first
season and the second and the third season. And I
don't know, I just like the original. I always like
the original Coyote year old school. Yeah, that's right. I
just love that design of vehicle. I think it's really Yeah,
(18:44):
it's it's awesome. What else we have, you know, I
got just a few more, and I'll go through these
super fast because there's not much to them. And the
only reason I'm bringing these up is because they were
on television. Animated cars, I don't know. I don't know
if that counts. Beau Is, Yeah, I didn't. I would
have had I didn't know we could do animated cars,
which could though we should totally do animated You could
(19:06):
have had your own list, I guess, but I've only
got four or five, but they're worth mentioned. I think
there's speed Racers Mark five. Of course, of course you
have to have that. And if you're gonna mention the
speed Racer, you gotta mention Racor X. Yes, he had
the black and yellow car. Um. There's also the Mystery
Machine from Scooby Doo. Oh man, I don't see what
would that program be without the Mystery Machine. It would
be about one episode long because they couldn't get anywhere.
(19:28):
A bunch of hitchhiking kids. I want to see that.
So the next one would be the flying bubble car
from the Jetsons. Yes, which that to me. We were
talking about those bubble cars. There's one that looks just
like the Jetson's car, Peel Trident. If you look up
Appeel Trident, that looks just like the Jetson's car. It's
(19:48):
not flying, of course, but um it's the it looks
like a fish bowl. You're sitting in a fish bowl. Crazy. Um.
I've only got a couple more. The Flintstones car come in,
yeah did you? And there's a O version of that
and George Barress built it. He's still building, you know,
movie cars as well, um, so you know this was
obviously television programming. It's in its time, primetime cartoon really on.
(20:11):
I don't remember what year it's like. I mean, it's
earlier than you would think. Was in the sixties. It
was back when you could have cartoon characters advertising cigarettes.
That's right. Yeah, because Fred Flintstone, Fred Flintstone Smoked, was
Lucky Strikes pushing cigarettes. That's what I don't remember. I
can't real what brands. Yeah, I don't either, but um yeah,
um George Barress built the real well though, I should say,
(20:34):
the life sized version of the Flintstone car for the movie.
Um so oh, I'm sorry. I don't want to interrupt
the best I've only got two more. Let's I want
to hear him. And then you might not even know
this one. Mr McGoo remember Mr McGoo. I remember Mr
mcgooon drove around in some GELOPI that was so funny.
I mean it looked like the thing was falling apart.
But um, I don't know. And Mr McGoo learning you
(20:57):
can't see very well, that's right, very bumbling. Uh, I
was pretty silly. That's a long time ago. Sorry, I
guess I'm pretty old. And then the last one. This
is a good one. Let's that speed Buggy, Speed Buggy.
You remember Speed Buggy. I don't remember Speed Buggy, Speed Buggy.
He would go from race to race. They were it
was like a group of teenagers. They would travel here
(21:19):
and there, and there was always something happening in between.
Racism was kind of you know, I don't know if
his mystery or what it was, I can't remember now,
but a group of Yeah, it was really cool. And
the guy that built the car, he had some way
to control him. I think it was a wristwatch or
something like control. Someone's always trying to nab that and
make him do things that weren't you know that they
(21:40):
didn't want him to do. That's painful explanation of what
Buggy was because it was really a funny show. So
check it out. Well, don't let don't let the explanation. Yeah,
really don't let that j Do you talk you out
of it? No, No, it seems like we're talking. There's
there's just one I have to bring up. It's from
a younger generation for some some of us, uh listening
(22:03):
and talking here, but the teenage mutant Ninja Turtles also
had a van and Uh, I had no idea, you
know what. I only remember because I had the toy
replica of it for a time. But uh yeah, So
even even in the animated shows, I guess our point
here is, even in the animated shows, we still run
across uh T television episodes where a vehicle is just
(22:28):
as much of a character. Yeah, that's right there. It
means just as key as anybody else in that program,
if not more in some cases. Um. And that's that's
why we talk about them, because you know, they they've
in some cases they've centered the show around that vehicle
quite successfully. Yeah, quite successfully. I mean you look at
Dukes of Hazzard or or Batman, I mean batmobile. How
(22:48):
cool is that he had his own bat cave for
the batmobile? Um? Just great stuff. I had, really really
really I'm sorry. I remember parking myself in front of
television waiting for the next time I see the Batmobile.
Oh yeah, man, it's still it's still such a cool
you know. It was the same way with the General,
(23:09):
and it's the same way with um the coyote. Um.
You just I don't know, it's something in me. I was.
I was just so into it. I was excited about it,
and I think a lot of other people are the
same way. Now, you know, you're you're talking as those
The podcast is over and I think I think we
might be getting towards the end, but it sounds like
we need to hear a little bit more about this
(23:31):
guy who's building all these TV cars. Okay, Uh, George
Barriss is his name, and he as far as I know,
he's still building cars. He's doing movie cars, doing television cars. Um.
He's also built car custom cars for um, celebrities. So
you know, somebody might request that he builds a custom
vehicle for them. UM, I don't know what that would
(23:53):
be now, PRIs, I don't know. Um, can you make
my Prius look like the General League something like that?
There probably is one out there. Um. But they call
him the King of Customizers with a k customizers, and UM,
i've he's been doing it for a long time. I
mean like forty years or more, probably probably even longer
than that, maybe fifty sixty years. What a dream job? Yeah? Yeah, really,
(24:16):
I mean there are a lot of photos on his
website of him when he was just a young kid,
you know, customizing, not to the extent that he does now,
but um, it's always been in his blood. You can
tell it does sound like it's in his blood. Uh.
