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As you may've heard, the fine folks over
at YouTube have recently instituted a section
of their site devoted to both full-length
movies and entire episodes of various television
programs. These are NOT the user-posted clips
that have made YouTube famous, but high-quality,
officially sanctioned, all-in-one videos.
You can go here to see what you can
see.
Lotsa good stuff, huh? And with all
the top-quality
goodies available for one's viewing,
just
WHERE do you think I gravitated towards?
Uh huh. The so-called "Worst Program
In Television History", "My
Mother
The Car".
I hadn't seen the show since it ran its single
season back in 1965, and I actually recall
liking it. Of course, I WAS 13 at the time,
so I figured it was past time to take another
look.
YouTube has five episodes of "My
Mother
The Car" available, including
the very
first one.
Over the last few days, I watched all
five
of them. So, is it THAT bad? No. Is
it in
fact sorta good, the way I remember
it? Also
no. Let me explain...
The production values are high, with a fair
amount of the scenes filmed outside. The
car looks way spiffy. The entire cast gives
it all they've got. Those are the pluses.
The minuses? It's just not very funny.
Star
Jerry Van Dyke appears to be obliged
to amp
down the natural gregariousness he
displayed
earlier on brother Dick's show. And
the concept
is not only silly, it's stifling.
Look, "Bewitched", "I Dream
Of Jeanie", "My Favorite Martian",
and "Mr. Ed" were all of the same
era as "My Mother The Car", and
all shared a central conceit with it--one
character, and one character only, is aware
of a magical totem right smack dab in the
middle of things. A witch. A genie.A martian.
A talking horse. All were big hits. All were
just as fanciful as having your dead mother
come back, reincarnated, as a talking car,
maybe, but far more manageable, storywise.
Viewers found the notion of a pair of attractive
young women performing magical tricks, a
faux uncle who's really a man from outer
space, and even a horse that talks, far easier
to believe. For one thing, each of them could
casually interact with those in the cast
unaware of their special abilities, even
the horse. But David Crabtree's (Jerry Van
Dyke) mother? There wasn't much she (the
voice of early sitcom icon Ann Sothern) could
do but squawk at her son via the radio when
he--and he alone--was sitting in the car.
Sorta limited the plot possibilities...
Which is probably why, of the five episodes
up on YouTube (numbers 1,2, 4, 5, and 6,
out of 30), three concern themselves with
recurring foil (and easily the funniest thing
about this whole misbegotten enterprise)
Captain Manzini (played by Avery Schreiber,
aided by his distinctive walrus mustache
and essayed with all the subtlety of a silent
film villain), a rich car collector who's
desperate to own the rare (and in reality,
non-existent) 1928 Porter that for some reason
he can't pry away from Crabcake.
"Crabtree!"
"Whatever..."
And THAT folks, is the recurring gag that
occurs not only in every episode that Schreiber
appears in, but in virtually every SCENE
he appears in!! Geez, talk about running
a gag into the ground...
The Captain isn't involved at all in the
second episode, but the premise there has
Jerry worried so much about some car strippers
that have been plaguing the neighborhood,
he eventually winds up sleeping in the garage
with mom!! And I guess that's brings us to
the subliminal (for 1965) ick factor. Dave
complains early in the episode that he doesn't
want his mother stripped! In another show,
he hoses her down with cold water, declaring
"I'm gonna give you a bath, mom",
and gets a big giggle when she complains
the water is too cold! And there's that whole
bit about sleeping in the garage with her.
Dave's wife (Maggie Pierce, in a thankless
role) eventually shows up with pillow in
hand to join her seemingly vastly over-concerned
hubby, and as they snuggled in the front
seat, I couldn't help but think, after forty
subsequent years of sit-com coarsening, how
things might've played out if this same episode
were filmed today. The oblivious wife would
likely look in the back seat, and remind
her flustered husband of what they used to
do in their younger days in just such a situation,
and suggestively suggest for old times sake
that--well, I think you see where I'm going
here!! Freudian hilarity ensues!! Ick factor,
notched to the max!
That said, I want to make special mention
of episode 5, "Burned At The Steak".
This particular story could've played on
any other sit-com of the day--the car plays
a small, mostly incidental role this time
around, being most notable for tipping Dave
off that the newlyweds next door have been
fighting. It's all about her bad cooking--including
that charred hunk of steak--and Crabtree
tries his best to reunite the pair. Of course,
things backfire, and instead the couple head
for divorce court!! Turns out Dave's a lawyer
(a fact I hadn't gleaned in the previous
three episodes), so he gets to represent
the wife and her Laura Petrie hairdo. More
amazingly, though, hubby (a young, subdued
Charles Grodin) has a ridiculously aggressive
Lee Van Cleef handling his briefs!! Even
without a talking car factoring into the
proceedings, events unfold in a surreal manner
that, even for mid-sixties sitcoms, is--like
the aforementioned steak--hard to swallow!!
But Van Cleef is a real hoot, no doubt about
it.
You'll also see Bill Daily, James Sikking,
and Barbara Bain pop up in various episodes,
should you be able make it through all five
shows. No, I certainly can't say it's a good
show, but I can't deny being strangely fascinated
by it either. There's no laugh track, so
you're on your own there (me, I chuckled
out loud only once, when mom complained of
her "CARthritis"--your milage may
vary).
Now, if I could only get that blasted theme
song out of my head!!
1:40 AM
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