My Mother the Car

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.

There's been scores of bad TV sitcoms (due to bad writing, bad acting, bad production values), but this is not really one of them. The premise (a man's mother is rein-CAR-nated) can hardly be considered out of the norm in a world of Jeannie, Samantha, the Flying Nun, Herman Munster, Lost in Space's robot, and Gilligan. Jerry Van Dyke (who chose this role over the Gilligan role) does the same humor he always does and Ann Sothern's voice as "Mother" adds class and talent. Wacky premise, wacky character, wacky car...should have worked. Nick at Nite should put this on the air where it belongs.

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.

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 have not seen this show since it was first aired on T.V. back in the mid sixties. I was around seven years old at the time and I don't recall it being all that bad. Then again I was only seven, but most people I have spoken to who remember it and who are older than me don't recall it being that bad either. I can still can hum the shows theme song and I remember vividly Jerry Van Dyke talking to the car and his "mother" talking back through the radio. I remember the show didn't last long and afterwards hearing all kinds of bad things about. The shows name became a buzz word for bad T.V. Jokes about this show sometimes popped up in some sixties sitcoms including "The Munsters".

I think it would be interesting to see this show again after all these years. Perhaps seen through todays eyes it might not look as bad as it did to critics back in the sixties. While I don't think it would turn out to an unsung TV classic, perhaps todays viewers might find things to like about this TV show that viewers and critics back in the sixties did not appreciate. However, its unlikely this show will ever turn up on T.V. again, if only because there were not enough episodes shot to make it worthwhile for syndication. As far as I know, it is not available on video, legally or illegally. Maybe this show is not as bad as it looked to people when it was first on. On the other hand maybe "My Mother The Car" is as bad as critics said it was. Until this show turns up again somewhere, only then can an objective reevaluation be made.