You know, before we we really started, I have one
question leading up to here. Before we answer that question,
I think we should talk about why these things look
(24:37):
so good on television. They haven't always looked good because, um,
you've probably as well as I have, seen the television
programs where clearly they're sitting on a stage and there's
a background moving behind them, a movie or something playing
behind them. You know, it looks like they're on a road,
but they're not really. And the drivers do that thing
where they're just kind of turning left and right slightly
(24:58):
or dramatically, or looking to the left or right for
long periods of time and not really you know, paying attention.
That makes me so mad, having a conversation with someone
in the shotgun seat without looking at Yes, yeah, yeah,
that's right. And uh so we've seen examples of bad,
um bad television shows where they do that, um recently,
(25:19):
and I wouldn't say even real recently. This has been
around for a while. But there's something called a process trailer,
and a process trailer is that's how they make the
scene a lot more believable. A process trailer is a
is extremely low, extremely wide trailer that really acts as
kind of a traveling camera platform. You parked the car
(25:40):
on top of this thing, and it's it's really close
to the ground. So you don't get this. You know,
if you put pull a car on a trailer, it's
usually pretty high up in the air. On a process trailer,
when you pull the car onto the the trailer, it's
still roughly about where it would be on the road.
It's like a low rider flats. It's very very low riding. Yeah,
that's right now. The platform is is in between the wheels.
It's down really low, so it's as close to the
(26:02):
ground as it possibly can be safely. It's not dragging,
but close and um. You know. That way they can
have the talent to the people, you know, the stars
in the car and they can talk and they can um.
The cameras are positioned all around the platform on this
process trailer, so it's a big wide trailer that you know,
the cameras were able to be steady outside of the vehicle. Um,
(26:25):
the cameraman's kind of doing a balancing act. He's tied
end or whatever. Um. But he's able to get a
realistic look of you know, here there's a real background
behind these people. They're really driving the car. Um. It
just gives an a little bit of credibility to the scene. Yeah,
and we should. You know, that's a really good point
for us to make for any listeners who have a
reproduction of a very famous or iconic television or even
(26:49):
movie car. You know, don't feel bad if you set
up a camera and a tripod and drive by and
it doesn't look as good because there's quite a lot
of work, right, and not quite as easy as it
looks to make a to make a movie. Okay, but
let's I should say a television program, television program because
people will stay tuned maybe for the for the film
car episode. Yeah, we're gonna do that pretty soon, okay,
(27:12):
can we? All right? I wanted to ask to close
with this one. I love the hypothetical questions if you
could drive one of these cars, one of these vehicles,
not the way it would be in real life, but
as it would work on television and the show it's
in which one? And why, oh boy, I'm gonna have
(27:32):
to go with the Batman or a batmobile rather Um,
just way too many cool gadgets to stay out of
that seat. Yeah. I think it's just so cool the
Batmobile that that would have to be my answer. There's
a there's a close second. What's the second? Um? What
was it? The green the Green Hornet, the Green Hornet car? Yeah,
oh man, we forgot about that one. Do you do
(27:53):
you remember this huge black car that had all kinds
of switches and buttons and gadgets. You know what, I
didn't think about it until you asked me, told me
about this. We should have talked about this, and I'll
make it brief, but I was in a car auction
one time, one of these real high end car auctions
where you you know, I'm not buying anything. I wasn't
buying anything. I was just watching. You know, they're selling
(28:14):
half million dollar cars left and right all over the place.
You just bidding. They had the Green Hornets car for sale,
they assured did. They had the green Green Hornets car
for sale. And all of the features and functions on
the car worked. All of those switches, all those knobs,
all those dials, everything operated. You know, you flip a
switch and a machine gun would come up out of
the trunk or you know, um canister would appear at
(28:37):
the back, you know, to to let out the smoke
screen or whatever it would be exactly, and it all
worked now that the thing was you know, of course
the machine gun doesn't fire, it's not a real machine gun.
However it would operate. I don't know if it's a
hydraulic system or an aerosystem or whatever it was, but
it was functional. And Um, as far as I remember,
I think they did not sell that car that day.
(28:57):
I don't think that anybody met the reserve that they
were asking for that vehicle, because it was pretty high.
Must have been. Yeah, but it was really cool to
see that car. I mean, that's one that just sticks
out of my head that you know, this is something
I need to remember. Oh and you know what, we'll
go back to my answer, but we can't. We can't uh,
we can't go over. We can't end this episode without
talking about the difference between the stunt cars that they use.
(29:22):
Oh yeah, yeah, that's right, Yeah, I guess, yeah, this
is super fast. Well yeah, stunt because they um, when
you see the general leaf lying over bales of hay
in the town square, Um, that's a stunt car. That's
the one that is pretty rough. Really, if you've got
a chance to look at it up close, you'd see
that that one's made several jumps in the past, or
maybe it was built just for this one jump, because
(29:42):
it's going to be destroyed when it hits the ground
some knicks and some dense stuff. More than that, I'm
talking like the engine will be pushed back into uh
you know, four or five inches or whatever it would
be because they were really severe. There's a lot of
severe punishment given to those vehicles. And it's not just
that series, it's all series. Uh. So you'll find that
there are stunt cars that were they were built that
have full roll cages. They may have they may even
(30:04):
have smaller engines, but you know they're they're just built
to be destroyed where they're built to um, you know,
slide around a turn where they don't want to do
that with the original vehicle. And on the other hand,
on the other hand, you've got these really pretty um
close up cars where you know, that's where the talent
rides in and they go on the press process trailer.
