People are always asking me, when it comes to talking cars, who the Hell did it better, "My Mother The Car" from 1965, or "Knight Rider," in 1982, so I thought it was about time to clear the air on this subject once and for all.
To many people, the choice might be obvious, but you might just be surprised by the final analysis!
Let's just take a look at both of their first episodes and find out!
Both shows have macho stud stars, first off there's Dick Van Dyke's brother Jerry, who is a hilarious comedian and musician. Jerry is funny as Hell, but he wasn't very good at making decisions, having turned down the role of Gilligan because it was stupid, but accepting this role.
And then there's "The Hoff."
Jerry is a colorful character named Dave Crabtree who has just found his reincarnated Mother in a used car lot! Yeah, it's a little complicated.
David Hasselhoff is "The Hoff." what else matters?
Both these guys are too cool in their own way!
Mother was an extremely modified 1928 Porter designed by the incredible mind of George Barris who also created TV's 1960's Batmobile among a host of other vehicles.
KITT was a black 1982 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am designed by Glen Larson. George Barris also worked on later designs!
Again, both cool in their own right!
As far as control panels, Mother is pretty simple no doubt, but effective.
KITT's dashboard is a lot more impressive, and easily wins this round.
As far as significant others, Maggie (Tales Of Terror) Pierce is perfect as Dave's wife Barbara Crabtree!
Pamela Susan (Night Gallery, Mod Squad) Shoop is Maggie. Knight Rider's first date.
Who makes a cuter couple? The dorks.........?
Or...............The vagabonds?
These are the two Crabtree children, Cindy (Slumber Party Massacre II) Eilbacher as Cindy Crabtree, and Randy (Clown Alley) Whipple as Randy Crabtree.
Barrett (The NeverEnding Story) Oliver is the only kid in "Knight Rider." One annoying kid always wins out versus two.
In "My Mother The Car," there's a party going on, and a California band named "The Spats" is playing the party music! The Spats had a single out in 1965 called "Gator Tails and Monkey Ribs" that is pretty catchy, but never quite caught on. The Beatlesque song here sounds like it should be titled "Hold Me Tight," but I don't see that on their one album "Cookin' With The Spats." Wonder why they are called The Spats? Check Out Those Spatterdashes!
In "Knight Rider" there's music playing on the jukebox in a bar by Quarterflash, whose song "Harden My Heart," an ode to cheeseburgers, hit number three on the Billboard Charts in 1982.
It was a pretty even score, and I have to admit having a female lead singer who plays the sax is pretty dang cool, but having a fairly obscure band like The Spats at a poolside party makes all the difference to me, so "Come Honk Your Horn" just barely edges out "Knight Of The Phoenix."
9 comments:
Your comment about the music reminds of the time I put on an album by It's A Beautiful Day and the song "White Bird" came on and my wife sat up and said, "Who it this? Knightrider did this song, he sang it to a girlfriend or something. I didn't realize it was a real song."
That's funny Robert, and what's even funnier is, out of the thousands of bands out there, you brought up a story about It's A Beautiful Day, and Pattie Santos, the vocalist on "White Bird" was a good friend and neighbor of mine back in the 70's.
Here's a performance of "White Bird" from 7/7/1970!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q918fs4RAto
What a sweet song/performance!
Talk about the funniest line I've ever read on your blog. I was sitting at my computer drinking tea as I read your line about "Harden My Heart" being an ode to cheeseburgers. It made me laugh so hard the tea came out of my nostrils (and no, I wasn't intending to do nasal irrigation).
You guys always brighten up my day. Live long and prosper!
Have a happy holiday season all.
Paul from Oz
Thanks Paul, nothing makes me feel better than making someone laugh! You have a great holiday season too, and let's get this year over and done with!
I know 1965 would be a big year for TV shows to go from black and white to color, but it still seems just early enough for a sitcom like MY MOTHER THE CAR to be surprising because of that.
(I'm a lot more fond of color than many other fans of early TV are, so that's always a plus not a minus for me.)
I love MY MOTHER THE CAR too. Used to watch it in the '60s just to chuckle over Avery Schreiber's antics! He's great too on the reruns of MATCH GAME!
The '60s was an amazing decade for all the wacky tv shows in BRIGHT COLORS!
He's very underrated, and of course he and Jack Burns as "Burns and Schreiber" also are.
I seem to recall that team being on the ED SULLIVAN show, doing the cab driver sketch(es)?
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