Top 5 TV Cars

By Michael Hawk on January 12th, 2010

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America has a long standing love affair with the automobile.  I love ‘em as well although I am far from a grease monkey.  Nope, I prefer to watch other people’s cars driving around, specifically, the ones on my TV.  These “T-Vehicles” as I call them (patent pending) become full on characters in their shows.  Look at KITT in Knight Rider, he talked!   Scooby Doo and The A-Team would be nowhere without their trusty vans!  And who didn’t love old “twinkle toes” Flintstone pushing his stone wheeler through Bedrock?  Cars and television go hand in hand.  Here are some of my favorites.

5.  The Batmobile from Batman

The icon of campy sixties television, the Batmobile is by far the most recognizable motor car to ever cruise across your screen.  With its rocket engine, giant fins, and an arsenal of counter-henchmen weaponry that would make Jame Bond drool, Batman’s ride remains a true TV legend.

4.  Cursor Car from Automan

Never heard of Automan?  What kind of Desi Arnaz Jr. fan are you?!  In the show, a scientist and a hologram fought crime with the help of this little polyhedron shaped dot known as Cursor.  Make sense yet?  Cursor could sketch out a vehicle at the drop of a hat so our heroes could jump in and fight the baddies.  It was abusrd both in look and function.  If ever a show needed a good DVD release, this is it!!

3.  Basil’s Mini from Fawlty Towers

I’ve always loved the original Minis from Great Britain and part of that is owed to seeing Basil Fawlty beating the crap out of his broken down Mini in Fawlty Towers with a tree branch.  Not the most beautiful of the Mini models, the faded red exterior of this “economical” lawn mower engine of a car is a perfect allegory for the less than stellar accommodations at the inn of its owner.

2.  The Chariot from Lost in Space

I so wanted this giant space dune buggy!!  Just me and Penny cruising around a strange planet listening to Led Zeppelin.  Life never turns out the way we want it to does it?  Closest I got to this bubble on treads was a die cast version, but I’m not giving up.  Someday the traffic along Sunset Blvd. will cower before my Chariot!!

1.  The Canyonero from The Simpsons

The Simpsons, with its 400 plus episodes, has had a number of memorable cars.  Mr. Plow’s plow for example.  But the one that sticks with me had its own commercial theme song sung by Hank Williams Jr!  I’m speaking of course of the Canyonero.  First seen in “The Last Temptation of Krust,” the massive Canyonero smells like a steak and seats 35!  At twelve yards long and two lanes wide, it is sixty-five tons of American pride!  Sing it with me, “Canyoneeeerrooooo!!”