Like we just talked about the close up so that
you know, it looks authentic. It's a real vehicle. Um,
(30:26):
you know, it may be the real ferrari Um. In
that case, it's not the one that's you know, laid
out so that it can be smashed into a street lamp.
So there are multiple copies of this, just like there
was more than one colleague playing Lassie. Yeah, that's the right.
And and if you so, if if somebody who was
at that auction with you really wanted that green Hornet
(30:49):
vehicle and they didn't get it this time around, maybe
they can get a copy somewhere possibly. Yeah, and you
know what, now that we're back to this again, I
have to ask you what would be the vehicle that
you would like to drive. Oh you already know, man,
the Batmobile all the way home. I would not leave
it for fear of losing it. That would be so awesome.
I mean missiles. Uh, there's a laser I think in
(31:12):
one episode. And uh, and you know this is just
the old school at mobile. I would probably get rid
of Robin. If Robin came with the car, I would
switch him out. Breaker. That's that's a deal breaker. Yeah,
that's not gonna work for me. You know, no disrespect
to to Robin fans out there or the the act
(31:33):
you've played, Robin, But um, you know that's that's the
kind of car where you drive up by yourself because
you you know ahead. I would like to have Adam
West somewhere nearby. Yes, just that he could say these words.
He could say diabolical. Yes, you know what, he could
take the shotgun sea. Yeah, you know, I couldn't take
the shotgun seat because then I would be robbing and
(31:54):
that's weird. It's weird to the outfit would be a
lot the the outfit. The outfit probably not I wasn't
crazy about the outfits, but yeah, costumes, outfits, cost I
don't know what everything were, but the cars, crime fighting gear,
the crime fighting gear, the CFG. So it sounds like
we're about done with this one, I think so. Yeah.
(32:15):
So our listeners out there, we really hope you enjoyed
this episode. If you have any future topics or suggestions
for ideas that we should cover, h please send us
an email. And if there's any TV vehicle or car
that you remember that we forgot to mention here, please
send us an email. Also at High Speed Stuff at
how stuff works dot com, be sure to check out
(32:39):
our new video podcast Stuff from the Future. Join how
Stuff Work staff as we explore the most promising and
perplexing possibilities. Up tomorrow the House Stuff Works. I Find
app has arrived. Download it today on iTunes. To pas
Go behind the wheel, under the hood, and beyond with
car stuff from how Stuff Works dot com. Hello everybody,
thanks for tuning in with us. My name is Ben
and I'm sitting here with our Maverick Auto editor Scott.
(00:21):
Are you gonna say hi, Maverick? I haven't heard that
one since the early days of the podcast. Yeah, yeah,
I thought I thought i'd bring it back. I'm a
little bit of a Maverick of introductions. Uh So, uh so,
we figured we would we would probably take it easy today.
You know, the weather is changing here in Atlanta. Um,
we've got some relaxing times coming up, hopefully some exciting
(00:42):
ones as well. Uh So, maybe maybe we can go,
uh just a little bit more relaxed here and talk
about famous cars of television. Oh that's simple. That's a
good one. I like that though. Okay, I do like
it now, I really do. It's a it's a good
topic because, um, and I think back to sitting in
front of television when as a kid watching you know,
(01:03):
the shows that I couldn't wait for the next scene
with whatever car was to come on, because, UM, to me,
that was that was exciting, that was you know. That's
why I tuned in in a lot of cases. Yeah,
and definitely iconic. But let's let's define it. I guess first,
what exactly do we mean when we say television cars. Well,
we're talking about um shows where the cars are really
(01:25):
the stars of the show. Um, they've almost been like
there's almost a persona to them that you know, you
you you become familiar with it. And they have names. Um,
you know, people refer to them as you know she
or um, you know, by the name of the car like, um,
well we'll talk about a few. I won't give any
away right now, but um, they become so ingrained in
(01:45):
that television show that if that car were to go away,
the show probably wouldn't be around. And there. Yeah, I
think that's a very good point. Their iconic too, Right,
there's some there's some things where quite literally, the vehicle
is the most recognizable part, right, instantly recognizable. A lot
of them, Um, you know you can you can see
them in a group of one other cars and you'll
be able to pick out certain vehicles that you're familiar
(02:08):
with from television. So why why are they important? Well,
I tell you kind of touched on this already, but um,
and I'll give you a couple of examples here right
out of the back. But um, remember the show Dukes
of Hazard generally of course, yes, of course, what would
Dukes of Hazard be without the generally uh canceled would
(02:29):
be just a bunch of guys out what are they
putting a fence posts out in the middle of nowhere?
And uh, you know, it just wouldn't be that exciting. Okay, Okay,
I agree with you, that wouldn't be that exciting. But
the plot of the two brothers and the sister Daisy,
you know, trying to stop the corrupt, the corrupt boss
hog and the sheriff, you know, and the terms of
(02:50):
their probation they can't leave the county. Okay, you're right.
It wouldn't have worked. It wouldn't it would have worked
without Every single show had a high percentage of the generally,
I mean, it was, it was. It was so prominent
in that show that if they took that away, I
don't think they would have had nearly the success that
they had. The episode would have been eleven minutes long.
Yeah that's right, Yeah, I don't. Yeah, strange show, I mean,
(03:14):
but I loved it a lot. It was really good show.
