My Mother the Car
Genre	Fantasy Sitcom
Created by	Allan Burns Chris Hayward
Starring	Jerry Van Dyke Maggie Pierce
Voices of	Ann Sothern
Theme music composer	Ralph Carmichael Paul Hampton
Composer	Ralph Carmichael
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	30
Production
Producer	Rod Amateau
Editors	Richard K. Brockway Dann Cahn
Camera setup	Single-camera
Running time	24-25 minutes
Production companies	Cottage Industries, Inc. United Artists Television
Original release
Network	NBC
Release	September 14, 1965 (1965-9-14) – April 5, 1966 (1966-4-5)

My Mother the Car is an American fantasy comedy that aired for a single season onNBC between September 14, 1965, and April 5, 1966. Thirty episodes were produced byUnited Artists Television. The premise features a man whose deceased mother isreincarnated 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 andThe Many Loves of Dobie Gillis);Allan Burns (wrote forJay Ward and went on to create several critically acclaimed shows, includingThe Mary Tyler Moore Show,Rhoda, andLou Grant);James L. Brooks (Room 222,Taxi, and later served as executive producer ofThe Simpsons)^[1][2] andChris Hayward (produced and wrote forBarney 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, behindThe Jerry Springer Show.^[3]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".

The show follows the exploits ofattorney David Crabtree (played byJerry Van Dyke) who, while shopping at a used-car lot for astation wagon to serve as a second family car, instead purchases a dilapidated 1928Portertouring car. Crabtree hears the car call his name in a woman's voice. The car turns out to be thereincarnation of his deceased mother, Gladys (voiced byAnn 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 fullrestoration. 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 arunning gag characterizing his shifty nature, Manzini (who resembles a 1920ssilent filmvillain) always mangles Crabtree's name when speaking to him. "Now, then, Crabapple..." "That's Crabtree." "Whatever."

Others in the cast includedMaggie Pierce as wife Barbara, Cindy Eilbacher (the sister ofLisa Eilbacher) and Randy Whipple as the kids, Cindy and Randy. Veteran movie and television character actors played supporting roles, includingBill Daily,Harold Peary,Byron Foulger,Bob Jellison, Sam Flint, andWillis Bouchey.

The show was created byAllan Burns andChris Hayward, who had better success withRocky & Bullwinkle,The Munsters, andGet Smart (which debuted the same season).Aluminum Model Toys (AMT), a well-known producer of plastic model car kits, introduced a1⁄25-scale kit of the Porter in late 1965.

The theme music was composed and conducted byRalph Carmichael, with lyrics written and sung byPaul Hampton. It was used on an episode ofArrested 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.

The on-set car, called a "1928 PorterStanhope" touring car, was a custom car, rebuilt byNorm Grabowski,^[4] from a 1924Ford Model T, and later restyled byproperty master Kaye Trapp andNorm Breedlove.^{[5][6][7][8][9]} A stunt car, driven by a rear-floorboard-hidden driver, was built byGeorge Barris as areplica.^{[9][10][11][12][13]} The actualPorter Motor Company existed briefly in 1900-1901 and made an automobile only in therunabout style, not the stanhope ortouring car style.

The on-set car used inMy Mother the Car was, in 2016, located inEdmonton, Alberta, Canada and owned by Dave Bodnar.^[14] The stunt car was once owned by casino giantWilliam 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 aFord Model T, aMaxwell, aHudson and aChevrolet. 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 was at the Star Cars Museum inGatlinburg, Tennessee.^[15] 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.^{[citation needed]}

The series was scored byRalph Carmichael with the lyrics of thetitle song byPaul Hampton.Sammy Davis Jr. did acover version.

• 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

A review of the show by John Sinnott onDVD 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."^[16] A review of the show onVulture 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."^[17]

In the United Kingdom the series debuted on ITV on 8 November 1965.

The show's current owner isMetro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which boughtUnited Artists in 1981.

TGG Direct released aDVD 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.^[18]

All 30 episodes were available for viewing onHulu.^[19] The show is also available on MGM's YouTube channel.

Antenna TV began airing episodes of the show on September 19, 2015.^[20]

• My Mother the Car atIMDb

• 1965 American television series debuts
• 1966 American television series endings
• 1960s American single-camera sitcoms
• American English-language television shows
• American fantasy comedy television series
• American supernatural television series
• American automotive television series
• Television series about ghosts
• Television series about families
• Television series by United Artists Television
• Television shows about reincarnation
• NBC sitcoms

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• Short description matches Wikidata
• Use mdy dates from June 2013
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