History worlds worst tv show & its star

Anyone remember a show called"My Mother the car"? I just saw in Hot rod deluxe that the car they built "mom" out of was a nice T touring built by the one and only Norm Grabowski ! Anyone know what became of the car? The last time I actually got to see the car was in Reno between auctions after William Harrah died. That was at least 30 years ago. I was just wondering if some one out there saved it from Hollywierd and/or some collection as a "1929 Porter".

 

I'd like to see it.

 

I remember that show, Jerry Van **** starred in it...I think.

 

holy ****..they were talking about that movie on the radio this morning,,i barely remember the show..

 

IIRC, it had a 4 cylinder Nova engine in it.....
I remember when it was up for auction...but lost track of it after that

 

Watched it as a kid. Don't remember much about the car.

 

The car talked............. I watched it...........

 

I do think I remember the voice of the car being TVs Hazel .

 

According to Wikipedia the car now belongs to David Bodnar in Edmonton. The car that was in Harrah's collection is now in The Car Stars Museum in Gatlinburg,TN.

 

http://imcdb.org/movie.php?id=58830

 

It was a L.A. Roadster Car, It belonged to Norm, Grabowski, but was sold to fellow L.A. Roadster member Kay Trapp who used to work for the studios and supplied this car as a prop with spokes instead of the steelies/baby moons/ww. It was red in color and had some extension on the grill to give the made for tv Porter name.

Jerry Van ****s character loses his mother and she's re-incarnated as the car. See pg. 122 Hot Rods of the 50's Andy Southard. also in The L.A. Roadsters a Retrospective by Jack Stewart and **** Wells on pg 17 as My Mother The Car under Kay Trapps ownership and pg 18 under Norm's ownership.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Mother_the_Car

Interesting info about the show and the car itself.

Ann Sothern was the voice of the car, BTW,

 

Ann Sothern provided the voice of the car.
The owner of the car (Jerry Crabtree) was portrayed by Jerry Van ****.

The car was the reincarnation of Jerry's deceased mother.

The villain (Manzini) was played by Avery Schreiber - constantly scheming to acquire that rare 1928 Porter, by hook or by crook.

 

Ann Southern was the voice of the car with Jerry Van ****. Cool car, terrible show.

 

Ah c'mon... for a little kid into anything that had to do with vintage cars, it was a great show. Light hearted comedy, a villian to hate, a loving mother, and a family that shared his interests. I'd still rather watch that than "Family Guy" any day.

 

Did the car appear in other TV shows before being converted into the "Porter"?

 

This post makes me think of Mr. Ed,and My Favorite Martian

 

The first show I can ever remember I wanted to watch every week (I was 9). I can still remember my disappointment when it was canceled. I had the model car as well.

 

We had very simple tastes back then, we would watch anything.

Don

 

We didn't have much choice! Three networks and PBS!

Look at all the **** today,......900 channels and I can't find **** worth watching!

 

Yep, we only had 3 channels and one of them was mostly snow!

I'm not sure which came first, My Mother the Car or Mr Ed.





.

 

Two of my fav old shows ! Bill Bixby had a Brit sports car if I remember correctly , Triumph TR maybe ?

 

compared to whats on now? new shows? i'll watch it again! it was a one season show i think.

 

Some one up the line asked if the car was fetured in other T.V. shows or movies. I know it was, but can't for the life of me remember which ones. I think it was in one of the beach party flicks, and maybe the lively set. I do know that when the car was fetured in Peterson magazines of the period, the lead shot was always the one of Norm in the p***enger side with Mami Van Doren on the drivers side. Mateer of fact, that shot was on the cover of Hot Rod Deluxe within the last year. It really was a cool car before the studio modifications!

 

Yeah, these days everybody has 300 channels and not a damn thing playing as good ad My Mother the Car.

New season coming up.....I heard a new staged reality show is coming about a pregnant teen that builds a theme bike.......oh will she ever make the deadline!!!!! Oh yeah, and another one.....dancing with something indescribable!!!! I'll be glued to my TV this season.....yup.

 

Any show with Rosie ODonnald in it.

 

There was a red T tub, a 26 used in the first Beach Party movie. It was also a LA Roadster car and belonged to John Monteiro. I think the Grabowsky car is or was in Alberta, Canada as I remember seeing it in some coverage of a show and shine there. Might well still be in Edmonton. Pat.

 

AMT made a model of it, I still have an unbuilt one in the box. Id post a pic if I could figure out how to with this damn phone.

 

LOL! Yes. We weren't nearly as discerning as we are now!

Avery Schreiber was part of the comedy team of Burns and Schreiber. I think Schreiber's character was known as "Captain" Lou Manzini, possibly TV's first gold-chainer. He tended to refer to Van****'s character as Crabapple instead of Crabtree. Jack Burns took over Don Knotts role when Barney left Mayberry on the Andy Grifftih show.

I think that's the first color photo I've ever seen of the car. Don't remember the show being any sillier than many others of that time, or even more currently for that matter. And Jerry Van**** was a pretty funny character at the time, like he was in his role as Luther on "Coach" years later.

Remember having the AMT model of the car as well, molded in red plastic. Seem to remember hearing stories of places like Western Auto or the other old parts houses selling kits back at that time consisting of things like esxended hoods and restyled grille shells. The poor man's way to spiff up a drab looking old Model T. Always figured that the Porter TV car might have been based on something like that.

 

I even had the Model, anything beats Family Guy, Hell watching flys f*#k is better. 9000 channels of nothing on and only 2000 dollers a month, what a deal!!!!!!!!!!!!