I liked the car, but I think without the car
the show wouldn't have lasted. In another example that this
is well, this is a huge one night writer. Oh yes, Kit, Kit,
see you know um old what was that a pontiac
trans am, um like an early eighties pontiacial exam. There
would not have been a show without Kit, really, I
(03:35):
mean that was the whole basis for that show is
that car. And this is another example where you know
that that is so key to that, to that that
episode of that series, rather that if it were to
go away there there just wouldn't be a program. And
you know, it's it really speaks highly of of Kit's
success that night Rider as a resurgence. Now I think
it returned to the screen. It did, and it's gone again.
(03:58):
Oh very rely though. I mean I'm not surprised that
you hadn't heard, because it was very recently canceled and
um um, I'm actually kind of surprised by that. I
thought maybe it would catch on again. But were you
watching it? I did not. I haven't. I didn't even
see one episode. But then again, maybe that's why it's gone, right,
how many people were watching? It was not bad time
or something guilty confession. I didn't watch it either. Um,
(04:19):
I guess you know, part of it might be that
I remember, being younger, I was so impressed with the
with the original night Rider because that's back before we
had stuff like that in real life. You know, it
was pre computers. Yeah, it really well, I mean really,
but it was you didn't really have. You didn't have
all the electronic gadgetry that we do now where he
(04:40):
could almost expect a car to do what get does? Um?
Not really, but you know, at least tell you where
to go? Yeah, exactly, we had no There was no
navigation systems and cars there wasn't. I mean, cars didn't
talk to you. And eventually cars started to talk to you.
I mean there are vehicles that had had a voice. Um. Now,
of course we've got navigation system We've got a lot
of very sophisticated electronics that do a lot of the
(05:03):
things that Kit did back then. Um, not to the extreme.
I mean we don't have I don't know, shark repellent
or whatever. You No, I didn't. That was I think
it was Batman, but that was yeah, well that was
on his belt. I and I you know what, I'm sorry,
I don't want to get too much of it into it,
too much of a tangent. It's so, yeah, I do
know a little bit about Batman. But the one thing
(05:25):
that I think is worth pointing out, especially in defensive
Night Rider. Uh, there's a very interesting argument to be made,
or at least as something to think about. Has that
series influenced in some ways the research and innovation that
have come about in real cars today. That's a tough question.
(05:46):
I don't know, because it was so outlandish some of
the stuff that that he would do. Um, there's no
way to measure it. No, No, I I have to
say I don't think so. I mean gave people high
expectation for future cars. It really did, because even now,
I mean, here we are, how much longer, we're twenty
five years later, and you know a lot of that
(06:07):
stuff is not around. We don't have um you know,
I don't have any great examples of what, you know,
some of the fantastic technology that kid had, but um,
we we just don't have it. It's kind of like
the flying car thing here about flying cars and you
know they're gonna happen. They're gonna happen, And yes, it
takes forever. It takes forever and around. But um, I
don't know if that really molded anybody. Maybe there's some
(06:28):
designers out there that are looking back at hold episodes
a night writer and trying to decide what to do next.
You think so maybe the on Star folks they started
the company. Maybe, Oh, no offense to you guys if
we're listening, If you're listening, but if that is the case,
please write to us. Of course. Yeah, and of course
you know the series it was a springboard for Hasselhoff
and his singing career. Oh that's right, looking at me
(06:50):
like a kidn't really, No, I was just I'm surprised.
I'm surprised that a that you would bring it up
and be that I would also know. And then I'm
supposed to say, because everybody says this huge star in Germany. Yeah,
congentulations big in Germany and wishing the best luck there
in Germany. As I'm gonna I'm gonna get you know,
(07:13):
I'll see some more EXAs TV cars. Okay, we can
do that. Yeah, we've got a bunch of them here. Um,
let's see. Everybody's gonna have their own favorites. Of course, sure,
I've got a shortlist here that you know, we can
go through just real quickly and you can you know, okay,
and on these if you want. We've already talked about generally,
remember Boss Hoggs Cadillac, same show. Yeah, if the horns
(07:36):
on the front, Yes, and a giant cat like I
think must have been long. I saw a reproduction of
that one. Yes, I knew it looked vaguely familiar, and
it was not until I saw another example. Um is
back when my family and I used to live in Tennessee.
So cool, Yeah, that's pretty neat. Somebody took a took
their own initiative to to do that and to put
(07:56):
the horns on the front. And we can only hope
they add a problem with somebody who had a reproduction
of the General? Was it anybody wearing a big white
suit with a cigar stick in his out of his mouth? There? No,
it was actually parked so we didn't get to see
you parked outside of the grocery. Was hoping for the
full on gosh, well we can we can dream what's next?
(08:18):
Uh night? Right? We were talking about kid um about
the A Team Van. Oh, the A Team Van. Now
you know what I think I stole that one from you.
I didn't mean to do that. You were excited about
this one ahead of time. I know this is so lame.
I know what that van is. Just it's a nineteen
eighty three gmc G series cool and so that's I
think that might be the only time on this show
(08:39):
that I actually knew something beforehand. The and the reason
I know is because I was telling you earlier about
this custom van thing. Oh well, Scott, I'm really thinking
you liked it on the black van didn't have a
red stripe on it. Is that ahead? Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah,
and uh yeah, I've really been thinking about that. But
we're just gonna we're gonna leave that for a later show.
