Column – Joe Morinville

joe-batmanI saw in the online edition last week that our fire chief was down in Scottsdale, Arizona at the Barrett Jackson car auction looking at the Batmobile. It got me thinking about that old show, that old car and other old television and movie cars.

1/ My kids loved the Batman show when it was on TV. I never cared for it because I thought men wearing tights belonged in the ballet and the ballet belonged on that artsy fartsy PBS station where they always wanted you to phone in and give them money.

2/ The Batmobile was a nice looking car and I didn’t mind it. It started out life as a 1955 Lincoln Futura concept car. Fellow what made the Batmobile bought it for $1 from Ford and turned around and sold it last Saturday for big bucks at the auction.

3/ I always liked the Dukes of Hazzard but that 1969 Dodge Charger they had might as well have been a Boing 747 with the amount of time it spent flying through the air.

4/ David Hassellhoff drove around in a talking 1982 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am. If he had that car today it would tell him to not get drunk and eat a hamburger on the floor when people have a video camera rolling. Not sure what was more embarrassing, that video or his acting on Knight Rider.

5/ Speaking of Trans Ams – They used a 1977 version of that car in Smokey and the Bandit. I never understood why they made so many movies about truck driving in the 1970s, but then I don’t understand why they make so many movies about absolutely nothing today.

6/ The Partridge Family rolled around in a 1955 Chevrolet 6700-series bus. If that thing ever comes up at auction, Christan Maslyk, Justin Perkins and those other fellas from The Canyon Rose Outfit ought to buy it because it looks like exactly the kind of thing they’d drive around in and probably live in as well.

7/ The A-Team was a great television show that they later remade into a movie. Those guys drove around in a 1983 GMC Vandura that looked pretty mean, but not as mean as Mr. T.

8/ Christine was the name of a 1958 Plymouth Fury that drove around killing people in a Stephen King book that got made into a movie of the same name. If they remade that movie today they would have to use a modern day car so the movie maker could get product placement money to help pay for the film.

9/ In the TV show Walker Texas Ranger Chuck Norris drove a 1990 GMC Sierra pick-up truck. That is not a particularly cool truck, but Chuck made it look cool by driving around in it. Of course, Norris is so tough he could have drove up in a Smart Car and made people think it was a tank.

10/ In the movie Animal House they desecrated a perfectly good 1964 Lincoln Continental to make the Deathmobile that looked like an evil twin of the Batmobile. Wonder what that would fetch at the Barrett Jackson auction.

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2 Comments

  1. Heh, the Fire Chief did not even bid on that Batmobile, but did shake hands with the fella who built it in 1966.

    They had a supercharged 1928 Hemi Fire Truck that I thought council might be interested in?
    Chief Cust

    • Joe would probably shake the hand of the man who shook the hand of the great George Barris.

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