(08:59):
What was you know? I was never an A Team fan,
so I didn't I didn't really get into the A
Team van at all. Um, the original Batmobile would be
doing this program a great injustice if we didn't mention
the Batmobile, the original Batmobile, because that's the one that
was on the television show. We're not talking about the
movie Batmobile. We're talking about the original Batmobile. And there's
(09:20):
kind of an interesting story that goes along with the
original Batmobile. Um, it was a Lincoln Futura concept car
that Ford showed at a you know auto show. Um,
it was handbuilt in Italy and it cost them I
think it was something like two fifty dollars to build
this car or somewhere in that neighborhood. And it was
(09:41):
never it wasn't produced. It was it was you know,
the concept cars left alone. Of course, George Barris, who
is a custom car builder in California, bought the car
from Ford for one dollar one dollar, and he of
course went to town on this thing. I mean he
might you know, he made it into what is now Batmobile.
So if you saw the the original car, if you
(10:02):
ever you can google this, you can look up to the
the original car would look like when George received it.
And then of course we all know what the original
Batmobile looks like. Or if you don't check it out,
it's really cool. But that to me, that's that's just
one of you can spot that car instantly. I love it.
I've seen a few reproductions of it, um, you know
on display full size. Yeah, yeah, there's there are a few,
(10:25):
you know, replicas made. Um. But yeah, it's an interesting car.
I think it's one that sticks out in a lot
of people's minds. Yeah, I would, Yes, I know it's
I know how ridiculous it is. And you know, honestly, Scott, intellectually,
I understand that the things that car did on television
are not things that a vehicle can do in real life.
(10:47):
But I still want it. That's that's that's all part
of it. That's the that's the you know, television excitement.
You know that they can they can do that with it,
and um, I don't know that that's part of just
what makes them, what makes them treating to us. You're
a lucky man them West. Right, Let's see, I've got
the Ferrari Daytona Spider from Miami Vice. Oh yes, yep, Yeah,
(11:08):
that was a cool and I think that was actually
a corvette. That's what I heard, isn't It wasn't a
true for weird because it looked like, yeah, it looked
like a Ferrari, well a corvette that they had, you know,
Hollywood magic, you're the expert. And then I guess the
following year, um, Ferrari actually came through with a real
Ferrari for them, so that they had an authentic Ferrari
(11:31):
for their show. Um, and that was a white Ferrari
test Rosa. So Crockett and Tubs there cruising around Miami.
Crockett Tubs, you remember them. Okay, they were cruising around
Miami and a test Rosa for a while, a white
test Rosa, and and you know what, for one episode
that car was black, but after that point they painted
(11:51):
it white. Yeah. I mean they had the white paint
thing going on in the way they dressed anyway, spent
a lot of night time shots. Is what I heard
is that they he didn't show up as well. Oh,
one episode was black and didn't work out so well,
and they painted it and from that point forward was white.
It was the kind of show where you didn't have
to explain that that just happened. And let's see Star
(12:14):
Skin Hutch, Star skin Hutch. Is that ferraris No, no, no, no,
it's a Ford Grand Torino. Yeah. What am I thinking?
It's from? You know, seventies? I think, um, yeah, the
white one with the red I'm sorry, red one with
the big white angular stripe. Awesome car. I mean that's
also in the movies. You probably a lot of listeners
(12:35):
have probably seen the movie that was out recently with
Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller. But in the television show,
those cars were great. I've watching them slide sideways around
the city streets. It was pretty cool. Um another Ferrari
from Magnum p I that's the one I'm thinking about. Yeah, yeah,
on Hawaii. Pretty cool. I was always excited when that
(12:56):
car came on because at the time, that was, you know,
the latest Ferrari, and I just love looking at it,
you know, because he didn't where I was at the time.
I was young, NOSSL. I didn't see many exotic cars,
and that was one of my sticks out in my mind. Yeah,
that's pretty that. I actually remember that as well. I
don't I don't want to um date myself, but I
got one for you. You're ready. Yeah, okay, remember that
(13:20):
GELOPI in the Beverly Hillbillies. That's a TV Yeah. I
was one of the grannies rocker on the back. Yeah, yeah,
and I think I guess it's I'm not saying that
the absence of that car would mess up the show,
but it was the intro. No, no, it would mess
up the show man. Yeah, because that that car was great.
(13:41):
I love that. You know what, do you know what
it was? Uh? Do you have a guess or do
you already know. I can guess, but I'll probably be wrong.
Was it a Model A? Was it a Model T?
Was it a model of any sort? Um? So bad
it was, but it was not afford It was a
and I see it was an early nineteen twenties Oldsmobile. Oh,
(14:03):
Oldsmobile flatbed truck that was of course customized to make
it look like, um, one of the vehicles from I
don't know, like you know, the from the migration, the
migration to the West. You know, um, really really rough boys.
It was always dusty and dirty, and of course it
had Granny perched on the back and her rocking chair.
That was. That was a great car. I love that
one and one that um. In that same era of
(14:27):
of television, there were a few cars that I love.
These cars. These were the Adams family cars and the
Monsters cars. Oh man, yeah, they were wild, Yeah, they
were crazy. The Monsters had these unbelievable hot rods that
were they were so cool. They had, you know, the
big exposed engine in the front of the big V
eight with the pipes. Um. They had They had something
called the Monsters Coach, which is their their family car.
(14:49):
And it was really long, um, stretched out hot rod
car really cool and look like um, look like a
stage coach really on, you know with the V eight um.
And then Grandpa Monster had a drag car. Do you
remember this one? Yes, his own ride. Yeah, and do
you remember what it looks like? One distinct feature? I
(15:10):
mean it was a he's he's a vampire. Okay that
I remember that he had a car, but I was
quite young when no, no, no, it was a coffin.
It was a coffin. It was a huge coffin. And
it was called dragula. I feel, you know what, I
feel so dumb Scott because I remember seeing it, but
(15:30):
I don't remember having put together that that was obviously
a coffin. Yeah, and that's his car. I mean it
makes sense. He's he's a vampire. That's his coffin. He
drove that. It was it was a um, just unbelievable
sports car or not sports car, a hot rid room.
I'm going to get such a hard time about this
because yeah, it's obviously a coffin. Wasn't The second I
(15:50):
said it, you your your face went blank, like I
knew that you knew it already. So tangent. I think
you'll enjoy this, just to show you how how much
of a and tit this is of an expert. I am, um.
Just four months ago it occurred to me that the
main ingredient in soy sauce was soybeans because it's in
(16:13):
the name. Was tangent. But yeah, it's a tangent. So
I'm just saying it's it's not unknown, but I understand,
so okay, I'll be honest with you too. I always
liked the Monster Cars better than the Adams Family cars,
but I never really I always enjoyed the Adams Family
the actual show more so, and I wish they would
(16:35):
switched cars. I think you're right, I actually like both.
I thought that they're pretty good. I just remember the
limo from the Adams Family, the big family vehicle with
Larch driving. His head was always sticking above the windshield,
loving that scene. That was, you know, whenever they showed
that that was really cool, I thought, yeah, that was
that was a pretty good way. It was like seven
and a half feet tall or something. Is huge. But
we already I think we already touched on this another podcast,
(16:56):
the other Adams Family car cousin It because yeah, bubble car. Yeah, yeah,
it wasn't a nice um mes Schmidt. Yeah, at least
in the movie he did. Did he have it in
the television shows where as well, you know what I
want to say, No, I don't know, I'm not I'm
not in the movie he did have a measure schment.
(17:17):
We just recently talked about him. You're right, so yeah,
that's a good connection. Man. Hey, I'm just I'm just
here to hang out and I promise you my list
is ending very soon. But um there's one that this
this one for me. This is right up there with
a batblo bill in the generally and you may not
even remember that. Maybe you do. I don't know the Coyote.
(17:39):
You know what the coyote is from where Hardcastle and McCormick.
You don't remember that. I'm unfamiliarous. So it wasn't all
that great. Maybe at the time I thought it was
all right, but I was in it to watch this car.
It was. It's called the Coyote, really cool sports car.
It was made from a Manta Montage and they're real
(18:00):
sleek looking cars. I mean it's kind of a bubble.
It's kind of a canopy looking design. Um supercar design
really really cool and very forward thinking for its time.
UM they're still around. I mean you can still get
a Manta Montage and they had they built it on
the Coyotes. That was the name of the car, the Coyote. UM.
It was built on UM Dolorean for the second and
(18:24):
third season, so it changed a little bit. They changed
the vehicles. So, okay, I going doors because the Delirian
had going doors, so they changed it between the first
season and the second and the third season. And I
don't know, I just like the original. I always like
the original Coyote year old school. Yeah, that's right. I
just love that design of vehicle. I think it's really Yeah,
(18:44):
it's it's awesome. What else we have, you know, I
got just a few more, and I'll go through these
super fast because there's not much to them. And the
only reason I'm bringing these up is because they were
on television. Animated cars, I don't know. I don't know
if that counts. Beau Is, Yeah, I didn't. I would
have had I didn't know we could do animated cars,
which could though we should totally do animated You could
(19:06):
have had your own list, I guess, but I've only
got four or five, but they're worth mentioned. I think
there's speed Racers Mark five. Of course, of course you
have to have that. And if you're gonna mention the
speed Racer, you gotta mention Racor X. Yes, he had
the black and yellow car. Um. There's also the Mystery
Machine from Scooby Doo. Oh man, I don't see what
would that program be without the Mystery Machine. It would
be about one episode long because they couldn't get anywhere.
(19:28):
A bunch of hitchhiking kids. I want to see that.
So the next one would be the flying bubble car
from the Jetsons. Yes, which that to me. We were
talking about those bubble cars. There's one that looks just
like the Jetson's car, Peel Trident. If you look up
Appeel Trident, that looks just like the Jetson's car. It's
(19:48):
not flying, of course, but um it's the it looks
like a fish bowl. You're sitting in a fish bowl. Crazy. Um.
I've only got a couple more. The Flintstones car come in,
yeah did you? And there's a O version of that
and George Barress built it. He's still building, you know,
movie cars as well, um, so you know this was
obviously television programming. It's in its time, primetime cartoon really on.
(20:11):
I don't remember what year it's like. I mean, it's
earlier than you would think. Was in the sixties. It
was back when you could have cartoon characters advertising cigarettes.
That's right. Yeah, because Fred Flintstone, Fred Flintstone Smoked, was
Lucky Strikes pushing cigarettes. That's what I don't remember. I
can't real what brands. Yeah, I don't either, but um yeah,
um George Barress built the real well though, I should say,
(20:34):
the life sized version of the Flintstone car for the movie.
Um so oh, I'm sorry. I don't want to interrupt
the best I've only got two more. Let's I want
to hear him. And then you might not even know
this one. Mr McGoo remember Mr McGoo. I remember Mr
mcgooon drove around in some GELOPI that was so funny.
I mean it looked like the thing was falling apart.
But um, I don't know. And Mr McGoo learning you
(20:57):
can't see very well, that's right, very bumbling. Uh, I
was pretty silly. That's a long time ago. Sorry, I
guess I'm pretty old. And then the last one. This
is a good one. Let's that speed Buggy, Speed Buggy.
You remember Speed Buggy. I don't remember Speed Buggy, Speed Buggy.
He would go from race to race. They were it
was like a group of teenagers. They would travel here
(21:19):
and there, and there was always something happening in between.
Racism was kind of you know, I don't know if
his mystery or what it was, I can't remember now,
but a group of Yeah, it was really cool. And
the guy that built the car, he had some way
to control him. I think it was a wristwatch or
something like control. Someone's always trying to nab that and
make him do things that weren't you know that they
(21:40):
didn't want him to do. That's painful explanation of what
Buggy was because it was really a funny show. So
check it out. Well, don't let don't let the explanation. Yeah,
really don't let that j Do you talk you out
of it? No, No, it seems like we're talking. There's
there's just one I have to bring up. It's from
a younger generation for some some of us, uh listening
(22:03):
and talking here, but the teenage mutant Ninja Turtles also
had a van and Uh, I had no idea, you
know what. I only remember because I had the toy
replica of it for a time. But uh yeah, So
even even in the animated shows, I guess our point
here is, even in the animated shows, we still run
across uh T television episodes where a vehicle is just
(22:28):
as much of a character. Yeah, that's right there. It
means just as key as anybody else in that program,
if not more in some cases. Um. And that's that's
why we talk about them, because you know, they they've
in some cases they've centered the show around that vehicle
quite successfully. Yeah, quite successfully. I mean you look at
Dukes of Hazzard or or Batman, I mean batmobile. How
(22:48):
cool is that he had his own bat cave for
the batmobile? Um? Just great stuff. I had, really really
really I'm sorry. I remember parking myself in front of
television waiting for the next time I see the Batmobile.
Oh yeah, man, it's still it's still such a cool
you know. It was the same way with the General,
(23:09):
and it's the same way with um the coyote. Um.
You just I don't know, it's something in me. I was.
I was just so into it. I was excited about it,
and I think a lot of other people are the
same way. Now, you know, you're you're talking as those
The podcast is over and I think I think we
might be getting towards the end, but it sounds like
we need to hear a little bit more about this
(23:31):
guy who's building all these TV cars. Okay, Uh, George
Barriss is his name, and he as far as I know,
he's still building cars. He's doing movie cars, doing television cars. Um.
He's also built car custom cars for um, celebrities. So
you know, somebody might request that he builds a custom
vehicle for them. UM, I don't know what that would
(23:53):
be now, PRIs, I don't know. Um, can you make
my Prius look like the General League something like that?
There probably is one out there. Um. But they call
him the King of Customizers with a k customizers, and UM,
i've he's been doing it for a long time. I
mean like forty years or more, probably probably even longer
than that, maybe fifty sixty years. What a dream job? Yeah? Yeah, really,
(24:16):
I mean there are a lot of photos on his
website of him when he was just a young kid,
you know, customizing, not to the extent that he does now,
but um, it's always been in his blood. You can
tell it does sound like it's in his blood. Uh.
You know, before we we really started, I have one
question leading up to here. Before we answer that question,
I think we should talk about why these things look
(24:37):
so good on television. They haven't always looked good because, um,
you've probably as well as I have, seen the television
programs where clearly they're sitting on a stage and there's
a background moving behind them, a movie or something playing
behind them. You know, it looks like they're on a road,
but they're not really. And the drivers do that thing
where they're just kind of turning left and right slightly
(24:58):
or dramatically, or looking to the left or right for
long periods of time and not really you know, paying attention.
That makes me so mad, having a conversation with someone
in the shotgun seat without looking at Yes, yeah, yeah,
that's right. And uh so we've seen examples of bad,
um bad television shows where they do that, um recently,
(25:19):
and I wouldn't say even real recently. This has been
around for a while. But there's something called a process trailer,
and a process trailer is that's how they make the
scene a lot more believable. A process trailer is a
is extremely low, extremely wide trailer that really acts as
kind of a traveling camera platform. You parked the car
(25:40):
on top of this thing, and it's it's really close
to the ground. So you don't get this. You know,
if you put pull a car on a trailer, it's
usually pretty high up in the air. On a process trailer,
when you pull the car onto the the trailer, it's
still roughly about where it would be on the road.
It's like a low rider flats. It's very very low riding. Yeah,
that's right now. The platform is is in between the wheels.
It's down really low, so it's as close to the
(26:02):
ground as it possibly can be safely. It's not dragging,
but close and um. You know. That way they can
have the talent to the people, you know, the stars
in the car and they can talk and they can um.
The cameras are positioned all around the platform on this
process trailer, so it's a big wide trailer that you know,
the cameras were able to be steady outside of the vehicle. Um,
(26:25):
the cameraman's kind of doing a balancing act. He's tied
end or whatever. Um. But he's able to get a
realistic look of you know, here there's a real background
behind these people. They're really driving the car. Um. It
just gives an a little bit of credibility to the scene. Yeah,
and we should. You know, that's a really good point
for us to make for any listeners who have a
reproduction of a very famous or iconic television or even
(26:49):
movie car. You know, don't feel bad if you set
up a camera and a tripod and drive by and
it doesn't look as good because there's quite a lot
of work, right, and not quite as easy as it
looks to make a to make a movie. Okay, but
let's I should say a television program, television program because
people will stay tuned maybe for the for the film
car episode. Yeah, we're gonna do that pretty soon, okay,
(27:12):
can we? All right? I wanted to ask to close
with this one. I love the hypothetical questions if you
could drive one of these cars, one of these vehicles,
not the way it would be in real life, but
as it would work on television and the show it's
in which one? And why, oh boy, I'm gonna have
(27:32):
to go with the Batman or a batmobile rather Um,
just way too many cool gadgets to stay out of
that seat. Yeah. I think it's just so cool the
Batmobile that that would have to be my answer. There's
a there's a close second. What's the second? Um? What
was it? The green the Green Hornet, the Green Hornet car? Yeah,
oh man, we forgot about that one. Do you do
(27:53):
you remember this huge black car that had all kinds
of switches and buttons and gadgets. You know what, I
didn't think about it until you asked me, told me
about this. We should have talked about this, and I'll
make it brief, but I was in a car auction
one time, one of these real high end car auctions
where you you know, I'm not buying anything. I wasn't
buying anything. I was just watching. You know, they're selling
(28:14):
half million dollar cars left and right all over the place.
You just bidding. They had the Green Hornets car for sale,
they assured did. They had the green Green Hornets car
for sale. And all of the features and functions on
the car worked. All of those switches, all those knobs,
all those dials, everything operated. You know, you flip a
switch and a machine gun would come up out of
the trunk or you know, um canister would appear at
(28:37):
the back, you know, to to let out the smoke
screen or whatever it would be exactly, and it all
worked now that the thing was you know, of course
the machine gun doesn't fire, it's not a real machine gun.
However it would operate. I don't know if it's a
hydraulic system or an aerosystem or whatever it was, but
it was functional. And Um, as far as I remember,
I think they did not sell that car that day.
(28:57):
I don't think that anybody met the reserve that they
were asking for that vehicle, because it was pretty high.
Must have been. Yeah, but it was really cool to
see that car. I mean, that's one that just sticks
out of my head that you know, this is something
I need to remember. Oh and you know what, we'll
go back to my answer, but we can't. We can't uh,
we can't go over. We can't end this episode without
talking about the difference between the stunt cars that they use.
(29:22):
Oh yeah, yeah, that's right, Yeah, I guess, yeah, this
is super fast. Well yeah, stunt because they um, when
you see the general leaf lying over bales of hay
in the town square, Um, that's a stunt car. That's
the one that is pretty rough. Really, if you've got
a chance to look at it up close, you'd see
that that one's made several jumps in the past, or
maybe it was built just for this one jump, because
(29:42):
it's going to be destroyed when it hits the ground
some knicks and some dense stuff. More than that, I'm
talking like the engine will be pushed back into uh
you know, four or five inches or whatever it would
be because they were really severe. There's a lot of
severe punishment given to those vehicles. And it's not just
that series, it's all series. Uh. So you'll find that
there are stunt cars that were they were built that
have full roll cages. They may have they may even
(30:04):
have smaller engines, but you know they're they're just built
to be destroyed where they're built to um, you know,
slide around a turn where they don't want to do
that with the original vehicle. And on the other hand,
on the other hand, you've got these really pretty um
close up cars where you know, that's where the talent
rides in and they go on the press process trailer.
Like we just talked about the close up so that
you know, it looks authentic. It's a real vehicle. Um,
(30:26):
you know, it may be the real ferrari Um. In
that case, it's not the one that's you know, laid
out so that it can be smashed into a street lamp.
So there are multiple copies of this, just like there
was more than one colleague playing Lassie. Yeah, that's the right.
And and if you so, if if somebody who was
at that auction with you really wanted that green Hornet
(30:49):
vehicle and they didn't get it this time around, maybe
they can get a copy somewhere possibly. Yeah, and you
know what, now that we're back to this again, I
have to ask you what would be the vehicle that
you would like to drive. Oh you already know, man,
the Batmobile all the way home. I would not leave
it for fear of losing it. That would be so awesome.
I mean missiles. Uh, there's a laser I think in
(31:12):
one episode. And uh, and you know this is just
the old school at mobile. I would probably get rid
of Robin. If Robin came with the car, I would
switch him out. Breaker. That's that's a deal breaker. Yeah,
that's not gonna work for me. You know, no disrespect
to to Robin fans out there or the the act
(31:33):
you've played, Robin, But um, you know that's that's the
kind of car where you drive up by yourself because
you you know ahead. I would like to have Adam
West somewhere nearby. Yes, just that he could say these words.
He could say diabolical. Yes, you know what, he could
take the shotgun sea. Yeah, you know, I couldn't take
the shotgun seat because then I would be robbing and
(31:54):
that's weird. It's weird to the outfit would be a
lot the the outfit. The outfit probably not I wasn't
crazy about the outfits, but yeah, costumes, outfits, cost I
don't know what everything were, but the cars, crime fighting gear,
the crime fighting gear, the CFG. So it sounds like
we're about done with this one, I think so. Yeah.
(32:15):
So our listeners out there, we really hope you enjoyed
this episode. If you have any future topics or suggestions
for ideas that we should cover, h please send us
an email. And if there's any TV vehicle or car
that you remember that we forgot to mention here, please
send us an email. Also at High Speed Stuff at
how stuff works dot com, be sure to check out
(32:39):
our new video podcast Stuff from the Future. Join how
Stuff Work staff as we explore the most promising and
perplexing possibilities. Up tomorrow the House Stuff Works. I Find
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